by Zoe Chant
My home, my things…all my father’s paintings. Everything I had. Gone.
John’s head jerked round, like a dog hearing its master’s call. Leaving the other firefighters to finish putting out the remnants of the blaze, he strode over to her.
“Oh my mate, my heart, do not despair.” He sank down to one knee at her side, pushing up the dragon-faced visor of his helm. Underneath, his face was streaked with soot and sweat. “You still have a home, though you have never been there. Your palace awaits you under the sea, with a thousand treasures to replace every one that you have lost.”
Thanks to the strange bond between them, Neridia could tell that he honestly thought this would comfort her. She was suddenly, abruptly furious.
“I don’t want a palace or treasures!” She jerked her shoulder away from his outstretched hand. “Maybe you dragons only care about gold and gems, but I don’t. My dad’s paintings, my mother’s books and all my things from my childhood, those were my treasures. They can’t be replaced!”
His armored shoulders hunched, as if her words were blows. “I am sorry, I did not mean…forgive me, my mate. I swear on my honor, I will take care of you.“
“Yes, because that’s been working out really well so far,” she spat. Distantly, she knew that she was being monstrously unfair, but the burning anger in her belly was better than that black despair. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t need anyone to take care of me! If I’d never met you, I’d still have a home!”
Her unfair accusation hammered him to both knees, head bowing. The wash of his shame down the mate bond brought her back to her senses. She might not really have meant what she’d said, but he believed it, every word.
“Oh, John, no.” She twisted round as best she could with Hugh still holding her ankle, reaching out to her mate. “No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean any of that. I’m just upset and taking it out on you. None of this is your fault.”
“But it is.” He didn’t raise his head. His arm was cold and hard as stone under her hand, every muscle knotted tight. “They found you because of me.”
*What are you talking about, John?* Griff asked telepathically.
“I unknowingly stripped away the veil that has kept the Empress safely hidden from her foes.” John dug under one of his vambraces with two fingers, extracting her pearl pendant. “Her father the Emperor, in his infinite wisdom, bestowed this powerful treasure on her. It prevents the wearer from being located by magical means.”
Neridia, already reaching to reclaim her pendant from his palm, looked at him in surprise. “Is that what it does?”
He nodded as she refastened it around her neck. “I deciphered its true nature mere moments before the attack. You must wear it, Your Majesty. It is clear that your enemies have been lying in wait, searching ceaselessly for you. Do not remove it again for even a moment.”
“As the medic who has to patch people up in the wake of this sort of thing, I wholeheartedly endorse this plan.” Hugh sat back on his heels, shaking out his hands as if he had pins-and-needles. “Please try to avoid this happening again in future. John, let me see those burns.”
“My trivial wounds are not worth-“
“Dying over,” Hugh completed tartly. “Much as I’m sure you’d love to be in hideous physical pain as punishment for your so-called failure, you’ll find it hard to redeem your honor if your sword arm drops off with gangrene. Now hold still.”
*Do you have any idea who these enemies could be?* Griff asked, as John grudgingly submitted to Hugh’s ministrations.
“Those we faced tonight are honorless worms who call themselves the Brotherhood of Extinction.” John indicated the nearest corpse—which Neridia had been trying hard to avoid looking at—with a jerk of his head. “But I fear they are not our true foes. They are mere assassins-for-hire, selling their foul services to any who can pay their fee. I have reason to believe that they are working for the Master Shark.”
A chill ran down Neridia’s spine. “That big fin in the lake…that was a shark shifter?”
“Yes. The Master Shark, the lord of the shark shifters. He is their representative on the Sea Council. Many years ago, he was their sovereign King, but the Emperor—your father—conquered him and his people. The sharks were the last of the shifters of the sea to submit to the authority of the Pearl Throne, and they have never been willing subjects.”
Griff clicked his beak. *That definitely sounds like someone who would be happy to keep the Pearl Throne unoccupied.*
John nodded grimly. “The Emperor graciously granted the fallen Master Shark a place of honor on the Sea Council, despite the near-unanimous objections from the other shifter representatives…but there is no satisfying a shark’s hunger. Ever since the Emperor’s disappearance, the Master Shark has always sought to wrest more power away from the rightful talons of the sea dragons.”
“Well, to be fair,” Hugh said, shifting around to lay his hands on another blistered patch on John’s side. “You are something of an irritating bunch of arrogant bastards. I can’t imagine a shark who used to be a king in his own right would be very happy about the prospect of having to bow down to sea dragon royalty again.”
“This Master Shark…” Neridia said slowly. “Would he happen to be a tall, pale-skinned man, with cold grey eyes and a heavy forehead and jaw?”
John’s head jerked up in surprise. “You have seen him?”
“I woke up to find him climbing in through my bedroom window. I ran away, straight into a trap.” Neridia swallowed, her mouth dry. “John, there’s more. That’s not the first time I’ve seen him. Remember I said I saw a creepy guy at my dad’s house, right before he died?”
“Before his house burned down. It cannot be a coincidence. The Master Shark must have been behind both attacks.” John’s fingers clenched in the mud. “The Emperor—he assassinated—“
Human words seemed to fail him. He broke down into a snarling, hissing song in his own language, the tendons on the side of his neck standing out with the force of his rage.
“Um.” Hugh edged away from his patient. “I’m not sure whether to ask for a translation of that.”
The mate bond was giving Neridia a very precise image of exactly what John intended to do with the Master Shark when he got his hands on him. A small, savage part of her echoed his anger, crying out for revenge for her dad’s murder…but mostly, she just felt scared.
The Master Shark killed my dad. My father was a sea dragon, and the Emperor, with incredible powers at his command…and the Master Shark was still able to kill him.
And now he’s after me.
John cut off his tirade mid-note. “I swear on my honor, I will not fail you again,” he said fiercely, his chest heaving for breath. “I will protect you.”
*We’ll all protect you,* Griff added, his feathers bristling. *No mere shark is going to get past Alpha Team.*
“I thank you.” John looked sidelong at the griffin, uncharacteristically hesitant. “…Oath-brother.”
Griff’s fierce golden eyes softened. He lowered his head, the great hooked beak nudging John’s shoulder in a silent gesture of affection and forgiveness.
Hugh pointedly cleared his throat. “As the person who has to wipe up the blood when it all goes horribly wrong, can I ask if there’s actually a plan to stop the Big Bad Shark?”
“Yes,” John said, and Neridia took heart from the calm confidence in his voice. “We must get Her Imperial Majesty to safety. To the one place where she will be safe from all attack.”
“Where’s that?” Neridia asked.
“Home, Your Majesty. We must go to Atlantis.”
Chapter 16
“Absolutely not,” the Knight-Commander said flatly, his image ripping on the surface of the lake.
John struggled to maintain the scrying connection. It was hard to focus his mind’s eye on the mystic currents in the glare of daylight, and doubly hard to do so this close to human habitation. He had not dared to go too far from the hotel w
here Neridia was breakfasting. Even now, his heart cried out to be back by her side.
“Sir, there is no choice,” he said to the Knight-Commander’s reflection in the water. “The Empress is as safe as she can be on land at the moment, with the firefighters of Alpha Team guarding her back, but this is only an interim solution. My colleagues have other duties of their own. Much as they wish to help, they cannot protect her night and day forevermore. The only place she will be safe is in Atlantis.”
“No human has ever entered Atlantis!”
“But she is not human,” John said, a hint of growl creeping into his voice despite his best efforts to observe proper etiquette. “She is a sea dragon, and the Empress-in-Waiting. With respect, sir, not even you have the authority to forbid her from entering her own domain.”
“Until she formally ascends the Pearl Throne, I have every authority,” the Knight-Commander retorted, a warning snarl singing in his own tones. “You forget yourself, Knight-Poet. I am the head of the Sea Council, and the Voice of the Emperor-in-Absence. At the moment, your mate is nothing. Unless she can shift, she cannot lay claim to any sea dragon title, let alone that of Empress-in-Waiting.”
John held onto courtesy by his fingernails, though his blood burned at this slight to Neridia’s honor. “She will shift, sir.”
“Given that she did not last night, when both her own life and the life of her mate were in grave peril, I very much doubt that she ever will.” The Knight-Commander gave him a penetrating look, his voice lowering. “Wishful thinking is a human trait, Knight-Poet. It does not become you. I begin to wonder whether you have been away from the sea for too long.”
The accusation struck through his anger like a sword finding a crack in flawed armor. John dropped his gaze, unable to meet his commander’s green-gold eyes. He had succumbed to the whispers of his inner human last night, allowing it to persuade him to bond with his mate. At the time, it had seemed so natural…but had it been his human’s judgment rather than his own?
The Knight-Commander let out a long sigh, shaking his head. “Your duties have kept you away from Atlantis for too long, Knight-Poet. But regardless of my concerns for your honor, I fear I have no choice but to order you to remain on land. You said that the pearl she wears conceals her from my scrying?”
“Yes, sir. From all forms of locating magics, including a shark’s ability to track her Imperial blood-scent. It is how she remained undetected for so long. I assure you, she will not remove it again now that she understands its importance.”
“In that case, I command you to remain at her side. I do not wish to lose track of her again. You, at least, I can still scry. But you will not bring her to Atlantis without my express permission. Is that perfectly clear?”
“I hear and obey, sir.” John took a deep breath, steeling himself for further battle. “But sir, I must repeat that I cannot guarantee Her Maje-“
The Knight-Commander’s eyes narrowed.
“Ah, that is, Neridia’s safety while she remains on land.” It felt horribly wrong to say her name so baldly, without honorifics, but there was no sense in antagonizing the Knight-Commander further. “She will only be secure in Atlantis. I beg you to reconsider your position.“
“Even if she was the crowned Empress, her safety would come secondary to the safety of the entire Pearl Empire!” The Knight-Commander slammed a fist down, sending ripples across the water. “Damn it, Knight-Poet! Would you seek to undo everything I have worked for these last twenty-five years? Can you not see what a disaster it would be, should the rest of the Sea Council catch scent of her existence?”
John stared at him, taken aback. “You have not already told them, sir?”
“Of course I have not. The instant the other lords discover there may be a half-human heir to the Pearl Throne running around, it will tear the Council apart. Some would seek to destroy her, like the Master Shark. Worse still, others would seek to crown her immediately.”
“But surely that is what we seek, sir,” John said, utterly bewildered. “To put her in her rightful place on the Pearl Throne.”
The Knight-Commander’s chest rose and fell in a long sigh. Raising a hand, he pulled off his glittering helm. John froze. He had hardly ever seen his commander’s face before. It was a privileged usually reserved for his most trusted knights.
“You have a hatchling’s romantic view of royalty.” The Knight-Commander rubbed his lined forehead. He looked tired, as though he hadn’t slept for days. “An untutored, naive Empress on the Throne? A human Empress, ignorant of our ways, with all the power of the ocean at her command? Who could guess what catastrophic whim might take her fancy? She might demand that we allow more of her kind into Atlantis. She might overturn laws simply because her weak human mind cannot comprehend the demands of our honor. She could destroy the Pearl Empire itself! For sea’s sake, think, Knight-Poet.”
John did so. “I think,” he said, after a moment of reflection, “that you gravely underestimate her, sir.”
“And I think that you are blinded by your mate bond.” Dropping his hand, the Knight-Commander fixed John with a piercing stare. “Which is another matter of which we must speak. I have not forgotten that you broke your vow of chastity.”
John bowed his head. “I, I believe that I did so for honorable purposes, in the service of the Pearl Throne, but…I stand ready to receive whatever discipline you see fit, sir.”
The Knight-Commander let out a somewhat exasperated breath. “The usual fate of knights who break their oaths is execution, which is hardly practical at this point in time. As your circumstances were indeed…unusual, I will exercise my right as the Knight-Commander of the Order to waive the full consequences. Once.”
John’s heart had been lifting at this unexpected show of mercy, but at the last word it lurched sideways in his chest. “S-sir,” he stammered. “You cannot mean— sir, we are fully-bonded mates. To demand that we stay apart-”
“Is the only hope of salvaging your honor. And so the only hope I have of saving one of my most promising young knights from utterly destroying himself.” The Knight-Commander put his helmet back on again, his tone turning formal. “I will say this only once, Knight-Poet. There is no place on land or sea where I cannot find you. If I ever have reason to believe that you have dishonored the Order, I will personally hunt you down and execute you myself. Do not break your vows again.”
Chapter 17
The journey south was a nightmare. Neridia had rarely had the chance to travel beyond Scotland before, and normally she would have been glued to the train window, fascinated by glimpses into unfamiliar places and other people’s lives. But now, the slow change of scenery from the beautiful wilderness of the Highlands to the industrial towns of the north of England just made her feel homesick. Every minute, every mile, took her further and further away from everything she’d ever known.
I might never come home again.
Her old life was a smoking ruin behind her. Fire Commander Ash had said that he would handle reporting “the incident,” as he had put it, to the police, and that she did not need to be involved in the matter. Neridia had no idea how he was intending to explain away a burnt-out cottage surrounded by dead bodies, but something about his quiet air of authority made it impossible to doubt that he would.
I wish he could have handled my boss for me too.
Neridia had a sick feeling that she wouldn’t have a job anymore, after her boss got her rather vague voicemail about a “family emergency.” As her boss frequently liked to remind his staff, there was a long line of people hungry for any job opening in conservation.
She didn’t have a home. She likely didn’t have a job. All she had was the slim contents of her bank account, the pearl around her neck, and the few clothes they’d managed to salvage from the fire.
And John.
He was the only thing that enabled her to face the terrifying journey into the unknown, to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Her entire life might lie in
ashes, but whenever she looked at him, a small, secret voice in her soul whispered: Yes. She clung to that strange sense of certainty, trying to have faith that everything would be all right as long as they were together.
She would have liked to cling to him, or at least to hold his hand, but he was in constant motion—patrolling the train carriage, or finding some need to confer with his fellow firefighters, or just fidgeting with the blanket-wrapped hilt of his disguised sword. The mate bond was like a taut rope between them, betraying his deep tension. He was on high alert, every sense straining for any hint of further attack.
Though she knew his duty compelled him to keep a constant vigil, she couldn’t help wishing that he would just sit down. That he would put his arm around her, hold her close and whisper to her that everything would be okay.
Deep down, all she wanted was for him to reassure her that it wouldn’t matter if she never shifted, if she could never go to Atlantis, if she never became the Empress. That whatever happened, they’d figure it out together.
But he was a knight. He was under a vow to speak the truth.
So Neridia bit her tongue, and clasped her hands together tightly in her lap, and didn’t ask him to tell her comforting lies.
London, and hordes of people; hundreds of stares and gasps and not-so-whispered comments as they forged their way through the crowds. Neridia didn’t see a single woman who was even close to her own height, and of course John towered above everyone. More than one group of tourists openly took pictures of them, gawping as if they were animals in a zoo.
John took it all in his stride, not even seeming to notice the camera flashes and pointing fingers. Neridia tried to hide in his shadow, but apparently even a seven-foot-tall, blue-haired slab of pure beefcake wasn’t sufficient distraction to allow her to pass unnoticed.
By the time they finally made it onto the train to Brighton, she felt physically bruised by the weight of so many eyes. It was a relief to curl up in another private first-class cabin, closing her own eyes in miserable exhaustion.
