Page 10 of The Innocent Sleep

There was a flicker of disappointment in Dianda’s eyes. Patrick, who was less practiced at hiding his emotions, scowled and turned away, clearly crestfallen.

“Did you hope I could carry you both out of here?” I asked.

“What do you think?” asked Dianda. “You hurled yourself from a cliff rather than accept that your wife was missing. We’re short a husband and a son and a daughter. There are very few things we wouldn’t hope for right now. Including Titania’s head on a platter.”

“Peter doesn’t know yet,” said Patrick. “Helmi has been set to keeping him sheltered from the rest of the household, and he believes August and Simon have simply been delayed in their return from the surface. He’ll be devastated when he realizes they can’t come home. He adores August. He’s fond of Simon, but it’s going to be years before he accepts him as a second father. August, on the other hand, has been his sister since the wedding. And when he realizes we’ve also lost Dean—this is going to crush him. We need to fix it as quickly as possible.”

“I think we’re all agreed on that,” said Amphitrite. “But the cat isn’t going to kill himself trying to get us all out of here, and we’re not going to figure out what Mother did by standing around and arguing about it. Tybalt, have you eaten?”

“Not recently,” I admitted. “I’ve had other things on my mind.”

“Understandable. And now you’re going to eat.”

I turned to scowl at her. “I’m sorry, who are you to order me about? I am a King of Cats. I haven’t set my crown aside yet, and until I do—”

“Until you do, you’re still a king, and even after you do, you’ll still be a royal cat, and I’ll still be among the Firstborn.” She smiled, slow and languid and deeply menacing. “You know, all the Firstborn have honorifics. It’s a way to avoid invoking us by name. Call the sea witch, don’t attract my sister’s attention. Speak of the Rose of Winter, you might still be left alone.”

“Yes,” I said. “They call you Captain Pete.”

“These days, yes, they do,” she agreed. “But they used to call me less flattering things. ‘The Devouring Deep’ was one of my favorites. ‘Mother of Sharks’ was also a pretty good one. Don’t think that just because I choose harmlessness now, you can afford the cost of offending me. You may be our only way out of here, and you’ve just been through a massive healing. You need to eat. You need to sustain your body, or you’ll never make it back to October.”

That was the deciding command. I couldn’t help my wife, or our child, if I was dead on the Shadow Roads, and when a Cait Sidhe falls in that darkness, the night-haunts never come for our remains. I had all faith that whatever was happening, October would eventually be able to resolve it on her own, but it would be faster if I was with her.

“Fine,” I said. “We eat.”

“Excellent,” said Amphitrite, sounding smug. “Dianda?”

“I’ll order lunch,” said Dianda. “And Tybalt, I’m no happier about this than you are, but I can see the sense of it. Never go into a fight already weakened.”

“Is this going to be a fight?” I asked.

She smiled, thin and sharp. “If I have anything to say about it, yes, it is.”

FOUR

LUNCH WAS SOMEWHAT COMPLICATED by the fact that Helmi, who was watching over Peter, generally ran the household. Dianda didn’t want to pull her off her duties, and so the four of us wound up seated at a large wooden table in the kitchen while anxious servants placed platter after platter of leftovers and staples in front of us.

After the third tray of mixed cheeses, Amphitrite laughed and waved them off. “Go, go,” she said. “This would feed an army, and we’re a detachment at best. We’ll handle ourselves from here.” She picked up a short loaf of bread, pointing it at me like a sword. “There’s smoked fish, cat. You should be content.”

“That’s a stereotype,” I said. My stomach was in knots. The thought of anything heavier than toast was almost painful.

“Yes, but it has a root in truth.” She put the bread down, and sighed. “My mother has never been a very reasonable woman, and she’s been absent for centuries. This isn’t as much of a shock as I want it to be.”

“You’re certain it’s her, then?” asked Patrick.

Amphitrite nodded. “Tybalt saw her, Toby offended her, Father betrayed her—she has every reason in the world to be furious, and she’s never cared about collateral damage. Annie’s absence, though, that’s the telling thing. Me being locked in the water, I have siblings who could accomplish that, if they were really making an effort. Eat, cat, or I stop talking, and you’re stuck here waiting to gather your strength, not learning anything at all that might help you.”

I picked up a slice of bread, hurriedly. Patrick shot me a sympathetic look and offered me a jar of fish paste, which I took before smearing it liberally over my selection.

Amphitrite nodded again, this time looking satisfied. “As I was saying, me being locked in the Undersea falls within the power limits of several of my siblings, assuming they’re awake and around and mad at me, which some of them always are. We’re a temperamental bunch, and those of us who’ve survived mostly haven’t done it by being sweethearts. Annie, though . . . she’s another matter. As strong as I am, she’s stronger.”

Dianda looked appalled. “But you’re my First.”

“Don’t be tiresome, little mermaid. There’s a reason that when the humans stole that story, they set the sea witch above the daughter of the sea. Annie’s always been more versatile and more powerful than I am. If she’s missing, and there’s no reason to think she’d have gone willingly, then it’s because something she couldn’t fight against hit her. That means Mom, her mom—who’s still missing as far as I know—or Dad, and Dad didn’t have any reason to put himself out like that. I’d been suspicious before Tybalt told us Annie was gone. Now that I know she is, I’m not suspicious anymore. I’m certain.”

“Why were you here?” I asked, and took a bite of bread. The fish paste was excellent, thick and heavily salted. It coated my tongue in a way that would have been delightful, if I’d been in any mood to allow myself to enjoy food.

“Dad,” said Amphitrite. “I saw him at your wedding, but not for long, and we didn’t really have time to talk the way I wanted to. He was a lot more distant than I expected him to be after so long, and I was hoping . . . I know he’s here, with Annie, and she’s been looking after him. I sort of hoped that if I hung out in the coastal waters for a while, he’d come down below to see me. The Duchy of Ships gets by just fine without me most of the time, but it’s also good for me to spend time at home when it works, and this has been a good excuse.”