Water Games (Watergirl Book 4)

by Juliann Whicker

  I rubbed my throat. “Poor thing. Run free, Brogge.”

  “They don’t run free, they make a mess of the grow fields.” He shook his head, mouth twitching. “You wouldn’t feel so affectionate after it knocked you over when you were trying to milk it.”

  I stared at him then turned to look back at the road behind us. We were in the middle of the kelp Mardu, and it was like a road, dark fronds growing above us, blocking out the light from the mesh high above. “How far to the farmhouse?”

  He nodded ahead. “Maybe five minutes. I’m going much slower now. I don’t want to hit another Brogge.”

  “Right, because you’d have no milk for your cheerios.”

  He glanced at me. “It would total Goldie.”

  “That too. Why Goldie? It’s such a cute name for you.”

  He smiled and kissed my hand sending a shiver through me. “You named her. I could practically hear your voice in my head. Even though I argued that it was an idiotic name, your persistence won out.”

  “Sean, you’re saying that I haunt you? That’s so romantic.”

  He snorted. “Isn’t it? Don’t kiss my hands. That’s almost as strange as you kissing my mouth. I kiss you while you stare at me adoringly.”

  I tried, but then I saw the farmhouse and stared at it instead. Farmhouse wasn’t the right word at all. It was like a golden glittering palace with round turrets and colored fountains of fiery light while orbs danced above it, orbs with metallic cages around them. The way towards the front was lined with much smaller glow lights, and the flowers and twining plants beneath the ship’s belly laid out in a wild symmetry. The glow orbs we passed between were the size of small trees, and flickering fire danced like branches, reaching out towards me. I could feel the heat through them, warm like the sunshine.

  “Don’t stare at them.” He tugged my hand and I looked at him.

  “What are they?”

  “Afrateau.”

  “I know the word, but what are they?”

  “Miniature suns. Don’t try to touch one.”

  “No kissing, no touching the pretty lights, what is allowed?”

  He smiled quickly. “You can look at me adoringly. You’re welcome. When we get to the house, we’ll park the ship and then enter the front hall. That will bother my great-aunt Claria. We should drive directly to the front door and let someone else park Goldie, but no one else touches my ship.”

  I immediately grabbed the biggest control lever I could reach. “Like this?”

  He rolled his eyes and snorted, a non-laugh that I would probably miss. Apparently his Soremni male laughed out loud far too easily. “Touch whatever you want as long as you aren’t kissing me. A lot of people will be there and I’ll personally greet all of them. You’ll float there gazing at me adoringly. Try not to flip upside down. It lacks dignity. Say goodbye to oxygen.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Goodbye oxygen.”

  “After I greet everyone, someone will take you to your room where you’ll change into appropriate Soremni clothing. My buyer made certain that you’re well-stocked. Choose something for dinner. Dinner clothes have green tags on them. Pink for night clothes, brown for casual outings, red for indoor day clothes.”

  “You expect me to remember all of that?”

  “The tags are labeled. In English. Formal wear is black. It should be in a separate wardrobe.”

  “You’ve kept your buyer busy.”

  We approached the glittering castle farmhouse, and then headed to the right where a big conch shell, big like the size of a house big, crouched. He headed towards the small opening and then we were in the garage. Or whatever. We floated past rows of ships that were a variety of sizes, a few way too big to get out of the small entrance. It must open up or something. I gripped his hand tightly when he finally slid the ship into a jelly net. There was a sucking sound and then our ship rocked, stopped moving, and all the windows turned white leaving me in the privacy of the ship.

  I undid my seatbelt while he fiddled with buttons. The second he leaned back from shutting down, I was on him. I kissed him, his eyes, his nose, his cheeks, his ears, and finally his lips.

  He sat frozen, putting up with me until he finally gripped me around the waist and kissed me back. His hand slid up my back to cup the base of my skull. He kissed me hungrily. I tugged him closer and closer until with a gasp he pulled back, pupils dilated and lips parted.

  “And now you’re going to run straight into the afrateau. I see that this is going to be a very short experiment.” His voice was growly, his hands still moving over my back until he gripped the sides of my dress and shook it.

  I inhaled shakily as I gripped his shoulders. “I was getting it out of my system. I’ll stay away from the balls of death. On a scale of one to ocean, they’re like a seven. If I feel the need to destroy everyone, water is always my go-to.”

  “And with that happy thought, shall we?”

  I slid off his lap and smoothed down my dress. “Should I bring my shoes?”

  “No. Here’s your bag. Try to look demure and cute while you hold it.”

  “Cute and demure and adoring. Got it. Your face looks so much better after I’ve kissed it.”

  “If I ever need my face to look better, now I know what to do. One more thing.”

  I waited expectantly. He stepped closer until his chest brushed mine. When he kissed me it was barely a brush of his lips, but it immediately made my legs wobbly. I held onto him and drowned in the sweetest, softest, most tender kiss in the world. Particularly underwater since no one kissed.

  He pulled away and bumped my forehead. “I’m the Soremni male. If anyone does weird kissing stuff, it’s me. I lead, you follow.”

  I nodded because I would follow Sean’s mouth anywhere. He put his hand on the wall and the side of the ship slid open leaving a skin of tension that held out the water. He stepped through, immediately swimming and pulled me after him instead of letting me step out like a human.

  I swam beside him, staring at the smooth curved walls and the small orbs of dancing light that lined our way. We reached a pale wall and Sean put his hand against it. Once again, the wall parted and Sean swam through the skin. Apparently they didn’t want garage water in the house.

  We came out in a hall, sort of a hall. Everything was curved and flowing. The walls were covered in plants both phosphorescent and floral. They didn’t need light because of all the glow balls, afrateau, or were those just the big ones? Little toes? I shook my head and focused on following Sean up through the wide passageway until it opened into an enormous space with a chandelier at the top. Not really a chandelier since its strands moved along the walls. More like a plant that had eaten a glow orb. I stared at the pulsing flickering ball the size of a car while strand like tentacles curled and uncurled. The colors were constantly shifting, changing from pinks to green then blue and back again. The only constant was the gold, the white, sparks and strands of light flickering through the other hues.

  It took me a long time to notice the dozens of Soremni males floating in a perfect line, waiting for Sean. This would take awhile.

  After we reached the center of the room, directly beneath the weird light fixture, Sean turned to me and gazed into my eyes while he lifted my hands and slowly kissed each one twice.

  “Vanderleu. Corbusque.” His voice was different in this water than normal water.

  I had no idea what he said. Something Soremni, but the way he said it made my toes curl. Literally. I stayed there, trying to subtly stay upright while he swam like a streak of golden perfection. He grabbed the first man and embraced him, laughing that same laugh from earlier. That was his Soremni laugh. Was it real?

  I was supposed to gaze at him adoringly instead of studying the strangers, but I was starting to feel weird. Also, it was more difficult than it sounded. Not that I didn’t adore Sean, but I was used to him. This whole place was strange from the pulsing light above me to the sparkling shards in the water as well as the way that soun
d behaved. The sound was crisp and sharp, not muted and blobby like I expected underwater. I really wanted to watch the men because they were fascinatingly inhuman. The way they floated, their clothes tight on bottom, flowing on top, hair styles longer, a few sort-of mullets, spikes mixed with flowing locks or braids, just so much weirdness was hard not to stare at.

  Somehow I gazed at him adoringly, on and on and on and on until he had greeted the last man and turned back as though he’d remembered a package he was going to take to the post office. He darted towards me ridiculously quickly, took my hands, kissed them, this time three times each, then turned and gestured towards the wall opposite the men. Soremni women were beautiful, graceful, and their laughter piercing the water and skittering across my skin like ballerinas across a stage. Not that I knew anything about ballerinas.

  They floated towards me, seeming to have no actual propulsion. Would I have to learn how to do that? Impossible. When they looked at me with their extremely large eyes and soft lips curved in delicate smiles, I could practically feel the chinks they were probing in me. I should have kept my shoes on. They were like a million Sharkies sniffing for blood, only prettier, deadlier.

  I wasn’t sure whether I should smile at them or gaze adoringly at Sean. Sean. He’d specifically told me to gaze at him. Repeatedly. It was difficult to look at him while the predators circled. That’s what it was. They felt like Sophies, my natural enemies. Were Soremni’s natural enemies to Sirens? Fabulous. How could I become one of them when my natural impulse was to hiss and tear?

  Sean. I focused on my handsome prince charming, the one who hadn’t broken my will with obsession. That seemed like kind of a tricky defense mechanism, the kiss of obsession, created to make me powerless, but my ancestors had adapted to make the obsession mutual, not entirely negating the effects, but at least minimizing them. Thinking about the kiss of obsession didn’t help nearly as much as imagining Sean without a shirt. Maybe it was too much desire and not enough adoration, but looking at him instead of turning on the female Soremni's was seriously hard.

  He raised an eyebrow and shook his head slightly as he pointed out the women, naming them. The first one, ‘Fraun’ was young with tons of pale blond hair that floated around her like a cloud without actually getting into her face. There must be some kind of spray that did that. Or it was her superpower. I would definitely trade. My hair kept getting into my face unless I was actually moving forward. I should cut it all off. Go for a super cute Leslie haircut. I’d never had super short hair, but some of the females did. I was supposed to look at them, right? Sean was pointing at them. It would be super weird not to look at them.

  Sean said close to my ear, “Fraun will take you to change for dinner. Dinner clothing has green tags. Don’t let her dress you.”

  Fraun blinked her enormous eyes at me while she smiled a languid smile with her full lips before turning and floating quickly across the room. I shot Sean one last desperately adoring glance before following her across the hall like no one was staring at me. Even if she was evil, which was the vibe I got from her, I couldn’t accidentally kill her. That would end this experiment on a really, really bad note. B flat.

  I slowed down as I saw a moving portrait of a woman on the wall. She was regal, her lips curling and uncurling, the whole thing made out of plant life that wasn’t remotely static. It looked super modern, but maybe this was their traditional art style, plant portraits. Sean probably had one somewhere.

  “Who is she?” I asked in Vashni.

  Fraun raised an eyebrow before replying something Soremni I didn’t understand. She turned and darted ahead, fast enough I had to seriously kick and plow through the water to catch up to her. I was like the hippo cow more than a delightful Soremni woman. The water felt weird, lighter but still buoyant. We left the main hall and entered a smaller one, like ten feet across instead of twenty. Not small, just smaller. We swam for a few minutes until we reached a glass tube leading up vertically. Not glass because it was spongy like Goldie’s windshield. I followed Fraun, barely trying to keep up as I spun around, staring out at the yard, did they call it yard? The gardens spread out, a kaleidoscope of luminescence to the edge of the kelp mardu.

  “Have you never seen a garden?” she asked in Vashni. Her voice was so sweet and dulcet, I almost missed the mocking undercurrent. No, I would have caught that with my ears closed. What was with the water, keeping sound so crystal? It was so weird. The ocean agreed with me. This whole place was unnatural. I should definitely destroy it.

  I stared at the fountain, at least a beautiful, bubbling flow of light in the center of a group of plant life that arced all around it. It hadn’t been visible from lower down the squishy glass tube. No, I wasn’t going to destroy this world and neither was the ocean. I pressed my palms against the squishy glass. “I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as this.” I forced myself to sound authentically delighted instead of Vashni condescending, but her eyes narrowed for a moment anyway before she continued leading the way.

  We continued to rise until we reached the bulb on top of the hall/stem. She pulled to the side and gestured me ahead. I put my hand on the flat surface like Sean had done and it opened up to reveal a spherical room. An enormous flower bud floated in the center with translucent petals.

  Everything looked organic. It took me a minute to figure out that the petal thing was a bed and the floating mirrors and suspended shelves were their version of a vanity.

  The translucent rods blended so perfectly, it seemed like everything floated instead of hanging suspended. Pale pink pods blended with the pink interior of the spherical room, the pods about the size of a refrigerator, but looked soft. Inside, were clothes, five refrigerators full of weird Soremni clothing.

  I swam to the first and stared in awe at the ball gown/zinnia with a black bodice and fluttery pink skirt. Apparently everything wasn’t blue. It had a black tag. Black meant dinner. I was looking for green. Not in this pod.

  I turned around and there was Fraun, carrying a blue dress towards the center. She clipped the shoulders to the bottom of the cocoon bud bed. It floated, tendrils of blue and white curling and uncurling on the skirt and sleeves while the snug white bodice had a gossamer blue overlay. It looked more like snail goo than silk. Should I let the passive-aggressive Soremni girl choose my dinner dress? There wasn’t a tag.

  “I will choose my own dress.” My Vashni was too sharp and commanding. I’d never pick up Soremni behavior if I spoke like a Vashni.

  Fraun nodded respectably and folded her hands, waiting patiently.

  Somehow I had to be able to do that. I did my best to float without any obvious movement towards the pod with green tags and picked one randomly. It was blue, more dark to medium with an underskirt of midnight. I held it while she waited, still patiently.

  “I dress myself.”

  Her smile was pained as she nodded, understanding that I couldn’t control my barbaric behavior.

  “I will wait outside your door.” She went, slipping out and leaving me floating there with a dress I had no idea how to put on. It took me twenty minutes. There was a base layer jelly leotard that went over arms and legs with the pretty stuff floating around kind of pointlessly, except the base jelly layer wasn’t entirely opaque. Also, underwear was not going to work under it. And the support was practically negligible. Not that you need tons of support underwater, but I’d just be hanging out there. Whatever.

  I headed towards the exit, but Fraun stopped me, somehow in my face without seeming aggressive. Except that I still wanted to snarl and take a chunk out of her face. Or break her ears.

  “May I dress your hair?”

  My hair? I was supposed to be learning how this Soremni thing worked. What would a Soremni female do? Sean hadn’t specified that I do my own hair, and I couldn’t get a handle on the weird Soremni hairstyles on my own. I shrugged and then remembered that I was a Siren who thought she was human pretending to be Vashni trying to become Soremni. At any rate, I was sup
posed to be acting docile. I was going to have a personality crisis at some point. I let her lead me back into the room and sat in a petal chair in the middle of the mirror clusters. Fraun’s hands were magic. My hair became this partially waved, flowing and majestic body around my somewhat disappointingly normal face interspersed with twists and coils.

  “Would you like me to proceed with Soremni beauty customs?”

  I nodded, stupidly because she’d softened me up with good hair. The beauty customs had to do with pricking my lips and injecting something that stung and itched, but I wasn’t allowed to touch because then they’d rupture. That’s what she made it sound like in her melodious Soremni accented Vashni. I stared intently into the mirror at my lips which were growing steadily and steadily plumper. Weren’t they? It seemed like it. It was hard to tell and I wanted to rip them off. She used my distraction to prick the corners of my eyes with needles. Those didn’t actually hurt, but watching my eyes grow softer and bigger definitely freaked me out. I did look more Soremni by the time she’d painted streaks of gel sparkles on my eyes and lips, which I swear were still getting bigger. And they hurt. Also, I couldn’t talk very well. She wouldn’t tell me when the pain would go away, just smiled pleasantly and told me how charming I looked.

  She was definitely evil.

  I followed her back down the stem, but my vision was blurry and the garden looked like a fireworks show in the rain. Had she damaged my vision permanently? I would rip her apart. Where was Sean? Why would he send me away with a psycho? Why would I come to this completely strange land with strange technology and just blissfully think that everyone wouldn’t rip me apart and stick me in cages and torture me?

  My heart was pounding by the time we got to the dining room, but I hadn’t caused a tsunami or anything. Sean looked up from his position floating beside the fireplace in Soremni clothing. Not a fireplace, an afrateau place. Even with my blurry eyes he looked so beautiful in the white shirt that floated around him, but somehow made his shoulders look broader, his waist smaller, the simple tight pants covering his feet. Did that make them tights?