by Starla Night
Elan checked the blades and gripped his trident. To Faier, he said, “Protect my wife.”
“On my honor,” the scarred warrior vowed.
She protested. “I have my own power!”
“Use it to protect the Life Tree.” Elan pointed.
Below, warriors positioned a wicked serrated saw against the live, pulsing stalk.
Elan turned.
“Where are you going?” she demanded.
He tossed a smile over his shoulder. “I will rescue our son.”
The too-familiar, overly confident, arrogant grin seared itself on her soul. She sucked in a hard gulp of cool water. This was the husband she had missed so much. His sweet confidence. Everything would work out. They would overcome any obstacles and succeed.
He kicked for the commander trapping Zain. The other warriors began fighting again. Many converged to defend the commander. Elan dove into the fight.
She wanted to protect Elan. And Zain. How could she do it? She flexed her fingers, feeling her anger at this unjust invasion.
Below, invaders sawed into the Life Tree’s stem.
It screamed. So loud and so high, the noise made Zara’s spine curl. Light flashed red in a horrified warning.
Another saw cut deep.
Pain seared into her skin. And she wasn’t the only one. Dragao Azul warriors, Elan included, spasmed and cried as though they had been stabbed.
The foreign warriors pressed the advantage. Faier stood strong against them, but the Dragao Azul warriors disappeared in bloody clouds.
No. This was wrong. It was not allowed.
The Life Tree was innocent. Injustice burned in her chest with a sharp, clear light. Her hands tingled. She directed her anger in a calm force.
A white sandstorm engulfed the warriors around the saw. They kicked away, flying back as though they’d been propelled.
The sharp pains receded to a dull, pulsing pain. The Dragao Azul warriors recovered.
General Iner pointed his trident at Zain. “Attack the young fry!”
Zain?
Wasn’t attacking a young fry against the rules?
Surprise eclipsed her anger. The white sand barrier dissipated, revealing the saw blades wedged into the Life Tree stalk. While everyone else hesitated, the invaders below gathered around the exposed saw.
No.
She focused. The white sand barrier reformed, driving them back.
Only Zara could protect the Life Tree. But she couldn’t protect everyone else too, or even herself. And she wasn’t the only one who realized it.
The old backstabber crowed. “She is the enemy. Destroy her!”
Some of his warriors hesitated.
Others did not.
Faier met the first attackers with brutal efficiency, sweeping them sideways with deft thrusts of his trident. The second wave approached more cautiously. One feinted to draw Faier out, but he was experienced and would not move away from her. The third wave mounted a coordinated attack, and he had no choice but to leave her exposed as he fought them off.
As he protected on one side, brutal, snarling warriors flew at her from the other.
Two Dragao Azul warriors darted in and fought them off. They seemed vaguely familiar. One taunted his enemies loudly, with dark sapphire tattoos, and the other fought silently, his amethyst tattoos shimmering. For once, instead of bossing her around and stealing her son, these warriors protected her.
But even three would not be enough to fight the waves of foreign warriors massing in menace.
“Protect the queen!” The warrior with sapphire tattoos — she thought his name might be Dosan — shouted across the battlefield. “As you guard our Life Tree, defend Dragao Azul’s queen!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Behind Elan, the warriors of Dragao Azul swarmed Zara, summoned by Dosan’s cry.
Not only Faier, but the entire city of warriors, elders and trainees alike, united, at last, in the battle for the city.
Zara’s soul light shone with the same brilliant resonance of the Life Tree. She focused on its protection. They focused on hers.
Elan turned back the fight with Commander Haren. After the warriors in front of him had fallen under Elan’s trident, Commander Haren had bound Zain with a bola and settled into the fight.
Zain’s bitter howls distracted Elan and so did his fears for Zara.
Which made the Commander more than a match for him.
Commander Haren thrust his trident into Elan’s incoming attack. Elan tangled his trident in the blade. The commander growled. A flash of sharpness was Elan’s only warning. He brought up his own dagger and crossed blades with the wily commander.
“Yield,” the commander snarled, twisting his blade against Elan’s, his muscles bulging to gain the advantage. “Your city is going to die. First your bride, then your Life Tree, and then your young fry.”
“Those words would make an honorable warrior sick.” Elan strained.
“There are no honorable warriors.”
“Wrong!” A surge of fury gave Elan the power to shove the commander back.
The commander hesitated, surprised.
Elan fell upon him, slamming first his blade out of his hands, and then his trident.
The commander flew backward, searching for a weapon.
Elan pinned him against the wall of the king’s castle.
Commander Haren grappled his wrists.
Elan twisted and forced the handle of his trident against the male’s throat.
He choked.
“You yield,” Elan growled. “Withdraw your army. Leave my young fry and flee for your life.”
“You cannot exist,” Commander Haren hissed. “This city is anathema. Harboring a human monster and calling her a queen? The All-Council will wipe you from the sea floor.”
“Dragao Azul was a faithful city. You forced our rebellion.”
“My warriors died at the Battle for Atlantis because of your betrayal!” Commander Haren snarled.
Elan regretted his role in the Battle for Atlantis. He regretted that Commander Haren’s warriors had suffered for his lack of leadership.
“The world has changed, Commander. You cannot hold a handful of sand in a tsunami. If the All-Council continues this campaign, how many more cities will you turn against you?”
“You will die!”
“We have a queen. Our city will thrive. You lost today.”
The commander swore at him.
Behind Elan, Dragao Azul steadily beat back the invaders. Even outnumbered and harnessed to protecting Zara in their last stand at the Life Tree, they pushed back the fight. The commander had only to give the signal and his foreign males would melt away like mud.
Commander Haren clamped his hands on Elan’s trident. His words vibrated harshly in his chest. “You forget what we have.”
“And what is that?”
Behind Elan, General Iner gripped the throat of a desperately sobbing Zain. “Your young fry.”
Elan snarled. “Your soul is so dark your heart is a hole in your chest.”
“Then you cannot stab it and I am invulnerable.” Iner curled his lip. “You, on the other hand, have a bright heart that is all too vulnerable.”
Elan moved back, removing his trident. Commander Haren shot sideways, kicking beyond the reach of both Elan and the crazed general. He rubbed his throat.
“Gather your warriors,” Iner ordered over Zain’s howls. “Prepare for a second attack.”
“We cannot win,” Commander Haren replied. “These warriors will defend their Life Tree to the last. We have lost any advantage of fear or obedience. They will not yield.”
“I will worry about that. Obey my orders.”
The bloodless commander grimaced and kicked toward Zara. She rested on the dais, on a pile of Sea Opals, next to the fallen king.
Iner turned to Elan.
“He is right,” Elan growled. “We will not stop the fight until every one of you is broken and bleeding, your for
ces expelled from our territory, the last of your fallen tossed into the blacknight sea.”
“Of course they will stop.” Iner pointed a short blade at Elan. “They will stop when you pick up your trident and stab yourself in that big, bright, beating heart.”
Elan gripped his trident. “Even with my death, you—”
“Your death will grieve your bride. She will release the shield. The Life Tree will fall. Your city will die. The weakness that causes you to grip so tightly onto your brides will dry up, purifying the mer race so only the truly faithful survive.”
“You think we are weak?” Elan shook his head. “The connection I share to Zara makes us strong. My only moment of weakness was believing your All-Council’s lies.”
“Weakness,” Iner dismissed. “The All-Council thinks our race can survive. But they, too, are infected with weakness. Adviser Creo died screaming for the name of his long-lost bride. I will purge all warriors of this human-loving pollution.”
“Your ‘pure’ race will not live a single generation,” Elan returned. “Or did you forget that there are no females beneath the sea besides the brides?”
Iner shrugged. “The mer have been dying for a thousand years. Like Kadir, I see us as the last generation. His vision to embrace modern brides is wrong. We must embrace our true mistress: pure, clean, honorable death.”
He was crazy. But there was a strange sort of logic to his insanity.
Some warriors, like Iner, had survived the Battle for Atlantis by looking on death and falling in love with its seductive promise. No more compromises, no more fighting to hold onto honor in an apparently honor-less world, no more sacrificing sons for fathers. End everything. Cut it all to the barren ground.
“Embrace your death,” Elan told him. “Leave the rest of us to the mess of carving out a good life for our young fries.”
Iner sneered. “That is something you will not experience.”
“Why? Because I will stab myself in my big, bright heart?”
Once, he would have obeyed Iner. His own darkness had made him wish for death many times over. But that time was past.
“No.” Elan turned his trident on Iner. “Now it is time to end your dark fantasy.”
“Stop.” Iner pointed his blade at Zain’s chubby belly. “Suicide on your own trident or watch your young fry get eviscerated.”
Zain kicked and cried.
Elan only felt a sick tiredness. Iner’s brutality had no end. Elan could not allow a male with this dark of a soul to have any measure of success today. His rule was over.
“Suicide.” Iner smiled. “It is the only way to save your young fry.”
Elan cared too much for Zain to become paralyzed now.
“I will twist my blade in your heart,” Elan snarled.
Iner stopped smiling.
He flew at the adviser.
“Die, both of you!” Iner released Zain into the space between them with a shove. Elan checked his throw. Zain kicked, his chubby arms out, straining for his father.
Iner raised his blade to stab Zain through the back.
Elan was too far away to stop him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“No!” Elan screamed.
His scream of fury rode a wave of teeth-shattering protest from the Life Tree. White sand shimmered around Iner.
Zara.
Iner folded in half and blasted backward as though he had been punched. When he came to a stop, he remained hunched in agony.
Elan scooped Zain up and wheeled to challenge any other warrior who might dare attack his young fry.
Behind the barrier of Dragao Azul warriors, Zara met his gaze. Her focus had only wavered from the Life Tree for one moment. Just long enough to save their son and destroy their enemy. She radiated calm pride.
Pride which he also matched.
With Iner’s immobility, the face of the war changed quickly.
Commander Haren collected his warriors. He faced off against Elan for a long, bloodless glare. “This stay is only temporary. You will face justice.”
Elan held Zain’s small, shivering body in one arm. The other gripped his trident. “We were a faithful city. Remember and beware.”
“I will remember.” Then, he turned away and snapped his order. “Withdraw!”
The remaining invaders broke from the fight and exited the city.
Dragao Azul’s warriors, many carrying new weapons collected during combat, cheered. Then, they turned to former First Lieutenant Elan as if he had never left.
The dangerously injured king was tended by their healer. Warriors removed the serrated saw from the Life Tree anchor and splinted it to regrow strong.
The scarred Atlantean, Faier, remained with them a few hours to assist re-established patrols and order, reasserting defenses lost during the invasion and long occupation. Then, he had to leave in order to participate in the grand start of some event on the surface called a “dating site.”
“First Lieutenant! The army has withdrawn beyond the limits of our territory,” Dosan reported, interrupting Faier’s farewell. “It is unclear which direction they will go.”
“Keep a scout on them,” Elan replied. “If they approach another city and we have the ability to send a warning, do so.”
“There will be larger consequences,” Faier said to him softly. “All-Council armies are headed by insane mer. Other cities will soon realize they must bring in their own queens for safety.”
On the dais, Zara sat stiffly in front of the king. Zain giggled and cooed, happy to be near the kindly male who had raised him during Elan’s long punishment. She was clearly unforgiving about his role in exiling her and trying not to snatch Zain back.
“Thank you for protecting my queen,” Elan told Faier gruffly. Considering Elan’s dishonorable attempts to hurt Faier’s queens, his protection elevated to true heroism. “Should you ever wish to claim a castle in Dragao Azul, you will be an honored citizen.”
Faier smiled, but a shadow of bitterness sharpened its curve. “Atlantis has my loyalty. They claimed me when other cities would not.”
“Then give Dragao Azul the privilege of being your second city.”
Faier blinked. Only a few times in mer history had a warrior earned the honor to be a desired citizen in more than his own city. Even in this dangerous time of lowered populations and empty castles, cities preferred to enforce loyalties and not share. They did not adopt other city’s warriors lightly.
“Thank you,” Faier said, with a note of warning that he was about to deny Elan’s honor.
“If you do not need this privilege, then keep it for your sons.”
He blinked again. “Sons…”
Faier rubbed the harsh scars marring his cheek, ancient puckers like a dry riverbed of past violence. Did he worry a sacred bride would not love to a male with such scars?
Zara had fallen in love with Elan after a single meeting. They connected in their souls. Faier should not fear. He would find a strong, fierce, loving female.
“Thank you,” Faier said again to Elan, focusing on the present, and completed his farewells.
Elan turned to seek Zara. Instead, he was ambushed by elders.
They confirmed what Orol had already shared. After Elan had escaped the Battle for Atlantis, Iner had taken charge. All-Council Adviser Creo’s final commands had been to avenge his death by destroying the cities of the betrayers — Dragao Azul, original home of Elan, Kadir, and Soren, and Sireno, original home of Torun. Regrouping with the remaining armies, Iner had dispatched two units to Sireno and Commander Haren’s and Faro’s units to Dragao Azul.
Had Elan hesitated even a day in Dragao Azul, the army would have been upon him and the city might have been quickly wiped out. Instead, Iner’s grand scheme delayed the city’s punishment until he could assemble “all” of the betrayers — primarily Elan, Zain, and Zara.
“Then we will prepare for a possible return attack once Iner recovers,” Elan decided.
“What about dese
rters?” an elder asked.
“Accept them. Any warrior who comes to his senses about the All-Council is welcome. We will help him return to his home city wherever it is.”
The elders hummed with dissent. “We did not accept deserters before.”
“We were a ‘faithful’ city before. Now we are anathema.”
The elders flinched. “Perhaps if we sent a delegation to the All-Council explaining the misunderstanding…”
“Or we could cut down our Life Tree ourselves,” Dosan piped up. “Then we would be in compliance.”
The elders glared at him.
“Dosan is correct,” Elan said, forestalling an argument. The sapphire warrior was too outspoken. “For now, we will neither antagonize the All-Council nor will we work with them. They may still seek to wipe us out.”
The elders paled. “So extreme.”
“The king would desire we take the middle ground. He may disagree once he has healed.”
Barely pacified, the elders moved off.
Zara and Zain remained near the king, and now it looked as though he’d gathered enough strength to engage in conversation.
“Thank you for inviting me to stay,” Zara said shortly to the king, her back to Elan, so she was not aware of his approach. “Although you have no say over where I go or what I do. I hope you realize that.”
The king grimaced. “Stay. The All-Council will return.”
So, the king shared Elan’s perspective. He felt calmer that he had directed the elders correctly.
“I’ll do my best,” she replied breezily.
He winced again. “…beg you…”
“No need for begging. I have no interest in watching my son’s city get destroyed. Now, a year ago, I would have vowed my eternal protection, no questions asked. But you lost my loyalty when you kicked me out and deprived me of my family. I reforged my life on the surface. You’re second place.”
Elan’s chest squeezed.
“You’re hurt so I don’t want to upset you,” she told the king in her blunt way. “I’m going to stick around until everyone’s back on their feet. Er, fins. But then I need to check on my sister. She’s going through a lawsuit with my parents right now, and I promised my support. Also, I need to update the other brides about what happened. I kind of left it on a cliff-hanger. They need to know that if they were pushed out of their cities, they have options. It’s okay to be royally angry. And it’s okay to fight.”