“Hoping?”
“Well, these are not robots, Alexandra; I cannot force any of them to like you.”
I gulped. A popularity contest with mythical creatures that were far more intelligent than I was…great!
“If one of them does choose you, you need to respond like this.” Thanh let out a series of short sharp screeches, Allentia wriggling as he did so.
I tried to copy the sounds, but from the look on his face I didn’t do a great job.
“What happens if I get it wrong?” I asked.
“Then you’ll likely be breakfast,” Thanh replied as Allentia started moving.
The speed with which Allentia wove through the kelp left me breathless and I clung to Thanh’s waist, the water rushing past us as we swirled and dove and rose, each movement sinuously effortless.
When we eventually slowed, Thanh whispered that I remain as still and quiet as possible.
Allentia dipped her head, flattening her mane, and I caught my first glimpse of them. They were hard to see at first, but the longer I gazed at what looked like strands of kelp the more I realised that we were surrounded by hundreds of them.
I shifted in my seat, realising too late how sensitive they were to movement, when dozens of large golden eyes snapped open, immediately aware, as their jaws gaped in unmistakable threat.
Allentia let out a blast of air that rumbled through her body beneath us. The sound, unheard by our ears, seemed to placate those around her, but roused their curiosity at the same time.
She twisted a little and whistled at a higher pitch.
“She wants you to get off her back,” Thanh whispered to me.
“You’re not coming with me?”
“No, it’s you alone they want to look at.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“I don’t see that you have too much choice,” Thanh replied, inclining his head to the Zmija who had given up their disguise as kelp and now surrounded us, their gorgeous bodies undulating in the water, shimmering in the shafts of sunshine that speared the blue.
“They are no threat to you right now,” Thanh continued.
“Yes but that can change, right?” I muttered as I slid off Allentia’s back.
The water thrummed around me as they discussed me in their deep unheard tongue.Every time I turned to look at one of them they would duck away from me, trilling as they went.
I floated with the current “meeting” many Zmija, all of whom refused to come near me.
“It might be because you’re a Halfling,” Thanh told me when yet another beautiful serpent coloured in turquoise and lilac turned from me.
I could almost feel my shoulders slumping as he said it. Even the sea creatures thought I was too odd to bond with, I thought. Great! I’m an outsider here too.
I was on the verge of giving up when one of them, the largest of the group, inched closer to me, drawing water into her mouth so that the vacuum of it was hard to resist.
“Thanh?”
“Hold very still,” Hhe replied, his face an intense mask of excitement as he watched the massive Zmija.
I didn’t know then how it communicated with me, but somehow I knew that the Zmija was a female I turned to face her, taking in the gorgeous sapphire blue of her massive teeth and searching her huge golden eyes as she continued to suck the water around me into her mouth.
She closed her mouth, her eyes rolling back in her head as she closed them and a wolfish smile stretched her snout.
She stayed in this comical position for a little while. I’d just turned back to Thanh to ask what was happening when the Zmija’s eyes shot open wild with an animal delight and her mane flared around her head a myriad of blinding colours tipped in razor-sharp spines. A blast of noise encapsulated me. As she snaked her head towards me, her teeth, each one longer than my arm, were easily within striking distance.
“Answer her!” Thanh yelled at me, his eyes wild with fear.
I turned back to the Zmija, trying to remember the exact pitch and cadence of the whistles Thanh had taught me.
I opened my mouth and squawked at her.
She stopped moving, shock registering in her eyes before they turned coldly predatory.
“Thanh?” Panic etched my voice.
“SWIM!” he screamed.
I knew I could never outswim her and so I reacted instinctually, swimming straight at her and ducking out of the way of the gnashing jaw as it turned the water around me into a froth of bubbles. I raced down the length of her body, spiralling as I did so, horridly aware of how quickly she had doubled back on herself and was racing towards me.
“That’s it, Alexandra, try and seat her.”
“Are you crazy?” I yelled back as I dashed back up the length of her body trying to stay away from her open jaws.
“You have to win her over.”
“And if I can’t?” I gasped, racing for the tiny gap at the base of her neck, ducking and dodging between weeds and other Zmija as they ducked out of her way.
“She’ll hunt you for the rest of your life and you can’t afford to have a Zmija this big as your enemy.”
“How do I win her over when she’s trying to eat me and she won’t sit still?”
“Talk to her,” Thanh shouted.
“I don’t know how.”
“Yes you do, just try.”
I turned to face the creature roaring down on top of me.
“Stop,” I yelled.
She didn’t even pause as I flicked sideways at the last minute, watching in a blur of bubbles as she curled back on herself to get to me, her mouth stretched wide and jaw extruded in a maw of needle-fine teeth.
A screech I hadn’t intended to make resounded through the water and she shuddered to a halt, her golden eyes skimming over me in hard glittering indecision. I swam straight up to her, watching as her eyes rolled with my movement until I’d slipped past her line of vision.
Only when I’d settled into the softer skin behind her mane did I relax.
It was a mistake.
As soon as I’d heaved a sigh of relief, she was off, weaving through the kelp so fast it was just a blur of green everywhere I looked.
I clung to the tiny folds in her skin with all my might as she bucked and writhed beneath me.
When that didn’t work she shot straight for the surface, spreading the long pectoral fins I’d seen as she hit the void and taking off into the blindingly bright mid-morning sun before folding them tight against her body and diving deep into the blue again.
It took a full two hours of hanging onto her before she eventually tired, settling in the upright position of the other serpents, relaxing the mane of spiny skin around her neck and closing her golden eyes.
I hung there, my fingers locked in the vice-like hold that had kept me alive for the past two hours.
Thanh found me like that about half an hour later. My hair was tangled and wild, eyes still wide in shock.
“You can let go now,” Thanh told me. My Zmija’s eyes snapped open as she threw up her mane, hissing angrily at Thanh.
Thanh’s serpent backed away thrumming as she did so, her behaviour decidedly submissive.
I slowly eased my fingers from her neck and allowed the gentle tug of the current to pull me away from her body, expecting her to turn and attack me again at any moment.
She lazily raised half an eyelid to watch my shaky progress away from her.
Thanh motioned that I should stroke her snout as he had done with Allentia.
“Are you insane?” I mouthed at him, wanting to put as much distance between me and this deranged beast as possible.
“Do it,” Thanh mouthed back, motioning determinedly with his hand.
She watched me the entire time, the infinite black of her slitted pupil sliding across her golden eye as I moved to within snapping distance of her mighty jaws.
Drawing every ounce of courage I had in me, I stretched my trembling fingers out and slid them over the end of her snout.
She continued to watch me for a while as I scratched the scales lightly before her eyes slid shut and the water began to vibrate around me.
I moved slowly back to Thanh and was about to slide onto Allentia when her eyes snapped open and she charged at us. Allentia immediately rolled onto her back, weaving her head and emitting a series of frightened squeaks as my Zmija twisted towards her.
Thanh flapped his arms at me in alarm, telling me to back away. As I did so, my Zmija coiled her powerful body in a protective curl around me, hissing at the other serpent and baring her teeth as she did so.
I slipped into the gap behind her neck again, fully expecting another crazy ride. This time though she held completely still, as if waiting for my instruction.
A wide grin split Thanh’s face and relief lit his eyes.
“Is that it?” I dared to mouth at him.
He nodded. “Now just ask her for her name and the union will be complete.” He grinned again before murmuring to Allentia who was still obviously terrified of my Zmija as she backed away from me and quickly wriggled through the kelp.
“Thanh,” I called softly to the quickly disappearing shadow of his serpent. “Thanh, how do I drive this thing?”
Almost immediately she came alert as I thought about how I was going to get her to follow Thanh’s serpent back to The Haven.
“Haven,” I murmured. She didn’t move.
“Home,” I tried again. Still nothing.
None of the English or Oceanid words I tried over the next ten minutes resulted in anything.
Finally I rested my exhausted cheek against the smoothness of her silky scales, and sighed wishing, for once, for the sanctity of my capsule and the possibility of sleep it offered. Even just to float among my little Oceanid friends would be enough, I just wanted to be safe and relaxed.
Immediately she began to thread her way through the kelp in the direction Thanh had taken. As I relaxed into the ride I wondered what her name could be. She didn’t speak per se, but I recognised somewhere in my subconscious that my mind was connected somehow to her. It was a strange feeling, but mostly very comfortable, like being in the presence of a good friend.
Some sounds formed in the very recesses of my mind.
“Mitra,” I murmured, and she thrummed beneath me.
18. Fight
Mitra and I reached The Haven as Thanh was floating away from Allentia. Allentia bolted as soon as we came into sight, rushing through the kelp and away from us.
Mitra snorted, shaking her head, mane up in a menacing display of size.
Be nice. I thought to her, scratching her neck as I allowed the current to lift me from my seat.
Thanh ducked into The Haven first, while I kept watch over Mitra in case she decided to take a disliking to him again or perhaps sample him for lunch.
A small crowd had already gathered near the entrance to The Haven when I swam through the rock-encased passageway and they were eyeing me with a glint of admiration I couldn’t quite understand.
“How did you manage to tame the great Queen?” one of them asked me in awe.
I shrugged. “She chose me, right, Thanh?” He grinned at me and nodded.
“That she did, Alexandra, Defender of Men.”
I slipped past the crowd to my capsule, sinking into the unfamiliar confines of leathery privacy gratefully.I’d only been inside it for a few moments when Sabrina squeezed her head through the lip at the top.
“So you are the great Zmija tamer are you?” She giggled as I glared at her, before she squeezed herself into the capsule forcing me to wriggle around to make space.
She took one look at the tatters of my robe and the tangle of my hair and immediately went to work, demanding I tell her the whole story.
I did, as briefly as possible, leaving out the emotion and sticking to the action-based events.
“Thanh says your Zmija is the biggest he’s ever seen and an adult, and he thinks she might be the matriarch.”
“The matriarch?”
“Yeah, you should ask him for the details but as far as I know they choose a female leader to whom they are all subservient.”
I laughed. “So that’s why Allentia nearly rolled over Thanh, she was showing respect to my Zmija.”
“Two queens,” Sabrina murmured. “I wonder what it is you are going to achieve together in your lifetime, apart from defeating Neith of course.”
I flushed, a squirm of discomfort running through me at the grand title and dreams she had for me.
“I don’t know what is going to happen once this is all over,” I muttered.
Sabrina paled visibly. “You’re not thinking of leaving? You can never leave your Zmija,” she told me, horrified. “Once they bond with an Oceanid it’s for life.”
I hadn’t realised that the bond between Mitra and I was that serious, but I felt a squirm of her horror as I wondered whether I’d be staying in the ocean after we defeated Neith…or rather if we defeated Neith.
“And besides, you belong with us.” Sabrina continued to prattle. “I mean, can you imagine going back to your human life after everything you’ve experienced?”
The truth was, the thought of going back to school and mom was at once preposterous and strangely alluring. No responsibility, no expectations. I smiled at her, more grateful for her support and belief in me than I could express.
“I can’t really think of anything past rescuing Merrick and stopping Neith.”
She hugged me, “You are braver than I could ever be, Alex. Just to stand being away from Merrick must be awful.”
I shrugged. “It is hard,” I said, the words far too small to describe the constant physical ache of his absence.
“She nearly killed me.” I changed the subject. “Your so called queen, she would have had me for lunch had I not been quick enough.”
Sabrina nodded. “Yeah I heard, they can be really nasty beasties, but at least you know now that you have a completely loyal friend.”
“How so?”
“Well, the two of you can’t lie to each other, so if she has chosen you then she has accepted you and decided to bond with you for life. That’s true loyalty if you ask me.”
I smiled at her. “Well, if that’s the case then I have at least two of those,” I replied.
“Yeah…of course you do,” Sabrina replied quickly.
Our conversation was cut short by loud and angry shouting. Sabrina and I struggled out of the confines of the capsule and watched a commotion at the entrance to The Haven as Oceanids rushed to obey the shouted commands from Aoi.
A curl of dread nauseated me as I searched for my dad in the confusion. Despite my anger at him for leaving me out in the cold I found I was afraid for him, afraid he’d get hurt.
I found him drifting high above the chaos at the entrance and swam straight to him. We hung above the commotion in the clear blue water and I searched The Haven anxiously for the other Oceanids I knew, locating them one by one with relief.
“It’s our spy,” Dad said with certainty.
“Why do you think that?”
“Mitra brought him in.”
I shuddered at the thought of the injuries the Oceanid must have sustained if Mitra had caught him.
I watched an Oceanid carrying a delicate limp form, her dark wavy hair wafting around her porcelain face.
“It’s a woman,” I whispered, the blood draining from my face as I swam down into the throng of Oceanids that surrounded the so-called traitor.
“Is she all right?”
The Oceanid that carried her had a grim expression on his face. “She is a traitor and Aoi will decide what to do with her.”
The council room was almost immediately overcrowded, everyone at once horrified at the ribbons of skin and muscle that drifted with the cloth that had covered her legs.Aoi insisted everyone clear the room except for three of the biggest Miengu and the council.
“Call Maya,” I instructed as I knelt at her side.
“No,�
� Aoi replied.
“But she is hurt, Aoi, she needs healing. I can do it on my own but it’s easier with two of us.”
Aoi shook his head. “She will receive no help from us.”
The others in the council room murmured at the angry words from Aoi, obviously oblivious to the fact there had been a spy in their midst.
“This woman has betrayed all of us,” he announced to them. “In attacking Neith we are putting our lives in danger and this, this scum has informed him of our plans and has probably already told him what it is we have been practising. Make no mistake, she has ensured the deaths of many already with the information she has given to Neith.”
“How do you know this, Aoi?” one of the Oceanids asked.
“Someone has been giving Neith information and we we asked the Zmija to keep guard over The Haven and to bring any who left it back to us…alive.”
He nudged the woman’s wounds and blood swirled into the water.
“I must admit I expected a man and I expected the spy to wait until this evening at the very earliest, but it looks like she couldn’t wait to go and tell Neith and it looks like she very nearly managed to get away too.”
“So you’re just going to leave her to suffer?” I asked in horror, watching her eyelids flutter as she began to gain consciousness.
“We need to find out what she’s told Neith,” Aoi stated matter of factly.
Nausea squirmed through me. “How are you planning to do that?”
“We have our ways,” he replied, his face setting in a mask of distaste and determination as he nodded to two Miengu.They approached her and began prodding her wounds as she groaned in pain.
“Stop that,” I told them, trying to push them away from her.
Both of them stopped before turning to Aoi again who nodded ever so slightly.
One of the Miengu pulled her hair and watched in satisfaction as she came round, letting out a sob of pain.
“What did you tell Neith?” The Miengu hissed into her face.
She closed her eyes, cowering away from him as he wrapped his huge hand around the torn flesh of her leg.
She began to cry.
“I said stop that.” I pushed at the Miengu again, but this time they ignored me.
I drew on the terror and fury the dream had left me with and produced two energy balls, one in each of my palms before swimming above them and repeating my request.
Fire (The Mermaid Legacy - Book 2) Page 12