Unwanted

by Mari LaRoche

  A snicker echoed through Vivian. That’s a bit overwrought. She’s a fighter, but no match for us. Jealous, though, so be on your guard.

  Zeyaad had no issue with changing to a completely humanoid form, but Turfa did. Different kins? Or different talents?

  Talents. Turfa was a lesser light; otherwise, she would be the ruler.

  "We will need to consider how to deal with this situation. The expectation, once Brigit made her agreements, was that you wouldn’t survive to reach my kingdom, old friend.” Zeyaad’s gaze returned to Viv, searching for a reaction. “I heard your cry. It is you and long past the time I had given up hope, Ušum. Do you remember anything?”

  Lie, lie, lie…

  Viv shook her head, uneasy at the intensity of his gaze.

  Zeyaad inhaled, and his next words boomed through the chamber, loud as thunder. “These two are under my protection. A seer is returned to us!”

  Viv glanced to her left and saw Amir wince.

  The queen’s demure smile sent chills down Viv’s back.

  Oh, she’s up to something. Good instincts.

  At Zeyaad’s gesture, a seahorse swam close to the edge of the bubble. Necklaces of all kinds hung from it, and the king selected two simple pendant pearls strung on a thin twist of fiber. He gave one to Turfa, and she walked to Amir and put it around his neck, kissing both his cheeks after she did so. Blood trickled down his face after the second, but he didn’t flinch.

  The king gestured Vivian forward, and she moved, her feet strangely light. His touch was gentle and the brush of his lips featherlight.

  Are you sure you don’t want to kiss him in thanks?

  The air freshened and sweetened as light radiated from the pearl, forming a veil around her, a mellow silvery shadow of the radiance of the crystal above. Another formed around Amir.

  The king’s smile broadened, lips parting to reveal teeth like a leopard seal’s yawn, even more terrifying than Ilse’s. "I am very glad we created these when humans crossed into our realm so long ago. You can breathe water as long as you wear this."

  His intense gaze didn’t waver from Viv’s face, and she tried not to falter meeting it. Dark and deep, his eyes were black from corner to corner with no sclera.

  The king leaned forward, brushing her cheek with his own. “It’s so good to see you again, even reduced.”

  And you, old friend. Don’t say anything, Vivian. I’ll tell him when I can do so directly.

  He shifted his gaze to the courtiers who lingered outside the bubble. "Take them into the innermost rooms. Bring them something to eat.”

  He gestured Amir forward and handed him a knife from his belt. “Since you lack teeth down here.”

  Amir accepted the gift and backed to Vivian’s side.

  The queen stared at her. Viv had seen more friendly looks when she explained that borrowing privileges had been revoked to grad students.

  Vivian murmured, "Does she dislike me enough to try to kill me soon?"

  Amir’s breath brushed her ear. "She’ll use proxies."

  “It would be nice if I could get out of this soap opera.” The words tried to cover her anxiety. This was a new and deadly place, and while she was trying to figure these beings out, she wasn’t sure of any of the rules.

  Kill them first when they attack you. Simple.

  “Just step carefully, Viv. Keep your head low.”

  As Turfa and Zeyaad slipped back through the membrane between air and water and swam away, the unintroduced daoine sidhe maneuvered himself to Turfa’s side. The two of them swam next to each other a moment. Then, she swerved away, kicking hard to exit the room.

  The courtier appointed to lead them was tall and thin with a stern, gloomy face. He wore silver jewelry, and he eyed Viv with unconcealed covetousness.

  “Try to take her, and you will die.” Amir’s amiable tone was in stark contrast to his readiness for action, telegraphed as he strolled with his hand near the knife.

  The courtier increased his pace, leading them through the membrane of the bubble. The edge of the bubble felt greasy, passing through it left an oily feeling. Surprisingly warm water surrounded her. Once in the water, the male swam smoothly through open rooms parallel to an airway, Viv and Amir following.

  She wasn’t sure why they had to swim, but she assumed it was to be polite. Even though she was in good shape, it was tiring.

  Partial walls had been made of abalone glued together, granting some privacy, though there were no walls on two sides. A membrane like the one in the audience area surrounded the room, indicating it was filled with air rather than water. Within it, two chairs, a table, and a daybed were arranged. The furniture had obviously been recovered and cleaned after having been in the water for some time. The frames were made of metal. Where cushions and a mattress would have been was dried plant material peeking out of water-stained cloth.

  Viv stared at one. “What was your threat about?”

  “He’s one of the finfolk. They abduct humans for spouses and work them day and night once they have one. Not a happy fate.”

  Vivian gingerly poked at a cushion. She was afraid to speculate what might be living in it. "Is there anything else that you're not telling me?"

  "Many things." Amir paced the room.

  “No, really?” She couldn’t help the sarcasm. “You have wings of fire. You’re an artist. Why on earth did you help an undersea realm set up internet and cell phone service?”

  He laughed. “There’s a passage to this dominion near Port Aransas. I have friends here, and they kept dropping by my house to borrow my Wi-Fi. I did a little research and did the dry land work for Zeyaad to hire people to buy the towers and manuals on what to do with them. I knew eventually you might need a refuge, and it’s best to have fresh favors when you ask for help.”

  Viv folded her arms. “Have you been waiting for trouble?”

  “For years. Now that you’ve had the dreams, this is just a stopping point until you can open a gate to someplace where you’ll be safe and have enough time to develop your abilities without people trying to kill you.”

  “Open a gate?”

  “To Godhome. A place where you can be truly safe while your memories come back.”

  Viv extended her hand, and he took it. “Will I still be me?” Fear tumbled the words out.

  We should find a mage first, if we can. Though Godhome is a safe place to run to, I’ll have to withdraw from you. To prevent my memories from spilling into you.

  “Yes.” His touch was light as the brush of a breeze as he pulled her close. “There will just be more memories; hers, but her personality is gone. She died.”

  And this demonstrates that Amir the scholar occasionally makes mistakes.

  Since we’ve concealed facts from him…

  “But what if there were a way for her to come back?” Viv wrapped her arms around him.

  “If it could be done without losing you, that would be wondrous. Ušum was a good friend and sorely missed. I don’t want to trade you for her though. By the standards of her lifetime, Viv, you’re very young. It’s taken this long for your human body to accustom itself to the power in it. Now that it’s happened, you’ll be experiencing something like...” Amir’s words trailed off.

  Viv drew back, annoyed amusement bubbling within her. “Are you trying to say I’m going through a second puberty?”

  Heh. He’s so delicate.

  Amir’s relieved smile made the amusement ascendant. He could be shy about the oddest things. She let him go, turning to look outside the walls.

  Six merfolk swam near the open walls, their loose hair streaming behind them.

  “Is it Morgan or the Morgan? People can’t seem to make up their minds.” Changing the subject to something less sensitive to give her time to think about what he’d said seemed the best option.

  “It’s ‘the Morgan’ to people willing to humor her ambition to achieve true divinity. I’m not one of them.” Amir moved, drawing her attention back as he tr
aced the tabletop with his fingertips. “An ambition that evolved from killing—”

  Me. Bitch couldn’t contain my power, though.

  Viv lost what he was saying as the mermen burst into the room, the illusions dissolving to reveal grim-faced men like Donal in physique, dark blond rather than golden, wearing loose garments and necklaces of a single pearl hanging on a metal chain. She grabbed the nearby chair. “Incoming!”

  Not six, two sets of three. She cursed herself for not noticing.

  Amir spun, fiery wings flaring from his shoulders and back. Sudden heat baked Viv’s skin.

  Metal gleamed as knives appeared from beneath the robes. The sidhe closed.

  13

  Amir drew the knife down his arm, quick as a snake. Light flared, the blood he drew igniting into flame on the blade. Viv tried to circle the intruders as Amir met three of them. The sickening stench of burning flesh hit her nose as two more piled on Amir and the last came for her. Water flooded the room as the bubble of air burst. Viv and her attacker stumbled back, and she felt her face and front burned by superheated water surrounding Amir.

  Viv hit her attacker with all her strength with the chair. Her hands spasmed in pain as the frame twisted from the force of the blow. The water was up to her chest and rising fast, slowing her movement.

  The daoine sidhe snarled, blood running from the cut on his temple. “Die, wyrm.”

  Faster than her eyes could follow, his hands fastened around her throat. New hideous pain radiated from her larynx, a wrenching crunch as his fingers tightened. She spasmed, clawing at his hands, ripping the flesh with newly extended claws.

  A contemptuous pained smile flicked across his face as he shoved her back through the membrane into the open water, out of the room.

  She couldn’t breathe, no matter how hard she struggled. Light dimmed, and she tried to scream.

  Does it count as drowning if you were already suffocating? Daoine sidhe do lack creativity. Ušum’s thought was flavored with a whiff of irony.

  The sidhe who’d crushed her windpipe hung in the water near her, wrapping cloth over his gouged hands. Viv’s anger at the man waiting for her to die burned in her chest even as her vision darkened.

  I can help.

  Can you save me? Viv wanted her attacker to pay for it.

  Yes.

  What do I need to do?

  Relax. I’ll handle the rest. I need to be ascendent. I’ll switch you back as quickly as I can.

  Viv relaxed, lacking any alternative.

  Don’t worry. I’ll save both of us. Sleep. Viv spasmed as cold fire ignited at the base of her spine. The icy burn rolled through her body in a wave, and she twisted, fighting to scream as agony wiped out all thought. Velvet blackness followed it, bringing complete relief from pain.

  Within that darkness, frightened, suspended, Viv flailed. Her fingers brushed something cool and smooth like a mirror of ice. It shattered under her touch, leaving a thin pale light burning behind it.

  A figure, a man with silver eyes and pale hair, flicked a finger against her cheek. “A bit of a mess, isn’t it?” His grin was lopsided, his eyes warm.

  “Who are you?”

  “A memory. You’ll know me soon enough, little fish. You’ve inherited all those credits; use them wisely. Don’t be afraid. You’ve got this.”

  He vanished.

  Another face formed out of the darkness, a woman with hair like fire and golden skin. She resembled Donal.

  Loathing and rage swept through Viv, overwhelming thought. She jerked away from the intensity of the emotions, and the woman’s emerald eyes narrowed, searching for something in the darkness. A tingle of fear tracked up Viv’s spine.

  The darkness snapped away, and sensation returned, full of information. Jagged edges pressed against her chest, weight pinning her in place on a wet surface. She had no sense of Ušum’s presence.

  Viv coughed and then gasped. The pain in her throat was gone. She could breathe. Air. She enjoyed the luxury of the sensation of her lungs filling with air.

  She opened her eyes and stared up at debris; broken furniture and other less recognizable items above her. Beneath her was something that felt like mud, slippery and yielding. The objects had fallen in such a way they arched over her, so she hadn’t been crushed. Though the mass pressed down on her arms and legs, she could wriggle and move a little.

  Viv focused on simply breathing for a moment. While any air was good, after a few breaths, she realized it smelled like an outhouse. She turned her head, trying to gauge space, how far away water might be, and what was causing the smell.

  The head of the sidhe who had tried to kill her, no longer attached to a body, was buried in the wreckage to her left. Filmy eyes stared at her. She shuddered. Blood saturated the stone around the head, and as her eyes moved, she picked out part of an arm and a foot also mixed in the debris.

  She needed to get out of this place. Viv squirmed, trying to move away from the body parts. Her right arm had more freedom of movement so she concentrated on working it loose.

  The utter quiet unnerved her. She was afraid to know what she was lying on. And where was Amir? Was he in pieces, too? What happened? Where were the people who’d attacked them? Was he still made of fire?

  “Viv?” Amir’s voice sounded as if in answer to her thought.

  “Here, under junk. What happened?” Her voice rasped in a sore throat, wobbling as relief cleared her head.

  She had an amputated head within touching distance. The shudder started at her feet.

  “There was a seaquake.” His voice was nearer.

  “Why is there air?”

  “You landed in one of the airways at the bottom of the city; there’s a lot of them through the city. I’m going to start moving wreckage. Try to shield your face, please.”

  “One of the sidhe’s heads is next to me.” This time the wobble was noticeable in her voice.

  “I’ll hurry. Let me know if the rubble shifts near you.”

  “Do you know why there’s air at the ocean bottom?” Viv asked the question to distract herself.

  “The tunnels were created with more protective magics, since they’re the backbone for the technology they like.” Amir grunted at the end of the sentence, and she heard something heavy fall.

  She counted the seconds, waiting, and had reached two hundred before the debris above her shifted.

  “You’re close.” Grit rained down on her face.

  Vivian's nose stung, her throat hurt, her mouth tasted like a marsh, and her body ached the way she imagined the aftermath of a beating would feel. The head still staring at her didn’t help.

  She closed her eyes as more grit pattered on her face, working on freeing her arm. It gave her something to do other than wait. After a few minutes, fresh air brushed her face.

  “Are you able to move?” Amir peered down at her.

  She tugged and twisted. “Only a little. I need to get an arm or leg free.”

  Amir removed more debris over her head and chest. More dust rained down on her arm as he began shifting rubble above her right side. He appeared and disappeared as he worked.

  “Why do you have to carry it away?”

  “It’s a big heap. It’ll slide back down if I just move it to the side.”

  “What happened?”

  “You turned into a dragon and ripped the sidhe apart. Your roaring and the magic that emitted from you started a seaquake. The building collapsed on top of your dragon form. You must have reverted to human shape while I was digging you out. Unfortunately, you’re still emitting magic, and it’s destabilizing this dominion.” He sounded as calm as he would enjoying gyros and falafel at a restaurant, rather than digging her out of a collapsed building.

  Vivian digested the statement. Ušum hadn’t lied, but she didn’t remember any of it.

  The weight on her arm lifted, and she pulled it to her side, out of the looser rubble.

  Then stared.

  It was covered in fine, bl
ue-black scales from fingertip to elbow. She rolled partially to the side, trying for better leverage to get her other arm loose. The mud helped.

  It slid out, also scaly. She’d worry about trying to change her skin back after she was free.

  As Amir moved more debris, she worked her legs loose and then stood carefully. Her face brushed something soft as she straightened.

  Viv stood at the bottom of a pit, Amir braced halfway up, muscling more debris up and out. A mass of muscle, heart sized, lay speared on a spike of rock about head height. She’d cooked beef heart often enough to recognize the smaller version, still damp. She touched her face and gazed at her bloodstained fingers, still covered in scales.

  Trying to process, she shivered, unsure if she wanted to wrap her arms around herself. She didn’t resist when Amir slid down and pulled her close, holding her as she shuddered. He stroked her hair, the touch tender. “You’re fine, Viv. Everything will be okay.”

  Nose buried against his chest, she inhaled. He still smelled like himself—sandalwood and a hint of ash. No salt, unlike her. The odor comforted her. “If the buildings are mostly water, where did all of this come from?”

  “Most isn’t all, and the platforms have a lot of mass.”

  “I thought it was floating in the middle of the ocean.”

  “Illusion. Marid started anchoring their cities when they needed to keep them hooked to the airways to remain connected to ISPs in the human dominion, but they don’t like how it looks. So they use magic to make it fit their aesthetic. We’re just above the seabed, standing on the foundations.”

  “What happened to the other sidhe?”

  “I didn’t see. Just take it for granted you don’t need to worry about the others.” The finality in his voice stilled questions, especially since she didn’t much want to know the answers.

  Ušum didn’t strike her as merciful in a fight.

  “What do we do now?”

  “We move out of the collapsed area. The fight was noisy; I assume Zeyaad is waiting nearby. We’ll let him know his hospitality was violated, and then we leave. Possibly we just leave if it gets too interesting around here.”