Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series (34 page)

He wasn’t expecting this. “Yes, it is,” he
replied, as he sought to answer the next most logical question
before it was asked. “Though due to this necklace I’m now a
merman.”

But apparently, he’d missed the meaning which
her next words revealed. “And you’ll stay this way forever … right,
Ian?”

This caught him off guard, and quite frankly,
terrified him. At the current rate, he’d never have time to recover
from the shock of her long hug. “Nothing’s certain right now,” he
muttered weakly. “I have many places to be.”

“Not if the princess decides to keep you like
this,” she said, as she smiled sadly, likely doubting this to be
the case.

“So Princess Taeria controls this necklace?”
asked Ian, finding himself quite uneasy, as if he’d just found out
that an important aspect of his life was being controlled by a
puppeteer.

“Yes,” replied the mermaid. “And there are
only two others like it--the king’s and the queen’s.” She gazed at
him further, and seem to take joy in her next words. “These
necklaces have only been used on humans once before, and only for a
short time. Who knows the long-term effects of them?”

But, whether she’d intended it or not, her
words instantly caused Ian to flinch as if he’d just been stabbed
by a needle. It appeared that she wanted him to stay permanently
fixed in this merman form, and that was something that absolutely
terrified him.

Fortunately, Sardin, as if sensing his
apprehension, smiled warmly and abandoned the hard topic. “So, are
you ready to play Arval, Ian? You’re one of us now, so you might as
well learn our games.”

“Arval?” he asked, confused, lowering his
eyebrows, glad for this way more pleasant topic, as he tried to
forget what the mermaid had said. “How’s it played?”

Sardin smirked, pleased to be the one to
explain the game to him. “It’s basically like water tag, except
that there are tiny flowers growing in the kelp garden that give
you points. Yellow flowers are worth 5 points, as they are the most
common; green are worth 10, blue 20, red 50, and purple 100, as
they are extremely rare.”

Pausing briefly, waiting for Ian to
comprehend everything, he continued, “The person who gets the most
points after one hour wins, and you cannot collect any flowers when
you are it. Oh, and you must remain still for ten seconds after you
are tagged to give the other person a chance to swim away from
you.” He paused, and focused on Ian, enthusiasm in his eyes. “Does
all of that make sense?”

“Yeah,” said Ian, nodding his head
approvingly, already liking the sound of this game. “So where do we
put the flowers, Sardin?”

“In these.” He pointed over to a tall merman
with steel blue hair beside him, who carried a feather-like basket
full of black fabric pouches with straps on them.

Curiosity piqued, Ian swam up to him and
analyzed the pouches for several seconds, before Sardin broke his
concentration. “Ready, Ian?”

“Sure.” As all eight of them grabbed a pouch
from the white basket and tied it around their waists, Ian copied
their actions, euphoria building in him. This game was going to be
awesome. It wasn’t every day he could play tag underwater, or
breathe underwater for that matter.

Besides being a merman, he could also swim
extremely quickly as well as see perfectly in the clear waters
without his eyes even hurting at all. His only worries were that he
was going to be tagged continually, being new at the game, or
wasn’t going to be able to find the flowers. But, as the merfolk
seemed to be a kind race, and he was great at finding hidden
objects in the I Spy books, his concerns were only minor.

Looking back at Sardin, ready to get this
started, Ian swam next to him and nudged him on the shoulder. “So
who’s going to be the tagger?”

Sardin grinned, as he glanced back at an
agile-looking mermaid with wavy royal purple hair and a
short-haired merman with a confident demeanor and short locks of
cerulean hair. “The most experienced players: Jala and Rai.”

“Great,” said Ian, a bit surprised that two
people were it instead of one. That gave him even less chance of
doing well. “So what now?”

“We hide and start collecting flowers.”
Slapping Ian lightheartedly with his tail, he shot off swiftly,
leaving a trail of bubbles behind him.

Hesitant, Ian stared at Rai who smirked at
him and put his hand on a lever on the feather-like basket looking
ready to pull it down.

“You’d better swim away, Ian.” He laughed, a
twinkle in his cyan eyes, his dark blue tail poised to dart off at
any moment. “We’ll give you twenty seconds instead of five because
you’re new, but after that the waves will start crashing.”

Taken a bit aback by his words, Ian stood in
shock for a moment, vividly recalling Kenn’s metaphor about the big
ocean waves and how he needed to get out of the water before he got
hurt. However, rather than worrying that this was a bad omen, he
simply smiled at the funny coincidence and moved on.

“Thanks. I got it, Rai.” Propelling himself
away from them, adrenaline pumping through his body, Ian prepared
himself for the game, a surge of excitement welling up inside of
him. Even if he lost badly, it didn’t matter. Losing to creatures
of a different race didn’t seem nearly as frustrating as losing to
humans. Besides, he was new at the game and new at being a merman,
so he had plenty of justifications if he did lose.

Smiling to himself, as his face brushed
against the soft colorful kelp-like plants, Ian knew he’d enjoy
every minute of this.

After the game of Arval ended, Ian went
inside the palace by himself, where the king and queen greeted him
as if they were best friends and directed him towards an empty spot
a little distance from them. Physically exhausted, Ian laid down on
an extremely long amethyst couch around a gorgeous banquet table
that could fit fifty people, and just rested against the delicately
soft fabric. It felt great to lie down. Every muscle and bone in
his body ached. Even his tail was sore, which was definitely a
weird feeling for him.

Normally, after such strenuous exercise, a
cold shower would feel great, yet, of course, there was no such
thing here. Why would the merfolk even need to take baths when they
were underwater nearly all the time?

Amused by this interesting thought, as he
buried himself deeper into the back of the couch, he stretched out
his tail that was bent under him and reflected on his changed
behavior and how he’d played Arval just like he was one of them …
with playfulness and laughter. He’d done backward somersaults
through the water, had spun around quickly a couple of times until
he was dizzy just for fun, and had curled himself into a ball when
the taggers were close so that they wouldn’t spot him.

Dwelling on these incidents awhile longer, he
suddenly grew a bit stern. His personality had definitely changed
since he’d gone into the merfolk kingdom, and in some ways that
concerned him.

Though he had lost some of his irritation and
rigidness, and had completely transformed from loathing fish and
feeling sick every time he thought of them, to not even minding
them anymore--all very positive changes--he had also become much
more playful and fun-loving, traits that would’ve rarely been used
to describe him before. If he stayed here too long, this culture
would transform him into one of them, and his friends at home would
hardly even recognize him when he came back … or should he say,
if
he ever came back.

Brooding over that possibility with
uneasiness, he subconsciously grabbed onto his sapphire necklace,
when the thought hit him like a sledgehammer: this necklace, not
the merfolk, was the culprit. His personality change was probably
only one of its many side effects. Hadn’t Rhena, the mermaid who’d
hugged him, even told him that the necklace had only been tested
out once on a human, and that only for a short time?

Feeling suddenly betrayed and angry, like he
were part of a lab experiment gone wrong, Ian resisted the impulse
to tear the necklace off. His only reason for not doing so was that
it would be highly disrespectful in front of the princess and her
royal parents.

Still, this reason in itself was enough to
make him take his hand off the necklace and force himself to calm
down, for the last thing he wanted was to make an enemy out of such
a kind-hearted race who’d treated him with such honor and respect.
Even imagining Princess Taeria treating him as cruelly as the elven
Princess Saeya sent a shockwave of fear into him.

Like it or not, whatever change was happening
inside him, his only choice was to fight against it until he was
back to the surface again and could then safely remove the necklace
without any unintended consequences.

Accepting his fate grudgingly and blocking
out his anxious thoughts, Ian opened his weary eyes and glanced
around him, finally becoming aware of his surroundings. The
gigantic room was only filled with four feet of water, just enough
to swim in, while the rest of the room was filled with air.

A heavy wooden table draped with a silver
tablecloth stood right above the water line; a foamy crystal glass
of creamy blue punch sat in front of him; clusters of yellow
translucent citrus fruits filled a handcrafted basket to his left
side. To his right side were luscious-looking crisp golden circular
rolls stacked precariously on a bronze platter, and a bowl of
something resembling creamy bluish yogurt. Several inches in front
of the glass of blue punch stood a raspberry whipped cream pudding
dessert that hinted of vanilla, coconut, and cocoa.

As he stared at everything, his mouth
watering, Ian felt a tail slap him gently on the arm. It was
Taeria.

Feeling strangely bitter against her for not
warning him of the necklace’s effects, he grew somewhat consoled as
he remembered that its power
had
saved him from the Forest
Scourge. Besides, could he honestly blame her that the necklace was
changing him? It wasn’t her fault; more than likely, she knew
nothing of its repercussions.

Besides all that, she’d also been generous
enough to let him into the palace and allow him to share in this
royal feast. The least he could do was forgive her and move on.

His anger pacified, as he actually felt a
twinge of guilt for his hasty temper, he looked at her with sudden
glad relief. She was not only the first friend he’d made here in
Vaiya, but was also a remarkably beautiful princess--her violet
tail didn’t make her any less pretty in his eyes. Perhaps he’d been
a little too dramatic about his changed temperament. Who was to say
that he hadn’t just imagined the whole thing? It wouldn’t be the
first time he’d jumped to conclusions. His sister had often told
him that--

“So how’d you like Arval, Ian?” The princess
broke into his thoughts with an attentive smile, as Ian glanced at
other mermen and mermaids sliding into dozens of couches set around
various banquet tables in the enormous room, several faces of whom
he recognized. “I would’ve played but I had to practice my song for
the Mandian Festival.”

“It was great, Princess,” he replied,
startled by her question, and even more surprised that she hadn’t
missed out on the game as some sort of punishment, as he’d
previously assumed. “I ended up coming in sixth place out of nine
with 185 points.”

Her smile brightened. She was clearly
impressed. “Did you collect any purple flowers?” she asked,
curiosity in her voice.

“No, but Rai and Jala did, Your
Highness.”

Taeria swished her violet fish tail back and
forth, laughing knowingly, seeming to enjoy the royal title he gave
her. “I don’t know how but they’re always able to find them.”

Jealousy started to creep into his heart, but
then it quickly went away. “They’re good--that’s for sure. Rai came
in first with 510 points, Jala, a close second with 485.”

Chatting with her about the game awhile
longer, while a merman named Veram, who’d gotten last place on
Arval, sat down on the other side of him, Ian felt completely at
home, something he hadn’t expected in the world because of his bad
encounter with the elven king. Yet, here he was, among royal blood
and an entirely different race, and he actually seemed to fit in
perfectly.

As their conversation about Arval faded away
and Rai took a seat next to Veram, Ian popped a few of the smooth
tiny citrus fruits into his mouth, when his mind suddenly drifted
back to the buffet at Shadowcrest Manor. Reality immediately kicked
in. It was as if he’d awoken from a dream. The necklace was the
least of his problems.

Immediately, his brief cheerfulness vanished.
He sank into depression and bit his lip in frustration, grieved
with his terrible luck. Of all the times to come to this world,
why’d it always have to happen when he was out in public having
fun? Why couldn’t it happen when he was sleeping, playing darts, or
running on the country roads?

Sure, the Kingdom of Yavara was awesome and
he loved everything about it: everyone was exceptionally friendly,
the magical necklace--despite his negative thoughts about it--was
actually very interesting, the food was amazing, and the scenery
was lovely. However, how could he enjoy all of this when his
friends at home were probably in a panic?

By now, more than likely Tianna had sent Eddy
or Jimmy into the men’s restroom to check on him to see if he was
alright. Or, if not that, they were then murmuring to themselves
about why he was taking so ridiculously long and when he was
finally going to come out.

Either way, though, he felt sickened.

Stomach curling, Ian struggled to push those
thoughts from his mind, but as soon as he did new ones replaced
them. What if he remained trapped as a merman forever? What would
happen if he returned to Shadowcrest as a half-fish? What if his
sister saw him like this?