“That was skillfully done,” Kadir told Soren. They floated outside the ring of feasting warriors to discuss the security of the city; Balim silently healed Soren’s shark injury while they talked. “She has performed the welcome as well as any warrior.”

Soren growled. “You prepared her for the first test.”

“I did nothing, Soren.”

He eyed Kadir skeptically. “She resonated with your kiss.”

Yes. The warm memory of it lightened Kadir’s chest.

The warriors who had accompanied them to Florida met many humans before greeting Elyssa in the auditorium. They reacted appropriately to her casual handshake that day. Kadir had not realized she would carry the tradition here.

Adviser Creo’s shock and horror were echoed by others in this castle. If a warrior touched another’s bride to save her life, her husband was justified to take revenge. Cutting off the offender’s parts and banishing him to exile were common punishments.

In the face of that surprise, Elyssa had struggled with her fears. Like when they were attacked by the goblin shark outside the city, her effort to combat her fear was not sufficient. Her anxiety leached into the water, affecting all the other warriors with dangerous levels. They fidgeted and twitched, agitated. Kadir sought only to calm and refocus her with the one action that always worked.

But their kiss changed into something more. A reaffirmation of why she had come. A promise to the warriors of what could be theirs.

And she had emerged from it stronger, calmer, and glowing with his resonance.

That was why he felt comfortable leaving Elyssa’s side now. She smiled for the warriors but her eyes continually turned toward him and, when he met her seeking gaze, she lit up. All the warriors understood. A handshake meant nothing. It was not a punishable offense. Her passion was only for Kadir.

But he had not prepared her to demonstrate that. “Our connection is strong.”

Soren frowned.

“Do not scowl,” Balim ordered. “You still have embedded teeth.”

“Finish quickly. I must interrogate the last patrols.”

“You are lucky you have a thick skull.” He removed another tooth fragment from Soren’s forehead, reopening the wound and causing blood to flow. “And you are lucky to have only suffered one injury in the open ocean.”

“I received it near our city. Which sea slugs need a lesson in border defenses?”

Balim’s lips twisted to one side. He preferred to concentrate silently on his work, but he was also used to being questioned. His dark, heart-blood red tattoos tallied the lives he had saved through his work. “The last patrols were Nilun and Zoan.”

Soren growled. “Untrained young rebels.”

“They are young, but Nilun comes from Djullanar.” Like Rusalka, Djullanar was a city known for strictness; even now the hot-headed young male Nilun sat with a stiff back and his head at a military angle of respect as he took precise portions of the feast. It contrasted especially with the cheery male sitting beside him, Zoan, digging into Nilun’s stiff ribs with a teasing elbow. “And Zoan stormed the prison right behind you to free Kadir. While you were gone, they engaged the raiders and interrupted a kidnapping.”

So, the raiders who drove the sharks across their borders had also attempted to kidnap Kadir’s warriors. Then, he would know which city they were from. Not that it mattered. Any city that could muster a squad would come to Atlantis to demand its defectors back.

“Neither complained about the extra shifts required for patrol,” Balim continued.

Soren grunted. “There were complaints?”

“None that I took seriously.” Balim removed another tooth. “Especially considering their situation.”

Truly, these warriors did Kadir proud. They put aside their differences and worked toward a common goal better than any army.

Soren’s black gaze flicked back to Kadir. “You prompted your bride to tell the warriors to claim this city as their own.”

“I did not.” He would have done so if he had thought of it.

That action was perhaps more important than demonstrating their special resonance. She encouraged the warriors to claim Atlantis as though it was already a recognized city, and they were its warriors.

To take just one example, Faier had been born in Nerissa, a city suffocated and buried by toxic slides after the unexpected emergence of a nearby volcano. His refuge city, Rusalka, passed him over for a bride after he was wounded in honorable combat.

Elyssa told him that Atlantis claimed him as a citizen, that here was where he belonged. She did more to reverse Faier’s discouragement and discrimination in a single sentence than Kadir would have thought to do in a hundred years.

The light of a mer warrior held steady. It was not so easily knocked dim like the humans’. But, it was still possible to change. When Elyssa recognized Faier for Atlantis, he brightened a full notch. The others did as well.

Now, Faier served Elyssa with his usual friendly calm, but he moved more fluidly, as though his injuries bothered him less, and he seemed more at peace.

“It was her idea,” Kadir emphasized.

“It was a lucky idea,” Soren grumbled.

The snarl formed in his throat. He was tired of fighting about whether he had selected the best bride. “Was it? Did luck speak what our hearts need?”

“Her friend joined with a Sireno warrior. He could have prepared her.”

“Her friend is not here now.” Kadir thrust his hand at Elyssa. “Look at my queen. She is your future.”

Elyssa floated in a place of honor surrounded by mer warriors. She smiled, laughed, and talked as she sampled dish after dish of the feast.

Soren said nothing.

Balim sealed Soren’s forehead wound with a strip of healing paste and collected the goblin shark’s teeth. He looked at Kadir’s bride for one long, inscrutable moment. “I hope a queen is all you dream it to be.”

Kadir straightened. Was that a challenge? But Balim simply nodded to him, “My king,” and stowed his healing supplies to join the feast.

He suddenly felt far too tired. He had brought a bride to Atlantis. A modern bride, who chose this life on her own, and promised, despite her fears, to try to become a queen. It was more than any of them could have received in their home cities. And yet, the undercurrent of anxiety seemed to poison everything.

“Where is your faith?” Kadir asked softly.

Soren made a rude noise. “Our faith was traded to be fashioned into jewelry for dark-souled women.”

He meant that the warriors had lost faith when they gave up their Sea Opals for Elyssa. The image of Chastity Angel wearing the mating jewel irritated Kadir too. But worse was Soren’s dismissal.

“This is only a short limitation. The ancient city was full of treasures. We will excavate the ruin and discover enough Sea Opals for a hundred brides. For a thousand!”

“If you can hold your new city from deadly enemies circling just outside.”

Kadir bit back his anger.

The adviser swam up to them. Disagreement pinched his face.

Yet another complaint.

Soren put himself in front of Kadir. “Adviser. Problem?”

“Yes. You are in my way.”

Soren did not move. Adviser Creo growled. The two regarded each other with snarls.

Kadir spoke mildly to defuse tensions. “Does the All-Council have guidance, Adviser Creo?”

“It is your bride!” He glared up at Soren, still partially blocking his way. “You should not put her on display this way. It is tiring and dangerous. And you should not encourage her friendship or casual touch. There are countless tales of warriors driven mad by the unguarded presence of a female!”

Another slice of anger burned hot in his chest. He understood Adviser Creo’s fear, but he could not allow the insult. “She is not unguarded. She is surrounded by thirty loyal warriors and me.”

His words carried. Those nearest glanced behind them.

Let them know that Kadir, at least, had faith.

Adviser Creo lowered his tone. “Your bride’s speech was also irresponsible. She toys with their hopes.”

“No one complained,” Soren snapped, forgetting his own criticisms from a moment before.

“Because they are blinded.”

“Her speech was inspiring.” Kadir controlled his own anger to balance Soren’s dark rage. “They work hard to guard Atlantis and excavate the old city. Remembering the reason is what they need.”

“They must wait years until your Life Tree matures enough to put forth suitable mating jewels.”

Kadir’s hand flexed to choke his fat throat.

“We will possess a hundred brides,” Soren growled, changing his answer in the face of Adviser Creo’s attack. “The ‘old ways’ can swim with stinging jellyfish.”

The adviser harrumphed. “Your Life Tree is only a sapling. This bride is a mistake. Both are vulnerable. You will regret not listening to me.” He swished away.

Soren glared after him.

“We will soon be recognized.” Kadir placed a steady hand on Soren’s taut forearm. “More warriors will come. Then we will have our own representative in the All-Council.”

Soren slowly relaxed.

Adviser Creo’s self-righteous attitude made Kadir want to turn him into chub, but even Soren recognized his importance. After the All-Council approved the city, Atlantis would receive additional protections. Treaties with the other cities would be honored. Raiders would be outlawed.

And his bride — Atlantis’s future queen — would be safeguarded. Even more than she was now.

He studied her silently with Soren.

After the human introductions, the warriors produced the wedding feast. Normally a wedding feast was held with only the bride and her warrior present, but the expedition was starving and everyone was exhausted. It was cruel to force them out on a night meant for celebrating the arrival of their first queen, and Elyssa demonstrated great interest in getting to know the warriors better. So, he ordered each male to present foods they had replanted from their home cities.

The offerings continued even now.

“This one tastes like fava beans.” Across the courtyard, she crunched a bulb kernel. “You grow these yourselves? All of them? Wow. And this plant … this one tastes like … rootbeer?”

“What about this one?” Ciran’s close friend Gailen eagerly offered her a precious leaf.

She bit down. Shock filled her face. She clapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes watered.

“Horseradish.” She spat out the mouthful and gagged. The green chunks floated away and descended for the courtyard garden, where they would turn into mulch. “Way too much. Hand me the rest of those fava beans. Quick!”

The others hurried to help her. She desperately chewed the beans and swallowed. They watched her closely.

Gailen’s shoulders drooped. “You do not like my food,” he said dully.

She shook her head violently. “It’s not food.”

His eyes widened in shock.

Soren bared his teeth and began to move, crossing to her side to stop her from inflicting any more pain. Elyssa could not know that Gailen had stolen this special plant from his father’s gardens, on pain of death, for the sole purpose of giving it to a bride. She could not know his father had disowned him for daring to cross his city’s council. She could not know how he’d worried over the stolen plant here, tending it as his sole tie to the heritage he had been forced to leave behind and his hope for a brighter future.

Kadir stopped Soren. Elyssa’s tone and posture were not cruel. Soren’s interruption would destroy any chance at reconciliation. Kadir had faith.

“You can’t eat it whole,” she said, unaware of the reactions taking place across the courtyard from her. “Horseradish goes with other food. It’s a condiment.”

“Condiment?” Gailen repeated.

“Only eat a small amount. It brings out the flavor.”

“Of what?”

“Prime rib, for one. Most beef is good. Um…”

“What is ‘prime rib’?”

“The most expensive meat. It’s so delicious. Pretty rare.”

“Rare and expensive meat?” Gailen slowly straightened. “Like wedding meat?”

“They would serve prime rib at a wedding reception. Absolutely.”

Gailen brightened.

Soren relaxed.

Elyssa pressed the other leaves into Gailen’s hands. “Don’t feed anyone a big leaf. Serve a tiny amount. Just a taste.”

“For a wedding feast.” He nodded and tossed an arrogant grin at Ciran. His enthusiasm was infectious, and the other warriors all smiled. “My offering is not ordinary. It is only for rare, expensive meat. A bride will like that.”

“Anyway, don’t worry so much about giving your bride an offering. Most important is your feeling here.” She pressed her chest.

A hard punch of longing twisted Kadir’s chest with bittersweet. They had been trained their whole lives that brides must have a mating jewel to consider a husband. No male was worthy without a jewel. To hear that a bride could love him without any offering at all was hard, frightening, and haunting. It was what they all longed to hear. She gave words to their deepest held dreams.

“Hmm.” Her eyes were unfocused, her mind clearly elsewhere.

Gailen was listening to her so hard he nearly collapsed on his own elbows. “What are your thoughts?”

“Wasabi.” She pursed her lips. “Real wasabi is so rare it’s only served in fancy sushi restaurants. It goes for hundreds of dollars an ounce. This leaf could be worth as much as your Sea Opals.” She ripped off a tiny piece of the leaf, pressed it to a chunk of freshly hunted albacore, and chewed thoughtfully. “When you raise Atlantis, you should open a restaurant. You’ll serve the freshest sashimi ever.”

She spoke so convincingly about things even Kadir sometimes considered impossible. He focused on his vision because he could not face the daily discouragement of their present situation. Her casual acceptance of an inevitable future was both inspiring and terrifying.

Soren finally rocked back. He lowered his voice for only Kadir’s ear. “She should be hidden from display.”

Kadir’s anger flared. “You doubt our warriors’ honor to treat her well?”

“Not for her protection.” He lifted his trident. The metal was heavy as his scarred brow. “For ours.”

Because she raised the warriors’ hopes. Because they believed every word. Because they would be crushed if she was wrong.

That stopped Kadir. A large, deadly warrior like Soren studied Elyssa like a new type of threat. One he’d never considered before. And he considered all threats. All of them.

Kadir growled. “Words mean nothing.” He threw Soren’s back at him. “Only action.”

“Words can cause action.” Soren regarded him from the side of his eyes. “We are all here because of yours. What will you do when she demands to return to the surface and refuses, for the final time, to become our queen?”