by Shea Berkley
“Hide me,” he rasped.
The mist suddenly swelled even faster than I had ever called forth. It was his doing. His wish that enhanced my magic. I smiled. He was ripe for the taking.
As I entered the pool, a large splash brought me up short. A woman fell in and her heavy dress pulled her straight to the bottom. Watching her sink, I remembered spying her with the boy, holding hands, talking. As she struggled to swim, a flash of her magic invaded my senses, a magic that felt familiar, yet tainted.
Then I remembered. The fisherman’s magic. The same magic I’d felt for my child, and at one point her father. Without warning, my anger boiled against this woman. The thick darkness kept her from seeing me, which was to my advantage for I could see as well at night as I could in the light of day. I rushed forward and sank my nails into her shoulder. At my grasp, a wall of bubbles sprang from her lips. I pulled her to the rocky edge and forced her body between two boulders. Satisfied she could not loosen herself, I darted away. This was a fine moment. The boy would lose his love and then his own life.
Another splash rippled the surface. The boy–now a man–had enter the water. His blind, hectic movements spoke of his alarm. Could he actually be searching for the woman? Curiosity held me still. It took only a few moments before he found her. Cupping her face, he gave her his own air, and then left for the surface to capture another breath. Shock at his sacrifice held me captive for a moment. He could not breathe underwater, yet he dared his own death to offer her life?
Confusion rattled me. My chest grew strangely tight. I returned to the woman who was frantically climbing out of her dress. With a quick jerk under my hand, the dress tore and she broke free. She began her rise to the surface, but I snatched her back down. Her gaze widened behind the veil of her floating hair. Air bubbled from her mouth as a panicked look crossed her face. Movement from above cause me to glance up, and I saw the man coming back. That would not do. I darted away, dragging the woman toward the waterfall and the grotto located just behind it.
The falls thundered in my ears as I pulled the woman to the surface. She sputtered and wheezed and raked her hair from her eyes as I curiously looked on. What was it about the woman that made him willing to give up his life? Wet and half drowned, she had all the appearance of a weak human.
I was wrong.
With my attention diverted, the moon broke through the mist, casting a bright shaft of light against the waterfall and illuminating the crystalline walls of the grotto for a split second before I thickened the mist again. But a moment was all it took. She saw me. With a gasp, she lashed out, raking her nails down my skin and drawing blood. I screeched in anger, camouflaged my skin a midnight blue and leapt forward, drawing my own blood-laced revenge.
She backed herself against the rocks and blindly kicked out. Her feet rammed against my chest, which propelled me backwards. My surprise quickly turned to fury. Gathering my strength, I dove, sank my nails into her arm and yanked her under. We sped into the pool and passed the man, but she managed to latch onto him and drag him beneath the surface as well.
As I wrestled with the woman, I felt their magic combine. It grew until it fairly burned my skin. I had no choice but to release her, but I did so by slamming them into the rocks. Her head hit with a satisfying thunk.
I receded into the depths of the pool and clutched my stinging hand to my body as I glared up at them. My anger smoldered brighter than ever. They struggled together for a moment and then scrabbled for the bank where they helped each other from the pool. How dare they defile my world. How dare they use the father’s magic against me.
Through my strength I’d weakened them. As I stared up through the water, I saw him collapse to his knees on the edge of the pool. He had faced his worst nightmare and survived. He must think himself invincible. It was time to show him how utterly foolish and vulnerable he really was.
13
I no longer cared about the woman. With the man gone, surely she would turn away and wither into dust. It was him and only him I wanted. With wicked pleasure, I pushed off the bottom of the pool. The water sang past me as I launched myself from the water. Droplets fanned out around my body, their weight holding me aloft for a moment before I wrapped my arms around his torso and pulled him into the depths of the pool.
This time, I did not waste one moment. I snatched the clothing along his nape and pulled his struggling form behind me as I slithered through the gap that separated the pool from the lake. He clawed at the rocks, securing a handhold, but I would not be denied. After a kick to his head and a sharp tug, he let go, and I headed straight for deeper water, past the cattails and thick reeds that choked the banks of the lake, skimming over submerged boulders tufted with algae, and between long submerged tree roots that formed hollowed shelters for fish. The deeper we dove, the colder the water became, and its color turned from pale green to turquoise blue to dark sapphire.
Long ago, I’d taken a man to the very depths of the lake and watched as the air inside him grew smaller and smaller and then not at all. When I let him go, his frantic churning toward the glittering surface had disturbed the beast. The man’s last moment of life showed him the manner of his death. Whether he drowned or died of fright, I did not know and I did not care.
Of all the men who dared the lake, the fisherman’s son deserved a special death. I’d been deceived by the father and led on a merry chase by the son, yet I no longer cared how he died. I was physically tired, and weary of the pain that ripped into my soul. I wanted him gone from this world, now and forever.
The weight of dragging him suddenly lightened. I turned to see he had slipped out of his shirt. I cared not. I let the shirt go. We had gone farther than I knew he could swim for air. It was time to watch him take the last breath of his life. He tried to move his limbs, but they refused to obey. His dark hair floated around his handsome face and his skin had turned translucent, showing the bluish-green veins lying just beneath his skin. A spasm rippled through his body as he fought the urge to flood his lungs with water. The struggle was useless. He had no choice.
“Do it,” I commanded, impatient for his death. “End this now.”
He grasped my shoulders, his fingers burning into my skin as he pulled me close. Too close. I could see my reflection in his gaze, the current’s wild whipping of my hair as it framed the malevolence of my face. His eyes suddenly rolled back in his head, freeing me of the disturbing image, and air gushed from his lungs. He took a deep gulp. The muscles in his neck bulged in his last moments of panic.
I smiled as I witnessed his soul being banished from his body.
It took a pain-filled moment until he went completely limp. His fingers loosened. His hands slowly drifted away from me.
It was done. The bargain met. The price paid.
The lake gently tugged at his body, pulling it further away. But the tightness in my chest still hurt. Images of his devotion to the woman haunted my mind…and one question kept surfacing. Why?
Man had once shown me preference. He had lavished on me his attention and swore his everlasting love. But it had been a false promise. I realized now it was love that had burned me when I sought to harm the woman–their love for each other. It was stronger than me, more wild, more secret than I could know. It had fought for her life and won.
But it hadn’t been enough. He was dead. Now I would find the peace that evaded me. Yet, as I watched the lake claim his body, I felt no peace. My heart became a dead weight within my chest, scarred anew by the life I was forced to endure.
As he floated further away, his body jerked. Once. Twice.
His eyes shot open and his shocked sky-blue gaze looked straight at me.
My heart leapt to life. Once again, I’d been betrayed. He had not drowned. He was as surprised by the notion as I, and that leaned toward my favor. I rushed at him, wrapped my fingers around his throat and squeezed.
He must die. He. Must. Die.
Pain seared through my fingers and into my palms. I yanke
d them away, howling my offense. I gaped stupefied at the red hue of my hands and the throb of burned flesh. My gaze whipped back at him. His throat was as lily white as always. Not a mark to be found. I rushed him again, baring my teeth at his neck, but as soon as they touched his skin, a jolt of pain flashed through my body, shocking my senses and tumbling me away.
I shook off the shock and stared horrified at the man. What manner of magic infused this being?
Anger tore at my soul and again, I attacked him, only this time I latched onto his thick, dark hair and towed him deeper into the lake.
Schools of fish, their silver bodies flashing their alarm, darted out of my way as I took him to my long-ago haven, the only land my feet could touch. Our heads broke through the calm waters of the cavern, and with little care, I threw him onto the cold rocks. He landed hard, scraping his skin raw, but he rolled to the side and back onto his feet, spitting water from his lungs. Though his body had grown even paler and he had begun to shiver, he crouched low as if he were prepared to fight.
His eyes glittered sharply. “W-what kind of magic did you w-wield to allow me to breathe underwater?”
I cocked my head and narrowed my eyes, the sting of my hands still present and painful. How dare he play me false. “None of mine, human, as you well know.”
His legs shook and he collapsed to his hands and knees, though his voice rose in a hoarse, threatening snarl. “You can’t keep me here.”
“Maybe not. But I will try.” With that, I dove and exited the cavern. I hovered by the entrance and called into the deepest part of the lake. The waters reverberated with an answer, and I waited.
I could feel the human behind me, waiting for a chance to slip by. As he crept closer and closer to the entrance, a warm, stiff current heralded the creature’s approach. Out of the darkness, a triangular head—its width wider than the nearest boulder—slithered into view. A pair of boney fins flanked each side of its head, as if they were large ears beating the water for sound. Yellow eyes, set deep in its head, glowed as they scanned the area, and a pair of sharp horns sat atop the skull like two spokes of a crown. Its long neck came into view, followed by a sleek, scaly form, and the wings—perfect for swimming or flying—lashed out from its body as the ancient creature moved lazily forward. Its claws churning up the bottom until it came to rest beside me. The vivid purple of its scales melded into a cool green and then pale white, enabling it to hide in the deepest depths or far up in the air. It was a magnificent creature so ancient and so hated by man, it had been hunted into near extinction.
There existed an affinity between the beast and I, an awareness that we were the last of our kind. I placed a tender-palmed hand on the sharp angles of its head. “You know the ills which have befallen me. You know the evil that is man.”
The creature stared its understanding, and I moved aside so it could see into the tunnel leading to the cavern and to the human hovering nearby. The man’s face paled. Shocked disbelief warred with his desire to leave, but even he knew the likely results of his escape. Slowly he faded back toward the cavern and out of view. I stroked the large head. “If he comes out, eat him.”
The human would not be so reckless as to wander out now. As the dragon settled, I made my way to the surface. Pushing through the reeds and weeding through the roots of the lily pads, I scoured the banks for the woman. She held the key to my woes and to the magic that kept the man alive. I knew that truth as deeply as I knew every rock and creature that inhabited my lake. But I saw nothing of her. No human at all. For two days and two nights I waited, and by the third morning’s light, I returned to the cavern, and to the man who would not die.
14
I entered the cavern and eased my head above water, staying quiet as I gazed at the man who had caused me so much trouble. The last I’d seen of him, he had been huddled against the rocks, scared but defiant. I thought he would find no such comfort here, but I was wrong. He now lay in a circlet of sunlight, gathering as much warmth as his pathetically mottled pink and blue skin could catch and hold before the spot disappeared. Though his pants had finally dried, they lay against his body ripped and tattered from the violence of our meeting, and were hardly thick enough to give him protection in this damp environment.
He reached out and picked through my treasure, selecting a large stone.
“See, my friend,” he said to the skin and bones chained to the far wall. “We are surrounded by riches. Fat lot it does you or I, pretty though it all may be.”
He blew the dust free and held the stone up for inspection. The glow of azure fire colored his fingertips, shooting rays of blue around the cavern and lighting his face a soft cerulean.
Handsome still. Even in this moist and dark place, he could woo a woman to give her heart away. And that was my problem. The woman’s love for him kept him strong. Somehow, I had to break that bond. Weaken him by weakening her.
He pulled out a small square of cloth and handled it lovingly. A whisper filled with longing sounded. “For you, Nari.” He wrapped the stone within, and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “Have faith, my love. I will come back.”
A sudden rise of anger captured my heart. My skin flicked from orange to red to purple and then back again. “You dare steal?” I snarled.
His head jerked toward me, and with lightening speed, I bolted straight up, snatched the cloth from his fingers, and slid back into the water before he could even blink an eye.
He shot to his feet and warily watched me as I darted to the opposite shelf. I flung the fish I’d caught and the cloth wrapped rock next to each other before pulling myself free of the water.
“I have no complaint with you.” he said. “I have done nothing to warrant your attack.”
He would appeal to my mercy? He’d soon find out I had none. “Your kind has done more harm against me than you know. I am within my rights. This is my lake. My home. All have been warned away. But your father chose not to listen. And when caught, like a coward, he panicked. He deserves to die. Your complaint is with him, for he set the price which you must now pay.”
I took up the fish and ripped it open from gill to tail over the mollusk shell. Blood gushed from the wound along with the slick mound of its innards. I picked the unwanted bits from the shell and swirled the blood, blowing on its surface. “Show me the woman,” I rasped, blowing and asking…blowing and asking again and again. “Show me.”
The man leaned forward, his interest keen on what I did on the far side of the cavern. I ignored him. The blood bubbled and then grew still. I tucked my feet beneath me and peered deeply, waiting for the visions to appear.
The image of the woman grew clearer, taking form to reveal her kneeling by the lake, crying. I cast my gaze on the man. “Your woman thinks you’re dead. She cries for you.”
“What?” He staggered forward, coming close to the edge that would see him in the water again. “You see her?”
“I see and hear many things. She has not eaten since you left. Soon she will be no more.” If only it were that easy, but I knew better. There was a power the pair possessed that I could not fight.
I watched his face cloud with misery. Good. Let his heart ache. Let it be drained of all hope. Let him share my pain of love found and then lost. I peered into the shell. Desperation caused my hands to clutch the shell tightly. “Tell me what to do. Tell me how to break their bond.”
“What did you say?” he barked across the expanse.
I blocked out his voice and concentrated on the blood’s glassy surface. A thin whisper of magic trailed through my head.
When the woman of man
believes his love for her is no more,
victory will be yours.
“But to say he is alive,” I muttered to myself as a frown burrowed against my brow, “will that not give her hope?” It could, but I had no other choice. The bond must be broken.
A rock skittered across the ground in front of me. I slanted a heated glare at the man.
“Nari h
as nothing to do with this.” His voice grew more desperate. “I’m the one you want. You’ve won.”
Ignoring him, I set aside the bowl and grabbed the cloth. It should not be too difficult to convince the woman of his fickle heart. I touched a bundle of cloth set in a niche, a reminder that man was not to be trusted.
“What do you plan? Tell me.” His roar echoed against the confining rock walls.
My gaze snapped back to him. He paced the shelf, his face as fierce as a dragon’s snarl. Wild eyed, he raked his hand through his hair, then stopped and faced me. His color deepened while I rose mutely to my feet.
“Tell me,” he shouted.
His overwhelming concern delighted me. A wicked smile touched my lips. “It shall all be over soon.”
With that, I dove back into the water, his shouts to come back following me through the tunnel and into the lake.
Evening had come twice since I’d taken the son, and now it approached again. I called on the mist and followed the shore. The droplets grew light on my skin–the mist non-threatening to any who would see it. I wove it between the Merlin’s grass and sweet rush, slithering to a stop just beyond where the woman knelt. Her hands were wrapped in her hair, her body bent double with undisguised pain, and a man stood behind her, far older than her, with a fretful face.
“Come away, my child,” he said gently, reaching out to her.
When he touched her shoulder to pull her to her feet, she jerked away. “No. Don’t touch me. I will never leave this place. Never.”
“Don’t say such things. I know your pain. I know you loved him. But he is gone.”
She covered her ears and shook her head. “Stop saying that. It isn’t true. He lives. I know he does.”
A younger man came forward and an older woman followed. She put her hand to the younger man’s arm, stopping him. “Your sister mourns. There is nothing we can do.”
