by Dima Zales
32
“Will she remember me?” Alcyone asked.
“If you have to ask that, then you have forgotten her,” Aazuria said gently. The princess was dressed in plain hospital scrubs, while Alcyone wore several layers of sweaters to protect her against the cold night air. Aazuria protectively held an arm around Alcyone’s frail body as she helped her to the door of Visola’s motel room. “Are you ready to do this?”
The elderly woman nodded, unable to speak. She tightly gripped Aazuria’s hand, betraying her apprehension. Giving her a reassuring smile, Aazuria reached forward to rap her knuckles against the door. She winced, discovering that her hand was still quite sore from its earlier encounter with Trevain’s face.
A shuffling was heard in the motel room before a light switched on. They could hear someone approaching to answer the knock, and Alcyone’s grip tightened.
“What’s the password?” asked a sleepy but playful voice from behind the door. Aazuria and Alcyone shared a confused glance.
“It is me, Visola,” Aazuria said. “Please open the door.”
“I’m not letting you in unless you tell me the password.”
Speechless in dismay for a moment, Aazuria tried to think of a word or phrase that Visola might favor. She stuttered as she answered, “Uh… octopus testicles?”
The woman on the other side of the door erupted in giggles as she undid the lock and bolt. “I knew I could get you to say something ridiculous, Zuri.” Visola grinned as she flung the door wide open. “Why aren’t you with your captain at such a late… oh, hello.” Seeing that there were two visitors, Visola smiled in surprise. “Zuri, who’s your frie…” Her voice descended to an open-mouthed hush.
Visola’s face displayed recognition, and she took several steps backwards. There were suitcases littered all over the room, doubtlessly filled with weapons and cash. The warrior stumbled over them, barely regaining her balance. She gawked at the old woman with a mystified expression—she looked as though she was seeing an illusion from deep in a hallucinogenic trance. Her limbs felt paralyzed, her breaths became shallow.
“Viso, you had better sit down,” Aazuria recommended. Visola nodded, but she had not heard or processed her friend’s words. She was too frozen to follow the simple command. Aazuria brought Alcyone into the room, and closed the door behind her.
“Do you recognize me, mama?” Alcyone asked with a quavering voice. Tears began to slip down her wrinkled cheeks as she watched Visola.
“Sedna save me,” Visola whispered, trying to control her emotions. She stared into the visitor’s eyes, which were the only unchanged and identifiable part of her appearance. “Little jade jewels. Alcie, baby… is that really you?”
“Yes, mama,” Alcyone said, her shoulders and her voice trembling with her sobs.
Visola crossed the room in an instant, wrapping her daughter up in her arms. She pressed her face against Alcyone’s cheek, instantly overcome with weeping. She crushed her daughter against her desperately, as though she would never let go of her again. “Alcie. Alcie,” she moaned. She had spent countless years hoping that she would see her daughter again. She could scarcely believe that the day had come, and that her fondest dream was being realized—long after she had given up hope.
“I forgot how gorgeous you are, Mama,” Alcyone said, although she was crying so hard she could barely breathe. She clung to Visola with every ounce of her might as she wept. “Your hair is still such vivid scarlet! All the beauty faded from mine long ago.”
Visola could feel that her daughter was distraught and feeble. She tried to find her own strength. The emotions erupting inside her were overwhelming, and she felt like she was about to collapse—but no; she was a mother again. She had to be strong. She had spent her entire life being strong, and she was not going to fall apart now. She gently guided Alcyone over to the bed to sit down, before taking a seat beside her. She placed her hands on her daughter’s face and looked at her for a moment. She kissed Alcyone’s cheeks and forehead before embracing her again and shutting her eyelids tightly closed.
Aazuria could not keep her own lashes dry as she watched the poignant reunion. She had single-handedly and easily managed to free Alcyone from the psychiatric facility. She had considered telling Visola beforehand to enlist her help, but she knew that the warrior would go into the place with guns blazing, eager to rip the hospital apart. She imagined that Visola would zealously kill every nurse, doctor, and innocent janitor in order to retrieve her daughter, and would make sure all that remained of the place was a pile of ash. To avoid this unnecessary carnage, Aazuria had stolen a nurse’s uniform and security badge. She figured that her method would be more discreet and efficient, even if it was not as dramatic.
“How did you find my little girl?” Visola sobbed, looking at Aazuria over her daughter’s shoulder. She had spent several minutes squeezing the life out of Alcyone before she remembered that her friend was in the room.
Aazuria swallowed before answering. “Trevain took me to see her. He gave me an engagement ring with the Ramaris seal and… it turns out Alcyone is his mother.”
“What!” Visola cried. She let go of Alcyone and recoiled, studying the woman’s face. She threw her hands up in the air, flabbergasted. “Are you serious?”
“It’s true, Mama,” Alcyone said with a small smile. “Trevain is my son.”
Visola looked at them both for a minute before she began to laugh. She doubled over in hysterical laughter until she fell off the bed onto the ground.
“It is not quite so funny, Viso,” Aazuria said, but she knew that it was.
“Zuri!” Visola said, clutching her stomach as she giggled uncontrollably. “I get it now! You fell in love with that charming bloke because you saw so much of me in him!”
“That’s right, Viso,” Aazuria said with a sigh, opening her palms in a gesture of surrender. “This whole situation is merely a testament to my clandestine lesbian desires for you.”
Visola laughed even harder at that. “I should have known it! He’s so strong, brave, and handsome. I should have seen it right off the bat!” She slapped her hand gleefully on one of the suitcases on the floor.
“Are you okay, Mama?” Alcyone asked with concern.
“No!” shrieked Visola, crossing her legs as she sat on the floor. “I just learned that the dude I’ve been insulting for months is my own grandson! Good Sedna! I called him so many nasty names…”
“Did my mother just say ‘dude?’” Alcyone asked, cringing visibly.
“She tries to be cool,” Aazuria explained. “Do you remember her fondness for slang? Sadly, that has not changed. Every time we go to land, she immediately finds the sleaziest, seediest hangout for thugs and felons with multiple convictions so she can pick up their lewd language and use it to torture us for a time period resembling eternity.”
“But murderers, rapists, and conmen have the most fascinating vocabularies,” Visola protested defensively.
Aazuria made a face. “She also likes to invest herself in neologisms so that she can later say that she was saying a word long before the word was officially a word, and long after it was never a word.”
“That’s right, and Aazuria likes to speak like a dictionary from the 1800s,” Visola said glowering at her friend. “Hasn’t changed it up since she learned English! It’s her supremely royal way to never use contractions because she’s so fancy and proper. If only everyone could fit a huge stick up their ass like you, Zuri, the world would be a better place. I’ve tried, but my bottom is too full of hot air.”
Alcyone laughed, clapping her hands. “You two are delightful. How I’ve missed you bickering and insulting everyone, mama!”
“How I’ve missed you, baby! You’re the only person who has ever appreciated my sense of humor.”
“Sedna, I can’t believe you’re still calling me ‘baby’ when I look like a wizened old hag,” Alcyone said, with a bittersweet smile.
“Oh, sweetie, you’re the most bea
utiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Visola said earnestly. “We have so much catching up to do—you have to tell me everything that I missed. I can’t believe Aazuria is going to marry my grandson!”
“I—I do not think I will,” Aazuria said without emotion. “We have separated.”
“Separated? No, I won’t allow it. You said you loved him and thus you must marry him. I can think of a million reasons why you should. One, he’s my grandson; two, he totally saved your life, I mean, how heroic is that? Three, he’s so tall and dreamy…”
“It is over, Visola.” Aazuria held up the keychain. “Look, I even stole his car.”
“Do you even know how to drive, Zuri?” Visola raised both red eyebrows.
“I figured it out on the spot. It was not that difficult. How do I give the car back without seeing him?”
“Just give me the keys. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks, Viso,” Aazuria said despondently. She tossed the metal ring across the room, and Visola’s hand swept the jangling pieces of metal from the air. A sad smile settled on Aazuria’s face as she walked over to the second motel bed and collapsed on it. “So this is what a broken heart and punctured shoulder feels like. Rough.”
“You two will get back together, dear,” Alcyone said. “My son is completely smitten with you—of this I’m sure.”
“He was until he learned who I really am. Then he started ordering me around and I snapped and hit him in the face. When did I become a vindictive man-abuser? This is surely your influence on me, Visola. I am so ashamed; he probably hates me.”
“If you hit him then he deserved it,” Visola said. “Grandson or no grandson, I’ve always warned you to be careful of men. This is the way they work. They get into your heart—they say or do anything to make you fall in love with them, and then once they’re confident that they have you, they start to treat you like shit. At least you didn’t sleep with him.”
Aazuria did not respond.
“Zuri! Did you…”
“Please. We will speak about this another time. Let us focus on Alcyone’s needs right now.”
“That’s right! My little girl. Is there anything I can get you? Soup or hamburgers or…”
“There is only one thing I need,” Alcyone said quietly. “Mama, can you please take me back to Adlivun? I’m sick and tired of being on land! I feel so old and miserable. I want to go home.”
Visola raised herself to her knees and touched her daughter’s cheek. She examined the familiar face, and studied the woeful emerald eyes peering out from under the wrinkled skin. It was like looking into a mirror which showed the future and the past all at once. Visola felt something inside her ache.
“Whatever you want, baby. If we leave now you could be sleeping in the ice palace tonight.”
Alcyone breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you know that they tried to tell me Adlivun wasn’t real? I almost believed them.”
“I’ll prove them wrong,” Visola said angrily. “When you’re returned under the waves; when you’re safely tucked behind ice and stone—then you’ll know what’s fu… er, fully real.”
“Thank you, mama. I knew all would be well once I saw you again.”
Visola smiled at her sadly. “Your little boy is in Adlivun, but he’s not doing too well. He could probably use a mother’s touch right about now.”
“Callder?” Alcyone asked with surprise. “Callder’s in Adlivun?”
“Yeah. He’s hurt real bad. He might not make it.”
“Oh, goodness. Please, let’s not waste any time.”
“Don’t worry, Alcie,” Visola said, as droplets of determination clouded her vision. “I have an amazing feeling. Now that I have you back, nothing can go wrong ever again.”
33
Since they had arrived in Adlivun, Alcyone had mainly stayed in the infirmary tending to Callder and helping Sionna out with the other wounded. Alcyone was happier and more alive than she had been in decades, even with the threat of impending war. The numbers of the injured had been growing until Sionna had enforced a strict curfew. No one was to venture outside of Adlivun until the threat had been cleared—excepting extenuating circumstances and only if approved by Aazuria herself or one of the twins.
Visola had concentrated all of her efforts on training and preparing Adlivun’s army for the worst case scenario. She even enlisted a civilian militia to inflate the numbers of the regular defense force in case they were needed. The volcanic caves of Adlivun extended in miles of labyrinths snaking through the bowels of the Aleutian Islands. It was a natural fortress where an endless supply of food was available to citizens. There were many safe refuges where the elderly, the pregnant, and the ill could stay to avoid any menace that might come. Visola organized everything to the best of her ability, but her worst fear was that her husband, Vachlan, was allied with the enemy troops. He knew Adlivun intimately, and he knew her and her battle strategies just as well. He had fought against her before, but never on her home turf.
Aazuria felt that her shoulder was showing great progress in healing after just a few nights in the hot springs. She would have felt physically rather rejuvenated by her home environment, as she always did after a brief sojourn on land, but the recent fight with Trevain still plagued her. She kept going over and over everything they had said to each other in her mind. She had not yet removed the ring he had given her. She could not accept that it was over.
Aazuria had been in Adlivun for a week when a messenger had showed up to inform them that Atargatis had accepted their terms. Corallyn’s vengeful mother intended to visit them peacefully to see Kyrosed’s body as proof of his death. If he had truly been killed, Atargatis said she would consider withdrawing from the area.
This was positive news, but Visola considered it suspicious. She told Aazuria to leave Adlivun and stay at Trevain’s house while Atargatis visited, just in case anything went wrong. Aazuria refused. At the persistent urging of Visola and Alcyone, however, she relented to the idea of paying Trevain a visit. Her sisters were still with him as well, and she used this as an excuse. If she was going to go up against Atargatis, she should kiss and hug her sisters goodbye in case anything happened. Visola said she would come along, for she had business to attend to on land.
Now, Aazuria stood outside Trevain’s door, her hair darkened with the sunlight. She stared at the door with great anxiety. She was more fearful of ringing his doorbell than she was of facing the woman who had thrown a javelin through her shoulder. Yet she knew she would do both, regardless of fear. She pressed the doorbell.
She expected Mr. Fiskel or one of the girls, but instead Trevain himself answered the door, almost instantly. Aazuria felt low. She was not accustomed to the feeling. It always seemed that the higher her elevation rose with respect to sea level, the lower her self-esteem sunk. Her pride hurt to return to a place where she had been told she was no longer welcome.
Perhaps Trevain was worth deserting her pride. She had forgotten how kind his eyes were. Now that she knew his lineage, she could see that he did resemble Visola and Alcyone—she imagined that the ladies must have flocked to him in masses when he had been a young redhead. They both looked at each other for a moment wordlessly. She wondered what he could be thinking. He broke the silence by moving forward and putting his arms around her.
“Aazuria, I was so worried. I’m so sorry for all those things I said, I didn’t mean a single word…”
She closed her eyes against his cotton shirt as she listened to his heartbeat against her ear. “I am sorry that I hit you and stole your car.”
“That’s some swing you’ve got there,” he said with a faint smile. “I wouldn’t have grabbed your arm if I knew you were hurt—but I shouldn’t have grabbed you at all. I’m so sorry…”
“It is in the past,” she said, pulling away from his hug. “May I see my sisters?”
“They’re not here,” he told her.
“Where are they?” she asked with a worried frown.
&
nbsp; “I was under the impression that they had gone to see you.”
“What?” she exclaimed, her composure disappearing for the first time since he had answered the door. “No! They cannot come to Adlivun. They are safer here with you. Why did they leave? I need to go…” She turned around, looking out at the water.
“Aazuria, will you come in and sit down for a moment? You look like you’re about to run off again. Please…”
“I hope my sisters did not go home,” she said anxiously to herself. Then she realized she had been invited in to the house. She saw the desperate look on his face and she swallowed. “Yes, I will sit for a minute.”
He took her by the hand and led her over to the nearest sofa. “Zuri, I know I can’t unsay all the things I said… but will you give me a chance to fix things between us? I just want to get back to where we were before.”
“When you did not know who I was?” she asked bitterly.
“I still don’t know who you are,” he admitted, “but I still love you.”
She hesitated. “You really want things to be like they were before?” she asked. “You still… want to marry me?”
“Of course,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Elan and Coral have been telling me a little bit about Adlivun. I am trying to believe such a place exists, but it seems so outrageous. It feels like someone is playing a huge joke on me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So many people would not lie about the existence of a country,” she told him.
“Yes, but… they all say it’s underwater. I have a hard time imagining that.” He cleared his throat. “Were you really the woman I saw in the water the night that Arnav Hylas died?”