Beached

by Ros Baxter

  ‘Half-sister.’ Rania smiled, motioning for Lecanora to eat.

  Of course. Lecanora frowned, thinking about the man she had recently discovered was her father, the High Priest of Aegira. The story was unbelievable, and cruel. He had forced their mother to leave Lecanora in Aegira thirty-one years ago, in the care of the Queen, when she had been just a newborn babe. And she had spent thirty-one years not knowing her own story. Lecanora paused, the fry halfway to her mouth. ‘Our mother is right,’ she said. ‘You do always have to have…what does she say?’ She nodded, remembering the phrase. ‘The last word.’

  Rania opened her mouth to speak, then shook her head and closed it again. She drummed her fingers against the wheel some more, and didn’t meet Lecanora’s eyes. ‘Are you angry?’

  Lecanora considered the question. She understood that Rania was asking how she felt about having not known, until so recently, who her parents were. About her birth mother leaving her when she was hours old.

  She frowned. ‘How could I be?’ She turned towards Rania. ‘I was raised by Imd, our Queen. She was the most loving mother a girl could have. And I know the truth now. I know that your mother, our mother, would have done anything she could to keep me.’

  ‘He threatened to kill you,’ Rania reminded her, ‘when you were hours old. When she tried to leave with you. If she tried to take you again, or tell you, he would’ve killed you.’

  ‘Yes.’ Lecanora nodded. She placed the fry in her mouth, and felt her eyes widen. ‘They’re hot,’ she said, chewing slowly. She frowned, a delicate frown between those silver-grey eyes. ‘What manner of food is this?’

  ‘Potato,’ Rania said. ‘Sort of.’ It was her turn to frown. ‘Well, it was once. Now it’s just kind of… Look, don’t worry about what it is. It’s not fish, okay? And it’s definitely, definitely not dolphin. Just eat the freakin thing.’

  The Princess continued to nibble on the fry. As she chewed, she felt warmth seep through her and fill up all the spaces in her cells that had been stripped ragged by the hydroporting. ‘They’re good,’ she said, eating more quickly. ‘They’re really very delicious. Where do they farm these…potatoes?’

  ‘Err,’ Rania said, cramming a few fries into her own mouth. ‘I’m not sure anyone knows really.’

  Lecanora’s eyes widened again, as she considered the idea of eating something of unknown origin.

  ‘Just eat,’ Rania sighed.

  * * *

  Twenty minutes later, the two women were speeding along the coast road.

  ‘How the hell did you end up beaching here?’ Rania motioned to the vast arc of bay before them as they rounded a hilltop, the darkening sweeps of blue water laid before them like a child’s paint-by-color chart.

  Rania had taken the top down, and Lecanora felt the wind in her hair and smelled salt and fire. ‘Are we a long way from Dirtwater?’

  ‘Oh yeah, baby,’ Rania said, turning to smile at her half-sister. ‘Dirtwater is a long way from anywhere. Especially anywhere with water. And especially here.’

  Lecanora twisted her hands in her lap. She felt small and naive beside this woman, her warrior sister. ‘I did it wrong,’ she said. ‘The hydroporting. I tried to get to Dirtwater. But…’

  Rania patted her hand. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said briskly. ‘It’s true, you’re crap at hydroporting. But it’s kinda like sex; everyone’s crap to start with, right?’

  Lecanora said nothing, looking down at her hands.

  ‘Er, right?’ Rania looked up from the highway and prompted Lecanora again.

  ‘I would not know,’ Lecanora said gently.

  Rania made a whistling noise, and shook her head. ‘Oh may the Goddess mother help us. Please do not tell me you’re a virgin? You’re two years older than me!’

  Lecanora felt an unfamiliar sensation surge through her. Her skin warmed and prickled, and she shot a hand up to her neck. ‘Rania,’ she said, her voice high and fast. ‘I’m not sure what…something is happening.’

  Rania looked quickly at her half-sister, a deep frown creasing her brow. Then she smiled. ‘Ah,’ she said. ‘It’s okay, babe, you’re just blushing.’

  ‘Blushing.’ The warmth continued to grow, spreading through Lecanora.

  ‘Doesn’t happen so much seven miles down,’ Rania muttered. ‘Anyway, you’re fine. Honest. It’ll pass in a minute. More to the point, how come you never?’ She motioned quickly up and down Lecanora. ‘You know. I mean, you’re kinda gorgeous. Even for an Aegiran.’

  Lecanora tried to smile. She understood Rania’s confusion. There were no strictures about mating outside life-partnership in Aegira. Aegirans took their pleasures freely, and without guilt. But not with her. She was the princess. And she had always been an enigma, the mystery of her birth a source of curiosity rather than lust. Just another thing that set her apart.

  Like she could sense Lecanora’s shame and sadness, Rania changed the subject. ‘Anyway,’ she said. ‘Doesn’t matter. Over-rated. My point was the hydroporting. I knew we should have come back to Dirtwater together. I knew we should have team-ported, especially when you’re still so new to the whole thing. Although, of course, it’s no guarantee of getting it right. It’s basically magic, and magic is kind of unpredictable. But still, I wish you’d have come back with me. Like I said.’

  Lecanora smiled to herself. She was getting used to Rania’s protectiveness again, and her need to control those she loved to try to make sure they didn’t get hurt on her watch. ‘I had to stay back, a day or so,’ Lecanora said. ‘I had to get make sure my mother was…’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Rania smiled.

  ‘But I did it wrong,’ Lecanora said again. ‘I’m sorry.’

  Rania shrugged. ‘Like I said, hydroporting is hard.’

  Lecanora studied her sister, expertly handling the wheel on the winding coastal road. ‘How did you find me, back there at the beach? How did you know where I would arrive?’

  Rania paused, fiddling with the controls of the stereo. Lecanora jumped as a loud noise filled the little car. A strange young voice declared what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. The statement seemed rather obvious to Lecanora, but Rania nodded, as though satisfied, before she turned back. ‘Remember we talked about the visions, back in Aegira?’

  Lecanora nodded. ‘Yes,’ Lecanora said. ‘I told you that I had been having them, too. You remember when I saved little Tila from the rip in The Eye?’

  Rania nodded.

  ‘Like I said, I saw it, seconds before it happened. That was how I could move so fast. How I managed to save her.’ Lecanora shuddered, remembering the rip in The Eye of the Goddess, the central meeting place of the Kingdom of Aegira. The rip had been the work of the sorcerer Manos, looking for a way in to the kingdom. Looking to destroy them.

  He was still trying to destroy them.

  After ten thousand years.

  Lecanora shook her head to clear the thought. ‘And you told me you’d had visions too. Told me that was how you were able to find Imogen. But you didn’t tell me much about how the visions have been for you.’

  And it was true.

  Lecanora had felt as though Rania had been keeping something back when she had briefly discussed her new powers with her, back in Aegira. Back then, it hadn’t seemed to matter. They had found Imogen, the missing choirgirl. She was safe, even if her voice had been stolen forever.

  Rania grinned in a way that Lecanora knew well from the teenage years they had spent together when Rania had summer-schooled in Aegira.

  It was her diversion grin.

  ‘I woke up this morning and I just knew you were landing here,’ she said. ‘I can’t explain it. Not a vision. More a…thought, planted in my head. I’m just glad I got here in time. And you know what else? You’re just real lucky it was a nude beach. If you turned up some other places looking like you had when I found you, you might have really raised some eyebrows.’

  Lecanora thought about these people and their fear of their bodie
s. Strange. Although, she considered, having observed some of them back at the fast food restaurant wolfing down burgers and ice cream and pie, perhaps the fear stemmed from the terrible crimes they committed against those bodies every day.

  ‘I was still lost, when you found me,’ Lecanora said. ‘The pieces of me were scattered, still re-forming.’ She could almost taste how it had felt, coming back to her senses in the shallows on that wild beach, feeling so alone, and afraid. And then Rania arriving, her eyes dark and hunted as she had swooped down, picking Lecanora up, as though she weighed as little as a feather, and carrying her up the beach in her arms. And then taking her to that place, With the burgers made of fish.

  And the fries, she remembered, licking salt from her lips.

  They had the fries. Perhaps these people could not be all bad.

  Rania tapped Lecanora’s arm to bring her back to the moment. ‘Anyway, honestly babe, it doesn’t matter. It’s been ages since I took a drive to the coast. And, you know, it’s important to do the things you love, while you can.’ A strange look crossed her face, and Lecanora wanted to ask her what was wrong. She had seen that look a lot, before Rania left Aegira, disappeared when she had been sixteen, and never came back. And she had seen it more often since she’d returned. A fleeting look that was equal parts terror and sadness. And something else.

  Resolve?

  Lecanora reached out with her mind to the door of Rania’s and felt it clang shut.

  ‘Back off, babe,’ her sister snapped.

  Lecanora nodded at Rania. ‘As you wish,’ she said, staring out the window at the way the coastline hugged the ocean. ‘So, Dirtwater is a long way from here. I suppose that is why our mother chose it when she fled. So my father could not find her there.’

  Rania shrugged. ‘At least we’re starting to get some of the answers,’ she said. ‘Now, if only we knew some more about the damn prophesy.’

  Lecanora closed her eyes and heard the words in her brain, spoken in her own language, the Aegiran tongue, adapted from the songs of whales and dolphins. She heard the words as the Queen had taught them to her: the Prophesy of Earth and Sea, brought down by the dolphins.

  At the end of Ran’s line

  only one world can be,

  and the bloodtide will only be stopped

  by the swellsong of the three.

  The memory brought home how far Lecanora was from her own home, the underwater kingdom she had always known. Lecanora smiled to herself, thinking about that word—kingdom. Queens had ruled Aegira for nine thousand years, ever since the murder of Aegir, the Norse god who had founded Aegira with his goddess wife, Ran. And since his nine daughters, the billow maidens, had been condemned to be reborn consecutively, living for a thousand years before giving birth to the next sister, Lecanora’s own mother, Imd, was the last of the nine queens, the youngest of Aegir and Ran’s daughters.

  Imd, meaning Dusk. The end of Ran’s line.

  ‘I miss her already,’ Lecanora whispered, reaching for Rania’s hand.

  ‘Your mother?’ Brown eyes considered Lecanora.

  My foster mother, Lecanora reminded herself. But yes, always my mother.

  ‘We’ll be back there soon enough, Princess. We must be.’

  ‘It’s not that kind of missing,’ Lecanora whispered. ‘It’s…her time is almost upon her. She has lived for a thousand years, and she is coming to the end.’ Lecanora squeezed her eyes against the pain that sliced through her at the thought of a world without her mother. And more—at the thought that she would be expected to replace her as queen. There was no-one else. The train of thought jolted Lecanora, reminding her why she was here.

  She touched Rania’s strong brown arm. ‘We have a mission.’

  Rania grimaced. ‘I’m still not convinced this is a good idea,’ she said. ‘You don’t really get it. You thought the fish burger was bad? You’ve got no idea what Land dwellers can do when something really piques their interest. I really don’t want to end up in a test tube.’

  ‘Nevertheless,’ Lecanora said. ‘My mother has commanded it.’ She felt the mantle of royalty sit more comfortably on her, now that she knew who she was: the child of Lunia, the sister of Rania, as well as the foster daughter of the Queen. She had always felt like she did not belong. And now, perhaps now, she could find her way.

  ‘Whatever you say.’ Rania grinned. ‘You are the princess, after all.’

  ‘And you are one of The Three,’ Lecanora said, feeling again the wonder of it. ‘You are important to the outcome. We must be as one in this.’

  ‘On that,’ Rania said, ‘we agree.’

  Lecanora watched Rania dig in the glove compartment to pat the long black gun in a gesture Lecanora had already noticed was habitual.

  ‘We will do as your mother has commanded,’ Rania said, those full lips a tight line. ‘But we have to go back to Dirtwater first. You have to help me.’

  ‘Of course,’ Lecanora said. ‘With your Land man.’

  ‘He is not mine,’ Rania said, not meeting Lecanora’s eyes. She paused. ‘Well, perhaps he was once, a little. But I think he needs something very different from me now.’

  ‘And you have Carragheen,’ Lecanora said, thinking about the dark-eyed merman about whom she had been so wrong. ‘And I am glad you do.’ She touched Rania’s arm. ‘And I am also glad he is with my mother, in Aegira. For now.’

  Lecanora’s breath caught, remembering saying goodbye to the Queen. She knew, in some primal part of herself, that Carragheen, Rania’s lover, would protect her foster mother with his life. But, for the first time ever, the Queen had looked smaller, diminished. It had hurt to say good-bye.

  Lecanora tried to remember the right way to breathe here on The Land, tried to turn on the subconscious programs that controlled breath and walking and other vital things.

  She had to focus.

  ‘Yes, for now,’ Rania said, checking her watch. ‘We should be back in Dirtwater in four hours. Mom’s waiting for us.’

  ‘We have one more stop,’ Lecanora said.

  ‘What?’ Rania’s head snapped up to look at Lecanora. A small silver earring glinted from her earlobe. It was delicate but simple; beautiful, but practical. Just like Rania. ‘What do you mean one more stop? This ain’t a taxi service, Princess. And you don’t even know where we’re going.’

  Lecanora shrugged. ‘Rick wants to see us.’

  ‘What?’ Rania swerved to the shoulder and slammed on the brakes, twisting off the ignition and staring at Lecanora open-mouthed. ‘How do you know that?’

  Lecanora shrugged again, meeting Rania’s glare with a level gaze of her own. ‘How did you know where to find me?’

  Rania sighed. ‘Okay, okay.’ She crunched the stick shift and started the car again. ‘So, you’re going to tell me where to stop, yeah?’

  Chapter 2

  Rick Astley and the little death

  Lecanora scanned the beach, watching frothy water break against white sand. She peeled off the sundress Rania had brought for her, feeling stronger every moment, but still shaky on her legs.

  ‘Er…’ Rania cleared her throat as Lecanora turned towards the sea, feeling the buzz and rhythm of it in her bones.

  She turned to Rania. ‘Yes?’

  ‘You might want this?’ Rania dug in the bag she was holding and pulled out a swimsuit. ‘This one’s definitely not a nudist beach.’

  Lecanora donned it quickly, surprised by its strange shape and uncomfortable lines. ‘What manner of garment is this?’

  ‘Bathing suit,’ Rania grunted, her arms folded across her chest.

  ‘It is not well-made.’

  ‘Yeah, well. It should have been. It was really expensive.’

  ‘I am sorry you were cheated,’ Lecanora clucked sympathetically. ‘Perhaps it rests better on you,’ Lecanora said.

  Rania looked Lecanora up and down in the tiny black one-piece. Lecanora looked down at her body as well, trying to understand what Rania was seeing, noticing only ho
w unnaturally long the garment made her legs and torso look, and the way her breasts sat high and brown, jutting out of the top because of the hard wire at its hem.

  ‘I don’t think so, babe.’ Rania smiled, shaking her head. ‘You sure this is the spot?’

  ‘Yes.’ Lecanora smiled, seeking out the place in her mind where the certainty lay. ‘You wait here,’ she said, wading out into the water and making a high, soft call at the back of her throat.

  ‘Sure, so I’ll wait here,’ Rania said, pulling the gun from her bag, opening it, checking the load, spinning the barrel and settling herself on a rock.

  ‘I think you like that gun,’ Lecanora called, looking back at Rania and frowning at the weapon.

  ‘I do,’ Rania agreed. ‘I like this gun very much. This gun and I are very good friends.’

  Lecanora shuddered, her brain rapidly computing all the things she had ever learned about these weapons, and what they could do. What they did, regularly.

  ‘And, while we’re on the topic,’ Rania said, scanning the beach and turning back to Lecanora, who was wading further out in the shallows. ‘I’ve got one for you too, back in Dirtwater. I’ll teach you how to use it. You’ve got natural fighting instincts, judging by your little performance back at the burger joint, so it won’t take long.’

  Lecanora felt icy boulders stone her heart.

  Rania went on quickly, like she could read Lecanora’s horror in the stiff lines of her body. ‘These are dangerous times, Princess. And this isn’t Aegira.’

  Lecanora weighed the sentences that she needed to say in her brain. It would be hard to get it right. This language, the strange words, they were still thick and clumsy in her mouth. Lecanora understood Rania’s fears. She knew now about what had happened to Rania here, the way she had been hurt by the gruesome sound weapon. And the way people Rania cared for had been hurt, too.

  Lecanora thought about all the different ways to tell this beautiful woman, her sister, that there was no way on land or sea she would ever carry a gun. Then she thought about her foster mother, and how the Queen might handle this.