“Did you find her yet?” he asked, slowly and carefully forming the words in sign language. He did not yet have much confidence in speaking with his hands.
“No,” Aazuria said, shaking her head. “I am going to check the labyrinth. She could have gotten lost in any of the intricate channels of caves under the Aleutian Islands.”
“Wait, Zuri,” he signed. He frowned as he moved his thumbs and forefingers, trying to remember all the correct hand formations. “If I understand correctly, these caves stretch out for hundreds of miles… you can’t possibly cover all that ground swimming with your injured shoulder! My great-aunt Sionna sent me to tell you that you have to take it easy, and spend some time resting in the infirmary. She seems like she really knows what she’s doing.”
“I have rested enough. I must find Corallyn,” Aazuria insisted, swallowing. She reached up to touch her shoulder gingerly. She felt extreme embarrassment and growing annoyance at the fact that Koraline Kolarevic, the woman who had called herself Atargatis, had managed to stab her in the same location twice. The first time had been with a javelin that had gone clean through her shoulder; Trevain had saved her life by pushing her to the side just in time, or it would have pierced her heart. The second time was in hand-to-hand combat.
“Your bleeding hasn’t even stopped,” Trevain pointed out, grimacing at her darkened bandages. The blood that had dried on the cloth in the air had not completely washed out in the water. He reached out with his thumb to caress her skin very close to the wound, and he frowned when she winced. “If this gets…” He paused, not knowing the signal for ‘infected.’ He tried to substitute a word. “If this gets dirty, it could get worse and you could lose your whole arm…”
“I will be fine. Sionna gave me a tetanus shot when I was stabbed the first time,” Aazuria quickly signed to him as she moved through the caves.
He followed her, confused. “Tetanus?” he asked, imitating the hand signal she had formed. “I’m not sure what that is, could you spell it out for me?”
“I need to hurry. I am going to pass by the kitchens and collect some basic food to sustain me while I search for her. Can you go to the palace and organize the military to help me search? Your grandmother is drunk, or I would ask you to go to her.”
Trevain felt nervous as he tried to make sense of her rapid hand motions. “You want me to organize your military? Why would they listen to me?”
“They will. Go at once.” Aazuria continued swimming through the caves, with long pieces of her dark green dress trailing behind her.
Trevain ignored her command and swam to block her path. He moved his hands in a series of gestures. “I’m not letting you go off on your own, wounded and emotional. What if you get lost? Rash decisions could make this even worse. Is there a map? Let me come with you.”
“I will not get lost,” she responded, trying to swim around him. “I have lived here for centuries. I used to play in these caves when I was Corallyn’s age.”
“Aazuria!” he responded. “You’re not thinking rationally. We need to weigh our options. What if Coral went back to land? She could be at my house right now. You remember how fond she was of the internet and television.”
“This is true,” Aazuria conceded. Her hands paused for a second in fear. “Oh, Trevain. I am so worried about her. Could you send Naclana to check and see if she is at your home?”
Naclana was Aazuria’s distant cousin, who served as her messenger. Trevain shook his head. “I am just as concerned about her safety as you are, but rushing off alone into miles of dark caves isn’t going to help the situation. Aazuria, come back to the palace and let’s find Naclana and tell him together…”
“No. If you will not help me, I shall help myself.” Aazuria swam around him, rushing past him in a fraction of a second. All he saw was a blur of green and white. He turned, and immediately swam after her, but he could not catch up for several minutes.
By the time he was close enough to speak to her, she had already arrived at the waterless caves in which food was prepared. He was surprised by the true extent of her athleticism, and her tolerance for pain. He could not believe that she could move at all with her injured shoulder. He entered the room after her and climbed the carved stairs just in time to see the cooks saluting and bowing to her.
“I need basic provisions for a trek into the caves. In a watertight bag.”
“Yes, Princess Aazuria.”
“My youngest sister Corallyn is missing. Can you please pass my orders to the castle guard to dispatch a search party? Also, if you could tell Naclana…”
“Aazuria,” Trevain interrupted. “Please. You need to think twice about this.”
“Listen, Trevain,” she said, turning upon him with a hard look in her eyes. “This is not up for discussion. My sister could be…”
“Princess!” shouted a male voice.
Aazuria was surprised and turned to see her cousin entering the room, dripping wet. “Naclana. Just the person I wanted to see…”
“Corallyn has been abducted,” Naclana gasped, as he tried to catch his breath.
Aazuria stared at him for a moment, blankly.
Trevain felt fleeting disbelief. He almost wanted to smile as though it were some sort of joke, but he could see that the messenger was serious. Naclana had always given him the creeps, and now he imagined that he knew why. The man’s very presence was a harbinger of danger and disaster. It was painted permanently in the shadows of his grave, heavy expression.
“We just received a ransom note,” Naclana said, straightening his posture and giving a half-hearted version of the appropriate salute to his cousin. “From the Clan of Zalcan.”
Murmurs of horror rose up from the kitchen staff. Trevain moved to his fiancé’s side, and wrapped his arms around her. Aazuria felt the urge to lean against him for support and shut her eyes tightly, but she could not do this with everyone watching. She could not do this at all. The moment she allowed herself to show her weakness, even to herself, it would overcome her and she would lose her composure. She knew that if she had been paying closer attention to Corallyn’s whereabouts after the battle, this would not have happened.
“What do they want?” Trevain asked Naclana. “They aim to exchange her for something?”
Aazuria twitched, moving suddenly out of her frozen state. “That’s right. A ransom. All is not lost. Anything they want—I will give it to them.”
Naclana cleared his throat. “The note was written in Corallyn’s blood. Would you like me to read it, Princess?” When Aazuria nodded. He reached into his vest and withdrew a metal cylinder. He uncorked it and pulled out the heavy paper. The demands had been penned in elegant crimson calligraphy.
When the women on the kitchen staff began to cry, Aazuria lifted her hand, and tried to speak soothingly. “It is just meant to scare us. Do not worry—whatever is requested shall be given. She shall be returned safely. Whatever price is stipulated shall be paid.”
Naclana hated his job. He cleared his throat again before reading:
“Dear Administrators of Adlivun…”
Aazuria did not realize that she was clenching Trevain’s hand tightly, or that her palms had become very sweaty. Administrators! The person writing the note had been exceptionally sadistic if they had chosen to bleed her sister for such long, unnecessary wording. Every syllable had caused Corallyn anguish. Every syllable ignited vengeful anger within Aazuria.
Naclana swallowed before he continued reading:
“Fine weather for this time of year in Alaska, is it not?”
“Vachlan!” Aazuria shouted, ripping herself away from Trevain to drive her knuckles into the solid rock wall of the kitchen. “Only he! Only he would…”
“Shhhh,” Trevain said, catching Aazuria’s small wrist and gently rubbing it to soothe her. He could feel that all of her tendons and muscles had grown extremely taut with her rage. He knew that the rest of the note did not matter; Aazuria would not let this man live. If she ever
found the opportunity (and he knew that she would seek it relentlessly) she would gut this man, as she had gutted his predecessor, Atargatis.
Unless, of course, Trevain got his own hands on him first. Trevain had never killed before, but as he imagined Vachlan using an inkwell of young Corallyn’s blood to write this note, he suddenly knew that he was capable of it. Corallyn was his sister too.
Naclana struggled to keep his own voice even as he read the note. “Deliver my wife to me at Zimovia by noon Sunday, or I will drain every drop of blood coursing through the veins of this lovely little girl. I will then proceed to write volumes of vicious letters to General Ramaris with my new ink. She will know that little Corallyn Vellamo’s death is on her hands. I shall continue in this fashion of persuasion until you are ultimately persuaded. With Immeasurable Sincerity, Vachlan Suchos.”
There was a silence in the room. The temperature of the atmosphere seemed to have quite suddenly fallen by several degrees. The only movement was the blood dripping from Aazuria’s knuckles. The gentle gurgling noise of a stew beginning to boil along with the sizzling of a dish which was ready to be pulled from the stone oven interrupted the silence.
“So he wants Visola?” Aazuria asked in a poisonous whisper. “Over my breathless body.”
Novels by Nadia Scrieva:
Sacred Breath Series
Book #1: Drowning Mermaids
Book #2: Fathoms of Forgiveness
Book #3: Boundless Sea
Thirty Minutes to Heartbreak
Book #1: Paramount
Book #2: Parabellum
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nadia Scrieva lives in Toronto, Canada with no husband, no kids, and no pets. She does own a very attractive houseplant which she occasionally remembers to water between her all-consuming writing marathons.
www.NadiaScrieva.com
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Change in the Seas
Chapter 2: She Danced Power
Chapter 3: Wealth of Emotion
Chapter 4: Witness Her Being
Chapter 5: A Good Man
Chapter 6: The Captain’s Manor
Chapter 7: A Fiery Fisherwoman
Chapter 8: I Remember 1741
Chapter 9: We Have Been Decimated
Chapter 10: Homo sapiens marinus
Chapter 11: Floating in Stability
Chapter 12: The Baobab Bonsai
Chapter 13: American Sign Language
Chapter 14: Raine and Storm
Chapter 15: Brynne’s Bad News
Chapter 16: The Fall of Bimini
Chapter 17: Come Home Immediately
Chapter 18: It Never Snows, but it Blizzards
Chapter 19: Eternal Asphyxiation
Chapter 20: Atargatis is Coming
Chapter 21: Immerse your Body
Chapter 22: In Moist Despair
Chapter 23: Take the Twins
Chapter 24: A Million Reasons
Chapter 25: Three Against Thirty
Chapter 26: Diplomacy Never Works
Chapter 27: Aquatic Guardian Angel
Chapter 28: Freewheeling Through Space
Chapter 29: Gold Unicorn Trident
Chapter 30: Visiting Alice Murphy
Chapter 31: Terrestrially-Challenged
Chapter 32: My Little Girl
Chapter 33: Love is Worthless
Chapter 34: A Stranger’s Kindness
Chapter 35: Murder in the Mausoleum
Chapter 36: Any Sane Person
Chapter 37: Outnumbered and Outmaneuvered
Chapter 38: Unfamiliar Ultramarine Orbs
Chapter 39: Who Gets to Kill Atargatis
Chapter 40: Just One Single Breath
Chapter 1: Tremendously Effective Threatening
Chapter 2: My Boat Exploded
Chapter 3: Napoleon of the Undersea
Chapter 4: Elegant Crimson Calligraphy
Drowning Mermaids Page 35
