Morning of the First Day, just before dawn…

Prince Ellian the Orange, Hunter of Monsters, game-tracker of the highest order, and heir to the Aegean throne raged out of his quarters like a sea-slug shot out of a pressure tube as soon as he regained his senses from Ezra’s beating—no, his torture! His disrespect!

This was why Ellian hunted. Why he loved to hunt. Living so close to his borders, cecaelia like Ezra could do what they wanted with his innocent people. Even the thought of them made his skin crawl. Dangerous creatures needed to stay under the proper control—his.

“False king…Speaks to me that way,” he growled under his breath as he shot past the statues in the Atlantean palace hallways. “How dare he! As if it was my fault the princess of his recommendation was a flight risk. As if the sea-witch of his recommendation didn’t do this! Ellis, come!”

Ellis the lemon-green moray eel, and Ellian’s closest advisor, caught up to Ellian in the halls, although he couldn’t keep up for long. Ellis wrapped himself around Ellian’s spear, once more arranging himself to conceal the broken tip.

“You called, prince Ellian,” he hissed, clearly still displeased with his treatment during Ezra’s visit.

“I thought Ezra was going to strangle me. Why didn’t you tear his throat out? Where is your loyalty?” Ellian snapped.

“You ssseemed to be doing well enough, my prince. The cecaelian king did not want you dead.”

“You didn’t know that!” Ellian snapped.

Ellis flipped his tail in annoyance.

“He did not want you dead,” the eel repeated blandly.

Ellian scowled, but even he could see when there wasn’t time for arguing. However, Ellis would certainly be hearing about this later.

“Fine,” Ellian grumbled. “We’ll have either his head or his land soon enough,” Ellian tried to soothe, but the effort was hollow. Ezra had made him look like a guppy in a tidepool. “You did well to stay quiet. I’m not sure I want Ezra knowing you can speak.”

“If the princess is missing, our position in the palace is precarious, princcce,” Ellis grumbled.

“I am aware,” Ellian snarled back.

“You should not trust Titus’s men to find the princess,” Ellis warned in his nasally scold. “They can ssserve, but clearly cannot hunt.”

“I don’t intend to,” Ellian promised.

Stirring an agitated wake as he swam, Ellian threw himself through the main doors of the palace, angrily clutching his spear, and the orb Ezra had forced into his palm.

“Pesky octopus.”

Ellian pulled back his arm to throw the object away, when an image in its surface caught his eye.

A witch with living tendrils for hair and a smile of seduction and pitch leered at him, before vanishing into a whirl of intangible smoke. It was like nothing that Ellian had ever seen.

He froze.

“What was it the octopus said before storming out?”

Ellian was distracted from his flight from the palace and its grounds, and in his surprise, bumped into the side gate with a hard grunt. The palace barracks weren’t far. Perhaps he could spare a moment…

“The tentacled one said this artifact will guide you to the princess,” Ellis reminded, giving the thing a nasty sneer. “I would not trust it, princcce…”

Ellian recalled. Ezra had peppered his message with more explicatives and insults to his intelligence than the one line, but the meaning was communicated. Unfortunately, he hadn’t exactly provided instructions.

“How do you work?” he demanded of the orb.

The orb, unsurprisingly, remained silent.

“What do I do to operate you?”

As if more stubborn than before, the orb’s non-compliance seemed to mock him.

“Perhaps an order, my prince,” Ellis suggested with eelish sarcasm. Ellian knew he was being laughed at, but was never one to resist giving commands.

“Show me my princess and that wretched tentacled aberration!” Ellian ordered.

At the order, the orb actually snapped to.

Immediately, an image of a mermaid appeared in the dull brown surface. She was wearing a bland sea-grass blouse that made her look far less fetching than her crimson ensemble at the ball, but she was still worth chasing. Her long hair swirled alluringly around her shoulders, framing her face, neck, and waist as the currents moved. The circles under her eyes recounted a fatigue she hadn’t had when they’d danced; but of course the poor dear was tired. A kidnapping could do that to a girl.

Then, next to her, appeared a second figure, and he snarled when he realized the cecalian from the day before had his tentacles around his princess’s waist and tail.

As the view adjusted to include both Ayalina, and the cecaelian apprentice, Ellian’s scales writhed in agitation, then fury. His princess was practically wrapped around him.

Worse, she wasn’t trying to flee or gouge his eyes out, as would be sensible. Instead, they appeared to be talking…and getting closer. In the background, one of Titus’s guards was present, which would have been useful if he had been doing his job. Instead the merman’s eyes were closed, intermittent bubbles floating from his nostrils.

Asleep? Useless!

After a particularly large spurt of bubbles from the guard, Aya fell over the cecaelian apprentice, her face far too close to his.

Ellian’s blood boiled.

He clenched the vision in his fist hard enough that if the orb had been made of anything less than A-grade quality Cursed Metal, it would have shattered.

“Where do I find these traitors?” he demanded of the orb.

Dawdling a little, the orb then flashed him a scene of the dropoff, out by the reefs where he’d taken his hunting party not days before. Although he knew where to find it, it wasn’t where the orb had shown the princess. As though sensing his doubt, the scene shifted, and then guided him over the edge, and downward. It wasn’t much, but it was certainly enough to follow.

“Well, then,” he hissed, fighting the urge to hurl the orb through the head of the nearest sea-glass garden statue. “It seems things are more complicated than Ezra let on. Of course they are. And of course, it’s all left to me.”

He gave the palace doors a good hard shove, and switched course to the barracks where his men would be awaiting orders, no matter what Ezra claimed. Ellian’s guards were loyal to their prince. Judging from the emptiness of the halls, leisure rooms, and now, gardens, he’d gleaned that he was perhaps the last to learn of the princess’s disappearance—but of course his men didn’t need to know that.

Ellis held on to the prince’s spear as Ellian propelled them both through the entryway.

So much trouble over one boy. He shouldn’t be too hard to track down, much less catch. Why hasn’t he been caught already?

Ellian grumbled under his breath as he circled the palace grounds, picking up speed as he flew over the statued gardens.

“If it weren’t for the octopus—both of them!—this would all have gone off without a hitch. My princess would have been the happiest she’s ever been by now. We would have swam off together into the fishing sunset….”

Ellis wisely remained silent for the ride.

The Atlantis barracks came into view, tucked appropriately away from the palace behind the boundary wall. The building were impressive enough, he supposed, although not nearly as impressive as the Aegean ones. The barracks themselves were a series of imposing stone arches and tunnels. Towering, spiral-shaped shells flanked the entrance, serving as ceremonial trumpets. He rushed through them before any sentinels could announce his presence, and noticed a disturbing lack of personnel in his path until he came upon the central courtyard.

A wide yard contained racks of meticulously organized weapons and scale-linked armor in practical grabbing distance in an emergency; however, many of the racks were already empty. Nautical and kelp banners displaying the kingdom's emblem decorated statues of long-retired heroes. In the quiet courtyard, those statues outnumbered actual mer-men present.

In the center of the courtyard, was the search party that Captain Kael had collected. A dozen somewhat-rested guards, the few that had not spent all night looking, were dozing in their armor, waiting for their captain to return. Chief Pastian was nowhere to be seen.

Ah, Ellian realized, with a well-practiced smugness. A power vacuum.

“You there!” he barked, catching the attention of two very tired-looking night-guards next to the practice dummies. “Rouse the Aegean party, and bring out every last soldier, guard, and mer-man down to the very last footman you’ve got left who’s decent enough to swim!”

The two mer-men blinked at him sleepily, as though they thought he was some sort of specter. Ellian summoned his full coloring, and his tail snapped with electricity. The spark certainly got their attention.

“Well? Move!”

That time, they responded, darting off in the direction of the sleeping quarters. It wasn’t long before his own men came pouring out, and to his great satisfaction, he found that they were somewhat forcibly escorting another dozen of Titus’s men, and two of Ezra’s monsters—no doubt trying to duck duties.

He pushed down a smile. Day-break was already on them, and these mer-men deserved a little less sleep for failing in their duties. At least he wouldn’t be the only one suffering in the daylight hours to come.

“Gather and see, men! I, Prince Ellian of the Aegean Sea have located your princess—and it is worse than we all have feared!”

Some of the more tired faces turned up to look at him.

It was at that moment that Kael deigned to rejoin them.

“You’ve found her?” he demanded, as though he hoped to stay in control. “Where? Pastian searched the city!”

One of his eels moved to silence the disrest, but the prince stopped him with a hand. Dealing with an incompetent captain was something that required time and discretion. For now, his authority would be best undermined by taking his men’s attention far away from his orders.

Ellian raised the orb over his head.

“Show me the princess!”

The orb obeyed, and Princess Aya fluttered into view. Judging by her hair, she seemed to be moving quite quickly, as though she was hurtling down some violent tunnel. Her mouth and limbs were bound and gagged by a set of long, black tentacles. The evidence was better than he could have asked for.

“A rogue citizen of Atlantis, and a guard, one of your own, have taken her! See this beast how he has her, and see how this mer-man brings shame to the colors of your king!”

A murmur of anger rippled through the crowd.

“Look at the darkness around them. The currents! The ledges of the abyss! Men, he’s stealing her away to the Hidden Kingdom as we speak! The only place in the oceans where she will be unreachable to us forever.”

“There’s more dark water in this ocean than the depths, boy! What proof is that?” Kael barked.

“Feel free to take a closer look,” Ellian said, tossing the orb into Kael’s hands. Apparently, the sight of one of his own guards helping to drag the princess down a dark tunnel, no matter where, was enough to buy Ellian a minute’s silence.

“Mermen of the Atlantean alliance! Long has the hidden city been the bane of the capital—lurking in our shadows, protecting the creatures that threaten our children, hiding our criminals, and stealing our peace. Now, they’re bold enough to take our princess, even enlisting the help of one of you!

“How many of us have ever wanted to stamp out these threats? How many of you are willing to sponge out the shame brought upon you by one of your own?”

It worked. Any fatigue the returned soldiers might have shown from their night’s escapades was gone, quickly being replaced with pinched brows, twitching fins, and half-drawn weapons. Careful not to dislodge Ellis, Ellian raised his spear over the throng, matched by his own hunters, who returned the salute.

“Together! Today! We sally forth to kill the monsters, and retrieve our princess! Follow me and we will return with tales of glory, and the heads of those who would threaten her! For though they are strange, they are cowards! The light of day will find them down there in the dark, glinting off our steel!”

His ears were met by a roar of familiar approval.

“Gather your weapons!”

Ellian had never seen so many tails flee so quickly. The sound of clanking clasps, sheathing swords, spears, and harpoons clattered over the courtyard. Ellian knew watching their efficiency that the lot of them could be ready in minutes. Perhaps Titus’s discipline wasn’t entirely lacking. Kael had taken to supervising his men, speaking to them as they prepared.

“Prince, the trenchesss are difficult to navigate, but I sssense something strange from that orb.”

Ellis, who up until then had remained silent curled around his spear, spoke, baring his teeth at the sphere in Ellian’s hand.

“Nothing has happened so far,” Ellian argued. “Do you suggest a different way?”

“You are a tracker, princcce,” Ellis pointed out. “Surely the usssual methods will do.”

“Not with a crowd like this,” Ellian spoke from experience. “These men aren’t mine. They’re going to need a little…show of power to know that I’m in charge—at least at first.”

“I suggest using it sssparingly.”

The warning was logical, reasonable, even, but the longer Ellian looked at Ellis, the further a tendril of doubt curled through Ellian’s middle. It stretched, black and yawning into his chest, making Ellian gasp. Ellis had already betrayed him once that day.

What happens to this journey if he does it again? Ellian thought. Why am I hesitating? I am a prince!

Ellian made his decision, avoiding Ellis’ unblinking gaze as he ordered.

“Ellis, I need you to stay and keep an eye on things in the palace. Someone needs to watch Ezra...”

“Ezra did not strike me as one who waits….but I will have no way to convey information, Prince.” Ellis curled his lips back when he said Ezra’s name, as though trying to regurgitate something vile.

“You doubt I will return swiftly?”

Ellis did not respond to the acid in Ellian’s tone, though by the way he scowled there was no mistaking he’d heard it.

“The guards are ready, prince. May Poseidon protect,” Ellis hissed, in place of complaint.

Ellian turned away from the eel to survey his men, already in formation by the barracks gate.

“So they are.”

*

It took Ellian only a few hours to lead his eager rabble to the place he’d seen in the orb. In fact, they arrived so quickly, he could hardly remember the journey there. Finding the exact spot it had shown; however, was proving difficult.

“When I saw it in the orb, I remembered it, so where is that bident-blasted spot?” he grumbled under his breath, searching the twisting archways and bleached coral of the outer reef.

He had to keep the mermen at his back moving at a pace that maintained enthusiasm, or risk Kael splitting authority before the search had even begun. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the prince’s instincts kicked in over his memory. He was, after all, a leader, and leaders never did any of the work themselves on principle! It was simply principle!

“Fan out men, and search for anything out of the ordinary!” Ellian directed, as the looming dropoff came into view.

His instinct was rewarded in due course. It was mere minutes before one of the guards approached him carrying a damaged pauldron like the one on his own shoulder.

“Prince Ellian!” the guard reported. “We found this by the ledge over there!”

Ellian’s gaze followed the guard’s pointing finger. The silt at the lip of the dropoff’s shelf had since been stirred in strange, swirling patterns, and if there was anything that Ellian knew about strange findings, it was that investigation was the privilege of peons.

“Well spotted” he praised curtly. And I should know spots, he added with a silent smirk. “Are there any anomalies over that ledge?”

Evidently the peons hadn’t considered that possibility. Ellian ignored Kael’s scowl as the dayguards edged over the lip until, with surprised cry, all of them who had gotten close enough to the ledge to see over the shelf were caught by a vortex of force just like the one Ellian had seen carrying Ayalina. The guards were around violently, and to the audible horror of the guards scattered on the reef, were sucked downward into the abyss.

Ellian gave the orb a fond pat.

Valuable, indeed.

“Well men? After him! Downward!”

Then, like a true leader, Ellian let the vortex claim him as well.