Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 by Galvin, Aaron (read 50 shades of grey .TXT) 📕

The king’s smile broadened. “Why are you looking to him, Sydney? Might it be, perhaps, that you wonder which lie to spin for me even now?” He cocked an eyebrow. “Or perhaps you wonder to which of us does Rupert’s true loyalty align?”

Sydney looked to him for any kind of sign. Rupert . . .

The only thing she saw in him then was a stony-face, devoid of any sentiment for her predicament.

The king called her attention. “Sydney . . . answer me.”

Sydney took a deep breath of Salt, exhaling through her gills before speaking. Rupert was worried about me, she said. And he was curious about Jun too. The rumors that . . . She glanced at her shark tail. He wanted to know if the rumors might be true.

The king tsked. “And you lied to him . . .”

Sydney looked beyond the king, her cheeks flushing as she stared into Rupert’s eyes. I did, she admitted. Only because I didn’t know what to do, or say. I was just happy to see my friend.

Rupert diverted his attention when Sydney’s voice broke, but he gave her no verbal reply.

The king sighed. “Yes, I’m sure you were quite eager to see Rupert there to stand between you and the Orcs. Say rather, to stop them from bringing you to face the shame and lies as you and your mother have furthered.” He waltzed around the tank. “And yet the Blackfin tells me he was on hand to hear you make a request of Rupert before the end of your conversation. Tell me true, Sydney, what favor did you ask of your good friend in that final moment, earlier today?”

He knows. Sydney shuddered at the implying tone from the king. But how much?

Rupert stared back at her with emptiness in his eyes.

I asked him to check on Roselani, the seahorse you gave me . . ., Sydney answered the king, opting for a half-truth to shield the hidden message within. I wanted him to tell Roselani how much I missed her . . . and how I wished that I could see her again.

The king turned to look on Rupert too. “Well? Was that the way of it? Is Sydney telling us the truth?”

“In part, aye,” said Rupert flatly, his gaze never breaking from Sydney’s. Almost as if he needed to see the hurt in her eyes as he betrayed her secret. “What she is not saying, Your Grace, is that Sydney also asked me to find a friend of hers and pass along a message to him. I think she used the seahorse as a ploy of her intended message for the Blackfin to hear. What she really meant was for me to understand the truer message to pass onto her secret friend.”

Sydney’s eyes narrowed. What are you doing, Rupert? Why are you telling him?

The king chuckled at the obvious disjoint between them. “A friend, you say?” Darius asked Rupert. “And did she give you his name, Master Bowrider?”

“She did, Your Grace,” said Rupert, his face darkening. “The brother of her former guardian. His name is Quill.”

Sydney sank inside her tank. Why are you doing this, Rupert?

Darius was coming back round the tank to confront Rupert too. “And did you find him?” He asked. “Have you discovered where Quill and his motley gang of sycophants and thieves are hiding?”

“Not yet, Your Grace,” said Rupert. “But I will do. My soldiers scour the city for him and his allies even as we speak.”

Sydney found some hope there. You won’t find him. She thought. If Quill survived the attack on Catcher’s Corner, he won’t be so foolish as to fall for any tricks with a Merrow lordling.

“How, then?” The king asked Rupert. “What makes you so certain that you can find him?”

“Because I won’t go searching for him,” said Rupert, his lip curling the longer he looked on Sydney. “If the rumors concerning Quill and his character are true, Your Grace, then the people protect him. They hide him in plain sight, just as they did for his sister and Sydney too.”

Aye, they do, Sydney thought to herself. And you’ll never find him. The only reason the Blackfin found us before was because of my stupid mistake.

The king scratched at his cheeks. “How then do you hope to draw him out?” he asked of Rupert.

“By passing the message along through another of Sydney’s friends,” said Rupert. “The people may protect Quill, but I doubt many will share the same affection for a Silkie runner with a generous royal bounty placed upon her head.”

Fear and doubt clutched at Sydney’s heart, then, the icy touch of both squeezing in equal measure.

“Silkie?” the king asked.

“Aye, Your Grace,” said Rupert to the king, even as his glare lingered on Sydney in her tank. “I’ll seek out the queen’s loyal subject and Sydney’s former handmaiden . . . a Silkie who wears a Southern Elephant Seal coat to match her brutish size. Her name is Ellie.”

Sydney fought off the welling in her eyes. No. Not Ellie too . . .

The king scratched his head. “What makes you believe this Silkie will have ties to Quill, or that she will know where to find him?”

“I don’t know for certain,” said Rupert. “But the queen gave the Silkie her freedom and ensured that she was given a high place at Sydney’s side. I imagine the queen positioned this Silkie brute as a spy, more than like. One well placed to move about the castle of her own free will, Your Grace, and all to do your wife’s bidding. I might add that Ellie also miraculously disappeared less than a few hours before you ordered the queen taken into custody. And, the next morning, the queen had arranged for another loyalist of hers to kidnap Sydney inside the stables before secreting her away.” Rupert shook his head. “There is too much coincidence there for my liking, Your Grace. If I cannot locate the savage, Quill, then I