by Blooding, SM
She gave a breath of a chuckle in return. “It was surprisingly warm inside them. Mother had such a beautiful laugh.”
“She must have been a wonderful woman, Keel.”
She stopped, staring at my chest, her eyes lost. “I killed them.”
I turned toward her, confused. “What?”
“The Hands were burying them, and my Mark presented itself.” Her gaze met mine, but it was unfocused. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I was trying to save them, but I triggered a slide and buried them faster. They didn’t have a chance.”
I didn’t know what to say. I just took her hand, put it in my elbow and gave it a brief squeeze. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.”
Her fingers flexed in mine.
By that time, we were in the observatory.
We spent the rest of the day there. We were offered wet suits and a mask that was opaque and slightly slimy. When you put it on in the middle of the room, it just suffocated you, but when you were underwater—
You could breathe.
Keeley’s hair flowed out and around her as we helped the scientists and observers take samples of the plant life that was floating by and cataloging the different species of fish.
The smaller tentacles of the lethara kept us close to the observatory pool. We were moving quickly by the look of things. The wild life was going by entirely too fast and changed more than I’d expected. The turtles and bright colored fish disappeared and were replaced by large wavy fields of brightly colored flax. In that flax were tiny creatures that helped it grow. The flax protected them in return.
The lethara liked the flax. The tendrils were busy taking tasty treats through their tips. You could see them rise in almost dark veins. His medusa far above us glowed brighter, shifting from blue to purple to pink and red and orange to yellow and green and then back to blue. The city seemed to pulse from down here.
It was enchanting.
The fields of flax fell away as well and were replaced with endless dark waters.
Keeley and I stilled, the scientists pausing with us.
The tendrils caught us, keeping us with the lethara’s moving current.
There was debris floating in the water, almost like the krill and other tiny creatures living in the flax, but lifeless, just floating in the space of dark water, not moving.
And then we saw other things. A platform at an odd angle, a limp tendril still attached. A body, the arms splayed haphazardly and folding in on itself as a current took it and dragged it further to the bottom of the ocean.
One of the scientists snagged our attention and pointed to the observation pool.
I nodded and grabbed Keeley, pulling her toward it. We reached for the edge and pulled our masks off as soon as our faces cleared the surface of the water.
“What happened down there?” Keeley demanded.
“You get out and warn someone above, if they haven’t already noticed. We might have trouble. I’m going back out to see what I can find.”
She opened her mouth to argue.
I slapped the mask back on, the slime gluing itself to my face, and ducked back into the water.
I hadn’t gone very far though when I saw something barreling at me. It traveled like the ocwhal in an up-down motion, but it was much, much faster. My arms and legs splayed. I had no idea how to fight underwater, and I had no doubt that my Mark would do me absolutely no good down here.
As the thing came closer, it became less of a blob and more of a person, and out of the darkness, it was joined by an army of others.
The scientists waved at them in what appeared to be greeting and stopped, their arms and legs hanging loose and relaxed in the waters.
I had no idea what they were doing.
The approaching people came closer, gained speed and grabbed one of the scientists by his midsection, taking him up to the pool.
The creature had a set of very large, ornate fins instead of legs. But as I watched, the fins shot through the pool and disappeared. They were in the room.
Were we under attack?
Before I could ask the question, I was taken by the midsection and hauled to the surface.
The person who had a hold of me was pale with long black hair and bright violet eyes. She looked oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place how. She took me to the surface of the pool and with two powerful flicks of her tail, we shot through the water and landed on the tiled floor.
As soon as my feet touched something solid, I took off my mask and turned to her.
She stood before me, completely naked except for her black hair, her tail now two long and supple legs where her Mark trailed in long blue rivers.
I took a step back.
She reached out and grabbed my arm. “Synn Primus?”
My eyes widened.
“We have a message for you. From Varik Primus.”
Fear leapt through me.
“He says that he’s found you and he will get to you no matter where you hide.”
That was not a good thing.
She let me go. “He wishes us to bring you to him.” Her violet eyes narrowed as she took a step closer to me and whispered, “Take me to my daughter.”
I gulped. “Daughter?”
“Yvette.” The name was said so softly, I barely understood it. “Take me to see my Yvette.”
CHAPTER 21
A POISON-FILLED TIDE
Apparently, these people had visited Ino City before since there were fresh robes ready for them. Keeley and I dressed in the changing rooms. She was out before me.
“What’s going on?” she asked, coming up to me, trying to braid her wet tangle of hair.
I slapped her hands away and turned her around. I’d done this enough times for my sister that I was well practiced. “I have no idea. I have so many questions.”
“So do I.” She handed me a ribbon when I got to the end.
I tied off her flame colored hair and headed to the observation pool.
The fish people were still arriving and getting dressed.
“How do I get to the upper floors without having to climb several hundred stories of stairs?”
One of the observers herded us to a wide, grated door that opened onto a large platform.
The woman with the violet eyes joined us. “Synn Primus, are you going to find my Yvette?”
“I’m going to find my mother and see if I can track Yvette down. I haven’t seen her yet today.”
“You have helped her, yes?”
I shrugged. I’d nearly gotten her killed leaving Sky City and then forced the crash landing. Then there were the bugs. Technically, that wasn’t all my fault. Joshua was to blame for a large part of that, but I felt responsible. I’d instigated the early departure from Sky City. “We’ve tried.”
She raised her chin and stared at the chamber behind us. “I will join you.”
I frowned. “I don’t know the security protocols for this.”
Her violet eyes slammed down on me like a steel gate. “There are no security protocols.”
Right, but she wasn’t the one the Hands wanted. Fear thrummed through me. I wasn’t going back to Nix.
Finally, the voice said in the back of my head. Escape. Come back to me.
No! I clenched my teeth and stared hard at the woman in front of me. “Are you here to kill me?”
She shook her head once. Her hair was starting to dry. The lights reflected a dark burgundy in what I had thought was completely black. “I was sent to find you and bring you back to Varik.”
“And are you going to do that?” I asked, one hand on the metal grate behind me, ready to lift it and enter the platform. I fought the voice with everything I had, fought the eagerness to hear of Varik’s plan, fought the elation of knowing I could go back to my queen.
She wasn’t my queen!
The fish woman pierced me with her violet gaze. “Had I intended to do so, we would not now be here.”
I raised an eyebrow and tipped my
head. “Pardon my distrust, but how do I know that you’re not stalling so you can reclaim your daughter? What makes me believe that you would not turn me in after you have her?”
Her gaze softened. “Too long you have been with the Hands.” She stared straight ahead again. “That is their way. Not ours.”
The grate lifted with a rustling of metal ropes. One of the observers joined us along with two of the violet-eyed woman’s men. The observer opened a small door to a control cabinet, pushed a series of buttons and twisted two dials. He closed the door and the platform began to rise.
The trip was slow. I was antsy long before we’d reached the top floor. The grate lifted and we entered a room that wasn’t a room. The ceiling was the lethara’s medusa, and the tiled walls only went halfway to reach it. It was half as wide as it was long, and there were rows of square columns reaching to the top. They were joined together by arched trusses that seemed to serve no purpose.
Mother and a small gathering of elders were off to our left. I led the way. I wanted to hear the violet-eyed woman’s story. I wanted to understand her purpose here and what she expected to gain. Most of all, I wanted to know how she’d survived.
Was I wrong to assume that Yvette’s mother had been murdered like Keeley and Joshua’s, like Haji’s, like so many others? Like my father?
Mother sat in a low-backed chair, her hands draped over the arms. She leaned closer to my brother, Makoto, as he whispered in her ear.
She saw the woman beside me and rose to her feet, her silk robes sliding around her. “Sabine,” she said in Yetyan, “it is so good to see you.”
There was movement behind us. I turned and saw that chairs were being brought in.
Sabine clasped my mother’s arms and brought first one cheek to Mother’s and then the other. “I wish it were for better reasons.”
Mother’s dark eyes assessed the other woman. “Come, join us.”
Sabine sank gratefully into the chair beside Mother’s. “Have you seen my Yvette?”
Mother nodded, raising a hand as she regained her chair. “We are searching for her now. I believe she was last seen with Synn shu’s friend, Haji.”
Sabine shook her head, her hair gliding around her shoulders. “I do not know this man.”
I opened my mouth, but with one look from my mother, I closed it again.
Makoto took in a deep breath, his eyes wide as he caught my gaze. He clasped his hands behind his back and rocked onto the balls of his feet. His black hair was pulled in a tight top knot, making his almond-shaped blue eyes more defined on his rounded face, his blue tunic tight around the midsection.
I flicked my eyes at Mother and flared them. I needed to get her to ask certain questions. I couldn’t do that if I had no voice in the circle.
He smiled, relieved, and whispered in Mother’s ear.
She waved him off and motioned for me to take his place.
A stool was brought for me, and I perched on it as the elders settled around us.
“Good to see you, Synn,” my brother whispered to me. “And good riddance. I have no love for council. Enjoy yourself, brother.”
I clapped him on the shoulder as he left.
Keeley came and stood behind me.
Mother glanced at me and then did a double take as she looked at Keeley.
I watched the exchange. Keeley was uneasy, but she hid it marginally well. Her hands clenched on the silk of her robe.
When everyone was seated, Mother raised a hand.
A man in a black uniform stepped forward and bowed to her.
“Would you bring a chair for the head of the Bahrain Family?”
The man disappeared, and reappeared with a chair in hand.
“And another for the head of the El’Asim Family.”
Another bow. Another chair.
She nodded at me, her dark eyes flickering with pride and something else. This was a test. But I didn’t care. I now had a voice in the circle.
Keeley and I took our seats to the right of Mother, Sabine to her left and the rest of her council completing the circle.
“I believe we also have the head of Umira here, do we not?”
I licked my lips. Would Haji consider himself head of the Family? Did his Family consider him their head?
The grate at the end of the room lifted as more chairs were procured and placed between Keeley and the woman on the other side of her. Haji and Yvette stepped off the platform and into the room. Both appeared nervous as they walked toward us.
Mother addressed them as soon as they’d reached the edge of the circle. “Umira Haji Nuru,” she said in Nefertarian, Haji’s native tongue, “this council sees you as Head of your Family and worthy of representation. Do you accept?”
He looked around the circle, the dark circles around his eyes almost appearing black in the dim light of the lethara. “I accept.”
She nodded and gestured to one of the empty seats beside Keeley. “Yvette Fleur Leblanc.”
Yvette’s eyes darted around the circle, her hands clenched in fists until she saw her mother. Her eyes widened, her mouth falling open. She took a step forward, but she had not yet been invited into the circle.
“I believe that your mother would invite you into our council,” Mother said in Yetyan. “I extend the invitation on her behalf. However, you are not a head nor an elder, and thus you have no voice in this council. You may speak, but you may not be heard. Do you understand?”
Yvette didn’t take her eyes off of her mother.
Sabine rose, her lithe pale hand rising to her chest, her expression filled with hope and fear.
“Do you understand, child?” Mother repeated.
Yvette nodded.
“Then take a seat by the head of Umira.”
Yvette glanced at Haji, took a tentative step toward her mother and stopped, uncertain of what to do.
“Reunions must wait, Sabine,” Mother said quietly. “There is a great crisis.”
Yvette walked into the circle, veering towards her mother, and reached out a hand.
Rising, Sabine latched onto it with a choked sob, her lips quivering.
Mother bowed her head and touched her hand to the woman’s arm. “Sabine.”
The Leblanc woman dipped her head and reclaimed her chair, her eyes never leaving her daughter.
Yvette took the chair next to Haji, so many questions in her eyes.
I had a few of my own, but I’d sat in a few council sessions with my father, so I knew the rules. I might have a voice, but that didn’t mean I was allowed to use it before the head of the circle gave me permission to speak.
“We have many Families with us. Which language should we speak so that all can understand?” Mother’s gaze pierced everyone.
“We can speak whichever language,” Haji said in Sakin, “that you deem worthy of this conversation.”
Mother opened her mouth to speak.
I cleared my throat, glancing over at Keeley. She seemed completely lost.
Mother stopped and turned to me with an exaggerated look of expectation.
I licked my lips. That woman knew how to make me feel small. “Keeley Bahrain has lived her entire life with the Hands and speaks only one language well. Handish.”
Mother’s lips flinched.
There was a stirring amongst the circle.
Finally, Mother raised her chin and continued in Handish, “Head of Bahrain, it would do you well to learn a language other than that of our enemies.”
Keeley flushed and bowed her head, her fingers fidgeting with the silk of her robe.
“Ino Nami,” Sabine said, dragging her eyes off her daughter and bringing them to the head of the circle.
Mother nodded gravely and gestured to her.
Sabine rose to her feet once again. “Some of you might have heard by now that one of the letharan cities was attacked today. They were known to give us safe harbor. Somehow the Hands discovered this.”
We silently bit our tongues, waiting for her to
tell her story.
“We were sharing festival with the Delfins.”
Mother flinched. “They were a peaceful people. The Hands knew this. Surely.”
Sabine nodded. “Perhaps. The Knight of Wands, Varik Primus, stopped by the festival in search of Synn Primus.”
I shook my head. “I was never a Primus, Madame Leblanc. I have always been and shall always be El’Asim.”
Her eyes narrowed, her chin tipped down. “When he could not find you in the city, he decided to send you a message.”
“By destroying a lethara and his entire city?” the man with the silver pointed beard demanded.
Sabine nodded gracefully, steepling her fingers in front of her. “He told us that anyone who survived was to spread the word. No one was to provide safe harbor to Synn Primus, or they would be treated similarly.”
“He’s willing to destroy an entire city?” Keeley whispered, her green eyes sinking to the floor. “A city is so large. A lethara is so alive, a living being. And all the people who would live among one?”
Mother nodded, a sheen of recognition in her eyes. “You have learned much in your one short day here, Miss Bahrain.” She returned her attention to Sabine. “What more can you tell us? How many survivors?”
“Maybe one quarter? We tried, Nami, but there were so many and we are so few.”
“Their Mark could not help them?” one of the elders asked. I didn’t see who it was.
“They are a lesser Family,” Sabine said. “Their Mark is rarely born and is no help in the waters.”
I sighed. Great. One more thing I could feel guilty about. How great would be the cost of my freedom? Should I remain in the wild? Away from Nix? Away from Varik? Should I just surrender?
Yes. Come back to me.
Mother watched me carefully.
I swallowed and banished the voice in my head.
She gestured for Sabine to regain her seat and motioned to the rest of us to ask our questions.
The man with the silver pointed beard stood. “What weapons did he use?”
Sabine frowned, shaking her head. “There were multiple explosions. I do not know what he used. He had a button in his hand, and he simply pressed it.”
Joshua cursed behind me.
I twisted around in my chair. “When did you get here?” I asked.
