A naiad could do that? A Colorado mountain stream naiad? A Denver crick naiad?
Yes. Freshwater Waterfolk are Waterfolk all the same, though the oceans hold many dangers for the unwary, so they might wish an escort. He squeezed her hands again.
She didn’t say she’d follow him anywhere. Right now she felt like that, but mostly because he was her lifeline and she was afraid.
It is difficult for two mers to disperse together, but it can be done. Again, breathe with me.
She stared at him with wide eyes. How can we breathe if we disperse?
Our breaths slow, you do NOT think of organs such as lungs or heart, but beingness.
BEINGNESS!
Think of your essential you, your soul.
What of my body?
It will follow your soul, your magical essence.
And magic will hold me—all of me, physical and...whatever...together.
Absolutely. Breathe with me.
She did and her breaths were loud.
Perhaps it would be easier for you if you close your eyes. Ah. He paused. Do you meditate? A human once told me that dispersal sounded like meditation.
“You talked about this to a human?”
He gave her a half smile. He was much evolved spiritually.
“Uh-huh,” she said uncertainly, then bit her lip. Sorry for speaking aloud. Yes, I’ve meditated. Since he was holding her hands, she couldn’t cross her fingers with the fib. She had. Well, she’d given meditation a shot—several times.
We just want you to learn, Kiri, not to be troubled by success or failure. We all have failures. Then his brows came down as if he might even be listening to himself and applying the knowledge.
Kiri closed her eyes. Again the warmth and humidity of the room pressed on her, as well as the green and growing smells of the plants, the rich humus of earth, the tiny whiff of smoke that indicated the brownies had lit a fire in another room. The tiles under her feet were warm, too, and she sensed the thickness of the floor, the basement space below.
Deep breathing. Right. She could do this. Shannon’s instructions echoed in her mind from college and made her smile. Shannon had been better at meditation than she, and Shannon meditated a lot. She’d continue to do so while pregnant and it would be good for the baby.
The thought of Shannon, of her words, of her image in Kiri’s mind’s eye, sitting cross-legged opposite her, relaxed Kiri. Relaxation, letting go, was key. Pretty much the antithesis of gaming, of work, where she had to be on her toes every minute. She wished they were doing this lying down on a mat. No, she didn’t. If they were lying on a mat, she’d roll over and touch the merman.
Stop. Thinking. Wound too tight. She’d heard that before. Relaxing every muscle, she said to Lathyr.
Also good. His voice held humor, amusement at them both, trying hard to relax? He wouldn’t laugh at her. She’d noted that before and it was an important quality for her in a man. In anyone. But especially in a man she wanted to be intimate with.
Lathyr didn’t laugh enough at all, she didn’t think.
She breathed with him. Very slowly. Maybe too slowly for a human. Don’t question that, let...that...notion...go. Thoughts drifted through her mind and she didn’t follow them to logical conclusions, but allowed them to fade.
Come with me, Lathyr said.
He wasn’t holding her hands. Don’t panic!
Can you feel the air around you?
She did. She blinked. Did she blink? No. She had no eyes. Don’t panic! But the air sparkled, or fizzed and popped. Or just sat there, pretty little globes of...air stuff.
Move with me, Lathyr said. She could “hear” him in her mind. She had a mind.
Wow, this was strange, experiencing the world with no eyes or ears or nose or...
She panicked. And fell straight into the pool, slapping it hard for instant sunburn. Well, she was all the way back in her body.
“Are you all right?” Lathyr asked, pulling her close, obviously using words because her mind had shut down to telepathy. Damn.
She whimpered with pain.
“Dunk in the water and change into legged-mer,” he ordered, brows coming down.
Grumbling, she did, and the sting dissipated. The water soothed, the water cradled...water was her friend.
When she bobbed up again, Lathyr was smiling. He framed her face with his lovely, long-fingered hands. “You did it! You became droplet form on your first try and you moved.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Absolutely. Now we will try again.” He slid his hands down her neck, shoulders, arms until he linked fingers.
“Right now?”
“Yes, right now.” He bent a frown on her that was belied by his gleaming eyes. “Breathe with me.”
So she did, and got into the right rhythm, and her mind slowed and her eyes blurred and sight became some other sense, and she dispersed.
Come with me, Lathyr said.
And she did. She followed him through the house. Melody glanced up sharply at their passing. What did Kiri look like to brownie eyes? Was it different to other eyes? Could humans see her? Maybe not see Lathyr since he was expert, but her? She nearly lost it and decanted into human form, but Lathyr soothed and they moved on. Slowly. Slower than walking. Geeze. And it was taking a lot out of her, too; she could feel the energy drain. She hovered just inside the door when he passed through.
She’d felt safe inside the Castle, the place where she’d transformed. Just like she always felt safe in her house. Somehow she’d felt as if nothing terrible could happen in the Castle...but outside in the scary world... She could lose herself.
Chapter 24
LATHYR GAVE HER a tug, and she went with him. She sensed echoes of old water in the wood door, what had been in the living oak, but that was all.
Then she was outside in the high-altitude, dry and sunny air and she shrank and struggled a bit, sensing the next set of water droplets she could move to, reaching, striving and moving. Less than a walking pace, now.
Outside was dazzling. With the odd other-sight, the sun gleamed in the air around them, bright and yellow. The water droplets looked like half-filled bubbles, not full and turquoise like in the pool area, but gray or sky blue.
Feel Jenni’s balanced magic. It is RICH. Draw on it! Lathyr reminded.
So she did. Yes! Great streams of magic—earth and air from Tamara’s house, a rainbow of colors and essentially human-descended-from-Lightfolk from Amber and Rafe Davail’s, hot fire and cool green from the Emberdrakes. Other types lingered from the houses. Dan and Frank’s Spanish-style home also showed human-descended-from-Lightfolk, but she couldn’t figure it out.
Kiri’s tissues plumped...or she plumped, full of perfumed magic. She even thought she tasted chocolate.
Before she obediently condensed after Lathyr. In the koi pond.
Which was fine until Dan and Frank showed up to feed the fish and caught them naked. Despite everything, making illusion clothes was beyond Kiri. So cutoffs and shirt appeared on Lathyr and she looked bare.
He doubled over with laughter and she dashed away to the Castle, muttering curses as her feet met pebbles. Magic or not, Mystic Circle had loose rock and gravel on the street.
She was back in the pool, soaking up water and magic, when Lathyr returned.
“You did very well. Now, I think, you should try it on your own.” His mouth still twitched.
“All right.”
“But not in the pool. We will practice dispersing in the pool later. Perhaps tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
She tromped out of the pool, then dispersed into droplet form, condensed and spoke to Lathyr mentally all the while, for a good hour, until her cell phone rang and she became human. Fingers dripping, she eyed it, drew in a big breath, and with the inhalation tried to absorb all the water on her skin. It worked! And the puddle around her feet was gone, too.
She went to the table and picked up her phone. Jenni was calling. “Hey,
Jenni.”
“Was that you I saw streaking from the park to the Castle a little while back?” Jenni asked, amusement lacing her voice.
“Yeah. It was me,” Kiri admitted. “I’m doing pretty well with the droplet form of Waterfolk, but I still haven’t mastered how to make an illusion of clothes.”
Lathyr joined her. “It should be easy,” he said.
“Yes,” Jenni agreed.
Kiri fiddled with the phone. “The thing is, I can’t decide.”
“What?” Jenni asked.
“I can never decide on the clothes.”
“Really?” Jenni asked as Lathyr stared at Kiri.
“Whether the clothes I imagine should be my own clothes, and if they are, are they really illusion or will I find them in my closet? And if they aren’t my own clothes, how can I manifest them? I hardly pay attention to how my clothes feel on my body, let alone imagining how something else might.”
“Hmm.” Jenni sounded thoughtful. “I think Eight Corp should give you a clothes budget and we should go shopping. I’ll be right over and we’ll head out to a mall.”
“Okay.”
Lathyr sent her an appalled glance, and left.
* * *
Jenni and Tamara and Amber all went shopping with Kiri. Jenni informed her that she could become lightning and zap from one place to another, but that was it since she was only half-human. The idea still was enough to have Kiri’s mouth drop open. Tamara, being fully magical, though half-Earth and half-Air, could vanish completely, like Kiri in her droplet state. But Tamara had learned that skill on her own, since the technique wasn’t quite what Airfolk or Earthfolk did. She demonstrated, but didn’t talk about it much.
Amber took charge of the shopping expedition, and they got clothes that had definite texture or weight to them, so Kiri would feel them on her body.
The women dropped her off at her own home, and as she opened the door and smelled the familiar scents of favorite candles, Kiri nearly cried. Yes, her home was bare and sterile compared to the Castle, but each and every bit of furniture was what she’d picked out and wanted to have around her. Exactly to her taste. She hauled the shopping bags to her bedroom, took off all the tags and folded them on a chair so she’d move them to the Castle later, then lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
This becoming a magical being—and the lack of a structured workplace schedule as she learned her new self and magical powers—was wearing. Not to mention she’d be lying to Shannon. She didn’t like that, but Shannon would never believe the truth. Hard to believe. So hard, Kiri wondered how many people, humans, would actually make the change. A lot would be more tied down with family and friends than she...but the twenty-somethings...yeah, the development team might want to market the game, the transformation, to them.
Yet the echoing in her heart made her think that they’d need some professional counselors. Jenni and Tamara and Lathyr were good, but they also had their own backgrounds, not someone who’d made the transformation, like she had.
Is that something she’d want to do? Maybe stay near, like Lathyr?
As long as she could work on the game. That would be helpful in the first place, and to her surprise, she still wanted to entertain as well as educate. Just in her makeup, probably. Though how she was going to work with the game when water and electronics didn’t exactly go together... Maybe she needed to understand more of this Meld business, get something going with magic constructs...she wasn’t sure.
Everything was so very different. Her body needed frequent submersion, and Lathyr was talking circumspectly about streams or lakes, and she was smart enough to do some deductions. The Lightfolk had been around for a long time, and there wasn’t much water in Colorado, probably all the choice places for naiads were already taken, so she’d have to move somewhere else. Just how many Waterfolk were there? And how many homes underwater, or whatever. In the ocean, you’d need more than caves, wouldn’t you?
More stuff she didn’t know, hardly knew where to begin to question. Maybe her brain was catching up with the fretting that she’d set aside to meditate and become droplet form. It would have been helpful in the game, Transformation, if she’d known becoming nonphysical was a possibility.
And she drifted off to sleep, only to wake a couple of hours later when Lathyr politely knocked at the door. She moved and her skin cracked, leaving bleeding scratches. Owie!
Damn. Trudging to the front door, she accepted her fate. She wouldn’t be staying in Colorado unless it was in a body of water.
When she opened the door, he stood impassive, once again in his tailored gray suit. Narrowing her eyes, she noted that he was not clad in illusion, the silk was real. He frowned. “We must get you into a tank as soon as possible.”
“Yes.” She got the new clothes and her purse.
“The day is more humid than usual for Colorado,” he said. “Perhaps you can draw some water from the air to soothe your sores and refresh your skin.”
“Yeah.” She grimaced and regretted it as her lips cracked and bled.
He offered his arm in an old and formal manner and she linked elbows with him. His expression lightened.
“I just needed a little time alone,” she said.
“Of course.”
“Not used to living with someone, or brownies to clean up after me.”
“It didn’t appear as if you had much to clean.”
She stared at him. “Did you just make a joke?”
“A statement.”
“No, it wasn’t. You were teasing me.”
The corner of his mouth that she could see, lifted. “Perhaps.”
She studied him, still a guy with a lilting accent and European sophistication, old-worldly manner. And a merman. “Hey, is Cherry Creek claimed?” That’s where he belonged, in upscale waters.
“Yes, there are strict boundaries for the naiads and naiaders who live in the creek, so they each have their own stretch.”
“Ah, and how does that work? The creek doesn’t seem deep enough to me.” She frowned. “Come to think of it, neither does the Platte River.”
“If absolutely necessary, we can adjust our size.”
“Huh.” Kiri thought of naiads being no larger than a trout, or a finger, for that matter. She shook her head. “I don’t think I’d like that.”
“I’m not sure that it is an option for you this century,” he said.
“Oh.”
And they were at the Castle, the brownieman swinging the door open for them and frowning disapprovingly at Kiri. As soon as they stepped on the porch, Melody popped out and took Kiri’s new clothes, tsking. “Put you in water elemental suite, too,” she said before she vanished again.
“Water suite?” Kiri asked.
“We checked out the elemental suites when you were gone. The royals occasionally stayed here, you know.”
“Nope, didn’t.” She stared at his handsome profile. “No wonder you didn’t want to stay there.”
“I do not overstep,” Lathyr said. “And the Water King is not a power one trifles with.”
“Oh.”
“He expanded the water suite at the expense of the air rooms. So there are two bedrooms and a small sitting room. The Water King wanted the second bedroom for staff.”
“Oh. Well, I don’t mind a small bedroom.”
With an inclination of his head, as he led her upstairs, Lathyr said, “The earth suite also has two bedrooms and a sitting room, the fire chambers are one bedroom and sitting room and the air has one very large room with screen dividers.”
“Royals.” The notion had penetrated her mind. “The best of the best Lightfolk? The most powerful?”
Lathyr chuckled. “Your meritocracy again.” He dropped his arm and slid his fingers down until he held her hand. “But, in general, yes. The royals are the most powerful of the Lightfolk.”
“The Eight.”
“Yes.”
“The Eight of Eight Corp,” Kiri persisted.
Lathyr nodded. “That is true.”
“Can I see those rooms?” Her curiosity itched.
“Yes.” Melody appeared a pace in front of Kiri and she stopped and squeaked. “But only after you soak.” The browniefem glanced up at Lathyr, and Kiri was glad to see that she was less formal with him than before. The man—the merman—was nice.
“I have prepared the large tub in the water suite for her,” she informed Lathyr, hands on her skinny hips.
“Sounds fine,” Kiri said, but the browniefem kept her gaze on the guy.
“I will take care of her.” Lathyr’s voice was soft, but his words sounded like a promise.
Melody nodded decisively and vanished.
“I’m not used to that,” Kiri grumbled. “People appearing and disappearing so often.”
“You’re hurting and cranky.”
She couldn’t deny that, nor that when she entered the water suite, her mood improved at the sound and scent of water. She nearly ached to get into the tub. He led her through the suite that was furnished in deep blues and greens, and to the large bathroom, which neither he nor Melody had mentioned.
Even as Kiri just stood in openmouthed wonder at the gold-veined white marble sunken pool, Lathyr stripped her, then set his hands on places where her skin was good, and lifted her into the water...the healing water with jasmine petals and smelling of aloe.
She whimpered when she went in, and sank to the bottom of the marble pool and shifted to tailed form, her bilungs filling with cool water. Which let her know that Melody, and maybe her new mate, too, had worked with Waterfolk before.
Then Lathyr got into the white marble tub with her, curled up around her in his legged-mer form, and whispered mind-to-mind, Go back to sleep.
He’d known, of course, that she’d remained tired, and was also afraid of sleeping in the water in case she drowned. He was there for her, and she could depend on him. Reliable and trustworthy. Like Shannon and Averill. Not like her parents.
Lathyr was with her. So she let go and slept.
She awoke alone in the large sunken tub. She panicked and writhed and sucked in water and breathed, in and out. No problem. When would her unconscious figure out that she could breathe underwater? Soon, she hoped.
Enchanted Ever After (Mystic Circle) Page 22