The cuttlefish whimpered in terror. “Oooh! The wolf!”
“Tell me how you ken I’m a wolf,” Lachlan said.
“Anyone can see that,” the cuttlefish replied. “What big eyes and teeth and claws you have!”
Lachlan snorted. “I dinnae have teeth and claws now. I’m a man.”
The cuttlefish cried worse than ever. “Oh, please don’t eat me! I’ll do anything.”
“Can you always see what’s below the surface?” Lachlan asked.
“It’s not below the surface,” the cuttlefish replied. “Anybody can see it.”
Lachlan thought about this. “If ye can see that, ye can see I belong to the world above. I’m trying to get back there.”
The cuttlefish bobbed its pointed head. “Of course! Go back there.”
“Do ye ken how I can get back there?” Lachlan asked. “Is there…some kind of portal or something I can take?”
“You must ask the King,” the cuttlefish replied. “He controls all the flow above and below. That’s his power.”
Lachlan sighed. “I cannae ask the King. I’m trying to escape from him to the world above. That’s why I need to go. There must be another way.”
“There isn’t,” the cuttlefish replied. “That’s the only way.”
Lachlan leaned back against the coral. Now that he sat down to rest, he didn’t want to get up. He was safe in this cave for the time being. This cuttlefish might be stupid, but it possessed some sight. That was better than nothing.
“Is there anyone in this world of yours that does magic?” he asked.
“Magic! Heavens, no!” the cuttlefish cried. “That sort of thing belongs to the world above.”
“I dinnae believe ye,” Lachlan replied. “We hear all sorts of things about sea witches and gorgons and Heaven kens what all. Ye must have something that can make things happen without the King finding out about it.”
“Oh, that’s a different matter again,” the cuttlefish told him. “You said magic. We don’t have that here.”
“Well, what do ye have?” Lachlan asked.
“There’s Naga Rara, the tanifa,” the cuttlefish suggested.
Lachlan cocked his head. “What does that mean?”
“He’s an undersea monster who lives hereabouts,” the cuttlefish told him. “He eats mostly crawfish and mussels, but occasionally he gets bored and makes a raid on the world above. He catches people and eats them, and the legends say he even stole a maiden and made her his wife. He knows more about the world above than anybody.”
“Can ye take me to him?” Lachlan asked.
“Of course!” the cuttlefish exclaimed—a little too enthusiastically for Lachlan’s taste.
The little creature darted forward to leave the cave. Lachlan put out his arm to block it. “No yet. I’m no’ ready to go just yet, and I still have some questions for ye.”
The cuttlefish slunk back to its corner. It cowered and cringed more than ever and gazed up at Lachlan with frightened eyes.
“Dinnae be frightened,” Lachlan told it. “I willnae hurt ye. I only wish to rest a while.”
The cuttlefish turned this way and that. “Oh, what did I do to deserve this misfortune? The King will never forgive this offense, and you know how he gets when he’s offended.”
“I can imagine it,” Lachlan replied. “Perhaps he’s missing some satisfaction in his home life. How long is it until he gets married?”
“Three days,” the cuttlefish replied. “The whole castle is in a state of high tension. I wouldn’t go in there for all the fish in the sea.”
“Have ye met his intended bride?” Lachlan asked.
“Oh, of course,” the cuttlefish exclaimed. “Everyone has met her. The King insists on it.”
“How does he do that?” Lachlan asked. “How could all the creatures of the sea meeting her?”
“The King made us come to the castle for the grand introduction celebration. He made it so only as many would fit in the feasting hall could see her at a time, but he made sure everybody saw her. He had to. If she’s going to rule over us and give birth to the Royal Heir, all the subjects must approve of her. We wouldn’t serve her otherwise”
Lachlan’s stomach turned at the thought of Ivy having anything to do with that monstrous creature. The God of the Sea towered over Lachlan, and he obviously possessed incredible power. Still, his gray hair and beard did nothing to recommend him—to Lachlan, anyway. Maybe Ivy found Aegir irresistible. Maybe that’s why she agreed to marry him in the first place.
That couldn’t be right. Ivy told Lachlan she watched him through her mirror. She followed every development in his struggle against the curse. She must be keeping her interest in Lachlan hidden from Aegir.
There he went again, thinking about Ivy in a way he shouldn’t. Lachlan tried again to push all thought of her out of his mind. She was lying in Aegir’s arms right now, and Lachlan would never have anything to do with her ever again.
Chapter 5
Ivy’s eyes fluttered open, and she gazed up at Aegir’s brooding face hovering over her. She tried to turn over and groaned.
“Lie still, my dear,” Aegir rumbled. “The microparticles are working on your bones. You’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
She closed her eyes. “Where’s Lachlan?”
Aegir’s voice dropped to a deeper register. “Do not mention that man in my presence again, darling. As soon as I know you’re safe, I’ll go out hunting for him. I won’t leave it to any of my minions, either. I’ll hunt him down and do away with him.”
“Leave him alone,” Ivy told him. “He never did you any wrong.”
“He came to my castle against my wishes, didn’t he?” Aegir shot back. “He came here—here!—right into your private boudoir, where only I may venture. How can you expect me to let such a slight pass unpunished?”
“He never did anything. It was my fault. I went to see him, and when I came back through…”
“You went to see him!” Aegir thundered. He rocketed off her bed and stormed around the room. “You went to see him! What in all the sea possessed you to do a thing like that?”
“I’ve been watching him, Aegir,” she replied. “You gave me that mirror so I could see what I wanted to see and go where I wanted to go. I’ve been watching him during this war, and I’ve been watching him while you’ve been trying to stop him finding me. I had to see him. I had to explain to him…”
“What in all the sea would you want to go and see him for?” Aegir interrupted.
Ivy closed her eyes and drew a shaky breath. “Please just listen to me for a minute, Aegir. I’m trying to explain. I found something out, something that would have stopped him trying to take me away. I had to tell him. I wanted to stop this feud going on between you and him so I could save us all a lot of trouble. It only happened by accident he got pulled into the mirror when I tried to come back. I was just about to send him back above when you came in and shot me.”
“Shot you!” he bellowed. “I shot you! Is that what you think I did? I was trying to protect you from that…that cur.”
Ivy’s spirit churned in confusion and agony. “Please, Aegir. Lachlan is only trying to protect his own people. That’s the only reason he was trying to get me to come above. All I had to do was send those creatures away, and he would have left us in peace. I could have done that and come back in time for the wedding.”
“You know that’s nonsense,” Aegir snapped. “He’s trying to stop the wedding. He’s trying to take you above so you’ll marry him instead of me.”
Ivy’s eyes popped open. “He is not! What makes you think that?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Aegir replied. “He wants to steal you from me. He’s smitten with you, and he’ll do anything to get you. That’s why he came down here. He wants to steal you from me and win you for himself.”
“That’s impossible,” Ivy returned. “He never saw my face until today.”
“How do you explain him trying so hard
to take you away?” Aegir asked. “He must have been on fire for you from the very first.”
Ivy shook her head, but she couldn’t get her thoughts in order. She knew what she knew. She only met Lachlan McLean for the first time about an hour ago. Before that, he never laid eyes on her.
Ivy watched him, from the moment Grace Spencer first pointed him out in the mirror, all the way up until now. If anybody was smitten with somebody, it was her. Marry Lachlan instead of Aegir? The idea sent a squiggle of excitement through her.
Could she? Would she? Should she? She never considered it before. Lachlan exerted some sort of magnetism over her. She could tell herself a thousand times a day not to look at him, not to trace his cheekbone in her mirror. None of it did any good.
She sat up late at night and watched him sleep. She watched him shave. She watched him buckle on his kilt in the morning. She watched him talk to his brothers. She watched him sling his arm around Christie’s shoulders and tussle the boy’s hair.
She never lived a moment without Lachlan’s presence, and he never knew it. Even when she didn’t watch him in her mirror, she carried his presence with her. What would she do without that?
Once she married Aegir and they started sharing a room, Ivy wouldn’t have as much time alone to indulge in her Lachlan obsession. One of these days, Lachlan would marry someone, and then all this would come to an end. What would she do then?
Aegir moved off. “The microparticles have finished their work. You’re safe, but you need rest, my dear. I must go attend to this matter. Get some sleep, and I’ll see you later. We’ll share a meal, you and I, the way we used to. Once I get rid of this interloper, everything will go back to the way it was before.”
He slipped out of the room. Ivy loved Aegir. She still wanted to marry him, but something drove her out of bed. Her head weighed a ton. Her every sinew ached, but she pushed herself to her feet. She steadied herself against the shell for a moment until her vision cleared.
She had to warn Lachlan. She had to get to him before Aegir did. She had to find a way to send him back above where he would be safe from Aegir’s fury.
She glanced around her room, and her eye fell on the mirror. She staggered toward it and leaned one hand against the frame to support herself. The surface swelled and swayed as colors glanced across its clear waters.
The colors congealed into an image, and Ivy looked down on Lachlan. He drifted through the ocean currents with a small cuttlefish at his side. Where was he going? He moved away from the castle, out into the open sea.
He turned his head every now and then in conversation with the cuttlefish. The image expanded, and a shelf dropped off just a few nautical miles ahead of them. The black depths yawned wide below that shelf, and terror struck at Ivy’s guts. They were heading for Naga Rara.
Ivy turned her attention aside. There was Aegir. He charged through his underwater domain on an intercept course for Lachlan and his innocent little guide.
Ivy jumped into action. Lachlan knew nothing about the undersea world. He would get caught between Naga Rara in front and Aegir coming up behind him. One man couldn’t fight those forces alone.
Ivy flew out of the bedroom, blasting straight through the wall and racing as fast as she could for Aegir. She’d tried to make him see sense, and he wouldn’t listen. She could only use his love for her to protect Lachlan. Aegir would never knowingly attack Ivy. If she got between him and Lachlan, Aegir would hold back and let Lachlan escape.
The instant she got outside the castle, the horrible reality became all too clear. Aegir was too far ahead to stop him. He would reach Lachlan long before Ivy got anywhere near enough to stop him.
Ivy swam as fast as she could to catch up with Aegir. He would be furious when he saw her out of bed, but that was nothing to how furious he would be when she tried to protect Lachlan again.
What was she doing? Why was she risking her happiness in the undersea realm for this stranger? What did he really mean to her anyway? She could never love him the way she loved Aegir. Lachlan was nothing but a passing fantasy, an interesting diversion before she knuckled down to her future with Aegir.
A wide plane cut between two undersea mountain ranges. Lachlan followed that plane straight to the black pit where Naga Rara lived. Aegir came up behind him. Ivy couldn’t see Lachlan so far ahead, but she could see Aegir, his hair flowing on the current.
In front of Ivy’s eyes, the huge blackness beyond the shelf rose out of the pit. It obscured the blue overhead. It heaved up tall and horrible to block out the whole world.
Ivy’s heart quailed, but she couldn’t stop now. She catapulted forward faster than ever. She had to stop this. She had to protect Lachlan from Aegir’s wrath if it was the last thing she did.
All the private moments she spent gazing at Lachlan flashed before her eyes. He never knew it, but she cherished and admired him from the beginning. She cared about him. She couldn’t stand aside and allow anything to happen to him. She couldn’t face a future without the exquisite joy of studying him and listening to him talk and inspecting all the minute details of his face and body.
The black specter oozed onto the plain. It possessed no body to speak of. The larger darkness consumed all the light out of the ocean. Ivy caught faint glimpses of lights flashing inside that blackness. The fish and creatures who lived in Naga Rara’s dark depths whispered back and forth inside his body.
When Naga Rara appeared, Aegir began to grow bigger, too. He expanded to twice his normal size, then ten times. He didn’t get as big as Naga Rara, but he still grew to the size of a huge giant. His head didn’t touch the ocean’s surface up there. He was the ocean, tall and terrible and unimaginably powerful.
Lachlan spun around to face Aegir, and the cuttlefish disappeared. Lachlan didn’t seem to notice Naga Rara. Ivy didn’t know which of these sea monsters she feared more. In the final analysis, Naga Rara was just another extension of Aegir’s power. Aegir would drive Lachlan into Naga Rara’s blackness, and that would be it.
Aegir’s eyes flashed fire at the puny man standing in his way. Lachlan crouched to spring. At that moment, Aegir raised his fist and pounded it down on the ground. The ocean bottom split apart, and a jagged crack shot out toward Lachlan’s feet.
He sprang to one side just in time. The crack popped asunder, and boiling lava spouted from the fissure. Lachlan staggered away, teetering on the brink of Naga Rara’s shelf. One false step, and he would plunge into the blackness.
Ivy screamed out once, “No!”
Lachlan and Aegir both turned at the same moment to look at her. Ivy plunged forward through the thick mass of seawater. What she wouldn’t give to be running full tilt over the good solid Earth. What was she doing in this strange world anyways?
Chapter 6
Lachlan spun around to see Ivy rocketing out of the blue. What was she doing here? The next thing he knew, Aegir bent forward and swiped his enormous hand sideways. He caught Lachlan from the side and knocked him spinning off somewhere.
Lachlan smashed into the side of a whale. The whale shook itself and swam on its way, but the impact sent stars exploding before Lachlan’s eyes. He had to do something to stop this before it got any worse.
He saw the black wall of lightless void next to him. He would dive down in there and get away where Aegir couldn’t follow him. He turned and made for it when Ivy swooped down, soaring through the water in a way Lachlan couldn’t comprehend. The water didn’t hinder her movements in any way.
Before Lachlan could move, Ivy whizzed straight for him. “Lachlan, no!” she screamed.
Aegir let out a thunderous bellow. He swung his fist in a powerful punch aimed directly for Lachlan. At the last possible moment, Ivy zoomed in, snatched Lachlan’s wrist, and hauled him out of the way.
Aegir’s fist slammed down on the ocean floor. The blow split another great crack in the Earth, and a geyser of molten lava shot out. It would have destroyed Ivy and Lachlan if Ivy wasn’t moving so fast.
She streaked around in a wide arch, heading away from that blackness, and Lachlan understood. It must be dangerous. That must be where Aegir wanted him to go. Aegir wanted to drive him into that darkness all along.
Aegir spun around, but he couldn’t move that enormous body of his faster than Ivy could fly. She zipped through the water on a silver streak of lightning, Lachlan hanging by the wrist, but he didn’t dare move.
Aegir roared aloud and set off after them. Ivy burned through the water. She flew all the way back to the castle and dove through the wall into her bedroom again.
She landed in front of the mirror. Her hair swayed around her face, and her cheeks flushed. Her bright eyes skipped over Lachlan’s face to the window beyond. “We don’t have much time. You have to go back now. It’s the only place safe for you. Once you get above, Aegir can’t touch you. Just stay away from water, and you’ll be all right.”
“Ye cannae do this, Ivy,” Lachlan replied. “He’ll punish ye for helping me. I’ll no’ leave ye behind to face his wrath alone. This is my own doing. I’ll face him for ye.”
Her face broke into a brilliant smile. “That’s okay. You don’t have to do that. I can handle him. He loves me. He’ll forgive me anything. I tried to explain before that you only came here by accident, but he wouldn’t listen. He insists on punishing you.”
“If he didnae listen afore, he’ll no’ listen now,” Lachlan replied. “Ye have just stopped him punishing me. He’ll no’ forget that in a hurry. Ye cannae stay here. It’s no’ safe.”
“Well, I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go,” she pointed out.
“Come with me,” he blurted out. “Come back above. Ye dinnae belong down here. Ye belong to the world above.”
“That’s what Grace said.”
He took her hand. “Come. Ye dinnae have to stay here any longer.”
“What about Aegir?” she asked. “He’s been waiting to marry me all this time. I couldn’t turn my back on my pledge.”
Sea Queen (Phoenix Throne Book 6): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 4
