by Melody Rose
“Not exactly,” the king answer. He sucked his teeth and leaned his head back as if remembering. “She told me to guard this with my life.”
“And you agreed to that?” Hannan asked with a curious look on his face.
“I owed the former Queen for saving my kingdom,” Lorisis responded defensively. “She helped form the shield that has protected us from Reon’s wrath these many years. When Irena asked for a favor, it was my pleasure to oblige.”
“Right,” I said with a nod as the wheels turned in my head. “It is a key to the realm of Rictorus.”
“Eva,” Hannan warned quietly.
I ignored him and continued. “We need it to open the gate and attack Reon. We plan to defeat him once and for all so that the contamination he created is no longer a concern to any of the kingdoms of this world.”
King Lorisis considered my words for a moment. He twirled a strand of hair through his fingers, wrapping it incessantly. The mermaid pursed his lips together as he considered my words.
“While I believe you, I am afraid I cannot give you the key so easily,” he said as he stopped his twirling.
I resisted the urge to scream like a child as my impatience flared. Something in my gut told me I was about to face another challenge, all for this damn key. And it wasn’t even the whole thing! We had days left until the Lunar Eclipse after all the time I spent healing the Coast of Teine, and we still had no word from the other group.
Yet, here we were, facing another obstacle. Another stubborn, entitled older person with an agenda. Next, I bet he would tell us we could only have the key if we answered his riddle or something equally stupid.
“What do we need to do in order to get the key?” Hannan asked politely as if he knew I was incapable of such cordiality at the moment.
“You do not plan to take it by force?” King Lorisis asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.
“There is no need for violence here,” Hannan reasoned. “You said it yourself. Our people would not be happy if we were harmed. I would presume that your kingdom would react in the same manner.”
“Quite right, Sir Hannan,” the king said as he, once again, pushed himself up out of his seat. “Queen Irena gave me strict instructions on what to do if someone came seeking this item.”
The king circled the table, sometimes turning his back to us and speaking to the water rather than to the pair of us directly. Hannan and I, however, remained still and stationary in the spot we originally arrived at.
“And those instructions were?” I prompted.
“I had to give the seeker a test,” the king taunted, “and if they passed, I could give them the necklace.”
“And if they failed?” I asked, mainly because I knew he wanted me to.
“If they failed…” the king said dramatically as he rounded the table once more. He stopped suddenly and slammed his hands on the surface. “I get to accuse them of thievery and do with them as I will.”
“We’re not leaving without that key,” I threatened, my voice coming out as a growl.
The king merely laughed at my assurance. “You need only to pass my test in order to swim out of here with it. Shall you give it a try?”
“I do not like this, Eva,” Hannan said in my head. He spoke cautiously, knowing that King Lorisis could still hear every word. “We cannot risk your life on this.”
“You going to tell me there is another way?” I asked, finally letting my irritation show. “This whole quest has been about tests and trials, all to get this half of the key. We’re running out of time, Hannan. This is the closest we have been in weeks.”
“I understand it, but we have no idea what this test is,” Hannan protested. He turned his body so that he faced me full-on, forcing me to look at him directly. “Let me do it.”
“Not a chance,” I responded automatically. “We stick together on this one. You can’t survive without me.”
“If I may interrupt…?” the king said as he coughed slightly. I frowned at the unnecessary gesture since we were speaking through our minds. “This is a task that only one of you can perform.”
“That’s an arbitrary rule,” I commented harshly.
Lorisis shrugged, his black hair bouncing on his shoulders. “I did not make the rules. Blame the former queen.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s got to be me, you understand that, right?”
“No,” Hannan said with a concerned gaze. “Why?”
“Because that’s how it works,” I replied, my tone exasperated. “That’s how all of this works.”
“Eva that does not make any--” Hanna began, but I cut him off by turning to the king and taking a big breath.
“I want your word that, while I complete this test, that Hannan will be safe, unharmed, and still able to breathe underwater.”
Lorisis bit his lip and then brushed a strand of hair out of his face. “You have my word.”
“Great,” I said with a nod. “What’s this test of yours?”
“Bewe,” the king commanded to an open doorway across the room.
The female mermaid swam forward and hooked her arm around Hannan’s free one.
“No, Eva,” Hannan said as Bewe touched him. “You don’t need to do this. Let me do this for you.”
However, I didn’t get the hear the rest of Hannan’s protests. I relinquished his hand, and a moment of panic spread across his face. His hand rushed up to his throat as the abilities from Myels’ gift left him. His eyes bulged, and his face went pale. When I broke our connection, King Lorisis’ mental link must have dropped too. I felt the ghost of his in my mind, and it sent a shiver through my spine.
Within moments, though, Bewe was there with an air bubble to feed to my friend. He sucked it in like a starving man in the desert. Instantly, color returned to his face, and his features relaxed a little.
Still, Hannan tried to pull for me, but Bewe held him firmly at her side over by the wall. I pushed Hannan out of my thoughts and turned back to the king. I refocused and narrowed my gaze.
“Your test?” I prompted, returning to the situation at hand.
“Ah yes,” the king responded as if he had forgotten, but both of us knew that was a lie. “My test.”
Something told me that this was a being who enjoyed being in charge. Lorisis relished in his power over others, and right now, he was relishing the fact that he had all the power over me. My dislike for him grew with each word he spoke.
King Lorisis stood up straight and hovered in one place. He placed his arms behind his back, which made his muscles bulge more even as they made him more intimidating. I knew my strength had grown over my training, but this guy was huge, like wrestler-on-steroids huge. I tried to keep my face neutral though I was sweating bullets under my shirt. If one could sweat underwater like this.
“I would like you to make me cry.”
The sentence caught me off guard. “I’m sorry?”
“I would like you to make me cry,” Lorisis repeated.
My mouth popped open, completely dumbstruck. “What kind of test is that?”
“The one I am giving you,” the king said nonchalantly. “You may use whatever means to aid you, but if you choose to touch me in any way, I am allowed to retaliate.”
My first instinct had nothing to do with touching him. I wanted to avoid laying a hand on the mermaid king at all costs. In fact, I wasn’t even sure what my first instinct was.
“How long do I have?” I wondered, stalling.
“Let us say,” Lorisis mused, “until Bewe runs out of air bubbles for your friend here.”
“You swore to me that he would be alright while I completed the test!” I shouted, anger causing the light to flare up against my skin.
“Yes,” the king answered calmly, a stark contrast to my frustration. “When she is done feeding him bubbles, you will be done with the test, and thus, our bargain no longer applies.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said, exasperated. “You cheat.”
> “Let me give you a hint,” Lorisis said with a smirk. “Angering me will do you no good.”
I looked at the king, dumbstruck. I didn’t even know where to begin. All I could suppose was that Lorisis wasn’t an easy crier if this was the challenge he chose. No cute bunnies or sappy movies for him.
My brain raced through for any sort of reasonable answer. I knew nothing about this king. He was a mermaid too, and they had an entirely different make-up, civilization, and priorities without a doubt. My limited interaction with their culture was a disadvantage, as well.
“This is possible, right?” I asked suspicion obvious. “The test is possible? You aren’t asking me to do some Odysseus shit here? Like, mermaids actually have tear ducts?”
The king chuckled at my question even though I was dead serious. “Yes. It is a possible task. Unlikely, but possible.”
I found my frustration growing. The push and pull of this quest made me sick. Constantly, we were yanked back and forth through sidequest after sidequest. Nothing about this was straightforward, but if I was honest with myself, I didn’t know why I thought it would be. Nothing was straightforward.
Chyndron hadn’t been straightforward, Queen Irena hadn’t been straightforward, and Opala sure as hell hadn’t been straightforward. All of them led us down this ever-winding path that should have been a direct route.
As my thoughts swirled, something stuck in my mind. I shifted my train of thought back to Opala and her comment about star-crossed lovers. She had been in love with Lorisis. A fire starter in love with a mermaid.
If it was a mutual relationship, why weren’t they together now? Obviously, something had happened to cause them to be separated. I considered asking Lorisis why, but I realized that I didn’t want to talk to him about this. He would probably be analytical or distant from the whole thing. Especially if the situation pained him.
The whole thing was a gamble. They could have amicably ended the relationship, or he could have broken her heart. The king might never have been in love with her in the first place, a one-sided affair, especially since I only heard her side of the story.
But, I had nothing else to go on. It was the only pearl of knowledge I had about this mermaid, and I knew he wasn’t going to let me stall like this for long.
As I thought more about the details of this relationship, a story formed in my mind’s eye. A young girl, foreign and unfamiliar with this land, crash lands in a new world. She is rescued by a mermaid, a young prince, not yet the king I saw before me.
I blinked away the images for a moment and considered Lorisis. My gaze flitted around the room, and I found myself unconsciously looking for a canvas. My artist’s instincts kicked in, and I needed a slab of concrete. While the coral walls were too coarse and jagged to suit my needs, the large, flat marble table at the center of the room would do nicely.
My fingers itched for my pouch, and I reached in blindly. They wrapped around my gift from Kaian, blessed by Donnel.
“What do you have there?” the king asked, a hint of caution in his voice.
“Don’t worry,” I reassured him, “it isn’t a weapon or anything.” I unwrapped the leather pouch and revealed the contents to him. “Simply chalk.”
“Chalk?” Lorisis cocked an eyebrow. “What do you plan to do with the chalk?”
“Before I was Queen of Dragons,” I started as I swam towards the table, “I was an artist. I still am an artist, though some things have gotten in the way of my art, like saving the world.”
“And you use chalk as your medium?” the king wondered. I was surprised by the genuine curiosity in his voice.
“Yes,” I answered as I laid out the chalks on the table. They stayed in their pouch as if gravity normally in these depths. “I don’t suppose you get many two-dimensional types of art around here.”
“It is mostly sculpting of one kind or another,” Lorisis admitted. “With all of the coral, you see.”
“Make sense,” I mused. I noticed the king coming closer to me, intrigued by what I was about to create. But I held out a hand to stop him, one piece of chalk between my pointer finger and thumb. “King Lorisis, I must ask for you to close your eyes.”
“And let you harm me somehow, as my guard is down? I will do no such thing,” Lorisis protested indignantly.
I rolled my eyes, not bothering to hide my annoyance. “Fine, but I need you to not look at what I’m doing. You can turn away from it if you like.”
The king eyed me suspiciously. He looked from me to Bewe, still guarding Hannan and feeding him air bubbles. The female mermaid nodded once at her king as if confirming that she will ensure nothing happens to him.
With my free hand, I turned my finger in circles, indicating that King Lorisis should spin around. He did so, but not after shooting me an impotent glance.
The minute the king’s back was turned, I went to work.
I couldn’t describe how good it felt to be drawing again. The magical chalks Donnel prepared for me held up under the water just as good as they would have on the surface. It was surreal how elegantly the fine, thin pieces of chalk moved beneath my fingers.
The worries of the past several weeks washed away. I chastised myself briefly for not having done this sooner. During those moments of fear, worry, and stress, I should have pulled these out. I should have found the nearest rock and drawn something. I missed how it yanked my feelings right out of my heart and left them on the canvas. It cleared my mind in ways that nothing in this world, or my original one, ever could.
As I stretched out across the massive table, I told a story of the star-crossed lovers. While they might not have been Romeo and Juliet, I took similar themes and instances, giving Opala and Lorisis their own story. I broke the canvas down like a clock, showing twelve scenes around the edge of the table.
It began with their fateful meeting on the shores of a nearby island. The pictures continued with their courtship and the sharing of lands. Familial obligations and impossible living circumstances impeded their love. It created arguments and tension between the two young lovers. However, they stayed together through it all.
Finally, near the nine o’clock mark, I revealed the truth. Someone had mixed up a letter, an invitation to be with one another forever. It was a wicked, purposeful trick that Opala blamed Lorisis for and vice versa. But in the center, I depicted the most important thing about this story. I etched the couple as they really saw one another: In each other’s arms, happy and in love.
The portrait of the pair took up nearly the entirety of the table. Even though I only ever saw Opala and Lorisis older, I gave them soft skin void of patches or wrinkles. They looked pristine and ageless, froze in the most perfect moment of time.
I did not know how much time passed as I completed this masterpiece. All I could hope was that Hannan was still alive when I came out of my drawing daze.
As I put the finishing touches on the main piece, I found my mind coming back to me. I returned to my body and out of the headspace I escaped to when drawing. My surroundings melted back into place, and I saw Hannan where I had left him, with Bewe still feeding him air bubbles.
A sigh of relief wracked my body… but then I saw the king.
He hadn’t obeyed my wish and stayed in the dark while I was drawing. The strong mermaid stared, with his mouth slightly open, at the table. He swam higher up into the air so he could get a bird's-eye view of the whole artwork.
I slipped back off the table, keeping my one remaining piece of chalk close to my chest. I used the edge to push myself back and away so the king could observe in peace and in his own time.
The wait made all of my muscles tense, that and the fact that I had been crouching around a marble table for who knows how long. I didn’t feel weightless in the water. I felt rather heavy and sore. Not to mention the fact that my worry returned, thinking that maybe what I had done hadn’t been good enough to crack the stone heart of the mermaid king. Maybe the relationship had meant nothing to him, and instead
, I drew something that was just a silly story, something that had no emotional significance to him whatsoever.
Before my brain could delve deep down into a rabbit hole of despair, the sound of metal hitting a hard surface broke me out of my worry cycle. On the table in front of me sat Queen Irena’s key, with the leather strap broken.
“How did you know?” the king asked in a whisper.
“It is the oldest story in the book,” I said with a shrug, “but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.”
“How do I keep this?” Lorisis said, still swimming far above me.
“It’s magic chalk,” I reasoned. “It should stay as long as you want it to.” I hesitated for a moment before asking, “Does this mean we can… go?”
“The key is yours,” the king proclaimed.
I didn’t waste another second. I burst forward and snatched up the key. Then, I raced for Hannan and took his hand, giving him the gift of breath.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said to him with the biggest smile on my face.
30
Kehn
Heloise and I burst from my memory with a jolt. We landed right back into our conscious selves and did not waste another minute.
Thanks to Heloise’s gift, we were able to see through the white space and back into our reality without fully returning to consciousness. Together, we plotted our next steps as far as we could without consulting the others.
So, when we landed back in our reality, we attacked.
I launched to my feet, though they were still tied, and took the chair with me. Taking advantage of my new addition, I spun in a circle and whacked the wood into the old woman. She exclaimed in surprise and fell over.
“Stella!” Heloise cried out, as planned. “The plant!”
After observing the room in the in-between state of the white space, Heloise and I plotted through everything we would need… including the small potted plants in the corner by the fire.
Stella did not need to be told twice. When she saw me assault the old woman, she was eager to help. She called out to the plant and began speaking to it in a foreign tongue. The speech made the plant grow and lengthen into a sizable vine. It stretched out and wrapped around the old man’s neck and held him back in place.
