Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 164: The Royal Flush

"Target locked," Chancellor Crustar squeaked over the magi-speaker. "Please do not make me do this, Your Majesty. My claw is cramping from the stress!" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

On the city walls of Sunless City, the massive coral cannons began to glow with angry red mana. They were aimed directly at the Bubble-Whale.

Caspian stared at the cannons. He knew those weapons. He had designed the targeting system himself during his moody teenage years. They didn’t miss.

"Abort," Caspian cursed. "Take us down!"

He slammed the butt of his trident against the floor of the whale.

The Bubble-Whale groaned (a sound like a cello being bowed underwater) and dove sharply, narrowly dodging a blast of superheated red plasma that boiled the water where they had just been floating.

"Whoa!" Vali cheered, pressing his face against the translucent wall. "Laser tag!"

"Not laser tag!" Primrose yelled, grabbing Silas to keep him from sliding off the bench. "That was death! We almost died!"

Rajah growled, his hand on his sword. "Turn around, Fish King! We can take them! I’ll punch the wall!"

"You cannot punch a magical forcefield underwater," Cassian sighed, adjusting his cufflinks. "The physics are against you. We need a breach point."

The whale banked hard, gliding into the shadows of a massive underwater canyon, hiding from the city’s searchlights.

Caspian guided the whale to the backside of the city, where the gleaming pearl towers gave way to dark, industrial pipes jutting out of the bedrock.

"There," Caspian pointed to a large, rusted grate covered in barnacles. "The secondary service entrance."

Jasper squinted at it. He pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and covered his nose.

"That is a sewer pipe," Jasper stated flatly.

"It is the thermal exhaust and waste disposal filtration system," Caspian corrected with dignity.

"It’s the poop chute," Rurik laughed. "The King is taking us through the poop chute!"

"It is the only entrance not covered by the Defense Grid," Caspian snapped. "Do you want to save the world, or do you want to complain about the smell?"

Orion floated up in his personal water bubble. "Father, this is humiliating. I am a Prince. I should enter through the Golden Gate, not the... sludge pipe."

"Character building," Caspian muttered. "Everyone brace yourselves. The whale won’t fit. We have to transfer to individual bubbles."

Ten minutes later, the Dignified Warlords of the Surface were squeezing themselves into a rusted pipe, protected only by personal air-bubbles Caspian had cast around their heads.

The water inside the pipe was... murky.

"Don’t touch the walls," Jax warned, swimming awkwardly with a dog-paddle. "I think that moss just moved."

"It’s not moss," Luna whispered, clutching her skirt. "It’s sea-slugs."

"Ew, ew, ew," Clover chanted, clinging to Vali’s back.

Vali, surprisingly, was having a great time. He was swimming like a torpedo, chasing glowing bugs.

The pipe narrowed.

"Tight squeeze ahead!" Caspian called from the front. "Suck in your guts!"

Caspian glided through. Primrose followed. The kids wriggled through easily.

Then came Rurik.

The Wolf Lord was massive. He had shoulders like boulders and muscles on his muscles. He tried to force his way through the narrow opening.

GRIND.

He stopped.

"Push!" Rurik grunted, kicking his legs.

"I am pushing!" Rajah growled from behind him. "You are too wide! Stop eating so many steaks!"

"It’s muscle density!" Rurik argued, his face turning red inside his bubble. "I am stuck! Get the butter! Do we have butter?"

"We are underwater!" Cassian yelled from the back of the line. "Use the hydro-dynamics! Caspian, flush the pipe!"

"I can’t just flush—" Caspian started.

"FLUSH IT!" Rurik roared as a sea-slug started crawling on his boot.

Caspian sighed. He swirled his trident.

Hydro-Kinetic Art: Riptide Boost.

A surge of high-pressure water blasted down the pipe.

POP.

Rurik dislodged like a cork from a champagne bottle. He shot forward, screaming, crashing into Rajah, who crashed into Jax, creating a pile-up of limbs and bubbles.

They tumbled out of the pipe and landed in a heap on a cold, stone floor.

"Ouch," Primrose groaned, untangling her arm from Rurik’s cape. "Is everyone alive?"

"I think I swallowed a snail," Jax coughed, looking traumatized.

They looked around. They were in a dark, cavernous room filled with steam and the smell of brine.

"The Royal Kitchens," Caspian whispered. "Keep your heads down. If the staff sees us, they’ll trigger the alarm."

They crept through the kitchen, hiding behind massive cauldrons of boiling crab soup.

Vali stopped. He stared at a tank full of live lobsters.

The lobsters stared back.

"Free them," Vali whispered to Silas. "We must liberate the snacks."

"No," Silas whispered back. "Focus on the mission."

They reached the heavy double doors leading to the main palace. Caspian pressed his ear against the wood.

"The Throne Room is just down the Hall of Corals," Caspian murmured. "Morana will be there. We have to surprise her."

"Surprise her how?" Leonora asked, checking her sword. "By stabbing?"

"By diplomacy," Primrose corrected, adjusting her dress (which was now damp and smelled of exhaust). "Remember the plan. I’m the Ambassador. You are my... very scary bodyguards."

The group marched down the hallway. Guards turned to look at them, but Rajah growled so ferociously that the Mermen dropped their spears and swam away in terror.

They reached the massive pearl doors of the Throne Room.

"Ready?" Caspian asked. He looked terrified.

"Ready," Primrose lied.

Rurik kicked the doors open.

BOOM.

"Knock knock!" Rurik shouted.

The group stormed in.

The Throne Room was magnificent. Walls of translucent crystal revealed the deep ocean outside. The floor was made of polished abalone shell.

And sitting on the Coral Throne, looking utterly bored, was Queen Dowager Morana.

She hadn’t changed much since Primrose last saw her. She was still a terrifyingly beautiful Sea Snake-kin with a long, coiled black tail and a headdress made of venomous spines.

She didn’t look surprised. She was sipping tea from a delicate kelp-cup.

"You’re late," Morana said, her voice smooth and cold. "I expected you ten minutes ago. The exhaust pipe is the obvious weakness in the architecture. I really must have that fixed."

Caspian stepped forward, his trident glowing.

"Mother," Caspian said stiffly. "We need to talk."

"You smell of sludge," Morana noted, wrinkling her nose. "And you brought the land-circus with you."

Her eyes slid over the Warlords—Rajah, Rurik, Lucien, Cassian. She didn’t flinch.

Then, her gaze landed on Primrose.

Primrose straightened her back. She fluffed her Five Tails (White, Silver, Gold, Green, and Violet). She tried to look like a dignified Fox Spirit and not a woman who had just crawled through a sewer.

"Ambassador," Morana sneered. "I see you have grown more... extremities. Do you shed everywhere now?"

"Hello, Your Majesty," Primrose said sweetly. "Lovely to see you. We didn’t bring a gift, but we did bring the impending apocalypse. Can we discuss that?"

Morana set her cup down. The sound echoed like a gunshot in the silent room.

"You broke into my city," Morana listed. "You defied my lockdown. You dragged the Crown Prince through a waste pipe."

She stood up. She was tall—easily seven feet including her tail.

"I should have you executed for treason, Caspian."

"The Ocean is dying!" Caspian shouted, pointing at the window where the black water was visible in the distance. "The Void is here! We need access to the Deep Trenches to find the Heart. If you stop us, you doom us all!"

Morana glided down the steps of the dais. She circled them like a shark.

"I know the Void is here," Morana said quietly. "I am not blind, boy. But I do not trust you to save us."

She stopped in front of Primrose. She leaned down, her face inches from Primrose’s nose.

"And I certainly do not trust the blood of the Thief."

Primrose held her breath. She knows. How does she know?

"You want to become a part of this household?" Morana asked.

"Yes," Primrose said firmly. Ah... she thinks Caspian favors me... she isn’t wrong though.

"Then prove you are worth it," Morana hissed.

She clapped her hands.

Servants swam in, carrying a low table and two cushions. On the table was a teapot made of black obsidian and two cups.

"A duel?" Rurik asked, reaching for his axe. "I like duels."

"Not that kind of duel, barbarian," Morana scoffed.

She looked at Primrose.

"The Rite of the Black Pearl."

Caspian gasped. "No. Mother, that is insane. She is land-born! She cannot handle the toxicity!"

"What is it?" Primrose asked, looking at the teapot.

"It is a Tea Ceremony," Cassian analyzed, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses. "But the tea is brewed from the venom of the abyssal trenches. It is a test of spiritual fortitude and mana control. If you drink it and live, the Ocean accepts you. If you are weak..."

"You melt," Morana finished with a smile.

She sat down on one of the cushions. She poured two cups. The liquid was purple and bubbling.

"You claim to be an Ambassador of the Warlords," Morana said. "You claim to be worthy of my son. And you carry the tails of a Spirit."

She pushed a cup toward the empty cushion.

"Drink with me, Fox. If you survive three cups, I will open the gates. If you die... well, at least you won’t shed on my floor anymore."

The room went silent.

Vali tugged on Primrose’s dress. "Don’t drink it, Auntie Prim! It smells like Dad’s socks!"

Caspian grabbed her arm. "Primrose, don’t. We can fight our way out. We don’t have to do this."

Primrose looked at the bubbling poison. She looked at Morana’s smug face.

She remembered the Void. She remembered the darkness eating her. She remembered how she survived by adapting, not fighting.

She had the Violet Tail now. The tail of Shadows and Poison Resistance (probably? Hopefully?).

Primrose gently removed Caspian’s hand.

She walked over to the table and sat down. She smoothed her skirt.

She picked up the cup. It was hot.

"Three cups?" Primrose asked, looking Morana in the eye.

"Three," Morana agreed, her eyes gleaming.

Primrose smiled.

"Make it a pot," Primrose said. "I’m thirsty."

She tipped the cup back and drank.