It would have meant less without you.
I do not know if the royals will accept you, or that you took me with you.
She laughed, and it was free and easy, and she was free of her own ambitions, living in the moment, accepting what life had for her, not struggling. Failed Goal? Like in the game? She laughed again. I don’t care.
Good.
Besides, if this is THE test to become a Water royal, and no one but a complete water elemental could do this, the king must have helped his lady, right?
Lathyr grinned. Right.
Peace lasted until they were a few yards away from the trench.
Hello, human baby merfem. It was a rough purr from a huge shadow separating itself from the gray landscape.
The great Dark one.
I’ve come to eat you and your little magic. Large rubbery lips smacked. The huge head turned, a wide eye staring at Lathyr. And I get another snack, too.
Kiri shuddered.
We go—yelled Lathyr.
But a white-fireball-energy pulse hit her—hit them—scrambled her mind. Hurt!
You STAY, the great Dark one gloated.
Lathyr’s jaw flexed. We can’t go. My location sense is seared for the moment.
She didn’t ask for how long. She knew. Too long.
He separated from her, and most of the protection bubble snapped around her.
No! she protested.
But he pulled a long sword and a short wavy dagger and prepared.
Another ball of energy. Yellow. They dodged.
Kiri scrambled to comprehend the fight. She had no weapons.
Then Lathyr closed with the monster. Lathyr was fast and agile and clever. He turned and struck the Dark one’s head, zoomed away, flipped and came back, ducking and weaving, for the thing’s throat. Hit, but did not cut a major artery. Dashed away and went through a leathery-looking wing, slashing it into more shreds.
The Dark one shrieked, sending a sound wave through the water that had Kiri tumbling, losing her bearings. This time she didn’t move quickly enough and a green forceball hit her tail. She heard bones snap.
Lathyr shouted at the same time she did. A swipe of the giant’s clawed hand raked his side.
Using magic, Kiri grabbed him to her. He lost his dagger as he slapped a hand against his wound. His hardscale had ripped open, blood looking black in the water. Bringing more predators.
Her tail was damaged. She couldn’t take him away, feared for them both if she convinced him to take droplet form. They wouldn’t survive.
The great Dark one was circling back.
They couldn’t survive him, either. They were going to die. Lathyr was too wounded to fight and she too inexperienced to win against the Dark one.
There was only one thing she could do.
Help! Great Dark one. Mariana Trench. HELP!
The Dark one’s laugh rolled to her, hit her like a nasty, sticky web, flipped her broken-tail-over-head. Lathyr passed out.
Yeah, the Dark one was powerful.
Kiri grabbed Lathyr and hauled him down into the trench, using arms and magic to propel them. Where was that shelf? Where, where? She found it, frowned and with a thought summoned a rope to her hand. She settled it around him, tied him loosely to the ledge so he wouldn’t sink and perish while unconscious, and wouldn’t rise and be prey for others. She hoped.
She hoped she’d have the chance to learn of the oceans from him.
You think to hide from Me in there? Pure contempt in the mental blast that sent her head hitting the side of the trench. Ow!
She didn’t know the thing’s capabilities.
Maybe, she sent a whisper and a tiny trail of bubbles. He would follow her. He wouldn’t look for Lathyr. Perhaps she’d saved her love.
And the pearl. She understood the Darkfolk weren’t like the Light. The Dark gobbled up power from anywhere, anyone, anything. They were not elemental beings.
Could it descend to the great Pearl? Besmirch it? Break the threads between the pearl and all life?
She couldn’t risk that, either. She sensed something really bad would happen if he got his claws on it.
She sobbed. Quieted. Saw the skim of his body as a black shadow in the water. He leaked blood, ichor, stuff. That was good at least.
Forcing herself to relax, she formed an image in her head of the speargun and spear-quarrels she’d used before. In the game she could bring weapons to her. Maybe in reality she could, too. A small chance to fight and put off her death as long as possible.
Perhaps take the thing with her when she died.
How the gun felt in her hands. The sting of silver as it brushed her fingers.
Silver, yes! And with that need, the gun slipped into her grip, just there.
She blinked and blinked again. Couldn’t see down here even with her second eyelids. How fast was the monster healing? She’d better get up there and give the battle her all.
Fight to the death.
She’d done it in the game, seen her avatar motionless on floors, in caves, in forests.
This was real and she hated it.
Must save Lathyr. Warn the others again.
Go out fighting.
She angled up out of the trench. The monster saw her sooner than she’d wished, laughed again, but she used her draining energy and magic to stay in place, masking the speargun. It didn’t seem to sense the silver or the gun.
She filled her bilungs, and with oxygen came power from the ocean, a trace even from the pearl. Enough to steady her nerves, set aside the fear making her hands tremble.
Closer, closer. There! Huge nasty eye. Creepy zombie hair. Shoot!
Hit!
Horrible scream. Move, move, move, fast.
Maybe could blind it. Maybe.
Thrashing stopped and gigantic anger whipped toward her, hitting like stinging blows. Should she be that sensitive? Losing magical shields.
HELP! she screamed again. HELP, Dark one, MARIANA TRENCH. TO ME!
White waterspouts churned around her, bubbling, then people were there. Mers. The King and Queen of Water. The Seamonts.
The guardians.
Others.
The Dark one roared—backswam a bit, then began to circle in his attack path again.
A merfem sent Kiri a filthy look and vanished.
Formation! snapped the Water King, a huge and threatening trident in his hand. Net!
I HATE fighting underwater, Vikos, the dwarf guardian said. He scowled at Kiri. Good use of your magic, though. Good summons, not binding. Only requesting. Good.
Silver weapons gleamed as mermen and merfems took position behind the Water King. Kiri strove to swim to the battle triangle. The Water Queen stopped her. Where is your mate! Where is my nephew! He lives?
Yes! Kiri gestured to the trench. Down there, on a ledge. His side. She gibbered even in her mind.
I FEEL him. His essence. His life! The queen’s face lit with joy. She plunged downward. Kiri recalled she was a healer.
Long, firm fingers clasped around her forearm and she found the elf guardian floating beside her. He didn’t look much pleased to be here, either. Hang back, you’re hurt.
I can still shoot him in the eye, she said.
One white eyebrow arched. You have a broken tail.
I can still shoot him in the eye! She paused. The OTHER eye.
Bloodthirsty, I like that, the dwarf sent mentally. Need help here.
She looked around. The dwarf was marching across the bottom of the ocean and the trench was coming up.
He sinks, the elf said. Go get him.
Kiri let herself descend to the dwarf.
He sent water from his nostrils. You can’t carry me. You’re nearly all out of magic and energy. And your tail is broken.
She put her arms around his waist and tried to lift the dwarf, cried out in pain as her tail moved. The dwarf didn’t move. He thumped her shoulder, sending her backward. Go on up and shoot the fucking Dark one in the other eye. The W
ater Queen comes. She has the power to help me.
Kiri nodded and rose.
Fighters hovered behind the Water King as the great Dark one came near, forming another of his energy balls in his hand, sneering. One minor king and other very minor royals. I can take you all. Eat you all and be full of magic.
Didn’t he see the guardians?
Kiri looked for the elf and couldn’t see him, glanced down at the dwarf and he seemed to be part of the rough rock landscape.
POW! A searing blue energy ball shook the water with a hideous explosion.
Screams, blood. Someone bulleted into her. Merman with half his head gone. Hit her right in the tail. She screamed, even as she saw the mers blur fast toward the great Dark one, a net thrown by the elf guardian capture him, the Water King thrust his trident into a massive chest and clouds of blood filled the water.
She couldn’t hold on. Pain took her breath and her balance and her speargun fell from her hand and she fell downward, too. Right into Challenger Deep.
Chapter 35
“KIRI, WAKE UP. People to see you,” Lathyr ordered.
She groaned and stretched her tail.
Her tail!
She had a tail!
She was merfem!
Her eyes opened and her nictitating lids slapped down.
Lathyr cradled her against his body and that was good....because he was alive, and so was she. She swallowed hard.
“Hey, Kiri,” Jenni Emberdrake said in a choked voice.
Kiri spun in Lathyr’s arms and found she was in a tank chamber. Again. But this one was furnished and had plants and mussels growing in it. “Where—”
“The minor palace in Puerto Rico Trench,” Lathyr said.
“I see your tail is fixed,” Jenni said. She was leaning against her husband and her eyes were too bright.
Duh. Fire Lightfolk, of course her eyes were bright.
Kiri arched her tail under her. An angular pattern spiraled up it, matching some of the dark blue diamond lines on her chest.
“Lovely pattern,” Lathyr said, steadying her.
“Thanks.” She met Jenni’s eyes. “Hey, Jenni, can you hear me?”
“Yes. We have a mic and speaker set up.”
“Oh. Good.”
“I want to talk to you about staying with the Transformation game.”
“I’ll be wanting to work with humans before and after their transitions,” Kiri said.
“Done,” Jenni answered promptly, came up close to the tank wall and stared in. “Please say you still want to work on the game.”
“I must work on the game. It’s just not good enough, Jenni.”
The Fire Princess grinned. She breathed on her nails and buffed them on her shirt. “Even my work, very rough, was good enough to snare you.”
“I guess so.” Kiri looked around the place. This was a tank in the water suite. She wished she was in the underwater bedroom with Lathyr instead.
A banging came at the door and a naiad who appeared to be a servant opened it. The King and Queen of Water entered.
They nodded to Jenni and Aric, who left with a nod and a “Later.”
The naiad brought poufy pink chairs for the royal couple to sit on then went out the door when a wave from the king dismissed them.
The royals stared at them and Kiri stared back, glad Lathyr loosely held her with an arm around her waist.
“You took Lathyr with you to the great Pearl,” the Water King said. As always, his fingers were linked with his queen’s, but his whole manner seemed to have changed.
“Yes,” Kiri said. She blinked. He even seemed less crude, more thoughtful, and that she wouldn’t have anticipated. She’d judged him and stuck him in a little cubbyhole and he was defying her expectations.
“I remember the pearl,” the queen said softly, her eyes going dreamy as she looked at her husband. “You took me.”
He met his wife’s eyes and stared into them. “Yes, I did, and I never regretted it.”
She lifted his fingers to her lips and kissed them, a gleam came to her eyes. “Though I don’t think you remember the Pearl as often as you should, or the lesson it teaches,” she chided.
Boundless love for all creatures? Live in the moment? Or lessons that would be revealed later, too? “Lesson?” Kiri whispered.
The queen looked at her. “I think one lesson might be the same, but others are unique to the individual.”
Kiri tried an underwater courteous tail swirl. It went well. She smiled.
The Water King grumbled. To Kiri’s ears it sounded as if he’d started the punctuation as a belch, then decided to change it. “We are pleased you met the great Pearl,” he said. “Demonstrating your magical power and your acceptability as nobles and being included in the royal line. It pleases me that a relative of my lady’s has proven to be as strong as she and as clever.” He looked straight at Lathyr.
Who, of course, bowed. “Thank you.”
“And in succeeding with the royal water quest, you will be awarded lands commensurate with your new status. That doesn’t mean, however, that you are our heirs.” He glared at them, but Kiri didn’t feel any inimical intimidation from the man. “We fully intend to leave Earth for a more magically rich dimension when the gate is opened.”
The queen smiled and hummed with pleasure.
“What?” Kiri asked.
“We have garnered all the magic we can here on Earth and deserve a richer magical realm,” Marin Greendepths said. “The Eight’s current primary project is to create a permanent gate to other dimensions—richer magical dimensions where we—”
“Both we Lightfolk and we humans,” the queen interrupted.
The king grumped, then continued, “Can interact with others. Where magic can flow through.”
“A permanent dimensional gate,” Lathyr breathed. He squeezed Kiri, and she sensed, like her, that he was curious, but loved this planet more than power.
The king smiled with satisfaction. “With the bubbles of magic that were released earlier this year, we Eight have enough magic to build a temporary gate so a true gate creator can come through and establish a permanent one here on Earth.”
Kiri could only think “Wow” and decided it might be too human to say.
Continuing, the Water King said, “The Seamonts remain our heirs. They showed well during the fight with the great Dark one and its execution,” the king said matter-of-factly. He glanced at Lathyr. “Unlike Whitefroth of the North American Great Lakes, who deserted us. She has been removed from her rank, though she has been allowed to remain in the lakes.”
“A wise decision,” Lathyr said.
Marin Greendepths turned his gaze back on Kiri and Lathyr, waved a hand. “It is time for the Seamonts to stay with us and learn our rules and traditions. You Squall-Tricurrents are hereby confirmed as our heirs after the Seamonts. Every quest has a reward. For succeeding with that of the Pearl, and becoming royal, you receive a major estate. We hereby convey to you this minor Water Palace here in the Puerto Rico Trench.” He clicked his tongue. “As the humans call it.”
Even without physical contact, Kiri sensed the quick leap of Lathyr’s heart. “Very gracious, Your Majesty,” Lathyr said.
“Thank you,” Kiri managed, her own voice sounding breathless as visions of the gorgeous glass palace flashed through her mind. And fairly close to the States, if not Denver. “Thank you, thank you.” She did the three times thing that Lightfolk preferred.
The Water Queen beamed. “You are most welcome.”
They stood and Kiri did the bow-thing again and it was a lot easier and more graceful in water.
A naiader showed up and opened the door for them, then departed after the couple.
“Wow,” said Kiri.
Lathyr said, “According to Waterfolk traditions, you took me with you on a quest. We fought together, we bled together, we loved together. We are mates.”
Kiri grabbed a strand of his floating hair and tugged his face down to kiss
him. “Fine with me.”
She reached out and traced his pattern, the angles and curves, the small dots that showed his special air nature mixed with mer. He shuddered under her hands and returned the gesture until her mind blew apart and they joined in rapture.
Later, she swam to the door of the tank, recalled the spell to drain it. She changed to two-legged form, then human as the water level lowered, all the while holding Lathyr’s hand. Then they stepped through the opening as human. Breathing deeply of the pleasingly fragrant air, she said, “Just think, all of this is ours.”
“We do not need to make haste to claim the royal apartments.”
She chuckled. “No, I don’t think either of us will become as arrogant as the Greendepths. Though I haven’t noticed you being as...obedient...as you were.”
“I am not. We can make our own way, should we care to, in the sea or on land or in between.”
Sighing, she said, “You’re right.”
“Humans have special parties for declaring a mate.”
Kiri blinked. “Weddings?”
“Yes. I would like a wedding. In Mystic Circle. Before Winter.”
“All right.” They discussed the date as they walked to one of the dry rooms in their suite, something she thought the guardians might have furnished especially for them. When they claimed their official chambers, there’d have to be dry portions. She glanced at Lathyr, relaxed her shoulders, knew her expression showed vulnerability. Bracing herself, she said, “Weddings usually include families. Both sides of my family don’t talk to each other.”
He just looked at her, then took her hand and led her to a room she hadn’t been in yet. “Jenni and Aric gifted us with a computer room.”
“Nice.” Under her breath she muttered, “Get notifying my family over with. Fast.”
“And we have a piece of furniture like your friends sat on.” He gestured to a love seat, then fiddled with a mobile computer desk and the laptop on it. He booted up the video conferencing program and pulled Kiri down next to him.
To her astonishment, she easily reached her father and he agreed to give her away and her half siblings were excited to come.
Her mother agreed to attend, too. Probably to show off her new, rich husband, but that was okay. Her half sister wanted to be a bridesmaid, so Kiri said yes.
Enchanted Ever After (Mystic Circle) Page 32