by Starla Night
Gailen nodded and announced their arrival in his language.
They cheered.
One couple swam toward them with an entire aquarium’s worth of graceful rays, curious eels, stampeding crabs, and buzzing rainbow-colored shrimp. The rest of the warriors kicked ruggedly behind them.
The couple zoomed in front of her and Lotar and stopped.
It was Faier, a warrior Hazel had spent time with at MerMatch, and his queen, Harmony.
Faier had lost his first city to an underwater volcano and then suffered terrible injuries that had prevented him from wooing a bride, but here he was, beaming, with his equally cheerful wife in his arms.
“Hey, guys.” Queen Harmony’s Omaha accent was subtle. “Welcome to Aiycaya.”
“Hazel.” King Faier gifted her with a relaxed grin. The scars that had once rippled across his body had healed, and the normally somber warrior looked bright and healthy. “Lotar. It is good to see you.”
“You too!” Hazel released Lotar and gave Faier and Harmony a big hug. “Group hug.”
Harmony laughed. “Oh, wow. It’s been a while since I had a group hug.”
The rainbow shrimp buzzed past.
Faier and Harmony led them back to the vibrant bobbing castles of Aiycaya. English, French, and a lilting language echoed with cheery welcome.
In the center, like in Sireno, the Life Tree glowed with pure, holy silence. It was much, much older though. Mature, like a great winter oak, its barren branches stretched toward the surface, calling down for more brides to join with mermen. Pearly white resin dripped from the tree’s crevices, hardened, and tumbled to the dais with tender clinks.
Sea Opals. Hundreds and hundreds of massive, healing Sea Opals.
There was a bajillion dollars’ worth of wealth right here.
Which made Faier and Harmony the richest people Hazel had ever met.
They led her to the old castle which Harmony and Faier had custody of right now. Harmony’s brother, King Kayo, was up on the surface.
Everyone circled, floating over the gardens in the courtyard. The travelers clustered together. All the Aiycaya warriors looked to Harmony with quiet respect.
“You’re our first traveler on the All-Cities Gyre.” Harmony pressed her fingertips together like she was trying to remember a rehearsed speech. “We’re supposed to offer you a meal. Faier’s got out the best underwater feast, but if you’re craving surface food like Nutter Butters or Twinkies, I can’t help. We tried bringing it down here, but…” She squished her palms together. “Flatter than a penny on train tracks.”
“They do not structure human Twinkies for oceanic pressure.” Faier directed Aiycaya warriors to open containers and pass around greens.
“Not even a paste.” Harmony took healthy helpings using her dagger. She flicked a bit of fish rind over her shoulder without looking. An adorable little octopus popped up, nabbed it, and whirled it away. “But that’s okay. It makes going to the surface exciting.”
“It must be so nice to surface all the time.” Hazel took the fillet of something Lotar cut for her with one of his long daggers and passed the container to Gailen on her other side.
She’d never thought of getting a dagger. Should she ask Lotar for a dagger? Of course, she had yet to make her fins, and Harmony had those too.
The royals asked about her trip, and she hit the highlights. Faier asked about Sireno.
“Are their leaders still allied with the All-Council?” Faier asked Lotar. “We were never sure.”
Lotar shrugged a shoulder.
“So it is still undecided? King Jolan never sent warriors to fight Atlantis, but they were the first city to reject modern queens. As they are our nearest neighbor, we had hoped something had changed.”
Lotar shook his head.
“I see.” Faier pursed his lips. “It is a conundrum. Should we reach out to them? Or will they call us anathema and attack?”
“It’s kind of unfair to call us anathema.” Harmony rested her hand on Faier’s. Because she was born a mer, she had streaks of iridescent pink tattoos up her forearms. “I mean, we found our sacred brides again, and it’s not my fault that my mom kept my birth a secret. She raised me in a landlocked state.”
“But I am from Atlantis,” Faier reminded her. “And no female mer has been born in a thousand years before you.”
“That we know.”
He tilted his head in agreement. “The All-Council has no protocol. It is easier to call us anathema than to yield to the changes.”
Lotar listened silently.
It was funny. When Hazel had first met Lotar, he had mostly answered in shrugs, but then he’d switched to words and full sentences.
Since descending into the ocean again, he gave orders to Gailen and Iyen and made the announcements at the echo point, but otherwise, he retreated.
Even in this conversation, he faded. Deflected attention from his existence.
But he did not have to hide.
Hazel rested a hand on his knee and addressed the king and queen. “The warriors in Sireno are definitely arguing. The first lieutenant is very pro Atlantis. He hates the super-traditional elder. And the king is in the middle trying to keep everyone from killing each other, but I think if it was up to him, he’d be on our side. So, I’d say they’re middle to slightly pro Atlantis.” She looked at Lotar. “What did Pelan say when we were leaving?”
Lotar took a moment to answer. “Queen Roxanne is persuasive and will use her powers on the traditional elder.”
Faier’s brows rose. “Persuasion? I have not heard of that queen power.”
Lotar shook his head.
“Pelan meant that Roxanne’s good at convincing people,” Hazel said, and Lotar nodded emphatically. “And she is. Way before she met Pelan, she was convincing people to build a hospital on a shoestring budget, right? That’s not a queen power. It’s a superpower.”
The royal couple smiled, and Faier asked a few more specific questions of Lotar, who answered them fluidly.
Then they got interrupted by Aiycaya warriors who needed Harmony and Faier, real fast.
Lotar picked up Hazel’s hand and threaded their fingers together. “You worry about me.”
“No, not really. I thought, you know, you’re among friends. You can speak freely. No one’s going to judge you for saying the wrong thing. You don’t have to hide yourself anymore.”
He lifted a brow. “Am I hiding myself?”
“Aren’t you?”
His lips quirked, and he massaged her fingers with sweet feather touches. “I must be doing a bad job, because you found me.”
“I did.” She covered his other hands with hers. “I’ll always try to find you if you let me. And your friends will too. We care about your thoughts and feelings. Your observations. Your past. Everything.”
He held her gaze for a long, long moment. The ghost of a smile was wiped away. He fought with something deep. Fear? Disagreement?
She squeezed his hands. They were so much larger than hers, but he let her contain him so easily. “It’s scary to open yourself up like that, but it’s the only way to be loved and accepted for who you really are.”
He focused on her hands. She contained him, yes, but she also tried to give him strength. Stability. I’m not afraid of what’s inside. Your secrets are safe with me.
His frown deepened.
“Hey, guys.” Harmony landed abruptly in her eating position. “There was a miscommunication. My brother heard some rumors, I guess, and we assured him that everything’s fine, but he’s already on his way down here. We have to get ready to surface.”
Oh.
Then, Hazel had to hurry and ask—
“Before you ask.” Harmony put up her hand and winced. “I know you’re here about the party. And, please don’t hate me, but…we kind of aren’t going.”
What? No! “Why?”
“If it were up to me, I’d be there.” Harmony rolled her head back and forth with a self-deprecating
chuckle. “That’s the real reason my brother’s in such a hurry to get down here. He’s afraid I’m going to commit the whole city because I hate telling anyone no. And he’s not wrong. But…”
Harmony lowered her shoulders and looked positively regal. “The warriors of Aiycaya just reestablished our connection with our sacred brides. We must support them. So, we wish you the best with your party and will cheer you on from afar.”
Hazel worried her hands. “But you’d be such a good role model for the other cities.”
“I know.” Harmony slumped, a girlfriend again, and winced with sympathy. “We would. I totally agree, but things are still a little unstable, especially with our sacred brides, and it’s a ‘put your oxygen mask on before helping your neighbor’ situation. But as soon as we’re able to?” Harmony flicked her wrist, and a swirl of shrimp buzzed around the interior of the castle like a rainbow. “We’ll be there. I promise.”
And just like that, Hazel failed.
Again.
Fourteen
“Ugh.” Hazel leaned against Lotar. “Aiycaya said no? It was supposed to be easy.”
He listened with silent support as he navigated them onto the current for their next destination.
“Sireno was supposed to be neutral. So far, I’m zero for two. What happens when we get to the really hard cities?”
We are lucky to have been able to enter the cities.
“Don’t tell me that,” Hazel moaned, even though he hadn’t told her anything, not even in a vibration. “It’s not enough to reach the cities. I have to reach them too.”
Since she seemed to hear his very thoughts, he vibrated them aloud. “You will.”
“How can you say that? After what happened? Augh.”
He tried not to smile.
Her disappointment was understandable, but Hazel connected so easily with others. She made fast friends with the other queens, brightened warriors she hadn’t seen in years such as Faier, and soothed warriors who were facing a dreaded homecoming, such as Gailen.
And then there was what she did to him.
Forcing him to look at his own behavior. Reconsider his past.
And just maybe consider a new future…
“The kids were cute, though.” Hazel sighed and rubbed her belly. “Not that I want to have kids right now.”
Wait.
His heart kicked as if a predator had spotted him. “No?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I totally do want to.” She chortled awkwardly. “I know you mer need to have kids. Population crash and all. Not that there’s anything wrong with being child-free. I dated plenty of guys who…er, yeah. Anyway. I’m definitely up for kids. Don’t you worry.”
So she still did want young fry.
Of course she did.
“But there’s no need to get pregnant at the start of a years-long road trip. Imagine the morning sickness. Pregnancy cravings. Aches, mood swings, and having to pee all the time. Really weird ones Erin got, like nosebleeds. How do Dannika and Roxanne swim around like that? Of course, they both can make their fins.”
She flexed her still-human feet, dragging them back.
Good, but…
Something was odd.
Why had he panicked when he’d thought she didn’t want young fry? Shouldn’t he have been happy? And why did he feel so conflicted now?
Why did knowing that she wanted young fry relieve him?
“Don’t worry.” Hazel stroked his forehead. “I know you worry, but we’ll work things out, right? Together.”
He should not take comfort from her soft, gentle strokes.
But relaxing into her caress eased a tension deep inside his chest.
He could not hide from her.
She sensed the truth.
And yet.
And yet…
“Hey.” She pointed to overturned boulders. “What happened there?”
The ground beneath them showed the marks of something recent, large, and destructive scraping over rocks and crushing crabs not yet scavenged. A recent path of destruction.
“Perhaps the kraken.”
“Oh, sure. At least I got the ‘ommm’ sound right this time.” She rubbed her forehead. “Ugh. When I got it wrong in Sireno, that was so embarrassing.”
Was this the kraken, though? If it dragged its monstrous tentacles on the ground, perhaps…
A ripple, like claws raking through the open ocean, distorted the horizon.
Then the horizon disappeared into a strange fog.
What was that?
Hazel followed his gaze. “What are you looking at?”
He did not know. “Stay here.”
“Okay.” She hugged her elbows. “You know, the last time you left me, I got ambushed.”
“I will not leave your sight.”
“That’s still pretty far underwater.” But her chest glowed with confidence, and she flexed her feet. She trusted him.
Hmm.
Lotar swam toward the ripple. The water had separated like a thermocline, but in a strange place. And it moved. A school of gulper eels shimmered between him and the distortion. They were unaffected.
“I wonder what my power is.” Her vibration carried to the edge of his range, and he slowed to stay within it while he investigated. “If the hostile cities come after us, maybe I could shield us from their weapons or push them back. That would be useful. Or if I were stealthier, like you, I could get into the cities and scope them out.”
She would never be stealthy. She was too open, too kind, too heartfelt to deaden her electric impulses like a Syrenka warrior.
And that was fine.
He did not wish her to be different. She was better as she was. He would be stealthy for both of them.
Something tugged at his memory.
He should know what this was. From his vast experience, he should know…
Boulders rolled into the thickening fog. The gulper eels tumbled as though something had sucked them into a riptide.
Riptide?
This deep underwater—without a surface weather effect—was impossible. Only a natural disaster such as the movement of the ocean floor, the eruption of an undersea volcano, or the crumbling of a mountain caused such a chaotic current.
There was no animal the size of a mountain.
No.
There was one animal the size of a mountain.
Curse it.
He pivoted and raced toward Hazel.
She was vulnerable. She could be dashed to the rocks. Crushed like the crabs.
He had let her go, again, and she was at risk—
She looked up. “Lotar?”
He barreled into her.
There, on the ocean floor, a cave. He kicked toward it with all his might. The ocean behind him fell away from his fins and the current pulled against him, but he was almost there. Inside, an anchoring rock. He reached for it. His fingers clenched it.
The crushing current ripped him out of the cave and flung him into the center of the storm.
Hazel shrieked.
Lotar pressed her head to his shoulder and tried to shelter her with his body as they were smashed end over end. A boulder cracked against his head. Smaller super-accelerated rocks pummeled him, and needlefish zoomed past. The currents wrenched him in three directions. The ocean itself roared.
It went on and on.
There was only Hazel in his arms, and the numbing pain in his body, and her heartbeat centering him. In all the storm, there was only the two of them.
The noise faded and the current lessened. He uncurled from Hazel.
She blinked. “What was that?”
“The kraken.”
“Oh, I didn’t see her.” Her brows drew together. “I should have made the soothing noise.”
“Not her body.” He shook his head. His neck ached and the cuts stung, but they were smaller and less deadly than he had any right to expect. Rightly, he should be dead. “Her wake.”
“Huh.” Hazel frowned and drew
a finger along his shoulder. “Ouch.”
“You were not hurt?”
“No, you must have…”
Her fingertip glowed, and the stinging eased. His cut turned a dull color as though the healing slightly sped up.
Her brows smoothed. “Hey. I guess I have healing powers, but not very powerful ones. I guess it’s lucky that you weren’t hurt badly.”
That was lucky.
But it did not feel like luck.
He should have realized what he was looking at. His distraction had nearly cost their lives. Should have cost their lives.
Hazel healed him weakly, and he kicked with sore muscles into the best current to carry them to Sanctuary Island.
“I didn’t even think about the kraken’s wake.” Hazel idly trailed her index finger across his scars. “How can we avoid that?”
They could not.
“The other queens use a shield,” he told her based on Second Lieutenant Ciran’s report.
“Yeah. I guess I’ll have to ask Dannika.” Hazel rested her head on Lotar’s shoulder, and her body suddenly felt twice as heavy as her soul dimmed to black. “But if my power is healing… Ugh. I can’t convince anybody to come to the party, and I can’t protect us from the kraken. I can’t do anything. Is there any point in dragging me with you? I’m deadweight.”
He kicked twice as hard with his aching muscles.
She did have a point.
Not the one she thought she was making, however.
Once he had been considered exceptional, and now he couldn’t seem to summon even the most basic trainee abilities.
He was not a better warrior with Hazel.
She sensed it as well. “There’s a boat to the mainland. I guess you could always leave me on Sanctuary Island and continue alone.”
His chest grew heavy, reflecting her dimmed soul, and he struggled harder on his exhausted limbs.
Going alone was what he had always wanted.
He still thought it was for the best.
Didn’t he?
Fifteen
They reached Sanctuary Island.
Hazel felt like a total fraud. A loser. The worst person ever.
She was about to report to Dannika, her boss, the person she admired most in the world, and share the wasteland of her mistakes.
