Beached

by Ros Baxter

  Manos stopped shrinking, but she felt the black slime begin to quiver. And he started to scream, A high wailing of fury and impotence.

  Sea-witches. His voice climbed to match the song.

  Selkies.

  Harpies.

  I will destroy you. I will chase you to hell for eternity. I will...

  But he could not. Because he was gone.

  The water was quiet, the black slick receded. And Rania was slumped in Lecanora’s arms.

  Chapter 19

  The next day

  Imd floated in front of Lecanora, like a young girl.

  ‘I still don’t understand it,’ Lecanora said, turning to Rick.

  The dolphin nodded his head in that quick gesture that was his trademark. ‘It was like a spell, Princess,’ he said. ‘In a fairytale. When the swellsong finally ended him, all of it unraveled. All the evil he had done, from the beginning of the whole thing.’

  Lecanora looked again at her foster-mother, shaking her head at her girlish beauty. ‘But you are…?’

  ‘Yes,’ Rick agreed. ‘She is a girl again. All has returned to the beginning. When the first battle happened, Imd was a girl, the youngest of her sisters. She lived a thousand years, and grew old. She went through all of it, and now everything has come full circle.’

  Lecanora’s brain struggled to keep up. ‘But what does it mean from here?’

  Rick skittered on the spot, turning a girlish pirouette. ‘The High Council of Dolphins believes that is over,’ he said. ‘Manos is truly gone, this time. All the unrest he has fomented, over the centuries, is slowly becoming undone. The refugees are returning to their nations.’

  There was so much Lecanora longed to understand. ‘But why? Why did it work the way it did? Why were we The Three? Why was it our song that was needed to bring an end to it all?’

  The dolphin smirked. ‘Manos is simply a manifestation of darkness, the same darkness that sent Aegir to banish his home to the bottom of the ocean floor in the first place. He wanted to outrun it. The avarice, and the violence. But he could not outrun it. You cannot turn your back on evil. The role of good is to confront evil. Or it will follow you, wherever you are, and across all the leagues of time if it needs to.’

  ‘What does the seer say? Why does she believe we were chosen? Why was our song special?’ Lecanora heard Lunia growl in the back of her throat as she asked the question. But she would not hear it right now. She would not think about Rania. She needed to understand.

  Rick squeaked and turned again. ‘Reconciliation made flesh,’ he said. ‘You, Lecanora, a Princess of the Deep Sea. But a foundling. Rania.’ He stopped as he said the name, and paused, looking quickly at Lunia. “‘A child of The Land, but with a connection to Aegira. And then Saskia, the bridge between the worlds. The links that bound the three of you, by blood, and by your experience of loss and disconnection, created powerful magic. It was strong. So strong it could turn the army back to you, remind them of who they were. But alone, still not strong enough to defeat Manos, the embodiment of evil. For that, something more was required. A sacrifice of pain, to take your song to a new level.’

  Again, it all came back to Rania. And again, Lecanora would not think about her, and what had happened to her. Not yet.

  ‘Mother,’ she said to the Queen. ‘What does this mean for you?’

  Her mother floated over to Lecanora, touching her temples and looking at her with wonder. ‘I will continue to reign, here in Aegira. I will delight in the challenge of it. I have asked Rashind to join me in a new, permanent council. And I hope you, also will join it. But…’ The Queen trailed off, and then swam a slow circle around her daughter, considering her. ‘All you have done, all you have endured…if you wish to have the job, my darling, the job of queen, it is yours.’ Her mother laughed in a girlish way at the look on Lecanora’s face. ‘Oh darling, it is very clear to me what you want. If I thought you might want to be queen, I would vacate this throne in a heartbeat. But your destiny, my darling girl, lies elsewhere.’ She smiled at her. ‘Doesn’t it?’

  Lecanora shook her head quickly. So much had happened. How could she? Did she even want to? From her other side, Lunia squeezed her hand. ‘Nothing is set in stone, darling,’ she said. ‘You can come back with me, you can explore, you can see what you want to do. You are very lucky.’ She touched her face. ‘You have two homes, and you have two mothers.’

  Lecanora felt it, in her bones. Two mothers. Two homes.

  She thought about Dirtwater. Lunia’s home.

  And trees.

  And the hot crunch of French fries.

  And Doug.

  And then she shut her eyes and imagined herself on The Throne of Queens, draped in the turquoise of the royal line, suspended high above the people of Aegira, in The Eye.

  “‘Mother, I—’ She looked for the right words. ‘I think I want to return to The Land, for a while at least. But I will always—’

  Imd held a finger to her daughter’s lips. ‘Of course, darling,’ she said. ‘This will always be your home, whenever you wish to come. We have much to do.’

  Lunia made a noise in her throat. ‘How are the boys faring?’

  Lecanora felt her heart swell at the question. ‘They are recovering well,’ she said, with a note of pride in her voice. ‘Both their bodies, and their minds. Rashind is working with them, with a large cohort of our citizens. With love, they are recovering; we are all recovering. Together.’

  Imd turned to Lunia. ‘Dear one,’ she said, touching her temples. Lecanora saw the sadness and lines on her Land-mother’s face. ‘You are almost as a sister to me. How are you—’

  Before Lunia could answer, a voice called from the arched entryway. ‘Not waiting for me before you crack out the champagne?’

  Lecanora turned and drank in the sight of her sister. More incredible even than her foster-mother’s recovery was her sister’s survival. Lecanora had been sure, in those last seconds, that Rania had died. And then, as Manos had dissolved into the droplets of the ocean, she had breathed again. A thousand bodies had pressed in on her to observe the miracle.

  Rania, the Child of Land and Sea. The bringer of the miracle

  The strongest, most fearsome warrior they had ever seen. She had saved them all. Her voice, her deathsong, it had saved them all. It had been the thread in the braid of The Three that had given the extra ounce of pain and sacrifice that had brought Manos down.

  But she had lived.

  ‘Darling!’ Lunia skittered to her daughter’s side. Rania was holding fast to Carragheen on one side, and Lecanora knew her well enough to know she was leaning heavily on him, by the way she was holding herself in the water. But she was whole; she was alive.

  And Rashind had said she would continue to get better.

  The Queen moved slowly over to Rania, and Lecanora could feel the awe beaming from her foster-mother as she took in the strange, dark-haired young woman.

  Thirty years old, and one day.

  ‘What a debt we owe you, and yours, daughter of Aegira,’ Imd said. ‘What you have done, over these last weeks. For all of us, but most especially, for my daughter. You are one of us.’

  Rania laughed, deep and gleeful. ‘I am one of lotsa things,’ she said. ‘Some people would say I am one of a kind. But they wouldn’t necessarily mean it kindly, if you know what I mean.’

  The Queen touched Rania’s temples. ‘Well, I do not care for how they mean it. You are one of a kind. I know you will be burning to be home, but I hope you know that we would love you stay while you recuperate from your travails.’

  Rania looked at the Queen carefully, her dark eyes very serious. ‘You know, Queen, I can honestly say I have no desire to be anywhere else right now.’ She leaned heavily against Carragheen and Lecanora watched a real, soft smile spread across his face.

  The Queen smiled at them both and spread her hands across Rania’s belly. ‘Well, while you are here we can offer you the very best of care. As you recover, and also as yo
u grow your baby.’ She gestured to the dolphin.

  ‘What up, girlfriend?’ Rick nosed over to Rania and bumped her with his snout. ‘How’re they hanging?’

  ‘The medicine helped, buddy,’ Rania said. ‘I’m still trashed, but getting there.’ Then she shook her head, as though she had just realized what the Queen had said. ‘But er…Imd…I think you might be getting ahead of ourselves here. I really like this guy—’ She hooked a thumb in Carragheen’s direction. ‘But it’ll be a while before we…’

  ‘About nine months, judging by my reckoning,’ the Queen said. She was smiling like a statue of a saint, pleased and self-satisfied all at once.

  Rania stared at Imd, her mouth hanging open. ‘Is there any point my asking how you know?’

  ‘I would not have thought so,’ the Queen said. ‘But I can tell you this—you will call her Saskia.’

  Lecanora felt raw hope flower in her belly at the news. She glanced at Carragheen, who was beaming wildly and had his arms wrapped around his lover. His face was a picture of boyish joy and confusion.

  Rania laughed. ‘First time ever I can’t think of a single wisecrack.’ Her eyes swept the room. ‘Where is Susan?’

  ‘Resting,’ the Queen said. ‘She wishes to return as soon as she can.’ She smiled. ‘She says she has an election to win.’

  Rania smiled back at the Queen. ‘I think she might have a hard time explaining how she dropped off the map for the last week, and what happened to a certain secret service agent.’

  Then Queen laughed. ‘I have every confidence in her ability to manage the questions. After all, she stared down the most terrifying foe the world has ever seen.’

  * * *

  Two days later

  The Land

  Lecanora sneaked quietly through the small back yard, keeping low before stealthily grabbing a simple yellow dress from the washing line. She pulled it over her head and then padded over to the back stoop and grabbed a pair of simple brown sandals. She sent up a small prayer to Ran to forgive her trespass and thieving. She understood now that Land people did not welcome nudity. She quickly vaulted the small stony back fence of the simple beach house and made her way across to the diner. She was cold, and needed food and rest.

  As she settled herself in a booth, her eyes flicked to the television in the corner. The diner was almost empty—only six or eight tables occupied. But almost all eyes were trained on the screen.

  Susan. Saskia.

  She looked a thousand miles from the woman she had seen last, caught in her mind’s eye like an avenging goddess, blonde hair spilling around her as she sang the strange note of pain with eyes on fire. Now she looked cool and coiffed, in a pale lemon suit. The caption at the bottom of the screen read, Candidate Discovered Alive: Tells of Ordeal.

  The flash of hundreds of camera bulbs lit Susan’s face, and she was using that measured clear voice to explain to everyone how she had fallen at the cliffs and suffered a concussion. The amnesia had rendered her confused, and she had wandered for several days. The anchor flashed to medical experts discussing the care she had been receiving, treated largely by her father in the care of his home while she recovered.

  The crowds in the bar were all as one. Lecanora caught snatches of their conversation.

  One enormous man with a grey beard and a Dodgers cap banged his fist on the table. ‘Hard as nails, that bloody woman,’ he said. ‘I always knew it. She’s got my vote.’

  A woman propped at the bar echoed the thought. ‘Not just a pretty face, ay Merv,’ she said to the waiter making coffees.

  Lecanora smiled to herself and began to devour the food in front of her. She started with the fries, letting the crisp pleasure of them slide down her throat. They were followed quickly by soup, salad and two brownies. As she licked the crumbs from her last plate, she finally felt the ragged connections between her cells start to knit back together.

  She had done the hydroport a little better this time. But she still had a way to go.

  First, she had to work out how she was going to explain to the owner of the diner that she would need to return with payment.

  Secondly, she needed to find her way to Dirtwater.

  As she mused on the problems, the answer to them both walked right in.

  Doug looked like heaven to eyes still light sensitive from song-travelling. He was wearing black jeans and a soft calico jacket over a tight white T-shirt. Even with a baseball cap pulled low over his face and aviator sunglasses on his eyes, she would have known him anywhere. Her cells, busy absorbing the three thousand calories she had just thrown at them, leapt into life at the sight of him.

  He zeroed in on her face, and stood still in the entryway.

  Her legs shook as he removed the cap and glasses and blasted her with eyes the color of the brownies she had just devoured. Even with her appetite sated, the sight of him made her hungry. Before she knew what she was doing, she ran to him, leaping into his arms and burying herself against his chest. He smelled like salt, gasoline, cinnamon, and warm Land man.

  He placed her down and pulled her against him, oblivious to the open-mouthed stares of the patrons around them. She felt the hardness of every part of him press against her, before he picked her up again and carried her effortlessly to place her down in the booth where she had been sitting.

  She blinked up at him. It did not seem real. ‘How did you find me?’

  He slid beside her, and she felt one warm thigh burn into hers. ‘I dreamed you,’ he said, turning to her and cupping her face in big hands. ‘Are you real?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Are you okay?’ His voice broke on the last word. ‘I’ve been crazy with worry. I mean, Susan told me some.’

  ‘Susan?’ Lecanora’s eyes shot to the screen again. Her brain scrambled to catch up.

  ‘I’ve been helping her.’ He gestured at the television. ‘Cover story.’

  Lecanora frowned.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘It’s watertight.’

  Lecanora turned to him, watching his full mouth. ‘I am not worried,’ she said. ‘I am never worried when I am with you.’

  He nodded, suddenly fascinated by her mouth also. ‘Are you staying?’

  She picked up one of his big hands, and held it, feeling the warmth of him burn into her skin. ‘I want to be with you. I want to—’

  But he didn’t let her finish. He stood up, and dragged her to her feet. He walked to the bar, threw a note on the counter, and picked her up again, this time like a baby. She felt her body crush against his.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Lecanora could hear her heart thump against his.

  ‘Somewhere I can get you naked,’ he said, as he strode out of the diner. ‘Princess, you gotta understand this. I’m gonna cover you, with my body and my love. And I’m only letting you up when you call mercy.’

  ‘Love?’ Lecanora looked into those dark eyes.

  ‘Yep, Princess,’ he said. ‘I’m so far gone on you I can’t see straight. Okay with you?’

  She nodded, and snuggled into his chest. ‘Perfect.’

  The End

  We love feedback! Loved it or hated it, we’d love to read your thoughts about any of our titles; and in return we’ll give you a steamy FREE eNovella.

  All you need to do is leave a link to your review on Amazon, Goodreads, BookLikes, or any review site where you like to talk about books by clicking the image above.

  www.escapepublishing.com.au

  BESTSELLING TITLES BY ESCAPE PUBLISHING…

  Fish Out of Water

  Ros Baxter

  Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum meets Splash in a sexy, smart-talking debut about a mermaid in a desert, a city under water, and the secret that no one is supposed to uncover.

  Dirtwater’s straight-talking Deputy Sheriff Rania Aqualina has a lot on her plate: a nicotine addiction that’s a serious liability for a mermaid, a soldier-of-fortune ex who’s hooked on her Mum’s brownies, a gorgeous, naked stranger in her shower, an
d a mysterious dead blonde with a fish tattoo on Main Street.

  Heading home to Aegira for a family wedding, Rania has a sinking feeling that’s got nothing to do with hydroporting seven miles under the sea and everything to do with the crazy situation. Now, if she can just steal a corpse, get a crazy Aegiran priest off her case, work out who the hell’s trying to kill her, and stop sleeping with the fishes, she might be able to unravel the mysteries. And maybe even save her own ass while she’s at it.

  Fish out of Water is Stephanie Plum meets Splash, and the first book in a trilogy about Aegira, an underwater kingdom based on the historical Norse legend of Aegir.

  Lingerie for Felons

  Ros Baxter

  If there’s one universal truth, it’s this: You’re always wearing your worst underwear when you land in trouble.

  Lola’s parents told her that everyone can make a difference. And she believed them. She’s been fighting the good fights since she was eleven years old. But at 23, Lola falls hard for an Australian stockbroker who thinks Doctors Without Borders is a porno and Joni Mitchell sounds like a harp seal being battered to death. She cuts him loose, but over the next fifteen years, through protests, misunderstandings, humiliating predicaments, and a number of poor underwear choices, their lives and paths continue to converge.

  Along the way, Lola learns a few important life lessons: Never wear a red lace thong to a strip search. Make sure you take motion sickness pills if you’re going to the Southern Ocean to save the whales. And sometimes, Mr Right can be all wrong, and Mr Wrong just needs time to find the right path.

  Funny, touching, emotional and political, Lingerie for Felons is Bridget Jones meets An Inconvenient Truth, about doing the right thing, finding the right person, and always thinking through your underwear choices.