by C. L. Wilson
Praying that he was right, Dilys scrambled to his feet and raced out of the laboratory and through the library, Gabriella clasped in his arms. When he reached the glass-fronted lobby area, rather than sprinting up the tube and through the palace to reach the surface, he dove for the moon pool. Gabriella wasn’t breathing, so a swift swim directly to the surface couldn’t hurt her any more than drowning already had. And swimming would cut his time to the surface in half.
The moment he hit the water, the webbing between his toes plumped and expanded, giving him additional speed through the liquid environment that was his second home. The massive muscles in his lower body flexed, sending him shooting upwards through the lagoon’s clear waters, towards the shining sunlit warmth of the surface.
“Calbernari!” he shouted in Undersea Tongue as he swam, “To me! On the south palace lawn! The Sirena needs your help!”
He burst from the water like a porpoise, propelling himself through the virtually nonexistent density of the air to land on the soft grass of the manicured palace lawn. He found a spot where no shade blocked the sun’s midday rays and laid Gabriella flat on the ground. The wet cloth of her dress clung to her. He shredded the fabric without a thought. He wasn’t entirely sure how her Summerlander magic worked, but it seemed to him that the more of her skin available to the sun’s direct rays, the better. If he was wrong and she got irate later over the ruination of her gown and the careless way he bared her to the eyes of their people—well, he’d wear a stupid, besotted grin and accept her fury without a peep of protest. Better a live, angry liana than a silent, dead one.
Calbernans were already pouring from the palace and leaping from the waters of the lagoon in response to his call. “She needs magic,” he told the ones who reached him first. “As much as we can offer her. Anyone with a direct emotional connection to her, lay hands on her. The rest of you, network to me or the others. And for the gods’ sake, do not cast your shadow on her. She needs sunlight as much if not more than she needs our magic.” It was afternoon, the sun casting shadows from west to east, so Dilys positioned himself to Gabriella’s right. He began channeling his magic into her, infusing it with all the wild, unfettered love in his heart. A dozen pairs of hands were laid upon him, and power flooded into him and through him to Gabriella.
“Let me through!” The growing throng parted as Ari, hobbling on crutches and scowling ferociously, shoved his way through.
Dilys met his cousin’s eyes and after only a slight hesitation gave a nod of thanks. Ari was wounded, but on the mend. If he considered himself well enough to help, Dilys wasn’t about to refuse his aid. A dozen of the Calbernans who’d accompanied him to Wintercraig joined Dilys and Ari at Gabriella’s side, including Ryll and the young, newly-wedded Talin, with his pretty Summerlander bride by his side. The network of power multiplied exponentially. She absorbed so much power, so quickly, Dilys could only wonder how her slight body could hold it all. Yet she not only soaked up every ounce of energy sent her way, but her body remained thirsty for more.
Physically, emotionally, and magically connected to Gabriella as he was, he could feel the electric pulse of the Calbernans’ selfless gift racing through her veins, igniting the magic in her blood. Her eyes, which had been open, fixed, and glassy, slid shut, her dark lashes curling against her wan cheeks. Hope surged through him. It was the first movement she’d made since he’d reached her.
“That’s it, moa kiri. You can do it.” She still wasn’t breathing on her own, so he covered her mouth with his and blew air into her lungs, careful to keep the myriad broken blood vessels in her chest sealed as he did.
A few seconds later, he felt a slight flutter against his magic. A few seconds after that, the flutter became a more definite push against the seals he’d created to stop her internal bleeding. The sensation felt a bit like a hand impatiently nudging him aside. He pulled back, tentatively releasing a small portion of the blood vessels he was keeping in check. When blood didn’t immediately start pouring from the ruptured vessels, he pulled back a little more. The torn flesh inside her began to knit together. The reparations were slow at first, but began happening with increasing speed as more and more of the damaged tissue began to heal.
Suddenly he wasn’t pushing power into Gabriella anymore. She was pulling it out of him, and through him, out of every person connected to him. Beside him, Ari gasped and arched his back. So did the others whose hands lay upon Summer’s skin. Like a ripple effect, everyone behind them gasped, too.
Dilys tried to move his hands and discovered he couldn’t. They were glued to Gabriella’s flesh. Just as the hands of those touching him were glued to him. Gabriella had seized control of their symbiotic network. Magic raced through them, roaring its way towards her, into her, into the flesh that was now healing and reshaping at a dizzying speed. Her back arched. Her hands clenched into fists. Her skin was so hot it was practically burning Dilys’s palms, but still he couldn’t pull away. His ulumi lit up, burning in his flesh like fire. The light beaming from his tattoos bent in visible arcs to flow like glowing rivers into her body.
Her mouth opened, as if on a soundless scream, and then came the noise he’d been waiting for, praying for. Deep, raspy, raw. A shuddering, painful breath as oxygen-starved lungs dragged air deep. A groan rattled in her throat as the newly formed gill slits along her ribs expelled the water trapped in her equally new sea lungs, then she jackknifed into a sitting position, coughing and gasping for breath. The network linking the Calbernans to Gabriella dissolved.
Tears spilled from Dilys’s eyes, but he didn’t even try to stop them. Instead, he gathered Gabriella close, holding her tight against his chest, muttering incoherent words of love, relief, and prayers of thanks as he pressed kisses into her hair, against her face, her lips, against the soft, fragrant brown skin that was once more so warm and full of life. “Moa kiri. Moa liana. Myerial myerinas. Thank Numahao. Thank Helos. Praise be to all the gods. I thought I had lost you, beloved.”
“I think you almost did.” Her voice was raspy, pitched much deeper than normal. She coughed a little more and hugged him back, her slender arms twining around his chest, her palms flattening against his shoulder blades, holding him tight. “I was dying. If you hadn’t thought to bring me to the surface and into the sunlight, I don’t think I would have made it. You saved me, Dilys.”
He ducked his head. “I did, didn’t I?”
“Yes. I could feel you inside me, when the sun was healing me. I could feel you with me.”
“Yes.” He drew back just enough to smooth back her soft black hair and drink in the sight of her sweet, lovely face with its full lips and thickly lashed eyes that had turned pure, bright gold. He could spend the rest of his life looking at her and never grow tired of the sight.
“I can still feel you there.”
He blinked to clear the tears that were suddenly blurring his vision and nodded. “Yes.”
“We’re connected.” She pressed one hand to her heart and laid her other palm over his. “Here. Inside us both. More than before.”
“Yes.” He caressed the side of her cheek.
“How?”
“I don’t know. The gods, perhaps.” What they shared now was deeper than their claiming bond. It was as if somehow her healing had not only transformed her body, but also their souls, melding the two of them together in a way that could never be undone. “Do you mind?”
She thumbed away the tears still leaking from his eyes and regarded him with a deep, solemn, steady gaze. He recognized that look. It told him Gabriella had discarded her many masks to give him complete, unvarnished honesty. “Ono,” she said. “I don’t mind at all.”
She lifted her mouth to his, and he seized her lips in a passionate kiss, crushing her body against his, loving her so much he’d never known such feelings were possible. It was as if his heart had become a sun, filled with a love so limitless and strong it could light the whole world. He was hers, utterly and completely, body, heart, and soul.<
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“I adore you, Gabriella Aretta Rosadora Liliana Elaine Coruscate.”
“Merimydion,” she murmured, pulling his head back down for more kissing.
He obliged her—gladly—but when they pulled apart again to gasp for air, he shook his head and corrected her. “Ono. You are a Siren, the first of your House. I am Dilys Coruscate now, as is fitting for a mated and claimed male.”
“Ah, but I am an oulani, wed to an imlani prince of a royal House. I am therefore a daughter of House Merimydion.”
“But by the grace of Numahao, you are oulani no longer. For no oulani I know has ever developed these.” He ran his fingers lightly over the almost imperceptible lines of the new, sealed gill slits along her ribs.
Gabriella glanced down in astonishment. “Are those . . . do I have . . . gills?”
“Tey. Do you mind?”
“I don’t know. Do you think they work?”
“Tey. Now that the transformation is complete, I think they will work as well as any Calbernan’s.”
“Gills.” She blinked and ran her fingers over them. “Biross . . . when he was dying after willing his lifeforce into me, he prayed for Numahao to save me. To save her daughter. Do you think . . . ?”
He smiled, ignoring the tears spilled from his eyes. “If anyone could grant a Siren sea lungs, it would be the goddess of all waters. Praise Numahao.”
“Thanks be to all the gods, but especially Numahao and Helos.” Then she suddenly went stiff in his arms. “Dilys,” she said, her voice low but vibrating with urgency.
He bent closer, surrounding her body with his in an instinctive gesture of protection. The tone of her voice set him instantly alert. His battle claws unsheathed, sharp and ready to rend. “What is it?”
She hunched into him, moving deeper into the protection of his arms. Then in a move that couldn’t have been comfortable, she craned her neck way back so that even hunched into him, she could glare up at him. The gold of her Siren’s eyes had shifted back to pure, snapping Summer blue.
“How exactly did I end up sitting on the palace lawn, in full view of half your mother’s court, completely naked?”
He couldn’t help it. His lips spread wide in a besotted grin, and he laughed and laughed and laughed.
Chapter 31
The following morning, with Dilys at her side, Gabriella stood behind Myerial Alysaldria’s pearl-encrusted throne. Gabriella’s impervious mask of composure was firmly back in place, but this time every gentle emotion was battened down and hidden from view, leaving only the unyielding visage of a vengeful Siren staring down at Calivan Merimydion as he knelt in chains before his queen and the highest-ranking members of Calberna’s court.
He’d been stripped of his obah and jewels, left to stand bare-chested and unadorned in a simple silk shuma. It was clear, however, that the chains and the divestiture of his outward signs of rank didn’t bother him one infinitesimal fraction as much as the way his sister refused to even look at him. He stood before her, his eyes pleading for some tiny crumb of understanding or affection, but Alysaldria kept her gaze fixed firmly on the faces of her subjects.
For that clear loss of the only connection that he’d ever truly valued, Gabriella could almost pity him.
True, this man had tried to kill her, but the fact that he’d done it to save the dearest person in the world to him was something she understood. And if trying to kill her were all he had done, she might have been able to forgive him . . . at least enough to request that the death sentence he deserved be commuted to banishment, for Alysaldria’s sake if no other. But Gabriella wasn’t his only victim.
For his attempted murder of Dilys, and his part in the deaths of Spring and Autumn, Summer would accept nothing less than Calivan Merimydion’s execution. The more immediate, the better. Because those were the people dearest in the world to her.
He also owed a blood debt for the lives of Biross and Tarrant and the goddess only knew how many other Calbernans slain either at his hands or because of him. Those men were all someone’s dearest person in the world.
So no, Gabriella did not pity him, nor would she ask for mercy. Calivan Merimydion deserved none.
Alysaldria knew it, too.
The Myerial stood, held up a hand for silence, and pronounced, “We declare this Gathering open.” Then taking her seat once more, she said, “The purpose for this Gathering is to hear the confession of and pass sentence on the traitor, Calivan Merimydion.” Her voice was brittle, each word resonating with immeasurable pain. “He stands accused of conspiring to murder the Sirena, Gabriella Coruscate; of subverting through the use of magic a dozen sworn Royal Guards of Calberna to aid him in his plot; of the attempted murder of the Myerielua Dilys Merimydion; of conspiring with the traitor Nemuan, former son of House Merimynos, to kidnap the Seasons of Summerlea; and of conspiring to murder Myerial Siavaluana II and her daughter, Myerialanna Sianna.”
The shocked gasps rippling through the gathered nobles grew notably louder at the last charge. The Donima of House Merimynos reached out to steady herself on the arm of her akua.
Alysaldria stood, descended the steps of the throne’s dais, and walked with slow deliberation across the floor. The long train of the pure white gown she’d donned for the Gathering dragged behind her as she went, the color’s symbolism not lost on anyone in the court. White was the color of death in the sea, the white of bleached bones and dead coral. Her hair hung freely down her back, the ends curling near her ankles. White sea stars, the symbol of House Merimydion, dotted the inky blackness of her hair. She’d dressed in mourning for the twin brother who was already dead to her.
Four warriors—each chosen from outside the palace guards and thoroughly checked for compulsion runes—guarded Calivan. They pressed the points of their tridents to his throat and chest as their queen approached.
“Alys, I—”
The Myerial’s hand shot up sharply, cutting off whatever her brother meant to say.
“The traitor will confess his crimes before this Gathering. Calivan of House Merimydion, Confess. Your. Crimes.” Her Voice throbbed with implacable Command.
With none of the arrogance that had been such an intrinsic part of him, Calivan did. The truth spilled out of him, all of it. From his plot to murder Gabriella, to his part in the kidnapping of the Seasons, to the mind-control runes he’d tattooed on Alys’s guards, the same runes Nemuan had tattooed on Ari.
“You taught Nemuan this mind-control magic?”
“Ono. I suspect Nemuan and I both learned the ability from the same master of magic, the slaver known as Mur Balat.”
“Why would Balat teach you or Nemuan this magic?”
“So we could help him acquire the magical artifacts he’s been seeking his whole life. That’s how we met, Balat and I. After you wed, when I went out in the world seeking knowledge about magic, Balat and I crossed paths several times. We became friends—or so I thought. It turns out he really just wanted to use me to help him acquire the artifacts he was seeking. That’s how everything began.”
“What about killing Siavaluana?” Alys asked coldly. “Was that Mur Balat’s idea or yours?”
Calivan’s chains rattled. “It was the only way I could think of to keep you alive after Dillon died! Siavaluana’s magic would give you enough strength to push back the Fade, and I knew your sense of duty would do the rest.”
Alysaldria shuddered, as if the words were a physical blow. Still standing beside his mother’s throne, Dilys shuddered, too, his gaze pinned on his mother’s face. He clearly wanted to go to her, to stop her pain, but before the Gathering began, Alys had made him swear he would not interfere in any way.
Gabriella moved closer and took hold of his hand. They were behind the throne. The rest of the court couldn’t see. Dilys didn’t look at her, but the fingers curled around hers squeezed tightly in gratitude.
“And kidnapping the Seasons of Summerlea?”
“He approached me after the Ice King was defeated. I refuse
d him at first, but he threatened to tell you about my involvement in the death of Siavaluana. I was still planning to refuse until you made that vow from the Sea Throne. I couldn’t risk losing you, so I agreed. But he promised me they weren’t to be hurt. I made him swear that much before I agreed!”
Alys arched a brow. “And yet you tried to kill Gabriella yourself.”
Calivan’s shoulders slumped. “You know why.”
“Because, you would murder yet another rightful Myerial to keep me on the throne.”
“Because I knew you meant to abdicate and then to Fade. I couldn’t lose you. Don’t you see, Alys? Everything I’ve ever done was to keep you alive, to keep you with me.”
Alysaldria’s lips compressed. “But, brother, I am not, nor ever have been, yours to keep. You had the privilege, as my beloved and most trusted twin, to contribute to my happiness and grant to me the selfless gift of your love and your strength, as I granted you the same. But these crimes you have committed, this blood on your hands, has made a foul perversion of what should only ever have been a loving and mutually beneficial bond. You have betrayed me and our House in a way no other in this world could have done. Do you have anything else to say in your defense before I pass judgment?”
Calivan’s jaw trembled. Tears he could not withhold any longer trickled from his eyes. He shook his head.
Alys drew herself up, her spine rigid, shoulders squared, chin lifted. No hint of what had to be devastating grief showed on her face, only regal and unyielding authority. “Then as Donima of House Merimydion, I declare you, Calivan, son of Caldriana and Siavan Merimydion, to be kado’ido, outcast from the House of your birth, a son of Merimydion no more. And as Myerial of the Calbernan Isles, for the blood on your hands, for the regicide, murder, and attempted murder you committed or conspired to commit, I condemn you to a traitor’s death. Before the sun sets on this day, you shall be chained to the traitor’s rock at the edge of the Argon Abyssal and fed to the kracken.”