Revel (24 page)

They were dressed in the same fashion as we were for tribute, wearing garments of pure white tied around their waists.

My tongue felt thick and dry and my breath came in fast little gulps through my open mouth. My earlier joking in front of the others came back to me like bile in the back of my throat. I wasn’t brave. I was terrified.

Instinctively I reached for Zuzu’s hand, but she was standing as we’d been instructed to do, her hands crossed over her, palms on her chest. I tried to do the same but found my hands would not release from their own position: clenched into fists.

At that moment someone extinguished the single torch overhead and there was a gasp. In the darkness our skin glowed.

The ceremonial paints must have had some luminescent dye. The mysterious whorls and lines lit up in eerie colors and moved with us. I looked around me and it was as if the girls weren’t even there. Our bodies were cloaked in night and the symbols seemed to move on their own, suspended in the air.

From the shadows, Mikos came. He looked like the pinnacle of gorgeous young manhood, or demigodhood, his long blond hair streaming behind him in the night air. I could see his hot silvery eyes as they cut across the crowd and fastened on me.

I looked away as Mikos approached, but felt him take my hand and brush his lips lightly over my fingers. The kiss sent a current of jittery sparks racing along my skin. But not in a good way. His large hand was cool and hard and he smelled of the water and some heavy, spicy scent. Diverting my eyes from his stare, I searched the line of First Ones, looking for Jax. He wasn’t there. Why wasn’t he there?

“By the right of the Accord, I choose you.” Mikos still held my hand as he bowed before me. He looked up and smiled. “For this night you’re mine.”

I pulled my hand away. “Where’s Jax?”

Mikos frowned. He took my wrist and he pulled me closer. “I said I
choose
you.”

“But I don’t choose you.” I lowered my voice until it was
only a whisper between the two of us. “Please. Not like this. I need to see Jax. Where is he?”

“Jax does not attend Revel,” he snarled. “He objects to the old customs and has never lain with a human. You will be with me.”

“What? No.”

An almost foolish look of disbelief contorted Mikos’s classically sculpted features. “You can’t refuse me. You cannot break the Accord.”

“I’m sorry. I do. Refuse, I mean.”

He pulled me closer still, his arm circling my waist, pressing hard.

I shook my head. “No one is forced,” I whispered.

Mikos smiled his terrible, beautiful smile down at me and nodded once. “True enough,” he said. “No one is forced. Because
no one refuses
.” With a growl he scooped his other hand behind my knees, picked me up and began to make his way to the water.

“No!” I yelled. But there was no longer silence; people were talking and somewhere music had begun again. I couldn’t fix on anyone’s face that I recognized in the flickering dimness. “No!” I screamed louder, and tried to wriggle out of Mikos’s arms.

Suddenly I heard Sean’s voice. “Let her go.”

I could have cried with relief.

Mikos turned. “Don’t interfere, Lander. You know the rules.”

In the light of the bonfires, I saw Sean’s face. Calm, strong and kind. “She’s not one of us,” he said. “She doesn’t understand. Please. Choose someone else.”

I saw movement from the corner of my eye. The other Aitros men had chosen their partners as well. I saw Zuzu holding her chin high as a tall, lean First One approached her and bowed.

“She is a Lander on Trespass,” said Mikos, tightening his grip on me so I could hardly breathe. “And subject to the Accord. By the mark on your skin, I should think you would understand this.”

Sean frowned and lifted a hand to the tattoo on his arm.

“Unless you want war, do not speak again,” snarled Mikos. “Don’t worry. She’ll be returned to you.” With this he stepped into the water.

I kicked and punched at him but Mikos was changing. The muscles of his back writhed beneath my fingers as his form changed. A low black-spiked wing emerged from the center of his spine, stretching and bristling out.

His skin felt harder. It deflected my blows like raindrops bouncing off pavement.

“Help!”

“Delia!” As if he were bursting free from some unseen restraint, Sean charged toward us. He swung at Mikos and I heard the wet, dull crack as his fist struck the demigod’s jaw.

Mikos never tried to evade the blow and didn’t even flinch when it struck. Sean staggered back, clutching his hand, but
then lurched toward us again. Mikos, with a muttered oath of annoyance, reached one hand out, almost gently, and placed it on Sean’s chest.

And pushed.

Sean flew backward. His head snapped forward as if a cannonball had struck his chest. His limp body arced up through the air and slammed down, driving into the sand ten feet away. And then he didn’t move.

“No!” I screamed. But Mikos was moving relentlessly into the water. And I was going with him.

My limbs thrashed and I scratched, trying to get some purchase, some leverage to pry myself loose. “No one is forced,” I gasped. Mikos’s skin felt as hard and slick as glass. “No one is forced,” I repeated wildly, stupidly, as if the words themselves could protect me.

I caught a glimpse of people gathered around Sean. A sickening fear froze me as I imagined him dying there. I went limp. A mindless, helpless thing.

Then the water touched me.

It slipped over my feet first, as they dangled down from Mikos’s hold. A wave splashed up over my hips as he carried me deeper. The lights of the beach were receding and I saw only the black night and the cold stars overhead. But I felt the water all around me. A sense of calm came over me. And strength.

“Mikos. Put me down,” I said in a low voice.

Mikos cocked his head and glanced back, as if he’d heard
something odd behind him. Then he shrugged and waded deeper into the water.

He was making fun of me
.

Fury filled my lungs. “Put me down!” I shouted.

Mikos staggered, a look of astonishment contorting his face. Somehow I’d startled him with my voice. Even after the way I’d acted, did he expect meek compliance? He stared down at me, his silvery eyes looking wide and almost goofy. His grip around my waist and legs drooped and for a moment I thought he was going to release me. He shook his head, as if trying to clear it, then resumed his grip on me and started walking again.

I took the deepest breath I could and screamed.

It was something obscene. And something Mikos had apparently never been called before, hard as that was to believe.

Mikos let out a high-pitched shriek and dropped me in the water. He still had a grip on a piece of my tunic, and I felt the delicate fabric tear as I tumbled away from him, going under the surface for a second. When I stood up, Mikos was doubled over with his hands to his ears.

I didn’t wait to see what he’d do next. I just ran, splashing through the water toward the cluster of people around Sean.

Reilly was there, helping him to sit up. I heard Sean’s breath come in harsh, labored wheezes. But he was alive. Thank God.

I turned just as Mikos emerged from the water behind me, his body hunched over. He clutched his head in both hands
and staggered onto the sand as if disoriented, making no motion to come toward us.

“Delia!” Zuzu ran toward me across the sand. “Are you okay? What happened to Sean?”

Reilly stood up beside Sean’s hunched form. “Shark Boy over there pushed him,” he said, nodding at Mikos. “I’d say he’s got three or four broken ribs.”

The tall First One who stood by Zuzu edged her aside roughly and snarled at Reilly. “Watch your tongue, Lander, or I’ll cut it out.”

Behind the First One, I saw Zuzu’s eyes go really wide. She blinked once, twice, and then yelled, “You leave him the hell alone! You big jerk.”

A shocked silence followed her words. I think Zuzu was as shocked as anyone else, and she scuttled closer to Reilly, who put his arm around her.

Mikos twisted toward us and he lowered his hands, staring at them with a look of disbelief.

“Lander witch!” he said hoarsely. “What have you done to me?”

I stared at him. What
had
I done?

Crimson blood flowed from both of Mikos’s ears, spilling down the smooth, gleaming contours of his skin and onto the sand.

CHAPTER 21
 

“Y
ou’ll die for this, Lander,” Mikos said to me. “Blood for blood.” His eyes were liquid mercury, shimmering with hate. He dropped his hands from his ears and straightened to his full, impressive height. But his former elegance was gone. Lips curled back and fists clenched, he looked like a bully who’d just been given a taste of his own medicine.

The First One that Zuzu had insulted was sputtering his outrage.

Mikos snapped at him, “Quiet, Darius. You will have your satisfaction as well.”

We found ourselves gathered in two knots facing each other by the flickering lights of the bonfires and torches. Mikos and the other First Ones against me, Zuzu, Reilly and Sean. The rest of the islanders formed a deep circle of onlookers around us.

I held my torn dress, trying to cover myself.

“The Accord is broken!” Mikos shouted, addressing the crowd. “This Lander girl has defied the custom of Revel and injured a First One.”

A stunned silence answered him. But it didn’t last long, as Mayor Ed pushed his way through to the front.

“I knew she’d be trouble,” he shouted in a nervous, tinny voice. “She’s a traitor. Sent here to ruin everything.”

“Silence!”

Everyone turned to see the source of the deep voice that boomed the command. Jax emerged from the water. Fists clenched, he ran as if he meant to plow us all down. His fin splayed from his back and his eyes glowed searingly blue against the darkness. He looked like some kind of alien armored assault vehicle.

“What’s happened?” he demanded, slowing down as he strode to me. His eyes flashed briefly over the condition of my clothes, and his mouth pressed in a tight line.

“The little human did something to me,” Mikos shouted in a voice that was too loud. Like he’d been standing too close to the speakers at a heavy metal concert. He cupped his hands over his bloody ears. “She screamed at me and—”

“I wasn’t asking you,” said Jax, with a dismissive glance at Mikos over his shoulder. He turned back to me. “Are you all right?” He kept looking at my dress and frowning.

“I—I’m okay. I don’t know what happened.”

Jax narrowed his eyes dangerously. “Try to know.”

“I told him to put me down,” I said, glaring at Mikos, “and he wouldn’t. Then we were in the water. I got mad and screamed. Then it looked like he had a seizure or something.”

“A seizure,” repeated Jax. He seemed furious, but I couldn’t tell if it was at me or Mikos or both of us. “You came here tonight of your own free will. Surely you knew what would happen.”

“No one is forced,” I whispered. “That’s what Gran told me.”

Mikos snorted.

At the sound, Jax turned and looked fully at his brother for a long moment. I don’t know what Mikos saw in Jax’s face, but his gray eyes widened and he took a step back as if he’d been pushed.

“She’s right,” said Jax. His eyes returned to fix on me. In them I saw the reflected lights from the fires making kaleidoscope flames in his eyes.

His voice lower, he said, “In the days of our ancestors, no human woman would ever be forced. Revel was a celebration. First Ones and humans consorted if they
chose
to, not because they were forced to. The old ways have become perverted.” He turned a disdainful glance on Mikos and the rest of the First Ones. “Twisted.”

Mikos’s arrogant sneer returned. “This is no concern of yours, Jax. You’ve made your contempt for our traditions clear enough. No one even considers you part of this clan anymore. This girl has broken the first article of the Accord. No
Lander shall willfully harm a First One,” he said, then added with obvious satisfaction,
“on pain of death.”

“I’m surprised that you’d care to admit harm from such a tiny foe, Mikos,” Jax said. He tilted his head to regard me. “From such a—” He broke off, frowning. “
What
was it you called her again?”

“Little oyster,” I said, shooting a dark look at Mikos.

“Ah yes,” said Jax. “Little oyster.” It was hard to tell, but there might have been a softening in the hard line of his mouth. I couldn’t tell for sure if Jax was amused, but several people behind us were. There was a muffled titter of laughter.

“She used some hidden device, some
trick
to deafen me,” shouted Mikos in his still-too-loud voice.

“Beg pardon, uh, sirs,” said Ed Barney, breaking his silence and ducking his head in a fawning way toward the tall forms standing before him. “This girl ain’t one of us. We shouldn’t be blamed for what she did. We never wanted her here.”

“That’s not true,” said Sean. He looked at me. “She’s one of us.” His voice was hoarse and he held a hand to his battered chest. “She belongs here.”

Ed Barney shook a finger at him. “Don’t get yourself mixed up in this, Sean. Or go soft on this girl. You know we’re all depending on you.”