The Rising

by Kristen Ashley

  “I do, but you don’t know who I am,” he returned.

  “You do not understand my meaning,” Mars said slowly. “When I say, you do know who I am, my meaning is, I am her husband.”

  The silver-eyed man fell silent, with that, Mars suspected, understanding his meaning.

  “You share blood,” Mars bit.

  “Yes,” the man grunted.

  “And you know she exists,” Mars continued.

  “Yes,” the man replied.

  Mars felt blood roar in his ears and watched the man’s eyebrows go up when, Mars knew, he caught the flames in Mars’s eyes.

  “And you and yours left her to neglect and abuse?” he whispered sinisterly.

  The man took a step back as if Mars had delivered a physical blow.

  “Neglect and abuse?” he whispered back.

  But achingly.

  At that, Mars fell silent.

  “What’s happening?” True, at his side, demanded to know.

  Mars turned to him.

  “Johan of the Arbor is not Silence’s father. He cannot sire a child, but desired one, so he sent Vanka out to lie with someone for the purpose of conceiving.” He ignored True’s expression assuming a look of shock before it melted to anger and turned back to the man. “Your father? Uncle?”

  “Father,” the man said low.

  He turned back to True. “His father is Silence’s sire.”

  True instantly looked to the man and demanded furiously, “And why is he not here?”

  “He has passed,” the man answered. “And before I endure any more of your ire, I did not know, and he did not know, we had blood on land until I heard reports the new Queen of Firenze had silver eyes.”

  “On land?” Frey asked.

  The man looked to Aramus.

  Aramus nodded with what appeared to be encouragement.

  The man looked to Mars.

  “I am Jorie. King of the Mer,” he declared.

  The air in the room went static.

  Mer?

  Fucking hell.

  Aramus’s voice cut through it as he asked carefully, “Mars, does Silence know she’s a mermaid?”

  Her advanced hearing.

  Her shadow.

  Were these Mer traits?

  He did not ask that.

  He answered tersely, “No.”

  Aramus took in a visibly deep breath and let it out.

  “She is a Princess of the Mer,” Jorie said.

  “She is the Queen of Firenze,” Mars returned.

  “I am not your enemy,” Jorie replied. “I am, in the now, solely a brother who seeks an introduction to his sister.” He took a step toward Mars, stopped, and finished, “I have no siblings. My mother and father tried…”

  He didn’t finish.

  “Mine as well,” Mars grunted.

  “Without fortune?” Jorie asked.

  “I had a sister, she passed,” Mars shared.

  “My mother died in the trying.”

  Mars felt a vein throb in his temple.

  “What would you do for a sister?” Jorie queried quietly.

  “Find one, grow up beside her, then marry her to one of the finest men in all realms,” Mars replied, jerking his head to True.

  Jorie glanced at True before saying to Mars, “I don’t understand.”

  “It will undoubtedly be explained eventually,” Mars muttered. “For the now,” he did not mutter, but he did take a deep breath before he concluded, “It is time to meet your sister.”

  “Mars,” True said low.

  He looked to his friend. “She would wish this.”

  “I urge you to think of all that has happened in the last days, with her a part of it, and know she must now withstand this.”

  “She has a silver soul, my brother. It is bendable, but it very rarely breaks,” Mars returned. “You treat her with care, which I respect, and I am grateful for. But she is much stronger than you think.”

  True held his gaze before he nodded, but he did so still communicating he did not like it.

  “I would know…”

  Both men turned to Jorie at hearing his voice.

  “What you meant by abuse and neglect,” he said to Mars.

  “This man, at my side, until she met me, is the only man in her life that has shown her love and affection,” Mars explained.

  Jorie’s eyes cut to True.

  “She had but one friend,” Mars went on, and Jorie looked back to him. “Her maid. Until she met the women in the other room.”

  Jorie’s face grew hard.

  “She was an outcast in her own home,” Mars continued. “The man who raised her knew she was not of his blood, and treated her thus, even if she did not understand it. Though she knows it now. Regardless, he is of an ilk, if she was his blood, it would likely not be much better.”

  Jorie’s voice was rumbling when he stated, “I would meet this man and have words.”

  And it was at that, Mars finally fully calmed.

  “That is not your duty.”

  “I am her brother.”

  “And I am her husband and I’m seeing to it.”

  “How?” Jorie demanded.

  “How else when my wife would be upset if I cut his throat?” Mars asked. “I’m taking away everything he holds dear and leaving him with nothing.”

  Jorie studied him a moment before he muttered, “I approve of this.”

  Mars didn’t much care.

  “Would you like to meet Silence?” he asked.

  “Why in the seas did they name her Silence?” Jorie queried in return.

  “I do not know and care even less. But there is great calm and beauty in Silence, both the absence of noise and the uniqueness of my wife.”

  Jorie’s eyes narrowed on him before he noted, “It is my understanding your marriage was arranged.”

  “Yes, it was, thank the gods,” Mars muttered.

  “You are keen on her,” Jorie observed.

  “No, I love her.”

  Jorie smiled largely. “This brings me great gladness.”

  “That’s all well and good, now would you like to meet her?” Mars demanded.

  Jorie’s body locked for a brief moment before he turned to Aramus and asked, “Why am I suddenly filled with unease?”

  “Because her husband is maniacally protective?” Aramus asked in return.

  “Tell me you would not do the same for Ha-Lah,” Mars clipped.

  Aramus grinned at him before he looked to Jorie.

  “You feel unease, my man, because she is your sister and you wish her to like you.” Aramus clapped him on the shoulder. “She is reserved of character, but warm of heart. And when you have a place in hers, as my wife has attested to you, her affection knows no limits.” He squeezed Jorie’s shoulder and dropped his voice. “Now, go. Meet your sister.”

  Jorie nodded to Aramus, to Mars, looked to the room and turned to the door.

  As Mars moved to follow him, True stopped him.

  “I would be there, True,” Mars said impatiently.

  “Silence is a mermaid,” True whispered, fear bleak at the backs of his eyes.

  With all that just occurred, Mars had not fully taken that in.

  He did now.

  By muttering, “Fuck.”

  “The Mer are…they have not been treated at all well, as you know, Mars,” True went on. “And Silence…” He shook his head “I’m protective, yes. But this is a great deal for her to take in.”

  “No one will harm her.”

  “If known, she will be a curiosity.”

  “No one. Will. Harm her.”

  True nodded but said, “I believe you, but I urge you to ask her brother not to share all and control the flow of information. In other words, slow it.”

  “Gods, you’re an overbearing brother,” Mars muttered.

  True reared back in affront. “Pardon?”

  “My queen rained fire on traitors but days ago, True. She has a soul of silver. A heart o
f gold. A candied mouth. A cunning mind. And a spine of steel. I know you don’t underestimate her. What you must come to understand is, she is now a woman, a wife, a queen, and will, when things calm, be a mother. Allow her to grow up.”

  “I have,” True clipped. “Of course I have.”

  “She is no longer in their clutches, my brother,” Mars said quietly. “She is amongst those who love and respect her. You do not have to twist yourself into knots to be all to her in the limited time you have with her. Protect her from every hurt you can manage. In another time, I will express my gratitude to you for looking after her as best you could since her birth. In the now, just know, she is loved.”

  Mars watched True swallow as he allowed Mars’s words to penetrate.

  He then watched his brother nod.

  After that, he clapped him on the arm.

  And then both of the men who loved Silence Laches the most in her life made haste to introduce her to her brother.

  Queen Silence

  Parapets, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

  AIREN

  “They loiter,” my brother—my brother—muttered.

  I looked from my view of studying his handsome profile as he leaned forward against the railings, gazing from the ramparts to the night lights of Sky Bay, to where Mars and True stood, ostensibly talking, undoubtedly listening, some five feet away.

  “My husband and my cousin tend to think I must be looked after.”

  “They are correct,” he stated, turning his head to me.

  I lifted my chin. “I am woman, but I am not powerless or stupid.”

  “Do you look after your husband?” he asked.

  “Of course,” I stated tartly.

  He grinned and became all the more handsome. “You do know, if you love someone, that automatically happens. You look after them.”

  “Oh,” I mumbled and turned to the Bay.

  “You have great beauty. My father would be proud he had a hand in creating that,” he declared.

  Slowly, I closed my eyes.

  I had known him but hours, and already, he told me I was beautiful.

  I had known my father all my years, and he’d never said such.

  “My sister,” he called gently.

  I opened my eyes.

  “Thank you,” I whispered. “And you are most handsome, and please know I do not say that only to return the compliment.”

  “You appeared in pain a moment ago.”

  I turned my head to see his silver eyes, my silver eyes, gazing at me.

  “I hope you never know how it feels to have mostly nothing, and then be given everything. It’s most overwhelming.”

  “My sister,” he said, his tone edged in distress.

  “Let us not dwell on these things,” I suggested. “Can I ask you questions?”

  He twisted his upper body toward me, leaning on an elbow on the railing, and answered, “Anything.”

  “If I am a mermaid, and you a mermale, why do we both have legs?”

  “You are on land,” he said. “When you are in the sea, the salt sea, my sister, you will transform.” His face turned severe. “Though you will not do that unless you have myself or Ha-Lah with you. I do not know a single Mer who has lived their life unknowing they are Mer. But I know babes must learn to use their fins. I will not have you drop to the bottom of the sea your first time as who you truly are.”

  “Oh faith, that would be terrible,” I muttered.

  “You can breathe under the sea, Silence. Gills will form on your neck if you are out in the depths when you duck underwater.”

  “Oh,” I whispered.

  He smiled at me. “You have aunts and you have cousins and they will be most delighted to meet you. We lost my father, and we grieve. Having you is like having a part of him back.”

  “I…I…that is a lovely thing to say. Erm, how long has he been gone?”

  “Naught but a year.”

  Naught but a year.

  My father, my true father, had been gone naught but a year.

  “I missed him by a year,” I whispered.

  “Yes.”

  We held each other’s gazes.

  Jorie broke our silence.

  “You have his eyes. And you have his nose. And you have my grandmother’s stature.” He leaned toward me and winked. “She too, was wee.”

  She was wee.

  The knowledge I’d never meet my real father, and so many things about me I didn’t understand explained, Jorie’s seeking of me, his handsomeness, his wink, his existence, I could not cope.

  “I am sorry, Jorie, but I…” I looked this way and that, then began to wave my hand in front of my face before I mumbled, “may need to freshen…”

  “By the sea beasts,” he muttered and pulled me into his arms.

  They felt strong about me and he smelled fresh and salty and lovely.

  I pressed my cheek to his chest, carefully wrapped my arms around his trim waist, and took in deep breaths.

  “You may weep,” he offered. “I have two female cousins. They get their hearts broken on a regular basis. My chest is their favorite cushion to absorb their tears. In other words, I have much practice.”

  He was the kind of male who allowed his cousins to use his chest to absorb their tears.

  I emitted a strange hiccup that made me squeeze him with my arms.

  His arms squeezed back.

  I closed my eyes tight.

  “I want to swim in the sea with you,” I whispered.

  “I cannot wait to take you there,” he whispered back.

  “I want to see your home,” I told him.

  “I hope you find it beautiful,” he told me.

  “I want you to see my home, Catrame Palace, it is lovely.”

  “I will journey there.”

  “I was always a princess, wasn’t I?”

  “Yes, but now you are queen.”

  “But I was always a princess, wasn’t I?”

  Jorie fell silent, as if understanding his answer had grave import, and thus he must consider it carefully.

  He then said, “He would have spoiled you, his love for you would have been so great, giving you your every heart’s desire. And I would have thought you were an awful brat. You would probably steal my dolphin friends and charm octopi, which are surly, which would make me jealous so I would have had to play tricks on you to get mine back. But now I am jealous of the men down the ramparts, especially your True. For he loiters there, due to the history of the love he has for you. And I find myself needing to build it new. For even if you grew up a terrible brat, you would be my sister, my princess, thus you would have my love. And the only heart I can take in not knowing you until now, is that even far apart, you always were.”

  Another hiccup came, lurching my body as I gave forth a little sob.

  “You have made her cry,” True accused, suddenly, so True, right there.

  “True,” Mars murmured low.

  “I’ve got her,” Jorie said.

  I peeked to my cousin through spiky eyelashes, but I moved not another inch of my body.

  “He has me, True,” I whispered.

  “True,” Mars said again.

  True glowered at me.

  “And I’ll always have you,” I went on.

  Only that made his face soften.

  He nodded, then moved away.

  I sniffled.

  My brother held me.

  I sniffled again.

  He continued to hold me.

  Then I asked, “Can we go swimming soon?”

  I heard his smile in the single word he spoke.

  “Absolutely.”

  133

  The Adrift

  Jellan

  Easternmost Edge, Argyll Forest

  AIREN

  They were lost.

  He knew it.

  Daemon just would not admit it.

  And Jellan was loath to approach him about it, considering the fact he did not wish to know what response the creat
ure would have to such a discussion.

  Marian did not seem to have trouble with meandering aimlessly, seemingly cast adrift.

  She also didn’t seem to have trouble going head to head with him, Jellan had noted. She had not changed her manner in regards to the Beast at all.

  And for all intents and purposes, considering he’d been utilizing obsequiousness from the beginning, Jellan hadn’t either.

  It just chafed, raw, watching those two together.

  Along their meandering, Daemon had stolen not only clothes and food, warm, woolen blankets and some twine and tarp for a makeshift tent, but the steeds they now rode.

  However, he’d only stolen two, for Daemon rode with Marian tucked close to his front and they whispered together as they journeyed.

  Though there was no whispering when they fucked under the tarp at night.

  Jellan did not like it.

  Not any of it.

  Not one bit.

  He further did not like it that the creature seemed to listen to Marian. Take her advice.

  Jellan would not admit it was good advice, say, sharing with Daemon that he might not wish to leave a string of bodies in their wake. Not after what they had left behind at the Ancient Ritual Grounds. What Daemon had done to that family at that farm. Telling him that all of that would eventually be found, and questions would be asked, and they would be sought, and they didn’t need to leave a trail to make it easy to find them.

  Daemon had, rightly, argued it mattered not if they found them as he had much power, so let them find them.

  “You have work to do, do you not?” she’d queried cuttingly, causing Daemon to look chastened. “Do you wish to delay in that by having to murder investigating constables or angry townspeople? Only in doing so, having more seek you, causing further delays?”

  Daemon had seen the wisdom of this and thus his short killing spree had ended.

  Which was what Jellan suspected Marian wished.

  And Jellan had further suspicions Marian wished them to be lost.

  Indeed, with some of the routes Daemon selected (about which, Jellan was not finding it surprising, Marian gave no guidance), that took them nowhere, he suspected she was making them lost.

  For, as the days passed, even though it was clear Daemon was seeking something, and it was clear she still had his ear and he listened to her, she did not make that first effort to discover what he wished to find or where he wished to go which meant she did not put herself in a place where she would need to assist him in getting there.