But for her, it was personal. For whatever reason, he didn't want to grant her citizenship on account of the fact she was of a different species.
I had to admit, Julie's story made sense. And if Marie Laveau really did have some kind of prophetic gift, it might have been a greater risk to ignore her advice than to heed it.
So that's what we did. Marie left us with a hug, which, aside from being as awkward as any hug is with someone you barely know, was also accompanied by the smell of frankincense. Nearly as strong, I imagined, as the smell of the same inside the cathedral we were standing next to.
The easiest way back to the ocean was through the Mississippi, which flows south of Jackson Square.
River water wasn't the most pleasant thing for mermaids—it's muddy. Not as stagnant as the water we'd endured in Manchac Swamp. Still, if I had my druthers, I'd stay out of the river. Nonetheless, the Mississippi's current offered a convenient way back to the sea.
Tahlia let Agwe know where we were heading.
He said he'd meet us at the estuary.
"How in the world is he going to get there in time?" I asked. "If we head into the gulf and Nammu isn't there to mask the magical signature..."
Tahlia shed her skin and expanded into her Mermaid form before reaching down and tying her own eel skin around her wrist.
"Isn't it a little weird using your own hide like some kind of accessory?" I asked.
Tahlia shrugged. "I've always been this way. So, I guess it isn't so weird to me. Besides, maybe I'll inspire a new trend."
"Not something I expect you'd want to do," I said. "If you did, eel hides would be in high demand. Might be dangerous for you."
"Hadn't thought of that," Tahlia said. "Yikes!"
I chuckled. "Ready to do this?"
Tahlia nodded. Together we both dove into the water. No sooner did we hit the water, and I slid out of my too-tight jeans and let them go in the current.
Bye, bye unicorn.
I drew in some magic from my medallion, and a tingle shot through my legs. When the sensation subsided, I had my tail back.
I gave it a quick kick and took off under the water.
Breathing in the Mississippi is sort of like trying to inhale in a smog-filled city. The water isn't exactly clean. Filled with not only mud but waste from several cities that the waters carried all the way to the gulf.
It felt good to be in the water again, regardless. Even if it was muddy river water.
Even if that urge to become a dragon again still itched at me.
I wondered if this was how addicts felt. I've never had any substance abuse issues. Probably because I've only drunk a few times and never did much of anything else, aside from the Fomorian kelp Tahlia gave me. But the dragon instincts were practically crying for release. Becoming a dragon gave that part of me an outlet. Being human, and even being a mermaid to a slightly lesser degree, made that part of me feel bottled up, trapped, and angry.
When we reached the estuary, the sensation when the water became saltier was refreshing. Sort of like when you've been breathing in musky air in a smelly house, and you step outside. You might have adjusted and gotten used to the smells, but the moment the fresh air hits your nostrils, you realize how putrid the air was you'd been breathing all the while.
That's how it always was going to my Auntie Millie's growing up. Nice enough woman, but she had fifteen cats. Doesn't matter how often you change their boxes. If you have that many cats, the smell of cat piss smacks someone across the face the moment they walk through your door. Eventually, when we visited Aunt Millie after we were there for our obligatory hour or so, we'd adjust. But the moment we walked back outside... it was like walking straight out of cat piss hell into the bliss of heaven itself.
A little bit what it was like going from the muddy Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico.
No sooner did we reach the gulf, and we were greeted by Nammu, darting through the water in our direction. Agwe swam beside her. He was a bit quicker than other merfolk. I imagined whatever his Loa powers were, they gave him a little jolt the rest of us lacked.
I wasn't sure if Agwe was pushing himself to keep up with Nammu or she had slowed down for his sake. Either way, they were both moving more quickly than I ever could in mer form—barring the use of additional magical forms of propulsion.
La Sirene, Nammu said through our psychic connection. Is it true you know where my baby has gone?
I nodded as her giant face stared at mine. If she wanted to, she could have swallowed me in a single bite. Nammu, I need you to listen to me... because we have to be smart about this. But I promise you, we'll get our baby back one way or another.
What do you know, La Sirene?
I bit my lip. I made brief eye contact with Agwe, who nodded a confirmation he felt I should proceed.
It's the Fomorian King, I said.
Nammu release a furious roar. The sound waves sent ripples through the water, striking me in the chest.
I'd say I stood my ground, but... I wasn't standing, and there wasn't any ground. I floated my water doesn't have the same ring to it. But either way, it took every bit of strength I had to stay put and not let the sound waves of Nammu's roar send me tumbling backward through the sea.
But we do not think he meant any harm. He is being manipulated by someone else. We don't know who... but we believe bokors manipulated the king somehow to open the void. And he took your child thinking to tame it... and then you all followed him through...
Of course, we'd follow! He took my baby. And we didn't even realize we'd left the void until we found ourselves here. All of us...
Here's the thing, Nammu. Do you know anything of something called the voidbringer?
Nammu tilted her head. Why do you ask, La Sirene?
I scratched my scalp. We think whoever was manipulating the king intended to bring the voidbringer here... to destroy the world that they might see it remade, that they might become gods of their new world.
La Sirene... I fear it is too late. However, your king opened the void. We wyrm were not the only ones who came through. If the void were merely opened, the gate would pull existence into itself...
I looked at Tahlia. "Didn't the ghost say when she opened the void before it caused a vacuum?"
Tahlia nodded. "Then why isn't there a vacuum here and now?"
Because the voidbringer is already here, La Sirene. It makes sense, now, why we ended up here. We were not only pursuing my child. We were pulled here, yanked out of the void by the force of the voidbringer. Where he goes, whatever he touches becomes void. And when he came here, that's why it pulled us out of the void... otherwise, the gate would have drawn you all into itself.
I ran my fingers through my hair. I looked to Tahlia and Agwe. "The voidbringer is already here. We have to move quickly."
"The Voodoo Queen was correct," Agwe said. "We need the Wyrmriders now, and there isn't so much time to spare as I anticipated."
I nodded and placed my hand on Nammu's head. Nammu, I've been told we worked together in the future, sort of. In the past, but our future selves... and we closed a void breach before. Tell me, Nammu, is something like that even possible?
My power alone is not enough to arrest the voidbringer and close the breach, La Sirene...
But with the help of the others. You said that all of you were brought here when the voidbringer came to our world.
Nammu shook her head. Only the prime can bind the voidbringer or manipulate gates between worlds.
And that's you...
Yes, Joni La Sirene. But my power is divided between myself and my young. When a mother gives birth, her magic is split. Only when nursing does the half portion of my magic grow to a full portion in both mother and child. My magic must be complete, again, before I can do what is required. And even then, I might need more power—another source of magic.
I bit my lip. If only there was a way I could siphon your power and magnify it...
Even so, the split of mag
ic between mother and child is not a question of reduced potency. My power, and my child's, is incomplete. It lacks the capacity, even if magnified, to accomplish what you ask.
But if we bring you and your baby back together... if you nurse and your power is complete again...
If you can do that, La Sirene, then what you ask may indeed be possible. With your aid, of course. It is one thing to open and close gates... but the longer the voidbringer is here, the more existence he absorbs, the stronger he becomes. If we cannot stop him soon, he will become too powerful, even if my abilities are full. Even if you could do it, siphoning and amplifying my powers might not be the answer. But your abilities might still be of use. If you can borrow some of Fomoria's power and lend it to me, it might work.
I should be able to do that, I said. So, if we save your baby, you'll help me?
Return my baby boy, La Sirene, and we will all be forever in your debt.
This world will owe you, Nammu. And I will be forever indebted to you in kind. I smiled at Nammu and placed my hand on her snout. We'll get him together.
I looked at Agwe. "You're sure that Marie's idea is best?"
Agwe shrugged. "My instincts tell me otherwise, But my experience suggests that we should heed the Voodoo Queen's counsel on this matter."
I looked at Nammu. "Nammu, can you hear me when I speak to you out loud?"
I can, La Sirene.
I nodded. That was going to make things a little easier. While I could speak to her on a psychic level, it took focus. It also slowly drained whatever magic I had stored in my medallion.
I could sense the magic within Nammu and the other wyrm. It was like a dragon's magic. However, drawing magic from a person or a creature is different from siphoning it from an inanimate object. It's personal. It's intimate.
I'll just say... when I first drew magic from Elijah, from his rich Druidic lineage... that connection... well, one thing led to another, and nine months later, Merlin was born.
I was forever connected to my baby's daddy on that account. Even though circumstances forced us apart. Once I siphoned magic from Nammu, once we worked together to stop the voidbringer... we'd forever be bound together at some level.
"Nammu," I said. "I know how crazy this sounds. But everyone keeps talking about the Fomorian Wyrmriders... a legendary troop of some kind, a union of Fomorian and the wyrm. I don't know how, but everyone expects that I'm this Wyrmrider. I don't know what to believe, but apparently, the king believes it too. The reason, I suspect, he took your child was because he hoped to bring these Wyrmriders back, to thwart the voidbringer. But he thought if we raised your baby, it would grow up loyal to our kind. He didn't imagine you and I could..."
Then we should prove him wrong, Nammu said. If it is the birth of the Wyrmriders he hopes to see... if that will convince him to return my child.
I nodded. "There is a chance he'll be stubborn. That he will deny his involvement entirely to save face."
I trust you, La Sirene. What we are meant to be must be.
22
HOP ONTO MY back, Nammu said.
"All of us?" I asked.
If you like, Nammu said. Or, since there are three of us and three of you...
As I looked down, two other wyrms appeared in the deep, their bodies slithering together as if one.
"Seriously?" Tahlia asked. "We each get a wyrm to ride?"
"It sure looks that way," Agwe said.
I smiled, touched the sigil on my hand, and summoned my trident.
"What's that for?" Tahlia asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know. I just figured I'd look more badass charging Fomoria as the supposed La Sirene of legend if I was holding my trident."
"Not a bad suggestion," Agwe said. "What we're attempting here with the king. It really is all about appearances."
"Where can I get one of those?" Tahlia asked as the other two wyrms swam up around each of them respectively.
Before mounting his, Agwe pressed his hand to Tahlia's back. "There, I've awakened a part of my aspect that is within you already. Do you feel it?"
Tahlia giggled a little. "It tickles. Sort of. But yes."
"Embrace it," Agwe said.
Tahlia closed her eyes and took a deep breath of seawater. She exhaled. No bubbles. You have to inhale air to exhale bubbles.
A trident of her own formed in her hand. It wasn't the same as mine. Hers was bronze, brilliant, and sparkling with blue energies.
"What is this magic?" Tahlia asked.
"It is similar to Fomorian magic," Agwe said. "Think of it as a projection of my aspect."
Tahlia twirled her trident in her right hand. It cut through the water with ease. "I love it!"
Agwe nodded, extended his hand, and a golden trident formed in his grip.
I climbed on Nammu.
Hold on to my scales...
I slid my hand beneath her scales as I had before when she allowed me to hitchhike my way to shore.
Tahlia mounted Nammu's husband—no, not that way, and not in the way a Loa mounts people either. But the way a rider might mount a horse or, in this case, a wyrm.
Agwe mounted the sister wyrm.
"Take us to Fomoria," I said. "Let's go get your baby back."
Gladly, La Sirene!
We took off like three torpedoes, moving faster through the waters than I ever imagined possible.
The resistance pulled my hair behind me—but as a mermaid, I could handle it. There's no way I could pull this off in human form.
Then there was a flash of golden light. We swam right through it. Then reappeared with Fomoria in view.
What was that? I asked through my psychic connection to Nammu.
Just a gateway through the fabric of space itself...
Holy crap, I didn't know you could do that... what else can you do?
Nammu laughed. You'll find out soon enough, La Sirene.
I laughed. Well, holy hell. That was easier than a heifer in heat!
A what?
I snorted. Just saying it's a lot simpler than swimming the whole way. Why didn't we do that before, when going to shore?
Traveling shorter distances is harder than longer ones.
How does that make sense? I asked.
The fabric of space, what defines the physical world... it's pliable, like a flag flapping in the wind, only the fabric of space flutters through the void.
Wait, so we are all in the void?
In a sense. All that exists was formed out of the void. It's why the voidbringer views your existence as an aberration. The fabric of space is a part of existence. It ripples through the void like a giant sheet. We can create gates through the void from one ripple to the next. Such ripples do not always come at predictable intervals and usually not so close together.
And it just so happened, I asked, that such a ripple brought us here so close to Fomoria?
Call it a stroke of good fortune.
I patted Nammu on the side. We're going to need a little more good fortune once the king sees us.
It struck me, at that moment, I wasn't the only one taking a risk. If the king was angered by our gesture, for not only me disobeying his order but also Agwe doing the same, and since Thalia was involved, we all stood to lose something. Thalia's chances at acquiring citizenship would be compromised further. And if she did sneak herself back in, she'd not only be an illegal alien, she'd be an outlaw. And Agwe, the demigod who aligned himself with Fomoria, had his own reasons for willingly aiding and working under the king's authority. But he was among the king's most trusted advisers and leaders—if he saw Agwe's act as a betrayal, how would he react?
He knew we were coming. At least he knew three wyrms were on the way. King Conand's enchanted map would show him, and, more than likely, he'd send the merlegion out to thwart them.
But how would they react when they saw Admiral Agwe mounting one of them? And more importantly, how would the king respond?
The anxiety of the situation had my stomach twis
ted in knots. Despite that, though, I also felt a sense of calm.
The dragon's essence was as calmed by riding Nammu as it was when I shifted into dragon form. If shifting gave the dragon essence a release, a freedom of a sort, then perhaps united with Nammu, the dragon part of my soul was satiated by companionship. All speculation, of course, but it made sense to me.
I'd take any comfort I could get. The merlegion was approaching... and it wasn't only Titus who led them to meet us. The king was there, too.
Leading a whole legion to meet us? Something about that kind of aggression told me he probably wasn't happy.
23
WHAT LOOKED LIKE a hundred or more mermen appeared at the edge of the firmament, tridents in hand. At their head was not only Titus, who was likely in command in Agwe's absence but King Conand himself.
"Perhaps I should talk to him," Agwe said as he and his wyrm swam up beside Namuu and me.
I shook my head. "I need to do this. If he's going to buy I've become La Sirene, that the Wyrmriders have ascended... it has to be me."
A half-grin formed at the corner of Agwe's mouth. "Very well. But if you need us, we're here."
"Here to kick his ass!" Tahlia declared as she also rode up along my opposite side.
"Wait here, Nammu," I said. "Let me see if we can negotiate your baby's freedom before taking any extreme measures."
Of course, La Sirene, Nammu said through our connection. What I heard was an unusually calm voice given the circumstances—if you can call it a voice when it's transmitted psychically. If I were in her position... if it was my baby... I don't think I'd be able to keep my cool even halfway.
And based on the fact that what I assumed was darn near the entire merlegion had assembled to meet us... well... I didn't expect our encounter to be all handshakes and hugs.
I held my trident in both hands as I kicked my tail as quickly as I could in the direction of the king.
The closer I got, however, he didn't look as angry as I expected. Instead, he looked almost like a father might who was proud of his daughter on graduation day. But since I hardly knew Conand, it was more creepy to me than paternal.
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 41
