“I know who you are.” Shaking my hand, a tentative smile tugged at his lips. “You’re the champions that are going to save the queen.”
Arms thrown back, wind whipped through young Phin’s hair as he sailed over the treetops.
Shaking off the hold of my first pleasant vision with surprising ease, I dropped his hand and rose to full height. “That is why we’re here,” I muttered, my lack of conviction audible even to my own ears. Hand still linked with that of the freckle-faced lad, I helped him to his feet. “You, on the other hand, need to get back to the castle before the king misses you. Sterling, could you help our new friend with that?”
Arms swinging limp at his sides, Sterling’s mouth sagged into a frown. “No.”
The absurdity of the situation forced a nervous laugh to bubble from my chest. “You say that in jest, of course? This is one of your jokes I just don’t get?”
“No, I … wait, you don’t get my jokes?”
“Exactly never. Can we focus please?” It was getting increasingly difficult to keep my fake smile fixed for the boy’s benefit.
“Seems a rather rude comment to ignore.” Muttering to himself, Sterling folded his arms over his chest and stepped off his rock pedestal. “As I was saying, regretfully, I cannot simply whisk the boy back. I am the vessel. The vessel is me. It hops from here to there, but seldom in the same spot twice. One or two venture back, the third becomes a victim of time and space with no guaranteed return.”
Mouth swinging open, I could form no more eloquent response than, “W–what?”
“We jump together when the job is complete, or we don’t jump at all. Because I can’t guarantee I can find my way back to this exact time and space again,” Sterling explained with a clarity and resolve uncharacteristic of him.
Tugging on the bottom hem of my shirt, Phin peered up at me. “Both me mum and dad have gone to be with the Lord. There isn’t a soul in Caselotti that will even notice I’m gone. It would be my honor to travel with the Queen’s Champions, sir.”
My heart bled compassion and understanding for the boy tossed here and there by the current of circumstance, same as me. “I know that feeling all too well.”
Offering me a toothy smile, Phin’s face told the story of a child hungering for love and acceptance. “Does that mean I can embark on this adventure with you?”
While I couldn’t in good conscious put his life in unnecessary risk, I failed to see what choice I had. In place of a response, I stepped to the edge of the cliff I had plucked him from and gazed out at the ocean of emerald greenery. I had no idea what lay ahead, but I put my trust in Mother Ocean that she had thrown this wayward team together for a reason.
“Welcome to Marooner’s Rock, lads,” I boomed, chin tipped toward the horizon. “Right or wrong, from this point on, we’re in this together.”
Chapter Thirteen
A purgatory of green cursed with deafening silence. That is the only way I could think to describe the strange new realm I found myself in. Using my dagger to slice through the vining foliage, no disturbed critters scampered away. No roosted birds took to flight. Not one insect buzzed my ears. Even the leaves seemed to dangle still on their branches.
Nothing.
The sound of our clumsy footfalls marked us as interlopers in the forest of stillness. Far too soon, the weight of that smothering silence became unbearable. Every stick that crunched underfoot echoed through the valley like a gunshot. Muscles set on edge, I tensed for an attack I feared lurked somewhere among the trees.
Sun moving slow across the cloudless sky, the hike began to wear on my traveling companions same as me. Phin wrung his wood flute between his hands, gripping it tight to his chest. The farther we ventured into the catacombs of vegetation, the closer he clung to my side. His earlier valor stolen by anxiety.
Then, there was Sterling. Quiet had truly unfortunate side effects on him. In a steady stream of babbling, he adopted varying voices to speak for all the characters rattling through his mind. “I don’t like the looks of it. However, it may kiss my hand if it likes. I’d rather not, actually.” Plucking a long palm frond from a low hanging branch, he pushed his thumb through it to make eye holes, then tied it around his head like a mask. “I wouldn’t mind freeing your head from your shoulders and mounting it to my staff. But, then who would sing the birthday song? Oh! I do so love a celebration, and the candles!”
Beads of sweat trickling down from between my shoulder blades, I threw a bit more aggression into hacking and sawing my way through the brush. “I have an idea,” I grunted between strikes, “how about a bit of conversation to put us all at ease? Sterling, what shall we talk about?”
Head tilting at the question, his agitated stare shifted to eerily manic. “Begin at the beginning, and go on ’til you come to the end. Then, stop.”
“Well put,” I said with a curt nod, and lobbed the conversation to our youngest traveler. “How about you, Phin? Any topics come to mind?”
“Is … is it true?” he ventured, voice quaking with nerves. “That you were once a merman?”
Comforted by thoughts of home, I cast him an appreciative smile. “I didn’t realize that matter was one for debate.”
“I meant no insult, sir!” Tripping over a tree root, Phin stumbled to reclaim his footing mid-plea. “The women in the kitchen of the castle cluck about all sorts of nonsense. I know better than to listen.”
Pausing, I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my forearm. “Not nonsense at all. I am … or, was a mer, and in my heart forever will be.”
“That’s amazing!” Phin gushed. Shoulders rising to his ears, he seemed moments from exploding with infinite questions. “What’s it like to live … under the sea?”
Falling back into a rhythm with my swings, my heart warmed as I let my thoughts dive to the depths. “I can’t say the colors there are any brighter than on land. Yet, against the cobalt cloak of the glittering waves the different shades come alive. Yellow fish glow like rays of the sun. Pink coral sprouts a brighter spectrum than any rose could hope to bloom. And the sound—oh, the sound!” Chuckling to myself, I clasped a fist over my heart. “Every night a symphony of lapping waves lulls you to sleep. And, the rushing current provides the comforting chorus of a mother’s drumming heart to ease the demands of everyday life.” The memories were so vivid in my mind, I could practically hear the crashing waves.
“Where shall we keep the biscuits!” Sterling suddenly yelped.
“It sounds most magical, sir.” Whimsy danced through Phin’s declaration, both of us choosing to overlook Sterling’s babbling. “Did you have a special someone there?”
“Indeed, I did,” I stated, the anguish of being torn from Vanessa stabbed into my heart and ground deep.
Noticing my melancholy, Phin hesitated before asking, “When is the last time you spoke to her?”
Closing my eyes, I journeyed back to the last conversation we had outside the mess hall of the Royal Guard training academy. “I ducked beneath a canopy of reeds to find a mesmerizing princess waiting for me. My commanding officer scowled his disdain at such a lowly soldier being visited by a member of the royal family, but Vanessa shriveled him with her regal glare. At the time I remember being annoyed at her for … something. Whatever pointless grievance it was, vanished the instant she turned to me with a smile as inviting as twilight on a white sand beach. I remember holding her. Plucking a driftwood twig from her hair and shaking the strands out in an onyx waterfall. The last thing she said to me was a royal command I fear I can never keep, ‘Come back to me, Alastor, and bring forever with you’.”
Needing a distraction from the aching hole in my heart, I resumed swiping a path with renewed vigor.
“Uh, Alastor?” Phin called from a few paces back.
“Is it bath day? I’ve forgotten the lavender soap!” Sterling added, his shrill tone becoming increasingly frantic and unhinged.
“Have to keep moving, lads,” I puffed, sweat streaming down m
y back. “The only way out of this, is through it.”
Planting himself firm, Phin insisted, “Alastor, stop. You really need to see this.”
Filling my lungs, I turned for no other reason than to humor him. Eyes bulging with shock, I momentarily forgot how to exhale. From the hillside we had been hiking around a gorgeous waterfall now flowed. It emptied into a lagoon that had most certainly not been there a moment ago. In the center, a scattering of boulders jutted from the water. Seated upon them, a pair of mermaids sunned themselves, their tails rising and falling in casual slaps against the bubbling water. A third paddled circles around them, her arms rising and falling in a lackadaisical back stroke.
“W–where d–did all of this c–come from?” I stammered, struggling to form words.
“As you were talking, things just … appeared!” Throwing his arms out wide, Phin spun in a circle, giggling. “Do you know what this means?”
“Not even marginally,” I admitted, unable to tear my unblinking stare from the newly formed oasis.
“You thought it, and it materialized!” Breathless from twirling, Phin skittered to a stop. Dizzy and swaying, he dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “Sir Alastor, you have magic here.”
Sterling threw his hands up in exasperation. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! No one listens to me.”
Tucking my dagger in my waistband, I inched closer to the shoreline. “This can’t be. It’s impossible.”
Catching a blade of blue grass, Phin twined it around his finger. “It’s easy enough to prove. Think of something else, see if it appears. I know! You’re new to the human world. Think of one thing you like about it.”
“Oh! I really like those fluttery things. What are they called?” Lifting my shoulders, I flapped my arms. “The brightly colored insects that children terrorize by catching in nets?”
Phin opened his mouth only to clamp it shut again. “I think you mean butterflies. Saying it like that makes me feel horrible for ever having enjoyed chasing them.”
“Yes! Butterflies!” No sooner did the words leave my lips, then I felt the air stir. A whispered caress brushed my shoulder, wings rivaling a pelican’s in size flapping passed.
The monstrous butterfly zipped around Sterling in a tight circle, making it necessary for him to bend backwards to avoid being slapped in the face by its impressive wingspan.
Dragging a hand over the scruff of my jawline, I mumbled in disbelief, “Was that me? Did I actually make that?”
Dropping to his knees, Phin dragged one hand over the surface of the lagoon. “I think so.”
With a flabbergasted shake of my head, I watched Sterling dip, dodge, and shimmy away from the hovering bug that seemed to have taken a keen interest in him. With each flap, the butterfly’s wings changed color. Sapphire lined with opalescent ivory. Onyx highlighted by golden amber. Blush pink accented by flashes of plum. Somehow, each pairing managed to be lovelier than the last.
“Reminds me of Queen Amphrite,” I muttered to myself, kneeling down in the grass alongside Phin.
“Who’s that?” the boy asked, chuckling at Sterling’s flailing arms and wild dance moves to dodge the butterfly’s advances.
“She was the queen … the second queen,” I corrected, unable to replace Queen Titonus in my mind even after all this time, “of Poseidon, King of Atlantica and ruler of the Seven Seas. Amphrite had great magic, and enjoyed using it to completely alter her look every time she made any kind of public appearance. One day she would be a willowy blonde, the next a stern brunette. Her own husband could seldom recognize her.”
One corner of Phin’s mouth screwed to the side in contemplation. “A good queen shouldn’t be judged by her appearance in any regard, as long as she is noble and just. Was she that?”
“No. Her beautiful disguises masked a darkened heart. I hate to think of what has become of …” Vanessa’s name caught on my lips. No. I had to believe she was okay, because there wasn’t a damned thing I could do elsewise, and that knife of despair cut far too deep. Instead, I opted for a less gutting alternative. “… Atlantica if Amphrite has found her way back into power. I doubt the kingdom would even resemble the home I once knew.”
Wings slapping the air, the butterfly banked hard and dove for Sterling’s head. Extending its long, tubular mouth, saliva dripping fangs snapped at the end of the threatening appendage. Sterling’s muffled screams came from behind midnight black wings that suction-cupped to his face.
Dagger hissing free at my hip, I leapt to my feet. Before I could throw myself into the melee, Sterling ripped the creature off him and spiked it to the ground. It slammed into a rock with a sickening squish, limp wings draining ashen.
“You killed it,” I grimaced, stating the oozing obvious.
Hair shooting off his head in every conceivable direction, brilliant red scratches marred Sterling’s cheeks and the bridge of his nose. “How … did you turn that lovely—if not slightly bothersome—creature into a blood thirsty harbinger of death?”
Shoulders lifting to my ears, I shook my head.
“He was talking about the bad queen,” Phin interjected, handing Sterling his handkerchief to wipe away the blood.
Dabbing at his wounds, Sterling winced, sucking air through his teeth. “Your thoughts went dark then that same darkness leeched onto my face. While we’re here, you need to keep your thoughts light and airy. Because, I’ve seen the flip side of your brain, pal, and it is terrifying!”
“Maybe they just have a hellacious bug problem here?” I offered, hearing that for the pathetic excuse it was.
Stepping close enough for his chest to bump mine, a disheveled Sterling enunciated each word. “Think. Happy. Thoughts.”
“With that tone, how could I not?” As if manifested by the mere mention of my happiness, an amethyst tail broke the lagoon’s surface with a gentle splash. The color demanding my attention, I moved with a magnetic pull toward the ripples dancing over the water.
Side-stepping in front of me, Sterling’s eyes narrowed. “Where are you off to? We need to discuss how to keep you Zen, pally.”
Back to me, she rose from the water. Raven hair clung to her shoulders and back like a second skin. Sensing the burning sizzle of my stare, her chin tipped in my direction, gracing me with a glimpse of a profile I had long since memorized. It couldn’t be her. Not for real. Even so, the vision made blood sing through my veins, my heart lurching in a spastic stutter-beat.
Grabbing Sterling by his narrow shoulders, I lifted him from the ground and set him down beside me. He uttered a colorful expletive I didn’t pretend to hear, my focus drawing me to her like a moth to a candle’s flame.
At the snap of a twig under my boot, she turned to me. My fantasy. My beating heart, blinked back at me with purple eyes more rare and treasured than any precious stone. Water lapping at the toes of my boots, I crouched down with one knee in the damp soil. A stroke of her tail and she was close enough for me to see the cluster of three small birthmarks on her left cheek.
“Vanessa.” I breathed her name in a wistful exhale.
Giggling, she sank into the water, leaving only her eyes visible.
That’s where I found the difference. She was Vanessa, down to every detail. Except for the absence of the rebellious spark that radiated from the stare of the real thing in brilliant silver starbursts.
Deflated by the twisted reality, my other knee sank to the ground. “You’re not her.”
Pressing her palms to the shore on either side of me, the imposter hoisted her upper body out of the water. Droplets clung to her flesh, dripping from her like diamonds.
“Does it matter?” she murmured, lips teasing over mine.
From behind me came a yelp, followed by the ruckus of a heavy object being dragged.
I wanted to investigate, knew that I should …
One arm snaked around my neck, and the tip of her tongue traced over my lower lip. “Indulge in the illusion,” she coaxed in a voice that perfectly
replicated Vanessa’s. “Succumb to temptation. Either way, you’re never leaving this never-land.”
Spell broken, I pulled back and caught her wandering hand. “What?”
“You’ll see,” she warned with a malicious chuckle. Yanking free of my hold, she threw herself back in a reverse swan dive, water spraying me in her descent.
Heavy footfalls trudged up behind me, and I rose to my feet in anticipation of a barrage of questions from Sterling and Phin. Instead, I gawked at a looming figure pulling back a boulder-sized fist.
“You never should have come.” That sentiment hanging in the air, my face exploded in throbbing pain. A hazy beat later, the ground rose to meet me.
Chapter Fourteen
A black sack was yanked off my head, leaving me squinting into the blinding daylight. Forced onto my knees, my wrists had been bound behind me. The skin beneath the restricting ties was already chaffed raw.
From beside me, a child’s frightened whimper snapped my head in Phin’s direction. Tied in the same fashion I was, yet thankfully free of a hood, the lad chanted to himself. “In the darkness of life, hold honor’s truth until morning. In the darkness of life, hold honor’s truth until morning.” Tears streaked down his cheeks, watering the earth in heavy drops.
“Phin.” Scooching closer, I offered the only comfort I could—nearness. “Are you okay? Have they hurt you?”
Forcing his gaze to meet mine, his stare begged for a miracle I was impotent to supply. “In the darkness of life, hold honor’s truth until morning.”
“Curiouser and curiouser, isn’t it?”
At the sound of Sterling’s voice, my head swiveled. That simple motion caused a wave of vertigo to slam into me, the clearing we were trapped in whirling around me.
Oblivious to my dilemma, Sterling ventured on. “I think his clock gears have slipped. There’s a tick, but he’s lost his tock.”
The Unfortunate Souls Collection Page 30
