by Rena Marks
I use a human expression I have heard from Atareek. “They tag-teemed me.”
“Pretty much,” he agrees.
We have a good laugh until someone steps into my circle of space.
Jonanth. The male who usually was seen with the two of them. Shen’robi and Misha’s slave.
* * * * *
Atan:
Now that Eretar has mentioned it, Misha does resemble Shen’robi. Especially now in her grief. The sorrow that hangs over her slim frame makes her movements dark and heavy—much the same way Shen’robi moved with her sullen personality.
I shake the unease that I feel. This is one of Eretar’s subjects. I must learn compassion so as to be worthy of my queen. Hell, it would be hard pressed to find someone compassionate enough to give up her crown as Eretar has.
The cavern of this pool is quite long and I would assume reaches unimaginable depths the further out it goes. Every now and then, we can see Misha’s head break through the surface of the water as she rises for air then disappears below.
“She’ll be good and tired,” Diont says.
“Or, like Shen’robi, she’ll pretend and try to drag us under,” I mutter. “Do you think the pool deepens as it goes further out?”
“I would bet my life on it.”
“Then perhaps we should avoid swimming out.” We walk along the rock edge of the pool. Condensed water drops from the cavern’s ceiling, plopping onto the ledge at our feet. It makes for a slippery walk, and I feel the tenseness in my shoulders as we edge further out.
“She knows we’re coming,” Diont murmurs. “You’d think she’d swim nearer to us to talk.”
“Either she doesn’t want to talk, or she wants us out further for her trickery.”
“I’m betting the latter,” Diont says.
When we reach Misha, she goes further out. The noise of the rushing water is louder here, and we can see the waterfall up ahead. It looks darker here in the cave—and dangerous. We wave at her, and she finally begins to swim toward us.
“What is it?” she asks, her tone waspish.
“Eretar worried about you. We told her we would check to see if you were safe.”
She laughs though it is somewhat bitter. “My people grew up in the water. It is as safe as your people find walking outside.”
Diont removes his moccasins and sits on the ledge, letting his feet dangle. “Our people don’t normally walk outside the gates alone. There are dangers in both worlds. I imagine that waterfall is one.”
She looks uneasy at being called out. “My people do not normally swim so near it,” she acknowledges. “However, I need a bit of a challenge today.”
“I understand,” Diont says. “But you should think of your safety first.”
“Why are you so worried?” she asks. “You’ve made it clear you have eyes for no one but Eretar.”
“Eretar is our mate,” I say, and try to modulate my tone. “It does not mean we do not care for others. It means that she has our love and devotion.”
“A mate means something different in your village,” she acknowledges. “It is not something my people are used to.”
“Times are changing,” Diont says. “I don’t think your people were satisfied with the way things were.”
This angers her. “I was satisfied!”
“Change is inevitable.” Again, I fight the snarl in my tone. I cannot forget it was her sister—though in this tribe they are referred to as friends—who tried to harm my mate.
She looks defeated, back to the worn, depressed woman out all alone, trying to get used to a life without her best friend. “I suppose.”
“Why don’t you come back to the group?” Diont asks. “You should not be alone. It is dangerous here.”
“Dangerous? There is no danger.”
I raise a brow. “There are no undercurrents that pull you toward the falls?”
She blinks. “Of course not. Would I be out here this far if there were undercurrents?”
“Then what is the challenge in this pool?” Diont asks. “Why not swim in one of the others?”
“The length of this one.” Suddenly her voice grows sly. “The fact that the water is colder makes for a different kind of work out.”
Diont acknowledges with a grunt. Curious, I remove my moccasins and slide my feet into the water. The warmth of the water is different than most other bodies of water. It is refreshing.
“When one wants to swim a distance, it is nice to have cooler water.”
I try to peer through the murky depths, but the water is not still. It rushes toward the falls, and I don’t believe for a second that there are no undercurrents.
“It is deep here?”
“No,” she says. “I can touch bottom. See?” She stands a bit straighter as if she touches the ground with her feet, and then sinks back into a float position. It is then that I notice she is naked. The dusky tips of her dark nipples cut through the water, showing similar piercings as Eretar’s, but with round rings. Then the globes of her breasts bob briefly. She has removed all of her clothing.
Perhaps she thinks to entice us, but I cannot believe she would even try. It is obvious that we have stated our love for Eretar many times. I look to Diont, but his eyes are glued on the curves of her breasts.
He may be afraid they’ll burst through the surface of the water.
“The appeal of this pool is the swim back,” she states, rising again. Her hair is slicked back from her face in a smooth sheen of blue. She is not an unattractive female, and I am sure someone from our village will mate with her.
A pool of unease settles in my gut. At that point, we will be forced to see her constantly, especially if we split our times between our village and Eretar’s.
“While there are no undercurrents, it is easy to float this direction toward the falls. Then we race back. The water feels…thicker? As you swim back. I am not sure why.”
It sounds like she speaks untruth. She is up to something, and I am determined to confront her and get it over with. Only then can we work on living in harmony with both peoples.
“Would you like to race back?”
Diont snorts. “Remove our clothes and be alone with you? When you are aware that we are used to sharing a female? Do you think we would share you?”
She shrugs carelessly. “I would not mind if so. But I am aware that you will refuse. This is a race, nothing else. Toss your clothing on the ledge and we will walk back for it. Or swim in your clothes if you feel safe. It matters not to me.”
It is a good answer and seems to make sense to Diont. He rises and begins to remove his weapons. There is no way for me to catch his eye to see if he believes her.
She does not look away from us. And how can she, when we are stripping before her.
I drop my loincloth, and her eyes fall to my member, which is impressive even when relaxed. And relaxed, it is. It is only the thought of Eretar’s touch that arouses him.
I do not jump into the water until Diont is ready. Then he catches my eye, and we dive in. Sure of her lies, I do not dive as shallow as the length of her body, but hold out my hands in front of me in case I do reach it.
All I feel is swirling, rushing water that condenses around my hands as if I plunged them into a different pool. It is a swift undercurrent.
As suspected, the female has lied about the depth of the pool. There is no bottom to reach and I’m not sure how she appeared to stand unless her tail was able to balance her out somewhat.
I break the surface behind her, surprised to see the current carried me a bit further than I expected. From behind her, I can see Diont struggling as we did before learning to swim. Puzzled, I watch him for a moment. He is as capable in the water as I, and I am not struggling, and I am in deeper. Before I can move, I become aware that Misha swims rapidly toward him. Then I realize he is testing her, pretending to flounder.
Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps she felt bad for the trickery and intends to haul him to the side of the ledge, where she can la
ugh and apologize.
To my surprise, she pushes him underwater. He flails, and I swim toward them. She isn’t even aware of me as I swim atop the water—in the human way—to approach.
Suddenly she is pulled under by Diont, and she didn’t have time to catch a breath. A slew of bubbles erupts where her head had been, and I’m aware she just choked underwater. I grab her arm, but she panics and breaks my hold.
Diont surfaces, and the two of us reach for her together, hauling her up where she coughs and sputters.
It takes several minutes of wheezing for her to clear her lungs.
“You lied,” I accuse, fighting the urge to shake her like a sack of herbs.
“As did you.” Her voice is hoarse. “Eretar told Shen’robi you could not swim. Even Diont appeared to be struggling.”
“Struggling enough to see if you would save me or drown me,” he snarls. “Let’s haul her back to Eretar. She can decide what to do with this one.”
Misha pales. “No. I was mistaken. I did not mean to drown you.”
“You did,” I snarl. “I witnessed you deliberately holding him down. I surfaced behind you at nearly the same time he did in front of you.”
She looks over her shoulder just a bit, and I realize she can tell exactly where the current is stronger. There is a swirl in the water that marks the spot. If I had not been a swimmer, it would have carried me to the falls ahead.
Diont’s gaze follows mine to the waterfall. He seems aware of her plan also.
And then she breaks away from us. He reaches forward, aware that she is not yet strong enough from her near bout with drowning, but her body disappears. It is as if the current has swallowed her lighter body whole. He takes a deep breath as if to swim underwater to follow, but I grip his shoulder.
“No,” I say. We do not have the same underwater skills. I have a brief idea of the strength of current, but even at that, I was not directly in the line of its path like she is.
Just then, we see a flip of her tail as she is hurled over the waterfall.
“Did she just drown herself?” Diont’s voice is aghast.
“The current is too strong,” I say. “Get to the ledge. We will watch from there.”
We swim back to the spot where we entered, pull ourselves out and make our way down the narrowing ledge. We have to slow our steps, as it is much more slippery now that we’re barefoot and wet. At the edge of the waterfall, the ledge stops.
My eyes widen is dismay. The bottom drop of the waterfall is beyond my scope of vision. It is a deadly waterfall.
“She is gone,” Diont murmurs.
“She meant for us to be.” A chill runs over my spine. She knew exactly how deadly this pool was. She knew the waterfall was a no-swim zone. She knew there was an undercurrent. She knew the depths of the pool.
“She thought to take us all over the edge.” My realization comes along with his.
“And now we have to explain to the rest of the tribe what happened.”
“I saw.”
For a moment, I’m excited. The person speaks our language, after all. Then I realize the male is one of the recently taught crowd—the half of the tribe who speaks Human.
Their slave.
Chapter Fourteen
Diont:
Jonanth hurries away. One look between Atan and me snaps us from our shocked state of watching Misha pitch over the waterfall and of discovering that Jonanth watched.
We scramble back to the ledge where our clothing waits. Not caring that our bodies are damp, we hustle into our loincloths. We take more care for our moccasins, remembering how slippery the rocks are without them.
I begin to strap on my weapons. “Just in case.” I wink.
He looks appalled. It is a sick sense of humor. Most of the followers on that side are females, and I doubt that any of them would choose to take us on. Still, they have strange customs here. For all we know, a female could challenge our Eretar instead of us.
We rush down the caverns but then slow as we near them. From where we approach, there is wailing. Shouting. Someone thrums a death rattle. Hearing its roll is quite a bit more sobering than Eretar telling us they use them to mark grief in a passing.
“Crap,” Atan mutters.
I smother my smile at his human expression. It would not do to approach wearing a smirk. And as much as I am saddened that a female was killed, this one would have killed us gladly. Just as her sister tried to kill Eretar.
Eretar spots us and runs our way. She wraps one arm around each of our waists, bringing the three of us together. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” I murmur against her hair. Around the room, I notice that Shen’robi’s people are the ones using the death rattle. Eretar’s supporters are somber, but not sobbing and shrieking.
“We are fine. Not drowned.” I wince when the wailing grows louder. Atan glares at me for riling up the crowd.
“We did nothing wrong,” Atan says. “The undercurrent pulled her to the falls.”
“You did nothing to save her?” Someone asks. “How do we know you were not getting rid of the last of the bloodline so Eretar has no opposition? We all know you two mated her.”
Jonanth speaks. “We all know they cannot swim like we can. Unfortunately, Misha depended on this when she taunted them into entering the water. I was just about to approach when I heard her say there was no depth at that point. I was about to chastise them all, especially her, because we all know better than to swim that deep and alone. When I heard her state it was not deep, I knew something was not right. But the rest happened so quickly I was stunned. She tried to hold Diont down under the water, not realizing they could swim better than we assumed. They confronted her for lying about the depth and the current and trying to drown Diont. She allowed the current to carry her away when she realized she could not take them with her. That is when it dawned on me that she never meant to continue life without Shen’robi. To the newcomers’ credit, they did pull themselves from the water and approach the falls along the way of the ledge to see if they could help. I could tell they had no idea the drop was deadly until they peered over the edge. So it stands to reason they had no intent to kill her.”
“There is nothing more to say,” Hekran says. “Eretar has tried to combine our people. She has tried to teach us other ways to exist besides our own. It is now up to you to decide if you wish to remain, or leave, or follow our rules. The second half of the tribe leaves after we eat. Some of us will return, some will decide to stay, and some may even decide to live upground but separate from the surface dwellers’ village. Each person has their own choice. You all can do as you please. There is freedom for all.”
“What of us?” A woman gasps. “Who will bring the food for the mothers with offspring?”
Hekran shrugs. “They can decide which path to take. Our future is clear. It is whatever we make of it. The freedom to come and go as we please, the freedom to take mates as we choose, and the freedom to abolish slavery as we’ve become used to it.”
Eretar may be our queen, but I realize neither she nor her brother relished the bloodline. In fact, to them, royalty was more of a burden.
I nod at Hekran, and he acknowledges. Then his eyes drop to where I hold Eretar, and where Atan’s hand caresses her also, and he smiles.
Chapter Fifteen
“We have combined our customs of mating with the human way of marrying,” Drakar announces from the raised platform where we stand. Several of the humans whoop and holler.
My mates surround me, dressed in leather finery. I wear leathers that have been bleached nearly white, according to the ways of the human brides. White flowering herbs adorn the intricate crown of my blue braids. I’m not sure the humans realize these dainty little herbs are to promote bowel movements. I suspect they believe they are just pretty decorations for my hair.
Ah, well. It is not like Atan or Diont will eat the flowers off my head.
My people still look astounded. Several more of Shen’robi’
s followers decided to come with us to the village, and in the end, the rest came. Even the infants and children. After our wedding, we will take a party back to our caverns as several humans wish to see our way of life. Our people may make the trip back, or stay. Or choose to do both.
But for now, my mates and I turn to face our audience. My leather top is cut short, exposing my midriff. My skirt is long, which is impossible to move in as it trails behind me. Two little girls, Au’lani and Nai’Leia, stand behind the platform. They are to lift the length of my skirt for me in the back when I walk. The front rides low on my hips, exposing my beautiful belly chain.
Wrapped around my mates’ wrists are matching chains. Diont has picked blue and white stones, Atan has picked red and yellow. The chain that already circles my waist is made of all white stones, which was a happy coincidence that the humans value white for mated weddings.
Diont removes one of the chains from his wrist and drops to one knee before me. He adds his first, fastening the lace closure through the button holes so it will not come loose. Then Atan does the same. I brush his gleaming hair from his forehead as he removes his extra red chain to drape with the other two on my waist, his large fingers carefully fastening it.
My original glow rock chain, which sits between the other two, is now called the engagement chain. I do not understand all the intricacies of the customs, but we are here, giving the humans a wedding. Everyone claps when Atan stands, his job complete.
“Kiss the bride,” Jezebel hollers. She is the loudest human of them all, but she has good ideas.
Atan grabs me first, and from the area in front of us, Naag whoops in an erotic catcall. Atan bends me backward and kisses me within an inch of my life. I swear I am dizzy when he brings me up for air. And then he spins me around and passes me to Diont.
Diont’s kiss is tender and loving, so different from the passionate nature of Atan. And then he breaks away and there are more cheers as the three of us clasp hands and raise them up to the ceiling.
Later tonight, we will head to our cave to remove the belly chains very carefully. Or perhaps we will just remove our clothing very carefully.
