Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 by Galvin, Aaron (top 5 books to read TXT) 📗

The Blackfin laughed. “Truth is a hard thing to discern, it seems,” he said. “Tell me, then. What is this one of yours?”

Ms. Morgan cackled, then, the first time Sydney had ever heard such a noise from her. “Don’t cast your pearls before Orcish swine is one,” she said to Malik. “And I hear you’re much like your father when it comes to looking on the world and those less fortunate than you, boy. I suppose it fitting that an Orc like you would rather see such things as only black and white. Ah, but I’ve been a Merrow all these long years, sonny,” her good eye flashed. “And I know the truth of people and both our worlds, above and below, well . . . they’re all more shades of gray than not.”

“A Merrow would believe that,” said Malik. “But when it comes to a queen’s crimes against the crown, hag, I’m afraid there is no in between. Either you are sided with the king, or you are against him.”

Ms. Morgan cackled again. “You speak as though it’s not known you’ve been banished all these years for treachery. Why then were you welcomed back with open arms by the same king who cast you out? Where does your truth lie there, boy?”

Sydney grinned at the terse reply, even as she feared it.

Malik placed his meaty hand on top of Ms. Morgan’s left shoulder. “Careful now, crone,” he said. “Let you mind your tongue before it lands you in more dangerous waters.”

“More dangerous?” she asked, barking a laugh in his face. “No . . . no, we both know how this ends today, boy.”

Malik sneered. “Stop calling me that.”

“I’ll call you as I like,” said Ms. Morgan. “Won’t matter soon for me anyway, will it? Ah, but you’ll remember me after I’m gone, won’t you, Blackfin? May I tell you a secret?” she asked, going on without receiving his permission, nodding toward the crowd. “Many of these here listening will remember me too. Aye, they’ll whisper on all that I’ve said today and happens here long after you and I are said and done, boy.”

Malik growled, already unsheathing his blade. “Aye, crone. I assure you they will remember well what comes next.”

Ms. Morgan snorted. “Best get on with it, then,” she said, cupping her hands and bringing them to her mouth like a megaphone to yell for all the crowd to hear. “Or don’t I get my confession first? This is a trial in search of truth and answers, no?”

Sydney scooted to the edge of her seat at the crowd’s applause and the cat-calls to allow Ms. Morgan speak. Sydney’s hopes lifted at the uneasy glance between Solomon and the Painted Guard, all of them looking to their leader for what to do, or how to act.

In the eyes of Malik Blackfin, there was only contempt. “Go on, then,” he said to Ms. Morgan. “Speak your truth.”

Ms. Morgan nodded. “Here it is, then, boy. Those zoos you speak of? The real zoos? Some are good. Some are bad. All depends on who is running the show, same as down here.” She raised a gnarled finger and pointed it at Sydney. “As for the princess and these others you’re on about, it’s true they ran away. Freed Brutus the Butcher too, or at least that’s the name some of our folk pinned on him during and after the Selkie Strife.” She shrugged. “But, let you ask the Selkies who survived and served alongside him. Ask them, and they’ll tell you such tales of Brutus the Brave what rose up against those meant to keep his kind in chains. Like all stories, boy, it all depends on who’s spinning the tale, don’t it? Aye, and what they hope to gain from the telling . . .”

“You’re spinning tales now,” said Malik. “And I grow weary of them.”

“That’s ‘cause I’m not yet at the end.”

“You’re very near it,” said Malik, raising his sword to rest against his shoulder, the glint of his glade shining in the surrounding torchlights. “Be done with it and quickly, lest you not finish your sad tale at all.”

Ms. Morgan huffed before going on. “You want to know why the princess left the zoo and ran away to the Salt? It’s no secret. It’s the same reason as all those who’ve ever left in the middle of the night when others wished to keep them tucked away and silent. And these two young ones here,” she pointed at Amelia, then Owens. “They followed their princess back to the Salt for the same reason as all us others did, long before, when choosing to follow her good mother ashore too.” Ms. Morgan’s voice shook with righteous thunder, a call that had tears brimming in Sydney’s eyes. “These children heard tale of a grievous wrong done to one of their friends! And these three here . . .” her finger shook as she wagged it for all to see, pointing at Sydney, Owens, and Amelia. “They defied the ones who love them most by stealing away with the hope that they set it right again! Aye, all to free an innocent friend from this harsh world we all know too well.”

Malik scoffed. “Perhaps the children should have put more thought into what their actions might cost them. They failed their friend . . . just as you are faltering in your poor attempts at twisting the truth of such matters now.”

Again, Ms. Morgan laughed in his face. “And you’re still failing to see the shades of gray, Blackfin. Then again, if you haven’t learned such things yet, boy, might be you never will.”

Malik snorted, then turned toward the king.

Sydney’s stomach dropped when Darius nodded. Before she could process what was happening, she glimpsed Solomon placing his hand upon Ms. Morgan’s left shoulder and then kicking the back of her leg to force her down.

Sydney stood up, then, the outcry of the crowd overwhelming.

Dropped to her