Secrets of the Sea Lord

by Starla Night

  Faier, miraculously, remained conscious. Falling on the end of his line, being dragged, and waking up again, his aura fluctuated as he faded.

  He didn’t deserve this.

  Had he drugged her? She had trusted him. The question tore at her heart.

  And what of her own aura?

  Emotions colored her aura with horror, worry, and relief.

  Relief?

  Yes, relief. The inevitable had happened. The prophecy she’d tried to avoid, the fate she’d run from full speed, had caught her like a rogue wave. Now, she tumbled in its fury.

  But if she were here voluntarily it would be kind of adventurous.

  The craggy mountains and valleys of the ocean bottom passed by her eyes. Mass crab migrations, clouds of flounder, long ribbons of eels, and hundreds of strange and wondrous creatures exhilarated her. A distant octopus the size of Lifet’s yacht gurgled eardrum-scratching noises as it traversed the sea floor. The ocean was well lit. She saw—and heard— animals and rocks for miles. It was almost fun.

  So long as she and Faier didn’t die…

  New warriors emerged from the distance and greeted their party. They called out in their language. Far on the horizon, a tiny pinprick gleamed like a distant sun in the noonday sky.

  The warriors aimed for it.

  “Is that…?” she asked.

  “Aiycaya,” King Kayo confirmed proudly. “The Life Tree. Welcome to your new home, my sacred bride.”

  The Aiycaya Life Tree glowed brilliantly. Beneath it, the ground was colorful and full of life—fish, coral, floating sponges; an undersea forest thickening with vibrancy as they approached its epicenter. With the explosion of life came a matching explosion of music from their gleaming souls.

  The mer city was embedded in the ocean floor like a giant submerged candelabra. Each sphere was a massive green bulb anchored to the seafloor by a long, slender column. They grew in concentric circles.

  In the center arose the thickest and most magnificent column. It ended in a bulb that had burst open, petals wide, to reveal a dais holding the pure, holy, white Life Tree.

  It produced the light that the city and ocean used for growing.

  King Kayo reached the first line of spheres.

  Mer flowed in and out of the entrance holes, and she suddenly realized the scale. The spheres were ancient and huge. Apartment-building tall. As they continued through to the inner circles, the spheres grew larger and more impressive. They passed a strip-mall-sized palace closest to the Life Tree.

  “My castle,” King Kayo announced. “You will never leave it.”

  So, it was to be her prison. At least her prison would be large…

  He rounded the curve.

  A pure, holy silence fell over the city. No fish souls or warriors’ shouts disturbed the heart-calming peace. It muffled all the sounds. The stillness was acute but comforting, like the way sound was muffled on foglit winter evenings when houses glowed with warmth and empty roads were blanketed by freshly fallen snow.

  Harmony expected to squint like looking into the sun. But the leafless, white, winter oak was pearly and gentle on her eyes. Its branches stretched toward the surface, bare and dormant, waiting for spring. It rested on mounds of pearls. Those same pearls dripped from the tree’s crevices, hardened, and tumbled to the dais with tender clinks.

  Sea Opals. Hundreds and hundreds of massive, healing Sea Opals.

  New warriors relieved Xarin of the king’s trophies. They took the crocodile to display and dragged Faier away from the Life Tree to the distant ocean floor.

  She watched him go helplessly.

  Faier had a better color. Still wrecked and pained, but maybe, just maybe, he’d survive.

  Until the judgment…

  Chapter Thirteen

  Faier was not dead.

  For the umpteenth time in his life, he reflected on that fact with surprise.

  An undersea volcano had destroyed his city. Raiders had disfigured him to the point that the Rusalka elders had not believed he would recover. Different raiders had snuck into Atlantis and attacked by surprise. He had escaped the jaws of an ancient megalodon.

  He rubbed the bite marks on his forearms.

  His punctured jaw ached.

  But nothing like the gaping pain in his side.

  The Aiycaya warriors brought him to a prison below the city. Spiky coral enclosed barren rock. Outside, the deep sea forest grew wild and untamed.

  Xarin positioned himself outside. One lone guard. The rest ascended to watch the king marry Harmony.

  Faier’s heart hardened to stone.

  He must have healed. Imagining her marriage agonized him more than his torn side.

  Harmony did not wish to belong to any warrior. He almost tasted her terror. Yet she had sacrificed herself to save him.

  He would give anything to return to the time when she’d been safe.

  No.

  He would save Harmony. He would return her to her beloved Council Bluffs.

  No matter what.

  Chiba returned with an elder bearing coral-pink tattoos, and Xarin led him into the prison. “Healer Hobin. Faier is here.”

  “Faier, eh? So, he still has a name.” Healer Hobin knelt on the barren rock and unrolled his woven seaweed bag. “He is bound! Let me cut these bindings…”

  The bindings fell away. Blood flowed into Faier’s arms with needle-sharp pains. He flexed his wrists and his fingers. Newfound freedom…

  Xarin watched him. Faier, not the healer. And when he noticed Faier’s returned gaze, Xarin changed his grip on the trident to let Faier know that if he moved, Xarin would stab him through the heart, and this time, his injury would be fatal.

  Faier rested his hands on his knees. Palms up. Surrender.

  For now.

  Chiba twisted his trident restlessly. It slipped through his nervous fingers and clanked against the rock.

  Faier watched it.

  Xarin watched him.

  Chiba grabbed the trident and straightened. Then, he again tossed the metal back and forth between his hands.

  Xarin snapped, “Chiba.”

  The pineapple-yellow warrior stiffened. “Second Lieutenant.”

  “Guard the entrance.”

  “Sir.”

  Hobin removed the seaweed binding Faier’s injury. “Be strong, exile. This will hurt.”

  Faier had been through this before. He tensed.

  Balim had always rolled his eyes with a sarcastic “What heroic idiocy have you performed this time?” He’d been unable to joke when he’d visited Faier on the surface to conduct his last examination. That was how Faier had known he’d worried King Kadir. He’d disappointed Balim too—

  Pain lanced his abdomen a second time.

  He grunted. It was not as horrible as Harmony’s screams. He’d survive.

  “Hmm.” Healer Hobin probed the injury. His fingers caused new slices of agony. “This happened on the surface? And you traveled here?”

  Faier gritted his teeth to endure.

  Xarin answered, “Yes.”

  “Hmm,” Healer Hobin muttered to himself. “Closed up already. Unusual healing in an exile.”

  “Hobin.” Xarin switched to the tribal bride language of their sacred brides to prevent Faier from understanding. “Na alu la nu oo a alu?”

  “No, he most likely is an exile. Look at these scars.” Healer Hobin continued speaking in English, not apparently noticing the language shift, as he traced the deep stitching across Faier’s right calf. “These are old. Only an exile with no Life Tree will have such old scars. But his new injuries are healing. These slashes across his chest—a crocodile’s claws—are days old and yet they are disappearing into his skin. And this stab wound… Sap is active in these wounds. A Life Tree is healing him.”

  “Which?” Xarin asked.

  “I cannot say. It is strange. Perhaps a new Life Tree has just now accepted him.”

  Xarin focused on Faier for a long moment. His eyes narrowed. �
��Our Life Tree?”

  “No. It happened a short time before he fought you.”

  “How could he journey so swiftly from another Life Tree?”

  “It is strange,” Healer Hobin agreed. “Well, Exile Faier? How do you explain your injuries?”

  There was only one explanation. But it made no sense.

  Somehow, after Harmony had kissed him for the second time, the Atlantis Life Tree had activated. It now healed his wounds. But only his newest wounds. That was strange.

  If true, Harmony was his bride. The healing proved it.

  And yet she married another.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Harmony waited to marry King Kayo.

  The headache that had been stabbing her temples since the storm abated. Her stomach growled.

  She was coming to life.

  Just in time to lose Faier and everything.

  King Kayo swam to the edge of the dais and released her. “Now, we marry. Elder Wida! Where is the Life Tree blossom that will bind my sacred bride to me for eternity?”

  A large, bald elder decorated with bone-white tattoos rumbled in a deep voice, “It has not yet grown, my king.”

  “Ah. Yes. We will marry, and then it will grow.”

  “For certain.”

  “Call all warriors to attend the ceremony.”

  “Yes, my king.”

  “King Kayo.” A much older, bony warrior with thin, pinched cheeks and a narrow nose bowed. “You have returned successfully. I cannot believe it.”

  “Elder Bawa.” King Kayo puffed out his chest. “This is my sacred bride.”

  “After so many years. What an honor.” The elder bowed to her. His muted orange tattoos were thick and intricate. “Ana l’ai o pu ala na la.”

  “She speaks English.”

  “English?” Elder Bawa blinked and frowned. “But, my king… No l’ai ana so la una ee.”

  “English,” he confirmed. “And yes, I am certain she is a sacred bride. She was on the sacred island. I defeated the exile who had already transformed her, and I killed a deadly crocodile. See my trophy?”

  Other warriors clustered around the crocodile corpse, examined his trident stab, and picked off a few pesky crustaceans.

  Elder Bawa barely glanced at it. “Already transformed her? Then, you did not feed her elixir yourself?”

  “We had none.”

  “None? The other islands—”

  “Yes, we went to the seven ancient sacred islands you requested. No humans have lived on any for decades or centuries. We found nothing.”

  “And yet, she had transformed already…”

  “How lucky the exile fed his elixir to her first.”

  “Lucky? But my king! Her soul resonates with him now.”

  “Yes, for now. But that will soon change.”

  Elder Bawa’s aura darkened to burnt orange in agitation. “Are you certain she is a sacred bride?”

  King Kayo, still beaming at his accomplishments, tilted his head. “What other female would I find transformed within the sea?”

  The elder’s mouth flapped. His aura darkened and lightened again. “There is a…rumor…that a rebel city…perhaps…contacted modern females.”

  “Modern females? What are they?”

  “Females who do not dwell on a sacred island. They dwell elsewhere on the surface.” The elder made an impatient noise. “On land.”

  King Kayo’s smile slipped to shock. “Exposing mer to mainland humans violates the ancient covenant.”

  “Yes, well, that is why they are rebels.”

  “So, females on the mainland wish to become our brides? How many?”

  “No, do not imagine. They are anathema. The ancient covenant forbids them.” Elder Bawa harrumphed and straightened the daggers dangling from his biceps. “But if you did not transform her, perhaps she is a modern female transformed by a rebel to trick you.”

  King Kayo shook his head.

  “Yes, my king, it is a real possibility. She could have transformed in Atlantis or…or Sireno and swum across the—”

  “She cannot swim.”

  “That is more reason she may be—”

  “She is my sacred bride.”

  “But—”

  “You will not deny my right as king.”

  “No, but you cannot risk our status with the All-Council.”

  “I have done nothing wrong.”

  “She could be dangerous, my king. Rebel females are demanding and…well, she could…er, she could be a dangerous—er, danger.”

  “A dangerous danger?” King Kayo regarded him skeptically. “Speak what you mean.”

  “It is nothing, my king. A slip. A rumor.”

  “And?”

  “Some modern females have…eh…used weapons against their kings.”

  “She cannot lift a trident.”

  “Not ordinary weapons.”

  “Explain.”

  “Ah…it is difficult to… City-disrupting weapons. One modern female killed the Sireno Life Tree.”

  “Sireno still stands.”

  “A new Life Tree was planted.”

  “Hmm. What human weapon did she wield?”

  “She used no human weapon. She…eh…”

  “Elder Bawa, I grow tired of your hesitation. Explain yourself succinctly. Is my sacred bride a threat to the city and our Life Tree? And if so, why?”

  Elder Bawa eyed Harmony.

  She hugged her elbows.

  He frowned greatly. “Eh…it is a rumor only. Nothing to concern yourself with, my king.”

  “Then I shall not concern myself.” King Kayo turned his back on the elder.

  Elder Bawa glared at Harmony.

  She shrank away from him.

  “Elder Yane!” King Kayo waved to an elder with sunstar-yellow tattoos arriving with a phalanx of warriors. “Has everyone gathered for the ceremony?”

  “Almost, my king.”

  “Come look at this crocodile! It dared to threaten my bride.” He glanced sideways at the irritated Elder Bawa. “I let nothing threaten what is mine.”

  Elder Bawa held his gaze for a long moment.

  Warriors gathered to congratulate the king and admire his trophy. King Kayo returned their congratulations with kind cheer. Although he was young, his warriors regarded him with affection and respect. He ruled happily here.

  But danger lurked in high places.

  Lifet would have made his people speak so he understood. King Kayo didn’t seem interested. Elder Bawa and his favorite lieutenant, Tibe, got away with too much.

  There was still purity in King Kayo’s aura that could be saved.

  If she tried…

  Elder Bawa drifted to the back of the crowd and sidled close to First Lieutenant Tibe. His words were difficult to hear over the chattering, but it helped that the elder forgot and spoke in English.

  “How dare you allow the king to return with this strange female?” Elder Bawa demanded of Tibe. “She may be a rebel queen.”

  “How should I know what she is?” Tibe returned coldly.

  “This is why I told you not to allow any exiles. And yet you have returned with one. And a strange female! Who knows what they will tell King—” Elder Bawa caught Harmony’s eye across the crowd, startled, and hunched away from her. “Na ala ta ailu kor, Tibe.”

  First Lieutenant Tibe’s cold gaze swept over her. He answered in his language. But the cryptic words gave her a chill.

  I will take care of it. That’s what it seemed like he said. She didn’t actually understand the tribal words, but his tone and body language gave her no doubt.

  He was ruthless. Efficient. Brutal.

  Fear lanced her.

  King Kayo thought she was a sacred bride, but Harmony and Faier knew she wasn’t. What would happen when King Kayo found out the truth?

  She’d thought the worst was behind her, but she’d been so wrong.

  The worst was just unfolding.

  “My sacred bride. Come.” King Kayo
clasped Harmony’s hand and tugged her across the mounds of Sea Opals toward the trunk of the Life Tree. His eyes flashed with excitement. “We marry now.”

  We marry now.

  Harmony followed King Kayo across the smooth, tinkling pearls.

  She had to marry him, or else he would know she wasn’t a sacred bride.

  He would know and…

  What? She would die?

  Harmony swallowed.

  Where was Faier? Had they taken him to the doctor? Was he getting medical treatment and food and water?

  She would give anything to have him beside her, holding her hand, telling her in his calm way that everything would be all right. Or, if it wasn’t, then being stoic because he wouldn’t lie.

  Except when he’d drugged her.

  Had he?

  If he hadn’t, who had? And when?

  She couldn’t suspect Faier. They had been through too much. He had saved her. And his aura was good and gentle and noble and enticing. He lit her soul on fire and he urged her to make her own choices and he unshackled her to be the powerful woman she’d once been. He lifted her up from the darkness and showed her sunlight.

  He never would have taken her choices away and forced drugs down her throat. It wasn’t him. He couldn’t have.

  But logically she didn’t have anyone else to blame.

  If she hadn’t been drugged with elixir, she also never would have been forced to the ocean bottom. King Kayo had no elixir or nectar. He couldn’t have transformed her. She’d have been stuck on that isolated, barren, waterless island.

  Or maybe the fault was hers. Someone had drugged her and her soul had resonated with Faier’s so much that she’d transformed to grow gills, see long distances, and speak with chest vibrations.

  It must have been the sizzle from their kiss.

  King Kayo knelt at the base of the Life Tree and touched the bark with his fingertips. He bowed his head. “I, King Kayo of Aiycaya, marry my sacred bride. Shower your blessing and healing on our union so our joining will swiftly produce a healthy young fry.”

  A gentle tinkling like wind chimes filled the ocean. Up close, the bark gleamed as if she gazed upon fine jewelry.

  King Kayo stood and gestured to her. “Now you.”