He was fairly sure his skin would be all right, too. His face was mending. But his own potential estate might be lost. That hurt, a deep ache pulsing with every heartbeat, but not as wrenching as his continuing fear for Kiri.
Could she survive the huge river? What were the monsters in it deadly to Waterfolk?
With a crack, the fire flamed high in the hearth, then Jenni stepped from it onto the flagstoned floor before it.
Her face was redder than usual, her complexion all fire, eyes blue-flamed, and hair springy and crackling.
“What happened?”
Stargrass shrieked then prostrated herself on the floor. “Please don’t eat me. Please, please. It was all my fault. I was bad, bad, bad. Foolish naiad. Please don’t flame me!”
As Lathyr watched, Jenni settled down. She sighed, looked at him.
“Stargrass was...inattentive...while I was at the Earth Palace today and Kiri slipped away, into the Mississippi River.”
Now Jenni paled. That river could be the death of her and she knew it. Her lips formed, “Why?” but her voice didn’t come out.
“Why?” Lathyr frowned. “What do you mean?”
Jenni swallowed. “Kiri isn’t stupid. Why would she do something like that?”
Lathyr shrugged. “I don’t know.” He spread his hands and fluttered his fingers. “The call of a huge and moving body of water? She’d only experienced the pools in the Castle, a mountain lake. Nothing of the magnitude of this river.”
Jenni looked at Stargrass. “Did she say anything to you?”
“No, Your Highness.”
“Do you have any insights why Kiri might do this?”
Stargrass’s gaze rolled in mute appeal in Lathyr’s direction. He didn’t think she’d done anything but absently answer Kiri’s questions, might not even be able to describe Kiri. He kept his own gaze hard. Stargrass hunched further in front of Jenni. “No, I have no insights, your fieriness.”
“Are you of any use to us whatsoever in this matter?” Jenni asked.
“No, Your Highness.”
“Then go.”
“Go where?”
“Go home.”
Stargrass didn’t wait for another word. She vanished. Lathyr was glad.
“Do you have any way to track Kiri?” Lathyr asked, chest tight with trapped hope.
Jenni crossed her arms. “What, mysterious fire royal ways, in the Mississippi River?”
He stood straight. “What of mysterious human ways?” He continued to breathe shallowly, still hoping.
“I’m sorry.” Her direct gaze met his. “You’re lovers—you should be able to trace her.”
Lathyr was unsure whether the woman approved or not, but wouldn’t deny it. “Her essence is still new to me and would be lost in all the multitudinous sensations of the river.”
“You’re a strong mer!”
“I am new to this land, and never saw that river before earlier today. I don’t know its standard essences.” His jaw flexed. “And Kiri’s magical signature is yet evolving. I left her talking to Stargrass in the pool.” He gestured to the bathroom and Jenni strode in there, held her arms out over the water, her forehead furrowing as she sensed the magical energies as no other person on the planet would. Humming, she nodded, and brought the elemental magic to full water in the room...Lathyr felt it, and it was good, but not as lovely as when everything balanced. If he hadn’t lost his chance at a home of his own, he’d...no, Jenni was primarily fire elemental, she wouldn’t guest in an underwater residence. His traitorous mind built a home with dry areas for friends who were human or other, the people from Mystic Circle. That abode would never be, too expensive for anyone but royals.
Jenni was done, and strode once more out to the balcony and the mighty river she could no doubt feel as opposite to her power. She leaned against the rail. “Kiri’s lost in that.”
“I’ll go after her,” Lathyr said.
Turning toward him with a hip on the rail, Jenni said, “Like you told me, you’re ocean mer, and more on the eastern side of the world.” Her mouth flexed down. “And I’d forgotten you have that bit of air in you.” Sweeping a hand down herself, she said, “Like me.”
“I’d forgotten that about you, also.”
Her eyes warmed slightly. “Something we have in common.”
“I thought that all those of Mystic Circle had qualities common to my own.” He lifted his shoulders, where a great burden lay...he had to find Kiri, couldn’t leave her alone in such a river. “I’ll go after her.” He folded his clothes in his suitcase and packed Kiri’s. Inclining his head to Jenni, he asked, “Will you take care of these, please?”
“I’ll do that, and I’ll contact the royals.”
“I’ve spoken to the Water King. He wants Kiri found, but I doubt he will help, or tell his wife to help.” He paused. “I believe if we bring the Water Queen into this matter at this time, against the King’s wishes, we will make a bad and longtime enemy.”
Jenni’s mouth tightened, but he saw her considering how the Water King could block her in this situation and future endeavors. Her mouth turned down before she answered, “I understand, though the Water Queen’s innate magical power is stronger than the King’s.”
“Is it?”
“Yes, second only to the Earth King’s, the royal dwarfman.”
Interesting but nothing to think about right now. Lathyr stretched, preparing to enter a massive waterway new to him. He’d need all his senses sharp. All his defenses, too, physical and magical. He strapped what would have appeared like a toy sword and dagger to humans at each hip.
“The other Water royals are distant relations to the king, and smaller in power. I don’t know them well enough to call on them at this time,” Jenni said. “We need to coordinate...plan on meeting places so we can exchange information.”
“No.” Now his voice was harsh. “The longer I wait, the less clue of her I will find.” He let his fear show on his face. “And the more things can happen to Kiri. There are many, many mer in that river, but none of great stature, royal stature.” He frowned, tested the air again. “I do not believe the denizens would allow a very noble mer to claim a large stretch of river.”
Jenni grimaced. “This is the United States.”
Lathyr shrugged again, began changing to his water droplet form feet up, keeping his weapons close. “I will find you in six hours, near the shore of the Mississippi.”
“How fast will you be going?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know the current, my magic here, what I will face. I don’t know how quickly Kiri progresses, either.”
Surely he’d be able to find her. Please the great Pearl. “I’ll meet with you in six hours.” That would be full dark, but after the evening activity settled and before the night hours truly began.
“Right,” she said. “Later.”
He gave in to fear for Kiri, need for her, moved quickly to the river, plunged in. His form shifted to full mer with tail, and he sensed others around, naiads and naiaders, even some with power—not as strong as he, and none who would challenge him.
Not him, but what of Kiri?
Chapter 28
NOW AND AGAIN Kiri’s form shifted...and when it did, and her mind came back online, she understood that something was happening with her scales, like being etched. With new experiences? Because she was using her new magic all the time?
She didn’t know, and logic and thought faded as she followed the growing lively-song-smell-energizing-touch-LIFE-taste component of the river that continued to draw her.
A naiader got in her face.
You trespass.
She could barely understand him mentally, his water accent was so strong, and she didn’t like the arrogance in his tone.
Pay fee, he said, swimming close to her and his long and grubby nostril frills fluttered as he sniffed her. Smell good magic. Nice. FRESH. He smacked his lips. Tasty. Then he circled her, sniffing!
She didn’t know if it wa
s an offense, but she chose to be offended. She dove deeper, down to the muddy bottom of the river that concealed interesting shapes and smells and sensations of ancient times and peoples—humans.
Pay! He grabbed her arm.
Reflexively her sharp fins deployed, cutting his fingers, dark gobbets of blood joined the water. She swam fast.
The naiader looked surprised, then his face contorted into anger. You. Will. Pay. Flicking out a hand, he caught her on her tail fin and the pain was nothing like she’d felt before, nothing she could describe as a human—searing, stinging—as if delicate tissues were beaten with a bat, sliced. She gasped in water and river bottom and doubled up. He laughed and swam closer, sliding a palm down her hip around to curve her tail. No! She shot away in a spurt that left churning water and nasty man behind. Fast, fast, faster!
Until she got tangled in tree branches and came to an abrupt stop, thumping against a thick trunk that took all her air.
* * *
Lathyr had cruised rivers in his time...even partied in some when he was young—the Nile, the Yangtze, the Danube. All had different tastes, but unless his memory was wrong, this American one had more present-human textures than he’d experienced. Perhaps it was only the fact that he was closer to humans, or partial-humans than he’d been before, or paid more attention to human cultural essences than previously.
Because Kiri had been human and that was and would always be a portion of her essence, and he stretched to find the scent-sensation-signature that he occasionally caught a wisp of. He swam deep, with the fastest current, but still very aware that he seemed far behind her.
If she turned out to be a river naiad, she would of course move faster than he, who was essentially an oceanic merman. And this was her native land, so she would feel comfortable here. Though she was so damn new as Merfolk, appearing adult, yet without any of the experiences in growing up as Waterfolk...hardly able to change from form to form without thought. She didn’t know common Waterfolk speech—
either telepathically or the hand signing, or the esoteric writing in water.
She didn’t know manners.
There! There, wasn’t that her essence? Just a slither of a molecule of new-mer-Kiri-human-DENVER. Denver?
But Denver was dry, and now the greatest river in the land enveloped her.
Lathyr went faster, speeding by shallows’ naiads and naiaders in backwaters, in joinings of tributaries, not wanting to stop to ask of Kiri, not wanting to notify the more predatory of this river society that a prized one was lost.
He had to believe he’d find her before anything dreadful happened to her; to think otherwise would break his heart.
His heart. How had he come to love Kiri?
Her scent! With anger and pain and trailing fear. The trace older than he’d hoped. He spurred himself onward.
* * *
Kiri gasped and thrashed, turned legged and still fought the branches that trapped her, caught in her now-long hair, tangling it. Twigs and branchlets poked her, scraped her face with rough ends she’d broken. Air!
And she heard Lathyr’s voice, from her first memories as a mer.
Do not THINK of breathing, just do it.
But she couldn’t. Her lungs seized.
Not lungs, bilungs. Visualize them. Water in, siphon the air. Siphon oxygen from water!
Here, you, what are you doing there! Unkind laughter followed the thought from a portly naiad. She was coming near, though Kiri couldn’t see her swimming. Something seemed wrong with Kiri’s eyes, too.
There was a tug and a branch ripped away, along with her hair. Louder laughter now, mocking. By the Pearl, the shallows’ naiads get stupider every day.
A cold, too-long-fingered hand curved over Kiri’s shoulder, squeezed hard. And the smell! She didn’t like the odor of the naiad—merfem?—oily, fishy. Eeew. Completely masked the strange and wonderful fragrance-sensation Kiri’d been following, that had lured her.
She couldn’t lose it! And she couldn’t bear the waterfem’s clawlike fingernails piercing her skin.
What a finling. The waterfem chuffed laughter and the breath she expelled hit Kiri in the face and it was too much and she let go...just let go of her form. Let herself intermingle with the water—stagnant water, here—and pushed toward the fast, free-flowing clean current that had swept her here and now would sweep her away.
By the Pearl. You SPRAT, you will DIE.
But she didn’t think so, didn’t care now that she discovered the wondrous scent again.
Too stupid to live, were the last words she heard as she let herself subsume into the current, keeping only the lightest awareness of herself.
Finally her energy drained, and though she wanted to continue to follow the lure of the song, the scent, she knew she must stop. The water began to feel cold, and she’d learned that was a bad sign in Maroon Lake. She didn’t have the magic and energy to keep warm. Not good.
The first time she tried to solidify, she couldn’t and panic spurted through her. Breathe. She wouldn’t die, she wouldn’t. Wouldn’t waste all the time and energy Lathyr and Jenni and others had given to this project. Wouldn’t prove that humans were too fragile or stupid to transform into Lightfolk.
But it hurt to gather herself back together, as if instead of being all spread out in a zillion molecules, she had hunched into the smallest fetal ball she could make of herself, had stayed that way until her muscles had stiffened, and tiny movement stretched each cramped thread of her, shooting pain.
After long moments she became legged-mer—easier for her to visualize and she flailed in the water, bilungs pumping. Had to allow the current to drift her toward another, equally smelly, stagnant backwater. And she had to stay legged-mer, she had no energy or magic to become human or tailed or even construct a protective bubble around her with a magical spell.
And she found that the water was dark with night and she couldn’t see the sky.
And that she could still cry, tasting salty tears on her lips from sheer fatigue.
* * *
The river rolled on and took Lathyr with it. No time to appreciate its beauty. Every moment he strained his senses to find Kiri. He had to accept as usual that he would only find a minuscule vestige of her. After six hours, he surfaced and sent his magic questing up and down the riverbanks. He didn’t find Jenni, but did sense her husband, Aric. That one could travel faster and with less expenditure of energy since he was totally magic.
Aric was several hours behind Lathyr as the river flowed. With a lightly bubbled sigh, Lathyr flicked to the location.
He strode from the river as human. Instead of clothing himself with illusion, Lathyr took the boxers, jeans and soft cotton sweatshirt Aric offered and donned them before he chilled from being in his human skin. He’d expended too much energy to keep him warm in such thin skin.
“Any news?” He croaked the English words, neither his throat nor his mind used to the language.
“Jenni’s talking with the minor royals, hoping a Princess or Prince of Water will help.”
The royal couple had had no children, but a few cousins of the king were scattered in their smaller palaces in the oceans of earth.
“Where?” Lathyr asked blankly.
Aric smiled with satisfaction. “The great Water Palace in the Pacific.”
Lathyr raised his brows and Aric laughed. “She’s been wanting to go there for a while, and now she is.”
“Must be a little uncomfortable for a Fire Princess.”
Aric shrugged a shoulder, angled his chin at Lathyr’s pointed ears. “Though Jenni’s fire nature is most evident, she’s a quarter-elf and half-human.”
“She acts like a Fire Princess,” Lathyr said.
“She has to, and she was adopted by the royal Emberdrakes, since they were distant relations.” That reminded Lathyr that he shared blood with the Water Queen, which yet felt odd. Strange enough that he wouldn’t talk to the Treeman about it. Didn’t know anyone he could share the news wi
th except Kiri, and that felt lonely.
He strode up the riverbank and followed Aric to a place where the Treeman had parked a luxury car.
“Let’s talk about this over dinner. Jenni will be meeting us.” Aric scanned him. “You need more fuel...you’re too pale.”
Lathyr shrugged, but when he thought of Kiri, his stomach squeezed. He’d eaten absently as he’d searched for her. “I didn’t teach her how to hunt fish and eat.”
Driving, Aric slid him a glance. “That’s all right, the Maroon Lake naiader did, or did you forget?”
He had, since he hadn’t been allowed in the lake. “Doesn’t mean she will be good at it,” he muttered.
“Hunger is a good teacher.” But Aric’s jaw had firmed.
Aric and he hadn’t been in the restaurant long before Jenni turned up with a merfem, as tall as Jenni and voluptuous in the manner of Waterfolk women. Talk stopped in the place when they appeared. Lathyr, who had been drilled in formal European manners, stood and bowed to each, which broke the silence and caused the room to buzz with talk.
The merfem ignored him, and he thought it better for their cause, for Kiri, to remove his plate and flatware to a table close to the royals’ booth, which caused raised brows from the staff, but little comment. Lathyr figured it was because of the wealth they displayed with rich clothes, and both women wore jewels.
He was close enough to hear Jenni’s summary to Aric. He hadn’t often met Princess Whitefroth, but knew of her. She was the princess of the North American continent and lived in one of the great lakes, was magically powerful, and was estranged from the Water King, all to the good. The North American Waterfolk should follow her orders, even those of the huge Mississippi. He wondered what Jenni was paying her.
Whitefroth would send out a call for those who had seen or interacted with Kiri, offering a reward of gold nuggets, and punishment for failure to report. Without sparing a glance toward Lathyr, the merfem stated that “the tainted-blood merman would interface for her.” She sounded smug at that, as if she’d been put out to think of interacting with the riverfolk herself.
Enchanted Ever After (Mystic Circle) Page 26
