Her eyes met mine, searching deep before widening as her lips parted in a smile. “And you’re bonded!” An enigmatic expression crossed her face. She knew something we didn’t. The look had been glancing, and I was sure Talyn had missed it. Her expression brightened. “This gets even better!”
I grimaced. I hadn’t thought about the bond thing in…oh, an hour or two. I could feel it now. In fact, I’d never stopped feeling it, no matter how much I wanted to deny it. How could I not feel it? It was like an invisible thread tugging my soul.
Talyn just grinned. I wanted to punch him. He quirked an eyebrow and his smile widened.
Maker, but he was annoying.
Okay, punch then disembowel. He picked up the image I projected, blood and all. His smile faltered. I grinned, evilly.
“So”—I fixed him with a stare—“you’re a merman?”
Talyn shrugged. “It’s a little complicated. My father, as you know, is half elf and half faerie. My mother is—” His breath caught. He looked away from me instantly, but I didn’t miss the way his expression dropped, or the overwhelming sadness flooding out of him. “My mother was mer.”
Wash grasped his hand and turned to me. “She was my aunt, my mother’s sister, and the eldest daughter of the Sea. Alwyn was but a foolish child when he tried to breach the barrier. The magical wards cast him far out into the bay. He almost drowned, but my aunt saved him.”
The penny dropped as I remembered Vae’s vision. The boy being carried from the water, the one the crystals healed, had been Alwyn.
“When he was able, Alwyn swam out into the bay every night for a month, searching for her,” Talyn said quietly. He sat with his hands in his lap, gazing down at them. “My grandfather, the Sea, was angry that Mother saved my father, and forbade her from seeing him, but she couldn’t help it.” He looked at me. “They were bonded.”
My head snapped up, but Talyn continued before I could interrupt. “Just a mating bond, not what…not what we have.”
I cringed, wanting the ground to open up and swallow me, as Wash tittered.
A wry grin appeared on Talyn’s face. “It took my father over a century to convince the Sea to give up his daughter.”
Their faces darkened, and Wash squeezed Talyn’s hand. “They were happy, Tal, even if it was for such a short time.”
Grief flowed out from them, washing over me. Part of me desperately wanted to know, but I couldn’t ask. This was something private and precious.
He looked at me, his mouth twisting a little. “She died when I was five. We couldn’t save her. Even the crystals were powerless. Whatever malady struck her down was beyond their knowledge…at the time.”
I couldn’t help the question. “At the time?”
Wash nodded. “It came from outside.” Her voice was as cold as the depths of the ocean. “It was no accident.”
Outside, I thought. Outside the bay. “From the Citadel.”
It wasn’t a question, but Wash nodded. “The eldar king hated us. He knew he couldn’t rule us. The barrier prevents anyone or anything uninvited from entering the bay,” she said, “but he found a way to harm us.”
I thought I might be sick.
Talyn nodded. “He somehow found out about my father’s marriage, about my mother’s heritage. The bastard wanted to hurt my father, and he did. My mother was the first to die, but by the time we found the crack the king had opened in the seabed, dozens of mer were infected. All of them died.”
“But no more.” Wash almost spat, turning to look at me again. “This is why Tal must go with you. This is why he must use his particular gift to keep the evil little bitch distracted.”
Wash’s tail swept out of the water, and with a shimmer the beautiful teal and silver fins separated into a pair of slender legs. She walked the few steps across the sand to me, taking my hands in hers. “And this is why you need to do the task you are destined for.”
Damn! Another rock added to the already oppressive weight bearing down on my shoulders.
Her hands were warm and smooth. I had expected them to be cool, but shrugged the thought off as she led me across the cavern. Soon, we were as far from Talyn as we could get. I was surprised to see him still sitting, gazing into the dark water.
“My spell will stop time for just a few minutes.”
I gaped. She’d frozen him.
“Talyn was so young when his mother died,” she said. “He didn’t understand, and I’m sorry to say that it’s my fault his bitterness has grown.” Wash bowed her head. “For years, I whispered in his ear, making him hate the eldar king, and all the eldar race.” Her bottom lip quivered. “I never…I never thought he’d get a chance to act upon his hatred.” Her grip on my hand tightened. “Keep him safe, if you can.”
“I will,” I promised.
She turned to me. “I don’t know you.” I started to speak, but she raised a hand to silence me. “I don’t need to know you, though I want to. But right now all I know is how my cousin feels.”
I tried to take a step back. This was a conversation I did not want to have, but Wash held me tight.
Her eyes bored into mine. “And I know how you feel about him too.”
Part of me wanted to run, as I realized she was right.
“Oh, he is a dragon-scorned pain in the ass at times.” She raised her eyes, thoughtfully looking to the ceiling. “Most of the time, in fact.” Her eyes flashed with mirth.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Only most?”
She giggled, and I loved the music as it echoed around the cavern.
“You have no idea…” Wash turned to me again. “Jesaela?”
We hadn’t met before tonight, but she knew my name from Talyn’s thoughts.
I stood back but stretched out my hand. “Jes. My friends call me Jes.”
She nodded her head, smiling slightly as she took my hand in hers.
“You have many hardships ahead on the path you have chosen, Jes,” she said. “And Talyn has told me about the dragon’s gift.”
There it is again, I thought. “Why do I get the feeling this gift may actually be a curse?”
Wash looked thoughtful before replying. “Because it may be both.”
What? My mind felt like it was tied in knots. I felt a momentary shiver, as if a dim memory ghosted through me, a vision of heat and blue flame.
“The last person to receive the gift…”
Wash caught herself before any more was said, but I wasn’t about to let it go.
“Ember said something similar,” I countered. Maybe I could draw it out of her if she thought I knew more than I did. “It ended badly for her.” I didn’t know why I assumed it had been a female, but my lucky guess hit the mark, much closer than I’d ever hoped to hit.
“Yes.” Wash’s features darkened. “Dragon fire is a magical force, Jes. It is not elemental like normal flame. It will tempt you, and while you may think you are controlling it, if used wrongly, the reverse can come true.”
I snorted. “Talyn didn’t seem so concerned when he tested me earlier.”
Wash’s head snapped round. “What?” Her eyes flashed with fury. “That stupid, idiotic boy. What did he do?”
My voice quivered nervously. “I…I lost control. Talyn, he…” I didn’t want to tell her what he’d said, how he’d made me feel. “He made me angry, and I—”
“You tried to hurt him.”
I quailed. No, I wanted to say. It hadn’t been like that…had it? Had I wanted to hurt him?
“No, you didn’t.” Wash’s eyes shone as she read my thoughts. “Talyn, and that moronic feathered friend of his must have wanted to prove you had the fire, as if it was ever in doubt.”
She turned away, muttering under her breath. The cage around her mind slipped for a second, and I had a vision of a wet flop of feathers dripping on the seashore. I almost giggled.
She rounded on me, her gaze intense. “The fire is strong, Jes, so strong that in the ancient age it almost destroyed us.”
My blood ran to ice as I realized what she was telling me. “Talyn said the mer were almost wiped out in a war, in the fire that resulted.”
Wash snorted. “It was hardly a war…more like an extermination.”
I gasped but stayed silent.
“The dragons bestowed their gift on a young elven girl. Why they did so, no one survived to tell.” Wash’s eyes sparkled.
By the Great Maker. Realization thumped home. Wash looked no older than Talyn and I, even though she called him her little cousin. And though Vaeolet chose to wear her age like a badge of pride, displaying her wrinkles, this being didn’t.
“You were one of the survivors,” I gasped. “You knew her.” Her previous comment about Alwyn being the one to climb the cliffs, only to be thrown into the bay. She’d been there as well, I was certain.
Wash’s breath caught as she breathed deeply. “Her name was Iriene, and she was my friend.” Her gaze dropped to the sandy floor of the cavern. “And I failed her.”
I felt the anguish rooted deep within her, so strong no barrier could hide it. Loss mixed with bitterness. Iriene had been more than a friend.
“Back then, tribes of elves lived along the southern coast. The inland jungles were full of danger, so most travel was by sea.” Her gaze adopted a faraway look. “Their ships were things of beauty and wonder to my people. We heard the music as they danced across the ocean.”
A smile ghosted across her lips. A flash of the world she remembered escaped her mind, and I almost cried out in joy.
I saw a city under the water, glowing with multicolored hues of blue and green. Hundreds…no, thousands of flashing figures swam around the towers, and I did cry.
I cried because this city under the sea was a counterpart to my home, and the mer, flitting around between the spires, were like my people darting from branch to branch.
Wash’s eyes sparkled in the crystal illumination. She knew I had seen the image, and her mouth opened in wonder before her expression hardened in fury.
“How did you do that?” she asked, her voice barely audible.
I didn’t know what she meant. “Do what?”
She cut me off with a chopping motion. “I know your abilities, but no one can see a mer’s thoughts unless we invite them to be one with our mind.”
So that was how Talyn could hide himself, and why, up until now, I couldn’t sense a thing from Wash. But in that case, how had I seen her memory?
“I don’t know,” I said.
Wash snarled. “Liar!” She took a step back, baring her teeth. “Is this something your little princess has granted you? Is it part of the sickness her father sent? Do you now have the ability to break our barriers?”
I staggered. I had no idea what she meant. A tiny part of me actually wondered if Lyssa had done something to me, to use me against these people, but no. That wasn’t it. I went back over the last few minutes. Up until now, Wash had been a stone wall. I’d sensed nothing from her by way of emotions or thoughts. What had changed?
A tiny marble dropped into an internal gear of my mind, unlocking a memory laid dormant in the deepest recess of my mind. I reeled as I realized it wasn’t my memory, but someone else’s. What…how is this possible?
A jumbled vision flew through my head. I saw the sea shimmering as I sailed upon its shining surface, trailing my fingers through the azure surface as the boat skimmed along.
I remembered gasping, actually felt the wonder as a figure emerged from the depths, swimming slowly to the surface. A face materialized as it grew closer, and my present and past self reeled as I saw Wash smiling up at me.
Past self? Even as I consciously questioned the thought, I subconsciously knew it to be true.
My pulse raced, like a river flowing over churning rocks surging through a narrow gorge, growing faster and faster. Each beat against the stones, each bend in the path brought forth a new memory.
Swimming deep under the sea, marveling in the magic Wash employed to let me breathe under water, racing with her across the beach, the sand warm and wet under our naked feet.
I flushed as the feel of Wash’s warm skin against mine consumed my thoughts, the warmth rising inexorably to an intense heat. My breathing quickened in time with our movements.
I warred with myself.
Part of me needed this memory, and part of me felt its wrongness. I was drowning in the heat, wanting it to consume me. I was torn, conflicted and teetering on the edge of losing myself. I was a plaything, being tossed between two times, two different lives.
Then a feeling of loss replaced the pull as a beautiful, silver-haired elven girl gazed into a silvered glass, her red-rimmed eyes mournful but her mouth edged with bitterness.
Her eyes mirrored mine. I looked at my own reflection, separated by countless years from the present I inhabited. Iriene gazed back, her eyes full of desperation. Both of us raised a hand to touch the surface of the mirror. The physical barrier of the mirror, and the temporal barrier of time stood between us, but I felt her pain, her loss.
Behind her, a familiar blue flame formed, and I cried out a warning. My voice was soundless.
Of course it was, I thought. I was watching something that had happened an age ago. The blue flame engulfed her but she didn’t burn. Instead, her features hardened, her jaw stiffening as her fists clenched.
The girl was gone, swallowed by the hatred-fed dragon fire.
A confusing jumble of memories tumbled through my mind. I felt a seed of selfishness burn in a blue flame, the seed feeding the fire to become branches of scorching energy. They flailed the surface of the sea, and in the past my skin bubbled as the steam exploded over me. I screamed, but the fire within me fed the assault. It blossomed, and my head exploded.
I crumpled to the cold sand of the cavern, welcoming its leeching coolness. Groaning, I rolled over to let it coat my skin, damping the memory of fire.
Then Wash was there, cradling my head in her lap, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. I reached a palm up to cup her cheek.
“What just happened?” Even if her expression wasn’t full of concern I’d have been able to feel it. Wash was as open to me now as I had been to her.
“I…I think…” No way. This was crazy!
“Iriene?” Wash’s voice trembled.
My head swam. How was this possible? Could I be…could a part of Iriene be inside me? It would explain how I could read Wash, where before her mind might as well have been encased in granite. She’d granted Iriene access in the past, so if Iriene was here with me in the present…
I bolted upright and rolled away from Wash. “I know what happened between you. I know why she—”
“You know nothing!”
Wash turned to me with a gleam in her eyes that wasn’t coming from the illumination of the cavern. There was something dark in her gaze and I shivered as if a cold breeze had just blown through me. She stood for a long moment, her lips pursed. She glanced to where Talyn sat transfixed by whatever spell she’d snared him with, and for a moment a part of me wanted to run, to race back up the tunnel to the surface and barricade myself in my room.
“You should be scared, you know,” she whispered, all the warmth gone from her voice, which seemed to come from the frozen depths of the deepest ocean trench. She circled me. A sliver of ice caressed my spine as the memory of my first night in the Citadel flashed through my mind, Lyssa doing the same, inspecting me like a prized pet.
Although this was different. Wash was indeed looking for something. As she walked around me I heard her whispering under her voice and I stiffened, waiting for her to freeze me like the princess had done, to violate me again, but nothing happened.
While her words chilled me, her actions didn’t seem threatening. “What should I be scared of?” I asked. “You?”
Wash chuckled. “Oh, definitely. You should be terrified of me.” I flinched as I felt her breath on my neck. I hadn’t even seen her move. “I could gut you now and be done with this whole business
.” She could. I’d be spilling my blood on the sand before I could lift a finger.
“But you won’t.” The words left my lips before I knew I spoke them.
Wash’s eyes narrowed. “I should, you know. If I’d had the strength to do it…before, my people might not have been driven to the brink of extinction.” Bitterness conflicted with the memory of her loss and love for the silvery elven girl. She took a step away and the dark glimmer of her gaze softened. “It might be a kindness, to end it all now, before…” She hesitated.
“Before what?” I glanced at Talyn, willing the spell to stay intact for long enough for Wash to tell me, but she turned away. I clenched my fists. “Tell me, Wash. I have a right to know.”
She rounded on me and I flinched again as her face ended up a mere inch from mine. “Do you really want to know?”
I swallowed. I wasn’t sure that I did. In fact, the urge to run became almost irresistible, but instead I stared into Wash’s eyes. I felt the intensity of her emotions, though no hint of what she thought. “Does Talyn know?”
She considered me for a long moment. I expected her to dismiss me, to release Talyn and swim off, but instead she beckoned to an outcropping of crystal, motioning for me to sit down beside her as she settled onto it. She stayed silent for so long I was sure she wasn’t going to explain further. “He is a baby compared to me. His family are infants.” Her words were whispered, like she didn’t want the echoes of them to disturb the surface of the water, as if to do so would reach other ears.
“You should know the history of this world, Jesaela, if you are to have any hope of prevailing.”
I let go a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “So you’ll tell me?”
“No.”
Dammit!
“But I will show you.” Wash closed her eyes and began to sing, a low, slow melody, as unlike the earlier song as day was to night. Right away the crystals in the cavern dimmed and shadows lengthened so that soon, Wash and I sat alone in a single puddle of light. Talyn was lost in the darkness, but a soft pressure on my arm and a nod in his direction by Wash reassured me he was fine.
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