by C. L. Wilson
His eyes went wide. His jaw dropped. “Alys!” Her name was a strangled cry.
Alys nodded sharply to the guards. “Take him from my sight.” As the guards escorted Calivan away, she walked with slow, deliberation back to her throne, climbed the dais and seated herself with regal composure. “My people,” she announced in a Voice of power, “it has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your Myerial, but in the face of all that has transpired, and with the gift of a true Siren returned to us, my time as your queen is over. As Our last act as Myerial Alysaldria I, We hereby abdicate the Sea Throne to Calberna’s rightful ruler, the Sirena, Gabriella Coruscate.” Alys stood, removed her crown, and turned to place it on Gabriella’s head. “To the Sirena, Myerial Gabriella I. May Numahao bless her House, and may her reign be long and prosperous!”
Gabriella stood on the throne, stunned, as the gathered nobles of the Calbernan court shouted, “To Myerial Gabriella!” She’d been expecting Alysaldria to discuss stepping down as queen after her brother’s crimes came to light, not just do it and hand Gabriella the crown! Now, Gabriella was the one clinging tight to Dilys’s hand. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. What was she supposed to do now?
“You must take the throne,” Alys whispered, “and declare this Gathering concluded.”
Nervous, more than a little stunned by the abrupt turn of events, she did as Dilys’s mother instructed, stepping forward and taking a seat in the pearl-encrusted throne. Taking her cue from the way Alys had opened the Gathering, she announced, “We declare this Gathering concluded.”
An hour before sunset, Gabriella, Dilys, Alysaldria, and tens of thousands of Calbernans from the surrounding Isles sailed or swam out to the edge of the Argon Abyssal some seven miles south of Cali Va’Lua to witness the execution of the kado’ido Calivan, former prince and Lord Chancellor of Calberna.
Gabriella’s new gills proved to work perfectly as she swam down to the submerged outcropping called Traitor’s Rock, and gave the order to summon the kracken. Undersea Tongue was a new language to her, and one she would still have to learn, but Dilys had taken her to a private pool earlier and practiced the command with her until she’d been able to say the words clearly while underwater.
She did not flinch or look away as the man who had caused so much pain met his fate. Nor did Alys, but when it was over and they returned to the palace and exited the weightless environment of the sea, the strength of Calberna’s former Myerial gave out. She collapsed beside the main palace’s moon pool and was rushed to her chambers where the summoned doctors examined her and declared her to be Fading.
“There is nothing we can do,” the senior physician quietly informed Dilys and Gabriella after concluding the examination. “Without the will to live, no magic or medicine can hold her to life.” She patted Dilys’s hand and bowed to Gabriella. “I’m sorry. This is a very sad day in a string of far too many very sad days. I will leave you to say your final good-byes.”
They were standing in the receiving room just outside Alys’s bedchamber. As the doctor bowed again and let herself out, Dilys put his arms around Gabriella and held her close. She could feel his body trembling, overcome with sorrow. “I am not ready to lose her,” he said hoarsely.
“Neither am I.” She’d known Alysaldria less than a week, but in that time, she’d come to both admire and love the woman who had given Dilys life. The depth of that love was probably owed at least in part to the deepening of the bond between herself and Dilys, but it had also been wonderful to have a mother again. Gabriella had never truly realized just how much she craved that maternal bond, or how much strength and happiness she derived from it.
The door to Alys’s bedroom opened and her personal valet stepped out.
“She is asking for you, moa Myerial. She wishes to pass on her gifts before she goes.”
Gabriella made a choked sound and grabbed Dilys’s hand, squeezing tight. She knew his heart was breaking, too, but nonetheless, he wrapped her in his arms and offered her his unstinting love until they both felt strong enough to enter Alys’s bedchamber and approach the frail, Fading woman on the bed.
Gabriella was shocked by the change that had come over Dilys’s mother in the scant hour or two since Calivan’s death. The former Myerial had quite literally begun to waste away. Her skin was sallow, her eyes and cheeks sunken. The flesh on her arms had gone paper thin, hanging on her bones. The vibrant gold of her eyes was fading to a pale, sickly yellow.
“Nima!” Dilys breathed, clearly appalled and horrified by her rapidly degenerating condition.
“No!” Gabriella rushed to Alys’s bedside. She’d thought Alys’s Fade would take days . . . weeks . . . months, even! . . . but judging from her drastic physical decline, it would be a miracle if she lasted the night. “No!” Gabriella said again, and this time she Spoke in Voice of power. “You won’t do this. You won’t Fade tonight. I Command you not to Fade.”
Alys lifted a shaking, skeletal hand to pat Gabriella’s hand. “Some things, my dear, not even a Siren can Command.”
“I’ve only just found you. I’ve only just begun to remember the joy of having a mother again. Please.” Tears gathered, then spilled from her eyes. She stroked Alys’s hand. “I know what you must be going through, without your akua. The fear of such a loss almost kept me from claiming your son as mine. So even though I know the pain you must feel each day without him, I’m still asking you to stay. Please. Dilys isn’t ready to lose you, and neither am I.”
“My child, you don’t need me. Neither of you do. You have each other, and that is strength enough to last a lifetime.”
“Call me greedy, then, but I need you, too. My mother died when I was very young. I’ve missed her terribly over the years. I had hoped, when Dilys told me about you, that I would find a new mother in you. And I have. Please, please, don’t take my new mother away from me so soon. I couldn’t bear it.”
“Gabriella—”
“Please!” Gabriella interrupted. “If you won’t stay for Dilys or me”—she dragged Alys’s hand to her and placed it on her belly—“then stay for your grandchild.”
For the first time since they’d entered the room, a spark of interested flared in Alys’s eyes. “You are . . . with child?”
Dilys clasped Gabriella’s shoulders, and said, “A granddaughter, Nima. A daughter of our blood. A Siren, like her mother.”
Gabriella craned her head back to look at him in surprise. “How could you know that? I only just realized I was even pregnant!”
He bent to press a kiss on her forehead. “Yesterday, when I was trying to keep you alive, I took control of your blood and found her there, inside you, working as hard as I was to save you.”
“You didn’t say anything!”
“There hasn’t been time.”
Gabriella turned back to Alys, taking the thin, frail hand in hers once more. “There, you see? You’re going to have a granddaughter. Don’t you think she deserves to meet you, at least?” She stroked Alys’s hand. “After all, you did vow from the Sea Throne that you would personally ensure she was born an imlani with gifts worthy of the throne. Would you want her growing up knowing her grandmother was an oathbreaker? And not just that but someone who would break a vow made from the Sea Throne?”
Alys arched a brow. “Are you not above holding a dying old woman to her vows?”
“I’m a lot more ruthless than most people think.”
A wan smile curved Alys’s lips. “So I see. That is a trait that will serve a queen well.”
“Yes, but is it working? Will you stay? Will you fight your Fade . . . for us?”
Alys closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then nodded. “I will fight. Until the child is born and I can fulfill my vow. I will not have my granddaughter believing that vows made from the Sea Throne can be broken.”
“Then may I share with you a little of what lives inside me, enough to push your Fade away for a while?”
Alys opened an eye. “Only if you call me Nima
, moa alanna.”
Gabriella beamed. “Nima,” she said, flooding Alys with such a rush of love that the older woman gave a choked exclamation of surprise.
“Glory to Numahao,” Alys gasped when Gabriella reined herself back in. “That is what you call a little?”
Gabriella blushed. “Sorry. I’m still not so good at controlling that.”
“Ono.” Alys reached out to pat her hand. “Ono, my daughter. Never be sorry for the magnificent blessings you possess. You are a gift from the goddess herself, an answer to the prayers we folk of the Isles have been making for over two thousand years.”
Epilogue
“Honestly, Dilys, I cannot imagine how your liana managed all those years to fool everyone into thinking her such a mild-mannered, malleable young woman.” Alysaldria stood beside her son as the two of them watched Gabriella subdue a roomful of blustering nobles with the crisp, unyielding authority that was rapidly becoming her hallmark. “Those qualities are the furthest from her true self as any could be.”
Dilys’s chest swelled. There was no mistaking his mother’s admiration for his extraordinary, always-surprising wife. “She could have them eating from her hand if she wanted to, but I think she enjoys riling them up a little.”
“And letting them know who’s boss. Are you aware of all the Calbernan traditions she intends to change? Says she finds them disagreeable and won’t abide them under her reign.”
“Such as?”
“Such as the custom of sending young boys away from home for their warrior’s training. She believes they can be trained just as well without separating them from their families.”
Dilys arched a brow and glanced down at his mother. “You know you agree with that one, Nima.”
“I can hardly deny it, can I? And, you didn’t turn out too badly, even if I do say so myself.”
He grinned. “Not too badly.”
His mother laughed. More a soft chuckle than an outright laugh, but still a sound that warmed his heart. Though she had accepted Gabriella’s help in keeping her Fade at bay, Alys’s sorrow in the wake of her twin’s betrayal had become a heavy burden that rarely lifted. Gabriella and Dilys did everything in their power to ease that suffering and bring Alys joy, and though they never mentioned it to his mother, the two of them were hoping the birth of their daughter in the coming year would keep Alys’s Fade at bay even longer. Decades longer, if Gabriella had her way about it. Dilys had high hopes. His beloved was very good at getting her way.
“And she refuses to be coronated as Gabriella Coruscate,” Alys continued, “even though as a Siren-made imlani by the grace of the gods themselves, she is rightfully Donima of her own House.”
“I have told her that many times. I did, however, get her to agree to a compromise last night.”
“Oh?”
“Tey. Her biggest argument against becoming Donima of her own House was you. You are her mother now, and she won’t give you up, not even in name.”
His mother’s eyes went soft. “She said that?”
“Mmm. I don’t blame her. You’re pretty wonderful, as mothers go.” He bent down to kiss his mother’s cheek. “Once I uncovered the root of her objections, I got her to agree to be coronated as Gabriella of House Merimydion-Coruscate. In personal and House matters, she will remain a daughter of House Merimydion, with you as Donima, but in matters of state she will act as Myerial and Donima of House Coruscate. Since Merimydion means sea stars and Coruscate means radiant, she liked that our children will all be named radiant stars of the sea.”
“Merimydion-Coruscate. That does have rather a nice ring to it.”
“I thought so.”
A loud argument erupted from the gathered nobles. Gabriella silenced them with a few clipped words.
“What do you think that was about?”
Dilys smiled. “I think she just told them that she intends for the both of us to be coronated at the same time, that she has commissioned a throne for me to be installed beside hers, and that to the rest of Mystral, I shall be known as King Dilys Merimydion-Coruscate of Calberna.”
“Ah,” his mother said.
Within the Isles, the queen’s mate was always called Myerialakua, the Calbernan word for king (well, actually it translated into something more like “mate of the queen” or “treasured mate”). But since the majority of the oulani world believed that a king ruled over everyone in his country, including his queen, the Myerials had always made it clear to the outside world that the true power in Calberna rested solely with her queens.
“I did tell her that men in my position are called Prince Consorts among the other peoples of Mystral, but she refused to hear of it.”
“And why should I?” Having dismissed the nobles from her presence, Gabriella now came to join Dilys and Alys. “It’s a load of sexist nonsense. If a king can marry a woman and make her his queen, then why should I—a queen—not be able to make you my king?”
To that, he had no answer, except to say, “My love, you can make me anything you like, as long as you always make me yours.”
“Well, then, that settles that. Because you will always be mine, Dilys Merimydion-Coruscate.” Smiling, she stood up on tiptoe and pulled his head down for a kiss. “My love. My husband. My very own Sea King.”
Second Epilogue
Eastern coast of Ardul
The sun was shining in a blue, cloudless sky, turning the moist jungle air into a steaming soup. A sleek, three-masted ship lay at anchor in the crystal-clear waters of the small, tropical bay, hundreds of miles from any village or established port. A longboat from the ship was beached on the sparkling white sands, and the ship’s captain and several of his crew busied themselves spearing fish in the shallow waters of the bay and harvesting coconuts, bananas, and papayas from the trees nearby.
High up in the fronds of a coconut tree, one of the crew gave a sharp whistle. His shipmates gathered together, readying weapons as the sounds of something approaching through the dense jungle brush grew louder.
A few moments later, the crew relaxed and sheathed their weapons. Four native guides hacked their way out of the jungle onto the beach, followed shortly by Mystral’s most infamous slaver, Mur Balat, one peridot-eyed flesh-molder, an entourage of witches, guards, and servants, and two rumpled but very beautiful women being led by the collars at their throats.
“Ah, Captain Qurin,” Mur Balat greeted, “good to see you. Have you been waiting long?”
“Less than a day,” the captain replied. “You are right on schedule.”
“I always am. You may begin loading my possessions.” Balat remained on the beach as the most valuable articles of what had been his unsurpassed collection of magical artifacts, rare antiquities, and priceless jewels, were loaded onto the waiting ship. The loss of his magnificent fortress in Trinipor had been the highest cost of his current endeavor, but it had been necessary for the world to truly believe that Mur Balat and his influence had been wiped from the face of Mystral.
For thousands of years, the enchanters of the Balalatika bloodline, descendents of Ambris, Goddess of Order and Chaos, had sought to right a supreme wrong. Long, long ago, Ambris had tricked the other six primary gods of Mystral in order to raise to godhood the mortal hero Rorjak, beloved of Ambris’s daughter Wyrn the White, goddess of Winter. For her crime, Ambris had been stripped of her divinity and sentenced to living lifetime after lifetime as a mortal. Her descendents of the Balalatika bloodline had been working ever since to restore Ambris to her rightful divinity. And now, at last, that moment was at hand.
Mur Balat had only to exchange the remaining two Seasons for the last two pieces of the divine Celestial Chalice, which he had located thanks to tireless efforts of generations of his forebears. Once he assembled all the pieces of the Chalice and retrieved another divine artifact called the Bloodstone, he would be able to follow the secret maps in the grimoire of the ancient witch-Seer Euphemia Nyxx to find the fabled Fount Æternis . . . and there, he, Murulandis Bal
alatika, would raise the mortal Ambris back to godhood and claim divinity for himself as his reward.
“Come, ladies,” he said to Spring and Autumn. Such a shame that to fake their deaths, he’d had to sacrifice two of his three flesh-molders. Their sister had been far less productive and far less docile without them. But Dilys Merimydion and the Winter King would never have given up searching for the Seasons without convincing bodies. Giving a yank on Spring and Autumn’s chains, he led the captive princesses towards the waiting ship. “Time to make history!”
Acknowledgments
As always, a huge thanks to all my friends, family, and fans who have been and continue to be so supportive and encouraging. I especially want to thank the Starfish Club: Christine Feehan, Kathie Firzlaff, Sheila English, Susan Edwards, Karen Rose, and Brian Feehan. Our brainstorming retreats are the highlights of my year. Thanks to my mom, Lynda Richter; my sister, Carole Richter; and my daughters, Ileah and Rhiannon Wilson, for beta reading my work, and a very special thanks to my niece Kayla Dickens for being my social media guru.
Special thanks to my editor, Tessa Woodward, and the folks at Avon Books for all you do.
Finally, thanks again to Judy York, artist extraordinaire. I love all my covers, but this one is especially lovely! You’re the greatest!
About the Author
C. L. WILSON wrote her first story at age six, and though she took a number of long detours during her life, she never gave up her lifelong dream of being published. Many years, hundreds of false starts, and five completed novels later, she received “The Call” in October 2006 and sold her epic fantasy romance, Tairen Soul, at auction. Her debut novel spent two weeks on the USA Today bestseller list, and her subsequent novels have gone on to hit a variety of lists, including USA Today, New York Times, and Publishers Weekly. When not writing, C. L. enjoys relaxing with her husband and three children in sunny Florida and daydreaming of a world where people exercise in their sleep and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream is a fat-burning food.