Blossom

I sit down to breakfast on the veranda overlooking the Meddio sea. It’s a cool morning with dark clouds on the horizon promising a storm later. The wind is a little unpredictable, but I don’t mind. I prefer to be out here, connected even just a little to the sea.

The cook Mrs. Agate has prepared some of my favorites this morning, honey lemon pancakes stuffed with cheese. It’s a wonderful dish combining sweet, sour and savory flavors, and I have a tendency to eat more than my fair share. Really, if I didn’t spend half my days swimming around, I’m sure I’d be as pudgy as Mrs. Agate.

Taking big bites of the delicious human food, I can’t help but squeal and wiggle with delight. Thanks to Eamon I had a little break in my fish and seaweed diet, but nothing beats coming home to Mrs. Agate’s cooking.

“Have you forgotten you’re a princess, Delphine?” Father’s stern voice interrupts my meal and I straighten automatically. He takes the seat across from me with a disapproving look. “Such shameless behavior is unbecoming.”

“I’m enjoying my food. I don’t see what’s so shameless about that,” I say with a sniff, taking another—not so big—bite.

Father only sighs as he pours his morning coffee. I think somewhere in his heart he gave up a long time ago on my ever being a ‘proper’ princess. But he still loves me. That’s what I like to imagine, anyway.

“It’s good to have you back, my child. Tell me, did you have any trouble out there? No shark or harpy attacks?”

“Not this time.”

“And, no one saw you?” he presses me, blue eyes watching me closely over this short distance. I take a deliberate bite of pancake to seem casual as I lie easily to his face.

“No one. I was all alone out there. As usual.”

He wilts slightly with relief. “I know it must be terribly lonely for you, but you know how important it is our secret never gets out. If anyone were to find out our crown princess is cursed…”

“I know, Father. Don’t worry. I’m not keeping any human boyfriends. Ah, but that reminds me,” I say, setting my fork down and wiping my face with a napkin, "my lady in waiting tells me you’ve been meeting with someone while I was away. Lady Philomela Gataki.”

Father’s eyes narrow and he sets his coffee down likewise.

“What did she tell you?”

“A few things. That you’ve been spending a good deal of time with Philomela. And some tidbits of overheard conversation. It would seem you’re very fond of her,” I say, testing him.

“Lady Gataki is a delightful young woman. I find I quite enjoy her company.”

“She’s my age, I believe.”

“She’s nineteen.”

I feel my temper rising at his casual admittance of this knowledge.

“And?” I challenge him. “Do you flatter yourself and imagine she’s in love with you? A girl twenty-six years your junior?”

Father’s eyes are pained. “I realize this must all seem very sudden to you. But you are no longer a child, Delphine. And your mother’s been gone six years now.”

“You’re lonely, fine. I get it. But I can’t accept a girl barely a year older than me for a step-mother!”

“But she must be that young, don’t you see? If she’s to give me—”

Father cuts himself off and blanches suddenly, realizing what he’d been about to say.

“Give you what?” I say, gripping my napkin in a shaky palm. “Say it.”

“Delphine—”

“You want another heir, is that it? A child who’s not a fish?”

“Do try to understand. Sanos law states a queen can’t ascend the throne until she’s married, and no man will have you while you’re a monster, never mind the logistical nightmare of running a kingdom from beneath the waves half of every month.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing. You’re actually trying to replace me.”

Father makes an agonized expression. “I’m not trying to replace you, Delphine. You are your mother’s only heir, how could I? We’ve searched relentlessly for a cure until now and we’re not going to give up. But you must see the logic in looking into alternative solutions as well. The gods forbid this curse persists and we cannot find a cure, we must be prepared to do what’s best for our people.”

I’ve known this. From the moment I first became a siren, the problem has been all too clear. 

My mother Lydia was the queen of Sanos, the only heir of her father. Because of the law, she married her handsome secretary, a commoner, and ascended the throne. My parents were happy together, but after a while, that powerful, larger than life woman began to grow sickly, and eventually her weakened body gave out, passing away when I was twelve.

Father went on to reign in her stead and mine, not as king, but as regent only. He was only ever meant to be a placeholder until I came of age and married, assuming the duties of the crown.

Then, out of nowhere, I was cursed.

All this time, we’ve been searching for a way to break the curse, without success. The one woman who seemed to know anything about it, Lyssandria the witch, disappeared after that first meeting and was never heard from again.

I’d held out hope. An endless optimist, I felt certain things would work out somehow. There was just no way I could never be queen. It was my dream from my earliest age. I idolized my mother; I always dreamed of the day I’d step into her role. And I love the people of Sanos. I have so many ideas for the future of our island nation, so many plans…

But I see now Father has given up.

In his mind, I’m an inconvenient monster, no longer a viable candidate for the crown. I must abdicate my right to the throne, and he must hurry and produce more heirs, so Sanos isn’t left without a monarch.

It is the end of my mother’s lineage, and the beginning of a new one. Giorgos Siculus, former secretary, now the founder of a new dynasty, a new bloodline of strong golden princes. And all with a pretty blushing bride of only nineteen at his side.

“I won’t have it!” I shout, rising from my chair as a particularly strong burst of wind cuts across the veranda, sending some of the breakfast effects flying.

“It doesn’t matter how many heirs Philomela gives you, not one of them will ever sit on the throne! I am the heir of Vasilias, and you are not king but regent only. You will never be king!” I scream in his face and storm off, hot, furious tears streaming from my eyes.

He really has given up on me. He’s already got his plan B in place, and I have become expendable to him. I’m sure this would all be much easier for him if I really were to be eaten by a shark.

Back in my room, I slam the door behind me, never minding the stares I get from the palace staff. They already think I’m a moody, irresponsible princess, disappearing for two weeks a month purely for my own selfish reasons. I hear their rumors; I know very well they think I am unfit to assume the throne. Probably every single one of them is on Father’s side in this. I’m sure my late mother’s own advisers are the ones that put him up to it.

Screaming in my fury, I thrash about my room, throwing cosmetics against the wall, pounding the pillars with my fists until they sting and jolt with painful electric pulses.

“It’s not fair!” I run out to the veranda and scream at the top of my lungs to the gray, choppy sea. “I never asked for this! You think I wanted this?!”

My life, it’s not my own anymore. And my dreams don’t matter to anyone. Not a single person, not even my father cares that I’m watching them die in front of my eyes. And all because of a curse I cannot control.

A monster… That’s what father called me. But is that really what I am?

Until recently I’d more or less assumed that no one could accept someone like me. My father insisted on secrecy, said people would reject me and even attack me, but Eamon never even questioned what I was. It didn’t even stop him from kissing me, all on his own.

Of course he didn’t know I was the princess. But would that have made a difference, I wonder, to a man like Eamon?

Father said no one would ever want a cursed princess, but maybe that’s not true. Maybe there is one man who would have me, even like this…

Knowing that doesn’t solve the problem of how I would rule as a mermaid, but it does make me feel…just a bit better…