His expression was as still as carved stone.
“Lord Malcom ordered me not to, although I would if he weren’t watching. I put in more than I was supposed to so it would go as quick as I could make it.”
I caught a hint of pity as he looked at me, and I braced myself, closing my eyes. He saturated me, and I took a deep breath as he touched the flame to my feet.
Heat.
Pain beyond what feeble words could ever describe.
I heard myself cry out, scream in the distance.
Cold.
Wet.
I opened my eyes as the water splashed me. Drenched cloth struck me, covered me, fighting the blaze.
The shadow above me worked quickly. Arms handed him buckets, and he poured the water over me until there was no flame left.
I gasped, struggled to see my savior. He lifted me into his arms, holding me against him, and I knew him immediately.
Matthias.
Hands covered me with a soft cloth.
“The breaths she breathes are her last, son,” Zatia said. “She will pass, and we will do what we can to make it as easy as possible, yes?”
Matthias trembled, and I felt despair in his breathing. I tried to speak, but my tongue could not form the words.
I clawed at him, pleading with him to hear me. I found him looking down at me, although I could see little.
“Ocean,” I said. The last word I would be able to speak.
Zatia was right. My death was fast approaching.
The world darkened, even with my eyes open. I saw no stars, no moon, no sky, no night. Nothingness.
Matthias held me to him, and my body shuffled from time to time in his embrace. We were moving. I could hear the crack of a whip and the hooves of horses galloping. The clang of metal against rock. We were in a wagon.
After losing consciousness again, I found that we were now walking. Matthias, ever strong, still trembled, and I heard the ocean, the waves rolling in and slapping against the land.
The sound comforted me, and my heartbeat slowed, joining with the rhythm.
“We’re here, Ia,” he said, the first words I’d heard him speak. They were hoarse, weak.
“Ocean,” I tried to say, finding nothing but garbled syllables.
“Put her in the water,” Zatia said. “She might have a chance.”
He stiffened, hesitated.
“I know you do not believe what I saw, but you must trust me. The salt water heals her. It may save her, and if nothing else, may ease her.”
He moved, this time with more purpose, determination. The waves grew near, Calling to me, and I heard the spirit of my sister among them.
My skin tingled as he walked us farther in. My body floated, and the ocean pulled at me.
“Let her go, son,” Zatia said as her hand caressed the top of my head. “Let the ocean take her.”
Matthias lowered his lips, brushing them against me, and whispered with a cracking voice, “I love you, Ia. Thank you for loving me. I am sorry I failed you. Forgive me.”
His hold loosened, and the waves pulled at me. I floated, then with the remaining strength I had, I kicked away from him, pushing myself down into the depths and farther out into the sea.
Chapter 15
The pain that engulfed me eased as I fought to swim farther down, but now I found myself struggling to breathe in the waters where I had been raised. Water burned in my lungs, and I choked, my limbs flailing, my body instinctively struggling to push to the surface – to air, to life.
The reality that I was dying ruptured through the calmness I struggled to keep.
The sensation was numbing yet tightening all at once, and my arms and hands drew to my chest, all of it involuntary, forceful. As my lips gasped for the air I had grown used to breathing, the world faded and turned still…and warm.
Time passed, and the water was dark when I opened my eyes. Nighttime. I could breathe, the burning fire in my chest and back had subsided. Movement of the gills behind my ears confirmed that I was not deceased.
My eyes adjusted, and I could see everything before me, unlike the weak vision I’d had as a human. My tail tensed and flexed beneath me as I regained my orientation. I pressed my hands to my face, my sides, my body.
Beautiful. Vain, yes, but it was true. No longer did I just have a strong will – I had the form to match.
Strong, powerful.
Vengeful.
Anger bubbled up faster than I could suppress it. Malcom.
I balled my hands into fists, and surfaced, keeping only my head above the water. I surveyed the shore before me, squinting to see if I could make out any forms. It was too dark. If he had been looking for me, the search likely ended. I called out a prayer for Matthias.
Malcom wouldn’t dare kill him, his own son, would he? What would he do knowing his son had attempted to save a slave? The very one that he had been whipped mercilessly for? That was what I was, a slave, and there was no mistaking it. A Lesser on shore, and now, I would be swimming home to possibly find myself a Lesser there as well, and Ro waiting to own me.
Ro.
I would have to deal with him, no doubt. Bile bubbled up to my mouth with the mere thought of him.
Experience on shore, however, taught me that I was stronger than I realized. I would not be surprised in the least if I could even fight Ro – and not just with words. Fear exaggerates, and I no longer questioned my abilities, having replaced fear with the desperate need to save Matthias.
How could I do that? How could I save him from beneath the water?
I could try onshore, but with what success?
I needed a lure, a Caller, to help me, to bring into the water all who would do Matthias harm. Surely it could be done. My own voice was strong, but those of the practiced and successful – perhaps if they neared the shore, they could be loud enough in unison. It would be a risk with no guarantee that anyone would help me, but it would be worth a try.
Following the sights and scents, I began to make my way home. It would be quite a distance, but I would make it there by the time dawn broke. Elation flooded me, building alongside my anxiety. The longing to hug Mother and hold my sisters kept me focused on the good.
Liliana.
The last memory of her blurred and pained, a lifeless body plummeting with pieces of the vessels we were trying to conquer. I closed my eyes as a pain struck my heart, the reality of my loss no longer painted over by the overwhelming experience of turning human. There would be time to grieve. For now, I needed to make it home, to the family that loved me, to those who could help me.
* * *
Time was short, that I knew with dire certainty, but how did one ask for help from those who had probably assumed I was dead? I swam, rolling it over in my mind, too stressed and hurried to enjoy the familiar wave of my tail and the feel of water all around me, sliding against me as I propelled through the depths.
My gills flexed, my chest heaving for breath, yet I somehow seemed to be swimming faster than ever. All of the hobbling and toiling built my form stronger and sturdier than ever, and I was surprised to find that the strength could be found in my tail as well.
The waters turned lighter with the rising sun, and I found myself looking down over the formations that created our home. This time of morning, bodies would be bustling about, swimming from one area to the next, getting an early start on today’s chores.
There was no one in sight.
No movement, no voices, nothing but the gentle float of seaweed that sprung up from the bottom. My heart fell. There would be no help here. The faces and embraces I had longed for were on their journey north, too far for me to catch up to them.
With a heavy heart, I made my way to the floor, winding through structures and passageways until I found the grotto my family lived in. Our meager belongings, some salvaged from ships, some made, still remained, and it confused me. Everything was laid out as if no one had left and would return at any moment. I picked up the shell Mother
used to trim my hair, running my finger across the sharp edge.
My ears picked up a rustling, soft but near, behind me. I lowered the shell back to its place, preparing for whomever or whatever it was sneaking up.
I turned around as quickly as I could, and found the blades of a trident pushing into the skin at my neck. It was terrifying; Ro’s trident – carefully crafted of coral and bone and incredibly sharp.
“Well, well, Ia,” Ro said, his voice lilted with excitement and surprise. “I was expecting a thief, and here I find you returned from the dead.”
“What are you doing here?” I was callous and cool, trying to hide the quickening beat of my heart.
“I believe I am the one in the most advantageous position to question.” A slow smirk spread across his lips. “Where have you been?”
“You would not believe me,” I said. “Where is my family, and what are you doing in here?”
He snorted, keeping the points of his weapon pressed to me.
“Liliana’s mating ceremony, where everyone else is.”
Liliana? My breath caught in my throat.
“She is alive? Unharmed?”
“Yes, and is enjoying the lavish rite brought by the High Mother.”
Breath left me, and my body trembled in relief.
“Why are you not there? You are not the fortunate chosen, then?”
A soft laugh escaped him, and he drew himself closer to me.
“She found my younger brother to be a better match.”
His lips kept their slimy smile, but his narrowed, darkening eyes betrayed him. He was furious, and here I was, yet another female who refused him at every turn. Alone.
He pushed me back, closing the distance between us. My arms reached behind me, feeling for the shelf, and a sharp breath escaped me as I sliced the tip of my finger on the shell I had just laid down. Thinking it was the pressure of the trident blades causing me pain, he snorted as he lowered his weapon.
“You need to leave,” I said. “You are not welcome without escort in our home.”
“I go where I please,” he said. “It is my life I risk each time I defend our people, and I will enter wherever I choose. Where have you been?”
“Take me to the celebration, and I will tell everyone.”
He shook his head.
“Not that simple. Everyone thinks you are a Forsaken, fleeing from your duties as a Lesser, even your own family.”
“I am not a Lesser,” I said. “I have had only one test.”
“A bad one.” He licked his bottom lip. “Or so the other Callers say. Volume, but no voice, just a shrill scream.”
“That is none of your concern,” I said, my temper rising to match my nervousness. “Get out of my way.”
He stared at me for a moment, his brow furrowing.
“Your skin – it’s darker.”
I sighed, pushing away the trident with the palm of my free hand, the other poised behind me with the shell.
“You’ve been surfacing,” he said, a sinister glow stretched across his face. “You know that is forbidden.”
“I owe you no explanation. You will let me pass.”
He leaned back.
“Of course. My apologies.”
He waved his arm to the side, motioning for my exit. I kept my back to the wall, suspicious of his sudden release, saying nothing as I worked my way around him. The opening to our shelter was narrow, and his large form cramped the space, yet he did not budge, just continued to look down his nose at me, sneering, as I was forced up against him.
Squeezing past, I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking myself free of him for the moment until my head jerked back. He grabbed my short hair at the scalp, pulling me violently to him. Lashing out, I swung my hand containing the shell as I yanked myself free and turned to face him. A deep gouge formed across his left cheek, just under his eye, and his blood began to surface, dispensed by the water into tiny wisps of dark brown.
He tilted his head and thrust his throat against the edge of the shell, pressing into it until it broke the skin.
“You want to kill me? Here is your chance, but I shall warn you, if you do not, you will regret it the rest of your life.”
A shudder tore through me, and my fear vanished as anger boiled up.
“So be it,” I said, thrusting the edge into his neck.
Sensing my movement, he flenched as I pressed onward, his eyes wide in surprise, with a hint of terror, and he dodged out just out of my range. His mouth fell open as he regarded me, considered the fact that I was willing - and trying - to kill him.
“Do not ever think that I am not capable. Underestimating me will be your worst, and final, mistake.”
My whole body shook with anxiety, and I remained poised to strike, keeping my focus on him, until I noticed that he was no longer looking at me, but behind me.
I lowered my makeshift weapon and turned to find my family, my tribe, and at the front of them all, the Caller of Honor, my sister – Lilli, and my mother. Their faces were full of shock. A low murmur rumbled among them.
“Ia,” Mother whispered as she swam to me and wrapped her arms around me.
They talked among themselves as I embraced my family. Some of those muttering were confused to see me, others angry.
“You are not dead, Ia,” Lili said, repeating it. “I thought you were dead.”
“I worried the same for you, Lili,” I answered.
“Where have you been?”
The voice came from behind me, angry and spiteful. Ro, of course.
“I found her stealing. A Forsaken trying to steal from her own family.”
“I am not Forsaken, Ro,” I said, shaking my head, appalled that he was twisting the situation to his favor – and my endangerment.
Faces darkened, and the expressions of those I love fell from relief to worry.
“Where have you been?” asked Mother, as softly as she could. “We found no trace of you, believed you to be no more.”
“And what mermaid would leave her family to believe her to be dead? A Forsaken!”
Ro interjected before I had time to answer.
“I am not Forsaken! I have been ashore.”
The words fell out. Truth was hard to contain, even when it could have meant my death. A roar of disbelief and growing anger tore loose among the people.
“Liar,” someone shouted, and I looked back to Ro, now leaning against the entrance of my family’s home with his arms crossed and a smug, horrible look on his face.
“I do not lie.” I knew no one believed me, not even my own family, who were now looking away.
“Forsaken has trespassed – she must be punished,” someone else yelled from the crowd, and shouts of “Yes!” and “Punish her!” supported it.
I cringed, looking around for an escape as I shook my head.
Several of the guards, Ro’s friends, had managed to work their way to the front of the throng, pushing their way past my family. They looked to Ro, and with a nod of his head, they reached out to seize me.
“Stop!” An older and feminine voice called out. The crowd parted to reveal the High Mother. From the clay beads in her hair and the ceremonial necklace, she had been leading Liliana’s mating rite. “You will do no such thing until I determine if she is truthful.”
She swam through the middle of them at her leisure, stopping only a hand’s width or two from me. I bowed to her, my thoughts flooding with an unspoken prayer that she would save me from Ro and his men. She reached out and took me by the chin, turning my head from side-to-side. Her brow furrowed, and she looked to Ro, her eyes narrowing at the sight of his wound.
“Come with me, child.” She led me into the grotto, out of earshot from the others who respectfully kept their distance.
“Give me your hand,” she said.
I offered my right hand, and she turned it over, running her long fingernails down the lines of my palm. Her mouth moved with whispers and the lines grew bright with a flash of light, t
hen dissipated to nothing. She smiled, looking back up at me.
“You are, indeed, a land-strider,” she said. “Of ocean and of ash. Mer and human, one and the same. My, I thought I should never see another one. I will have two hundred years on this aged frame with the next cycle of the moon.”
She sighed as she continued.
“It is our blessing and our curse to have such long lives, Ia, especially compared to the humans.”
I nodded as my breath caught in my throat, unsure where her comments were leading us.
“You were turned as an infant, so your lifespan will be eternal compared to his, and I sense you know this.”
My mouth fell open. I had not thought about it, not once.
“If I should turn him? Would he be as our kind?”
She held up a finger. “If he survives, if you are successful, his life will still be shorter than yours. Longer than that of a human, but still but a fraction to yours.”
Her eyes softened, and she caressed my chin. “The decision is all yours, Ia. Do you choose a life with him, or do you let it go?”
I shrugged. “Perhaps I am selfish, but I want to spend my life with him.”
“Such is our curse, dear. We are given the gift to walk among them, and the smarter of us lure them to the water for our family to feast, but you,” she said. “You have heart as I once did, Ia. One walks among them, then one grows to care for them, then one grows to love them – as you do him.”
High Mother stared off for a moment, smiling in a memory.
“I fear he is in grave danger, and I do not know what to do.”
The old woman threw back her head and laughed. “Go back ashore, lure this man who would harm you to the water, then take him to the depths and eat.” She continued to laugh as she looked at me, my jaw slack, eyes wide, and eyebrows raised.
“High Mother, it took me too long to change forms, and I have no talent for Calling.”
“Ha!” She waved. “Your talent for Calling will be in human form, and by the look of you, what a fierce one you will be. As for changing, will yourself to do it quickly, and it will happen. You could change into your human form right at this very moment if you wished.”
I pursed as I determined to try, and my elder winked at me.
Falling in Deep Collection Box Set Page 25
