Women with glittering mermaid tails happily dove from high platforms into the water. They swam right by the windows of the tank, swishing their tails and performing underwater summersaults. Damir had obviously made them wear synthetic tails over their crudely sewn legs, because there was no way he could have transformed their human legs into the gleaming, scaly fish tails I saw before me.
They seemed happy. That part I couldn’t understand. Sure, Damir could drug women and cut them up, but he couldn’t force them to be happy about it.
All seven of them met at the largest window of the tank, where most people had gathered, where Damir stood himself. The two pregnant women were flanked by their fellow mermaids, each of them smiling and taking turns to place a hand on the small, barely-there baby bumps, before swishing their aqua-marine coloured tails and spearing up through the water to the top of the tank for air.
The crowd oohed and ahhed. Was becoming a mother so important to them that they could overlook the fact that these women’s legs had been mutilated?
Damir stood watching his creations be assisted back onto the platforms, a gleam in his eye, before turning to address the crowd.
“I am the first man here to impregnate a woman in twenty years. I believe it’s a combination of me being the only fertile male in the city and the saltwater in this tank.” He waggled his brows at the crowd. “So line up, ladies. You don’t have to be a mermaid to have one of my children.”
My stomach churned. Damir was so full of himself.
The crowd erupted into a frenzy of shouting and screaming. The people were clearly divided between excitement at the possibility of having children and disgust at the means of acquiring them.
“For a scientist, you are pretty stupid, brother,” said Marko. He raised his voice and stared at the crowd.
“It is not Damir’s virility that has impregnated these women.”
Some women in the crowd frowned with disappointment, as though they had actually considered Damir’s offer and had been about to line up.
“It’s not the saltwater inside the tank either. It’s the moon at the base of the tank,” said Marko. “The original fertility moon.”
A ripple of exclamations and murmurs tore through the crowd.
“What moon?” Sylvia asked, her nails digging into Marko’s arm. “We already tried shifting the moon from the ballroom to Kraja’s statue and we all know how that turned out.”
Marko glared at her and drew me to his side. “Miranda and Robbie figured it out. I was going to announce it after the coronation.” He turned to Sylvia. “I was hoping it would console you to know that you could fall pregnant with a child of your own.”
“I don’t need consolation.” Her nails practically disappeared into Marko’s arm, drawing blood. “I have Angelina.”
Marko tore his arm out from his sister’s grasp.
“You don’t, actually.” My hands were shaking so badly I folded my arms across my chest and tucked them under my armpits. “As Angelina’s Aunty, I have decided that she will come to live with Marko and me in Marko’s rooms. My grandparents, Angelina’s great-grandparents, have conveniently shifted into the adjoining room. We will all co-parent Angelina on Lauren’s behalf.”
Sylvia opened her mouth to speak but I raised a shaking palm to silence her. Nothing she said was going to convince me to allow my niece to spend another second in her company. “And don’t bother arguing because the decision is final.”
Sylvia placed a hand over her heart. Her bulging green eyes glazed over with unshed tears. “There is no way I’m giving her up. No way in Hell. She is mine— mine and Robbie’s.” Sylvia stood on her toes and stared over the tops of people’s heads. ‘Tell her, Rob.”
The crowd parted as Robbie pushed his way towards us.
“No,” Robbie’s voice boomed. “She is not ours and I’m not yours either. I’ve just been speaking to Lily and she knows all about the blackmail. Soon everyone will know that you blackmailed me into breaking off my engagement to Lily by threatening the lives of Marko, Miranda, Lily and Lily’s parents.”
Several people gasped, but the rest started moving away from us and climbing the winding, spiral staircase leading to the top of the tank. I put a hand to my mouth as I watched women and men throw themselves into the tank. There was splash after splash as more and more people dove into the water. Some clutched at the ladders along the wall of the tank and others splashed around, desperately trying to keep their heads above water.
Marko watched for a moment, shook his head and then glared at his sister. It was a look reserved for enemies only. She was no longer the mother figure in his eyes.
“Guards, take her to the dungeons.”
Sylvia turned to Damir. “Are you going to let this happen?!” She wriggled and squirmed beneath Jonathan and Jarrod’s firm grip on her shoulders.
“Damir, help me and I’ll help you. We’ve always helped each other, remember? Since the day we were born we’ve looked out for each other. Do you really think Marko will allow you to keep making mermaids while he is king? Think about it.”
Marko nodded at Jonathan who then motioned, with a flick of his head, for two nearby guards to seize Damir.
Damir didn’t struggle. Instead he nodded to a group of his own men, men in plain clothes whom I recognised from when Damir had kidnapped me and brought me to his lair the first time I’d come to stay at Marin. The men moved forward, but before they could wrestle him free, Damir raised his hands and locked eyes with Sylvia.
“If I free you, Sylvia, you must—”
“Wait!” I shouted and came to stand between them. “Damir, Sylvia murdered Lauren. I tried to tell you before, but you wouldn’t listen. Robbie said there was no reason for Lauren to die. She was having a text-book delivery.” I paused, picturing Lauren in labour and how excited and anxious she must have felt to be so close to meeting her baby. My throat tightened.
“After Lauren died, Sylvia wouldn’t allow Robbie to examine the body. She said that you...” I paused and swallowed down the painful lump in my throat, “that you tampered with the body and so she had to send her—my sister’s body—out to sea.”
Damir drilled my eyes with his own, as though he was searching for the truth, before glaring at Sylvia over my shoulder.
“I would never have tampered with Lauren’s body,” he said, his voice cracking. “You know this.” He paused and sucked in a several deep breaths, until his eyes filled with tears. “You killed her?” He wrestled with the guards who held him and leaned over to spit in his sister’s face. “You will die.”
Sylvia swallowed thickly, tears pooling in her own eyes.
“I didn’t mean to kill her. I gave her a tablet. All I wanted was to knock her out so that I could say she was too weak to look after the baby. The pill slows down your pulse until it’s barely there.”
Tears filled my eyes, blurring everything around me. I blinked them away. Lauren’s death had been so pointless.
Sylvia twisted her hands together and briefly flicked her gaze between me and Damir. “I didn’t intend for her to die, and I’m not really sure if she did, in fact, die that day.”
My heart stopped and the chaos all around me—the people splashing inside the tank, the guards facing off to one another—they all vanished, leaving only Sylvia and me.
“Then where is she if she’s not dead?” My voice was high pitched, hysterical.
“Don’t get too excited. I hid your sister’s body inside a shuttle and then sent her away. It was for the best. I sent her body to our grandmother’s home, the waters near the home of my great aunt and cousin. If she was still alive at the time the water would have killed her anyway. The drugs would have weakened her body considerably. She didn’t stand a chance.”
Sylvia sniffed and continued.
“I tied one of my precious gems, my favourite emerald, around her neck in a silk purse, in hopes that my aunt or cousin would recognise the family heirloom and give your sister a decent burial.�
�� Sylvia turned to face Damir. “I will always have respect for Lauren’s memory. We will honour her each year for the great gift she gave Marin. She gave us beautiful baby Angelina.” Sylvia looked away from Damir’s hate-filled eyes and started to sob.
Damir nodded to more of his plain-clothed men.
“Take her to the dungeons. I’ll deal with her later. Marko doesn’t have the guts to dole out the punishment she deserves.” The men drew their daggers and approached Jonathan and Jarrod, who had already let go of Sylvia to seize hold of their own daggers.
“You,” Damir pointed to me, “and you and you” he pointed to Robbie and Marko next. “You three are going to the dungeons too.”
Several of Marko’s old guards and random members of the public formed a protective wall in front of us. I tugged on Marko’s arm.
“We have to move Angelina, Nana, Pop and Lily from our rooms and hide them in Kraja’s room. Now. While the guards are holding Damir’s men off.”
Marko nodded. “But then I’m coming back. Damir needs to be dealt with.”
“I agree,” said Robbie. “Let’s go.”
We pushed through the crowd and made our way back to the castle, stopping first at Sylvia’s room to get Nana, Pop and the baby, and then to Robbie’s room where Lily was being treated.
Robbie ran to Lily’s side and lifted her into his arms. He carried her from his room into Marko’s through the adjoining door, but from there she demanded to walk.
Together we crossed the room.
I smiled at Nana and Pop, then rubbed my hands together before pressing them against the wall.
Just as I heard a stampede of footsteps outside Marko’s room, the wall warmed beneath my touch and shot into the celling, leaving an opening that we quickly ushered the others through.
“Hurry!” shouted Marko.
I screamed and placed both my hands on either side of the open wall, willing it to shut. It sealed just as the doors to Marko’s room burst open. Hopefully Damir’s men hadn’t seen us.
Once my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the secret corridor and I could see everyone’s faces, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Baby Angelina started to cry, but Nan gently shushed her.
“There, there, love,” she said, rocking the baby back and forth in her arms. “Luckily we brought a couple of bottles of milk for you, yes, yes we did,” she cooed.
I pressed my palms against the wall to Kraja’s room, and the door shot up, allowing us entry into her private sanctuary.
After we entered, a woman’s scream sliced through the walls.
It was coming from the other side of Marko’s room.
“The dungeons,” said Marko.
“Who is that poor women? We have to help her,” said Pop, wringing his weathered hands together.
“Sylvia. It’s my sister,” said Marko, his eyes seeking mine. “Damir must have gotten to her.” He swore beneath his breath and raised the balls of his palms to his forehead, as though trying to quieten the conflict inside his mind. “I can’t let him hurt her. I just can’t. He’s too cruel.” He rushed off before I could stop him. Robbie followed.
I turned to Lily who shrugged and seemed tired of it all. “Even after everything she’s done, I still don’t want her to die a painful death. I don’t want to become her, Miranda. I’m not cruel like that.”
I nodded but deep inside I knew I could never forgive her for what she had done to Lauren.
29
Robbie
We came to the door at the end of the passageway. Marko opened it with his palms and led us down the dark, musty smelling corridor which opened to the staircase just above the dungeons. We crept to the top of the stairs, where Marko watched and I listened, to Sylvia being thrown into the cell.
A sharp sound, a vicious slap against skin down in the dungeons, had me gripping Marko’s shoulder.
“What just happened?”
Marko sucked in a sharp breath.
“She tried to stand and one of Damir’s men backhanded her across the face. He hit her so hard she fell back against the bed.”
I drew my dagger from out of its hilt while Marko continued updating me. “She’s hit her head on the metal corner and has slashed her cheek open.”
I glanced down but saw nothing but a haze of dark and light shapes. One of the moving shapes was larger than the other.
“The biggest guard is standing over her, laughing. God, Robbie, she’s helpless.” Marko’s voice broke. “She’s curled herself into a ball on the bed. I’m going to kill him.”
Sylvia’s wracking sobs brought a lump to my throat and a burning rage in every inch of my body. No matter how many bad things she had done to me recently, to Lauren and to Miranda—things I could never forgive her for—I couldn’t help but remember, in that moment, all the times that she’d been kind to me, all the stories she’d read to me as a child, all the hugs she’d given to console me when I was missing home during my first year at Marin.
“He’s letting another guard in. The door’s unlocked and now’s our chance.” Marko turned to face me. “How’s your vision?”
I rubbed at my eyes and when that didn’t work, slapped at them. After several blinks, my vision was slightly clearer. Clear enough to see the silhouettes of the guards below and Sylvia’s curled form on the bed.
Leaping over the stair railings, Marko jumped and landed on Sylvia’s tormentor’s shoulders. He gripped the man’s hair, forcing his head back with a sharp jerk, before whipping out his boot dagger and slashing it across the man’s neck.
Blood spurted and splattered onto the surprised face of the other guard. I chose that moment to jump on him. However my stupid sight blurred again and I landed somewhere on the floor beside the man, knocking myself in the face against a wooden chair. I tried to stand but my head spun.
The guard, now back on his feet, seized the chair and sent it crashing against my face.
Blood pooled in my eyes, turning my blurred vision red.
Warm liquid spilled down my cheeks, like sticky tears.
“Marko,” I shouted, as everything around me gradually turned black. “Marko!” I shouted again, my arms out in front of me, searching.
Someone crashed into me, jerking my body to the left. I lost my footing and fell to the floor, landing beside whoever had knocked me down. Raising myself to my knees, I felt the motionless body and breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered that it wasn’t Marko. This man had no sheaths on his boots. He was one of Damir’s men.
“Marko!”
A hand rested on my shoulder and the sound of heavy breathing filled my left ear.
“It’s okay Rob. I’m here. The men are down. I’ll leave you here for just a second to get Sylvia and then we’ll return to the others.”
“How do my eyes look?”
His pause was too long for my liking.
“They’re... not too bad, Rob. You’ll be okay. We’ll fix you up back in Kraja’s room.”
I could tell by the sound of his voice that my injuries were bad.
I sighed in defeat.
Suddenly I wanted the blurry vision back. It didn’t seem so bad now. Anything was better than complete darkness.
30
Miranda
“Put him on the bed beside Lily,” I said, covering my mouth with my hands at the sight of Marko and Sylvia carrying a bloody-eyed Robbie into Kraja’s room.
Lily heard this and awakened immediately, springing into a sitting position with the reflexes of a cat.
“I feel weirdly alert and... stronger somehow,” she said, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck before feeling her temple. “How strange... this doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s almost like...” She stared down at the mattress she’d been resting on and tore the sheets aside.
Everyone in the room drew a collective gasp as beams of iridescent green light radiated from the green light crystals lining the mattress.
“They must have healing properties like the other light crystals,
” said Marko, sharing my thoughts. “Except maybe these green crystals are much stronger.”
“Lay down, Robbie,” I said quickly, not sure if he could hear me or not. He may have passed out from the pain already. “Put him on the bed, Marko.”
“But can we trust them with Robbie’s eyes?” Marko shook his head and gnawed on his bottom lip. “Light crystals damaged them in the first place. We don’t know what these green crystals can do to him. They could make things worse.”
Robbie released a soft moan and gasped.
“Marko, can my eyes... can my eyes get any worse? Seriously. I have nothing to lose.”
Everyone muttered in agreement.
Marko took another look at Robbie’s bleeding eyes and sighed. “I guess not.”
“Then let’s try it. It might at least stop the bleeding...” Robbie’s words died on his lips as a fresh wave of pain gripped him. He scrunched his face up and cried out.
“Quick! Get him on the bed,” shouted Pop.
Marko and Sylvia eased Robbie onto the bed.
Sylvia, tears and blood streaking her cheeks, kissed Robbie’s temple. “I’m so sorry, Rob,” she whispered before Lily shoved her aside and sat on the edge of the mattress beside Robbie, stroking his hair and whispering things I couldn’t hear into his ear.
He rolled on-to his side and she shifted the pillow and gently eased his head onto the mattress where the green light crystals glowed through the thin, age worn sheets. The crystals gave his pale skin an alien glow. I prayed that it would at least stop the bleeding.
“Now what?” Nan asked as she nursed a sleeping baby Angelina in her arms.
Marko put a gentle hand on Nan’s bony shoulder.
“You’ll all have to stay in here until I make sure that it’s safe for you to cross my rooms to reach the shuttle room.” He swallowed thickly. “I think it would be best if you all returned to land for the time being. Until I’ve set things right in Marin. If I can set things right.” He stared down at baby Angelina, a sad smile on his lips. “This little one needs a safer underwater city than the one she has now.”
Release (The Submerged Sun, #3) Page 20