In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens (best business books of all time txt) 📗

picked a jewel from a pile and held it up, inspecting it as the dark red facets sparkled. “This is beautiful.”

Athlen sighed. “When I lost my family, I tried to find things that reminded me of them. That one looks like my sister’s tail.”

“Her… tail?” Tal asked, squinting at the jewel. Had Athlen’s sister been a shifter, like Kest?

Athlen rubbed his fingers over his brow and pushed his copper hair away from his eyes.

Tal leaned closer, their shoulders brushing, his pinky finger slotted alongside Athlen’s own. “Why did those men have you?”

“I was their courier. They had a deal with some other land folk, and they needed me to retrieve their payment.”

“The gold?”

“Yes,” Athlen said with a sharp nod. “The gold.”

Tal paused. That didn’t make sense, not if Emerick was to be believed and the gold was a gift to the kingdom for Isa’s hand. “Where was it?”

“I wasn’t lying when I said it was in the Great Bay. The people who paid them didn’t want to be implicated, so they dropped the gold to the bottom of the bay and gave those men the coordinates. For a long time they didn’t know how to retrieve it, but then they discovered me and… well… you saw the chains.”

Tal furrowed his brow. “I still don’t understand.”

“I’m not explaining it well.”

“You did drink a bit.”

Athlen chuckled, the sound of it echoing in the small space. “Hardly affected me.”

“You were butchering the lyrics of several songs.”

“I was singing.”

“You were caterwauling.”

Athlen laid a hand over his heart. “You wound me, my prince.” He playfully knocked his shoulder into Tal’s, then furrowed his brow. “I’m trying to explain. The men who had me, they were not sailors, but people who kill others for money.”

“Mercenaries,” Tal said. “Are you telling me that Ossetia paid for mercenaries?” Tal’s middle sank. What was Isa marrying into? What was his family allying with?

“They couldn’t sail well, but they found the coordinates.”

“How could you get a chest of gold off the seafloor?”

Athlen blinked. “I swam.”

“How?” Tal shook his head at Athlen’s blank expression and continued, “And do you know what the money was meant for? What they were meant to do?”

“They didn’t say. And the squall came and many of them drowned and others left in the small boats.”

“And we found you. How did you survive jumping off the back of Garrett’s ship? How did you swim all the way here?”

Athlen laughed, but it was without humor. “You still don’t see? You’re magic. You should know there are more things beyond the human understanding of the world.” Athlen stood and pulled off his shirt, revealing the faint marks that ran up both sides of his torso. He unbuttoned his trousers and Tal looked away, a high flush working into his cheeks.

“What are you doing?” Tal’s answer was a splash. Water droplets hit Tal’s cheek, a cool contrast to the burn of his blush. “Is it safe to swim?”

“Of course,” Athlen said.

“Are you certain? The sea acts strangely in small coves like this.”

Athlen snorted. “I’ve lived here for years, but if you’re worried, I’ll come out.”

Tal squeezed his eyes shut and held up a hand. “No. No, you’re fine.”

“You land folk and your modesty.”

Tal felt a familiar mix of anger and embarrassment rush into his middle at Athlen’s mockery, but the sentence didn’t make sense. It was the second time he’d used the term “land folk.”

“Land folk? Is that a kind of designation where you’re from?” Despite his reticence, Tal risked a glance, then shot to his feet at the image before him. He stumbled backward, heels skidding on jewels and wet stone until his back hit the cave wall, jarring him. He shook his head, but it didn’t change the picture of Athlen with his arms crossed on the low shelf, his long red-and-gold tail arched behind him.

Tal gasped. A merman! Athlen was a merman! Mermaids were myths and legends—women who sang beautiful songs and led sailors to their death or fortune, depending on the tale. Tal rubbed his eyes, but Athlen remained. He wasn’t a hallucination from the honey wine Tal had drunk—he was as real as the shell digging into the bottom of Tal’s foot.

The answers to Tal’s questions slotted into place. The mercenaries had used Athlen to courier the gold because he could swim to the bottom of the sea and was strong enough to haul it to the surface. That’s how he’d survived the jump off of Garrett’s ship.

Even in his shock Tal couldn’t deny Athlen’s shape was beautiful. His fins floated long and delicate, gossamer thin as they swished in the shallow water. Tal had noticed before that Athlen’s shoulders were broad, but propped up as he was, Tal could see the carved muscles of his upper body. His torso was strong from swimming, and it tapered down to his hips, where his skin fused with scales below the line of his navel. Athlen rolled to his back in the pool and put his webbed hands behind his head, showing Tal the marks along his ribs—his gills, which lay closed.

Tal didn’t speak for several beats, studying the way Athlen’s fins moved, how his red-and-gold scales reflected the moon, the power inherent in the line of his body, built for speed among the waves. Tal didn’t know he had let the moment drag on too long until Athlen’s expression shuttered and he crossed his arms over his body and slid down below the line of the water.

“I’ve never shown anyone,” he said, face turned away, and Tal could see the smattering of scales along his neck and shoulders. “Dara knows what I am and has seen me swim, but I’ve not…” He gulped. “You’re magic. I thought you’d understand, since you’re the last too. Alone.” Athlen’s gaze flicked back to Tal, and his shoulders bobbed in a shrug. “I know I look strange. I shouldn’t have—”

“No,” Tal said quickly. “No, don’t be… I’ve never met a merman.… I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I just… you’re