“Because you are the most beautiful mermaid in all of Meria.”
She turned to him and flashed a pretty smile. Her naked body tugged at him, but he ignored that surge of desire and stayed where he was. It worked perfectly. She began walking back to him, drawn, as though she were the one on a leash. “I am indeed more beautiful than any other in Meria, but that is not the reason I am queen.” She stopped a few feet from him, clearly wanting him to come the rest of the way to her. “I am queen because I don’t tolerate disloyalty. Those who pledge themselves to me do so for life. If a maiden steals you from me, I will steal you back, and then I will have you killed. Knowing this, would you still willingly join me in my bed?”
Aurelius fought the triumphant smile threatening to burst onto his face. “Yes.”
She held out her hand to him. “Then come.”
And he let her lead him to her bed. At some point the queen called for witnesses, and the dark-haired man opened the doors to usher the guards inside. Once the two guardsmen were there to watch, the dark-haired man took his leave, clearly eaten up with jealousy.
It was a long, long night. By the end of it, Aurelius lay back staring at the coral-crusted ceiling with a self-satisfied grin. The queen lay beside him, exhausted and comatose, her arm draped across his chest. He spared her a glance and studied her contented face, those supple ruby lips even now turned up toward his, as she were seeking another kiss from him. And it was then that he knew he had her heart, capricious and cruel as that heart might be.
But she did not have his.
Chapter 25
Aurelius reached the princess’s quarters. The doors were guarded, but the guard who had escorted him there explained to his fellow guardsmen.
“It’s the middle of the night!” one of the princess’s guards hissed.
Aurelius’s escort shrugged. “I believe that’s the point.”
The princess’s guards gazed at Aurelius suspiciously, then he thought he caught a flicker of envy before they turned to open the doors and escort him inside.
Once inside the princess’s lavish quarters, Aurelius felt a trickle of icy dread prickle his skin. Maybe his idea to seek Lashyla out had not been a good one. He had assumed that the princess would know better than him how to search the city for Gabrian, but now that he thought about it, mentioning the old man’s disappearance to her might not be such a good idea. What if she dreamed up some horrible punishment for Gabrian once he was found?
They reached the double doors to Lashyla’s bedchamber and one of the guards knocked lightly. No answer came. After a long moment of waiting, Aurelius wondered if the princess had heard them.
Then all of a sudden the doors swung wide to reveal the princess. And revealed she was. She was wearing nothing at all. Her angry gaze swept over the guards who had disturbed her.
“What is it?” she demanded.
They bowed low. “Your apologies, beauteous maiden, but we have come to you with a this vestal.”
“I requested no vestal.”
The guard who had knocked turned to Aurelius with a deadly look. “You were not summoned?”Aurelius shook his head and the guard’s expression grew darker still.
“Wait—Aurelius, is that you?” Lashyla asked, leaning around the guards for a better look. “Never mind. This vestal is always welcome to visit me.” She waved her hands to the guards in a shooing gesture. “I will call for you when you are needed.”
The guards bowed once more and then left. Aurelius heard the front door shut, and then they were alone. He found himself staring at Lashyla, and she gave a knowing smile. She walked up to him with seductively swaying hips and then she pressed those hips against his, and Aurelius had to work very hard to control himself. “Changed your mind I see. . . .” she purred, her hand caressing his cheek.
He closed his eyes and tried to think of something else. “Ah . . .” He forced himself to look at Lashyla. “I couldn’t sleep.”
A sultry grin spread across her lips. “I’m flattered you were kept up at night thinking about me.”
He matched that grin with a shaky smile. “I was hoping maybe you could show me around the city some more. . . .”
And suddenly her grin faded and she took a quick step back. “What?”
Aurelius faltered for words. “I felt like our tour before dinner ended too soon. I barely saw anything of the city, not even the pools you spoke of. . . .”
“You woke me in the middle of the night just so I could show you to the baths?”
“Well . . . not just for that. . . .” As he said it, he knew he was getting into dangerous territory.
“Why else then?”
“I was hoping we could get to know each other better.”
Lashyla squinted up at him suspiciously, and for a moment he was afraid that she could detect the lie. But finally her expression brightened. “Just let me get dressed, and we’ll be on our way,” she said, walking back inside her room.
Aurelius smiled and said, “I’ll be waiting,” while to himself he thought, that was close. . . .
* * *
Lashyla led him through a part of the city he hadn’t seen before. They passed through countless corridors, up and down stairs, across glassed-in bridges with stunning vistas of the coral-crusted city and seafloor below. After passing over one such bridge they reached a wide open space which Aurelius recognized as a terminal of some kind. It was dark and shadowy from the airy size of it.
He cast a quick look over his shoulder to check for their guards and saw the pair of them ambling along at a distance of dozen or so meters. All along the way Lashyla’s guards had trailed them at a discreet distance, though they hadn’t encountered more than a solitary maiden walking about the city. Aurelius began to wonder if those guards weren’t more to ensure that Lashyla would have her two witnesses should they decide to mate than to ensure their safety.
From the terminal, they started down a long corridor that was glowing gold with coral.
“Where are we going?” Aurelius asked, turning his gaze on Lashyla. She was walking close beside him, her hand entwined with his as it had been since they’d left her quarters. Aurelius had to constantly fight the tide of pheromones which made his head swim with desire. He wanted to let go of her hand to make it easier to keep his head clear, but he didn’t think he could afford to further offend the princess.
“We are nearing the Launch,” she replied.
“The Launch?”
Even before she could explain, the corridor they were travelling down ended in a large, circular room which was dominated by a pool of water. Floating in the center of that pool was a large ship, only the rounded top of which was visible above the waterline. This was nothing like captain Dagrell’s rickety submersible, but rather a fully-functional submarine. Aurelius set foot toward it with barely-concealed awe, letting go of Lashyla’s hand to get a closer look at the ship. From the glowing lights on the bow to the perfectly smooth, rounded hull, he knew this vessel was thousands of years ahead—or rather behind—it’s time, but he had to ask anyway: “Did your people make this?”
Lashyla shook her pretty head. “No, we found it here with the city.”
“Then . . .”
“Your people made it,” she answered. Aurelius’s eyes found hers and he held her glittering blue gaze for a long moment. “You needn’t act so surprised, Aurelius. It’s obvious who you are.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” She took a step toward him and reached for his hand once more.
“Who am I then?”
“You are an elder.”
“What makes you think that?”
“The way you were dressed for a start.”
Aurelius frowned. “That’s not much to go on.”
“And the way you act. No man I’ve ever come across has tried so hard to resist a maiden’s attentions,” she said, plucking at his tunic as though trying feebly to remove it.
“You’re not even two years old. You can’t have come
across many men in that time.”
“Nevertheless, I’ve seen many things, and I am not the only one who suspects who you are.”
“Oh?”
“My mother has many more years and much more wisdom than I, and she too believes you are not from our time. But how can it be? Are you really that old?” Lashyla asked that last question with a wrinkled nose and frown which told him that she associated age with ugliness.
Aurelius didn’t want to confirm or deny that he was an elder, but somehow the way that Lashyla was caressing his arm, the way she gazed adoringly, innocently up at him, he felt he could trust her, and more than that, he wanted to tell her. It was about time he confided in someone, and she had already guessed who he was anyway.
“No, I’m not that old. I was brought here by mistake, by magic apparently, taken from my time and transported instantly to yours. Ever since then I’ve been looking for a way back. . . .” Lashyla was nodding slowly. “I shouldn’t be telling you this,” Aurelius said, feeling suddenly guilty and apprehensive for disobeying Gabrian’s unspoken command to keep who he was to himself.
“No, it’s okay, I won’t tell anyone. You can trust me, Aurelius.”
He nodded, feeling somehow that what she said was true. Of all the maidens in Meria, he knew he could trust her, rely on her, love her. She would never leave him or never grow tired of him as the others would. She would be different. She was different. Aurelius caught that train of thought with a sudden frown and shook his head. Where were those thoughts coming from?
“I think maybe we’d better go,” he said, suddenly noticing how close her lips were to his. “I’m feeling tired now, and I’m sure you must be, too,” he said.
“Of course.” Lashyla pulled back with a short sigh, but grabbed his hand and led him from the docking bay.
As they were walking back down the corridor to the terminal, Aurelius asked, “Is this the only submarine in Meria?”
“The only working one. There are many others, but they no longer function.”
“Hmmm. . . .”
“What?”
“I was just thinking that I should take a look at them. I might be able to fix one or two by taking parts from the others.”
Lashyla’s eyes glittered, and she smiled in a way that made Aurelius’s flesh crawl. “That would be most appreciated.”
Aurelius cocked his head. “And what would you show as a token of your appreciation?”
Her smile became seductive and she squeezed his hand, hard. “What would you like?”
“Would you let me leave Meria?”
Lashyla suddenly stopped walking and let go of his hand. Her expression was dark and dangerous. “Leave? Why would you want to leave?”
Aurelius instantly regretted asking the question. He could see he’d hurt Lashyla’s feelings. That was the last thing he’d wanted to do! He wanted to take her in his arms and never let her go. To ask her to come with him. They’d find the relic and go back to his time; they could make a life for themselves smuggling illicit cargoes through space, or maybe he'd settle down, get a legitimate job, and . . . and what? Aurelius frowned, suddenly recognizing that his thoughts were not wholly his own.
“I’m not from here, Lashyla. You know that, so how can you keep me here? It's like forcing a fish to live out of water. I don't belong here.”
She sighed and shook her head. “It’s useless with you!” She turned from him to face their guards. “Escort this vestal back to his quarters! I’m going to bed.”
And with that, she stalked off. Aurelius watched her go, feeling like his heart was breaking in half. He had to work hard to fight that feeling and to clear his head, to remember that his thoughts and feelings weren’t wholly his own.
He might allow himself to feel sorry for her, but the way she was acting, the way she had treated him like a disobedient child, he couldn’t feel that sorry.
The guards appeared one to either side of him, took him by the arms and shoved him along. One of them spoke as he was half-carried, half-shoved back the way he’d come. “You dare much, vestal. Were you not such a pretty face, the princess would have you thrown into the ring to fight the trolls. Have a care; her patience with you wears thin.”
Aurelius smiled wryly. “Yeah, I noticed.”
As they walked back, Aurelius noticed the corridors growing gradually brighter, though not from any discernibly greater concentration of coral. Once he was back inside his quarters, stifling a sudden yawn and a desperate urge to go back to sleep, he could have sworn the coral and barnacle clusters inside his room were brighter than they had been when he’d left. So far beneath the waves, he’d thought that the day/night cycle of the city was arbitrary, but Aurelius now wondered if maybe the phosphorescent life followed a cycle of its own.
Now that he thought about the ebb and flow of whatever chemical reactions caused the coral and sea life to glow, he wondered how those chemical reactions were sustained. He’d never heard of coral living above water let alone glowing iridescently. Where did it get its food? How did it emit light? Where was that energy coming from? Those were all mysteries of Meria that Aurelius wasn’t sure he’d get to solve before he left. If he left. If he didn’t find some way to escape, he’d have plenty of time to figure it all out. . . .
Casting such depressing thoughts from his mind, Aurelius began walking around his quarters, looking for Gabrian. He hoped the old man had found his own way back. He found Reven asleep in one of the bedrooms, but the other one lay empty. Frowning worriedly, Aurelius checked the rest of their quarters, but Gabrian wasn’t hiding in the bathrooms or lying comatose on one of the couches. He was still out and about, doing whatever it was he’d left to do. . . .
* * *
Aurelius awoke to an insistent whisper. He turned toward the sound and found himself gazing into the lovely face of none other than the queen herself.
“You must leave,” she hissed.
He rubbed his eyes. “Must I?”
“Don’t be insolent; it’s unbecoming. It is nearly morning, and soon the city will be overrun with maidens going for their morning swim. You must leave before they discover that you spent the night with me.” Aurelius sat up, and the bedcovers fell from his trim, well-muscled body. The queen studied him admiringly.
“Why is that?” he asked, covering a yawn with one hand while he stretched languidly.
“Because.” The queen's glowing blue eyes snapped up with an impatient look.
Aurelius answered with bland curiosity. “Because . . .”
The queen sighed and shook her head. “If you weren’t so handsome . . .” Reluctantly, she explained, “It is a few days less than a year since my last challenge. If it becomes known that you are now my mate, there will be a challenge for you, and though I haven’t lost a challenge since I became queen, I am not ready to risk that you'll be the first.”
Aurelius smiled. “I’m touched. So much concern for me. But is it not true that a maiden must first convince me to mate with her before she can challenge you for me?”
“It is.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about. I would never betray you.”
“Good, but I take no comfort in your promises. Men are weak. You will not betray me, because I will not let you. If you do, I will win you back and have you killed. Remember that.”
“Of course, my beauteous queen.”
“Now leave. Here—” She gathered up the bed sheets and threw them at Aurelius. “Wrap yourself in these to shield yourself from view. I will instruct my guards and mates to keep our secret until I have been challenged anew. Then you will be safe with me for a whole year.”
“As you wish my queen.” Aurelius began dressing into his green tunic before wrapping himself mummy-like in the sheets. He proceeded from the queen’s bedchamber with a small, self-satisfied grin. Soon he would have her tell him exactly where she had hidden the relic, and then she would either give it to him or he would steal it. But first . . . first he had to find a way out
of Meria, and a way to be rid of any would-be pursuers. Let Malgore think he’d hidden the relic safely with the queen. Let him think there was no way for anyone to escape Meria. Let him think he’d won. But he hadn’t.
Gabrian smiled, but it was Aurelius’s lips which turned upward, and Aurelius’s cheeks which dimpled. Magic can be so useful sometimes, Gabrian reflected.
Chapter 26
Martanel watched Aurelius leave the queen’s bedchambers, wrapped in white sheets to conceal his identity. The apparently-young guard contemplated what he had witnessed that night. It had seemed to him a vile and perverted thing to watch as a man and woman mated, but the ways of mermaids had little to do with the ways of men, and he’d had to guard his shock from registering in any visible way. After all, he was meant to be inured to such perversions, and he could not afford to expose himself for who he really was.
Martanel tried to imagine what the elder had been thinking to mate with the queen, but he could neither discern nor imagine the boy’s reasons. There was no conceivable motive for it, and it seemed out of character. Why would he resist the princess’s arguably more compelling advances only to willingly submit to the queen later that same night? It was senseless. Perhaps the boy had simply yielded to his baser instincts after he’d spent an entire day being aroused and goaded by the sight and smell of so many beautiful women. Perhaps he thought he might be allowed more freedom or status if he mated with a queen rather than merely a princess. Perhaps.
Martanel didn’t think the boy was that calculating. No, his instincts told him something more sinister was afoot. Something to do with the relic. After all, why else were they here in Meria? They’d followed him for one reason and one reason only. In his recently-usurped position as one of the royal guard, Martanel spent most of every day near the relic, watching the comings and goings of those who entered its presence. Aurelius must have been after the relic. It was the only explanation for his suddenly strange behavior. Martanel frowned and turned to look over his shoulder, as if to reassure himself that the relic was still there, but the doors to the queen’s bedchambers were closed. He caught his fellow guardsman giving him a knowing grin.
Mrythdom: Game of Time Page 24
