Treacherous Seas

by LM Brown

  “What vote?” Mariana asked, echoing Caspian’s own thought.

  Several of the immortals appeared uncomfortable. He had a feeling he wasn’t the only one to have missed some recent meetings. Something was going on here that Mariana didn’t know about either.

  Antar gave Mariana a harsh stare, one that Caspian was thankful he wasn’t on the receiving end of.

  “Mariana, it is the determination of this pantheon, by majority vote, that you return your priests to human form immediately—and permanently.”

  The goddess laughed loudly. “You aren’t seriously trying to order me, are you?”

  “You will do this at once. The pantheon has voted.”

  Mariana merely laughed again. “None of you have the power to order me to do anything. You don’t even have followers anymore. Other than Cari and her precious Oracles and Medina’s reluctant human priest, none of you have anyone from which to draw your powers. My priests serve me loyally, and thanks to their devotion I am stronger than anyone here.”

  “Do you refuse to abide by the decision of the pantheon?” Antar asked.

  “Yes, I do.” Mariana sat back with a smug smile on her face.

  Antar didn’t appear surprised at her answer. “You will transform them back to humans or the pantheon will vote today on whether to strip you of your powers. Do you still refuse to obey?”

  Mariana hesitated. “Ah, that’s why you’ve summoned Caspian here.”

  It took Caspian a moment longer to figure out what she meant. Then he realized that his vote might be needed in the event of a tie.

  “Go ahead,” said Mariana with an airy wave of her hand. “I’m not concerned. Unlike him, I have committed no crime or broken our laws.”

  Caspian supposed she had a point there, but he already knew how he would vote if it came to a tie.

  “If the vote was a tie for Caspian when he had flouted our laws for his own selfish purposes, by rights you should all vote for me to retain my powers and forget this nonsense.”

  A tie?

  Caspian let Mariana’s words sink in. At first he had thought the vote was unanimous, until his parents had confirmed otherwise. He supposed it was nice to know that not everyone in the pantheon had agreed with his punishment. Not that it made any difference, since the final vote had obviously tipped the scale in favor of making him mortal.

  “Oh yes,” Mariana said. “You didn’t know how close the vote was?”

  “Get out of my head,” Caspian snapped.

  Mariana chuckled. “I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to find out that I voted to remove your powers.”

  “I’m shocked.” Caspian put as much sarcasm into his response as he could.

  “Not as shocked as I was when the last goddess voted. I thought for sure you’d be getting away with your crime. How wrong I was.” Mariana shifted her gaze to Cari.

  Caspian knew exactly what that look meant, even if he didn’t want to believe it. “Cari?”

  His sister met his eyes for the first time since he had lost his powers.

  “Is it true?” Caspian asked. “Did you break the tie?”

  Cari stared at him in silence.

  “Is it true?” he roared as he rose from the table.

  “Caspian, sit down,” his mother said as she placed a hand on his arm.

  His father urged him to take his seat as well. No wonder his parents had decided to flank him at the table today. They must have known there was a risk that Mariana would say something of this nature as soon as the question of her own immortality was raised.

  Caspian shook himself free from his mother’s grip. “Is it true?”

  “Yes.” Cari offered no explanation or apology for what she had done to him.

  He sat down with a thump. He felt sick to his stomach, and for the first time in his life he wondered if he might actually vomit. For so many centuries it had been just the two of them, best friends as well as siblings. They had even raised Justin together. The betrayal of his sister cut deep in his soul and he couldn’t bear to look at her right now.

  He realized Antar was still speaking and that Mariana was being asked to leave the chamber while the vote took place. Clearly she had only been present at the start of the meeting in order to give her one final chance to do the right thing and rein in her sea dragons, once and for all.

  “Now we vote,” Antar said. He turned to the goddess on his right, who happened to be Medina.

  The Goddess of Love rose and faced the table. “The mer do not deserve to be wiped out. They are peaceful and loving, and more than that, they can boost our powers just as much as humans did.”

  “Thank you, Medina,” Antar interrupted before she could get carried away. “We are all well aware of the mer and their nature. How do you vote?”

  Caspian recalled that Medina was Mariana’s sister. Would she betray her sibling, just as Cari had betrayed him?

  Medina sighed. “I would give her one last chance to transform her priests back. If she refuses, even knowing we can remove her powers and thus force her magic to be reversed that way, I’m afraid I must vote to strip her of her powers.”

  Antar nodded. “Very well. We will give her one final chance to reconsider. If she refuses, your vote will stand.”

  Medina sat down and the god next to her stood to vote to let her keep her powers. He offered no explanation and wasn’t required to.

  One by one each of the immortals cast their vote. Cari, unsurprisingly, voted for her powers to be removed, as did Andaman, who added the comment that even if he were to provide armor to every merman and mermaid in the new colony, it would not be enough to save them if the cave network collapsed.

  The goddess who spoke after him was one of Mariana’s friends and countered his remark with the comment that the mer should simply move on from the caverns and find somewhere else to live.

  “Since the sea dragons have traveled around the world to attack them, where do you suggest?” Medina asked with a fair degree of sarcasm.

  No answer was forthcoming and the voting continued.

  Caspian’s mother stood to quickly vote for her powers to be removed and everyone turned to Caspian.

  “I thought I was just here in case there was a tie?” he asked.

  Antar shook his head. “You may vote now, as you would have before.”

  Caspian was surprised, but not even Mariana’s staunchest supporters objected. “The mer need to be in the ocean to survive. I know mer who have tried to live on land, and they all return to the sea eventually. I vote the same as Medina. If she refuses to return the sea dragons to human form, she should be stripped of her powers.”

  He sat back down and let out a long breath. A part of him felt bad for helping to inflict on another immortal the same punishment that he had been given. He pushed the uneasy thought from his mind and waited for everyone to finish voting.

  His father voted the same as Odessa, after which Mariana’s own father’s turn came.

  The God of the Sea shook his head as he stood up. “The sea is my domain as much as it is my daughter’s. I wish I could find a way to protect the mer from the sea dragons without the need to resort to such measures.”

  “Is there a way?” Medina asked. “Have you tried ordering them?”

  “I have. Unfortunately, they do not heed me, and with no followers or priests of my own, my daughter’s powers outweigh mine. I vote for her to be given one last chance, but if not, I will strip her of her powers and immortality, if that be the will of the pantheon.”

  “What if she resists?” Cynbel asked. “Unlike my son, who accepted his punishment without a fight, I suspect your daughter might not be so compliant.”

  Antar stepped in at this point. “If she should refuse our authority, her powers will be forcibly removed, which will be much more painful but just as effective.”

  The God of the Sea took his seat again and the rest of the pantheon cast their votes.

  Mariana’s mother, Goddess of the Moon, voted fo
r her daughter to keep her powers but reluctantly confirmed she would abide by the decision of the pantheon and would not try to stop her husband from removing her daughter’s powers. By this point it was already clear that Mariana would be losing her powers if she didn’t comply with the order to return her sea dragons to human form.

  “Mariana, you can return now,” Antar called. His voice echoed so she would hear him wherever she was.

  She took her time coming back into the room.

  “Are you done?” she asked as she took her seat.

  “We are,” Antar said. “It has been decided that you should be given one more opportunity to return your sea dragons to human form—”

  “Absolutely not,” Mariana interrupted.

  “Or you will be stripped of your powers. By majority vote of the pantheon, this is our decision.”

  Mariana didn’t appear surprised or bothered by Antar’s words. “You don’t have the power to take me on.”

  Antar materialized a trident in his hand and banged it on the floor. Sea-fire shot from the prongs, lighting the chamber with an eerie blue light. “You forget who you are speaking to.”

  “I’ve not forgotten at all,” Mariana replied as she conjured up a trident of her own. “You are a forgotten god, old and unworthy of the name.”

  “I am of the oldest of the immortals,” Antar reminded her. “I was eons old before your parents were even born. Do not think you can challenge me.”

  “You are not of my blood,” Mariana said. “Only my parents can remove my powers, and they would never betray me in such a way.”

  She turned to look at her parents and a flicker of doubt crossed her face. “You wouldn’t?”

  “Yes, we would,” her father said. “It will pain us to do so, but we will obey the edict of the pantheon, just as you should have done when it was decreed that all Atlanteans were to be banished.”

  Mariana’s trident glowed and she aimed it at one god after another, finally settling on Antar. “You will not take my powers, and my priests will retain their present form for as long as it takes to destroy the mer.”

  Antar moved too fast for Caspian to see. He wasn’t sure he would have caught his move even if he still had his powers. The God of Space and Time could manipulate both in any way he chose.

  One moment he was at the opposite end of the table, the next he was at Mariana’s back, divesting her of her trident and encasing her in a pair of manacles. Even from halfway down the table, he could recognize Andaman’s handiwork.

  Mariana struggled and screeched.

  Her parents joined Antar at the other end of the table and placed their hands on her shoulders. She tried to shake them off, twisting and squirming against her captors.

  “Get your hands off me,” she yelled. “You can’t do this.”

  A strange green aura appeared around her, and Caspian recognized it as the same glow that she had aimed at Fabian when she had removed his powers and disowned him. That she had done so while he was underwater, rendering him mortal and nearly killing him in the process, had been nothing short of monstrous. At least she could be thankful that she wouldn’t be risking death in the next few seconds.

  Finally it was done and Mariana collapsed to her knees.

  “You will all pay for this,” she warned.

  “What of the priests?” Odessa asked. “Are they restored to human form?”

  Cari closed her eyes, opening them a couple of minutes later with a nod. “They are human again. As they are also Atlantean, they are in no danger of drowning. They are currently fleeing from the mer they were fighting a few minutes ago. I do not believe they will be troubling the mer much from now on, and if they do, the mer should be able to handle them.”

  Caspian breathed a sigh of relief.

  Mariana’s parents escorted her from the room, promising to get her set up in a new life among humans. Caspian hoped they chose a location well away from anyone he knew.

  Odessa took hold of his arm as he stood to leave. “Now, how about you come home with me and let me know how you and your young merman are getting along. From what I saw this morning, we have a lot of catching up to do.”

  Caspian knew there would be no avoiding the third degree and decided to succumb to it without a fuss.

  They were halfway to the door when Cari stepped in front of them.

  “Don’t,” Caspian said before she could speak. The shock of her betrayal was too raw for him to listen to what she had to say in her defense. “I’ll come and find you when I’m ready to listen.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cari offered.

  Caspian nodded and let his mother lead him out of the room. He knew he would have to hear Cari’s side of things eventually, but he just couldn’t handle that right now.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  When Caspian arrived back on the island, Marin had gone to start his shift with the gatherers. Caspian stripped out of his suit and pulled on the more comfortable jeans and shirt as he pondered what to do.

  Caspian wondered how Marin would take the news of Urion now being vulnerable. They hadn’t spoken of him in a while, but Caspian wasn’t fool enough to believe Marin had forgotten his quest for revenge.

  A tiny voice in his head suggested that maybe he wouldn’t have to tell Marin anything. The former sea dragons were a long way south, many miles from the new colony, and it would be a dangerous journey for the Atlanteans, if they intended to continue on their current route at all.

  They might never reach the new colony. They could head for the nearest land mass and start new lives, as they should have done the day his father had banished the rest of their people.

  Unfortunately, common sense told him that sooner or later Marin would find out, and if he thought Caspian had kept it from him, he would never forgive him.

  Instinct told Caspian that the Atlanteans would head for the new colony, following the orders of their goddess. It wouldn’t be hard for them to acquire basic weapons and even tridents weren’t entirely outside the realm of possibility.

  A knock on the door announced Jake’s arrival.

  “Hey, there you are,” Jake said as Caspian opened the door. “Are we working today or what?”

  “Sure. What time is it?”

  “After eleven,” Jake replied. “I’ve dug out a couple of rows for seeds, but I wasn’t sure what you wanted to plant.”

  Caspian checked the seed supply in the cupboard. He still wasn’t sure what to plant when. Tempest might have set up a weather system, but the seasons didn’t necessarily follow any pattern he was familiar with. All he could do was hope she hadn’t included a hurricane season.

  Grabbing a couple of packets, he followed Jake back outside.

  “So, Marin said you’d been summoned to a meeting of the pantheon,” Jake commented as they set to work. “Have they restored your powers?”

  “No, that’s never going to happen. Did Marin think that was the reason I’d been called?”

  “He feels it’s his fault you were made mortal. I think maybe he’s hoping if you get your powers back, he can let go of that guilt.”

  Caspian wished there was some way to ease his guilt, but he suspected there was nothing he could do, other than live his life to the fullest and show Marin he had no regrets.

  “So, are you going to tell me what the meeting was about?” Jake asked. “Or is it top secret classified information?”

  Caspian laughed. “No, it’s not. I’m sure you’ll find out sooner or later anyway. The situation with Mariana and her sea dragons reached the breaking point. The pantheon stripped her of her powers and immortality this morning.”

  “Does Fabian know?” Jake asked. “Even though she disowned him, she’s still his mother.”

  “I suspect Medina will be stopping by to tell him.”

  Jake gave him a dubious look. “She’s not exactly tactful. Are you sure you don’t want to go tell him first?”

  Caspian wasn’t sure he wanted to be the one to tell Fabian, but Jake had a
point. “Come on. Let’s go see him.”

  They arrived at Fabian’s house only to find Medina had already beaten them to it.

  “I see you’re here to tell Fabian the news,” Medina said. “I’m afraid you’re a little late.”

  Fabian nodded. Caspian didn’t think he appeared overly upset at hearing that his mother had been stripped of her powers.

  “How are you taking it?” Caspian asked as he sat down in a nearby chair.

  Fabian shrugged. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Save for her priests and a handful of humans, the mer are all who are left who believe in the Atlantean gods. The more of those who die, the weaker every immortal in the pantheon grows.”

  “Except for Mariana,” Medina concluded.

  Caspian hadn’t even thought about it that way. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that the gods were just as concerned for themselves as for the mer. Still, if it helped the mer, he couldn’t really say anything. Besides, it was too late now. The decision had been made.

  “How’s Marin taking the news?” Fabian asked. “Is he eager to go track down Urion?”

  “I haven’t told him yet,” Caspian replied. “He’d already gone to work by the time I returned.”

  “You know he’s going to want to swim off and find Urion as soon as he knows.”

  “I’m hoping I can talk him out of it.”

  Fabian raised an eyebrow.

  “I know. I know,” Caspian muttered. “I won’t be able to stop him or keep him safe.”

  “I will watch over him on his journey,” Medina offered.

  “Thank you, but I’m hoping that he’ll at least wait and see if they come here, rather than facing the hazards of the journey as well as the priests.”

  “You believe Marin has the patience for that?” Fabian asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Even if he does agree to wait, what happens if Urion and the others decide not to come to the colony?”

  “His patience will run out eventually,” Caspian said.

  Medina nodded. “It seems to me that we need a way to bring Urion here, and since two of you are human and Jake has some strange aversion to deep water, I guess it’s up to me.”