“Huge man-eating fish with thousands of really sharp teeth,” I explained.
“Oh, predators. No, the Half-Folk keep their area mostly clear of dangerous animals,” Drace said. “Feel better now?”
“No,” I said. “Because I don’t like the idea of breathing water. I mean, I really don’t like it. I know you said this little pill stuck under my tongue is supposed to make it possible but it just sounds weird and completely impossible.”
“It does take some getting used to,” Lucian admitted. “Would you like Drace and I to demonstrate how it’s done first?”
“Yes, please.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Because I honestly don’t see how it’s possible.”
“You’re not actually going to be taking the water down into your lungs,” Drace explained as he and Lucian scrunched down so they were also neck deep in the surprisingly calm sea on either side of me.
“The moment the water touches your face, the breath-weed will form a microscopically thin filter-membrane that covers the opening to your throat and nostrils,” Lucian said. “You won’t see it or feel it but it will be there.”
“Water will enter your mouth but it won’t be able to get down into your lungs,” Drace went on, picking up the explanation. “The filter extracts the oxygen you need to breathe and keeps the liquid out.”
“It’s an odd sensation at first, talking and breathing with a mouthful of water,” Lucian said. “But you get used to it fairly quickly.”
“All right,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest—my pretty red dress was, of course, completely soaked and billowing around me in the waves. “Show me.”
“Gladly.” Lucian ducked his head underwater and looked up at us from under the blue waves. He said something but of course I couldn’t hear him.
“What was that? What did he say?” I asked, looking anxiously at Lucian’s black hair, floating like seaweed in the gentle current.
Drace grinned a little. “I think he said ‘come on in, the water’s fine.’”
“And…he’s really able to breathe down there?” I asked, still watching him worriedly. With his pale olive green skin, he blended in with the light blue water surprisingly well—almost as well as Drace with his dark blue skin tones.
“You can see for yourself,” Drace motioned to him and Lucian gave me a little wave. He was sitting cross-legged on the ocean floor now, reminding me of a game I used to play with my cousins when we went swimming. It was called “tea party” and the object was to hold your breath and sit on the bottom of the swimming pool long enough to pretend you were eating some cookies and drinking a cup of tea.
Lucian, however, wasn’t holding his breath. Watching carefully, I could see his broad chest rising and falling—(he and Drace were both shirtless and completely mouthwatering, I think I forgot to mention that)—so it was easy to see.
“Okay,” I said at last. “So you just…dunk your head under and start breathing?”
“That’s right, baby.” Drace smiled at me. “You want to try it? Or are you scared?”
I think it was meant as an honest question but I took it as a dare. Lifting my chin, I frowned at him.
“I’m not afraid,” I said and ducked my head under the water.
At first I held my breath out of habit. I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s surprisingly hard to do something—such as trying to breathe underwater—that your brain insists will kill you. Finally, though, when my lungs felt like they were going to burst, I parted my lips and sucked in just the tiniest bit.
My mouth filled with briny water but it didn’t taste like the ocean back home. It was less salty for one thing and it had an almost sweet aftertaste. It filled my mouth but didn’t go down my throat, or up my nose for that matter.
I got brave and sucked in a little more. I felt my lungs expanding and realized I was doing it—I was breathing underwater! I could see too—thanks to the vision drops we’d all squirted into our eyes, everything was crystal clear.
It was bizarre and exhilarating like a waking dream. We continued our journey, but this time under the water. Of course, I felt a little like I was moving in slow motion and the salty taste of water in my mouth did take some getting used to, as Drace had said, but other than that I was perfectly fine. It was amazing.
When we talked, the sounds were strangely distorted until Drace pulled out some small, porous stones and put two in his ears like earplugs. He handed some to me and Lucian too.
“Sorry,” he said as I pushed them carefully into my ear canals, making sure they weren’t so far in they wouldn’t come out again. “Almost forgot about the sound-wave plugs. Good thing I had extras.”
“They help,” I said, once I had the small stones seated comfortably in my ears. “I can’t believe I’m hearing and seeing and breathing underwater! I feel like I’m in a dream.”
“No dream, ma 'frela,” Lucian said. He was on my right side and Drace was on my left. “This is the only way to visit the Half-Folk in their own world.”
“Who are they?” I asked, looking around to see if I could spot any of them. To my disappointment, there was nothing but crystal clear water and silvery sand as far as my eyes could see. Well, except for a dark cloud over on our right. I wondered if it was a shoal of fish.
“They are one of the Twelve Peoples,” Lucian said. “Those intelligent beings descended from the Ancient Ones who were given the seeds of life by the Goddess of Mercy.”
“Um, okay,” I said. “But what are they like?”
“Mostly peaceful,” Drace said, sounding thoughtful. “There’s never been much trouble between the land-living Denarins and the Half-Folk or Wave-Dwellers as they call themselves. We keep to the land and, for the most part, they keep to the sea. We share a lot of resources so we have to cooperate.”
“That doesn’t sound like how it would go on Earth,” I said grimly, thinking of the way we’d polluted our oceans back home. Also, we were so not good at sharing resources. It was probably a good thing we didn’t have to share our planet with a whole other sentient species.
We were getting closer to the big dark cloud and I could see now it wasn’t a cloud at all—it was a kind of forest. A kelp forest with impossibly tall strands of dark kelp, purple on one side and deep green on the other, floating far over our heads.
“Do you have Half-Folk on your planet?” Lucian asked. “I thought humans were the only race on the planet—it’s the reason you’re Pure Ones.”
“No, we’re the only people there—that isn’t what I meant,” I said. “But look, you guys still haven’t answered my question. What do these Half-Folk people look like?”
Suddenly, as if in answer to my question, two huge people came out of the kelp forest.
I say “people” but that was only half right. They were both men—or male, anyway—and from the waist up, they were as massive as Drace and Lucian with broad, muscular chests and shoulders and blond hair that floated around their faces. But from the waist down, well…
“They’re lobsters,” I whispered faintly, staring at the long, segmented bodies and chitinous, many jointed legs that ended in claw-like points instead of feet. “Oh my God, they’re lobster people.”
“Hail, surface dwellers,” one of the lobster guys said in a deep, sonorous voice. (Actually, he looked more like a lobster-centaur to me, only his bottom part was a lobster instead of a horse. Can you imagine a lobster the size of a horse? Don’t—it’ll give you nightmares.) “Why have you come to the domain of the Wave-dwellers?” he asked.
Lucian stepped forward. “We have come to consult with Tanta Loro,” he said clearly. “Concerning some advice she gave us earlier. We need clarification.”
“Once Tanta Loro advises, she does not speak on a matter again,” said the other lobster-centaur guy. “Best you should be on your way.” He yanked suddenly on a chain he was holding in one hand and a huge fish came swimming out of the kelp forest, apparently attached to the end of the chain like it was a leash.
; I yelped when I saw the massive fish and jumped back—as well as I could jump underwater, anyway. I had been thinking horse-sized lobsters were bad but this was way, way worse. It was as big as one of those huge groupers who can swallow a whole car in one gulp, but it didn’t have the stupid, complacent look of a grouper. Instead, its face was a nightmare, with huge, black staring eyes and teeth as long as my arm. They stuck out of its jaw every-which-way, a crazy game of razor-sharp pick-up sticks that looked utterly lethal. I couldn’t see how this monstrosity could eat anything without chewing up its own face—not that I bet it let that stop it come feeding time.
“You said there were no sharks,” I whispered to Drace accusingly. “So what’s that thing?”
“A gnash-tooth,” he muttered back. “Don’t worry—Lucian and I won’t let you get hurt, baby.” Then he stepped up beside Lucian, making sure to keep me behind them.
“We have already paid the price for consultation and it was a high one,” Lucian was saying. “But Tanta Loro’s advice has not worked.”
“We need to see her again,” Drace added. “And we’re not going until we do.”
The two lobster-centaur guys raised their spears. (Did I mention they had long, silver spears with wicked-looking barbed points? Because they did, along with their freaking attack-fish.)
I was still hidden behind Drace and Lucian but I peeked out and felt my heart jump up into my throat when I saw their threatening stance. Then, for some reason they stopped and cocked their heads to one side, almost as though they were hearing something none of the rest of us could catch.
“Yes, Tanta Loro,” one of them murmured. He looked at his partner and nodded.
“On your head be it, then,” said the one with the huge gnash-tooth fish. “If Tanta Loro does not find your request reasonable, she will mete out punishment far worse than ours.”
Worse than being stuck by eight foot long barbed spears or gobbled by the gnash-tooth? Wow, I was really hoping that this Tanta Loro wasn’t upset with us for coming to see her!
“Come,” the other lobster-centaur guard said. Turning, they both glided back into the kelp forest, taking their pet nightmare-fish with them.
Drace and Lucian looked at each other briefly and nodded. Taking a step back, they flanked me like some kind of honor guard. I understood they were putting themselves into position to protect me if there was any trouble. Gratefully, I grabbed their hands and squeezed.
Drace squeezed back and gave me a rueful grin.
“Come on, baby—we’d better follow them.”
“You’re sure we’ll be all right?” I asked, my voice coming out squeaky, even underwater.
“It has to be,” Lucian said grimly. “Don’t worry, ma 'frela. Whatever else Tanta Loro may be, she is fair.”
As we walked together into the shadows of the tall, waving kelp forest, I hoped he was right.
Chapter Thirteen
Rylee
“Why have you come to disssturb me again?” Tanta Loro had a deep, hissing voice that echoed in my ears like some kind of strange whale song. I wondered if maybe the echoes were caused by the walls of the structure around us.
I say “structure” because I’m not sure what else to call it—it certainly wasn’t like any house or office building I had ever been in. It was shiny, pearlescent pink with a wide, round entrance that rose into a spiraling tower at least five stories above our heads. When we’d entered it, we’d walked up a curving, slippery ramp for what seemed like forever until we came to a large, central room where the walls were a much paler peach, but still with a pearlescent shine.
Really, I thought, what it resembled more than anything else was a giant seashell. We’re standing inside a giant seashell, I told myself. Standing in a giant seashell and talking to a—
At that point, words failed me. Just like her house—if this was a house—Tanta Loro was hard to explain.
With all the talk about tentacles-for-hair, I’d been expecting her to be half octopus and break out into Poor Unfortunate Souls the minute we stepped in the room. But the reality was worse—much worse.
She had the top half of a woman—a topless woman, I might add. Her enormous breasts floated free with only two tiny purple seashells a la The Little Mermaid to cover her nipples. Other than that, her top half looked normal enough but her bottom half…well, that was another story.
Have you ever seen pictures of those huge, Japanese spider crabs? They’re freaky because they really do look like spiders—giant ones with a sixteen-foot long leg span and bodies bigger than a man’s head. That was what the bottom part of Tanta Loro looked like—a crab—a really big scary one.
Her hair was normal though—I didn’t know what Drace and Lucian had been talking about there. It was slicked back into a sleek, black bun at the back of her neck where it showed really well since her skin was chalk-white.
“We followed your advice—your prophesy,” Lucian said to her. “We found a Pure One to touch us both at the same time but it didn’t sever our bond.”
“It fucking strengthened it,” Drace growled. “We’re closer than we were before—that isn’t what we paid for.”
“You paid for a prophesssy,” Tanta Loro hissed, swaying forward on her many long, spindly crab legs. “I cannot control how the prophesy playsss out.”
“Be that as it may,” Lucian said, frowning. “We still need help to be free of each other.”
“Foolish sssurface dwellersss. You have what you need right in front of you, yet you do not sssee it. Iss this the one you brought to free you?” She swayed towards me and I had to fight not to run away.
I’m not afraid of much except bugs but her bottom half was way too bug-like for comfort. Also, she was huge—her top half was as big as the lobster-centaur guys. She towered over my head like some kind of strange, moving statue an artist with a sick mind had carved and left at the bottom of the sea.
“This is our chosen female, Rylee,” Drace said, frowning at her. “She’s under our protection,” he added at the same time Lucian said,
“She is not to be harmed.”
“I ssserve the Goddesss—I would not dream of harming a Pure One and a La-ti-zal. Come clossser, child.” She beckoned to me with two of her long, spindly crab legs.
My own legs were decidedly unsteady as I took a step closer and looked up at her. Tanta Loro leaned down towards me until her pale face was right in front of mine. She sniffed me, her nostrils wrinkling, and then she threw back her head and laughed.
“What the—” I stumbled backwards and almost fell. As she laughed, Tanta Loro’s sleek black hair came down from its bun and floated all around her face.
Only it wasn’t hair—long, thin tentacles waved around her chalk-white cheeks and forehead in a mesmerizing pattern.
Tentacles, I thought, my heart pounding. Oh my God, they were right—she actually has tentacles!
I don’t know why the tentacle hair should have been more horrifying than the crab body but somehow it was. Maybe because it was so unexpected. At any rate, my horror didn’t seem to affect Tanta Loro at all—except to make her more amused.
“Foolsss!” she cried, pointing at Lucian and Drace. “You sssurface dwelling foolsss! Do you know what kind of female you have chosssen?”
“She is a Pure One, just as you said.” Drace put an arm around me protectively.
“And a La-ti-zal,” Lucian added, staying close to my other side.
“Yesss, ssshe is all thossse thingsss.” Tanta Loro finally finished laughing and her “hair” settled down into a bun at the nape of her neck again. Then she looked at the three of us seriously. “She isss indeed a La-ti-zal but do you know what her power isss?”
“Well…no,” Lucian admitted. “The Commercians couldn’t tell us that—only that she had special powers.”
“She doesss indeed have powersss,” Tanta Loro hissed. She pointed one, bony finger at me. “She isss a Binder.”
“A what?” I stared at her blankly. “Look, I reall
y don’t think—”
“A Binder?” Drace growled, frowning. “That’s impossible. We chose her because we saw her splitting two males apart.”
“Drace is right—Rylee helps separate people,” Lucian insisted. “She doesn’t bind them together.”
“She isss a Binder,” the crab-woman insisted. “Otherwissse the mere touch of her handsss to yoursss would have broken the bond between you. You have chosen the one female who can never help you sssever your bond—she can only bind you more tightly together.”
“I…I don’t believe it,” Lucian whispered in a numb voice.
“This can’t be right!” Drace insisted angrily.
My skin tightened and I felt a hot rush all over my body—the same feeling you get when you’re being called out in front of a bunch of people and you know you did something really, really wrong. What if Tanta Loro was right? What if I was some kind of a Binder? The idea that I had some kind of untapped power sounded bizarre but was it really any stranger than the situation I currently found myself in, at the bottom of the ocean talking to a woman who was half-spider crab? Anyway, it would certainly explain how my intervention had strengthened the tie between them instead of weakening or breaking it.
“Guys…what if it’s true?” I asked in a small voice. “What if I only made your situation worse?” I shook my head, twisting my fingers together. “I’m so, so sorry—I didn’t know. Didn’t know about any of this.”
“Of course you didn’t. It’s not your fault, baby,” Drace murmured roughly, turning to face me.
“Please don’t think we blame you, ma 'frela,” Lucian said earnestly, stroking my cheek. “We chose you ourselves because we felt drawn to you. The fault is ours.”
“I guess…” I looked down at my hands. “I guess you’d better take me back to Earth and try…try to find some other girl to help you.” For some reason the words wanted to stick in my throat. Which was silly—we’d made a deal, signed a contract—all predicated on the idea that I would be going back eventually. But now the idea of the guys—of my guys—finding some other girl to help them made me feel sick to my stomach.
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