Seduced by the Sea Lord (Lords of Atlantis Book 1)

by Starla Night

  Lucy ignored this danger. “If he’s lonely, why doesn’t he go to meet a female? Mr. Huggles had no guy.”

  “Mating is dangerous for cave guardians. Sometimes one is not in the mood, and the other may get eaten.”

  She stilled. “That’s not what happens when we mate, right?”

  “No.” He lowered his vibration. “We are not cannibals. Shh.”

  “Good,” she whispered, “because I don’t want to turn into some red-eyed zombie vampire squid.”

  “Yes, that would be quite unsettling. We are normal. It is fine.”

  Hmm. The guard towers above the spires were empty. No evidence of recent patrols marked the reef.

  He approached the echo point, an intersection of currents where he could hear all around them. All around could also hear them. The water was clear and still. The tinkling chimes of the distant Life Tree, the peculiar song of Sireno the city, amplified.

  Something wasn’t right….

  She shifted, clearly still anxious about his last revelation. “By n—”

  “Shh!”

  Their voices projected outward.

  But still, the city was silent. Emptied, as though not even a single guard had been left home.

  How very, very odd. The only time that could happen was during the death of the Life Tree.

  Or an attack.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Torun swam forward. His movements were cautious and jerky. After shushing her, he was clearly on high alert.

  Lucy clung to him. The closeness of pressing against his hard, muscular body was delicious, but it only her fins worked properly, she could help.

  If he were attacked and his Council dragged him away, she could do nothing but scream obscenities and cry. She snuggled tighter.

  They passed a second echo point.

  “There are many around the city,” he said quietly. “At the outer edge, a current can take your voice to another city. Always one guard is stationed at that trans-city echo point. For the entire city to empty like this, something terrible must have happened.”

  Another mer floated on the far end of a ridged reef.

  Torun froze. They drifted on their own, lower, current.

  This merman was thinner than Torun, with red and black iridescent tattoos instead of gold. He carried a gold trident and stared up, the way they had come, transfixed. Like Torun, he was completely naked. Tattoos swirled around his impressive manhood.

  With males like these, the future tribal dating site would not be hard to advertise.

  Torun ghosted past.

  They passed more tribesmen, all hot, all tattooed. Also, all kept glancing overhead, distracted and unwary, while Torun hugged the coral reef underneath them.

  Much of the ocean was bare like a moonscape. Not the area around Torun’s city. A great bubble of vibrant life exploded from its brilliant center, like a sun with a corona. Schools of deep sea fish darted over the currents. The living reef spread out as a disc-shaped plateau teeming with a celestial glow.

  Rising from the center of the disc, a city of shimmering glass bulbs floated in the middle of the ocean. Each bulb glowed with a subtly different shade of white. One had a dark chocolate cinnamon tint that attracted her. It must be Torun’s castle.

  These monolithic balloons, bull kelp bulbs grown to gigantic proportions, increased the song of the reef like a symphony director swelling to the crescendo.

  Torun wove through the anchoring trunks to the central column. It looked thick enough to install an elevator. Scarred with age, it also glowed the brightest.

  He swam up the column to the city. “We may swim near others soon. If any look at you, pretend that you are an injured male from another village.”

  Her hips and boobs hadn’t exactly melted away in the transition. “Will that really work?”

  “Most obey the Council’s restrictions from visiting the surface and have not seen a human since Prince Jolan’s mother, decades ago. I will move at an average speed and try to avoid their interest.”

  “Fly casual,” she murmured.

  “Yes, exactly.”

  The central column widened and thickened to form a dais. Torun flew above the lip. In the center, like the stamen of a gigantic lily, ruled the Life Tree.

  Radiance shone outward with awe-inspiring grace. The rest of the ocean blotted out. Blessed silence fell upon her. She hadn’t realized how loud the chaos was until now it had all been whited out.

  Torun circled the dais, both reverent and watchful.

  Little tinkles of sound cascaded through the bare branches and down the tree. Small pebbles fell from the upper branches and piled around the trunk, like a white bonsai in a circular planter.

  He swam closer.

  Oh, wait. Those white objects were neither pebbles nor fruit.

  They were Sea Opals. The smallest was the size of her fist. Some were much larger than her fist; some were larger than her head.

  The pebbles were resin bleeding from the tree. These, then, were the mating jewels? So the mermen had a symbiotic relationship. The Life Tree gave its own blood to draw new life to it. Each opal fell as a drop of hope for a mer to bring back his bride.

  Torun seemed to read her thoughts. “When you and I unite, the Life Tree will sense our union and grow a blossom. The nectar inside transforms you to live under the water permanently.”

  Wow. She gripped him closer. “How do we unite?”

  “First, the commitment of honor. Second, the commitment of body. Finally, the commitment of soul. Are you ready?”

  “I’m so ready.”

  He swam her to the edge of the dais. “We must cross onto the Life Tree platform together, as partners.”

  She disentangled and gripped his hand. The dais glowed pure white like a holy church. She kicked her bare, human feet to propel her across.

  They landed in front of the tree.

  “Now, follow my example.” Torun knelt and bowed his head to its glistening white trunk. “I, Torun of Sireno, present Lucy as my chosen bride. Please shower your blessing and healing on our union and give us a young fry son.”

  He kissed the trunk and retreated.

  Then, this was her wedding ceremony. Her heart thumped. Fewer guests this time, and so meaningful.

  Lucy walked in his footsteps. The Sea Opals shifted beneath her bare feet, warm and smooth.

  She knelt. “I, Lucy of Newport, Oregon, present Torun as my chosen groom. Please shower your blessing, and healing, on our union, and give us a young fry baby.”

  Torun could hope for all the sons he wanted, but she wouldn’t specify. Any baby would fulfill her longest and most fiercely held dreams.

  She kissed the trunk.

  Krish! Tinkling increased as though a new breeze shivered through the tree.

  Huh.

  Had Torun heard the same when he pressed his lips to the smooth bark? She rose to her feet and looked back at him.

  His face was white and mouth open. He looked up, over her head, to the top of the tree.

  Uh oh.

  He focused on her, smiled, and held out his hand.

  Maybe it was okay.

  She pushed off the ground and floated to him. He linked their fingers, sliding his warm digits between hers, and kissed the back of her hand with his lips. Sweet, tender.

  The hunger in his gaze filled her belly with a sizzling promise. “Now, the physical commitment?” she asked.

  “Soon.”

  “How soon?” She had been pressed up against him forever. The shape of his body imprinted on hers, and the dark chocolate cinnamon scent pulsed in her blood. She wanted to consummate their marriage now.

  His aquamarine eyes glowed. Did he sense her growing arousal? “Very soon.”

  Her stomach growled.

  He blinked in surprise and then smiled. “Come, my queen-to-be. Let me feed you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Of all the timing!

  Torun heard the words as clearly as if Lucy had spoken
them aloud. She rubbed her stomach. She was ravenous, and his castle was not far.

  He tugged her through the city, swimming between the king’s castle and Council castles, and outward, to the periphery. They met no one, thankfully, on the approach to his domicile.

  The city was empty. The border guards acted watchful, not war-like, meaning there was not a risk of attack. Perhaps the migrations had come early and the city emptied for a great hunt. Had the city been occupied, the entire community would have assembled at the Life Tree’s single note, sounded when Lucy had kissed the trunk.

  What did the note mean?

  He had not heard any song from the Life Tree in decades. Not since Prince Jolan’s birth, the last presentation of a young fry.

  Had the tree recognized Lucy’s resonance? The note had tapered to a minor key. Did it hold a different, more sinister warning?

  No. Impossible.

  Lucy was his mate. He accepted no other woman as his queen.

  Wait. He accepted no other woman as his queen? Truly?

  The thought jarred him with shocking awareness.

  He had intended to claim a bride. The brightest soul, whoever she was. But that was no longer true.

  Now, he knew Lucy more deeply than any other. Even more deeply than his own warriors. He had met her friends and listened to her dreams. She was not his bride. She was his Lucy.

  She resisted him. She threw herself headlong at him. She spoke of transferring his attraction to another woman. She spoke of an incurable illness.

  Madness. She would be healed by the Life Tree. She had to be. No other bride would ever satisfy him.

  Uniting would sweep all doubts away. Torun squeezed Lucy’s hands and pulled her faster through the water. They approached his family’s castle and the entrance appeared as a pinprick in the center of the bulb.

  “This is your castle?” she asked.

  He assented. Everything she said and did took on extra significance as he evaluated whether her answers proved she was fit for this life or whether the Life Tree’s note had been a warning of disaster. “Do you like it?”

  “It’s big.” She looked way up. “A perfect sphere and just one tiny entrance.”

  Although tiny in comparison to the overall size of the castle, the main entrance gaped wide enough for six mer warriors to enter, shoulder-to-shoulder. Thick walls dampened the music of the ocean to a quiet, fan-like hum of privacy.

  They entered his castle. She craned her neck to look behind them. “No door?”

  “If we are attacked, this passage will close and seal off the uninvited.”

  “That’s handy.”

  They swam out the passage and into the inner courtyard.

  Windows of rooms dotted the inner walls. His family’s castle was old, so the rooms had grown several layers thick. Soil was tilled in the inner courtyard and gardens burst with overgrown food. Torun’s ancestors had once easily housed large families of ten, fifteen, twenty grown mer and their young fry. Now, like in so many other emptied castles, he was the last of his line to survive.

  In the center of the garden, one single column grew up and formed a living dais. It glowed with the pure, white seed of the Life Tree.

  She swam to the seed. “What’s this? It looks like a fava bean.”

  “It is our right and legacy. Every house pledges to protect and honor the Life Tree. In return, we are blessed with one seed. Should we fail in our duty, our seed is crushed and we are cast out of the city.”

  She touched a notch in the dais. “Is this a decoration?”

  “No.” Several more were near the first. A battle had taken place here. “A rival tried to dishonor, or destroy, my house.”

  Her mouth opened. She looked at the entrance. “I thought you said it would close. Are we in danger?”

  “The gate may be breached, but the house will defend itself from attack.”

  If the Council had so chosen, they would muster a large force, and his seed would be gone. Good. His escape from Jolan and Malem had not turned the king or Council fully against him. He still had the chance to earn their good will with Lucy and succeed.

  She studied the seed. “Will it ever grow?”

  “Yes. The most honorable males choose a leader to found a new city. They plant his seed, and the others plant theirs around him. The leader’s seed grows into a new Life Tree. Those around take on the power of its founding house.”

  “That’s a heck of a down payment. It must be hard to move.”

  “We do not move.”

  She looked at him.

  “We all,” he indicated himself, “form a life-blood connection to our own Life Tree, and remain where we are planted. Many feel angst about the young leader of Atlantis’s wish to draw off more males. That is another reason he has been imprisoned. Founding a new city bloods the old, and now our numbers are dying, our old is a thin corpse that cannot afford the loss. That is why I hope to invigorate Sireno, here, and breathe life into our own Life Tree, rather than going away to strengthen another city.”

  “Changing at home is the best place to start.” She placed her hand over her heart. “I pledge…do I pledge?”

  “It is not necessary,” he said. “Brides usually do not. However, it is customary among close males, and I would be honored if you pledged to defend our seed.”

  “How do I do it?”

  He told her the words.

  She placed her hand over her heart. “I vow to defend this seed as I defend my home.”

  The dedication moved him. A lump formed in his throat, unexpected and tight. His queen-to-be pledged herself to their castle. It felt like she was vowing to join with him all over again.

  “As it will defend you,” he intoned, finishing the father-son recognition ritual. “Kiss the seed, as you kissed the trunk.”

  Her hand hovered over the seed. “I can touch it?”

  “Yes.”

  She picked it up. It filled her hand, oblong and striated and white. Her lips touched its smooth surface. Sand wafted off.

  How embarrassing. That was a result of his inattention. “Sorry for the mess.”

  “Not at all.” She polished the seed and replaced it in its place of honor. “This is a lot to take care of by yourself.”

  True. Since the passing of his uncle, only he remained to carry on traditions and battle the upkeep.

  First, he showed her the fruits and vegetables ready for harvesting.

  “This one tastes like corn.” She crunched a bumpy rhizome and bit into a succulent fruit. “This is like if an apple and a grape had a baby.”

  He repaired a basket and harvested a bounty, eating, as she did, while they worked.

  “Do not lose all your hunger. There is still the physical commitment of the wedding feast.”

  “No problem. I feel like I haven’t eaten in days!” She brightened. “Lead me to it.”

  “It is in the pantry.”

  He swam to the upper balconies and entered. The castle’s passages wound and curled, making wonderful nooks and crannies. He had adored playing here as a young fry, hiding from his grandfather and bursting out to startle visiting warriors. Soon, their own young fry would fill these hallowed halls.

  He swelled with purpose. The rest of the castle was a mess, but he cared for the pantry. He swam the last turn. At least here, his queen-to-be would see the glory of—

  Disaster had struck in here too. Things had been pulled out of secure storage and thrown around. Empty shells and husks scattered across the floor and piled in the corners.

  His heart sank.

  He released her hand to sift through the devastation. “I did not realize I was absent for so long.”

  “Did the bad guys break in here too?”

  “No. This assailant is still in the house.”

  His words affected her, and his Lucy stiffened.

  “Be not afraid. You will see soon. Where is he?” Torun checked his locked cabinets. All emptied; some, smashed. His vintage sea fruit wines, all dec
anted. His private reserve fish cakes. “Show yourself.”

  The culprit lurked in the shadows.

  “Come out!”

  Lucy peered into the small, dark hole in the wall with concern. “What—”

  The house guardian bolted from the hole and gripped onto Torun. His arms suctioned Torun’s body and his beak clacked furiously. His dark red skin turned bumpy with fury.

  Torun protected his face. “Yes, yes. I am sorry. I expected to return sooner. I thought I left enough food.”

  His house guardian pinched Torun’s forearm in his beak, hard.

  “Ow! I am sorry!”

  Lucy’s laughter startled the house guardian. He released Torun and floated backward, into his hole.

  “Do not ink,” Torun warned him. “She is the new mistress of this castle. Lucy, this is the guardian of the castle.”

  The house guardian regarded her with first one eye, then the other.

  “What an adorable red octopus. He’s skeptical of me,” she said.

  “He is hungry,” Torun corrected, sweeping up the debris and searching for anything remaining undamaged to serve his new bride. “And he is a faithful guardian of the house, and will not cause you any problems.”

  “You know, it’s funny. I’d say he was large, but after seeing Mr. Huggles, yours seems like a mini pet.”

  “He is a dangerous pet, but only to those who would try to break in.”

  “I hope we make friends.” Lucy offered a handful of crispy weeds from the courtyard garden.

  The house guardian crept out and slunk along the wall. His skin changed colors, from green to white to speckled, and textures from ridged to smooth. He inspected the offering and then backed away again.

  “I’m sure he’s skeptical,” Lucy said.

  “He eats other fish, not plants. And anyway, he is probably nervous. We have only just arrived, and he must have fended off one, if not two, attempts to desecrate my family seed.”

  Finally, Torun unearthed a case of fillet steak from a great hunt. This was a fitting first meal for a wedding night. Enclosed in its savory box, the meat steeped in the aged wood’s rich flavoring.