Sacrificed to the Sea Lord (Lords of Atlantis Book 2)

by Starla Night

  And his bride — Atlantis’s future queen — would be safeguarded. Even more than she was now.

  He studied her silently with Soren.

  After the human introductions, the warriors produced the wedding feast. Normally a wedding feast was held with only the bride and her warrior present, but the expedition was starving and everyone was exhausted. It was cruel to force them out on a night meant for celebrating the arrival of their first queen, and Elyssa demonstrated great interest in getting to know the warriors better. So, he ordered each male to present foods they had replanted from their home cities.

  The offerings continued even now.

  “This one tastes like fava beans.” Across the courtyard, she crunched a bulb kernel. “You grow these yourselves? All of them? Wow. And this plant … this one tastes like … rootbeer?”

  “What about this one?” Ciran’s close friend Gailen eagerly offered her a precious leaf.

  She bit down. Shock filled her face. She clapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes watered.

  “Horseradish.” She spat out the mouthful and gagged. The green chunks floated away and descended for the courtyard garden, where they would turn into mulch. “Way too much. Hand me the rest of those fava beans. Quick!”

  The others hurried to help her. She desperately chewed the beans and swallowed. They watched her closely.

  Gailen’s shoulders drooped. “You do not like my food,” he said dully.

  She shook her head violently. “It’s not food.”

  His eyes widened in shock.

  Soren bared his teeth and began to move, crossing to her side to stop her from inflicting any more pain. Elyssa could not know that Gailen had stolen this special plant from his father’s gardens, on pain of death, for the sole purpose of giving it to a bride. She could not know his father had disowned him for daring to cross his city’s council. She could not know how he’d worried over the stolen plant here, tending it as his sole tie to the heritage he had been forced to leave behind and his hope for a brighter future.

  Kadir stopped Soren. Elyssa’s tone and posture were not cruel. Soren’s interruption would destroy any chance at reconciliation. Kadir had faith.

  “You can’t eat it whole,” she said, unaware of the reactions taking place across the courtyard from her. “Horseradish goes with other food. It’s a condiment.”

  “Condiment?” Gailen repeated.

  “Only eat a small amount. It brings out the flavor.”

  “Of what?”

  “Prime rib, for one. Most beef is good. Um…”

  “What is ‘prime rib’?”

  “The most expensive meat. It’s so delicious. Pretty rare.”

  “Rare and expensive meat?” Gailen slowly straightened. “Like wedding meat?”

  “They would serve prime rib at a wedding reception. Absolutely.”

  Gailen brightened.

  Soren relaxed.

  Elyssa pressed the other leaves into Gailen’s hands. “Don’t feed anyone a big leaf. Serve a tiny amount. Just a taste.”

  “For a wedding feast.” He nodded and tossed an arrogant grin at Ciran. His enthusiasm was infectious, and the other warriors all smiled. “My offering is not ordinary. It is only for rare, expensive meat. A bride will like that.”

  “Anyway, don’t worry so much about giving your bride an offering. Most important is your feeling here.” She pressed her chest.

  A hard punch of longing twisted Kadir’s chest with bittersweet. They had been trained their whole lives that brides must have a mating jewel to consider a husband. No male was worthy without a jewel. To hear that a bride could love him without any offering at all was hard, frightening, and haunting. It was what they all longed to hear. She gave words to their deepest held dreams.

  “Hmm.” Her eyes were unfocused, her mind clearly elsewhere.

  Gailen was listening to her so hard he nearly collapsed on his own elbows. “What are your thoughts?”

  “Wasabi.” She pursed her lips. “Real wasabi is so rare it’s only served in fancy sushi restaurants. It goes for hundreds of dollars an ounce. This leaf could be worth as much as your Sea Opals.” She ripped off a tiny piece of the leaf, pressed it to a chunk of freshly hunted albacore, and chewed thoughtfully. “When you raise Atlantis, you should open a restaurant. You’ll serve the freshest sashimi ever.”

  She spoke so convincingly about things even Kadir sometimes considered impossible. He focused on his vision because he could not face the daily discouragement of their present situation. Her casual acceptance of an inevitable future was both inspiring and terrifying.

  Soren finally rocked back. He lowered his voice for only Kadir’s ear. “She should be hidden from display.”

  Kadir’s anger flared. “You doubt our warriors’ honor to treat her well?”

  “Not for her protection.” He lifted his trident. The metal was heavy as his scarred brow. “For ours.”

  Because she raised the warriors’ hopes. Because they believed every word. Because they would be crushed if she was wrong.

  That stopped Kadir. A large, deadly warrior like Soren studied Elyssa like a new type of threat. One he’d never considered before. And he considered all threats. All of them.

  Kadir growled. “Words mean nothing.” He threw Soren’s back at him. “Only action.”

  “Words can cause action.” Soren regarded him from the side of his eyes. “We are all here because of yours. What will you do when she demands to return to the surface and refuses, for the final time, to become our queen?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kadir was fighting with Soren.

  Elyssa felt it, even though she couldn’t hear the reason. They swam together into a hallway and disappeared.

  Hopefully, it wasn’t about her again. She rubbed her bare arms, striving for the calm that she felt when he had kissed her.

  There was no reason for her to feel this nervous. The warriors were overwhelmingly kind. As soon as they started coming up to talk to her, the distance melted away. They were like any eager college grads wanting to learn all about adult life.

  How silly that she had been so afraid of speaking to them. Some hung back shyly, but others were more overt with their offerings and their smiles.

  The orange pepper-tattooed warrior named Gailen, who’d accidentally served her a giant mouthful of horseradish, seemed close to college recruit age and was just as eager to understand everything. “Why do you describe these like foods you eat on the surface?”

  “Well, this fruit really does taste like a cran-cherry. I’m trying to fix it in my brain so I can describe it to everyone.”

  They stared at her.

  Had she said something wrong?

  “Who is ‘everyone’?” Gailen asked. He was enthusiastic and puppyish — and also a hard-bodied, ripped warrior. He reminded her of teen Chris O’Donnell, Elyssa’s earliest crush. A gentleman, and trustworthy, like he would carry your book bag while making your heart pound.

  “Aya. She’s my cousin. And my parents, of course. They’ll want to know.”

  Everyone’s brows raised. She had said something truly shocking.

  “And it’ll have to go in my reports,” she continued, babbling now. “There’s so much interest.”

  “Your people are interested in us?” Faier asked, scratching at his deeply scarred left arm.

  “Fascinated,” she said. “Three months ago everything was normal. And then, boom, mermen have been living in the oceans for thousands of years and we never knew. When I was growing up, there were mermaid crazes, and we used to dress up in mermaid costumes, or me and my cousin Aya took mermaid swimming lessons, where we pretended we were mermaids and we wore swim tails. But it was all mythical make-believe. And now, when we find out it’s all real…”

  Food floated in the water before her, mermen warriors flexed their iridescent tattoos, and dinner was in the courtyard of a gigantic, living castle.

  “It’s a dream come true.”

  The mermen
seemed to exhale, even though no one was actually breathing.

  “Not everyone feels that way.” The skeptical healer, Balim, lifted a superior chin. He was a bit like Benedict Cumberbatch showing off as Sherlock Holmes. “The water is different from the air. This dream of uniting them is rare.”

  “Maybe not everybody in the world wants to become a mermaid. But there was a whole pageant full of people.” She pointed at timberwolf-grey Lotar, who was standing apart from the group. “You saw.”

  He said nothing, neither acknowledging or denying. Ever the lone wolf.

  Ciran grimaced. “What Balim says is also true. Not every woman wished to be there.”

  Some people just had to be precise all the time, even when they missed the point.

  “Okay, but there were tons who did wish to be at the pageant, like my cousin Aya, and there were tons more who weren’t allowed to compete, like me.”

  “Compete?” Gailen turned to scholar Ciran. “What is this ‘pageant’?”

  “Women walk in a line across a large stage. They turn and smile. Then, they change clothes and walk in a new line.”

  “I want to see it.”

  “At first, it is interesting. Then, it is very boring.”

  “Ah!” Gailen’s eyes widened with sudden realization. “Many were assembled for this pageant and were not chosen? That means brides are still awaiting us. Let us go now and claim them.”

  A fever of excitement swept through the feast. Warriors packed away their food and prepared to leave immediately.

  Where was Kadir?

  Ciran gripped Gailen’s forearm to prevent the warrior from swimming straight for the door. “You forget. We have no mating jewels for offering.”

  He considered the problem for a moment. “I will offer my horseradish.”

  “A bride will not accept your claim for horseradish.”

  “A modern bride will. Queen Elyssa has just said they do not need an offering if you can convince them with resonance.” Gailen turned to Elyssa. “Right?”

  Everyone stared at her.

  Well…She didn’t like how everyone was always talking about “purchasing” brides with offerings. Even though it was a bit ironic because Kadir had given Van Cartier Cosmetics a large bag of the precious gems. That wasn’t for her, though. That was for the ocean platform and infrastructure to support her experience, like an astronaut that had to pay for their own rocket fuel to launch into space. She would have done it for free, and she wasn’t the only one.

  “For most people, the important thing is your feelings,” she said. “But—”

  “Then we will offer feelings.” Gailen dropped his horseradish. “Come, Ciran. You never tried to claim a bride, did you?”

  “For me to do so before the king is not tradition.”

  “Now the king has a bride, so you can.”

  “But, all at once like this, it is also not tradition.”

  “Atlantis has no traditions. It is a new city. We can make them ourselves now.”

  Swept up by Gailen and the rest of the warriors, Ciran was carried by the mass toward the door.

  Uh oh.

  “Wait,” Elyssa said, paddling after them. “Let’s, uh, talk about it some more.”

  “There are no rules,” Gailen shouted. “Not in Atlantis.”

  The whole mass of warriors kicked toward the exit.

  “There are rules. There are rules!” Adviser Creo kicked in front of their path, blocking the exit. He raised his arms and shouted. “Warriors! Wait. This is madness.”

  “It is not mad. We want brides,” Gailen said simply. He was reasonable and heart-meltingly enthusiastic. “They want us.”

  “If you all leave, who will complete the duties to make this castle into an All-Council recognized city?”

  “We can draw lots and claim our brides in turns.”

  “Then where will you store them? There is only one castle!”

  “Bride Elyssa is here now. The Life Tree will grow more castles soon.”

  The warriors began negotiating who would go to claim their brides and how many would stay behind for the next turn.

  Kadir’s city was dissolving around him — all because of her! — and he wasn’t even here to stop them. Oh, no, wait! Kadir flew from the hallway with Soren, cast a glance at her, and swam to the warriors massed and debating. He kicked forward to stand beside Adviser Creo.

  Kadir held up his hands. “Before we claim these brides, we must uphold our agreement. The humans must know we act with honor. We will excavate the old city, uncover the Sea Opals, and then seek the next bride.”

  There were darker rumbles of disagreement. Someone muttered that they should never have agreed to the Van Cartier Cosmetics demands, and another muttered at how convenient it was that Kadir did not push for more brides now that he had his own.

  Gailen stood indecisively.

  Adviser Creo huffed and focused on him. “Take proper care of the bride you have before you go to solicit any more. Excavating the old city while bride Elyssa adjusts to our ways is the safest way to proceed.”

  Galen’s jaw shifted in disagreement but he did not argue.

  Someone hidden within the mass shouted, “Getting brides now will convince more warriors to join us and then excavating the old city will be easy!”

  The hidden speaker exploded their anger. The warriors surged to the exit. Kadir and Adviser Creo braced. Two mermen could not stop the tide.

  Soren’s voice cracked. “Who damns their bride to death in the open ocean?”

  The warriors slowed and turned.

  Soren bellowed, alone, in the middle of the courtyard. “Who abandons this city on a selfish quest?”

  Gailen twitched and faced Soren. “It is not selfish. Claiming a bride is why we—”

  “You plan to carry brides across the open ocean. None will guard against predators which took all five of us to face.” Soren’s scarred visage was a testament to just how lucky they had been. “Even if your brides survive the crossing, you will return to what? A barren patch of seafloor littered with the wreck of this city and the skeletons of the warriors you left behind.”

  Gailen’s jaw flexed.

  “Wait until you can protect the bride you so desperately desire. Until that day comes, you are not worthy to offer yourself as a husband.”

  He flinched. The other warriors agitated with new anger at Soren’s rough insults.

  “Your passion is admirable.” Kadir’s rumble silenced the warriors and soothed Gailen’s frown. “You are all worthy of claiming brides. And now we know that it is possible to claim brides without Sea Opals. In future, we will find these brides. Now, we must prove Atlantis is a city founded upon honor.”

  They murmured in agreement.

  Soren swam over them to the doorway. “Change patrols.”

  The rest of the warriors obeyed. Gailen, still flinching, chased after Soren. “Are we so unworthy? If you could have a bride, you would—”

  “I will never have a bride.” Soren swam out. His voice echoed back. “Patrols, with me. Now!”

  Three warriors separated from the crowd and swam after Soren. The others shifted somberly. No one was leaving to claim brides tonight.

  Gailen glared at the absent mer. His shoulder slumped. He scratched his nose.

  Ciran squeezed his shoulder. “Soren is a dedicated warrior.”

  “He is no warrior,” Gailen grumbled. “He is a monster risen from the blacknight sea.”

  “Gailen.” Iyen snapped. “Stow the food.”

  He obeyed without complaint, and many of the other warriors helped him, chatting in a lowered voice. Apparently going on patrol after having crossed the ocean without rest proved that Soren was a beast.

  Was Kadir very angry? He spoke with Adviser Creo and looked tense and busy, as expected of a king.

  Elyssa tried to help the cleanup effort. The warriors darted easily around her, plucking dishes just out of reach and collecting stray food before her fingers could close
around it. She finally wrested a small serving dagger away from Faier, who let her have it with a friendly smile. Then, she had to be shown where to stow it — a pocket growing into the castle wall — and one of the more muscular warriors, Nilun, had to wedge it in.

  “Is it okay? The cabinet seems kind of full already,” she murmured.

  “Cabinets deepen as the castle ages,” Faier told her. “The castle is young and undeveloped.”

  Oh. A house that grew storage as it got older? “Magical.”

  He smiled.

  A merman whose name she couldn’t remember — Pelan? — made an exasperated noise as he shoved closed the last cabinet closed, cleaned his daggers, and affixed them to his bulging black-and-red-striped biceps and calves. “Another huddle on the seafloor trying not to become crab cake. You know what I miss most about Sireno? A good, long sleep.”

  “Sleeping in the open ocean is an adventure,” another grinned. Zoan? Peach tattoos scrolled across his tanned chest. “Here, we are near a Life Tree. It is a luxury, believe me.”

  “And yet, every time I close my eyes, on the back of my neck I feel teeth.”

  “That is Nilun, giving you a goodnight kiss.” Peachy-keen Zoan threw his arm around Pelan and pretended to gnaw on his neck.

  Pelan shoved the teaser away and gripped his bristling daggers. “If that is what you think is a kiss, I hope you will receive a bride last.”

  “Straighten your lines,” their hot-headed friend, Nilun, snapped. “Obey your orders with honor.”

  “You say that Nilun, but you huddle like a water bug.” Zoan demonstrated, rolling into a ball.

  Nilun reddened. “That is the strongest form for defense! You will value it if you are awakened by vent feeders.”

  Faier grimaced at Elyssa as though silently apologizing for the warriors’ roughness. Obviously, they were the Three Amigos; a known trio of troublemakers. He kicked on his functioning left leg and shooed them. “We sleep in shifts. There is no biting. Go now.”

  They began to swim to the exit.

  Why were they swimming out in the ocean when they had a whole castle? Elyssa paddled to Kadir.