by Skye Malone
I followed her as she pushed the plants aside and left.
“Whatever it is,” the old man called.
In the doorway, I looked back.
“I can tell you know,” he continued. “At least something of what they’re after, you know. And if you let it hurt my grandchildren…”
A chill ran through me at the threat in his eyes.
“I don’t,” I managed.
And I fled out the door.
~~~~~
Zeke was a hundred yards ahead of us by the time I made it outside, though the guards hadn’t moved. They fell in around me the moment I swam past the doorway and boxed me in on four sides.
Still shivering from the look in the old man’s eyes, I tried to ignore them. Zeke had to be right; the Sylphaen couldn’t get here. With the guards I’d seen everywhere, they’d have to bring an army just to get past the front door. And that was assuming Ren didn’t find something to change his mind out there, and maybe convince him I wasn’t a spy after all.
There were plenty of reasons not to worry, no matter what Jirral said.
Clinging to the thought, I continued on. Ina kept pace with me, still glancing back to her grandfather’s door with unhappiness lingering in her eyes.
The veil on the palace wall parted when we reached it, letting us back into the courtyard. At the door, Zeke paused, waiting for us to catch up.
“I’m going to ask Dad to put more guards around the palace,” he said, grimacing. “Ina, could you…”
“Hang out?” she offered, humor coming back into her tone.
“I’ll be fine,” I told them both, hating the feeling that I was some child they had to keep an eye on. “The guards can–”
“Oh, please,” Ina replied, her amusement strengthening. “It’ll be fun.”
She hooked her arm through mine and started toward the palace door, pulling me with her. As we swam by Zeke, she looked past me to meet his eyes, and I could see a hint of something less lighthearted tinge her gaze.
And then we were inside and the expression was gone.
“So,” Ina said. Dehaians paused around us, bowing and watching as we passed by. She ignored them. “Where are you from? No one’s told me anything beyond, you know, the weird water thing.”
I hesitated. “Kansas.”
Her brow furrowed.
“It’s one of the middle states,” I supplied.
The confusion became skepticism. “Seriously?”
I nodded, and then looked back toward the door. Zeke was nowhere to be seen.
“He’ll be fine,” Ina assured me. “So how’d you deal with being so far from the ocean?”
I shrugged.
“Did you, like, make saltwater in a bathtub or something so you could change shape or…”
I shook my head. “I never needed to. I just found out about dehaians last week.”
She paused. “Ah.”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing.”
I glanced to her. She rolled her eyes.
“Really,” she acquiesced. “It’s just… well, that explains it a bit.”
My brow furrowed incredulously. Of all the responses I’d gotten so far – including being flat-out called a liar – I hadn’t expected anyone to say that. “Explains what a bit?”
Her mouth tightened as we headed up toward the level where they’d given me a room to use. “You’re just not very… dehaian.”
I tensed. “What do you mean?”
She didn’t answer, swimming on till we reached the room. At the door, she paused, glancing to the guards. “Guys, hang out here, eh?”
Without waiting to see if they agreed, she tugged me after her into the room. On the other side of the plants, she released me and slapped a hand to a small discoloration on the stone doorframe. The leaves stilled, taking on the texture and solidity of wood.
“Let me guess,” she pronounced. “My suddenly and inexplicably conservative brother knows you’ve somehow managed to be new to all this, but in spite of that, he didn’t tell you anything about us. About what we are or what we can do.”
I gave a small shrug. The room had seemed big before, but it felt the size of a matchbox with her in it now.
The girl was like a force of nature when she wasn’t distracted by her family.
Ina sighed, rolling her eyes again as she started to swim back and forth, almost like pacing. “It’s fine. It’s obvious. I mean… maybe you’re just modest as hell or reserved or something but…”
I looked at her in confusion.
She gestured to me. “You’re so quiet. And then there’s the scale thing. I mean, you know we can do what we want with that, right? In the water, out of the water…”
At my silence, she shook her head. “Okay, listen. One, you’ve got to loosen up. Dehaians… we know how to party. It’s kind of our thing. Topside and inland? Yeah, they can be all uptight. But here?” She grinned. “Life’s too short for that. We live longer than humans, but it still is.
“And two,” she continued, “we can control these things. The scales. Out of the water, they can become like human swimsuits. Help you blend in till you can find some clothes since, you know, folks tend to frown on the whole public nudity thing, typically speaking. You can even change your feet to handle the terrain till you find shoes, because let’s face it, rocks, hot sand, and whatever just aren’t that fun. And in the water…”
She paused, and the skin of her torso changed, the vaguely tribal markings from the back of her faux-bikini suddenly growing and twisting across her stomach and arms like vines.
“You can get creative,” she said as the shapes faded back into skin. “And trust me, the boys find it all kinds of sexy.”
I could feel a blush creep across my face.
Her grin widened. “Come on, give it a shot. I mean, honestly. You look like you’re in some kind of scale apron.”
I hesitated, irritation taking the place of my embarrassment. I’d known I was dehaian for less than a week, and already I was getting criticized over their version of how I dressed?
Zeke’s sister or not, it was suddenly very hard not to start disliking her.
Ina’s eyebrow rose as she waited.
I drew a breath and attempted to concentrate on making the cream scales on my stomach change.
Nothing happened.
Ina’s brow furrowed. “Are you trying?”
“Yes,” I said, fighting to keep from snapping.
“Huh,” she commented.
“The Sylphaen gave me something. Neiphiandine.”
Her confusion faltered. “Oh. Uh, I’m sorry. I didn’t…”
“It’s fine,” I said tightly.
“Well, after that clears up then. You just think of what you want, and it’ll happen.”
I nodded for lack of any other response to give. Hopefully the neiphiandine would wear off. Sometime soon anyway.
“But still,” she said, regrouping. “You have no idea how good things are down here. Drugs or not, you can still enjoy it. And if you ever do get bored, you can always head topside once that neiphiandine goes away and just hang out there for a while. Come back when that gets boring, but meet all kinds of fun people in the meantime.” She grinned again. “Just make sure you don’t get too carried away. You wouldn’t want to slip up and make someone fall for you.”
My brow furrowed.
“Eh, magic,” she explained with a wave of her hand, as though she didn’t really want to dwell on it. “Aveluria’s what we call it. Makes things all heightened and exciting with other dehaians, but humans react to it like a drug. You get too caught up with one of them, you might lose control of it. Get them to fall for you, hard. And then that poor soul’s going to pine away, not wanting food, water, anything till they just die of longing for you. Which totally sucks, and also will get you in heaps of trouble down here, since it’s super illegal and basically murder.”
I stared
at her.
“Don’t worry,” she assured me. “You mostly have to want magic to happen for it to work. And if you’re careful and you don’t let yourself get too wrapped up with them, you’ll be fine – and so will they.”
I managed a nod.
Her grin returned. “Okay, well,” she continued, setting the topic aside. “I don’t know what you had planned, but you really should let me introduce you to some people. Show you how dehaians have fun, eh?”
“What about the guards?”
She gave the door a dismissive look. “Oh, they can come. Probably do them some good, not just floating in the hall all day.”
I hesitated. Given at least half the dehaians I’d met so far, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to get to know any more of them.
But I didn’t have a good excuse to stay.
“Alright,” I allowed.
The guards fell in around us as I followed her from the room, and they didn’t once question Ina for bringing me with her. At the massive central corridor between the many levels of the palace, she turned downward, weaving a path through the bowing servants and guards toward a wide archway on the first floor.
I slowed in shock when we reached it. Easily five stories high, the cavernous chamber beyond was lined with white marble and gold accents. Dehaians were everywhere, resting in groups on cushions on the ground or secluded in booths perched high on the walls. Lights shone far overhead, illuminating the people scattered below, while on the opposite end of the room, a woman hovered above a platform halfway up the wall as if she was on a stage.
She was singing. I could hear it, despite the buzz of myriad conversations between us, and somehow, her voice wove them all into her song. Dropping below the murmurs and then rising above them again, she seemed to anticipate every change around her and turn it into something beautiful.
I looked to Ina. She grinned. “Nice, huh? Siren song. Part of that aveluria thing I was telling you about – though unless you’ve touched someone with magic first, the vocal stuff is mostly just for show. Pretty and attractive, but won’t really do much. Touch is where it’s really powerful.”
Ina started into the room, only to pull up short as the crowd parted ahead of us.
“What?” I asked warily.
“Oh, nothing,” she replied as several nearby dehaians rose from their cushions and bowed to her. “Some people had to leave court early today, I guess.”
She drew a breath, pushing any trace of hesitation from her face, and grinned at me again. “It’s fine. But watch out for the Deiliora twins. Especially Siracha.”
Without explaining what she meant, she continued across the room, ignoring the bows and ‘your majesties’ that followed her. Surrounded by guards, I trailed after her, till we reached four dehaians reclining on multicolored cushions of woven seaweed.
“Princess!” a bronze-scaled young man exclaimed when she came close. “We were beginning to think you’d forgotten us today.”
Ina laughed as he embraced her. “Never,” she promised.
“You’ve been gone too long, your highness,” a young man with blue scales and copper hair said, rising as well and kissing her cheek.
“Tiago, you’re such a charmer,” she replied.
“Who’s your friend?” the gorgeous girl next to them asked, brushing a floating strand of her blonde hair away from her shoulder. Another girl sat to her right, obviously her twin.
I tried not to tense at the way both girls looked me over like they were running some sort of evaluation.
“Oh, come on, Siracha,” her sister said. “Haven’t you heard? This is the girl Prince Zekerian brought back from California.”
Siracha’s brow rose. “The spy?”
I glanced to Ina, hoping for help. “I’m not a spy.”
The blonde girl chuckled like I’d said something funny.
“Welcome,” the bronze-scaled young man said, his gaze running over me too, though his expression was anything but similar to the girls’. “My name is Count Velior.”
I wanted to turn around and leave.
“This is Chloe,” Ina supplied. “Not a spy. And new here. She, um, she’s from a tiny little place really far from Nyciena, and she’s hardly ever met another dehaian.”
Siracha’s red lips curved. “Country girl. How cute.”
“Be nice, Siracha,” her twin admonished. She looked to me. “You’ll have to excuse my sister. She really hoped she’d be the next girl the prince took an interest in, if you know what I mean.”
“Neria!” her sister protested.
The girl just laughed.
I looked between them all, but Ina just shook her head, Tiago was focused on Ina, and Velior hadn’t stopped watching me.
The door felt really far away.
“Have a seat,” Ina said as she sank down. Her long gunmetal tail flicked out over a few of the cushions, and her fin moved idly in the infinitesimal current. Tiago’s hand strayed over, brushing her scales, and she smiled.
Reluctantly, I joined her, keeping as far from the others as I could.
“So princess,” Tiago asked, still running his fingertips along her tail. “How was Santa Lucina? We heard that the prince had an adventure, but we’ve scarcely seen you since you came back.”
Ina smiled. “It was interesting,” she allowed. “Though not as interesting as my brother’s time there, obviously.”
“Obviously,” Velior commented.
Ina ignored him. “I did come across a nice shop, however. Brand new–”
“Princess,” Neria murmured. Her gaze twitched over, and Ina followed it.
From the other side of the room, a young man with silver scales and nearly white hair watched us.
Ina sighed. “Give me a minute.”
“You’re too nice to him,” Neria told her.
Ina tossed her a look like she agreed, but she still swam across the room. One of the guards followed her while, seeming as though he’d like to do the same, Tiago watched her go.
“That boy will get his family in such trouble if he doesn’t give up following the princess around,” Neria said. “Especially after upsetting her with that argument a few weeks back.”
“Egan’s from Teariad,” Siracha replied. “What do you expect? They’re all pea-brained romantics.”
Her sister grinned.
“So Chloe,” Velior said, still eyeing me. “We’re having a party later. You should come.”
“Please, Velior,” Siracha cut in. “She’s the prince’s girl, remember? Do give him one day to tire of his little country tryst.”
“Siracha!” Neria chastised.
“She could still come,” Velior replied with a smile. “After all, she has all night to join him in his bed.”
I blinked, heat racing up to color my cheeks. “Um, Zeke and I aren’t, uh…”
Siracha laughed, a scornful and knowing expression on her face.
I looked away, uncertain whether to be offended or embarrassed. Or both. I’d met these people five seconds ago, and already they’d concluded I was sleeping with the prince of their kingdom.
What the hell?
“E-excuse me,” I said, rising from the cushions.
“What did we say?” Siracha called.
Ignoring her, I headed for the door, and the guards moved immediately to stay near me.
Ina swam up as I reached the far side of the room. “What happened? You alright?”
I stared at her, incredulous. “Fine, except they all seem to think I’m sleeping with your brother.”
Ina paused. “Oh, they were just joking around.”
I could read the fact she’d thought it too on her face. I turned away.
“Hey,” Ina said, catching my arm.
I looked back at her.
Her face twisted with frustration. “I’m sorry, alright? Zeke’s bringing you back with him is the latest bit of gossip, and everyone just assumed…” She shrugge
d expressively.
I headed out the door.
She swam after me. “Chloe,” she called.
A guard cut me off, forcing me to stop.
Ina pulled up alongside me and waved him off.
“Come here,” she told me, gesturing to an alcove in the wall.
Without many other options, I followed her. The guards automatically formed a perimeter around us, keeping the servants and courtiers away.
“Look,” Ina sighed. “No one meant anything by it.” She paused. “Well, besides Siracha. The girl’s a snake, though of course she doesn’t let my brothers see that. And Velior just wants whatever he thinks the princes have. It’s not personal. But Zeke… he likes you, okay? I can tell. Two seconds around him and I can tell, even if for some reason he apparently hasn’t admitted it to you or himself.”
My brow furrowed. He’d never shown the least sign of that.
Ina didn’t pause. “And I’m guessing a lot of the girls who are used to getting his attention will notice it soon too, if they haven’t already. So they’re going to assume things. It’s kind of our nature. Human nature too, for that matter.”
I struggled to keep from grimacing and mostly failed.
“Don’t let it bother you,” Ina finished.
I managed a nod, though the grimace didn’t fade.
A small noise of frustration escaped her, and I followed her gaze to the silver-scaled young man. He was swimming toward us again.
“Guys?” Ina said to the guards.
One of them separated from the group and moved to intercept him.
“Let’s go to my apartment,” Ina continued to me. “Court’s boring today.”
Without waiting for a response, she swam up through the main corridor. The guards around me, I followed.
Dehaians bowed as always when she passed, but now I felt their gazes trailing us more than ever. How many knew the palace gossip?
A trio of snobbish-looking courtiers swam by, bowing to the princess and then studying me as we continued on.
I tried not to sigh. Probably all of them.
Not that it mattered, honestly. Ren’s belief I was a spy was a much more critical problem than the opinions of a bunch of dehaian busybodies.
It was just annoying.
Really annoying. Now that I watched for it, I could see courtiers whispering behind their hands as we passed, while their gazes tracked me with knowing expressions. What was it with these people? How was it that everyone just assumed, because I traveled here with Zeke, we were ‘obviously’ having sex?
