“Fire!” I bellow. My arrow masters pull back their bows, constructed from whale ribs, and ignite their arrows. It was an ingenious creation, sparked by the discovery of a flare, still burning in spite of being at the bottom of the ocean. Magnesium, that was the key: a chemical that burns so hot that it makes its own stream of oxygen from the surrounding water, keeping it lit. Saturnus had been impressed and I watch as the arrows, flaming, fall upon the city.
A satisfying panic rings out as the people below scatter.
I move forward, pointing with my long fingers, signalling for the army to descend. They move, a black mass of intense power, each beast armed with some kind of weapon, many with little more than boards of rotting wood with fish hooks stuck through, but each as lethal as the next. I am glad in this moment that I have trained them personally and I watch as they move, meeting to clash with the flimsy band of warriors that the mer call an army. My next command isn’t necessary, but I feel I need to exert my dominance and keep some semblance of control over the mass of soulless killers I have harboured. It is simple.
“Decimate.”
I swim like a dart, lithe and with quick momentum, through the water with such accuracy and pointed speed that one might not discern me unless they really try. I am a blur, high on the bloodshed occurring beneath me. Scarlette at my hip and the scythe strapped flat against the length of my spine.
“Brother!” I bellow, my mouth wide in a smile, Saturnus has shed his costume of light and is back to what I made him. His tail had always made me feel like I was on a knife’s edge, proud in one aspect, that I had created something so wicked looking, and jealous in another that my own appearance did not exude such power.
“Solustus. My how they have grown,” Saturnus smiles, his jagged teeth showing gaps that would make anyone shudder.
“Indeed. Alyssa has been busy.”
“I can see that. I swear outlawing her was the best thing I ever did. I knew she had greatness in her, even if I did have to pull it out of her.” He looks smug, of course he feels this is his victory, pulling strings, manipulating from afar.
“They will dismantle this army in moments,” I watch as my creatures set about the Knights with relish. The mer bend and buckle beneath the weight of so many vicious, clawing bodies seeking out flesh to tear from bone.
Saturnus smiles as the line breaks, heads falling from bodies, and the Psirens pour forth, moving out into the streets.
“Welcome home,” Saturnus turns to me smiling. Victory looks good on him. He clasps my hand in his palm and pulls me in, patting me on the back. I close my eyes a moment, savouring his approval.
“I brought Regus,” I enlighten him, knowing we need him for the next part of our plan.
“Good, we need him to shift the decoration from around the seal. I’ve captured the seer based off the information you retrieved from the Necrimad, she’s in my office. However, there’s still one mer in particular we need.”
“Who would that be?” I request, keeping my eyes on the army as my soldiers move into the streets like a plague, grabbing brightly coloured maidens and taking them apart.
“The metal master, Oscar,” Saturnus says the name with disdain, like it’s toxic.
“What need do we have of him?” I enquire as the sounds of screams start to reach me.
“You can’t tell me you think we’re going to raise a pure blooded demon and let it run free. We’ll be needing containment,” Saturnus cocks a black eyebrow as if I’m stupid. It is true that I hadn’t thought of it like that.
I say nothing, allowing my palm to stroke the edge of my rapier’s handle.
“Where’s the boy?” I ask Saturnus, dying to change the subject. Saturnus’ smile widens as he points downward. I look down and far below is the Crowned Ruler, splayed out and broken on the ground, I can see that his eyes are open, unblinking and I wonder if he’s alive.
“Dead?” I enquire.
“Why should I care? He’s nothing special,” Saturnus dismisses my comment with the wave of a hand.
“Come, and get Regus. There is work to be done.”
We float, impatient before the giant sea glass shard. To so many mer it is a symbol of hope, and yet all along it has been window dressing on the real power, the real reason this city was erected. It stands over the seal of Poseidon, where he trapped my power and stripped me down to what I am.
“Can you do it?” Saturnus turns to Regus. His tail, that of a hammer-head shark, barely moves and his heavily muscled torso is tense with concentration. His bald head moves up and down, never one for words; he could be a mute.
“You might want to get back,” is his only sentiment. His bulging muscles disgust me as the thought of so much excess of flesh on his bones makes him slow and cumbersome.
Saturnus flexes his tailfin, giving Regus a wide berth, and I move minutely but gain a large distance. I smile at my speed, one of the only things I have over my brother.
We stare at the palace for a few moments, nothing happening until a sudden and mighty rumble erupts from the earth below. Regus raises his palms, his muscles tense to the point where veins burst from their surface.
Saturnus and I watch as the palace begins to shatter, unable to bear the violent cracking of its foundations beneath. Regus brings his palms down in one fail swoop and I watch as a trail of black follows them, the darkness of his magic showing itself. With this gesture the palace shatters from the base upward with a sharp, mind-numbing crack. The glass falls like jagged crystal rain and sand flies up from the sea floor.
I turn away from the destruction, bored, staring at the war going on at my back. My Psirens are owning the mer, showing them where they belong. I watch as they rise, taking members of the Knights with them, taking them for a bath of sunlight and leaving them as nothing but sand. Others go for a more abrupt approach, simply ripping heads from bodies in mushroom clouds of scarlet hue. I turn back to the giant pile of glass.
“Removing that debris is going to take a while,” I run my fingers through my hair, flexing my spine and puffing out my chest. Saturnus raises both his eyebrows and his eyes sparkle, white from the depths of yellow and black. He looks practically feline.
“We have nothing but time. Our enemies are sand, brother.” He turns to the mass annihilation occurring on the streets below us; sand swilling in with the blood that is spilling out into the water by the gallon, he purrs, “Nothing can stop me now.”
AZURE
The streets of the Occulta Mirum are in chaos and all I can do is be still, surrounded by the din and incapable of taking in what’s going on around me. It’s like everything is in slow motion, a merman with a violet tailfin and blonde hair has his body removed at the neck, falling and then disappearing in a plume of blood and sand that swirls together in a sickly sweet and gritty concoction. It falls around me as I inhale it, feeling the bloody water coat the back of my throat as it’s taken inside by my gills. I had been out of the darkness too long, away from this violent world, sleeping in soft beds and surrounded by those who pity, those who care. That’s not what I need right now. I realise this as I watch a maiden with blonde hair being taken and shoved into the wall of a cylindrical tower to my right. I need the darkness; I need the power. Everything that I had known is tumbling around me. They’ve done it, they’ve really gone and taken the city. They are slaughtering everyone. I had seen it in my vision, but in person, with the screaming and the smell of burnt flesh in the water from the impossible fire, it is different.
Something comes out of nowhere, smashing into the side of my skull, my head takes the impact but I manage to maintain my upright position in the water. A Psiren, a male with the tail of a great white shark is grinning, looking pleased with himself as he pulls back on his slingshot again.
“Oh you’re going to wish you’d aimed that at someone else you little…” I mutter to myself as I start to feel darkness bubbling up from the deep void within me.
I move, like a killer, like Titus had shown me. It’
s only a twitch, but as I fall through the street at high speed, the boy who hit me in the head with a luckily aimed rock gets tackled, the air blown from his lungs as I set about dismantling him. The smile vanishes from his face as my jaw opens wide, bending down to bite out his trachea, ripping it from his form. As I rise to plunge and take his life, the blue of his eyes becomes non-existent and his pupils dilate, not with darkness, but with fear. I stop.
“Get out of here,” I move from his body and he looks confused. “GO!” I scream, wondering what I must look like to him, a monster. I was the thing monsters feared apparently.
I don’t know what makes me stop myself from killing him, but I realise in this moment that killing him isn’t going to save anyone I love. I turn my back on his shocked expression as he rights himself, moving back into the mass of bodies, locked in immortal struggle.
My thoughts go to my priorities, trying to see clearly through the anger that mists my thought process.
Starlet.
I remind myself of my soulmate, quickly picturing her face and then realising I need to find somewhere quiet, only for a few moments, if I’m to locate her.
I move across the street, where I dodge a few Psirens who are fighting with Ghazi and Cole. It amazes me as I move quickly past them that they’re not dead, but instead beating back an enemy that is overtaking them at a ratio of six to one. They are incredible fighters and as I turn from them I hear metal armour clang against weapons and the cries and grunts of exertion from fending off the enemy. I hope silently that they make it, we’ll need them for after, if there is an after.
I take cover in the shadows of a cylindrical surface scraper and try to drown out the sounds of the killing and fighting going on around me. The water remains tinted slightly red and the noise is overwhelming and barbaric. I breathe, ignoring the metallic taste in the back of my throat.
Please, Goddess, if you’re out there, let me see into her.
I make this silent prayer before the fog rolls in as I will it.
I’m in Starlet’s mind, looking through her eyes. She’s in Saturnus’ study and she’s reading a book. I wonder what the hell she’s playing at, reading during the biggest war I can remember, but then I notice something. She’s underlined words in a red ink that could be blood for all I know. I trace them through her sight, scanning the page. The message from her is clear.
Do Not Save Me. Run. Save Them.
I’ll give her some credit, she’s done well getting the correct words on the same page to send the message, but I’m not leaving her behind, no way in hell. I know where she is and I’m getting her the hell out of here, we’re family.
I open my eyes, coming back into my body and suddenly realise that the building I’m leaning against is shaking, as is everything else around me.
An earthquake? Now? This can’t be a coincidence.
I peer out into the street, but instead of focusing on what’s going on around me in the immediate vicinity, I look up. I don’t know what makes me look up, but once I do I know why I have.
Three figures. Solustus, a black tailed Psiren, and what appears to be Regus are standing near the Alcazar Oceania.
Shit. I cuss internally.
It was Regus. His power over earth is incredibly powerful, not that Titus would have ever used it, because that would have implied Regus had power he didn’t. Another Psiren however, take Solustus, wouldn’t hesitate to use his abilities to get what he wanted.
I flex my tailfin propelling myself forward, moving toward the central square where Saturnus’ office resides, ducking in and out of the fighting, clenching my fists to hold back the darkness which is telling me, over and over, in constant dull rhythm, to take each one of these Psirens and rip their throats out.
I weave between them, trying not to get clobbered. You’d think I’d be feeling my heart race, or be unable to order my thoughts, but suddenly I’m finding clarity among the chaos. I wonder if it’s because I’ve known this was coming all along, or because I’m so used to death and pain and the fall of everything beautiful in my life that I’ve lost the ability to really care.
I study the fights going on around me, scrutinising the details someone panicked would miss, trying to avoid any errors while whipping through the water at a speed rivalling even the fastest marine life. They’re attacking more maidens now. I look back over one shoulder and realise that’s because there are hardly any Knights left.
I refuse to dwell on the implications of this, moving ever forward, until I come to a roadblock, and a psychotic one at that. Caedes is hovering in the street looking straight at me. Every muscle in my body tenses and I feel the sinew in my tail readying to manoeuvre. I don’t want to get into a fight with Caedes, but knowing him, he’s not going to give me much other choice.
It's minute, a movement so small it’s barely perceptible to the most inhuman of eyes, even mine. Nonetheless I notice Caedes recoil the spines which protrude from his tail, that of a lionfish, ever so slightly. I know he’s got me in his sights and I know I’m going to have to fight him, so I just manage to breathe in before I see him smile. All of a sudden, he’s on top of me. It’s a silent struggle as his hands close in around my throat, his eyes manic with a lack of logical reasoning. I had seen darkness in the eyes of Titus, but there is something eerie about looking into Caedes eyes, like he’s in a trance or a dream from which he can never awake.
As this occurs to me my thoughts start to evaporate, like the lack of oxygen is smothering my ability to think. My gills are trying to open, but Caedes’ grasp is too tight. I reach out, flailing with my arms until I feel something solid knock the back of my hand. I grab it, pulling it up and slamming it into my attacker’s skull. Caedes falls back, disoriented as I gasp for air, pulling water into my lungs as they open and close in frantic rhythm. I know the only way I can beat him in a fight is to become just as twisted as he is. I wonder momentarily if it’s worth risking my own sanity to kill him.
No. I think to myself as I put a slender hand up to my gills. My blue fingernails gently move across the skin, which feels tender, and I’m angry. I look at my other hand, realising I’m holding a helmet full of sand. It belonged to one of the Knight’s by the looks of the design and I wonder if the sand pouring out of it is all that remains of the soldier it once belonged to. I watch as Caedes rights himself with one flick of his tail, his spines flared out, his red hair dishevelled, and his black eyes spinning in their sockets.
“Ow,” he spits blood into the water and it dissipates before our eyes. He begins to move, circling me. I compensate, circling him too, two lions waiting for a weakness in the other. I’m clutching the helmet in one hand as epic battles continue around us, dances of death and struggles for survival raging on in an unending clamour. I drown out the noise, the cries of pain and the grunts of victory, focusing on the problem in front of me.
I feel the tension in the water rise momentarily; something is going to happen. He might kill me. It might finally be over.
Something does happen, but it’s not what I expect as a mighty cracking sound explodes through the air. I try not to let it distract me, as I don’t want to give any inkling of lapsing focus. Suddenly, as though fate has stepped in, Caedes falls to the floor unconscious. I gape, confused, looking around for an explanation. The back of his head is bloodied from a rock, the red fluid rising into the water like a twisting serpent.
In the distance I see the shooter; it’s the boy I saved, smiling at his improved accuracy. He nods at me and then turns, going back to shooting the people I’m defending with one flick of his muscular shark tail. I don’t have time to react because in what seems like only a moment, a shuddering is making the water around me vibrate visibly.
I turn and see a gargantuan cloud of sand and shards of glass hurtling towards me. The Alcazar is falling, a hundred tonnes of glass, stone, and debris collapsing in on itself and falling to the ground. I hear the sound around me seize as others finally notice what’s happening. I pause before turni
ng and swimming, getting out of the main street, taking cover against one of the other buildings.
I look up as the cloud reaches us. The sand and displacement of the water feels like an immense wind, stinging my eyes and prickling my skin. I turn, trying to get out of its path, entering the building I’m leaning against to try and escape. Inside the doorway things are slightly calmer as the debris from the castle washes over the building. The rumbling eventually stops as I wait it out, suddenly realising where it is I’ve ended up. The armoury.
I look around, the walls are practically barren but there are a few pieces of armour that haven’t been taken. I frown. They look like Orion’s. I know I’ve seen him wearing something similar before. This thought suggests an interesting concept to me. Where are he and Saturnus? The Crowned Ruler and his Right Hand are two of the main people you’d expect to find either fighting or in the Alcazar, but now that is gone. I wonder if they are both trapped inside… or worse. My heart constricts a moment for my brother, who has been trying so hard to keep the city safe mere hours ago. I place the helmet on over my black locks and take some chainmail to wrap around my tailfin while trying to find a chest plate that fits, but nothing works over the top of my breasts. I growl at the lack of attire for women. Starlet was right; this city has major issues. I wish I had my pearl strung whip, but I had gotten rid of it after the last Psiren invasion… or rather Orion had confiscated it, not trusting me with weaponry. I sigh before pulling a broadsword down from the rack feeling the weight of heavy steel in my palms.
Yes, this will do nicely.
Out in the streets once more the fighting is still going on, but the numbers of mer are drastically reduced. Psirens are everywhere, some looking bored and others seem to be looking for something. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t want to be noticeable so I focus on the thought of Arabella, feeling my pupils dilate so they’re black. My tailfin has been reverting to its old electric blue lately, but I’m hoping the chainmail makes it look duller somehow.
The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) Page 28
