by Lani Lenore
For just a moment, she felt panic, but she was still aware of herself in the water. There was movement and sound as she let her invisible arms drift about. Afterward, Bliss did the same to herself, and Innominata marveled.
“How?” She had only seen this sort of thing from the transparent and thin-skinned bottom dweller nymphs, and even they were not completely invisible.
“Just do what jou intend to do,” Bliss instructed. “It won’t last long.”
Innominata nodded, forgetting that Bliss could not see her. Their tails disturbed the water, and she kept up with Bliss in that way. The silver-one was following. They passed the slaves who were chained to the throne by their necks. These were young, and it was an exercise to break their will. Innominata had been there once herself. She tried not to look at them. There was little she could do. Her aim was the throne itself.
The slave who’d been accused of pleasuring herself with a human was still slumped there, chained down by arms that were bound behind her back. The box was enclosed around her head—that tiny torture chamber. She was unmoving, but Innominata could not leave her this way. She had not been able to stop this martyrdom while it was happening, but she could do something now.
She knew that guards were somewhere nearby, even if they were not in sight. They must have been just outside the throne room, circling the palace and grounds. The throne itself was bare, and Innominata was glad of that.
“Open the box,” she whispered to Bliss. “I know you can.”
“What do jou mean to do?” Bliss asked skeptically, keeping her voice low. “Jou cannot free her. Dey will hunt her down if she swims away. Return her safely to a cell? It will do no good.”
“We can kill the creature inside the box. Put it back like it was and at least she’ll have a chance. If you don’t want us to turn our backs on our sisters, show me what you’re willing to do.”
She could not see Bliss, but there was a pause in her words. She did not doubt that Bliss would do as she asked, however. They were linked now, whether either of them thought of it that way.
“Jou really are more reckless dan I thought,” Bliss whispered back, but Innominata saw the box begin to move. The container was pried apart carefully so as not to break it, moved by the unnatural strength in Bliss’s hands.
Innominata’s eyes glanced around, looking for any who might have been lurking. Still, there was no one.
With a muted groan, the box opened and the nymph’s red hair was freed, floating about in the water, a cloud about her head. One could almost not find the difference between the hair and the blood. The octopus was still living, moving slightly where it was attached, writhing against its precious sustenance. Working with invisible hands, Innominata began to pry the creature free. She could not say if Bliss tried to help. She could neither feel nor see the other’s hands, but Innominata was more concerned with the other. Finally, she pried the beast away, even as the tentacles began to wrap around her own arms as she held it. It was still living. Her sister here was not.
The mermaid’s skin was bloated and soft, as if it might slough off her bones. Her face was covered in red welts from the many suckers on the mollusk’s legs. One of her eyes was gone, leaving a black cavern. There were small holes in her skin where the creature had drilled into her skull as it might have done to the hard shell of a crab. A horrible way to die. Her rescue had come too late.
“Jou see?” Bliss asked, and she did not sound at all surprised.
Innominata sighed out through her gills. This was horror, but she had seen horrors herself before. There was nothing left to do but cover her tracks. As much as it hurt her heart to let this go, she had no other choice. She put the device back where it had been, to let the ravenous beast finish what it had begun.
Chapter Four
Taken
1
The golden one was quiet in her cell, thinking more deeply than she’d ever allowed herself. It had been a long time since she’d had something truly new to think about, but Bliss had given her plenty. She cared about one thing over all else: were the propositions Bliss had mentioned truly possible? If they were, what would that be worth?
What are you willing to do?
Who was Bliss, after all? Innominata had witnessed at least a portion of her power, and where had that come from?
Let me know when you’ve seen enough.
So many questions. Such strong promises.
She was alone with her thoughts, but a light was coming for her. Soon the guards were in focus—two of them—and once again they stopped in front of her cell. Innominata did not know if she was surprised, but with her current thoughts of Bliss and of mutiny, she felt an uncomfortable stirring in her belly.
“Golden hair; golden tail,” said one of them, observing her. “She is the one.”
“Come,” the second guard urged with an echoing call, and this time, Innominata knew exactly where she was going.
They bound her hands—as if she could hope to outmatch them—and took her the distance upward into the throne room. Unlike the time before when she and Bliss had snuck here, there were several nymphs about. Guards stood at attention with javelins, and there were others, foreign in appearance.
These nymphs were different. Instead of hard, scaly flesh, they were almost transparent. She could see in to their bones. Their eyes were wide and bright without lids, for they lived in the dark places at the bottom of the sea. There were many different sorts of nymphs littered about—bottom dwellers, nymphs of the reef, and even moon watchers, who lived much closer to the surface. Innominata tried not to stare at them as she was brought in to the side and urged to stop—to wait.
The Mistress was there, sitting on the throne as if someone might steal it from beneath her. These translucent ones were giving a report, as she required from time to time. She liked to be aware of changes in the sea, the contours of its depths, and any disturbance in the vast blue.
“That is good to hear,” Innominata heard the Mistress say. “May the currents keep you safe on your journey back.”
With that, the bottom dwellers turned and drifted away like phantoms, past Innominata and the guards who held her. The Mistress seemed to notice them then and waved them forward, to the girl’s dismay.
The punished nymph from before was still in the chamber, the box around her head, her body flat against the floor. Snails covered her, making fair use of her flesh. Innominata supposed the Mistress might have left her there until she rotted away completely. Her captors were terrible about cleaning things up, caring only for torture and war.
“Ah, just the one I was hoping for,” the Mistress said, and while she could not be bothered to rise in the presence of her visitors, she did rise at the golden one’s approach. The guards left her there before the throne, bound, but the girl could not care for her hands. It was so common to be bound that she hardly thought of it.
The Mistress came forward, and the slave marveled—not for the first time—how much larger she was than the others. That was what had made her so dominant, she imagined, able to secure the throne for herself, aside from rumors of how she had personally captured the beast in the Pleasure Chamber.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since the last time we were together,” the Mistress confessed, moving around her. The golden one said nothing, only kept her eyes lowered. “I’m glad you’re feeling better again. There will be a feeding soon, and I need what only you can give me.”
The Mistress stopped in front of her, lifting her face with webbed fingers. Tender—a lie.
“Do you know that you’re special to me?” she asked, smiling with her razor teeth. “You make me feel strong.”
The Mistress stroked her smooth face, gazing at Innominata almost affectionately. The girl cringed.
“I like your taste.”
The Mistress opened her wide mouth and bit into the side of Innominata’s neck, rooting in, drawing blood quickly. Her life fluid was supplemental nectar. By the gods! She
had been given purpose.
The girl tried not to gasp or flinch, but the teeth ripped her tender flesh and the jaws were locked tight, pinching. She did not struggle, but she closed her eyes and winced, hard, biting her lip until she tasted her own blood. She was not impressed with the tang. The Mistress dug sharp claws into her back and neck, holding her in, and finally she cried out for the pain. A gasp, a shriek, a little shudder.
The Mistress pulled her in tighter as if excited by the blood-rush, but Innominata was already fading. As much as she hated what came, she knew it never lasted for long—not as far as she was aware. She was only to close her eyes and let the blood loss take her away. She was glad for the dark unconsciousness.
Sometimes, she wished for it to last forever.
2
She was weak after that, drained nearly dry. This was more, perhaps, than the Mistress had ever taken from her. Her wounds would heal within a few days and she would be well enough to again serve as sustenance. Though she dreaded it, she supposed there was a sort of safety in being a favorite. If she was worth something to the Mistress, she might hold onto her life.
After this gift of blood, she had been chained to the throne for a day, but not below it, beside it. She was a weak and sleeping ornament that the Mistress couldn’t bear to part with. Perhaps the sovereign was afraid that she would die this time, and what a loss that would be. When she was no longer in danger, Innominata had been taken to a cell behind the throne room, the brig of a sunken ship, and locked away inside, alone. This space was bigger than the other cells she’d been put into, and she was not sure, but she could only assume this meant that the Mistress wanted to keep her separated, to have better access. So that no one else could have her.
In her state, she was far too tired to think, but she wanted to keep going. She wanted to figure this out and know what she needed to do. Was she really in a position to do anything? And yet still, what was Bliss plotting?
“It took me a long time to find jou,” came her familiar voice, but Innominata was too weak to be startled.
She turned her head to see silver eyes peering at her through the dark water, a flash in the dark blue.
“It’s you. You’ve still not told me how you do that.”
“Never you mind,” Bliss said. “I want to talk. Come.”
“I’m not in a state to—”
“Don’t show fear,” Bliss told her. “Jou’re wit me. We’ll be alright.”
Bliss opened the door of the cell and slipped through without care. Innominata, on the other hand, was hesitant. How could Bliss be so bold? Perhaps the truth was that she had simply been broken.
“Can’t you make us disappear again?” she asked.
“No sense in it,” Bliss assured her. “Be brave. Show me dat jou trust me.”
The girl swallowed hard. Her taste of freedom those days before had been a gift and a rush, but she hadn’t thought her next excursion would come so soon. She couldn’t help but feel a bit of fear for it, and weak as she was, she wondered if she could get herself out of trouble if needed. Bliss, however, seemed unrelenting. After another moment of consideration, Innominata consented to leave the cell.
She drifted out, peering around for her own satisfaction, to be sure this was not a trick. The truth was that she did not quite know if she could trust this one. Perhaps Bliss was playing to her own ends, which had nothing to do with Innominata’s safety. She needed to see for herself.
The waters before her seemed clear of threat, if not as dark as ever. Perhaps that would help to hide them. Her eyes drifted aside, near the front of the cell, and she froze for a moment. A guard was lingering nearby. She was too stunned to dash back inside, fearing that any movement at all would draw attention, but a moment later, she realized that the nymph guard was not moving. She was floating there, certainly, but there was something odd about her rigid form.
Innominata could feel an unnatural cold in the water then, and her head tilted as she finally realized what she was seeing.
The guard near her cell was no longer aware. She had been turned to clear, sculpted ice.
3
When they surfaced near a beach, the sun was setting, shielding the sea in dusky hues, yet Innominata could scarcely enjoy it. They rested themselves on rocks different from those where they’d emerged before, much closer to land than the young nymph had been in a long time.
She remembered times past when she had first begun to watch the humans. She would see them working and playing along the shore, children laughing and men busy hauling fish. She would listen to them speak and eventually had learned many words of their language. Some of her fondest memories had been watching their lives—perhaps her only fond memories.
“Have jou been tinking?” Bliss asked from beyond her tangled mass of hair.
“Yes,” Innominata admitted. That was all she had been doing since they’d spoken.
“And what have jou decided?”
“I want to know what you intend to do,” she said boldly, once again. She could not go forward with clarity unless she understood what was to happen.
Bliss smiled. It was filled with humor. “My efforts are too intricate to explain fully. I tink about everyting—I predict everyting. But know dat my every breath is spent tinking of how tings might change.”
“What do you need me for? I can’t see how being close to the Mistress—”
“I want to see through jour eyes,” Bliss said, looking at her sharply. “I want to forge a connection between us, so dat I can see de Mistress through jou. She likes jou. She does not like me. I leave a bitter taste in her mouth. But I need to know what she is doing, what she is plotting, who is visiting her. Jou see more of dis dan I do, and yet we cannot share safely below. If I can see through jou, no one will ever know dat we have spoken like dis. We will not have to sneak away.”
Innominata considered. Her mind was still as weak as her body, and she wondered briefly if Bliss had meant to exploit that to get the answer she wanted.
I must not say yes too quickly. I need to know.
As they sat, hidden among the rocks, she began to hear sounds of voices from the beach. A pair of humans emerged from the slope beyond, walking along the shore in this secluded area. A man and a woman. Young, pretty. They were laughing together, gazing at each other, their hands touching. Innominata admired the connection between them, and her heart swelled with something she hadn’t thought much about in a long time.
“Have jou thought about what jou want?” Bliss asked. “Surely dere must be someting that could persuade jou to act.”
Something she wanted? Everything she could think of seemed like a far reach. Freedom, peace, comfort. But were any of those things truly attainable? Would allowing Bliss to look through her eyes solve any of her problems?
Her gaze wandered back to the lovers on the beach, and she wondered if Bliss had known what was in her heart.
“That’s what I want,” the girl said, her voice a sigh of longing.
Her eyes never left them, as if she might have been part of their embrace. The woman touched the man’s face and kissed him. He pressed her back against the embankment, the lovers’ hands wandering across each other, their mouths searching and meeting over and over again. Soon they were pulling off each other’s clothes. Flesh was exposed—a muscular back, slender thighs. He set her upon a rock, his own clothes around his hips, and Innominata saw the motion that connected them, heard their gasps. He moved slowly against her, and her hips rose up to meet him. The woman was sighing, her expression blissful. Innominata touched her own lips absently, wondering.
“Dat is what jou want?” Bliss asked with a short laugh. “Dat, jou can have. It’s not difficult.”
“I want the connection,” the girl clarified. “I want someone to look at me like that, touch me like that. I want to be in love with a man.”
“Love?” Bliss scoffed, clearly believing herself to be above it. “What sort of fool are jou? Love is such a human notion.”
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“I feel it,” she said. “I want to know what it’s like. It’s the only thing that’s ever appealed to me, and yet I cannot have it.”
“It’s not worth jour aspiration,” Bliss insisted. “Especially for a human, which is jour only choice. Jou would waste jour time. Dere is a cause greater dan dis.”
After several minutes of silence between the nymphs, the couple finished their lovemaking. They rose up and dressed to go back into the world among their own kind. The woman left first, and the man watched her go, still trailing along the shore, though what he was waiting for, Innominata could not say. Perhaps their affair was secret and they did not want to be seen together. Could that be true, even here?
“Come,” Bliss said, moving back into the water. This took her by surprise. “I’ll show jou just how true dis love really is.”
4
Innominata kept her back turned. She did not want to see. It was an image ruined in her mind, an act of beauty, perverted.
You knew this would happen, and yet you did not flee. You knew. She shot to awareness, flush, her cheeks lively as a first-kissed virgin.
Bliss was sighing from along the beach behind her, thoroughly enjoying herself, it seemed. She had snared that young man with her voice, and he had come down into the sea for her, hot-blooded and full of desire. His choice or not, his devotion for another had not been strong enough to deliver him. Within moments, he was kissing Bliss’s mouth and touching her body just as he had his lover’s. It had been so easy for the dark nymph, but that was even more the difference between them. Innominata could never bring herself to do something like that. She wanted to believe in loyalty, a connection, but it was difficult to keep those thoughts as the man grunted and held Bliss’s scaly hips against him. Innominata held her own fin against her chest and watched the waves, retreating to the caverns of her own mind, as was so often her custom.
