With a happy squeal, the boy hugs Catarina and goes running to where Bessaria is grazing on sweet grass. He gleefully tackles the sheep, which results in him burying his face in the soft wool. The animal shoves him with her head and bleats for help when he tries to wrap his arms around her neck. Bessaria eventually gives up fighting and goes back to eating, Jack still holding onto her before he decides to give her food a taste. He spits out the grass and shakes his head in disgust then climbs onto the mount’s loose saddle.
“Dad always wanted a grandson and this makes more sense than me settling down or taking a long break from my work,” Catarina whispers to herself while walking back to the vehicle. She climbs into the ship to see where she can make space for her new passengers and is surprised to find Dariana waiting inside. “I swear you were outside a second ago. You look a little ghost-like too.”
The champion’s body is gradually becoming transparent as she feels her psyche drift across the ocean. “I have to combine with my other half. It’s the only way to free Yola Biggs and make sure she returns to Nevra Coil. Will you be able to get back to the city in time?”
“I have to figure out how to fit everyone on here and dump nonessentials to counter the extra weight,” the gnome explains. Calculating the adjustments in her head, she makes notes of what she can leave behind. “Kira and I will be exhausted by the time we arrive, but we’ll get back to Nevra Coil with a few hours to work with. So go rescue a Chaos Goddess and be safe, which are two things that probably don’t go hand in hand.”
“I’ll be fine once I regain my full power,” Dariana replies with a smile. She closes her eyes as her form fades away, the two halves calling out to each other across the miles. “Thank you and good luck, my friend. I leave you with a final gift that will make sure you arrive on time without over-exerting yourselves. Before you argue, I can afford to leave some residue of my psyche behind”
The champion vanishes in a shower of silver sparks that coat the steering and power center of the ship. Most of the shimmering dust disappears, but a thin layer remains on the bicycle-like device in the center. Catarina chuckles when she sees the pedals move on their own and she goes to usher everyone onboard.
15
Dariana soars through the red-hued sky as she follows the thin tether connecting her to the rest of her power. Far below the phantom is the ocean, which has been transformed into a strange patchwork of slow eddies and swirling waves. Violent winds buffer the telepath and threaten to hurl her into the void that lurks on the edge of her senses. One whipping blast nearly snaps the glistening strand that guides Dariana, but she is quick to mentally bolster the tether. Rippling laughter and mournful cries can be heard as she hurtles forward, the voices breaking into a flood of angry curses every few seconds. White-tipped claws are emerging from the approaching clouds when a loud pop signals that the champion has left the psychic plane and is at her destination.
Bobbing on the water is the barnacle-encrusted boat of Yarly, the exhausted merman resting in the bow. The other Dariana is standing on the back rail, deftly keeping her balance as she scans for the trapped goddesses. They are easy to locate due to their undersea battle, but they routinely blink out of range as if they momentarily cease to exist. The champion senses the arrival of her other self and frantically waves to the floating specter, drawing her attention to the danger that is blocking their path.
An enormous whirlpool sits several yards ahead of the small ship, its core a gaping hole of darkness. Dariana watches the spinning water and notices several shadows moving beneath the surface. A cluster of green and light blue dots gain her attention at the southern side of the vortex, which draws the phantom closer to that section. She is surprised to find that there are sharks and a group of red-tailed merfolk that have become trapped in the whirlpool. The deadly predators are panicking as they fight against the enchanted current, but they attack the helpless pod whenever they get near. From the look of misery on a few of the merwomen, Dariana guesses that several pups have already been eaten.
Refusing to wait any longer, the champion dives toward the tiny boat and slams into her other self. Yarly flips into the water at the sight of the silver orb that envelopes his grinning passenger. Her salt-covered clothes melt off her body and swirl around her feet before returning to cover her flawless skin. Dariana’s shirt is no longer white, but a vivid red with a blue turtle emblazoned on the back. Her black pants and silver slippers shimmer from the residual energy that revived them. With a crack of her knuckles, the display stops and the champion focuses all of her attention on the whirlpool.
“Why were you two sitting here and not trying to rescue them?” Dariana asks as Yarly crawls back into the boat. The brown-scaled merman goes back to relaxing in the sun and showing no interest in helping the trapped pod. “Your people are in danger. I may not have been strong enough to handle this before, but I am now. Bring me over there.”
“I would, but they’re not my problem,” the merman casually mentions. He holds up his hand to stop the looming argument and picks a barnacle off his boat to chew on. “Something you have to learn about my people is that we’re territorial. The coastal merfolk are friendly, but you can’t be that weak in the great expanse. It’s survival of the strongest out here and you can only look out for your own kind. That isn’t my pod, so their fate is not my concern. If they die then that is what Elichai the Ocean Goddess has decided.”
“There is no way for me to convince you otherwise?”
“Nope.”
Dariana sighs and looks to the whirlpool where a merwoman and her pup are yanked beneath the waves. Only the child returns to the surface where he is quickly grabbed by a nearby merman. The scarred warrior stabs at an incoming shark with a bone dagger, the blade carving gouges in the animal’s nose. Clutching the child to his chest, the merman dives to barely avoid another predator that rushes in from his side. The blood within the vortex is becoming more pronounced every minute, which enrages the typically passive champion.
“In that case, you are no longer needed,” Dariana states, fighting the temptation to take over Yarly’s mind. A glimmer of darkness tells her that he would make perfect bait for the sharks, but she shakes her head to erase the sinister idea. “Hold your ship steady and leave when I depart. I promise I will not keep you much longer.”
Rubbing her temples, the telepath reaches out to the sharks and coaxes them away from the merfolk. Enhancing their strength to fight the current, she guides the terrified predators to the far side of the whirlpool and releases them into the calmer ocean. Waiting a minute for them to get further away, she does the same to the merfolk only with a gentler hand on their more complex minds. She concentrates to make them feel like they are finding the way themselves so as not to startle the pod. They eventually get out of the dangerous whirlpool on the side opposite the sharks. Dariana is confused when she severs her contact with the merfolk and they remain where she left them. She watches the pod gather into a tight group, all of them continuing to stare into the churning vortex.
“Why aren’t they leaving?” she asks, forgetting her loathing of the callous merman. “I told them to take the little ones and escape. Is their territory so small that they have nowhere else to go?”
“That’s ridiculous,” Yarly replies before plunging his head underwater. He hears a distant yelp from the direction of the whirlpool and laughs as he sits up. “Looks like you missed a female pup. The pod won’t go away until the little thing is rescued or dies. Not unless you force them to escape.”
Dariana shoves Yarly out of the boat and mentally signals for the pod to depart. She promises that she will save the child as she steadies herself on the bobbing craft and gauges the distance to the whirlpool. Knowing she needs an extra boost, she jumps toward the front of the boat and slams her feet down. The small vessel flips forward and she vaults onto the back, which is cartwheeling a few feet in the air. With a minor enhancement to her muscles, the champion launches herself toward the whirlpool and d
ives into the churning waves.
The savage current makes it impossible for Dariana to see underwater, so she surfaces and tries to locate the pup. She can barely hear the yelps over the roaring water and they are never consistent due to the child being in a tighter rotation than the champion. Relying on her telepathy, Dariana finds that the girl is dangerously close to the center of the whirlpool. The child is not even a year old and she is too weak to fight the tide. A deeper scan warns the champion that the girl would not survive a muscle enhancement or be able to easily follow her mental directions. All the struggling woman can do is keep the child calm with visions of a gentle ocean while she tries to swim toward her.
Traveling with the current, Dariana sputters and gasps while being repeatedly forced under the surface. To avoid drowning, she strengthens her lungs and manipulates the pores around her neck to suck oxygen out of the water. It takes several attempts to get the makeshift gills to work correctly, the first few times resulting in her absorbing salt with the air. Even with these changes, Dariana is unable to swim fast enough to catch up with the pup. Unlike the merfolk, her body is not designed for the water and she cannot think of a way to change that fact.
“There has to be a way to get through this,” she whispers as she rolls onto her back and attempts a backstroke. A fish leaps over her body to escape the current, slapping her arm with its tail. “I don’t know if you’re from the gods or an accident, but thanks. If through and under won’t work then I’ll go over.”
Flipping onto her stomach, Dariana locks her body into the form of a flexible rod and uses powerful dolphin kicks to get underwater. Angling her ascent, the champion bursts from the water and goes across a section of the whirlpool instead of letting the current direct her. She catches a glimpse of the yelping child before diving and repeating the leap. For a dreadful second, she loses track of the pup and fears that the girl has already fallen into the vortex. It is during the next jump that she sees the tiny form being carried out of a patch of sea foam. She is amazed that the child is able to stay afloat, unaware that the girl has filled her body with enough air to remain buoyant.
When Dariana makes the final leap out of the water, she arches her back and unlocks her muscles. The champion stretches her arms toward the green-haired pup and catches her red-scaled tail as she lands. She immediately curls her body around the child, protecting the tiny creature as they are sucked into the dark maw of the whirlpool.
*****
The uneven seafloor is littered with severed limbs, pools of steaming muck, and the shattered remains of hundreds of weapons. Several craters have been made and are filled with liquids that range from magma to orange juice. Dragging herself out from under a pile of crumbling rubble, Aeriel snaps her spine back into place and turns to face her enemy. Yola Biggs is no longer focused on the fight, the Chaos Goddess staring at the mesmerizing darkness swirling above the dome. The green-haired woman lets the wooden mallet fall from her hand as something in the inky water attracts all of her attention.
“Give me your title and power!” the Insanity Goddess shrieks. She charges with a rusty anchor appearing in her hands, the massive weapon swung like a mace. “That is what I deserve!”
“Your repeated request is boring,” Yola replies with a yawn. She casually waves her arm and Aeriel’s head pops off, the body skidding to a stop and crossing its arms. “I told you before that my power will consume you. If I need to pick a replacement then I want someone who can nurture and protect chaos. It is not something you can control, which you repeatedly refuse to understand. Now shut up and eat your dinner.”
A blast of hot soup knocks the headless body into the dome, which sends waves of pain through Aeriel’s core. The goddess collapses as a rain of pot pies falls from nowhere, one of them sticking to her neck stump and growing a pair of bulging eyes. Unable to counter the older deity’s power, the younger immortal crawls to where her head is patiently waiting to be recovered. A swarm of chicken wings and globs of chocolate pelt Aeriel’s body, forcing her to reach her goal by dragging herself across the rough ground. The culinary attack stops while she reattaches her head and opens her mouth to shout at Yola. Instead, a candle-covered birthday cake hits her in the face and sets her hair on fire.
“Do you hear something?” Yola asks, her attention returning to the void above their circular prison. “It’s like a whisper getting closer. It seems familiar. Maybe Solar is waking up to reset everything.”
“This isn’t the Final Eclipse, you idiot,” Aeriel snaps before she blows frosting out of her nose. She wipes the fire out of her hair, which turns the tresses entirely black. “It might be Gabriel coming to claim you and rescue me. Then again it could be Zaria too. Maybe Ram or Cessia? I think any of our kind could be on their way to rescue us.”
Shocked by the suggestion, the Chaos Goddess looks at her companion with her hands pressed to her chest. “They can’t break the Law of Influence. Besides, there’s no way they can punch through the dome I made. It’s too dense and unstable. Well Zaria and Gabriel might be able to flip it over with a sneeze. Odigar can get in if he gives me back the doll he stole when we were babies. Anceron could get in here since he’s cute. Love a man in uniform even if there’s a sword jutting out of his chest. I could hang a birdcage from it. Still they can’t break our only rule.”
“The Law of Influence only refers to our interactions with mortals,” the other deity replies as she tries to sense whatever has stolen Yola’s attention. She is so focused on finding the whisper that it takes a minute for her to realize what her enemy has said. “Wait a second! The dome you made? I thought this was created by our auras combining, which is why we woke up connected to each other. What did you do?”
Yola scratches her head and stares at the other goddess as if she does not understand the question. Knowing that it has something to do with the dome, she wanders over to the barrier and taps at the invisible energy. A curling spark singes her finger, which she sucks on like a mildly injured child. It tastes of cherries and chocolate, so she suckles at her digit until Aeriel smacks her upside the head with the heavy anchor. The makeshift weapon explodes into a swarm of drill-nosed mosquitos that attack the Insanity Goddess, the insects burrowing into her exposed flesh. With her body itching and blistering, the crazed woman tears off the hardening patches of skin and unleashes a wordless scream that shakes the ground.
Ignoring the outburst, Yola curiously pokes a few more times at the dome. A jolt of pain runs up her arm with every touch, except for the last time when the potent magic sticks to her finger. It separates at the slightest pull, but she is sure that the barrier attached to her skin. With eyes of glistening black, the Chaos Goddess examines their prison and sees a beautiful network of aura strands that mesmerizes her for a few moments. The longer she stares at the tapestry, the more detailed it gets until every inch of the dome is covered in pictures of creatures dancing within a forest village. Most of the colors are dull, but two threads glow with the power of the goddesses they were removed from. As she watches, the line of black and the other of red become entwined and shuddering as if wrestling.
“Aw, they’re trying to kill each other. So sweet,” Yola coos while turning to face her muttering enemy. She approaches Aeriel to put her hands on the younger goddess’s shoulders and stares deep into her eyes. “I think our auras are in love. Should we have a winter or fall wedding?”
“They’re not in love!” the Insanity Goddess shouts, tossing the other deity away. She growls when her arms pop off in Yola’s hands, her dress falling to the ground and transforming into a patch of roses. Once released, the limbs quickly bounce back to their vacant sockets and a bodysuit of thorny vines covers her body. “I’m going to ask a simple question. Did you purposely make this dome and trap us at the bottom of the ocean?”
The Chaos Goddess opens her mouth to speak, but her lips melt off her face when she cannot think of an answer. When Aeriel grabs the puddle and slaps it back on her enemy’s face, Yola confidently
declares, “Maybe!”
“Guess you wouldn’t remember how you did this anyway.”
“Oh I know how I made the dome. Why didn’t you ask me that question instead of the other two?” she innocently replies with a wide smile. The other goddess leaps to attack and is sent spiraling through the air before landing on a large couch that snaps shut on her. “We landed at the bottom of the ocean and I used you to cushion the impact. Your head is surprisingly soft and squishy. Not wanting us to get pruney, I combined our auras and that of the nearby creatures to make the dome. Then I danced for a few minutes, ate a cauldron full of raw acorns, and took a nap. The rest you know unless you have amnesia. With the way your eyes keep twitching, you might have some brain damage or a gorilla is trapped in your skull. I find it better to keep large mammals outside of my body where they’re easier to feed and clean. Anyway, I think it’s time to amputate your head and fix the problem.”
Aeriel’s eyes grow wide as Yola skips toward the couch and plucks a large pair of scissors out of her hair. The squirming piece of furniture splits in half and the Insanity Goddess slithers out, racing across the ground to avoid her pouting enemy. She rams the dome in the hopes of hitting a patch of her own aura, but she is sent rolling away. Steam rises from her body as she charges again with a battering ram sprouting from her forehead. Upon impact, the solid barrier hurls Aeriel across the entire clearing. She hits the far side of the dome and is rocketed toward the ceiling, which sends her hurtling into the ground with an echoing crash.
“Undo this barrier because I refuse to be trapped with you for eternity,” Aeriel growls as she crawls out of the small crater. “Tear it down right now! We can finish our fight on the surface where I’ll have more room to defeat you.”
“Small problem with taking it down quickly,” Yola mentions before swallowing the scissors. She burps out a cloud of metal shavings and punches the blade-shaped protrusion in her stomach until it disappears. “If I rush then I’ll absorb you completely. Give me some time and I might be able to unravel the whole thing. Unless you love me so much that you want to become one with me.”
The Merchant of Nevra Coil (Legends of Windemere Book 8) Page 34
