“You’re going before the chief. So no speaking unless you’re spoken to. If one of you even so much as looks threatening, I’ll…” Nika is rambling on and Cain rolls his eyes, thwarting her authority.
“Relax, Nika. The chief can handle himself. He hardly needs saving by the likes of you.” He turns away from her silvery scorn and shoves the high arches of the doors open before us.
We enter into the room, following in single file, not wanting to rush all at once. I push myself forward and past some of the pod, wanting to get a good look at what’s going on. I hear Orion inhale slightly. Rising slightly to get a better view of him I can see he’s looking around for someone.
“Callie…” I hear him say my name and I’m suddenly confused. Why would he want to speak to me? After all, he’s been acting like a constipated rhino since I told him about Vex.
I move toward him, my heart racing as his gaze burns with intensity as it find me, swimming through the crowd toward him. I don’t recognise the look on his face, and I thought I’d seen them all.
I reach him and he doesn’t say anything. I hear someone else calling my name, someone unfamiliar, but before I can turn, Orion has both his palms on my shoulder and is spinning me toward the centre of the room.
A man with a long silvery beard and a snowy white tailfin, massive and clad with more muscle than anyone I’ve ever seen is hovering, looking directly at me like I’m the sun and he’s spent his life eclipsed in shadow. One word, instinctual as a child’s very first, falls from my lips before I can stop it.
“Dad?”
CALLIE
Aquamarine eyes are staring at me and there’s a hush that’s fallen, like the kind that comes after someone has died and there’s nothing more to say.
Instead though, this silence is because there’s too much to say, and I don’t know where to begin. My heart is thudding, unable to slow and I’m frozen in the water, unable to move, statuesque and stuck in the moment I had laid eyes on him for the very first time.
“Well, this is sufficiently awkward,” Azure acknowledges the atmosphere, rolling her eyes. Good old Azure, always there to make a snarky comment when you need her. Orion is staring at me, intensely. I turn to him, rather than addressing my father, automatically thinking of him as the one with answers.
“How… I… I don’t understand,” I look at him, into his wide eyes that are half-pity filled, half-shocked.
“I’m sure I can explain,” the voice rings out, but it does not fall from Orion’s lips. I turn again; facing the man I had been waiting to meet for so long and yet I can’t quite figure out how to act around him now it’s finally happening.
“What is this? What are these people?” It’s not a personal question; it’s not even anything to do with me. As a first question it is merely unimaginative, and yet I ask it.
“You’re currently in the throne room of the Gelida Silentium, home of the Adaro. Children of Sedna.” I look back to Orion again, unsure of what this means. He shrugs, equally confused.
“Sedna, what is that?” I ask as the mermaids behind me stir slightly.
“He is the God of these waters. The Adaro are his warriors. Just like you are the warriors of Atargatis.”
“But I thought…” I begin, my voice seeming small in the vastness of the cavernous room.
“You thought that Atargatis was the only Goddess of the sea? Well, that is hardly surprising. Given circumstances.” My father moves from the centre of the room, coming toward me. He’s huge, bigger than Ghazi, Orion, or Regus. He’s different now from the photo I had seen, of back when he and my mother were together. His hair is longer, whiter, but I don’t think it’s through age. It’s something else. Something more magical. “You look just like her…” he whispers. I blush, feeling the eyes of so many on my back. I turn slightly and Gideon senses my unease.
“Nika, Cain! Take the others and find them somewhere to stay please. These people are guests, and I want them treated as such. Please explain to Orion anything he wishes to know. I need some time alone with my daughter.” He’s looking above me, past the top of my head and I feel people start to shift. They’re moving, leaving me behind without them. Orion leaves too, giving me not so much as a parting gesture or word.
“So…” Gideon begins as the icy double doors behind us slam shut. His tailfin flexes and he moves in the water like it’s nothing, effortless.
“I’m glad I finally found you. I wondered what happened. I mean why you weren’t there when I turned, and then I got your letter,” I blurt out this explanation, babbling on in the way I always do when I’m nervous.
“Your mother, she gave it to you?” He asks me, eyeing the necklace I’m wearing with a subtle flick of his gaze.
“Yeah. I mean, I turned, and then I went to say goodbye to her. She gave it to me then,” he nods.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up.” The apology seems empty somehow, like words cannot possibly make up for the time that’s passed. It’s weird, I’m in the same room as my father, the person I’d been longing to meet, and I’m oddly numb inside. Kind of like I’m defending myself sub-consciously, paranoid as always.
“It’s okay. You were exiled right?” My father’s brow rises slightly, surprised that I’m aware of this fact.
“Not exactly. What precisely did Saturnus tell you?” He looks at me, his eyes scanning my face intensely.
“He told me you were exiled, to keep the peace with the other couples. You were exiled for falling in love with my mother. He didn’t want the other mer knowing it was possible. Something like that,” I shrug my shoulders, feeling my heart rate calm a little. My body feels the chill suddenly seeping into my flesh once more and I shudder.
“Sounds about what I’d expect from the likes of him,” Gideon rolls his eyes and I narrow mine.
“You knew he was evil?” I ask him, more confused still.
“I know he’s not right in the head.”
“He killed everyone. The Occulta Mirum, it’s gone dad,” I use the term, seeing how it feels rolling from my tongue. It’s kind of nice and I smile. Gideon smiles too.
“God, how long I’ve waited for today… but wait, the Occulta Mirum is…”
“Destroyed. Saturnus, he dropped the protective glimmer, the Psirens, they overtook everything.”
“Atlas, he must have known…is that how you all got out?”
“Atlas is dead,” I say sourly. It feels all too awful to have to break the news again. The death of such a wise, wonderful man still stings. Gideon sits back into a throne, draped with sodden furs. It towers with cascades of ice swirling upward, twisting and creating the seat itself. My father’s eyes widen and then his shoulders sag slightly. His tail is still, it’s snowy whiteness lost amongst all that is frozen.
“That’s why we’re here,” I admit, my voice small.
“You… fled?” He bites his bottom lip, furrowing the brow of his thick skull. He’s such a large man.
“Yes. We’re all that’s left.”
“But the Psirens… how did such a small number manage to overtake a whole city?” He looks so confused. I breathe in, knowing I need to explain. I look around for a place to sit. This is going to be a long conversation and I’m so cold. “Allow me.” Gideon flicks his wrist lazily and the water behind me transforms, manipulating itself into a delicate chair made of ice. “Here.” He passes me the furs on which he’s sitting, smiling.
I turn, draping them over the seat before placing my scaled behind down. Gideon goes back to sit in the now bare throne, I wonder how he’s not frozen, sitting with his scales on the bare ice.
“Here’s the thing. The Psirens, they started growing; turning others, humans to be like them. Alyssa… she would lure boys out and then kill them. Mixing her blood with theirs.”
“Alyssa?” My father’s eyes narrow slightly, and my breath catches in my throat. The woman I killed, my father’s soulmate… how could I ever explain that to him? Will he hate me? I don’t wan
t to ruin our relationship before it’s begun, but I worry I have no other choice.
“Yes, she was mixing her blood, making ‘children’. That’s what she called them anyway,” I know I must sound nervous all of a sudden and I shift in the chair.
“We need to stop her,” his face is stony, horrified. I hold up a palm, silencing his emerging rant.
“She’s dead. I killed her,” I whisper it, like it’s the darkest secret I know.
“What?! What happened?” He looks horrified.
“She attacked me, we fought and I beheaded her with a trident,” I whisper the answer again, like I’m a tiny child being scolded.
“What! Why wasn’t Orion protecting you?!” My head rises and suddenly I meet my father’s gaze, blasting him with intensity. He wasn’t worried about the death of Alyssa at all; he was concerned about my safety. How utterly ridiculous.
“Orion doesn’t protect me, I protect myself. Why aren’t you sad about Alyssa. She’s your soulmate!” I look at him, angry now.
“Whoa… okay. Sorry. I can see how this appears untoward. You have to understand, Callie, I never loved Alyssa. I was told she was my soulmate, by Saturnus, so I did my duty by her. I thought I was in love, but I discovered this was not the case. I never knew love until I met Patience.”
“How can that be?” I ask him and he shrugs.
“I don’t know. I’ve had years to look back, to try to figure it out. The only thing I can think of is that Alyssa was the soulmate of one of the Banished, who turned to the darkness before she became a mer. Who knows with Saturnus,” he shrugs and I’m unsatisfied with the answer, but I know he is too. He gets a crease in his forehead just like mine. I frown. “Callie, please don’t look so sad. It’s okay. I’m just catching up. I want to know about you, everything. Everything I’ve missed. Is there anything important I should know?” I think about this hard, as I stare out at the pristinely white and twinkling buildings that lie beyond the palace.
“Orion is Crowned Ruler now. I was Queen. But…” I begin, but I don’t know how to finish that sentence.
“But?” Gideon leans forward, enraptured.
“I don’t think I’m Queen anymore. I left him. He wanted me to marry him… and well…” I begin, Gideon chuckles.
“Nice of him to ask for your father’s permission!”
“He didn’t even know you were my father until a few months ago.” I laugh back at his overprotectiveness. When it comes to Orion I’ve always hated how he’s so guarded of me. How he doesn’t believe in me and my ability to take care of myself. With my dad it’s different… it’s probably awfully hypocritical of me, but I like the displays of aggression about my safety. I like that he cares so much. It proves to me that every time I thought I wasn’t wanted, wasn’t good enough to be someone’s daughter, that I was wrong. I have a father, and he loves me and in this moment, I’m soaking up all the affection I can get.
“I didn’t say yes. So it’s not like it matters,” I shrug and he looks perplexed.
“You don’t love him?” I’m blown back by the personal nature of this question. I blink a few times. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer. I know you don’t know me that well. I’m just… trying to get to know you.” He runs his hand back through his thick white hair and I can tell he’s nervous. We’re both teetering between pure joy and fear. I decide to try, knowing that a relationship with him isn’t going to spring up out of nowhere. I need to make an effort.
“I do love him. More than anything. I know now what we have is real… I just can’t get away from this pedestal he’s put me on. He doesn’t listen to what I’m really saying… he just hears what he wants to. He waited so long, he was alone so long… I’ve got an impossible fantasy to live up to,” I feel weary at the explanation, sick after having gone over and over the issues in my head.
“I don’t know Orion that well, mainly because for the time I lived in the Occulta Mirum he wasn’t around that much. He was a lone wolf… so to speak.” Gideon looks at me and angles his head slightly to the left, examining me.
“That’s part of the problem. He isn’t used to sharing. Then Atlas died, he got all this responsibility thrown at him. It screwed everything up,” I admit. Gideon nods his head, looking grim.
“I am sorry to hear about Atlas. He was a wise man, an excellent and well respected ruler too.”
“Titus killed him. It was the night I died.”
“When you turned?” He’s truly caught up in the conversation. I feel probed, but I don’t want to hold anything back. I’ve waited too long. I have too many questions to be picky about which one’s I answer.
“No, the other time,” I reply quickly, my dad begins to nod again, clearly a habit of his, but then stops and raises an eyebrow.
“Wait… you died twice?” He looks confused and I laugh.
“Yeah. I’m the vessel, whatever that means.”
“What’s that?” He looks slightly worried.
“Come here and I’ll show you,” I rise from the icy seat on which I’m perched and Gideon begins to move from his throne. We ebb through the water, rising. “Give me your hand,” I request, he smiles.
“You do so remind me of your mother, she’s bossy too,” he places his giant hand in my smaller one. His palm feels like it’s the size of a saucer.
“Yeah, but mom can’t do this,” I flick my wrist, just like I had seen him do. I feel the chill rush through me, an icy river that runs, unstoppable and rabid down my arm. I watch as the magic moves through the water, crystallising it and turning it to ice. I make an uncontrolled web, unable to stop. I let go of my dad’s hand and feel the warmth of blood begin to thaw my palm. The ice I have created from water sinks to the floor with a thud.
“You… you took my power.”
“Yep,” I say, proud and smiling.
“That’s incredible. Wow, and you’re my daughter,” he looks elated, happy.
“I’ve waited to meet you for so long. I can’t believe you’re actually here,” I admit, shocked that after thinking I was going to be beheaded, I was actually headed to meet my dad. “It’s a good job your… Adaro didn’t behead me.”
“They’re harsh people. Everything is harsh here. This environment, the cold, it changes people.” I can imagine what he’s saying is true. I haven’t been here long, but I’m already finding my mood flattened by the chill.
“I can see that. It’s a shame they’re not for hire. I’m sure we could use people like that against the Psirens,” I speak the thought as though it’s nothing, but then the idea comes to me, fully formed. My father’s expression changes into something like a half-smile. It’s odd because he’s looking down on me, but it’s an approving gaze.
“You’re going to be a great Queen. There was a ruler before you who thought the very same.” I raise my eyebrow and brush my hair back behind my shoulder.
“Oh… who?” I ask, curious.
“Come, there is much that must be explained,” Gideon moves forward and beckons for me to follow him. I swim behind him, exiting the throne room. “Right before you were born, Saturnus learned of what was going on between your mother and I. It was Alyssa who ran to him for comfort when I told her I was leaving, that was how he discovered us.” I nod, as his expression turns grave.
“So, I was exiled from the city, or rather that is what you have been told. I actually left of my own choice to begin with. It was my intention to be with your mother and you for as long as possible. I hung around the local tides, killing time between the night’s when she would sneak down to a local cove, away from prying eyes to meet me. It lasted until Alyssa discovered I was still in the area. She ran to Saturnus, claiming I was risking the exposure of our world by flaunting my mer form with a human. It resulted in an argument, which Orion burst in on momentarily.” I inhale; remembering the half memory Orion had given me as explanation.
“He showed me,” I recall the horror I had felt, seeing my father sent away.
“Saturnus dem
anded he get out of the palace, claiming it private business, but Atlas was away at the time and I’m pretty sure it was because he didn’t want Atlas knowing. I had spoken with Atlas at length you see, he knew my feelings for Patience, he knew about you too. He understood, still missing his human wife after all this time. Her name was Katriona,” Gideon gives me this information, which I had not known before, Orion had never talked about his mother and I had never wanted to pry.
“So you left after that fight?”
“Yes. It was for the best. By this time, you were getting older, to the point where your first memories would be forming. I didn’t want to confuse you. Your mother and I agreed it was best, as I explained in my letter.”
“You did,” I agree as we turn a corner and begin our journey down another long icy corridor; I have no idea where he’s taking me.
“Before I left though, I bumped into Atlas, he was on his way back from a salvaging trip, or so we’d been told. He gave me a few things for my journey and told me where to go,” he gesticulates to the halls of ice.
“He told you to come here. To the Adaro?” I feel the impact of this information. Atlas had never mentioned any other types of mer before.
“Yes. He also gave me a letter. He said I would know what it was for and who to give it to when the time came,” he looks at me.
“You think it’s for me?” I raise my eyebrows.
“No dear one, Atlas could not have known you were to become a mer this long ago. If Starlet had foreseen such a thing, Orion would have known too. At this time, he was still hopelessly angry at being alone, at waiting.” We reach the end of the corridor and ascend up a spiral ramp, carved from sharp ice. It leads into one of the cylindrical frozen bubbles I had seen on my way in. The views are spectacular.
“But my mom said she knew I was destined for this. You must have known too.” I say, looking at him.
The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) Page 38
