Spellbound by the Sea Lord

by Starla Night

  Balim had never made such close friends.

  “You must allow me to surface,” Nilun continued, issuing his request as an order without a hint of asking. “I must exact my vengeance.”

  “You may surface.” Balim unrolled his tools and spread healing paste on the lesion while Nilun hissed at the pain. “I would not forbid a warrior to surface who has an infected water flea bite.”

  His jaw dropped as his chest vibrated. “Water flea?”

  “This reaction is rare. Djullanar has warmer water fleas. You are unfamiliar with Atlantic water fleas.” He bandaged the paste with seaweed and pressed it neatly to make it adhere. “But you will not avenge Pelan. Keep this injury wet until the bandage falls off, and you will avoid a scar.”

  He tried to flex his hand. “I cannot grip.”

  “Correct. And keep the wound wet so it will heal.”

  “How can I keep the wound wet? The air is dry.”

  “There is water on the surface,” Balim reminded him. “Ask for a bowl of water.”

  His face blanked. “You wish for me to keep my hand in a bowl of water? How can I move or pursue or wield a trident?”

  King Kadir floated forward. “Warrior Nilun, you will surrender your weapons at the platform. It is our treaty with the Americans.”

  Emotion worked his face. He looked back at Zoan, who shrugged, and then into the sanctuary, where it was impossible to see Pelan. “But I must avenge him. That is my whole purpose for surfacing.”

  “Consider serving your race as well as your king and search for your soul mate.” Balim turned to the next warrior.

  But he could not keep his mind off Bella and the vengeance they would face if anyone knew about her vial of poison.

  She must develop her queen powers to destroy the poison, save Atlantis, and find and cure her son. Here, with Queen Elyssa and Queen Lucy to guide her.

  Before it was too late.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Bella lingered at the side of the playing area where the three young children zoomed between their moms. The sight made her heart squeeze.

  Elyssa’s child, Kael, was a year and a half maybe. He romped after Lucy’s two-year-old fraternal twins, girl Tory and boy Yrun. Pumping their stubby legs and already-impressive fins, they flew from Lucy, avoiding her tickles, to Elyssa and back again, giggling and squealing.

  Behind Bella, Pelan’s bride watched with her arms crossed, her human toes dangling. “They make it look so easy.”

  She spoke with a dry, familiar tone to Bella even though this was perhaps the first time they’d ever talked. And she flexed her toes, twisted her ankles and jiggled her knees.

  “You’re practicing,” Bella noted, returning the cool observations. “Any luck?”

  “Not yet. I think I’m getting somewhere and then nothing.” Her lips flattened, and she massaged her toes with her hands. “The sooner I’m independent, the better.”

  Bella would ask about that but a ruckus interrupted her.

  Yrun, looking behind him and giggling, flew into Kael with a cry. The two tumbled against Tory. Elbows and knees smacked into soft tissue. Little wails crossed the city, and everyone stopped except Balim and King Kadir, both of whom homed in on the injuries.

  “Ouch,” Pelan’s bride said, and drifted back while everyone else leaned in.

  Kael flew into Elyssa’s arms. She kissed his head. “There, all better.”

  King Kadir reached them a moment later and enveloped both of them in his arms. “I shall also perform the kiss.” And he did. Then he brought out a small treat from the seaweed pouch all mer carried. “To sweeten your tongue.”

  Prince Kael’s wails faded to a whimper, and then he stuck out his lower lip, trembling, but otherwise calmed. He took the small bit of fruit and chewed on it with his few baby teeth.

  Elyssa smiled at her husband.

  That closeness, that instant support, was something Bella had never experienced. Yet here, now, she could experience it with Balim. He would be an attentive father.

  Bella’s throat tightened.

  Lucy gathered her darlings, soothing and kissing them. They cried and rooted urgently until both latched on and peace reigned.

  The warriors remained on alert.

  “Warlord Torun will return to support you shortly,” Ciran informed Lucy.

  “What? No, don’t interrupt his research. It’s only a playground tumble.”

  “He must know the condition of his young fry.”

  “And they’re fine.” Lucy insisted. “We’re fine. Nothing a hug from Mom won’t cure. Right, Balim?”

  Meanwhile, Balim examined Kael—only a tiny scrape, which he soothed with gel while Kael watched. Then he examined the twins—who had older bruising, but which Lucy assured him was normal.

  Bella could stay here, make her fins, join the mer world, and never rise to the surface. Not only Balim, but the women and the warriors would give her support. If it took a village, this whole village would be devoted to her children. It would no longer be her as a single mother and her child against the world…

  Only when everyone was proclaimed fine did the warriors relax, and, with a meaningful look to Bella, Balim returned to his examination of the assembled warriors. King Kadir left them a moment later, and then Elyssa had to convince Kael not to go after his father, but that was a losing battle, and the brave prince took off after his very willing father.

  “He’s so independent,” Elyssa sighed and cast her eyes on Lucy. “I miss that stage. I thought we’d nurse for longer, but as soon as Kael could swim, he became his father’s little man.”

  “I keep thinking mine must be done.” Lucy gazed on her children with fullhearted love. “They’re only two years old. I spent a lot longer grieving I’d never have my own before the Sireno Life Tree healed me. I just have to hug them close for as long as I can.”

  As if on cue, first Tory and then Yrun wiggled free, satisfied with their tiny snack and energetic again.

  “And they’re off,” Pelan’s bride noted, still crossing her arms. She’d drifted away with the talk of the kids; they did not hold her interest.

  Lucy folded her hands, smiling, as her twins darted and danced like little underwater jumping beans, never still, always bright-eyed and bumbly and active. “You know how fast this stage goes by, right, Bella?”

  “I formula-fed,” she confessed before anyone could think she had a special contribution to their weaning discussion. “I never had time to fit nursing around my career.”

  “The mer have formula.” Elyssa frowned as she searched her mind for the specifics. “Some combination of fish protein, blubber, and plant fiber.”

  “Torun offered to make it for me.” Lucy stretched and leaned back on her elbows, floating lazily. “But you know, it’s way easier to nurse even twins when you have endless maternity leave, you’re already totally naked all the time, and an entire city of fit warriors is waiting to serve you like a queen.”

  That made Bella smile against her will. “Yes, that might have changed my priorities.”

  Elyssa’s optimistic smile flickered, and she rested her hands across her belly. The area grew quiet.

  Everyone knew about Jonah. They wanted to be careful of her feelings, and Bella appreciated their sensitivity even though it would be easier for her not to think about him at all.

  Sadness welled in her throat. It choked her, not like when her body was rejecting the elixir and the transition to mer, but like a normal painful sadness that made her choke back a cry.

  Across the field, Balim caught and held her gaze. He always knew. Silently, he asked—could he help her?

  No. She swallowed and searched for a better topic. Something to channel her sadness at her failures and focus on the future.

  “How did you make that ball of light from your hands?” Bella asked Lucy, changing the subject. “It was amazing.”

  “I channeled my queen powers.”

  “How?” Pelan’s bride asked her, interested ag
ain.

  “Well, I think about how much I love Torun and then ‘pop,’ out they come.” She demonstrated, kicking her human toes multiple times. Nothing happened. “Oh, come on now. Come on…yes! There they are.” Her fins unfurled.

  “It doesn’t look easy,” Pelan’s bride commented with dismay.

  “For me, it’s not.” She huffed and rubbed her dark hair. “Look at my kids, though.”

  Tory flexed her feet, imitating her mother and popping them back and forth and back and forth, fins and toes and fins and toes. Beside her, Yrun picked at his lips. One foot flexed to fins and the other held toes.

  Bella calculated their abilities based on her memory of Jonah. “They were born underwater. They can’t be great walkers yet.”

  “They’re not bad. We practice surface-time with Mum-Mum and Grandada every few weeks. They’re better than toddlers, but maybe not quite ready to run a relay race.”

  Hmm.

  “Every woman finds her inner power differently,” Lucy said, and Elyssa nodded in agreement.

  “I think meditative thoughts.” Elyssa crossed her legs in a yoga pose, closed her eyes, and hummed. “Ommm.”

  Then she stretched into an underwater Downward Dog, and as she straightened her body, her fins emerged, flowing like a long dress.

  Beautiful.

  “So you have to find your own way,” Lucy finished. “First, make your fins. As you gain confidence, power will flow.”

  Pelan’s bride closed her eyes and tried the meditation route, but she didn’t have much luck.

  The women chatted about their powers. Lucy sheltered others with a shield; Aya, Elyssa’s cousin, pushed warriors away, and Elyssa healed. Other queens who had descended to the second rebel city, Dragao Azul, possessed similar powers.

  “What we used to think were separate queen powers are the same,” Lucy continued, “but everyone has a natural talent for one power over another. That’s why the more women marry into the city, the more we work together, the stronger we are.”

  “Do you have to marry first?” Pelan’s bride scrubbed her face. “It’s not enough to be a mermaid?”

  “So far as I know, you have to drink the nectar of the Life Tree blossom, not just elixir, and that means joining with your husband,” Elyssa answered. “I don’t know of anyone who’s developed their powers independently.”

  Pelan’s bride ground her teeth.

  “Don’t worry. Balim is a great healer. Pelan will wake up soon, and then you’ll know that he’s the one for you. You’ll drink the nectar, we’ll teach you how to make your fins, and you’ll embrace your queen power.”

  “Yeah,” she muttered, unconvinced, and drifted back into the sanctuary to Pelan’s side.

  Bella’s spine tightened.

  She had to ask Balim how they would get the blossom away. Could she just ask? The mer treasured young fry. But if Pelan’s bride needed to drink it to heal Pelan, how could Bella steal away his health on a risky hope she’d defeat the Sons of Hercules?

  Sickness, like a raiding party, could change everything in an instant.

  Bella closed her eyes. A quiet, tinkling, holy music filling her with peace.

  She didn’t want to think about the surface. She didn’t want to think about her son, where he was, whether he was even still alive.

  Her heart filled with molten glass hardened into spikes.

  “Bella.” Balim’s voice vibrated beside her, and his powerful arms pulled her into the safety of his embrace. “Lighten your thoughts. Your soul is sick and dark.”

  She opened her eyes and let her current reality filter back to her. “I’m here.”

  “The Life Tree sanctuary should soothe you.”

  “I guess my problems are larger than most. The Life Tree can’t heal everything.”

  He did not look convinced.

  She, more than anyone, wanted him to be right. The Life Tree must cure anything. Leukemia, infertility, anything.

  Anything…

  “Balim!” Pelan’s bride burst from the sanctuary, fear on her face. “Pelan’s having trouble breathing.”

  “What do you mean?” Balim tightened his grip on Bella. “He is a warrior of the mer.”

  “I know, but he’s arching his back.” She demonstrated. “Like he can’t breathe. Come look.”

  Balim linked Bella’s hand with his and flew into the sanctuary, keeping her close as though he could sense the ripples of danger on the currents.

  Inside, Pelan arched like his bride had described. The other warrior, Zoan, huddled over him with worry. Zoan called to Balim, “His soul is darkening. He is not responding to the Life Tree.”

  Balim released Bella, shifted his feet to human, and knelt at Pelan’s side.

  Pelan’s bride stood next to Bella, horror mixed with helpless inevitability. Bella knew that feeling too well.

  “What’s wrong?” Elyssa crowded in with the other warriors. “Why isn’t Pelan being healed?”

  Balim rested on his heels and straightened, a dead expression on his face. “Because he has an incurable illness.”

  “What? What to do you mean?”

  Balim pointed to the small interlocking blue loops crossing Pelan’s chest encasing him in silver-blue chains. “He has Oannes’ Curse.”

  “No,” King Kadir growled.

  “Yes.” Balim looked sick. “The official name is Blue Ring.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Balim knelt before his patient. An unfamiliar rage twisted him.

  It was as if his old king had arisen from the dead and taunted him. “You will never succeed your father. You did not even recognize he had Blue Ring, and yet you are the only warrior of this era to have seen it with your own eyes when you murdered me.”

  Warrior Pelan, the young, hopeful male who had sacrificed so much to reach Atlantis, should have a happier life ahead of him with a bride. Not be suffering and dying young from this curse.

  Warrior Pelan moaned.

  His bride knelt beside him and tried to take his hands. “Pelan? Can you hear me?”

  He dragged his hand free. And otherwise, Pelan had no reaction to her. Just as before when she’d refused the marriage ceremony.

  She grimaced, rose to her feet, and backed away. “It’s not working.”

  Behind him, the warriors and queens discussed what to do.

  “Is Blue Ring contagious?” Queen Elyssa asked. “Are we at risk?”

  “Perhaps it is not Blue Ring,” a warrior interrupted in the back. “No one living has seen it. Healer Balim is mistaken.”

  Others pressed forward, encroaching on his patient, to get their own look while the more distant warriors argued.

  Second Lieutenant Ciran’s vibration leveled their words. “Respect Healer Balim’s expertise.” He met Balim’s gaze, revealing nothing. “If he says it is Blue Ring, Warrior Pelan is infected with Blue Ring.”

  “Then is it not too late?” An unidentified warrior asked the fearful question. “We are exposed. His sickness infects us.”

  Panic edged the rumbles.

  “Empty this sanctuary,” King Kadir ordered the nearby warriors. “Those who remain must be quiet.”

  Nilun covered his flea bite with one hand and stood to the side, his worry palpable. Half the warriors flew out, leaving a quieter crowd.

  Pelan had to respond. Balim pressed Pelan’s shoulders into the Life Tree.

  The warrior thrashed. His blood had been corrupted against resonance, and he reacted as a dull human. Balim released Pelan, and the warrior collapsed in a heap.

  Disconcerting.

  Bella floated beside Balim and leaned over him. “Are you at risk?”

  “Normally? No.” He flexed his own fingers, finding no cuts or injuries, not even the tiniest break of skin. “The disease is confined to Oannes Field. It afflicts only those who touch or handle the cursed weapons. But how has Warrior Pelan contracted it?”

  “No one entered the sanctuary since he arrived,” Zoan affirmed.

/>   “Then he touched the weapons before.” Just as Balim’s instincts had told him. “Possibly any of us touched the weapons without knowing. Or perhaps Warrior Pelan is the weapon.”

  Queen Elyssa floated forth. “Let me try.”

  Balim’s first impulse was to deny her. She should not risk herself. Queen Elyssa was the light and hope of Atlantis. As the first queen, she had welcomed all warriors with her heart.

  But she was Warrior Pelan’s best hope now.

  Queen Elyssa knelt and rested her hands on Pelan’s feverish brow.

  Pelan whipped his head back and forth as though trying to shake her off. He flung an arm. It cracked against Queen Elyssa’s shoulder.

  She opened her eyes and gasped. “Ow!”

  Prince Kael flew toward his mother with a cry.

  “No!” Queen Elyssa tried to stop him. “I’m all right. I promise! Just surprised.”

  King Kadir intercepted Prince Kael, soothed him, and gave the young fry to Second Lieutenant Ciran with grave instructions. “Confine the young fry to my castle until the Life Tree sanctuary is purified. Guard them with our most faithful warriors.”

  “My king.” Ciran turned away without meeting Balim’s eye. He gathered his select guard, and they escorted the young fry out with Queen Lucy’s gentle but worried encouragement.

  Balim checked Queen Elyssa’s arm. The skin was reddish from the contact but not broken.

  She laughed, a little shaken. “I don’t know if I should try again. I felt nothing from Pelan. It’s like something’s blocking me.”

  This was a nightmare.

  “Healer Balim!” First Lieutenant Soren’s gruff vibration called out from the entrance to the sanctuary. Warriors parted to make way. “We have grave news from your human hospital.”

  The massive first lieutenant was the size of two warriors and covered in black tattoos. Once he had declared that he possessed no honor, but now he quieted that declaration around his brilliant queen, pale Aya.

  “We have grave news here,” Queen Elyssa said, curling her hand around King Kadir’s bicep. “Pelan has Blue Ring.”