With careful, fluid movements, the Royal pinched the residue of the rubbery substance off the shirt-wrapped artifact in his hands and peeled it away slowly before he let it fall from his fingers. The film met the floor with a wet, heavy splat, and Lily half expected one of his attendants to rush over to clean it up. No one moved, however.
An agonizing anticipation filled the dome as the Vátra leader pulled away one hair tie after the other from around the old t-shirt. Every hair tie dropped to the floor with a little bounce. Finally, he unrolled the shirt as if moving too quickly would break the precious artifact wrapped inside it and froze. His blue eyes flashed as he stared at the copper rod in his hand before he grasped the fake Varelos with the other had and let the t-shirt fall to the floor on top of the pile of suit residue.
Lily swallowed. This had better work.
The pulsing pink light in the Royal’s chest pumped faster and faster like a racing heart, although the creature moved as slowly and with as much poise as ever. The throbbing light spread to the rest of his body—his throat, the undersides of his upper arms and forearms, and even the center of his long, lithe thighs. After what seemed like far too long, his glowing blue gaze flickered toward Lily again. “You have returned to us the thing we have most desired for far too long, Lily. Your gift is well received. Thank you.”
She was completely surprised to see the Royal bow his hairless head toward her as he bent low at the waist. Beside her and Romeo, Watcher fell flat on his stomach and pressed his face against the throne room floor as his arms reached out toward her. Every other Vátra attendant in the room moved as one and those with nothing in their hands dropped and lay prostrate. Those who held trays or weapons or anything at all merely fell to their knees, but it was enough to send a shiver down her spine. It worked. “You’re welcome,” she said and her own voice sounded steady and sure and maybe even a little full of herself. At least it’s not the opposite.
The Royal straightened slowly, held the fake Varelos with both hands now, and met her gaze. “We would be very honored indeed to offer you a gift in return. Passage across what you call the Mediterranean Sea, under our very own protection. Would this please you, friend of the Vátra?”
Lily let herself smile a little, and she nodded without breaking from his gaze. “Very much.”
“Then it is done.” He turned from her to address the very few other Vátra waiting on him in his throne room. “We are setting out to carry our friends through the la-lass. We are wanting every able Vátra who is strong to join us. We are protecting friends of the Vátra. You will be gathering in the time of rising to the surface.”
Watcher leapt to his feet and nodded without looking at his sovereign, closely followed by the other green-skinned creatures who’d knelt or completely prostrated themselves before Lily. Their small, wide-headed friend jumped toward the left side of the dome, stopped, and hurried back toward the young couple on soft, whispering feet. He waited until the Royal had turned away with both hands still firmly clasped around either end of the fake Varelos before he glanced at Lily. “Royal is very pleased,” he whispered. “Many Vátra will gather for this diávra. A short journey, yes? But a very great journey when Royal will be coming with us.”
Lily startled. “He’s—” It felt odd to whisper behind the sovereign’s back, but when she glanced at the Royal, the creature had settled onto the massive cushion on the floor, his legs crossed beneath him as he stared at the copper rod in his hands. “He’s coming with us?”
“Oh, yes. Very exciting. Good fortune and good protection and good omens for you both, friends. I must go, but do not let yourselves fall over. I will be back very soon.” Watcher nodded at them, spun away, and walked as quickly as he could toward the tunnel through which the Royal had originally entered. His huge webbed feet whispered across the floor with very little sound at all. The other Vátra beside the Royal’s cushion did very much the same. All of them set their various items down and hurried away in shuffling, gliding, silent runs toward the tunnel after Watcher.
The young couple watched them leave in stunned silence, then looked at each other. “I guess no one’s breaking the rules if we’re still in here with him, right?” Romeo nodded sideways at the Royal, who was still completely absorbed in what he thought was his true artifact—his true weapon—safely returned to him by an Optatus witch who didn’t know any better. Or who didn’t care.
With a tiny shrug, Lily nodded. “I definitely didn’t expect him to take us across himself.” Which means that if he finds out that isn’t the real Varelos, he won’t have to go very far at all to find the witch who has the original. She widened her eyes at Romeo, grateful that he acted exactly like himself and knowing he thought the same thing.
“Yeah, well…” He forced a smile. “It’ll be fun.”
Eighteen
They stood there in the silent throne room, alone with the captivated Royal, for possibly another ten minutes before dozens of webbed feet slapped on the tunnel floors and echoed toward them. A stream of Vátra burst from the passage, all of them slowing enough when they entered to completely cut off the sound of their footsteps. Lily lost count of the green-skinned creatures around twenty, but she thought at least twice that many now surrounded her and Romeo in the center of the largest blue dome.
Watcher was among them too. He bobbed his head and flashed his gummy grin when Lily located him among his brethren. The circle of anxiously awaiting Vátra broke quietly and swiftly when the Royal stood and towered above all of them. The fake Varelos swung loosely at his side as he stepped forward across the shimmering floors. The minute he reached the center of the circle and halted only feet away from Lily and Romeo, his subjects shuffled toward each other once more and closed the gap.
He raised his free hand above his head. “We are rising to gather what our friends need from us. Then we shall endure the diávra.”
That makes it sound like a chore. Maybe this isn’t as easy for them as we thought.
Only about half of the Vátra in the gathered circle held long, copper-colored spears like the two Lily had first assumed were guards. Each of them slammed the butt of their weapon down upon the brilliantly flashing floor, and the domed throne room cracked with the sound. She jumped a little, and Romeo’s arm bumped against hers and bounced back when their breathing suits made contact.
The Royal’s glowing blue eyes flashed with brilliant intensity, and every stone pool in the throne room began to bubble. In the next moment, columns of water erupted from the pools and raced toward the gathered circle of Vátra and their guests, poured over them, and filled what looked like another bubble that now shimmered around them. This one, however, wouldn’t make it any easier for the non-Vátra guests to breathe while they traveled, and Lily was suddenly very grateful for the suits.
When the conjured dome filled completely around them and Lily began to float in so much seawater, the Royal clenched his raised hand into a tight fist, and the entire world jolted.
Nope. Only us.
The bubble with the Vátran leader, almost four dozen small, green-skinned soldiers, and two land-dwelling magicals rocketed from the floor of the throne room and burst straight through the ceiling of the largest blue dome in the underwater city. Her stomach lurched, and if she’d been standing on solid ground at this point, she would have fallen over.
They ascended more quickly than she could follow with her own eyes, although she caught a glimpse of the piercing yellow stream of light bursting away from her toward the surface. She decided to look somewhere else.
The conjured orb rose above the city, which she and Romeo both studied again from beneath their feet before it careened them sideways through the underwater cavern and directly toward the tunnel and the remainder of the creatures’ lair.
Lily had to close her eyes as they barreled through the narrowing tunnel of the cavern. It was much bigger than what she and Romeo had swum through to reach the city, but it seemed too small for a traveling group of this size.
Luminescent algae, barnacles, coral, and creatures darted past them as they proceeded and their colors flashing brilliantly in an endless dance of light.
“Are you okay?” Romeo asked and lowered his head to catch her attention. The sound of his own voice surprised him. “I didn’t think I’d be able to hear anything right now.”
“I’m simply trying not to puke in my airsuit.” She raised her eyebrows and gave him a weak smile. That might be the only thing that can make this worse right now.
The bubble around them filled with light and cast an even starker shadow across the floor of the cavern. The Royal threw his head back and gazed up, followed by every single one of his Vátran followers. Lily and Romeo glanced up as well to the surface of the sea that glistened above them where the sunlight refracted in wavering lights. They continued their headlong ascent for a short while before they jerked sideways through the water. Lily only knew they were moving south again because the flaring yellow cord blazed in the right corner of her vision.
Without any warning at all, before the Royal’s ridiculously fast mode of transportation broke the surface, the young couple were both launched into the air again by massive columns of water. This time, however, when they reached the top of the cliffs, they were set down gently and on their feet before the water receded and crashed into the sea.
Lily stumbled forward on the bouncy, rubbery suit that coated the bottom of her flats and tried to stand straight and breathe her stomach back to where it belonged. “You’re fine, you’re fine,” she muttered.
“Woah.” Romeo caught his balance and stood beside her, his arms thrust out at his sides before he whirled to stare at the edge of the cliffs. “That whole thing was—”
“Friends!” Watcher called from the water below, and the pair moved cautiously to peer over the edge. “You must choose what you want to bring with you now.”
“Um…” She glanced at her companion and frowned. “The whole thing, please. The RV. That’s it.”
“Yes. Good.” He waved quickly at them and vanished under the waves again.
“They’re all right there.” She stared at the surface of the sea, the cresting waves, and the sprays of saltwater that thundered against the rocks. “And no one would ever see them.”
“Yeah, it’s a little creepy.” Romeo scratched his head and straightened to glance at the Winnie. “So how do you think they’ll get an RV down into the water from here?”
She smirked. “In the same way they got us up here, I imagine.” The second she said it, two more columns of water erupted from the sea and arched over the cliff toward them. The first crashed over the Winnie, and the second targeted the couple. Before she was pummeled by all that rushing water, she saw the first column recede and the empty, open space of dry land beside the highway where her RV and her home had been. In the next moment, she hurtled over the edge of the cliff again and tumbled over and over in a mass of water and bubbles and flashing sunlight. Romeo shouted something beside her, but she couldn’t even hear herself think.
When everything was still again, they floated in the water—under the water—surrounded by the circle of their Vátran escort. Only this time, the circle had grown to accommodate the Winnebago in its center, beside which bobbed the Royal. His glowing blue eyes fell upon Lily again, and he tilted his head. “We thought you might have more than one vessel to accompany you.”
The werewolf snorted in his breathing suit. “We travel light, actually.”
The Vátra leader glanced at him with languid consideration. “As do we.” He raised his clenched fist again, and the massive bubble encompassing a few dozen Vátra, their leader, plus a witch, a werewolf, and their Winnie barreled across the sea however many yards below the surface.
Her stomach churned again, and her eyes watered. That, though, wasn’t from the ridiculously fast movement of their entourage. Now, they moved directly across the Mediterranean Sea toward Libya. The achingly bright yellow light that began with Lily and stretched who knew how far seemed to pull them along like a winch on a cable. Except that I’m the only one who can see it. But at least we’re heading in the right direction.
After twenty minutes of the swift crossing, Lily’s stomach finally started to settle. She and Romeo had given up trying to pay attention to the journey. They couldn’t see anything but streaming water and a few creatures that flashed by so quickly, they were only a blur. She had pulled her legs up beneath her and crossed them, although there was nothing to sit on, and she watched Romeo study the Vátra all around them.
“These guys have serious dedication,” he muttered. “I don’t think a single one of them has moved since we started this.”
Lily glanced at the Royal, who hovered in the bubble of water only a few feet from the Winnie, his glowing blue eyes now closed and his fist still clenched but now lowered at his side. “I bet it takes a whole lotta concentration to do something like this.”
“It makes sense. I wanna know why so many of them needed to come with us. Don’t get me wrong. I like having a little protection on the move. That part’s new. And I understand that they want to keep the tall guy safe. But no one’s doing anything.”
She shook her head and studied the wall of Vátra around them. Each of the shorter, frog-like individuals had turned away from the center of the circle to face outward while their giant underwater bubble hurtled across the sea. “There’s so much about these people I don’t think we’ll ever understand.”
“At least we’re—”
“The seirí are coming!” The cry rose from a Vátra somewhere behind her, and she turned in the water to see one of the creatures thrust his copper-colored spear above his head. His brethren echoed the call and raised both voices and spears in a wave as they spread on both sides of the one who’d uttered the warning. Everything stopped again, the Vátra froze in their new positions.
“If they are moving as swiftly as us, we are letting them come.” The Royal’s voice was loud, firm, and sure, although he didn’t open his eyes and barely moved at all from his concentrated position.
The other Vátra took up the new cry. “We are facing the seirí. We are letting them come!”
Romeo gawked at the circle of green-skinned creatures around them, none of whom had taken it upon themselves to reassure their temporary passengers. He frowned at Lily. “What the heck is a seirí?”
A flaring orange light that crackled with red streaks illuminated in the water. She wouldn’t have known it was coming if she hadn’t seen the flaring light reflected in Romeo’s eyes and the thin sheen of the breathing suit around him. The glare intensified and grew, and a cracking boom struck the Vátran bubble. A few tiny bubbles rose from the shivering field around them. The Vátra rocked and swayed as one under the force, but the Royal still didn’t move. “We are letting them come,” he repeated.
Lily whirled in time to see another blazing orange light grow and illuminate the water behind them before it struck the outer wall of the Vátran shield with the same explosive force. “My guess? That’s the seirí.”
Nineteen
The young couple both abandoned their easy cross-legged positions that had them effectively seated on nothing in the water. Now, they both faced the back of the traveling Vátran shield, where the orange balls of churning light struck the clearly strong wall with increasing frequency. The next one made the entire bubble around them crackle with a deep, electric blue, and Romeo spread his arms. “Is anyone gonna do anything about this?”
“The seirí assume they still hold what power once belonged to them,” the Royal said and his voice echoed around the dome as they sped through the water. “They will discover their folly soon enough.”
“I hope that’s before they shatter this into a million pieces and pick us all off like fish in a barrel.” He grimaced but a trace of humor edged it. “That would be kind of ironic, actually.”
Lily studied the Royal and the creature’s confident apathy toward whatever reason the seirí were sending an onslaug
ht against them like this. The creature’s grip tightened around the fake Varelos in his hand, and she swallowed. That’s why he’s so sure. He thinks he can use the Varelos to fight off whatever’s attacking us. And then he’ll realize it’s not working. If the seirí don’t get us first, the Royal definitely will after that. She kicked across the center of the Vátran circle to move a little closer to him. “We can fight them.”
“We what?” Romeo turned and gaped at her. “Lily, we don’t know what the heck these things are.”
“And they’re attacking us because the Vátra left their home to take us across the sea.” When she met Romeo’s gaze, she really hoped he’d pick up on her reasoning. “We don’t have many options, Romeo. We’re not completely safe yet.” She tried to be as inconspicuous as possible when she tilted her head a little toward the Royal. The Vátran leader still hadn’t opened his eyes, but she had a feeling he saw far more than most, even with those glowing blue eyes closed.
The werewolf’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he nodded slowly. “Right. Yeah. We can fight them.” He joined her in front of the Royal while all around them, the Vátran guard remained as still as statues, their skinny arms raised with their spear tips aimed at the surface. “We want to help.”
“This is our gift to you, friends of the Vátra.” The Royal’s eyes finally opened and moved slowly from the young witch to her werewolf friend and back again. “And we will show you what your gift to us truly means.”
Return Of The Witch (The Witch Next Door Book 6) Page 12