Moments ago, Selindrys had a bow and arrow; now she fought with two silver blades, weaving in and out of battle with the athleticism of a gymnast.
Where the half-orc general had concealed her blades was anyone’s guess. Maybe they had been hidden beneath the layers of lace and silk decorating her armor, but the twin swords gleamed with each brutal slice.
Everywhere he looked, members of the royal party and their guards were embroiled in battle.
If only I had a weapon, I—
A rod of opaline metal appeared in Manu’s fist, brought in a flash of raw power. The rhythm of battle pounded in his head as he thrust and stabbed, falling into line and surrounding her. Their brutality should have been enough, but like them, she was far more powerful than they had ever imagined.
Water rose and swept over them, washing the lighter elves away. The heavy gargoyles became immovable stone, each of the three anchoring to the sand, and the Valkyries soared higher on their angelic wings.
The wave rebounded. Laka could only handle so much at a time. She cried out and fell to one knee, her grip on the spear white-knuckled.
One second was all Manu had. A fraction of that second was all he needed to redirect every scrap of concentration to protecting his new wife. Willpower molded force and bent the wave around her like the biblical parting of the Red Sea, leaving Kai untouched despite the tremendous weight that came crashing down in all other directions. Elpis and Aegaeon, in close proximity, were spared as well, but all the others took the brunt of the crushing wave.
As he was too distant to benefit from his own act of magic, the wall of water carried him farther inland with the elves. The immense weight battered him from head to toe, striking his chest and winding him. He was tossed over sand, rolling and fighting to maintain consciousness, exhaling air one second and breathing in water in the next. Sour water rushed up his nostrils and down his throat, smothering him with the bitter flavor of the Gloom.
The world and his sense of awareness washed in and out of clarity, the gray cloud cover above blurred by the threat of lost consciousness. Shouts echoed from the water. Moments seemed to pass such that Manu thought he lost consciousness. The world raged in and out, water roaring as it slapped against sand and bludgeoned their bodies. Not far from him, the still form of Andarien lay supine on the sand, arms akimbo.
Darkness edged in on Manu’s vision again. Agony racked every inch of his body, his ribs bruised and potentially fractured. Shouts from the others who fought against Narkissa dragged him back from the realm of insensibility. He shoved himself up shakily, staggering as the elven king groaned and rolled onto his stomach. Andarien choked up black water and, once he got his knees beneath him, hurried to the nearby general.
Pain lanced through Manu’s skull, the cost of magic use a chisel in his brain. “Is she—?”
“She lives,” he said.
In the distance, Kai fought with a Myrmidon’s trident, the remains of the Royal Guard who had owned it now strewn across the ground. Heracles took aim with his harpoon blaster, as did several others. The shoreline became a war zone full of guards from the many kingdoms, but no amount of firepower or spell craft seemed capable of taking Narkissa down.
“You!” Narkissa shrieked, revealing a mouth filled with jagged shark teeth. She lunged toward Kai. Opening her mouth, her jaws appeared to unhinge in the manner of mandibles prepared to crush her smaller prey.
A fireball streaked from the sky. Blistering heat left waves in its wake as all in combat near her took cover, including Kai. Fire fell upon her like a chemical agent, lapped upon her grotesque shell and burned away strands of kelp clinging to the monster’s body.
Then Narkissa brought one of the tentacles down toward Kai. The queen deflected the blow with her borrowed trident, only for the weapon to shatter into several pieces that rained upon the sand. Left defenseless now, Kai rolled out of the way as another series of harpoon bolts pebbled the beast.
“Atlantis will be mine,” Narkissa snarled between her pointed teeth. “Your kingdoms, your realms, all of it will wither and perish.”
With what strength he had left, Manu found his focus and hurled Pontus’s trident. “Kai!” The weapon cut a blazing line through the air in silver and gold on a direct path toward the battling women, its course destined to land in Narkissa’s black heart. At the last possible second, she pivoted her body and denied him the perfect hit.
Fortunately, Manu hadn’t been aiming for her.
Kai caught the weapon by the shaft and dove forward. Her body tucked and she sprang up, thrusting again with the three-pronged end of the trident. All three jagged blades entered Narkissa’s back and emerged from her chest.
“Yes!” Manu shouted.
The other royals and diplomats fell back from the screaming, thrashing Gloombeast. As she arched her spine and bellowed toward the dismal, cloud-filled sky, her eyes flashed white. She shook and convulsed, collapsing to the sand limp as an eel aside from the occasional shudder of her death throes.
Victory launched Manu into motion. He ran toward them in a fugue state, hardly aware that his body was moving until Kai was in his arms.
Then the pieces of Narkissa dissolved into a rotting mass of stinking crabs, lobsters, barnacles, and writhing sea parasites.
Kai stumbled back from the steaming pile, shoving Manu with her. “What the fuck?”
“Gods, that is rank,” Heracles said. “Is she…did you kill her?”
“If only,” Cosmas growled. “That wasn’t her. It was a homunculus. We’ve seen these from Narkissa before in the past. She infuses a part of her soul into crustaceans. Possesses them.”
Slow understanding fell upon Manu. “It’s the gift she inherited from Pontus.” An insidious whisper skittered through Manu’s thoughts.
My gift. A gift I should have mastered and used against her.
“It must be,” Kai replied. “We’re not fighting any enemy now. We’re up against a demigoddess able to control the weather and create marionettes from sea life. “
Manu raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Then how can we possibly find and destroy her?”
An injured Myrmidon glanced up at them from where he sat on the sand. A medic knelt beside him, mending his wounds with deft stitches and ointment.
“It will be near impossible,” the infantry lieutenant said, his face pale with bloodless. His armor had been rent by the sharp tips of Narkissa’s bladed legs, and blood ran freely down the glossy exterior. “Her skin is stronger than any armor in our possession. She controls the ocean and the weather. She called a storm upon us and commands an army.”
“My dear, everything can be slain,” Queen Laka said as she made her way toward them. When she stopped, she buried the end of her spear into the sand for support and gazed at them through solemn eyes that had witnessed the passing of centuries. “Even gods.”
6
The Pact
Deep within the abyss of the Challenger Deep, Calypso’s offspring made their home in a rocky cavern molded by magic and the perpetual current of many fierce underwater storms. With the sole exception of scarlet dots of bioluminescence speckling the polished walls, no light existed within their stagnant grotto.
Schools of carnivorous fish protected the entrance to the dim lair, each of them infected by the magical taint of their dark mistress. It had been Desma’s duty to nourish and care for the hungry creatures, but the responsibility fell to Astraia following their sister’s murder by Myrmidon hands.
Their lair had little life, a barren place of cold stone where nothing grew, and no creatures thrived, save for the scarlet slugs. Narkissa loathed their home as much as she loathed the fish tasked with their protection. From an early age, she’d developed a kinship with the crabs, lobsters, and spiny shrimp instead of the weak and soft-bodied prey animals preferred by her remaining sibling.
Multiple sets of legs carried the demigoddess through the entrance past a pair of giant squid. She caressed one in passing,
though they weren’t her favorite, and traversed the narrow corridor of the sunken grotto.
The many chambers within their childhood home had been shaped with care and decorated with trinkets of Ancient Greece, each of them stolen during numerous expeditions to the underwater realm’s cities. Desma had been the finest collector of them, with a true eye for art and history. Contrasting her, their mother had only wanted to destroy anything remotely related to the lover who spurned her and abandoned their children.
Hatred of Pontus had kept the former nymph going for a long while.
Revenge had been her fuel.
They should have thrived in sunlight and beauty and clear water, but their father had denied them that, too preoccupied with his preferred children of Atlantis and the wife he chose over his true family.
Spindly violet legs protruding from Narkissa’s abdomen rushed her into a room serving only one purpose. Of all the chambers in their grotto, no other room held as much of her mother’s magic and the mere sense of Calypso. It lingered, an impression imprinted in the stone itself.
Despite the salty water, a deep pit within the center of the room held its own underwater pool of murky, cloudy substance. She skittered to the rim and leaned forward to dip both hands within. A charge tingled on her fingertips, then magic infused the mysterious substance. One spark became many, no different from lighting a fuse responsible for activating a chain reaction of enchantments. The window to the dark gods opened and unveiled both progenitors of sea monsters in all their wicked glory.
“At last, child,” whispered the oil-slick voice of Keto, the ancient goddess’s voice a subtle hiss in the otherwise silent space. Color pulsed from within the foggy well in muted shades of purple. Bolts of energy crackled throughout it like lightning bolts illuminating a thunder cloud. “So long has passed since you last sought our counsel. What news have you brought this day?”
“The work proved difficult without our inside source, but I was able to ambush the royal wedding and confirm your suspicions, mistress. The new king carries the soul of Pontus. He is a living god.”
“Then the queen is dead.”
“Not quite, no. I—”
“Then you have failed us. Why did you not slay her?”
Narkissa’s heart missed its next few beats. “My goddess—”
“I want no excuses,” Phorcys snarled. “We gave you a specific duty to carry out, pet. How can we execute our plan while the descendent of Thalassa still lives? She must be slain.”
“The girl must die.”
“And so too must the heir of Pontus,” both said.
“Forgive me,” Narkissa whispered, clenching both fists at her sides. “I did the best that I could with a limited number of pawns. I sent a homunculus in my place to scout the wedding as well as their allies. If I had gone on land to confront them, I would be dead. I’m sorry. I will not fail you again, masters.”
The next moments of silence turned Narkissa inside out with anxiety. She didn’t dare to rush them.
“We will grant you one final chance to prove yourself worthy of our final blessings. Kill the new rulers of Atlantis. Bring us their hearts, and Atlantis shall be yours to do with as you please.”
Narkissa couldn’t believe their words. She’d thought all along that the pair of deities would want Atlantis for themselves, but deep down, she’d known they would have less interest in ruling a kingdom than her mother had.
It had never been about claiming the city and all its colonies.
“Yes. I will.”
“Now tell us what you saw.”
When Narkissa concluded her meeting with Keto and Phorcys, she viewed their plan through new eyes and a keen understanding of what she must accomplish to destroy their common enemies.
Astraia had taken their mother’s death hardest and gone into seclusion since the event, speaking little and emerging only to eat. With each death in their family, she watched her sister withdraw further.
“Astraia,” Narkissa called, entering a room littered with both human and fish bones, the remnants of their many meals strewn over the stone floor where scavenger fish picked apart the bits of refuse. “I’ve returned, dear sister.”
“Kissa!” Astraia flew to her with a single whip of her long, serpentine tail. Her skinny arms wrapped around Narkissa’s shoulders in a tight embrace. “It’s been days without word from you. What happened? Were you injured?” Astraia’s cool palm flattened against Narkissa’s cheek, then her feathery brows drew tight in consternation. “You are drained.”
Under normal circumstances, Narkissa could have crossed the Pacific in less than a day by a combination of her own swimming power and whatever beast she ordered to ferry her when exhaustion arose.
Exhaustion had been her bane that day. Constructing a homunculus required that she both summon enough creatures from the ocean floor and also mold them together to mirror her appearance, their construction a painstakingly time-consuming act. Maintaining it was another matter, draining both physically as well as mentally, but the gift had been her greatest protection during the years of battle against Atlantis.
“No injuries, but it is done. Those fools let down their guard long enough for me to infiltrate the wedding. I saw him, sister.”
“You mean…”
“Yes. Our father’s divinity lives on in that foolish Myrmidon, exactly as Keto foresaw.”
When the goddess had predicted Pontus would pass his divine power to a mortal Atlantian, she’d thought the theory ludicrous, even if she hadn’t dared to verbally doubt the ancient being’s prophecy.
Now, she knew better and realized she had been foolish to expect better of the man who had spit on them in life and during his final moments prior to death by bestowing his essence on the unworthy.
Astraia’s eyes rounded in alarm. A breath shuddered from her, quaking her shoulders. “Then…you weren’t able to slay him. He still lives?”
“Yes. Unfortunately. Security on the beach as well as in the water was too great for the small number of Gloombeasts I took.”
Her sister’s dark brow knit in consternation. “You left with hundreds. Dozens of our strongest sea creatures and hundreds of corrupted mer.”
“It will require thousands to breach their defenses during our next encounter. Our pawns bought me less than a minute before my homunculus made it to shore.”
As Astraia reclaimed her seat upon a pile of polished stones, the sea life moved with her, feather dusters igniting in vibrant shades of purple and pink, launching from the ocean floor to drift around the half-nymph. Several alighted upon her round stomach, followed by the gentle placement of her palm on the profound curve. “I had some thoughts while you were gone, sister, but I fear you will not like them.”
“Thoughts of what?”
“The loss. I…” Astraia swallowed. “There is so much needless loss. Have you ever considered that this is no longer worth the pain and suffering? Long have we battled Atlantis, but we are no closer to tearing down our father’s kingdom than we were centuries ago when this rivalry began.”
“Rivalry.” The word pounded into her chest, a verbal chisel in the heart flooding her with toxic fury. “Is this how you feel about our struggle? A mere rivalry?”
“No, perhaps I—”
“They killed our mother. They murdered Desma.”
Astraia shrank away as if she’d been struck. Immediately, Narkissa regretted the severity of her tone, but not the words uttered.
“Forgive me, sister,” Narkissa murmured, contrition twisting her stomach into knows. “But do you no longer believe our cause is just and that are loved ones are worthy of avenging?”
“We would need to avenge no one if we had not waged war against Atlantis for centuries. We may have lived unhappy lives, but we had our mother. We had Desma. Now it is only the two of us, and our plans are in shambles. Perhaps it would be the best if we retreated to the shadows—”
“It’s too late for that,” Narkissa hissed. “We can’t
back out now. Do you know why? Because we pledged our souls to the cause. You promised me you would avenge Desma. We swore to mother as she took her dying breath that we would have vengeance.”
Astraia caressed the back of the fire slug crawling onto her hip. “What good is vengeance if we die carrying it out? What good is vengeance if we succeed and this world falls into despair and ruin, sister?”
“I don’t care what happens to the world. Concern for the world was never part of our problem.” Narkissa placed her hand to Astraia’s stomach and felt the writhing life within. “Mother had plans for this child.”
“She never told us her plans.”
“She may not have told us her plans, but I’m willing to improvise. This child will be the downfall of Atlantis. We merely need to see it born.”
7
By Necessity
While her husband slept soundly, Kai stared at the bedroom ceiling and endured her third restless hour of gazing at the canopy. Almost all within the palace were long asleep, and she envied them for being able to close their eyes.
How can I call myself a queen when citizens died attending my wedding?
In the weeks since the lethal attack at the wedding, Kai found herself still apologizing to diplomats and the leaders of the other magical kingdoms for an act beyond her control. No one blamed her, of course. In the direct aftermath of the attack, each of the diplomats and royals only voiced words of compassion. After all was said and done, the wounded tended and the dead gathered, Queen Laka had taken Kai aside and into her arms.
Sometimes, the wise queen had said, ruling wasn’t about how a queen prepared for the expected; what defined her rule was how she resolved each new surprise.
Goddess of Sea and War: a Fantasy Romance (Kingdom in the Sea Book 3) Page 5