"No sign of the ship yet, I suppose."
I shook my head. "Nothing yet."
Odette nodded. "It's a good thing we did what we did. I mean, Marinette might be gone. But if we'd waited, her host might not have lasted this long."
I snorted. "Yeah, I guess we did the right thing. Still not sure if we do manage to find her she'll be inclined to help me at all."
"When a Loa first takes a new host, it can be disorienting. If we find her, I may be able to settle her down."
"Settle her down?" I raised my eyebrows.
"You forget, La Sirene, I am a caplata. I have ways of arresting the will of a Loa."
I shook my head. "Why doesn't that make me feel any better?"
"I have no intentions of present to do the same to you, La Sirene. And since you were not bound solely by my summons but came here of your own accord, I am not certain my methods would work on you at all. So long as your spirit remains within your natural body, your will cannot be so easily manipulated."
"Well, that is a relief," I said. "I mean, it isn't that I don't trust you or anything."
Odette chuckled. "I understand, La Sirene. I take no offense at your trepidation."
A slight tingle struck me. A familiar tingle. Not as strong as if I were siphoning magic. It was more the sense I got when magic was near. "I think we might be close. I sense something."
Odette looked all around. "I don't see the ship near at all."
"Nico said we should be able to see twelve miles, give or take. If it's near, we should be able to see it."
Odette grabbed onto the port side rail and moved toward the forward of the ship. She shielded her eyes with her hand.
The tingle grew stronger. Whatever it was... the magic was drawing closer. Not close enough I could siphon it. But certainly nearer than it was before.
A sinking feeling settled into my gut. If it wasn't the ship...
Something struck the boat hard. Not so hard that it threatened to tip the boat, but too hard to ignore.
And the magic... it was close now. I inhaled and drew it in. Familiar magic. It was Fomorian magic
Not coming from the ship...
With a splash, three mermen blasted out of the water and crashed down into the boat.
They didn't have legs. That put them at a disadvantage on a ship. Of course, with the way the boat was rocking, my legs weren't much use either.
I channeled a little bit of magic into the sigil on my wrist, summoning my wand.
Tucking their tails beneath them, the three mermen sprung upright, two of them pointing tridents at me, the third at Odette.
"Stand down, mermen!" I commanded. I know they didn't realize I was a Fomorian queen. But hell, it was worth a shot.
One of the mermen looked at me and smirked. "Who are you to give us orders?"
I shrugged as I gripped my wand. "The once and future queen."
The three mermen exchanged incredulous glances before the one who spoke before fixed his eyes on mine. "We are under orders of the Fomorian king to arrest you."
I snorted. "On what grounds? Surely if you're going to arrest me, there's a reason."
"You are drawing on our magic," the merman said. "I cannot say why the king commands your capture. That is a question you'll have to ask him."
Odette looked at me and nodded. "Do what you must, La Sirene."
I smiled, and, allowing more of these mermen's magic to fill my frame, I quickly shifted into mermaid form. My wand changed the moment I shifted into a trident.
I grabbed the starboard side rail. "You'll have to catch me first."
I threw myself overboard and took off through the waters, kicking my tail hard. I didn't know where I was going to go. But I'd be damned before I let these mermen take me to King Conand.
I dove deep into the water.
I sensed more magic. It only grew stronger. Was I really that close to Fomoria?
Then as I looked around, I saw what must've been twenty more merlegionnaires surrounding me on all sides, their tridents pointed directly at me.
"Well shit," I said out loud.
A few seconds later, the same merman who spoke to me before appeared at my side. "Shall we do this the easy way or the hard way?"
I sighed. I had a lot of magic I could draw from. Each merman didn't have a lot on his own, but every Fomorian had a dose of magic. With my abilities, I could turn a little power into a lot. Then again, I figured, it might be best not to show my hand. I could put up a good fight, but even with all the power at my disposal, the chances of thwarting this many mermen at once weren't great. Besides, at this point, I was convinced Marinette must be in Fomoria. How else would King Conand know where I was?
And the fact they waited until just after sunrise to come after me... it could have been a coincidence, I suppose. Or, since Marinette had seen Nico before, they'd waited until they knew the vampire wouldn't be an issue.
"The easy way will do," I said, dispelling my trident.
"Show me your wrists," the merman said.
"Why?" I asked. "I told you I'd come willingly."
"I don't trust you," the merman said. "You behave as if you are one of us. But if you were, we'd know it. I'm not inclined to take any chances."
"Fine," I said, rolling my eyes before extending my wrists. The merman wrapped them in seaweed. Not like it would hold me. I mean, I had plenty of magic I could use if I wanted to. I could break them apart. Or, I could shapeshift into wyrm form and slither out of them. But again, I decided it best to play along.
They thought they had the power. I was inclined, for the moment, to allow them to remain in their delusion. Not to mention, I couldn't attack these men. They were my people. At least, the ancestors of my people.
"You taking me to Fomoria?" I asked.
The merman grunted. He didn't answer my question. Instead, he pointed his trident forward, and the merlegion closed around me and moved as he directed.
I kicked my tail and followed their lead.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Fomoria was as I remembered it—before the wyrms had destroyed some of the spires. Funny how little had changed about the place over one and one-half century.
It's also a somewhat different experience swimming into the city as a prisoner as opposed to the place's queen.
The merfolk were staring, of course. They always did. Only now, it was curious stares rather than the star-struck gazes of my subjects.
Curious because I had a mertail. I was a mermaid. But they didn't know me. Where had I come from? Why was I there? Had I come from one of the other Fomorian outposts around the world? At least, these were the questions I imagined lurked behind their perplexment.
But there was one merman who stood out. An old merman with long white hair. Unlike the others, who floated in place, treading water and craning their necks to follow me with their eyes only, this one followed us. Swimming through the waters at a distance.
"Crazy old merman," the legionnaire who'd been talking to me before muttered.
"Are you taking me to the king?" I asked.
The merman shook his head. "I'm sure he'll want to speak to you soon enough. Until then, we have a cell prepared for you."
I rolled my eyes. "You really don't need to lock me up. I'm not a danger to any of y'all."
"Which is exactly what someone who was a threat would say," the merman huffed.
Under the light of Fomoria's firmament, I got a better look at the merman. He was larger than the rest of them. He reminded me a little of Titus—one of his ancestors, perhaps? I mean, what would be the chances? Maybe I'd ask Titus about it later if I ever made it back home.
We entered a cavern beneath the royal spire. I knew exactly where we were going. I'd been there before. It was where Conand had kept Enki before. I remembered shackles on the walls—desiccated bodies of mermen long since dead bound there. I half wondered, for a brief moment, if one of the corpses I'd seen chained there was mine...
I dismissed the t
hought. Odette knew me as a Loa. If I was one at all, I'd hardly garnered enough of a reputation in the future, nor had I been to Guinee since I'd become La Sirene. I'd get out of here eventually.
Of course, the more I thought about it if this body died... if I was a Loa... I'd go to the void, and from there, to Guinee. Could this really be the end of my time in this body? The end of my freedom—left to the whims of whatever bokor or caplata might summon me and put me into another host?
I still had access to the magic all around. I'd recharged my medallion for safe measure. I wasn't sure I'd be able to access the magic from the firmament in this dungeon.
Only three mermen escorted me through the cavern to the cell where I was supposed to be held.
"Let me see your wrists," the lead merman said.
I extended my hands. The merman hooked his trident between my wrists and, with a swift jerk, severed the seaweed that bound me.
"Against the wall," the merman ordered.
I looked at the wall. A set of shackles were screwed into the cavern wall—two for my wrists and a third, more oversized shackle near the floor. Presumably to bind my tail.
"Is this really necessary?" I asked. "I've cooperated with you every step of the way."
"Every step?" the merman asked.
"Every swim, then," I piped back. "You know what I meant."
"That is precisely the issue, isn't it? You had legs before. You were human, were you not?"
I shook my head. "Fomorians can shapeshift. Why is that so hard to imagine?"
"Why would any self-respecting Fomorian ever take a human's form?" the merman asked.
I shrugged. "Maybe I had some business to take care of on land."
"But you aren't from here, either," the merman said. "Until the king is convinced you aren't a threat, I'm afraid this is necessary."
I sighed. I mean, I could still use the magic in my medallion to shift into a form that would allow me to get out of these chains. I nodded and obediently pressed myself against the wall.
The merman grabbed each of my wrists, locking them into the shackles. He bound my tail with the other one.
Then he grabbed my medallion. "Where did you get this? It implies you are an honorary citizen of Fomoria."
"The king gave it to me," I said.
The merman shook his head. "I'll have to ask him."
"Then do so," I said. "How else would I get it?"
"You could have stolen it from another honorary citizen," the merman said, yanking my medallion off of my neck. "If it's genuine, I'm sure the king will return it to you."
Well, there went my tentative escape plan. And the only magic I had access to in the depths of this dungeon.
The merman left me there, hanging on the wall.
There wasn't a lot of light. Just a dim glow emanating from strands of bioluminescent kelp. The same kind Tahlia gave me when I first met her... the stuff that got me high.
The second I put the kelp over my neck, I started seeing things. A halo over Tahlia's head. An unusual and completely random Burt Reynolds floating through the water. And my son. My grown-up Merlin. According to Agwe, it wasn't all in my mind. Tahlia was an empath. She'd used the stuff to tap into my bond to my son, to allow me to speak to him even though he wasn't in my place or time.
I wondered if I could do it again. If I could just get my hand on a strand of the stuff. The last I'd talked to Merlin, it was when he'd went to the void. But he was a gatekeeper, wandering through Guinee, or what he usually called Annwn, and making appearances at various times in history. Changing history.
If the Marinette who was here was, in her own timeline, here only after I'd killed her precious host with Agwe's help... why couldn't I talk to merlin, either in the void or at some other time in history? Maybe in Guinee...
There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to where the kelp was placed in these dungeons. Just handfuls of it tossed into the water, floating around. Providing just enough light to keep the place from being totally dark.
If only one piece managed to float a little closer...
None of it was in reach at the moment.
Come on, Joni. You're the Queen of the Frickin Sea! If Agwe could command water itself... if you are a Loa too... why can't you do the same?
I tried to focus my mind. Maybe if I visualized a current in the water pulling it to me...
Nothing.
When we were fighting Marinette before, when she possessed King Conand, Agwe had created something of a whirlpool, like an underwater tornado. Maybe I could do that...
Again I tried to focus my mind. I didn't know if that was the right way to do it. I mean, I was Agwe's wife. I didn't have his aspect. Not like Tahlia. And even if I did... hell... I had Legba's aspect and didn't know how to access it.
The shackles were tight, but not so tight I couldn't move a little. Maybe three feet in any direction. Nothing more than that.
If I couldn't make any whirlpools or currents, maybe I could disturb the water enough to get the kelp moving. Eventually, perhaps, a piece of kelp would float within reach.
I wagged my tail as hard as I could. Not easy to do with a heavy chain and shackle on it. But I could feel the water pressing against my fin as I kicked. At the very least, I was stirring up the water.
Sure enough, some of the kelp started to move...
"Come to momma," I said out loud as if I could coax the stuff toward me.
A single piece, glowing green, slowly started floating in my direction. I reached out with my hand as far as the chains would allow...
A little closer...
Then another figure burst into the room, grabbed the piece of kelp just as I was about to grab it, and pushed it back.
I looked at her.
"Marinette," I said, shaking my head.
The Loa laughed. "I suppose I can't blame you. If you're going to be trapped in here until your body fails, well... might as well spend your last days getting high."
I snorted. "What are you doing here? Where's King Conand?"
Marinette smiled at me. Her new body, the one I'd basically made for her, wasn't as hideous as I'd expected it to be based on the look of the shrunken head Odette had been carrying. She was a Black woman, or I should say, a Black mermaid. Her hair was natural, but in the water, it flowed around her, framing her thin and pretty face. Her body was lean and defined. Her eyes were black as night. Not red, like they were before when she was commanding a zombified merlegion.
"I suppose I owe you a thank you," Marinette said. "For the first time since I first attained my divinity, since I lost my natural body, I'm now in a form totally free. Unbound by the manipulations of the bokors."
I rolled my eyes. "Am I supposed to say you're welcome?"
"It would be the courteous thing to do," Marinette said. "As for the King, he's predisposed."
"What do you have on him?" I asked. "I mean, have you been manipulating the King for centuries?"
Marinette shrugged. "He and I have a complicated relationship. Goes all the way back to my human life, in fact. I'll just say, we used to be lovers."
"A merman and a human?" I asked.
"You ask as if it's an aberration. But aren't you a half-breed yourself, the product of both a human and a Fomorian?"
I pressed my lips together. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, you possessed the King the last time we met."
"And I had access to his memories," Marinette said. "I know all about you, Joni Campbell."
"Why are you even here?" I asked. "Did you just come down here to gloat?"
Marinette raised one hand and touched my cheek. Then she grabbed a strand of my hair and yanked it out.
"Ouch!" I protested. "So you came down here to torture me?"
Marinette smirked, wrapping my hair around her finger. "My dear La Sirene... I've simply come to let you know what happens next. After all, you came looking for me, did you not?"
"Zombie sharks," I said. "What do you know about them? How can
I stop them?"
Marinette laughed. "That's your fault, Joni Campbell. When you killed me before when you severed my connection to the dead I'd risen, did you really think all I'd done was animate your former merlegion?"
I shook my head. "You made the sharks?"
Marinette nodded. "I did. Only after you killed my host, the King's body, were they left behind. Mindless corpses abandoned to their instincts. Though I imagine another bokor, or perhaps a caplata, harnessed them. It was inevitable, La Sirene. What did you expect? Their intentions remain unchanged. They seek to punish your world. To destroy it that they might institute a new order."
I sighed. "Like what they wanted to do through the voidbringer. To remake the world..."
"I admit, this plan is not as... painless... as their former plan. But the end result will be the same. And I cannot say I'm at all inclined to help you stop them."
"But you're free from their influence, now. You have your own will. You said it yourself. Why would you want to see that happen?"
"All it will take is for a shark to bite a Fomorian... to bite a human... before all people are zombie slaves, under the control of the bokors."
"That is what I'm trying to stop!" I shouted.
"Of course you are," Marinette said. "But what can you do? You're going to die here, Joni Campbell. And when you do, you'll go to the void, then to Guinee. The bokors will be able to summon you, bind you to their will, make you the Queen of their new world's seas. I have to say, it's a rather impressive plan."
I snorted. "It won't work. I'll get out of here. One way or another. And when I do..."
"You'll what?" Marinette asked. "You'll kill me again? How did that work for you the first time?"
I shook my head. "You can stop this, Marinette..."
"Why would I want to?" Marinette asked. "Do you know nothing of who I am? It was I who first sparked the Haitian revolution. Do you imagine your world is more just, now or even in your future, under colonial rule than the powers I once helped overthrow?"
I shook my head. "I admit, our world isn't perfect..."
"Isn't perfect?" Marinette raised her eyebrows. "The oppressors remain in charge of the world. You've seen how little emancipation did to truly breed freedom. And over the centuries, with more than enough opportunity to create a better world, your people, your humans, persist in their injustice."
Wyrmrider Vengeance: An Underwater Magic Urban Fantasy (The Fomorian Wyrmriders Book 2) Page 13
