He was only one of several males I’d seen—warriors included—who’d chosen to have their faces decorated. As a species, both males and females alike seemed to enjoy flamboyant displays of color. It made me wonder how Aristos’s dark chocolate eyes would look lined in black and highlighted in bold emerald shades to match his glistening lips. For some inexplicable reason, the thought totally turned me on, even though I had no doubt that if I’d ever caught Austin playing with my makeup I would have run for the hills. The gods had allowed me to retain all of my human memories after being reborn as a Syreni female, but I clearly no longer thought like a human.
Aristos kept an easy pace until we reached the edge of the four mile band of coral reefs and open sea that stood between the residential area and the center of Halon’s Gate. Our hunting grounds. Armiele had explained the urgency of not lingering in these waters while my royal guard had guided us to Aristos’s home after my crowing. We weren’t the only predators who hunted here. Cutterfish killed more Syreni each year than griffins. They supposedly resembled a cross between a great white and a manta ray, and could grow up to seventy feet long, although I had yet to see one. Not that I was in any hurry to.
After speaking with the contingent of guards in the outermost tower, Aristos turned and swam back to me, all of us still treading water safely inside the more secure residential area. He seemed far more concerned than my guards had during my first crossing. There was a cutterfish sighting early this morning not far from here. It’s unlikely he’s still in the area, since their range covers hundreds of miles. Even so, if it weren’t for the fact that you have yet to embrace our gods—over three days after your rebirth—proceeding with the crossing wouldn’t be worth the risk. Do you think you can show me some of that Olympic gold speed of yours?
Can I lose the crown? I was tempted to ask him to remove all my jewelry, but the rest would be more annoying than an actual hindrance to my speed. My arms wouldn’t be able to do anything more than steer if I was kicking with all my might, anyway. There’s no way I could swing them fast enough to try to breast stroke in tandem with my kicks like I would have as a human. But having to mess with holding the crown in place could distract me enough to get us all killed.
He nodded. Whether he’d reached the same conclusion about how it could hinder me, or just didn’t see the harm in granting my wish I wasn’t sure, but he set to work freeing it from my complex bundle of braids. After a couple minutes he handed it to one of the guards in the tower, who immediately swam back toward our quarters with another guard shadowing him. When Aristos returned, he unfastened the sheath that housed his dagger and secured it around my waist, taking advantage of our close proximity to steal a quick kiss. This is for emergencies, only. If anything happens, you are to stay as far away from the action as possible. Are we clear?
Crystal, I replied, licking my still tingling lips. I could have sworn some of the electrical charge had come from me that time.
I felt like I should stretch or something while I waited for Aristos to discuss battle tactics with my guard, like I would have as a human before a race. All I could think to do in my Syreni body was to swim in circles to stay warm. As soon as everyone had resumed their positions in our defensive diamond formation Aristos motioned us forward. I kicked with everything I had.
It didn’t take me long to figure out they were holding back so I could keep pace. I studied Sennika’s form as we began the long journey back toward the sun-kissed water near the surface, swimming on a steep upward angle until we reached the top of the mountain of orange coral reef that separated the housing clusters from the hunting grounds. He was getting significantly more burst out of each of his strokes than I was, both on the upswing of his tail and the downswing. Now that I’d narrowed down the source of my inefficient technique, it was time to move in for a closer examination. I dropped back in our formation so my head was parallel with his tail in order to watch how he was manipulating his flukes. It was all in the angle. I had to get more extension in order to utilize the entire surface area and maximize my forward thrust.
I started to emulate his form and shot forward like I’d shifted into a previously inaccessible gear, eating up the ocean until I was right on Aristos’s tail again. We bulleted over the top of the orange, red and purple reef—which was home to an almost unfathomable variety of sea creatures, only a few of which looked even remotely familiar—at speeds that a dolphin would be hard-pressed to match. Feeling the seventy-five degree tropical sea water wash over me at such incredible speed was almost spiritual. I’d never felt so alive.
As we began our decent down into the coral forests that lined the fertile ocean valley, I opened my mouth a bit wider in order to allow more water to pass through my gills and replenish the oxygen my body was rapidly consuming. Sennika pointed out schools of salmon-sized tiger fish and tiny honeytails like a seasoned tour guide, along with several species that hadn’t made it onto my dinner plate yet. There were sharks, too—plenty of them—but none large enough to be any threat or fast enough to catch us. Avoiding a large school of jellyfish that was waiting in ambush just over the crest of a coral peak took some delicate maneuvering, though. I only partially succeeded, if you based my grade on the amount of times I’d been stung. Even as a mermaid it burned like a bitch, but my body seemed to have some natural immunity. In a matter of seconds the irritation was gone.
Once we’d crossed over the last of the reefs we hugged the far side and swam straight down toward the bottom, sinking back into the inky water thousands of feet beneath the surface. Without the beautiful scenery to hold my interest, I fell into autopilot, mindlessly following behind Aristos in his wake. It gave me the chance to shift the focus of my goddess sight to Naome and Serienne. The experience was kind of like changing the channel on a remote, although in my case, it was more like picture-in-picture. The multiple camera-like data streams that fed into my brain were always accessible. I just needed to choose to pay attention to them. Which is why I was shocked when my desire to see inside the clinic resulted in a gruesome image of blood. Nothing but blood. And death.
The real world—as seen through my natural field of vision—disappeared. In front of me was an image of my own body from behind, with Sennika and Kilas to the left, and Fryliwan to the right, as if I was looking through Vanimure’s eyes. We were far closer to the city. Close enough for the phosphorous beacons in the guard towers to cast the water in bright bluish hues. Vanimure had been having the nagging sense that something was following him for a while, but the few glimpses he’d taken over his shoulder hadn’t revealed any sign of danger. Just as he concluded that he was being paranoid, a surge of water tossed him sideways. He heard the crunch of his bones shattering a second before he felt the pain. The teeth that bore down on his abdomen bit clean through him, leaving his torso bobbing helplessly in the crimson-filled water while the beast threw its head back and swallowed his tail. The last image he saw was of an impossibly huge, submarine-sized shark—only with thirty-foot manta ray wings instead of pectoral fins—doubling back to swallow me whole.
My own vision returned. Aristos and the others were circled around me, all of them keeping their distance with their hands raised in the air like I was a crouched panther debating which one to pounce on. Except for Sennika, that is. His caramel tail had a ten inch slash just below the waist—where his shorter, ornamental breastplate ended—that he was busy trying to patch with a carnipula leaf field dressing. It wasn’t hard to guess what had caused it. My crazed soulcras were glowing supernova bright, snapping and lashing out like pit vipers in every direction. I tried to calm myself, but that was easier said than done when you’d just witnessed a premonition of your own death, especially when the events in question were set to unfold in your not too distant future.
You are safe, my queen. Aristos had dared to venture almost five feet closer to me. His eyes were trained on my soulcras, anticipating each movement so he could dance back in time to avoid being struck. You had a vision, Ca
mithia; a rather unpleasant one, it would appear. I can’t imagine how overwhelming the experience must have been for you—especially given that it was your first—but time may be of the essence. I need to know if anything you witnessed seemed like an imminent threat.
After confirming that Vanimure was still very much alive, I focused on the distant horizon. Faint specs of light, like distant stars, were the only sign of the tower beacons. We were still well over a mile from the location I’d seen. That was the good news. The bad? Sennika had a highway-sized blood trail oozing out behind him like an oil slick. If I didn’t want to end up as a Happy Meal for a prehistoric shark that made Jaws look like an undersized goldfish, we’d have to get moving. A cutterfish bit Vanimure in half before circling back to kill me. I’d guess a little over a mile from here judging by the light. It struck from the left, if that helps.
Overwhelmed with guilt, I dropped into a formal bow in front of Sennika, who was still busy packing carnipula leaves into the gruesome wound. I’m sorry, Commander Sennika. If we live through this, I promise I’ll find some way to make it up to you.
Aristos came as close to rolling his eyes as I’d ever seen. I’ve suffered worse injuries while harvesting the bones of a teragore whale. All you did, my queen, is give him a mildly impressive scar to brag about. Only when he regales our troops with the story, I’m sure it will be the mighty teeth of a cutterfish that tore open the wound rather than your soulcras.
Three cutterfish, as I recall, Sennika added, playing along for my benefit even though the grimace on his face suggested he was in a substantial amount of pain. At least the leaves had finally stemmed the worst of the bleeding, leaving only a slow trickle. That or he was close to bleeding out. The shortest of which measured seventy feet. But I don’t deserve all the credit. The Prince’s incessant, child-like shrieks certainly distracted the beasts. And I must say, urinating all over himself to throw them off the queen’s scent was especially brilliant.
Listening to their jovial banter relaxed me enough for my soulcras to conclude I was no longer in imminent danger, even though I knew they were just placating me. The reddish light faded from the strange tentacles as they retracted back inside my body.
Aristos rewarded my efforts to regain control with a kiss. A much deeper kiss than before we’d set out. Deep enough to make my eyes drift shut and elicit fantasies of even more enjoyable things we could be doing. When our lips finally parted, I watched the electrical charge leap from the tip of my tongue to his mouth, confirming what I’d suspected before. The voltage that made my heart leap every time our lips met wasn’t just coming from him.
The wide, alluring grin on his stubble-covered face revealed the hint of a dimple in his left cheek, which I couldn’t resist running my fingers across. In return, he glided three fingertips slowly down the valley between my breasts, pressing firmly against the web of necklaces that formed my chastity belt. I let out a high-pitched cry like the song of a whale when the palm of his hand settled over my breast. It was hard to say if my soulcras were too tired to respond to his touch, or had just decided they weren’t going to bother every time we made out like horny teenagers, but I appreciated them letting Aristos get to second base.
Apparently Aristos appreciated it as well. He refused to relinquish his hard-earned prize. His fingers caressed my nipple as he spoke, making me lean into him in order to press my breast even more tightly into his hand. There’s a canyon up ahead close to where you described that would be a perfect location for a cutterfish to stage such an attack. We’ll hug the ocean floor from here on out and veer far enough east to ensure we don’t cross its path. When it comes to hunting Syreni, cutterfish are primarily ambush predators. They have learned to fear our blades. A single well-placed thrust to their gills or brain will kill them. As for the substantial amount of blood in the water, we have been baiting traps with Syreni blood for so long, cutterfish tend to swim away from it rather than seek it out. It’s unlikely it will give chase.
With that, Aristos reluctantly broke off our embrace and resumed his position at the front of our group. Sennika wasn’t in any position to even be swimming, let alone trying to guard me, so at my insistence, we adjusted our formation to be centered around him. Kilas and I took the left side with me in front so he could still cover my back. Fryliwan and Vanimure took up positions opposite us. We swam toward the city as fast as Sennika could manage, passing over the last of the five-story reefs before diving down to swim so close to the sandy sea-bottom that I could spot shellfish and other tiny creatures scurrying out of our path even in almost complete darkness. It was the only protection available while we traversed the remaining stretch of open water that stood between us and the edge of the city.
Once we reached the outer guard towers we broke formation. Aristos and I moved out in front and swam well ahead of the others, trying to project a more regal appearance. A sizeable crowd lined the passages between the homes and shops, all eager to catch a glimpse of the new royal couple. I realized with a flash of dread that being seen without my crown would probably cause all kinds of rumors to start up. I was starting to understand what celebrities dealt with on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I had bigger things to worry about than tarnishing my public image, like whether I’d alienated the gods who’d given birth to me by sulking in my room for days. After passing through the ten square blocks of bustling mercantile shops that formed the trade district, we came to a checkpoint at the outer edge of the courthouse grounds. Guards hurried forward to open the symbolic iron gates. Dozens of soldiers bowed before us in formation us as we swam past.
Similar to the cathedral, the twenty-foot golden doors of the High Court building were guarded by statues of Neptune and Poseidon, although these were much smaller in scale, standing only about twelve feet from the sea floor. And the architecture of the two buildings was far different. Whereas the cathedral had a modern style, with no square walls or right angles, the three story court building looked like it had been ripped straight from the clouds above Mount Olympus, with towering white marble walls, countless pillars and everything accented in gold. Stone Syreni warriors were scattered across the grounds as they were throughout the city, holding the lanterns that lit our way in the permanent nightfall that existed this deep beneath the surface.
At Aristos’s command, Fryliwan, Vanimure and Kilas took up positions on either side of the golden doors, which the two guards already stationed there were opening. Damille and two male assistants greeted us inside with medical equipment in tow. Someone—likely Aristos—had clearly briefed her on our situation well ahead of our arrival. Being able to telepathically call ahead came in handy. No longer able to mask his pain, Commander Sennika collapsed into their arms. In record time they had him stripped of his armor and secured onto a body board with his abdomen bandaged and an I.V. in place. It was like watching a seasoned level-one trauma team spring into action. We followed behind them at a less frantic pace, wanting to ensure we didn’t get in the way.
I’d swam past the finely crafted statues of the previous Syreni kings twice before, but I had yet to hear anything about them. I had yet to hear about much of anything, come to think of it. Sometime I’d have to get Aristos to take me sightseeing so I could learn about the city I lived in, the society I’d become a part of, and the people I was responsible for as queen. But that wouldn’t be today. A quick check of my goddess sight revealed that Naome and Serienne were doing even worse than before. Having failed to calm them down, the medical staff had been forced to immobilize their still-healing bodies in order to keep them from injuring themselves.
The infirmary was divided into three sections, with the trauma room—where Sennika was being treated—up front, three surgical rooms in the middle and a massive research lab in the back. Entering the surgical area required us to pass through a sealed door into a clean room. As soon as we entered Aristos was asked to unlock my chastity belt. He was quick to comply, revealing that he kept the key on a thin silver chain around his neck. G
ood to know. An elderly female removed almost all of the other jewelry I was wearing along with the sheathed dagger Aristos had loaned me. The much younger male took Aristos’s weapons and helped him out of his robes.
We were both bathed in a special blend of shealing oil that stank to high heaven. The putrid sulfur and alcohol smell made me glad I hadn’t eaten in over two days. Once they’d finished decontaminating us, we were dressed in full-body scrubs with a form-fitting hood and an adjustable length extension for our tails. Mesh sections along our necks allowed water to exit our gills, which was routed through a filter before reentering the room. Once my arms were slid into elbow length medical gloves—like I was a doctor prepping for surgery—the elderly female secured a clear shield over my face. It had a regulator built into it which fit into my mouth, allowing me to draw in water to breathe. After passing though another sealed door we reached the surgical wing.
Aristos led me past the first two vacant operating rooms, each decked out with equipment like nothing I’d seen in any hospital on earth, before pulling up in front of a wall-sized, freestanding sheet of glass that displayed the vitals for Naome and Serienne. I didn’t see any power cords going to it. Nor did the writing on the glass appear to be digital. It was too fluid. Almost as if the individual pixels that made up each character were treading water to remain in place. It reminded me of the plankton from the stone tablet I’d used to communicate with Armiele before I’d learned to speak telepathically. That had to be what was driving it, only somehow the little organisms were taking direction on what letters to form remotely rather than being guided by a brush.
Kerrigan's Race (The Syreni Book 1) Page 13
