“Okay, then.” Lily attempted to push her hand through in the same way, but her membrane-coated fingers simply bounced off.
Romeo snorted. “Something tells me these little green guys haven’t had to make many adjustments down here for people who actually need to breathe.” He kicked closer to her and the tunnel’s outer wall. “Or we simply need a harder push, right?” Before she could respond, he drew his arm back, focused on the barrier, and launched his fist at it. The resultant thud echoed in an oddly distorted way and the force if the contact hurtled him through the water. He tumbled head over heels until he bounced against the wall of a smaller dome and drifted back to her.
“That was definitely a cool trick.”
He shook his head. “Totally unintentional, but I’ll take cool.”
Lily laughed and turned to face the tunnel to try again. A streak of green burst out into the water beside her and two huge, cold things pressed up against her back. Watcher’s powerful kick launched her into the wall and she squeezed through it with a slurping sound and a spray of water that landed beside her on the tunnel floor. She had no time to even attempt to break her fall, although the magical film that covered her entire body kept her from really hurting herself. “Shock-absorbing air-suit bubbles. Okay…” As she pushed herself off her knees, the blue glow trembled and spit Romeo out with the same wet slurp.
The werewolf landed with a grunt but was back on his feet in seconds. He glared at the dark, wavering silhouette that quickly moved closer and larger against the hazy blue barrier. His hands curled turned into as much of a fist as he could make them but the film around his body was thick enough to keep his fingers from fully closing.
“Okay, maybe take a breath.” Lily stepped toward him.
The dark silhouette outside pressed against the tunnel and slipped easily and smoothly through. Watcher dropped to his webbed feet with a wet slap, although no cascade of extra water sneaked in with his entrance. The Vátra turned to face his guests and spread his arms. “You have never used one of these?”
The werewolf scowled. “I’ve never been kicked through a wall by a talking frog, either. Don’t do that again.”
“Ha!” The creature looked from Romeo to Lily and back again, then pointed a webbed finger with a sharp, yellowed nail at her. “If she kicked you through, you would laugh and wonder and say, ‘More luck when I do this again.’”
“I trust her,” he told their guide. “I don’t trust you.”
Watcher narrowed his huge eyes, then shrugged. “You do not matter so much.” The Vátra waved them on to follow him down the luminescent hallway.
Lily snorted. “My translation spell is definitely not up to speed with Vátran.”
Romeo gritted his teeth and snarled silently at the green-skinned creature. Quickly, he glanced at her and tried not to smile at her. “He was totally right, though. I wouldn’t mind if you kicked me through a wall.”
“Oh, really?” She nodded after their guide, who now marched down the seawater-slickened hall. “That probably depends on why I’m kicking you and where.”
“Okay, let’s not get too super-creative with that fantasy, huh?” He squared his shoulders and nodded. “I’m just sayin’.”
“Come on.” Lily increased her pace, impressed by the shifting colors of the floors. One second, they looked like flattened coral, and the next, they might have been glass in an aquarium. Every now and then, the pattern looked something more like seaweed, and the coloring faded smoothly from orange to glistening silver to yellow and then brown, over and over in a seemingly endless cycle. Her companion walked beside her down the empty hallway but after a moment, they began to squeak.
“You gotta be kidding me.” The werewolf picked his foot up and examined the bottom of his boot still covered by the film of the breathing suit. “It looks like we dried up.”
“I won’t even consider getting us out of these bubble things until we’re back on land.” She twisted her shoe on the floor of the hallway and elicited a loud, obnoxious squeak with every movement. “If we can be pushed into this tunnel, we can be pushed out. I’m not even sure if the underwater spells I know will actually work if they’re also cast underwater.”
Romeo sighed. “Good point. It looks like we’ll make a noisily noble entrance, then.”
She fought down a laugh, but a bubbling chuckle escaped her anyway.
Up ahead, Watcher’s face poked out from behind the corner of the blue-lit hallway. His eyes bulged wider than normal, and he glanced constantly behind him as he waved them frantically forward. “You will be old before you get here. I will be old. Royal will be—” He stopped abruptly as if he couldn’t believe he was about to abuse Royal’s name in casual comments. “Come, come, come!”
With a shared nod, Lily and Romeo moved swiftly down the hallway toward their guide. Their footsteps squealed but their individual rhythms weren’t even close to being in line with each other. They both fought back explosions of laughter, which was even harder to do when Watcher glared at their suits. The creature shook his head rapidly and his mouth opened as if to speak before he simply smacked his own forehead with a wet slap and disappeared around the corner in front of them.
“Do you think they’re gonna take you any less seriously because we sound like this?” Romeo muttered.
“I hope so. If the Royal wants my help so badly, he should probably add improvements to his welcome package.”
The only thing he could do besides dissolve into laughter again was to clear his throat and press his lips tightly together.
When they rounded the corner, Watcher now stood in an archway at the end of the tunnel, his heels thumped together, his back straight, and one arm stretched toward them in an invitation. The shifting floor beneath him now flashed with pulsing lights, one color after the other, that moved toward the room beyond the tunnel as if inviting the guests to enter. Orange, yellow, brown, and green flashed across their guide’s face as he stared at their approach.
They passed the green-skinned creature and the breathing film beneath their feet still made obscene noises. Watcher hissed at their shoes, then snapped to attention again.
The young couple stepped into what had to be the largest central dome of the Vátran city. It rose hundreds of feet above them and casting a much mellower blue glow through the room than what they’d walked through in the tunnels. Stone pools filled with water shimmered throughout the room, some of them filled with aquatic plants and flowers and others completely empty. These occasionally flashed a bright hue of orange or silver but for the most part, they were still. Beyond that, the room was entirely empty.
“I thought you said we would be late,” Lily whispered when Watcher passed her and stepped into the massive room.
“We are.” Their guide slowed his pace in order to minimize the echoing slap of his webbed feet on the smooth, colorfully shifting floors. “Royal is not in any place first.”
Romeo wrinkled his nose. “That must make it tough to find privacy. Does that include bathroom breaks?”
Lily shot him a warning glance. Don’t laugh, Lily.
“Hey, it’s a valid question.” He shrugged.
“With a name like Royal, I assume we’re here to speak to their leader.” The young witch nodded at the oversized cushion at the other side of the apparent throne room, which was shaped like a lily pad and appeared to be a few feet bigger than her bed. “That and the fact that our friend’s name’s Watcher, and he told us he literally watches.”
The werewolf tilted his head in acknowledgment. “It makes sense. That throne cushion over there looks pretty, right? Royal’s gotta be a big dude, then.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, these guys are…” He glanced around the throne room, which remained empty except for Watcher who stood a few yards away between them and the oversized cushion. “Frog people,” he whispered. “Frog leaders are big, right? Like bullfrogs. And that big general dude in Star Wars who slobbered everywhere w
hen he—actually, he shook exactly like a dog.”
“That’s what you’re basing your assumption on?” Lily folded her arms, which stuck together and squeaked at the film-on-film contact so she dropped them hastily to her sides. “CG Star Wars characters.”
“If you have any insider information, Lil, I’m all ears.”
She had to look away from him and pretend to be insanely interested in the closest stone pool, which released one purple bubble every few seconds from the very center. The ensuing ripples flashed in silver and orange, and when the bubble burst, it ejected a tiny puff of purple mist that dissipated quickly into the air. Actually, that’s really interesting. “I think we should dial down on the jokes,” she muttered. “We’ve met storytellers and Romani and life-giving witches who teleport through the earth, but something tells me the Vátran won’t pick up on your sense of humor.”
“Ours.”
“What?”
“Our sense of humor. We’ll split this fifty-fifty.” Romeo wiggled his eyebrows.
“Sure. And the same goes for whatever impression we leave on this Royal person, deal?”
He shifted quickly to face her, his film-covered boots making their customary obnoxious squeal, and stuck his hand out. “Deal.”
Lily didn’t think before she reached out to shake his hand. Their palms bounced off each other with a much louder clap than a normal handshake should ever make. The witch glanced down at her hand and frowned as the film vibrated until it settled again. “This stuff is so weird.”
Romeo shook his hand and made a face like he tried to fling slime onto the floor. “You’re tellin’ me. I feel like a walking pile of Jell-O.” He caught her sharp glance and cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
Quick footsteps slapped across the floor from across the throne room and to their left. The floors of the tunnel connected on that side flashed with bright pinks and oranges, faster and faster toward the throne room. Half a dozen Vátran people spilled into the massive blue dome. Three of them carried long spears twice their own height that looked like they were made of bone. One of them trotted along with a stone tray of food Lily wouldn’t even dare Romeo to eat. The other two ran in with folds of shimmering cloth piled high in their arms. The six creatures fanned out around the giant cushion in the back of the throne room, and the one holding the tray of food bellowed, “He is coming now. The Royal is here. He is presenting to you and is supreme himself.” The being’s voice was surprisingly high-pitched and warbly, made even more so by the trembling echo it cast around the dome.
The werewolf leaned toward her. “No one will win the vocabulary award here.”
“Stop.” She pressed her lips together and stared straight ahead.
Six
Watcher paced continually in front of his guests. His feet barely made a sound on the floor now and he clasped his webbed hands behind his back. All the Vátran who had gathered faced the tunnel beside the throne cushion as the colors flashed brighter and brighter until Lily had to look away.
A tall, incredibly slim figure stepped from the entrance, only a few inches away from scraping his head against the top of the archway. The flashing streaks of orange, pink, and silver winked out immediately to reveal the constant glow of the tunnel beyond once more. Slowly and almost carelessly, the tall Vátran made his way to the others who waited in front of the cushion, his hands clasped behind his back.
This one did have a greenish coloring to it, which was mostly around the edges of his face and the tops of his shoulders. Every other inch of its skin pulsed with different colors—beside the brownish-green, a deep gold traced along the creature’s neck, collarbone, and inner arms. The edges of his chest and stomach were a bright yellow that faded almost into a neon-orange and then a blinding hot-pink in the very center of his torso. This Vátran was lithe but not starved-looking and a hint of muscles showed within the bare pecks and abs. A loincloth made of the same seaweed-looking material as Watcher’s frayed pants dangled between his slender legs and his feet weren’t anywhere near as large as the others’ despite the creature being almost twice as tall.
When the colorful humanoid—equally as bald as the others but with much smaller and more proportionately sized eyes—reached the cushion flanked by its followers, he turned toward the center of the throne room and regarded the room calmly. “The Royal is come.” He lifted one foot back into the middle of the cushion, dragged the other smoothly toward it, and lowered himself fluidly to sit cross-legged. His hands, also hot-pink in the centers, rested palms-up on his knees as if to signify that he was ready.
Someone’s gotta be made of rubber to sit like that. Lily studied the Royal with immense curiosity and fought the sudden urge to run toward him and bombard the creature with questions about his entire race. That’s not why we’re here.
After thirty seconds of absolute silence and zero movement, Watcher turned slowly to meet her gaze, then Romeo’s. The green-skinned guide held up a hand in a subtle signal to wait before he turned and mimicked the Royal’s former pose—slow steps, his head held high, and his hands clasped behind his back.
All around them, the stone pools flashed their brilliant colors beneath the glow of the blue dome. This is starting to feel like a rave. I thought I left those behind me after high school.
“Great Royal.” Watcher stopped directly in front of the seated monarch and bowed until his wide, flat head almost touched the glistening floors. “The Watcher has brought friends to speak. Lily witch and Romeo werewolf.” The creature spread his arms fully to the sides and focused his gaze on the flashing floor inches from his flat nose. “The friends are speaking to receive diávra through the la-lass.”
After a few more seconds of absolutely nothing, Watcher straightened fully, stared at the back wall of the dome above the Royal’s head, and thrust his arm out toward the young couple. “I think that’s our cue,” Lily whispered. They moved slowly toward their guide, once again squeaking rhythmically with each step across the throne room floor that now looked like it was made of pink sand with neon-orange ripples. She didn’t want to stare at the floor as they approached, but she couldn’t help darting glances at the Royal seated cross-legged on the cushion, which was obviously bad form in the Vátran court.
When they reached Watcher’s side, the smaller Vátra slapped his hand against his thigh and stepped aside. Another silence followed. The Royal sat as still as a sculpture except for the bright colors of his chest that pulsed with his heartbeat. The young witch shared an uncertain glance with her werewolf friend before she took a deep breath. “Thank you for seeing us.” That’s the best way to start out with a royal of any kind. It should be good enough here.
The Royal’s unblinking eyes focused on the opposite wall of the dome and fluttered rapidly. When they opened again, they’d lost their golden-brown hue and the irises were now the same blazing blue as the glowing domes and tunnel walls. His head moved slowly until his gaze rested on Lily and he inclined his head toward her. It wasn’t much movement at all, but on a creature who’d made the entrance he had and who hadn’t moved at all since he’d sat, it felt like a complete bow. “Greetings, friends.” The Royal’s voice wasn’t overly male or female, which might have stemmed from the fact that he spoke in multiple tones at once, high and low. Judging by anatomy alone, Lily guessed the creature was male. But they weren’t dealing with witches or werewolves or even androgynous warlocks at this point. The Vátra were clearly something different.
She offered a slow nod in return, and Romeo cleared his throat when he did the same. The Royal’s vibrant gaze never left hers.
“The Watcher has told us of your journey,” he said. “As much of it as he has come to learn, although he left out one very important detail. I wish to correct that.”
The young witch glanced at Watcher, who stared past her in a straight line toward the side of the throne room, unblinking and unfazed by his leader’s words. He doesn’t seem scared, but I hope that statement wasn’t a precursor to punishing t
he little guy. She glanced at the Royal and waited for more.
“You are no ordinary witch, Lily. And we desire all our friends to be honest about their true selves.” The Vátran leader tilted his head back enough to look up at her down the bridge of his slightly more human-looking nose, however flat it still was. “You are an Optatus, one of very few. It is for this reason that we have asked our Watcher to deliver you our message.”
When she took a deep breath, she was keenly aware of how strange it was to feel the air pull into her lungs from the filmy breathing suit wrapped tightly around her. “Yes.” She nodded slowly. “That’s what I am. Watcher told us that was why you wanted to talk.”
“He has seen your true nature, so we have seen it ourselves. We understand that you and your companion wish to cross what the gigni like you call the Mediterranean Sea. This desire is of a sensitive and personal nature to you specifically, is it not?”
“It is.” Lily had to take a minute to form her next words. There’s nothing wrong with trusting a goofy Vátra in seaweed pants who dives off cliffs. This one has more power than all of its kind in this room put together. She stared at those glowing blue eyes. “It’s also time-sensitive. Something very important to me was taken to the other side of the sea, and I need to get it back.”
“Of course. And something most precious to us has been taken to this side of the sea and onto the land. We also desire its return. Will you hear our proposal, Optatus?” Beyond the Royal’s thin, pale-orange lips moving when it spoke, not a single muscle stirred in the rest of its body.
She glanced at Romeo, who muttered, “It’s only a request to listen and something tells me we’ll get perfectly understandable explanations this time.”
“Good.” She turned to the Royal and tried not to let herself become impatient after mentioning how quickly they needed to make it to Libya. “We’ll hear it, yes.”
For the first time, the Royal’s illuminated eyes flickered briefly toward Romeo. “Do you speak for your companion as well?”
Return Of The Witch (The Witch Next Door Book 6) Page 4