“We will wait here,” Jeera said. “I believe we are safe for now. How is it you can breathe the water?”
“I don’t know,” Brynn said. She was beginning to trust Jeera, who had almost certainly just saved her life. But she wasn’t sure she was ready to tell her about the ancient technology inside her. Not yet. Besides, she had more questions. A lot of them. “What is that?” She pointed up at the darkening green clouds. There were over a dozen of them now.
“Blue dragons breathe ice,” Jeera said. “Red breathe fire. The dragons of the Emerald Isle breathe the power of life itself, a force that makes things grow.”
That didn’t sound that bad to Brynn, until she thought about it a little more. The red in the water that was mixing with the green was probably bacteria or some other microorganism living in the oceans. That alone might kill them if they swam through it. And if the green stuff could make anything grow, then if it hit their bodies, it might make all the bacteria inside them grow to the point of choking their bloodstream. Hell, it might just make their cells begin growing out of control, like some kind of super-cancer.
She looked up at the clouded water above and shuddered. Part of her wanted to ask if Jeera had ever seen the green dragon breath touch a person, but another part of her was afraid to hear the answer. She’d be satisfied just knowing that it was bad news.
Brynn opened her mouth to ask another question, but Jeera beat her to it.
“Do you know where we need to go?” Jeera asked. “Where the king is being held?”
Brynn snapped her mouth shut. That was a good question. Ever since the little woman in the white robes had set them free, she’d been busy trying not to die. She took a deep, sluggish breath of water and closed her eyes, trying to listen for Vander.
She couldn’t hear him, but she did feel something, a tug from the center of her chest, as if a thread of silk emerged from her breastbone and something was pulling gently on it. She felt the direction, not as strong as a compass needle, but clear enough.
“I don’t know exactly where,” she said, opening her eyes. It was dark in the cave, even darker with the clouds above blocking out the sun. But her eyes were beginning to adjust to the lack of light, and she could see Jeera’s eye, the curve of her snout. “I do know which way to go, though.”
Jeera nodded. “Good. We will leave when we can.”
Then what? Brynn thought. Whoever is holding Vander is obviously powerful. How were she and a dolphin supposed to help him? Whatever was inside her was obviously more powerful than she’d thought, but she had no idea how to control it, much less know what she might be capable of.
Then she saw it, in her mind’s eye, the very first vision she’d had of Vander in this world.
“We’re not going to find Vander yet,” Brynn said. “There’s somewhere else we need to go first. Something we need to get.”
17
NEVRA
Finally, something was going right. She sat upon the bamboo throne, a hard, knobby thing of a chair, but a seat she could get used to. After failed attempts to take both the Everfrost and Wildfire thrones, now she was starting to get somewhere.
Marko was dead, and that was just fine. She hadn’t needed him after all. Once her father had told her of her impending marriage to Vander Tanglevine, she had shifted her plans, with the help of the demon, of course. He had told her of Kalypsa, the siren witch living far out in uncharted seas.
She had flown there herself to seal the pact. Then she had wed the green king, had a bit of fun, then let the siren sing her song. Now she sat on an uncontested throne. The guards and servants were suspicious and didn’t seem to like her much. But it was early yet. They would warm to her. Or they wouldn’t. It didn’t really matter. She was the queen.
The doors to the throne room opened, and two guards led the little owl witch before her.
What’s this? she thought. Something good, no doubt. She smiled to herself.
Hywin stopped at the base of the dais, looking up at her with those huge brown eyes. Nevra had always hated the owls. It was at least one thing she had in common with her father. She despised the influence they had in draconian affairs, an undue power they hadn't earned and simply didn’t deserve. She would end that when the time came. And the time was coming soon.
“Yes?” Nevra asked the female guard standing on her left. She hadn’t gotten her name, but the guard did look quite striking with her long blond hair, her green eyes, and her bountiful breasts pushing out against her shiny green armor. Nevra thought she might take her into her bed at some point, once things had settled down.
“She freed the prisoners,” the guard said.
Nevra sat up straight in the throne. Part of her was pleased to hear that the owl had done something wrong, something worth getting her out of the way. But Nevra didn’t want to hear that the newcomer had escaped. She was an unknown quantity, a wild card, and she had grown tired of surprises.
“You said prisoners,” she said. “More than one?”
“Yes, my queen,” the guard said. “A thief was set free along with the outworlder.”
“And the guards couldn’t catch them?” Nevra asked, feeling a pulse begin to throb in her temples. “Your cells are above the treetops. Even if they flew away, you have wings, do you not?”
She saw the guard’s face flush. “They used the dropvine to reach the beach,” she said. “Then they escaped into the sea.”
Nevra sighed and slumped back against the throne, feeling the bumpy ridges more than ever. She finally looked down at Hywin.
“You,” she said. “Whatever you hoped to accomplish, you’ve done nothing but give me an excuse to lock you up.”
“The true ruler of this island will return,” Hywin said. “And set things right.”
Nevra rolled her eyes and flicked a finger at the door. “Take her away,” she said. “And put some heavy iron shackles on her before you toss her in a bird cage. This one can fly.”
The guards bowed and began to lead Hywin away.
“Oh,” Nevra said. The female guard turned.
“Yes, my queen?”
“What is your name?”
“Valoria,” the guard said.
Ostentatious for a footsoldier, Nevra thought. But it suits her nonetheless. She smiled.
“Be a good girl and bring me some wine,” she said. “When you’re done tucking the owl away.”
There it was again, that flash of anger in the guard's eyes. Servants brought wine, not guards. But Nevra had played this game back in the cypress palace in the swamps of her home. Toying with others was one of the few things that brought her joy. It pleased her to see the guard struggle within herself, reining in her anger and trying to calm down.
“Yes, my queen,” the guard finally said before turning to go, leading Hywin by the arm.
Nevra licked her lips. Yes, she thought. I shall enjoy making that one bury her head between my thighs and please me with her tongue. Her anger will make it all the better.
She thought about what it might mean for the woman from another world to be set free. They had gone into the ocean. What had that meant? The woman could breathe underwater? Perhaps she could shift as well. Nevra knew little about the world she had come from or what she was capable of, and that worried her.
Even so, Vander was far, far away now, lost in the vastness of the seas, in a place no map had ever been made. Should the woman make it there, even with help, she would need an army. Nevra had seen the merfolk city. The guards were armed to the teeth with sabers and spears, and Kalypsa herself was one of the most powerful sorcerers in all of Xandakar.
No, she had little to fret about. Vander was gone, probably already dead. And if the Earth woman was foolish and fortunate enough to find his path, she would only die as well.
So she had finally taken one of the five thrones. She had been worried she might have to release the demon. That was the last move she ever wanted to make, for it was the riskiest. Better to keep him in his magic pri
son, nothing more than an advisor. In a day or two she would visit him to tell him the good news.
Then they could discuss where to go from here. Her father seemed the most logical next stepping stone. She knew the land and the people, and most of all she knew her father and his weaknesses.
Nevra smiled to herself and waited for her wine. She was back on track to topple the fools who ran this world and take it all away from them.
18
BRYNN
The dragons finally gave up, but not before they had hurled dozens of bursts of vital energy through the surface of the sea. Brynn and Jeera sat together near the entrance to the cave, waiting in the darkness.
“You said we needed to retrieve something,” Jeera said.
“A weapon,” Brynn said. “Only two people know where it is, me and Vander. And if we’re going to have a shot at rescuing him, something tells me we’re going to—”
All of a sudden, her hands felt strange. She looked down at them and would have gasped if she hadn’t been underwater. Blue webbing filled the spaces between her fingers.
Jeera saw it too. “You are suited to the seas?” she asked. “You said you were a poor swimmer.”
“I am,” Brynn said, staring at her hands. “I mean, I was.” She didn’t know anymore. Had the thing inside her continued making changes? Experimentally, she launched herself from the lip of the cave, swimming outward.
She pushed her arms in a breast stroke and felt the water against the webbing in her hands propel her forward. Okay, she thought. Now I’m a fish. She stopped, floating, and looked down at her right hand.
Brynn wondered just how much control she had over the transformation that had taken place. She willed her hand to change back the way it had been and saw the webbing dissolve from between her fingers.
She felt dizzy and disoriented. So far she’d traveled to another world, been chased by dragons, and fallen in with a girl who could morph into a dolphin. But the change in the skin on her hands was the cherry on top of all this weirdness. She wondered again if she were in some sort of dream.
But when she felt a nudge from behind, she turned to see Jeera poking her in the butt with her snout, and that definitely felt real.
“We need to go,” the dolphin said.
“Yeah,” Brynn said, looking down at her hand again. She willed the webbing to return and saw the gaps between her fingers fill with skin once more. She wasn’t sure she was ever going to get used to that. She also wasn’t sure just how else she might be able to modify her body. But now wasn’t the time to think of that. Vander was waiting, and she wasn’t sure how much time he might have.
“There’s a cave,” she said. She described what she had seen in the vision from Vander, the black volcanic rock and the entrance obscured by the tide.
When she was done, Jeera nodded what seemed like the whole front half of her body. “I know this place,” she said. “Follow me.”
With that, Jeera turned and swam. Brynn wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep up, but as she moved her arms and kicked her legs, she felt herself shooting through the water faster than she would have imagined she could.
Together they swam out from beneath the dark purple cloudy water, to an area where the sun once again pierced the surface, streaming down in golden rays. She could see the white sands of the ocean floor, schools of brightly-colored fish, and the lazy swaying of dark green kelp.
She’d never liked swimming, mostly because she was never very good at it. But now that she was nearly jetting through the water, breathing it as if it were air, she felt exhilarated. Part of her wanted to tear off her clothes and let them drift to the ocean floor. She knew she could swim even faster without them. But she wasn’t quite ready to expose herself that way in this world. Besides, her clothes were the only physical reminders of home.
Jeera slowed to look back at her a couple of times. Satisfied that she was able to keep up, the dolphin picked up speed. Soon Brynn saw the black craggy formations of rock and knew they were near.
She swam for the surface, but before she reached it she saw the curving arch of black rock underwater and became overwhelmed with déjà vu. She stopped, treading water. That was it. She was seeing what Vander had seen.
Brynn kicked her legs and darted for the arch. She swam inside, following exactly in Vander’s steps. She emerged, willing her lungs to shift to breathe air, coughing out a mouthful of salty water. The interior of the cave glowed with the light coming up from the water below, casting strange shimmering shadows on the ceiling.
She walked right to the hollow where Vander had stashed the trident. There it lay, glimmering with its own internal light. She still wasn’t sure what it could do. Vander had come to Earth to retrieve it for some important fight ahead. But something told her she would now need its help to get him back.
Brynn reached down and curled her fingers around the handle, feeling a bright tingling of power surge through her hand and up her arm. She hefted it up in the air. The spear felt both heavy and amazingly light at the same time.
She heard a gasp behind her and turned to see Jeera standing behind her, naked and wet in human form, her wide eyes transfixed on the spear.
“I had no idea,” Jeera whispered, dropping to her knees. “You wield the trident of the sea god.”
It took Brynn a little time to explain that she wasn’t some returned incarnation of Jeera’s sea god. At least she didn’t think so. She didn’t really want to go into detail about how she was just a woman from Earth, a scientist who had been the laughingstock of her profession her entire career. She lived in a one bedroom apartment, drove a beat-up jeep, and struggled with balancing her checkbook. She certainly wasn’t anybody’s god. She’d just seen where Vander had stored the weapon and thought it would come in handy.
Instead, she just said: "Please, get up. I'm not divine. Trust me."
Jeera listened and nodded, rising slowly to her feet. But she didn’t seem entirely convinced. Something about the way she now looked at Brynn had changed.
They left the cave, Brynn swimming in front this time, clutching the spear in her right hand. She thought not being able to paddle with one arm would slow her down. But somehow she wasn’t surprised to find that the trident was actually helping to propel her forward through the water even faster. Now Jeera was having a hard time keeping up.
They were headed in the direction of that invisible strand that Brynn felt, tugging her far out to sea. She’d seen shows about the oceans on TV, but actually swimming through the vastness of one was entirely different.
She saw canyons and mountains, swarms of fish and seahorses, and far away something that looked like a giant squid. Not only could she see all the living things, she almost felt as if she could feel them through the trident. She wondered if at some point she might even be able to control them, though she didn’t have time to experiment. The idea was both frightening and exhilarating.
They swam for a long time, the water rushing across her face and body. Brynn almost laughed as she wondered whether she was getting pruny. Fifteen minutes in the bath back home made her fingers look like peach pits. But she didn’t see or feel any side effects of being underwater for as long as she had. It was almost as if she were made for it.
Brynn heard a weary chittering beside her and looked back at Jeera.
“Can we stop?” the dolphin asked. “Can we rest?”
Brynn wasn’t tired, and she was impatient to find Vander. But Jeera had saved her life and been instrumental in getting this far. If she needed to stop for a little while, then they would stop.
She pulled up, treading, and Jeera slowed.
“Thank you,” the dolphin said. “Do you know how far we are from where we’re going?”
That was a good question. She’d felt that unseen pull the whole way, and it seemed to be getting stronger. But she still couldn’t say how far away they were, or even exactly where they were going.
“I don’t know,” Brynn said. “I think we might
be close. We’re making good—”
She stopped as she saw Jeera jerk her head back, twisting in the water and letting out a series of loud cries. Brynn looked in the direction Jeera had been facing, to see what had made her flip out, and her breathing stopped.
Ahead of them was a swarm of fish, though not the pretty little blue or orange ones they’d seen along the way. These were all three or four feet long and shiny silver, like a fleet of living torpedoes. Even from as far away as they were, Brynn could see the rows of jagged teeth jutting from their under-bites, and the dead ferocity in their jet black eyes.
And surprisingly, she knew what they were. She’d seen a documentary about ocean life late one night when she couldn’t sleep.
Swimming towards them at a terrible speed was a giant school of barracuda.
19
VANDER
He was exhausted.
Not the kind of exhaustion that comes from a hard day’s work or a long hike. He was shaking with a fatigue that seeped deep into his bones.
They came to him in an endless stream, merfolk women of all shades of blue and green, all with hungry, laughing eyes that looked like crystals. Some had dark fins with pink tints. Others had red or black spikes across their heads or arms. Some looked gentle and pretty, others fearsome and menacing.
But all of them wanted the same thing: to couple with him as he was spread helplessly upon the giant rock. In his days back on the Emerald Isle, he would take two or three consorts in a row, thinking himself powerful and virile.
Since the siren’s song had lured him to this hellish place, he had been with women beyond count, and now he simply wanted it to stop. He would have given all the gold and jewels in the world for a simple respite.
But despite his pleas, they would not cease. One after another, they would drift towards him, transforming their lower halves from scaly tail to human legs. Then they would curl themselves around him and push themselves down on top of him.
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