by Starla Night
“We’re leaving now,” Zara finally said. “You can keep arguing. But the army is leaving.”
Elder Veno puffed up with importance. “Queen Zara, we have not resolved the issue of—”
“Then resolve it!”
“We—”
“Augh!” She gripped her hair in her fists. “How did this city ever survive? You fight like children! Did your king shout himself hoarse? Because I feel like my chest is going to cave in!”
She turned and kicked hard for the entry and stormed out.
The males stared after her.
Then, they quickly hashed out their final concerns. Their words were more subdued; they tweaked their plan and moved to executed it.
If anything, after Zara left, they sounded somewhat sad.
Milly entwined her arms around Uvim. His embrace was filled with steady warmth and happiness. He kicked to the exit.
Outside, the Life Tree shimmered calming energy, tinkling and pure, over the bobbing city of glowing green bulbs.
Milly closed her eyes and soaked in the splendid calm. It felt like she was lying in the sunshine, floating on a raft in a pool, with nowhere to be and no responsibilities — the start of summer vacation, when the long days of freedom lasted forever.
Elan and Zara swam just ahead of them. He was trying to calm her sister.
“This is your democracy, Zara. We are trying at your request.”
“But there are so many fights. How did your king foster a productive discussion?”
“He did not.”
“Huh?”
“Zara, before you, his words were law. An elder might present his opinion. At any time, the king would silence the elder and ask for a different opinion. Or he make his own ruling alone. The time before you was silent.”
“I could use with some silence,” she said dryly, wrapped her arms around Elan, and sagged tiredly. “This is too hard.”
“It is hard for us also.”
Hmm. Maybe they needed a “now it’s your turn” speaking stick. Or parliamentary procedure. Hadn’t Jen been a high school club president?
Jen and Sydney were taking their daily swim around periphery of the castles. They liked to get out together — they used to walk together around a mall and at a park.
The elders spilled out of the king’s castle and into the main square, still arguing.
Elder Veno, as usual, was loudest. “No, you must yield!”
Zara jolted.
Elan laid a calming hand on her back.
“We are not prepared to reign in a wild, multi-armed, giant cave guardian. If it turns against us then we will be the ones destroyed and scattered,” Elder Veno told his head-shaking adversaries.
Zara turned and fumed. “Will you all shut up?”
They stopped abruptly, stunned by her outburst.
“We’re not summoning a giant cave guardian unless it’s a last resort. For the last time!”
Elan tried to draw her back into his arms. “Zara—”
“I can’t take this any more!” She swam away in a huff.
Elan nodded respectfully to the elders and swam after his wife.
The elders closed in on themselves. Especially elder Veno. He scratched at an old scar just below his rib cage. It made his shoulders hunch in. Defensive.
Milly understood Zara’s frustration. If not for Zara policing the warriors, Milly would never have been able to share her idea.
But Zara was still their queen. And it hurt to be disciplined by a figure they respected.
Milly released Uvim and swam to the elders. “Elder Veno.”
He stiffened, clamping down his hurt as he forced himself to face her. “Queen Milly?”
“Thank you for asking difficult questions.”
His jaw dropped. “You thank me?”
“You’re our ‘devil’s advocate’ who asks the hard questions to make sure we’ve thought of everything. I know you’re only protecting our warriors. So, for caring deeply, thank you.”
He pulled in his abdomen, pushed back his shoulders, and puffed out his chest. “Yes, Queen Milly. You are welcome.”
Good. He no longer looked like he’d been kicked.
She nodded to the other elders as well and swam to Uvim.
Elder Veno turned to the other. “Our queens are leaving the city. We must dispatch our warriors.”
All harmonized and raced to execute their orders.
Uvim nuzzled her gently. “I also must gather my warriors.”
“I’ll meet you at the edge of the city.”
He hesitated.
“Yes?” she prompted.
Since his speech introducing the mer — and accidentally convincing hundreds of humans to work together to free their harbor of deadly dynamite — he did not often hold back his thoughts. The fears that had once forced him silent had been excised.
But now, he was simply trying to phrase his thoughts carefully. “You understand many things without anyone having to explain.”
She grinned. “I’m sure it’s because I have a patient, thoughtful husband who’ll reward me when I take the time to listen.”
His smile softened. Love shone in his intense amethyst-threaded green eyes. “Again. You understand much.”
“I can’t wait for you to reward me later.”
He treated her with a sweet, solemn kiss.
Then, he left her to gather his warriors.
She kicked through the city, her long fins fluttering behind her like a wedding veil.
It was awesome living in this undersea world. The castles floated like giant balloons above a living “jungle” of coral below. All fed on the Life Tree’s radiant energy.
Tons of fish darted all around. Mostly pelagics, but because of the coral, a large volume that would normally live up in shallow, warm coastal regions.
Warriors kept away any dangerous predators. Larger fish, even ones that wouldn’t be dangerous, could cause accidental damage by their size.
This was her life now. This was her town, her roads, her neighbors.
People listened to her ideas. They nodded in respect.
The Azores had been her home. But here was her family.
Overall it was pretty rocking.
Zara and Elan waited at the edge of the city. They were joined by Jen and Sydney, city girls from Boston who were consistently cheerful about their surprise change of circumstance.
“Road trip!” Sydney said. “I call shotgun.”
Zara treated her to raised brows. “Shotgun?”
The warriors were confused.
“We do not have that human weapon here,” Sydney’s brawny husband Xalu said. “And it would not operate effectively in a combat situation.”
She laughed and tackled him in a hug. “Have I told you lately that you’re my favorite?”
He accepted her snuggly kisses. “Favorite what?”
“Everything.”
“No, you have not told me this.”
She grinned. “I better get started. Right, Jen?”
Jen didn’t reply because she was tightly pressed to Dosan. Kissing was really the only way to silence the otherwise sarcastic, opinionated sapphire warrior.
Uvim told her that the city had been much lightened since she, Jen, and Sydney had come. The city was more protected and hopeful since Zara had thrown off the tyrannical rule of the traditionalist All-Council, but everyday living was now more light-hearted. He saw more smiles between warriors, heard more laughter in the castles, and the elders had started to tell happier stories in addition to the depressing cautionary tales of losses and defeats.
That was why the city’s treatment of the Newas hunting party was so important.
The small band camped on the very edge of Dragao Azul territory — but they were clearly inside the boundary. Uvim had assured her no warrior mistook the boundaries of another city.
Having encroached, what was their plan? They had not sent any peaceful warrior to talk. And they had shied away from meeting any individuals.
Did they intend violence? Or did they have another intention?
Now, they would find out.
The army set out. Along the way, Xalu and Sydney veered off with a small contingent of protective warriors on their own secret mission.
The rest continued directly toward the mysterious hunting party.
The farther Milly traveled from the Life Tree, the more barren the ocean became. Little life was possible at these extreme depths. Cold tension in the water made it harder to move through and gave the water a “wooly” texture.
Darkness did not bother her. Light or dark, she saw almost an infinite distance. Down here, the infinite distance had less life, and therefore less music, than on the surface, housing one big concerto of singing fish and ocean life.
The small hunting party emerged with tridents long before they got anywhere near close enough to do anything. The band of warriors also saw their army.
The hunting party gathered together.
“Not violent,” Uvim told Milly, kicking together with her while his warriors came behind him. “They are cautious. They are not looking for other warriors. Perhaps they truly are a hunting party.”
“We’ll find out.”
They flew to the barren rise housing the foreign warriors.
They camped at the edge of a long, deep crevasse marked with symbols.
Keep off Dragao Azul’s lawn, probably.
The hunting party huddled as Dragao Azul’s army spread across the hilly, barren plain. Uvim, Dosan, Elan, and their three queens swam forward to parlay.
The hunting party sent one warrior forward, but he only kicked a few strokes.
Uvim tensed. “Reticence to leave the party could indicate a trap.”
“Or he could be terrified,” she murmured.
Zara kicked forward, completely unafraid. “Hey. You’re camping on Dragao Azul territory. Why?”
The hunting party and their designated speaker all stared at her like she’d sprouted two heads.
Then, they looked past her to a familiar face.
The Newas speaker focused on Elan, floating behind Zara with a deadly trident. “You are the First Lieutenant?”
He briefly inclined his head and jerked his chin in his wife’s direction. “My queen asked you a question.”
“But you are First Lieutenant.”
He shrugged. However the conversation was supposed to go, he didn’t care and he wasn’t going to make things normal or easy on the invaders.
The Newas speaker looked behind him at the other four warriors from his city. He faced Zara finally and swallowed. “You are a … a queen?”
“That’s what they tell me.”
He squinted at Milly and Jen.
Milly released Uvim and turned to face the warrior. Jen disentangled from Dosan and did the same.
The Newas speaker blinked, frowned, and stared harder.
For the first time since she’d stuffed her clothes in a cave in Horta harbor, Milly moved to cover her nipples and thatch. For the first time since she’d shifted to mer, she was conscious of being naked.
Utterly naked.
Everybody was.
Tattoos swirled all over the warriors’ nude bodies, even around their cocks swinging, loose and relaxed, in the currents.
It was funny that she’d barely noticed. It wasn’t like skinny dipping in a giant nudist colony. She’d never averted her eyes — until now, when a foreign warrior made her suddenly conscious of her state.
Being naked didn’t have the same meaning as it did on the shore. Like, when one culture found bare wrists seductive, but nobody else notice or cared when they wore short sleeves. It was like that times a thousand. She didn’t have to remind herself not to look at all the cocks, butts, or even bare pectorals. She didn’t see them at all.
Huh. She didn’t realize her vision was blurred except at a time like right now, when another warrior was obviously trying to identify her sex. He couldn’t tell unless he squinted.
Ha!
“Three queens,” the Newas speaker breathed. Which was impressive since he was immersed in water and vibrating words in his chest cavity, not actually speaking.
“Four, actually.” Zara pointed.
In the far distance, the horrible screech of a hundred cars braked in unison.
The noise surely originated from the blue tentacles mass of the giant cave guardian.
The hunting party hunched in.
Dragao Azul’s warriors fiddled restlessly.
Uvim rumbled. “Steady.”
His warriors resumed formation.
The midnight blue giant cave guardian approached.
Sydney and Xalu led the way.
“Hi!” She greeted the army cheerily. “Am I late?”
“Right on time,” Jen said.
“Great! Let me introduce you to my very special friend. Captain Morgan!”
The huge blue octopus waved his tentacles. He seemed to be younger and perhaps less controlled than either Milly’s good friend Clifford or the giant cave guardian Jen had befriended on the other end of Dragao Azul’s territory, a sweet female named Bubbles.
Captain Morgan zoomed over the army, zigging and zagging erratically.
The warriors flattened, tridents raised like defensive spikes.
Captain Morgan disappeared over the cliff. A short time later they heard a bellow.
“What was that?” she gasped.
“A sperm whale,” Uvim said quietly.
The Newas warriors clung to each other in terror.
“Oh well, Captain Morgan had to run.” Sydney shrugged and laughed. “I guess if we need him, I’ll just call him back.”
Their speaker shuddered from the mass. “You are friends with a giant cave guardian?”
“He’s my friend. Milly and Jen have theirs.” She turned to Zara. “We really have to find you one.”
“I don’t have time to cultivate a relationship with a large octopode.”
“But they’re so sweet.”
“I’ve got Zain, the lost brides, and my other projects. Which brings us to today’s waste of time.” Zara faced the stunned hunting party “Why are you here?”
The spokesperson’s lips flapped.
Another warrior — younger and braver, maybe — broke from the group and pushed the spokesperson forward like a shield. He spoke from behind. “We are hunting.”
“The ocean is large. Fish are everywhere.”
“We…” He looked wildly at the helpless warriors behind him. “There is a migration … a very important migration of fish … from our history…”
“And you chased that important fish from your history out of your territory, across half the ocean, and into Dragao Azul’s territory weeks ago.”
The warriors looked at each other. Zara clearly wasn’t buying their story but clearly it was all they had.
“Yes,” the bravest one declared. While hiding behind the struck-dumb speaker.
Zara looked at Elan.
He did not give her any signal about what to do.
She looked at Milly.
Time for the next phase of their plan.
“Well, you are a long way from your territory and it seems you were unsuccessful at catching your fish,” Milly said.
The Newas warriors didn’t respond to that observation.
“Maybe we can help? Uvim.”
Uvim ordered his warriors forward. Two swam toward the Newas warriors carrying a box.
The Newas warriors braced.
Milly spread her arms in welcome. “Please enjoy the leftovers of our triple wedding feast.”
Uvim’s warriors deposited the travel crate in front of the hunting party.
Giving away food was not the mer way. They had all faced starvation. The thought of giving away their most precious wedding celebration meat — aged to perfection, flavored like the richest steak with buttery mushrooms and thick slices of shiitake all rolled into one food that set her mouth water in memory — had nearly c
aused the elders to throw the one who had suggested it through a wall.
But Milly liked this tweak to her idea. And the king had liked it very much too. His approval had finally convinced them.
Their generosity flaunted their wealth and stability.
Dragao Azul had thrown off the All-Council and they were not starving. They were not plunged into chaos, turned into savages, vulnerable to any warring city hungry for conquest.
No, they thrived so fully they could give away celebration meat to a simple, ragged hunting party .
“Even if you do give away the last of the meat,” Milly had said, “you’ll just go out and hunt more now. Won’t you? We’ll help.”
And it had struck the warriors that for the first time in many years — half a generation or longer — they actually could leave the city with only the queens for protection and conduct a proper hunt. Or some queens could replace warriors, giving them additional strength, while others remained behind, giving them protection. Anything was possible.
Their city was stronger. Their lives were better. And they could be so generous as to give away a partially-eaten crates of celebration meat.
The Dragao Azul warriors deposited the crate and returned to their controlled positions in Uvim’s army.
The hunting party didn’t trust her gift. The others held back while one crept forward and cautiously opened it. His mouth widened and his shoulders sagged. His eyes blinked.
The others hissed at him to say what was inside.
He blinked as if the chest were full of gold bars and diamonds. Like he’d never seen such wealth in his life and he was frightened to touch it.
The others finally couldn’t control their curiosity, crept up beside him and looked. Their reactions mirrored his. Complete, unguarded amazement.
“It’s delicious,” Milly said.
They stared at the box like they couldn’t look away. Like, if they looked away, it would disappear.
“And it’s certainly enough to see you all back to Newas,” Zara said pointedly. “Why don’t you set off? Right now.”
Her tone snapped them out of their shock. The Newas hunting party carefully gathered up the crate and their camp, watching their backs and their fronts and above and below as though expecting a surprise attack. They eased toward the cliff, dragging their weapons and woven seaweed and tools. They obeyed Zara’s suggestion and broke camp.
