Tempest Revealed (17 page)

Yes, Hailana had died, but she’d done so on the day I’d headed home. And when I’d left, everything had been the same as it always was. She’d even wished me a safe trip and reminded me that it was going to have to be my last one for a long while. I’d agreed and she’d seemed satisfied. Content, even, with the idea of leaving Coral Straits in my hands. I couldn’t imagine that in the very last hours of her life she had changed her mind and issued a new edict leaving someone else in charge. If she had, wouldn’t Kona have known about it? And wouldn’t Bali be more forthcoming with his answers?

I started to call him on his comments, to demand a more complete answer, when I realized that he had stopped. I’d been so preoccupied that I hadn’t realized we’d gone around the last twist in the hallway and were now standing in front of the door
that led to Hailana’s throne room. To what should have been my throne room.

Bali glanced down at me and again there was that flash of emotion. It looked like concern this time, an impression that was reinforced when he asked,
Are you ready?

I was more than ready. I wanted to know what was going on. And even more than that, I wanted to know who the hell was on the other side of this door. I didn’t say all that though. I just gave a simple nod and waited while he threw the door open and announced,
Ms. Tempest Maguire here to see Your Majesty
.

I was bewildered by the old-time formality of the gesture. Hailana had stood on ceremony, had observed many customs that I found absurd, but even she didn’t demand a full announcement like that. It made me even more nervous about what was waiting in that room for me.

There was only one way to find out. I squared my shoulders, lifted my chin up so that my head was high even as I forced myself to relax the hands I’d unwittingly clenched into fists. When I was ready, I swam into the room, telling myself as I did that I was prepared for anything.

Anything, that is, but what I found.

I stopped dead only a few feet inside the door and stared in horror at Hailana’s throne—and the merman happily sitting in it like he owned the whole world.

Well, don’t just stand there, Tempest. Come in and say hello
.

He held his arms out in a blatant mockery of a welcome, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to turn and flee. I suddenly wished I had shifted back to my human form. Not because legs were faster but because I always felt more confident
when I had them. I was going to need every ounce of confidence—and luck—I could muster if I was to get out of this meeting alive.

Feeling a little like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, I swam farther into the room, doing my best to keep an escape route. Not because I actually thought I’d have a shot at getting out of here unless he wanted me to, but it made me feel a little better anyway. Right up until an entire row of his soldiers slid in behind me, neatly closing off my access to the door.

So, Tempest, it’s been months since we’ve seen each other. Why don’t you grab a seat and tell me everything you’ve been up to
.

Obviously not as much as
you’
ve been up to, Sabyn
, I said in the coolest voice I could muster.
Launching coups now, I see
.

I prefer the term
friendly takeover, he answered.

I looked around the room, noted the number of bunyip clutching weapons. Small and evil, the bunyip were among the ugliest and nastiest sea creatures in the ocean. I’d run into them once before, when I’d been rescuing Mark and Kona from the shipwreck where Tiamat had been holding them as bait—and payback. I’d defeated them once, I told myself as I realized their plethora of weapons was all currently aimed at me. I could do it again.

Doing my best not to look as freaked out as I felt, I rolled my eyes at Sabyn.
Yes, this looks exceedingly friendly
.

He bared his teeth in what I knew was supposed to be a smile but looked much more like a snarl from where I was hovering across the room.
They were a little … worried about running into you after what happened before. I told them you were going to behave this time around, but I think they wanted a little extra insurance
.
I grew abruptly sick of the game.
What are you doing here, Sabyn?

I thought that was obvious. I’m honoring the wishes of the merpeople of Coral Straits by accepting their nomination for merKing
.

Scaring the hell out of people and then seizing the throne isn’t exactly legal these days
.

Au contraire, my sweet, sweet Tempest. I didn’t seize anything. They asked me to be king of their own volition. I just said yes
.

You’re telling me they came to you?

After I made them aware that I was interested in the position—and had no pesky ties to the human world
.

No, you just have ties to Tiamat
.

Things change, Tempest
.

I looked around at Hailana’s throne room, which had already been changed to reflect Sabyn’s much more masculine tastes.
I was gone only eight days. You’re telling me all this happened in a little more than a week?

He shrugged.
Actually, it happened in four days, but who’s counting
.

I am
.

You always were a stickler for details
. He motioned me closer.
Come in. Come in. I want to get a good look at you before dinner arrives
.

Dinner?

I took the liberty of ordering a few things. You must be famished after your long journey
.

I snorted.
Like I would eat anything that came from you. How stupid do you think I am?

His eyes narrowed dangerously.
If I wanted you dead, Tempest, believe me, you’d be dead
.

Really? Because I was under the impression that didn’t work out so well for you last time
.

He was across the room in the space of a heartbeat, his long red robe billowing out behind him.
Nice dress
, I told him, eyeing the elaborate design.

The comment made him even more furious, as I’d expected it to. Sabyn wasn’t normally a robe guy—he was too vain to cover up any part of the gorgeous body he was so proud of. So if he was dressing in robes, it was because he was hiding something. Like burn scars from our last run-in.

His hand came up, tangled in the hair at the base of my neck. He pulled, hard, and it took every ounce of strength I had to keep pained tears from flooding my eyes. But there was no way I was going to give him that satisfaction. I’d rather die first—a turn of events that was looking more likely with every second that passed.

If I were you, I’d keep a civil tongue in my head
, he warned me.
You don’t know who you’re dealing with
. His voice was a silky caress along the private communication path he’d forged between us months ago, when Hailana had recruited him to be my trainer. It was the first of many bad decisions that had led to the attack on Coral Straits that had wiped out half our population—and dealt Hailana the injuries that had eventually killed her.

I responded on the public pathway, not wanting the intimacy of private mind-to-mind communication with the merman who had nearly killed Mark, Kona, and my best friend, Mahina.
Oh, I know exactly who I’m dealing with. Tiamat’s boy toy
.

He dragged me across the room and through a line of bunyip to slam me, face first, into the wall. Then he was behind
me, blocking me in, his body pressed painfully against mine as he hissed in my mind,
You are in a very precarious position right now, Tempest. I strongly suggest you think about your options before you run off at the mouth again. I have only so much patience
.

Terror ripped through me, not at his threat—I’d heard it all before—but at the positioning of his body against mine. His chest was to my back, his hips against my butt, and while he hadn’t made any sexual move, the threat was obviously there. I could handle him beating the hell out of me, but that … I shuddered. There was no way I would survive Sabyn hurting me like that.

But showing weakness wasn’t an option. Not now, when what looked like the entire bunyip army surrounded us. And not when Sabyn was so clearly attempting to establish his domination over me.

I let myself sag against the wall, let it and the water hold me up like I just didn’t have the strength to do it anymore. His surprise at the unexpected move was obvious in the way his balance shifted and his grip loosened. It was the response I was looking for, and I took advantage of it, slamming my head back into his nose as hard as I could.

The water blunted the impact, but he still howled. I started to spin away, using moves I’d learned from my first mertrainer. Sabyn’s hand tightened in my hair in an effort to hold me in place, but it was too late. I was done being held captive.

I kept spinning, ignoring the pain that came from a small handful of hair being yanked out of my head. I shifted then, lashing out with one of my legs to catch him in the groin at the same time I sent a blast of water straight at him. Normally it never would have hit him—Sabyn was by far the most skilled fighter I had ever seen, save Kona, but the groin shot had
incapacitated him, just as I’d intended. He stumbled back, hit the wall hard, his legs splayed as he tried to recover from the one-two punch I had just delivered.

I took advantage of the moment, racing for the nearest window. I had to get through a bunch of bunyip to do it, but while they were pure evil, they weren’t the smartest creatures or the best fighters. I simply blasted them out of my way with the most powerful pulse of water I could muster, watched as they went spinning. Then I dove through the window, shifting back into mer form as I raced down the street. The last thing the people of Coral Straits needed was to see me running around in human form in only a bikini top.

It was a straight shot down the main drag to the city fence, and I used every ounce of speed I had. If I could get through the fence and out to the ocean, maybe I had a chance of reaching Kona’s guards before they got too far away. They’d been swimming fast, but I was fueled by adrenaline and terror and knew that I could get close enough to at least telepath them a message. I might not have the communication skills of Kona or Mahina, but I’d gotten good enough to send a message across a few miles of ocean, even without someone else holding the bridge open for me.

I was halfway to freedom when I saw it, the hideous half-octopus, half-man monster that had attacked my father and me in San Diego. It slid out of a side street to position itself directly in my path. It was standing on the ocean floor now and somehow, that only made it more intimidating—maybe because I could see just how huge the thing really was. It stood as tall as a three-story building, and I couldn’t even begin to guess how long its tentacles were.

I kept swimming full out as my options flashed through my head. Not that there were many—if I slowed down to make a turn onto a side street, the bunyip and Sabyn would be on me. If I didn’t slow down, I was going to end up flying right into that thing. Which, considering how pissed he looked, was an exceptionally bad idea.

whatever I was going to do, I had to do it quickly. I was running out of time, the distance between us closing quickly as he ran straight at me.

A hundred feet.

Where was a side street when you needed one?

Seventy feet.

Geez, that thing was fast.

Fifty feet.

So were the bunyip. I could feel one nipping at my tail.

Twenty feet.

Okay, okay. I was going to—

Ten feet.

Oh, God, this was it.

Five feet.

I swerved at the last second, put my arms out in front of me, sucked in my stomach, and shot straight through between two of the monster’s flailing tentacles. It roared its dis pleasure even as it spun around and gave chase.

I shot an energy blast over my shoulder, then another and another, not bothering to see if any of them landed. At this point, killing the army chasing me wasn’t my objective—getting away was. I would worry about coming up with a plan to defeat them later. Right now, I just wanted to live long enough to get a chance to formulate that plan.

As I swam, I gathered power from the water, then directed it behind me in a rapid stream of electric shocks. I heard a bellow of rage, followed by a few high-pitched screams and knew I’d hit some targets at least—though I didn’t know how much damage I’d done.

The success gave me a renewed sense of confidence and I shot a couple more blasts behind me. There were more screams, and I was about to congratulate myself when I caught sight of a black tentacle out of the corner of my eye. The monster had managed to catch up to me.

I dropped low to the ground to avoid its reaching grasp, shooting jolts of electricity in both directions as I did. They missed, but the third time was the charm. I hit a tentacle with a blast of energy so huge that I sliced the thing clear off.

Oily black blood leaked into the water around me, but I dodged it, swimming even lower in an effort to avoid the noxious stuff. Four months ago I’d run into a sea creature whose blood was poison for mermaids, and while this octopus thing obviously wasn’t her, I didn’t know what—if any—special powers its blood did have. Not to mention the ew factor. Better to avoid the blood altogether than suffer terrible consequences because I got too cocky.

I followed a bend in the road, realized as I did that I was back in the outskirts of town. The fence was only half a mile or so ahead. If I could just get through it, I stood a chance. I knew I did.

I put on a final burst of speed, using every ounce of energy I had in reserve. At the same time, I gathered all the power I could from the water. It wasn’t like I could assume the mermen standing guard were just going to open the gates for me. They
hadn’t warned me about Sabyn on my way in, so I figured that was a good indicator that they were on his side. Which meant I would have to blast my way through the thick gates with no help from anyone.