by Starla Night
“Kusi, cut off his hand.”
The representative blanched and held up both hands. “No! Wait!”
Kusi slashed. The blade severed his wrist.
The representative screamed. “Stop!”
His warriors surrounded them.
“Tell your army to back away.”
“Back away,” Representative Rikoy squealed clutching his stump. “Back away!”
His warriors reluctantly moved back.
“Release Xarin and let us go.”
“Do it. Do whatever the rebel says! We obey. We obey!”
His warriors backed off from Gailen and his beseiged patrol. Lotar finished freeing Xarin. On Faier’s orders, Kusi dragged the injured Representative Rikoy across the ocean. He left his army with orders to stay.
“If your army keeps their distance, we will release you before we reach Aiycaya,” Faier told Representative Rikoy. “I do not know which Atlantean may wish vengeance on you, but Aiycaya warriors may well blame you for King Kayo’s injury.”
“King Kayo is injured?” Xarin raised his exhausted, battered head from Lotar’s shoulder.
Representative Rikoy spat at Faier. “You will die, you pitiful, scarred, damaged rebel. You may have tricked me today, but no warrior will follow you. Your reputation is well-known to the All-Council. We regard you with pity. You belong to two cities because neither will have you! Not even a rebel respects a warrior so scarred he looks like an exile.”
“Scars? Exile?” Gailen glanced back at the representative and then at Faier. He quirked a freshly cut eyebrow. “What does he mean, Faier?”
“I may have lost a hand, but it will grow back,” Representative Rikoy snarled. “Whereas you, disgusting rebel, have turned stomachs for years from your unhealing…”
He trailed off.
Faier’s scabs had peeled off in the fight. New skin underneath glowed iridescent lavender.
Bright. Light. Full of color.
“What is this madness?” Representative Rikoy muttered. “How do you heal after all these years?”
“I found my soul mate and was accepted by her Life Tree.”
“Her?” The representative turned red and then paled so white, he was green. “No. No! Impossible.”
But it had happened.
Harmony had given Faier the words he’d needed in his heart.
Nerissa was gone. Forever.
But Faier was here. Alive. Right now.
With Harmony.
He flexed his arms. His tattoos gleamed. He was whole. A true warrior of Aiycaya now, in addition to Dragao Azul and Atlantis.
A warrior of the sea.
“Release the representative,” he ordered Kusi.
The teal-and-white warrior let go.
Representative Rikoy kicked away, hugging his wrist to his chest. “You will regret this day, Faier! I will raze your Life Tree! All of your Life Trees! You will never recover!”
“We will stop you,” he replied calmly. “Me, the warriors of Aiycaya, and our queen. Harmony.”
He shrieked and flew away. His personal guard surrounded him. They glared at Faier and the other warriors but departed.
Faier led the return to Aiycaya.
He had rescued Xarin. Lotar carried the exhausted second lieutenant toward the Atlantis army. Faier aimed for Queen Elyssa. His Harmony was counting on him.
She must heal King Kayo in time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The warriors of Aiycaya surrounded Tibe with tridents poking his skin. They affirmed Harmony as their queen.
She prayed Faier would return soon and Aiycaya would also reclaim its king.
“Destroy the traitor,” Elder Bawa growled.
Tibe sneered. “You will not trium—erk.”
Warlord Sao silenced his vibration with a powerful arm around his chest. “Yes, Elder Bawa.”
His warriors bound Tibe into silent immobility.
“Execute him,” Warlord Sao ordered.
“Wait.” Harmony forced her guards’ tridents down, flew over Elder Bawa, and met Warlord Sao eye to eye. “Where are you taking him?”
The icy warrior answered, “He must face justice for his crimes.”
“Like Mawa?”
Warlord Sao nodded.
“Did Tibe trick Mawa? King Kayo thought he wanted to rejoin the city again.”
“Tibe told the exile he must regain the king’s trust by destroying the prison. At their later meeting spot, Tibe executed him.”
Warlord Sao reported the incidents in short, emotionless phrases.
She shuddered at the coldness. “Didn’t that upset you?”
He studied her for a long, hard moment.
The male frowned slightly as if he knew that he should feel upset, but he’d pushed away such feelings long ago. This particular injustice hadn’t upset him. He’d seen much, much worse.
“I obey my king,” he said finally.
She accepted that.
Warlord Sao had witnessed Tibe’s brand of “justice” for over a decade. Yes, Tibe had ruled with fear and cruelty, but the city had gone along. Some obeyed blindly, like Kusi. Others because they got a benefit, like Elder Bawa. Even King Kayo had acted cruelly in ways he’d regretted.
Here was a second chance. For all of them.
“Don’t kill him,” she ordered.
Warlord Sao’s eyes narrowed. “You have a misplaced sense of mercy.”
“It’s not for me. King Kayo wanted to question Mawa but never had the chance. Tibe was a close friend. He’ll want to say goodbye.”
Warlord Sao nodded once. “Until the king regains his health, Tibe will not die.”
“Thank you.”
A clash of weapons grew louder, and a small army spilled into the square. Atlantis warriors parried the city guards’ attacks, letting them exhaust themselves without ever landing a single blow.
Inside the small army, Faier led an altogether cheery Queen Elyssa. Gray-eyed Lotar carried an injured Xarin.
Warlord Sao and his army turned to engage the new threat with warlike shouts.
“Stop!” Harmony raced in front of them and held up her hands. “Queen Elyssa’s a healer. Let her through. Stop that fighting!”
“Warriors of Aiycaya!” Elder Bawa took up Harmony’s shout. “Retreat and stand down!”
The confused, exhausted guards pulled back.
“You did not return,” one commented plaintively at Elder Bawa.
He harrumphed. “I had to defend our king from First Lieutenant Tibe.”
“Excuse us.” Queen Elyssa kicked forward, her long fins trailing like a pretty dress. “We didn’t mean to be rude and enter without an invitation, but Faier said it was an emergency.”
“He’s here. My brother.” Harmony led her through the warriors to slumped King Kayo.
Lady curled an arm around King Kayo’s knee, yowling softly.
“Oh. Wow.” Queen Elyssa rested before him. “He looks… Should we remove the spear? Or is he… Huh. Ow.”
Desperation gave way to panic. “Faier said you were a healer.”
“Healing is my queen power.” Elyssa rubbed her hands together, sounding a lot less like mystical mer royalty and a lot more like a woman from Miami. “Lucy got the ‘shelter loved ones’ power and Aya’s got the ‘push enemies away with a sonic boom’ type. But I’m not a doctor. Not even on TV. You know?”
“So you don’t know what you’re doing?”
“No, but that’s never stopped me.” Queen Elyssa pressed her hands to Kayo’s slumped temples and closed her eyes. “Oh. He’s still in here. But we have little time. His strength is almost gone.”
Harmony bounced from toe to toe on the tinkling pearls while Elyssa moved her hands, closed her eyes, and made a trancelike “Ommm” sound. Could she bring Kayo back to life?
Behind Harmony, the warriors held a strange reunion.
“Gailen,” Zaka cried in surprise. “You came back.”
“Just for a visit. I have my
castle in Atlantis.”
“And a sacred bride?”
“Not yet, but we already have five queens.”
“Five! I had heard three.”
“We might have even more now. Every warrior who surfaces finds his bride. Except for Faier. But now he’s found Queen Harmony. And once we complete the tower, my bride will swim down.” The cheery warrior continued his greetings. “Hello, Warlord Wida.”
“That is Elder Wida to you now.”
“Uh-huh. Warlord Sao.”
The de facto leader of the Aiycaya army regarded Gailen with forced casualness, but at any moment, either side could spring into bloodthirsty combat. “Thumbs healed?”
“Healed!” He blew a raspberry. “What warrior needs thumbs? Come on now.”
“That idiot attitude caused more of your punishments than your behavior.”
“My ‘idiot attitude’ is the only reason I float before you now.” He grinned. “Who but an idiot crosses an ocean unarmed, bleeding, alone, and without thumbs? I ask you.”
An unwilling smile cracked Warlord Sao’s hard face. This Gailen had the ability to lighten the tense mood.
Queen Elyssa leaned back on her heels, a frown creasing her usual hopeful expression. “He’s gone.”
Harmony’s stomach dropped. She rushed to his side and gripped Kayo’s flopped head. “No!”
“Oops! He’s back.”
“What do you mean, back?”
“Hmm. It’s hard to tell.”
“What’s hard to tell?”
“Mmm.”
Harmony’s heart thudded. Did she need to kiss Queen Elyssa or strangle her? “What?”
“I can’t heal him.” Queen Elyssa rested her palms on her knees.
“But I thought healing was your queen power!”
“It is. I don’t have the juice.”
“Juice?”
“I mean, his heart merged with the wood, and I’m not connecting to this Life Tree.” She rose on her fins, floated back, and gestured at the elder warrior hovering behind them. “You try.”
The coral-tattooed elder swam forward.
“Healer Hobin!”
Chiba, Elder Yane, and the other warriors who had swum to fetch him hovered in the back.
Faier rushed to Harmony’s side. He was bleeding again from fresh cuts and slashes, and he held her tight, comforting her. “You have done it. You rule them.”
“Yes.” She took strength from being in his arms. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I had to rescue Xarin. It delayed my return with Queen Elyssa.”
“Okay.” She hugged him tightly. “I know you did the right thing.”
He glowed.
Xarin hovered with the other warriors. He was gravely injured but didn’t call for the healer. All watched Healer Hobin examine the king.
Worried tuts emerged as Healer Hobin poked and prodded, lifted lids, pinched toes. He backed away and shook his head. “It is a conundrum.”
“Should we take out the spike?” Harmony asked.
“Not until he regains his strength. No, I would not pull that out until he tells me to do so with his own words.”
“So he’ll improve on his own?”
“Normally, pressed so close to the Life Tree, his healing would be assured. This proximity is the reason he survived. But because the spike pierces his heart, his life force drains with every heartbeat.”
The answer dulled her. “We have to remove the spike so he can heal, but we can’t remove the spike because he needs to heal.”
“Yes, that is the conundrum.” Healer Hobin kicked away, looking small and helpless. “I do not have an answer. This healing is out of my hands.”
He passed her and scanned Faier. “You are injured again, rebel warrior.”
“We fought the All-Council army.” Faier pointed to Xarin. “He is more injured than I.”
Hobin kicked to Xarin.
So…there was nothing more to do. Kayo would die.
Harmony’s heart cracked, and her last hope leaked out. Her brother was right in front of her, slowly losing the fight for his life.
Faier held her, filling her with silent love.
She had been alone too long. Losing Kayo just when she’d found him wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right.
“Perhaps healing is your queen power,” Faier said softly, reading her mind.
“My queen power is summoning mantis shrimp and other ocean animals, like a Disney princess.”
“Oh! I could totally see you as a Disney princess,” Elyssa piped up. “The actress who played Tiana. Or wait! You could be Moana.”
“I haven’t seen a movie in ten years,” she said flatly.
“After this, you must surface with us! I’m showing Kadir the entire catalog.”
Faier centered her. “Power over your surroundings is one boon of your connection to the Life Tree. But that is a small boon. There is more greatness within you.”
Okay. There was even more greatness within her than fending off a coup and overseeing a revolution.
“What if healing’s not my power?” she whimpered. “Isn’t there anyone else?”
Again, Faier came to her rescue. He called over to the remaining Atlantis contingent. “Where is Healer Balim?”
Queen Elyssa froze. King Kadir grimaced.
Faier frowned. “Ah. Is Balim still on the surface? Leading medical research on the healing power of Sea Opals?”
“No,” King Kadir said, stilted. “He is not.”
“They exiled him,” Gailen said.
Faier’s aura—no, soul light—dipped. “Exiled!”
“He brought poison into Atlantis and killed—”
“Gailen.” King Kadir quelled him with a look.
The pepper-orange warrior lowered his head. “Sir. His treason is common knowledge, sir.”
“In Atlantis.” King Kadir eyed the Aiycaya warriors as though one might be a spy. “We will stop the Sons of Hercules. Balim will pay for betraying us.”
“Sir.”
That name was familiar. Sons of Hercules. An organization Jean-Baptiste had consulted with to determine whether the mer were a scam. The organization had given him tips on how to lure, maim, and kill any warrior who surfaced.
Faier dimmed. “Balim. I cannot believe it. He was always skeptical of false hopes and promises. How could he be misled? He warned me not to give in to depression because I had not found my bride.”
“You found your bride. You found me.”
“Yes.” He hugged her. “I have faith in you. Whatever you do.”
Her heart throbbed. “If healing isn’t my true power, I could make Kayo worse.”
“I have faith,” he affirmed and released her.
She knelt in front of her brother. Was it her imagination or had his tattoos paled? Harmony swallowed hard. No more delay. Her indecision was killing him.
Harmony brushed back his hair once more from his forehead.
His soul light remained dark.
She was already too late.
No!
Harmony gripped his cheeks. She closed her eyes.
Heal. Heal. Heal.
Deep inside, her words echoed, as if she was in a big empty room. They had kept the interrogation warehouse in Iowa uncomfortably cold. Just like her mother’s hospital waiting room.
You have to heal. We’re waiting for you.
…took you…long enough…
Harmony focused on that accusation.
Were her own doubts echoing in her brain? King Kayo’s soul was draining out his heart into the Life Tree. She visualized gathering that bright pure energy from the Life Tree’s roots and reversing it. Pulling it up the plant, through the tattoo tool, and radiating it back into Kayo’s own body.
Her palms warmed.
She refused to crack her lids. What if it was all in her mind?
Heal.
…took you long enough…
Kayo needed to come back. He needed to tell her the rules of Aiycay
a so she’d know which ones she was breaking when she promoted Xarin to first lieutenant.
Not Xarin. He was supposed to be king.
Xarin would do great. He had showed his loyalty a hundred times over.
You cannot promote Xarin. Only the king can do this.
“So get back here right now, or else I will,” she said aloud.
King Kayo’s skin glowed. And his tattoos brightened. His chest rose and fell.
But he did not open his eyes.
“I will win this argument.” Her chest warbled with feeling.
You…cannot win…against a man who is asleep.
He moaned.
Lady popped out of his lap and twirled in excitement.
Harmony clapped her knees. “Well then, wake up!”
King Kayo winced, lifted one hand to his chest, and groaned. “Why…?”
“Hobin!” she shrieked. “Healer Hobin. Healer Hobin!”
The healer flew to the king. He checked Kayo over and motioned for Warrior Zaka. Xarin arrived first. He helped pull the wincing, groaning, struggling king off the slender spear and laid him flat on the healing stones.
The tattoo tool remained embedded in the trunk as a bloody tombstone.
“He sounds terrible.” Harmony clutched at Faier for strength. “He’s going to die.”
“Yes. The pain is excruciating.” Healer Hobin straightened, stretched, and yawned. “He will survive.”
Kayo groaned. “Prop me…against…the Life Tree.”
“Already? Are you sure?”
He nodded.
Faier and Xarin rested him next to the spear, so close he could place his elbow on it, while Harmony arranged his feet. He looked uncomfortable but his pale color was strengthening.
Lady curled in his lap once more.
“Now,” Kayo said. “Now…”
Of course. Now they were ruling.
She whirled to Xarin. “Will you be our first lieutenant?”
Xarin cupped his bruised, scarred shoulder. “Our?”
Kayo explained. “I do not think…now that Harmony has spoken…I can rule…alone. It will be…quite challenging…to obey both our orders.”
“Exactly,” Harmony concurred. “What he said. So? Will you?”
Xarin swallowed several times. He had obeyed the king, tirelessly and without hope. His dedication was finally seen and valued. “Yes, my king. My queen. I will try.”
“You’re doing great already,” she said encouragingly. “Go pump Gailen for information on how to thrive as rebels.”