Chapter 55: Quite A Pair

Zale could admit he was impatient about hearing back from Talori. Provided any of the witches were able to figure out the secret behind his request at all.

He wasn't sure they would or, if they did, how they would manage to tell him how she was doing without Gar getting suspicious. It set him on edge the whole time between Gar's meetings with the witches.

None of his mermen could tell anything was off with him but Beck. Of course. They had been together nearly their entire lives. It would have been strange if he DIDN'T notice.

"Worrying about it will not change the outcome," he pointed out logically.

Zale scowled. "You think I don't know that? But I can't help it. I need to know Tali is doing alright or I won't be able to focus."

"Your focus has been much worse than usual. What are you so worried about? Do you not trust who you sent her off with? Why exactly are you so concerned about her well-being? Knowing her, she is having the time of her life up there."

"I don't KNOW who I sent her off with! I barely met them! I had to trust my most precious treasure with a stranger, Beck! Do you have any idea how stressful that is?!"

"No because I don't have one. The closest thing I have is you but you can handle yourself," Beck said matter-of-factly.

Zale sighed. "That is disturbingly sentimental coming from you. And not helpful. Tali can't handle herself! She's far too naïve."

"And who exactly has kept her that way?"

"Whose side are you on here?!"

"Yours, always," Beck said, looking at him with serious black eyes. "But you need to stop worrying about your sister. Talori is smarter than you give her credit for. After all, she did manage to sneak out without any of us noticing for years."

Zale hated to admit he had a point. She might not be scheming the way he was and didn't know much about how the world worked but she wasn't stupid.

She probably was doing fine up there but he needed to know that for himself. Any indication she was alright would do. Anything at all. As long as he knew she had reached her destination, he believed she would be safe.

The ocean was a big place and there was a lot of danger in boat-infested waters. Brennan said he would be able to make her look human once on the surface but what about before then? That was what he was most worried about. He would be able to handle an ongoing lack of contact as long as he knew she reached her destination unharmed.

"Yes but she is still my baby sister. I will always worry about her," Zale muttered.

Beck clapped a hand on his shoulder. "I suppose that is what happens when you care about someone. Still, try and think about something else. The sooner you get your head in the right place, the sooner she will be able to come home."

He was right, of course. Zale needed to pull himself together. His plan was coming along and he couldn't lose sight of that because he was worried.

He had continued wearing his ridiculous surface-item jewelry to the last couple of parties and the idea seemed to be sinking in that there was too much of it in the ocean. He had seen a few of the less frivolous nobles seem concerned.

To his surprise, Aila had ended up helping him out. She wore that necklace he gave her to both parties since.

Merfolk may regard him as the idiot prince but he was still someone of minor influence in high society. Her choice to do that made some of the nobles want such items for themselves after he had bothered giving a gift to someone else.

The influence of the jewelry was spreading. He was willing to bet it wouldn't be much longer now before someone bothered bringing up the issue with the merking. And be summarily ignored, as everyone else who had done it over the years had been. That was when he would be able to put the next part of his plan into action.

Zale had to cast doubt on both the merking's and Merrick's competency. Then when he swooped in to conduct his coup and showed he actually cared about issues affecting the ocean that should cancel out his old image as an idiot.

The problem was that he hadn't figured out how to get rid of them yet without resorting to straight-up murder. The nobles wouldn't stand for that.

If he truly wished to, he could kill everyone who stood in his way and speed up the process. But then the citizens would live in fear of him and he didn't want that. Talori wouldn't want him to do that either so he had to do this the hard way. The legal way.

He needed to get rid of the rest of the royal family the same way the merqueen had gotten rid of his mother. Under the guise of it being the right thing to do. He hated sinking to his enemy's level but he had no other choice.

"What are you thinking about?" Beck asked, noting Zale's furrowed brow.

"Our plans. The first part is coming along nicely but beyond that I'm at a loss," he admitted.

"…as am I. It would be helpful if we had more information on the inner workings of the main palace but we would need better spies for that."

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Obviously they had spies there already. The problem was that they weren't very high-ranked servants so they didn't have as much access to the merqueen, king, or crown prince as necessary.

There was nothing they could do about that short of killing off some of the higher-ranked servants so others could take their places but even that was a gamble. There was no guarantee that the merfolk they wanted would be chosen for the positions.

"Why is this so frustrating?" Zale growled.

"I wish I knew what to tell you," Beck replied as blankly as usual. "Perhaps we will be able to get some information at the party tonight."

"I highly doubt it but keep an eye on them for me, will you? There isn't a merman alive more observant than you."

"Except perhaps you."

"Perhaps. We're quite a pair, aren't we?"

"Indeed. That is why I believe we will be able to pull this off. Even if you are being more pessimistic than usual because of your current lack of focus."

Zale found that he couldn't retort. The problem WAS that he was distracted rather than unmotivated. How could he not be motivated when doing this was the only way to get Talori back home?

Beck knew him too well. He may be a merman of few words but he was always capable of cutting through to the heart of the matter when necessary. He knew the right things to say every time. Zale didn't know what he would do without him.

"You know how much I appreciate you, don't you?" he asked suddenly.

Beck nearly smiled. "Now look who is getting disgustingly sentimental. Save your sentimentality for the princess."

Zale let out a laugh. "I suppose that's fair. What do you look forward to most about this all being over? For me it's between being at peace for avenging my mother and having the life Tali and I had stolen from us."

"Seeing you and the princess be happy."

"Really?"

"Yes. That is all I have ever wanted."

There he went being disgustingly sentimental again. Zale supposed it made sense considering he was all Beck had. His mother had been killed by humans when he was young and his father died the same way decades later while escorting another princess to a different merfolk settlement to be married.

He had loved his father and looked up to him, wanting to become the kind of royal guard he was someday. His father didn't live long enough to see exactly how strong he had become.

It was the only time Zale had ever seen Beck cry. Even then his facial expression didn't change. At the funeral he stood there silently with tears streaming from his eyes without so much as twitching.

Afterward, once no one around was watching, Zale had put his hands on his personal guard's shoulders and looked at him seriously. "You'll make your father proud. I know you will."

Beck said nothing but nodded, a few more tears escaping. After that he threw himself even more devotedly into becoming the best possible guard for his prince. And he had been.

When Zale's mother was killed and he wanted revenge against the merking Beck was immediately onboard. The first one who was willing to work with him. It took them quite some time to recruit any others and then it was only because of Beck's reputation. Everyone else had believed Zale was the idiot he pretended to be until they listened to him.

Beck was irreplaceable. He always had Zale's back and vice versa.

They were sworn brothers. Nothing could ever break that bond even if they didn't talk about it much.

Zale was to Beck what Talori was to Zale so it wasn't surprising that he would care so much about their happiness even if he and Talori weren't close. Zale cared about her so Beck cared about her too.

Feeling unaccountably cheered up, Zale tapped his friend on the back with his tail. "If the others knew how sentimental you are, they would never shut up about it."

"They would also never believe you," Beck replied, unbothered.

He had a point. It wasn't as if Zale truly planned to tell them anyway. Beck's emotions, so often completely hidden behind his stony face, were his business.. He just wanted to give his friend a hard time to return the favor for earlier.

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