Waterborne (17 page)

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Authors: Katherine Irons

BOOK: Waterborne
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He let her go. “You’re tough. I’ll give you that.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“You didn’t listen to a thing I told you, did you? You’re sick. You need medical attention. Your body is caught somewhere between human, Atlantean, and Lemorian. Soon ... I don’t know when. It could be an hour, a day, or a month. But soon you won’t be able to survive in the ocean or out of it. You have to have help to make that leap between our species. If you don’t, you’ll die.”
“So you’re going to what? Check me into the nearest hospital? Explain to the staff that I’m undergoing hybrid sickness? That should give me a fast ambulance ride to the nearest mental facility.”
“I’m going to take you home, to Atlantis. It’s the only place that can treat you. And ...” A muscle twitched under the skin of his jawline and regret shone in his eyes. “It may not work, Ree. You may die anyway.”
She shrugged. “We all die. My parents ... Nick—” She broke off as her pulse quickened. How had she let Nick’s name slip out? And how could it still hurt so bad after all this time? They were lovers, not sweethearts, not husband and wife ... just partners in a job that didn’t offer a pension plan or a 401K.
“Who was Nick?”
“Just someone I used to know. Nobody, really,” she lied, and the pain cut as sharp as a straight razor.
“Right.”
“About this disease you say I have, this sickness. You’re only guessing. Only taking Anuata’s word for it. How do you know she isn’t wrong or lying to get rid of me? She’s made it clear that she doesn’t want me here.”
“She wouldn’t lie about that.”
“How do you know that? People lie all the time. How many times have you lied?”
“Never without reason.”
“Exactly. And Anuata’s reason is to pack me off to Atlantis. I could breathe on land, and I seem to be doing just fine under the water. If I fell asleep—”
“It was more than sleep. We couldn’t wake you.”
“Whatever it was, it’s gone now. Isn’t that what the healer was doing in Lemoria? Changing me from human to whatever? How do you know that it didn’t work—that what happened wasn’t a tiny aftershock or aftereffect. You aren’t a physician, and neither is Anuata.”
“I should take you to our healing temple. Think of it as one of your world-class hospitals. They can help you.”
“I’ll check into your first-aid station as soon as we’ve finished our mission. And you have a better chance of killing Varenkov with my help.”
“If you come, you have to accept my authority. You do what I say, when I say it. No exceptions. Is that understood?”
She smiled. “Understood.”
“I’m dead serious, Ree. Varenkov tried to kill you once, and he nearly succeeded. My bag of tricks doesn’t work twice. Die on me again, and you’ll be truly dead.”
CHAPTER 17
 
“I
want to come!” Danu cried, leaving the small loom where she’d been painstakingly weaving a tapestry in greens and blues and brilliant purples. The bunched threads and knots and the lopsided pattern gave evidence that this was one skill that she had yet to perfect. “Please, Daddy, let me come. I’ll be good.”
Poseidon looked at his wife. “It’s up to your mother. Rhiannon?”
“Archery? Is the archery range any place for a small girl?” She glanced at the loom and shook her head. “For a girl who’s first in her dance class, your weaving attempts are atrocious.”
Danu grimaced. “I hate weaving, Mommy. My starfish looks like an octopus.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve finished my homework, and I practiced the harp for two clicks of the water clock. Please let me go with Daddy. Pretty please.”
“But Lady Dorkas is coming with Damalis this afternoon. You three children had so much fun last time they visited.”
Danu shook her head so hard that her blond curls bounced, and folded her arms over her chest. “Damalis is too little for me to play with. She’s only three. Uncle Orion promised to teach me to shoot a bow. I’ll be so good they won’t even know I’m there.”
Poseidon chuckled. “That I’d have to see to believe. I’ll take her. You’ll have no peace this afternoon if I don’t.”
“Yay!” Danu hugged her father’s legs and ran to fetch her new red sandals with the gold tassels.
The queen sighed. “You spoil her. She’ll be impossible by the time she’s a teenager.”
Rhiannon was probably right. He did spoil Danu, but the child had secured a place in his heart, in both their hearts, that made it almost impossible to deny her anything within reason. And Danu was an amazing child, far older than her years in so many ways, not to mention her rare psychic gifts. “She only gets to be young once,” he murmured, brushing his lips against his baby son’s fuzzy head. “And a princess doesn’t need to learn the art of weaving to attract a rich husband.”
“I suppose you’re right. The Lady Athena believes she’s born for the priesthood, anyway.”
“Or a seat on the high council. And archery would be an asset for either choice. We won’t be late.”
“See that you’re not. We have that dinner with the ambassador from the Scottish Lochs, the strange-looking man.”
The high king groaned. “I like state banquets no more than Danu likes her weaving.” His mouth tightened. “Don’t you wish sometimes that I was only a prince among princes again? Life was a lot simpler before my father died.”
“Every day,” Rhiannon replied. “And every night. Our time was more our own before you became Poseidon. When you were Morgan, no one cared if we took time away to be with your family.”
“If wishes were horses,” he answered. “But it is what it is. I’m Poseidon and Perseus will wear the crown after me.”
“He may not want it any more than you.”
“Perhaps. You should have thought of that when you gave me a son instead of another gorgeous daughter.”
Taking his bow and quiver from a servant, Poseidon left by a private exit to the gardens. Echo, Danu’s dolphin, swam close behind as they passed two household guards at their station beyond the queen’s courtyard.
“Uncle Orion said he was bringing a bow just my size,” Danu said. “What color do you think it will be? I like pink. Do you think it will be pink? Morwena says that if I practice, I’ll be as good as she is. Do you think I will?”
Poseidon lifted her and placed her on Echo’s broad back. “If you practice every day, I’m sure you’ll soon be better than me.”
Danu tucked the toes of her sandals into the dolphin’s green harness and wrapped one small hand around the guide strap. Going with her father to the archery field was much better than staying with her mother. She felt that her daddy was the bestest daddy in the world, and she loved him more than the moon. “I’m being good, aren’t I?” she asked.
Echo wiggled her tail, and Danu laughed.
Poseidon ducked his head to pass though an old stone doorway.
“Look at all the barnacles,” Danu said.
“The inscriptions were carved by craftsmen long, long ago, when the world was young. Some think the language is that of the starmen.”
“Can you read it, Daddy?”
“No, no one can now. Keep your hands in. The shells are sharp.”
The passageway was narrow, almost too narrow for such a large and majestic dolphin like Echo, but she was brave and didn’t fuss at following him.
The corridor widened as they approached a small prayer garden with a marble statue of a water-horse and another of a boy riding a manta ray. Danu liked this garden. In the tall swaying grass were blue starfish and schools of tiny green sea horses no larger than her thumb. Here the floor was made up of translucent panels, so clear that they could see fish and crabs, and young dolphins swimming in the open sea below.
Two archways led off in different directions. Poseidon was about to take the left hallway when a boy came around a corner.
“Your majesty!”
The king didn’t recognize the lad, but his blue tunic with silver trim and silver winged sandals identified him as a court page. The boy held out a scroll. Poseidon took it, and the page bowed and swam back the way he’d come.
“What is it, Daddy?” Danu asked.
“Lord Pelagias wishes to see me. He says it’s a most urgent matter.”
“But we’re going to the archery range,” Danu reminded him. “We’re meeting Uncle Orion, and—”
“You and Echo go ahead. It’s just down this passageway. Echo knows the way. You’ll be fine with her. Find your uncle and tell him that I’ll be along as soon as I see what Lord Pelagias wants.” He unslung the quiver from his back and handed bow and quiver over to his daughter. “Take these for me.”
Danu stared at him, and her tummy squeezed tight. Something was wrong. She knew something was wrong because she could hear a funny ringing in her head, like a bell, but quick and sharp. Suddenly, she felt sick. “No, Daddy,” she begged. “Don’t go. I don’t like Lord Pelagias. He has a mean face. Come with me.”
“Do as I say, child. You know that I have responsibilities for—”
“No!” Danu cried. “No. Lord Pelagias is a bad man.”
Poseidon frowned. “That’s enough. Lord Pelagias is a member of the high council, and he’s served the kingdom well for many years. You’ve no reason—”
“He’s a bad man. He’ll hurt you.”
“Enough, I say. Echo, take the princess to my brother.”
Danu knew she shouldn’t cry. Only babies cried, but she couldn’t stop the tears. “Daddy, you have to listen to—”
“I’m ashamed of you, to carry on so,” her father scolded. “Maybe your mother’s right. Maybe I have spoiled you rotten. We’ll talk about this later. Echo, look after her.” And before she could say another word, he turned and moved away down the right passage.
Echo moved toward the left.
“No,” Danu said. “We have to follow Daddy.”
The dolphin uttered a series of sharp clicks.
“I don’t care. He needs us.” She kicked Echo’s sides. “Hurry!”
 
’Enakai stood stiffly erect behind her driver in a golden chariot pulled by a team of dolphins with Caddoc beside her. They were in the vanguard of a procession of priests, and nobles streaming from the lower archway of the third level of the grand temple of Lemoria toward the towering volcano and lava fields in the distance.
Soldiers, household guards, and body servants made up the rest of the company, all following close behind a covered conveyance carved from a single, giant, black shell, drawn by manta rays and surrounded by an honor guard of veiled priestesses astride gilded sea horse mares.
Suddenly, without warning, ’Enakai raised a hand and called out to her driver. “Halt!”
He reined in the dolphins and those behind them stopped abruptly, causing confusion and greatly altering the precise formation all down the line as some were forced out of the procession to the left or right, and others collided with those directly in front. The mantas wheeled right and rose so quickly that they nearly overturned the shell, causing the single occupant to scream in alarm.
“What is it?” Caddoc demanded, steadying himself on the side of the chariot. “What’s wrong?” His nerves were on edge as it was.
So far, he hadn’t had to confront his mother, and he suspected that she was still unaware as to the exact nature of this excursion. Her screams would quickly turn to curses if she suspected that she was the cause of celebration, and he didn’t want to be anywhere in her line of vision when she did. His mother’s powers seemed to be greatly diminished, but he’d been on the wrong end of one of her spells before. He had no wish to repeat the experience.
“Why have we stopped?” he demanded of ’Enakai.
“My heart is troubled,” she said. “There is something. . .” She beckoned to one of the elderly priests behind the chariot, calling him by name.
“Yes, Light of the World,” he answered.
“We’ve come to offer sacrifice, yet this Atlantean is a foreigner who has never sworn his allegiance to me. I ask you, holy father. Is this a breach of custom? Must he be Lemorian to be worthy?”
“Not specifically,” the priest replied. ’Enakai frowned, and the elderly man quickly changed his tune. “But it is custom.”
“I can see that Prince Caddoc could be the sacrifice,” ’Enakai said. “We have offered foreigners before. But it seems to me, if he offers another in his place, it would be more fitting if he had at least given his allegiance to Lemoria and to the throne.”
Caddoc’s bowels constricted. “You told me that I didn’t have to die,” he whispered to ’Enakai. “You promised me. You said that Queen Halimeda would make a fitting substitute.”
“Shh,” she admonished. “This is a serious matter, one we must get right.” She smiled at the priest. “So, what you are saying is that you believe that Prince Caddoc’s swearing allegiance to me would make the offering without blemish.... If he, in fact, became a Lemorian.”
The priest hemmed and hawed. “If ... if that’s what seems right to you, majesty. You, of course, must be the final—”
“Yes.” ’Enakai smiled and raised a hand. “On the advice of our holy father, we will offer Prince Caddoc the opportunity to become one of our subjects, so that his offering will be pleasing to the goddess.” She looked at him. “You have no objection, do you?”
“No.” Caddoc shook his head. “None at all, if that’s what’s required.”
“Good. I feel much better.”
She seemed to be waiting for something, but Caddoc wasn’t sure what.
“Kneel,” she said impatiently. “The tide will turn and it will be too late. Hurry.”
He dropped to his knees.
“Prince Caddoc, do you swear allegiance to the Kingdom of Lemoria, rejecting all other sovereigns and claiming Lemoria as your own?”
Sweat rolled down his back, creating a slick film between his tunic and scales. “I do,” he cried loudly.
“Do you reject the laws of Atlantis and her Poseidon?”
“This won’t keep me from claiming his throne, will it?” Caddoc whispered.
“Not so long as you recognize me as your queen.”
“I do so,” he stated. “I reject Poseidon and Atlantis.”
“Good.” Enakai smiled. She tapped the driver’s shoulder. “Move on.” She glanced at him with a mischievous look in her eye. “If this doesn’t drag on too long, we may have time to retire to my apartments for a romp before the evening court banquet.”
Caddoc tightened his grip on the chariot bar. Not to reply seemed the safest. All women were difficult, but ’Enakai was impossible. There was no telling what she would demand next. Her latest request was a minor annoyance, nothing more. Once he was crowned Poseidon in his own right, she’d be lucky if he didn’t send Atlantean troops against her. Prince Kaleo’s attack would be reason enough—that and the Lemorian ordered assassination of his brothers.
A pity his mother wouldn’t be here to witness the culmination of her greatest plot. Together, she and her brother, his Uncle Pelagias, had planned the simultaneous execution of Poseidon, Orion, and Alexandros. So far as Caddoc knew, Alex wasn’t in Atlantis, so his death would not be accomplished as efficiently. Perhaps, with a little creativity, Pelagias could make it appear that Alexandros was responsible for his brothers’ murders and the palace coup. Once the three were accounted for, he’d not need ’Enakai or her soldiers to take what was rightfully his.
Caddoc smiled. Finally. He was sorry that he couldn’t be there to witness it and to tidy up. The children would have to die, the new prince, the Princess Danu, and Caddoc’s younger half brothers Paris, Marcos, Lucas, and the other striplings. He could never keep their names straight.
His brothers’ wives and his sister Morwena need not meet the same fate, so long as they agreed to become part of his household. They would serve well as concubines. He’d long lusted after Morwena and Rhiannon was a tasty morsel ready to be devoured. As for Elena ... She was attractive enough, but whether she could satisfy him in bed would be the question.

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