Return to Atlantis: a Fantasy Romance (Kingdom in the Sea Book 1)

by Vivienne Savage

  6

  Home is Where the Heart Is

  Kai became aware of three facts when they departed Bermuda Post. First, Manu appeared incapable of stringing together more than four words in a sentence to her. Most of his responses consisted of “Yes, Your Highness,” “No, Your Highness,” and “Of course, Your Highness,” all of which pissed her off even more. Second, an escort of six additional gliders had been ordered to accompany them to Atlantis, one of which carried Amerin. And third, Manu no longer zipped along the ocean bottom faster than light, the glider cruising at a dramatically slower speed. She wondered if the ocean had speed limits, and if he’d been guilty of breaking them before.

  Though Manu had previously predicted they would reach Atlantis, they stopped that evening at another outpost for a refuel, sleeping overnight and resuming travel the next day. During those hours of confinement in the glider with him, Kai wished for Amerin’s conversation again. What a pity that Manu’s glider only seated two people. She’d seen the others, especially the one carrying Amerin, and it held six men. Noro had assigned a damned army to protect her. Considering the tale of her parents’ deaths, it made sense—in a morbid way—that they wouldn’t risk losing their last link to the royal family a second time.

  “How much longer until we reach Atlantis?”

  Dark eyes shifted toward her. “Soon, Your Highness. We are closing in on the city now.” His gaze lingered with the weight of an iron bar, studying her so long she wondered what he thought of her and what he saw when he looked at their admittedly awkward princess. She couldn’t speak their language, didn’t know their ways, and didn’t have a hope of living up to the stories she’d heard about her warrior-queen mother.

  The aquatic craft descended into cloudier depths toward the sand bed at an alarming rate that made her squeeze both armrests and tense in the chair.

  Manu laughed at her, and it was the most genuine reaction she’d seen in him since he shrugged off her calling him a dick. “That isn’t the true ocean floor.”

  “It looks like it,” she muttered. But then she remembered the last illusion.

  “Trust me.” He reached for the dash and flipped a few switches before pressing a button. A gentle red glow lit the display. He uttered a brief phrase in his gorgeous language, and a voice replied, equally brief. The light dimmed.

  They coasted through the illusory sea floor, no different than a plane breaking through a cloud bank. Before she could question it, Atlantis came into view, and she realized her imagination, as well as Amerin’s descriptions, hadn’t done the place justice. The city stretched beyond her sight, as large as any American metropolis but contained beneath an immense glass dome. What was inside reminded her of Bermuda Post. Rocky spires reminiscent of city skyscrapers rose from the actual seabed, the windows of each glowing with blue light. Some of the structures resembled coral growths and others glowed brighter than jellyfish.

  The city’s exterior was a different matter. Green plant life populated the ocean bottom, though there wasn’t an ounce of sun to sustain them. Their verdant boughs still swayed in the current like clusters of aquatic weeping willows lining manicured paths lit by yellow lanterns.

  “What do you think?”

  “It’s breathtaking.”

  “Better than Bermuda?”

  “If you’d asked me yesterday about the most magnificent sight I’ve ever seen, I would have told you Bermuda. Now…” She said nothing more, fixated on the city ahead of them.

  Manu led the procession of underwater vehicles to a gate. They passed through a flooded tunnel beyond the glass shield and emerged on the other side to an enormous port rivaling the docks at Norfolk where her last ship had been stationed. Dozens upon dozens of vessels of varying sizes and shapes floated on the surface—small coral gliders, medium-sized skippers, and enormous things sporting huge guns that reminded her of destroyers. The vast number of them put what she’d seen in Bermuda Post to shame. Noro had been kind enough to describe most of their vehicles and their purposes.

  The assortment of weaponry fascinated her so much it took a while for Kai to notice the welcoming party. A dozen men and women waited on the adjacent pier, clad in attire studded with jewels, shells, and metal embellishments. Most pieces were form-fitting, though a few of the ladies wore flowing lace trains in bold colors attached to their tight bodices or draped from their shoulders like capes.

  A familiar man with hair the warm, rich shade of golden toffee stood at the forefront of the group beside a woman with electric blue braids beneath a jeweled tiara. Something about him stirred her memory, and their body language implied they were together—a couple or possibly even married. Of the entire group, he appeared the most regal, his smile jovial and kind. He spoke to her, though the words were nothing more than beautiful sounds and syllables that all rolled together in a lyrical cadence.

  Manu cleared his throat. “Pardon me, Regent Aegaeon, but she no longer speaks the tongue.”

  Bewilderment spread across the regent’s face. “No longer?”

  “I believe she has spent too long on the surface to recall her high mer roots, my lord. She recalls nothing, as mentioned in my report.”

  “Ah, then you must accept my apologies. We will all speak your surface language until such a time comes that you speak as we do.”

  Low murmurs of agreement rumbled behind him.

  “It is my deep and profound honor to welcome your return to Atlantis, Zephyrine.” He passed his trident to a retainer standing at his side then stepped forward and offered her both hands to her. “I am Aegaeon.”

  Petrified of making the wrong move, Kai took them. “My uncle?”

  He nodded, gaze never leaving her face. “I can’t believe you stand here now. For years, we thought the royal line had been severed. Yet you’re here, alive and strong. But enough of this. You must be exhausted, and there is much work to do now that you’ve been recovered. Please come with me.”

  Lost, Kai allowed Aegaeon to lead her from the pier, leaving Manu and the other arriving gliders behind. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the mer watching from the pier, standing among the many soldiers disembarking from their craft.

  Their gazes held until her uncle took her beyond his line of sight.

  From the moment of her arrival, Kai didn’t receive a second of time to herself aside from a few stolen minutes of freedom in the palace baths once Aegaeon declared her travel garb unfit for meeting with the nobility. After a servant guided her to her private quarters, she soaked for an hour in fragrant water. Then Amerin returned and took a seat on a nearby marble bench, chatting with her about trivial things but reminding Kai too much of Sadie for her to take offense to the intrusion.

  Afterward, she met people. A lot of people. Names blurred in her mind, and faces all began to look the same, no one mer standing apart from the next noble lord and high mer lady. The same questions were on everyone’s tongues: how had the mortals treated her, had she missed home, how had she survived so long on land?

  Hours later, she wanted nothing more than to be left alone after relaying the story of her life on the surface to no fewer than three dozen people and touring the palace.

  She felt like a zoo specimen, an animal to be stared and gawked at, but protected for the sake of conservation behind a glass wall. No one cared that she’d been taken away from a happy life on the surface and people she’d loved very much.

  Lying across the divan in her new quarters, Kai wondered if she’d ever have freedom again. Tomorrow, she was to attend a welcome home feast in her honor organized by Lady Nammu, but no one asked if she wanted it. They assumed, and Amerin had implied it would be unwise to refuse anything offered by Aegaeon’s wife.

  “Princess?” Amerin called from the antechamber.

  Instead of feigning sleep, Kai sighed. “Yes?”

  Amerin paused. “I sense all is not well with you. What may I do to ease your transition?”

  “Nothing.”

  “There must be some
thing.”

  Short of pulling a magical road to Galveston out of her pocket, there wasn’t shit Amerin could do for her. “Nothing’s wrong.”

  Amerin’s bare feet made no noise against the marble floor as she crossed the room. Like Kai, she wore leather leggings beneath a fitted bodice with a flowing lace train, though her garb was far less intricate and had little embroidery, making it plain by comparison. “You lie as poorly now as you did when we were girls.”

  “I don’t remember when we were girls.”

  “I do.” She perched on the edge of the seat. “What was it like on the surface? No—not that shit you told Regent Aegaeon, or the lies you repeated over and over to the Council of Lords. What was it truly like to be with the humans?”

  Kai blinked.

  “What?”

  Curiosity piqued, Kai leaned up on one elbow. “You know swears in English?”

  “Magic is a wonderful thing. Similar words of the same meaning exist in the Atlantian tongue. Besides, I may or may not have met a mortal or two over the years. I’ve traveled and visited the surface.”

  “Then you don’t need me to tell you what humans are like.”

  “Ah, but you are wrong there, Princess Kai. I don’t want to know what all humans are like. I want to know about yours. Will you please tell me about the family who raised you?”

  An immediate answer didn’t come. Kai lay there, gazing at the high ceiling and the colorful crystals dangling from the ornate chandelier. Everything about her personal suite resembled a work of art, from the hanging, hammock-style bed supported by gilded chains, to the balcony overlooking the city below. “They were good to me,” she finally said. “And I miss them so much it hurts.”

  So she told Amerin about Sadie, about the day their mother arrived on the doorstep with this younger child in her arms, with matted brown curls and heat blisters on her feet from walking barefoot on the scorching Texas ground. She’d had bed bug bites all over her arms, legs, and face, some of them infected. Kai had been fourteen then, or so she’d thought, but she’d loved her new little sister on sight and asked how long Sadie would stay with them.

  “Children only stayed with you for a short while?”

  “We were all her foster children once. I was her first, but others always came and went. Sometimes they returned to their mothers and fathers, and sometimes they went to their grandparents or other relatives. We were the two she kept. She has this…enormous and loving heart. There wasn’t a child she didn’t care about and want to save.”

  “She sounds wonderful.”

  Kai eased to a sitting position. “She’s ‘Mom’ to me. She’ll be worried sick about me now and wondering what happened.”

  “I am sorry for your loss. And for theirs.”

  “It isn’t your fault.”

  “Just the same, I am sorry for you, and the mortals who will mourn your disappearance.” Amerin rose and trailed to the door, lingering long enough to bow. “No one will trouble you for the rest of the day, Princess. If you need anything, there is a resonating crystal atop the nightstand table. A tap will summon me to you at once, no matter the hour. Rest well.”

  “Thank you.”

  Amerin shut the door behind her and left the chamber, leaving Kai with deafening silence and heavy thoughts.

  7

  Of Sacrifice and War

  Amerin led Kai down immaculate palace corridors carved from stone to meet her uncle in his personal study. Despite his warm and welcoming greeting three days prior, they hadn’t spoken more than a few words since the grand welcome home feast his wife had thrown, reintroducing Kai to the high mer of the royal court and the Council of Lords.

  He took care of her in other ways, she supposed, by tasking a team of servants with her care. She never went hungry, and Amerin had no shortage of lovely garments in which to dress her. She felt like a pampered doll and missed doing things for herself such as brushing her hair, microwaving a damned pepperoni Hot Pocket on a whim, eating cold Pop Tarts, and picking out her own clothing. She would have killed for denim cut-offs or a tank top that couldn’t pass for studded leather armor.

  “Did he mention what he wants with me?” Kai asked.

  Amerin shook her head. “Only that he and General Lago need to speak with you regarding a matter of supreme importance.”

  General Lago had been absent from the dog and pony show Nammu and the other “esteemed” ladies of the high mer court put together for Kai’s benefit.

  When she entered the room, Aegaeon glanced up from the parchment spread across his desk. Manu stood on one side, and a man of equally impressive shoulder breadth stood on the other, like an older, blonder, and more distinguished model of Manu, with fine silver strands in his blue-streaked hair and beard. Unlike his son, the general was fair-skinned and gray-eyed, but she could see Manu had inherited some of the man’s best traits. It shamed her that she noticed they both had a mouth that looked absolutely kissable.

  Both bowed to her and murmured low welcomes. “Greetings, Princess.”

  Ah, to be sandwiched between those two fine men. Quick as the filthy fantasy came to mind, she banished it from her thoughts, praying no one could secretly read minds. “Hello.”

  Aegaeon smiled. “Good day, Zephyrine. Thank you, Amerin. You’re dismissed.”

  Once Amerin was gone, her uncle gestured with a hand toward the empty seat opposite him, a high-backed chair with ruby velvet stretched over the plump cushion. The rest of his study was pure opulence, not so different from a 1930s British gentleman’s study.

  “Thank you for joining us, Zephyrine. I apologize for how little interaction we’ve had since your arrival.” A tiny tension knot in her chest loosened. “You returned to us during a trying, difficult time for Atlantis. Our forces are overwhelmed, and I’ve been away since your celebration.”

  The rest of her unease faded. His ambivalence toward her hadn’t been caused by resentment after all. “Because of the Gloom?”

  “Yes. You spoke of being a warrior for the surface in the American Navy. How well do you fight?”

  “I can hold my own.” Manu glanced at her, brow raised in unspoken judgment. The Gloombeasts had kicked her ass. Had he not arrived when he did, they would have killed her. “Against humans. I’ve never fought anything like the monsters that came for me on the shore.”

  “Some combat experience is better than none. It is something we can build upon. After all, none of us are born with a weapon in hand,” Aegaeon said, gesturing toward the trident propped against his desk. “But we learn and do what we must to protect this world.”

  The general cleared his throat. When he spoke, it was with a deep timbre that practically rumbled through the room. “Perhaps we should tell her why, my lord. To bring the matter of her training and its importance into perspective.”

  Aegaeon leaned back in his seat and rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking stressed and more tired than she remembered during their initial meeting. “You’re right, as usual. There are many things no one has told you, Zephyrine. We hoped to give you a brief period to adapt to the Atlantian way of life following your years apart from our traditions, but we find ourselves without the luxury. As I said, you arrived during a difficult time. We are a kingdom divided, and your presence may have exacerbated the issue.”

  “I don’t understand. How so?” So far, everyone she’d met, with the exception of Lady Nammu, appeared thrilled by the idea of her potentially claiming the throne.

  “There are mers who do not want a strong and thriving monarchy. They want a government similar to those of the surface world, with your Congress, ministries, branches, and divisions of power. They want votes.”

  Kai raised one brow. “It’s a sensible system. It works for most of us on the surface.”

  “It does; yet during the days of your mother and father we had peace in Atlantis, as well as safety. Queen Ianthe and my dear brother were as much our protectors from the Gloom as they were our monarchs.” He shrugged. “Why should
we change a good thing for an unknown governmental structure that may not be to our benefit? High Priest Hipponax believes you are the answer to our problems. If you return to the throne and lead our forces against the Gloom, the people will understand you are not only worthy of their love, but you are also the only one with the power to defend them from evil and rule this kingdom.”

  “Isn’t that why the Myrmidons exist? They’re the top-dog soldiers of the Royal Army, right?” She’d come to understand them to be supercharged Marines, like Navy SEALs on magic steroids. “Why do you need me?”

  General Lago glanced at her. “No one else can wield the Gift of the Sea. Only a mer of her bloodline can use it to abolish the Gloom. When agents of Calypso killed your mother and father, they knew they would be casting the ocean into vast, unending darkness. In the meantime, we can only halt the spread of their evil and slay individual monsters. We cannot destroy them as a whole or reverse the damage she’s caused.”

  “Calypso?”

  Aegaeon answered in a curt nod. “The queen of deception herself.”

  Kai scoured her memory for everything she knew about Greek mythology. “She’s a nymph, isn’t she?”

  “Was a nymph,” he replied. “Now, I fear she is something different. What do you know of her?”

  “There are stories on the surface, but the one I’m familiar with is that she abducted Odysseus for seven years and forced him to live on her island, refusing to let him leave until Zeus intervened.”

  Her uncle grimaced. Rising from his seat, Aegaeon crossed the room and retrieved a book from a shelf fashioned from polished whale bones. It struck her as both terrible and beautiful at once, an odd juxtaposition to what she’d believed as a conservationist fighting against the slaughter of whales. “That tale is similar to the truth as we know it, though centuries have passed. Calypso has a taste for men who do not belong to her, and once coveted your ancestor.”

  “In the story I know, she claimed the gods despised goddesses having affairs with mortals.”