“Goodnight, Beaz.”

Beazil hovered, knowing he was not allowed past the wall of rocks that protected my stepmother’s home. They looked natural to the outside eye, but I knew it had taken hundreds of Mers to get them into place, along with a massive octopus who had eaten several of the workers as payment.

I doubted my stepmother had even blinked.

“I will see you the day after tomorrow. We have the procession, remember?”

He looked unenthusiastic, to say the least. I was pretty sure he was dreading it. I knew how he felt, though I was dragging my fins for another reason. Most of the Mers competing would be dressed to the nines, in their armor or formal evening wear.

Meanwhile, I was wearing a dress that was two sizes too small, one of the few things my stepmother actually provided me with, for some reason. One well-made dress a year, in addition to my uniform. She hadn’t provided this year’s dress as of yet, and since I’d filled out a bit . . . well, there would be more of me on display than planned.

I groaned, wishing for the hundredth time that I was handy with a needle and thread. Thankfully, Lila was. She was doing her best to make my clothes work for me during the Trials. I was paying her in fresh oysters, and if she found a pearl, she got to keep it.

Of course, she said I didn’t have to pay her. But I did. We might be best friends, but she was trying to create a miracle out of thin water. She’d been at it for weeks already.

As one of the many housemaids, Lila worked tirelessly all day. Now, she was most likely huddled in her chamber, squinting at a few of my old childhood dresses and trying to cover my newly-acquired curves.

Newly acquired (and massively inconvenient) curves.

Not just inconvenient because of the dress either. Inconvenient because of the way boys had started staring. At first, I’d thought I had seaweed stuck to my scales, but Lila had explained that it was a chemical reaction.

Nature, she called it. I called it something else.

And thirdly, my new curves were inconvenient because there was suddenly a little bit more of me. There was more to get stabbed or struck or, Neptune forbid, harpooned during the upcoming battles.

I was a slightly bigger target than I had been a year ago. I was maturing at last, apparently. I knew Lila was right. It was natural, if ill-timed.

I waved and Beazil skulked away, looking forlorn. I knew he wasn’t looking forward to this. But there was no backing out.

I had no choice but to enter. As my familiar, he did too.

Besides, if I were a world-famous Spark someday, he would benefit as well. He’d be welcome anywhere, despite his size and the sheer number of razor sharp teeth in his mouth. He’d be protected from overzealous Mers who were frightened by his appearance. As it was, Beazil had to be cautious. He had to stay out of sight in populated areas of the Queendom. There were hunters, Mer and human, who prided themselves on catching and killing a great white.

When I won, he would be protected.

And most of all, we’d both be well-fed. I sighed dreamily, imaging tray upon tray of delicious food. Food prepared by a skilled chef, not hastily eaten raw with no seasoning! When I wasn’t serving the Royals, I could loll around like my shark, stuffing my face. He’d be brought huge nets full of shrimp. He wouldn’t even have to lift a fin!

I’d remind him of all of that tomorrow, I decided as I swam away. I stared at the stunning house before me as I cleared the gate. It rose organically from the seabed, artfully covered in brightly colored corals, sparkling quartz, and other pretty stones. Ornate oversized shells rose from the spires.

The structure was Mer-made but the door was human-made. It was what made the palace so extraordinary.

Massive thick double doors taken from a steamship wreck. The ship had sunk a hundred years ago. In fact, the interior of the palace was practically a two-legger museum, with all the artifacts they had collected.

Not that I was actually allowed inside the house, except to work.

I hurried out of sight of the windows, fearing that I’d be seen. If Thalia or Stepmother caught sight of me, I wouldn’t even have a chance to visit with Lila. The moment they laid eyes on me, I would be called to do any number of frivolous and unpleasant tasks.

I heaved a sigh of relief as I turned the bend and the servants’ quarters came into view. I swam straight through the coral archway and up to the topmost level. The rooms were smaller, and for the most part, the youngest and newest lower-ranked servants were housed here.

Them. Plus me and Lila.

I didn’t mind though. I liked my tiny room with the low ceilings. It was cozy. And since I was relatively small, it didn’t feel all that cramped.

Besides, Lila was right next door. We’d both been put up here years ago, and we never left, even though she was probably one of the most valuable servants they had. She was my closest friend, other than Beazil. I thanked Triton for her every single day.

I dropped my net bag on the bed and hurried to visit my friend.

“Come in!” she called out in response to my soft rap at her door. Like my door, hers was only made of fragile reeds. There were sturdy planks crossing it at intervals to hold the whole thing together.

I opened the door to see her sitting just as I’d imagined. Her silvery lavender head was bent over her work, close to the faint light coming through the small window. The windows were deliberately kept too narrow for any Mer to swim out of. I’d still managed it a few times, particularly when I was small.

“Doesn’t that hurt your eyes?”

She shook her head without looking up.

“I do most of it by feel, anyway. And I’m nearly done.” She tied off a thread and bit it with her teeth, resembling something strange and wonderful. Lila had the face of a young woman but the nearly white hair of an ancient Mer. Her eyes were a lovely soft purple, and her smile was so sweet, I always wanted to hug her.

Of course, she usually had some bit of sewing in her hands, so you risked getting stuck by a pin or needle if you surprised her with a hug.

For me, it had always been worth the risk.

I gasped as she rose and held the cloth in front of her. It was familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out why at first. It was beyond my wildest imaginings. There were panels of blue and green throughout, patterned in a way that looked deliberate.

It was my dress from last year, but it wasn’t. It had been taken apart and remade along with the fabric from much smaller dresses from my childhood. Things I wore years ago. There was even some of the black ribbon trim from the dress I wore to my father’s funeral when I was two-thirds smaller.

I felt my eyes well up with tears. Lila knew me so well. She knew why I’d saved all of my old things, especially from before he died.

With that ribbon, it would be as if  he was with me when I joined the procession tomorrow night.

“And there’s a surprise!”

I reached out and ran a finger down the front, gasping as Lila detached the long skirt, leaving a handsome tunic. I was stunned.

“I could actually fight in this.”

She smiled, knowing she had pleased me.

“I know. That was the idea.”

“It’s incredible. Amazing. You are beyond talented. I can’t thank you enough!”

I squeezed her, ignoring the pin that poked my flank.

“I think you just did.”

She looked flushed with pride when I finally let her go.

“Oh, I almost forgot!”

I ran back to my room, pulling the remaining oysters from my net. I held them up and Lila clapped her hands.

“You didn’t have to!”

“Yes, I did. And I wanted to anyway.”

She accepted them with a rueful smile. Servants weren’t paid or fed particularly well. We bartered for everything. Mostly, we traded skills and salvaged goods, but anything was up for negotiation. My specialty was finding food. I was always hungry and had grown up here, so I was a natural at foraging.

And since Lila couldn’t swim all that fast, she wasn’t inclined to go roaming. In fact, she was the sort who would get caught by a predator or a fisherman’s net.

That’s why I begged her to stay put and brought her treats whenever I could. I worried about her constantly. I waved to her pufferfish, Cori, who inflated herself in greeting. They were well suited. Even Cori preferred to stay close to home.

I heard a commotion as servants changed shifts below.

“Oops, I’d better go.”

“I wanted to see you in this!”

I nodded. I knew from just looking that it would fit me perfectly. And the blues and greens were so lovely, I knew it would flatter me as well. Not that I was a great beauty, but I knew I couldn’t ask for better.

“It will have to wait.”

“If only I could make you a helmet. I wish we knew a metalsmith!”

I shook my head. It was impossible. She couldn’t sew a helmet. It had to be forged or salvaged or taken from the two-leggers. Apparently, they wore headgear for a variety of sports. Mers only wore them for survival.

“You’ve done so much for me. More than anyone.”

I gave her another quick hug and retreated to my room, where I threw on my drab uniform. I was a maid, like Lila, though her talent with a needle set her apart. Her abilities were natural (nimble little fingers) as well as magical (her embroidery designs sometimes moved and glowed.) As a result, she didn’t do much other than make and repair clothing and other woven goods for the household. She could have worked for any Mer in the Queendom. I suspected she stayed because of me.

Meanwhile, I was the one who was desperate to leave. I was always assigned the least appealing jobs in the house. Any task that involved crawling or had an unpleasant stench was given to me.

So technically, I was special too.

In my case, what set me apart was how much the two mistresses of the house hated me. Not simply disliked. Not disapproved of. They seemed to genuinely loathe me, giving me the impression they wished I didn’t even exist.

I was never able to understand why. I was just a little girl when we had met. I was nothing but nice to them, even after I’d been banished to the servants’ quarters.

Well, mostly nice anyway.

It just didn’t make sense to me. I wasn’t wealthy, beautiful, or talented in some other way. I wasn’t magical. I certainly wasn’t a threat to their glory. All I had were my wits and my fins. And Beazil, of course.

I sighed, mentally preparing myself to get through the night. I might just have my fins, but it would be enough.

It was enough to survive the Trials. It had to be.

Thankfully, I knew I would make Messenger, if nothing else, so my days as a housemaid were coming to an end. I had to leave, even if it meant leaving Lila until I was established. Then I’d come back for her. We’d already sworn to each other that we would start over together somewhere else. She would have a shop, and we’d share a house nearby. My family house, if I could manage to restore it.

I rushed out of my room, and Lila waved goodbye, still clutching her oysters.

“Don’t work too hard!”

I snorted. She knew as well as I did that they never let me stop working for a second when it was my shift. They took a perverse satisfaction in making sure they got as much labor out of me as possible.

Which was ironic, since as a ‘family member’, I wasn’t even paid. Room, board, and one dress a year. That was it.

“That’s a laugh.”

She gave me a sorrowful look.

“I think they plan to keep you up all night working. I heard them talking about it.”

“That figures. After tomorrow, though, they can’t make me work again until after the Trials. And if I do well . . .”

She squeezed my hand. She was just past the age of required participation. She was better off though. Lila would never have been able to finish the race or hurt another Mer, let alone survive the more brutal contests.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy for me either, but I was determined to at least try. I figured if someone tried to stab me, I’d be motivated enough to fight back.

“They won’t ever be able to make you lift a finger again.”

“Right. Hopefully. If I do well.”

She grabbed my hand and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

“You will, Tri. I know you will.”

I swam off, trying to make myself believe that Lila’s words were true.