Mervidia (43 page)

“Sire,” Slone said, looking at Zane.
“Surely, you can’t be considering….” The neondra’s voice trailed off, seeing the contemplative look on Zane’s face.

“Zane,” Vaschel spoke.
“We must. If there is even a chance that Cassondra is still alive, we have to agree to this. Mervidia needs the Divine Family at least beside the throne.”

“I assure you,” Ambrose said confidently, “that the young
ethyrie is quite alive and unharmed.”

All eyes in the room turned to Zane, who was looking blankly at the table in front of him.
Shock had rendered the neondra speechless. Several long moments passed, no one daring to break the king’s silence.

“I can’t…,” Zane said quietly.
He lifted his head, looking sadly at Marin. “I have to.” The young neondra cleared his throat, his voice growing stronger as he spoke. “We have to accept Ambrose’s terms. The future of Mervidia is too important not to agree.”

“NO!” screamed Marin, her tentacles writhing in anger.
“You can’t!” The assembled merwin looked at the agitated young octolaide in confusion. “You wouldn’t!”

“Quiet!” Odette admonished Marin
, laying a hand on her daughter’s arm.

“Don’t you
dare
tell me to be quiet, mother!” the younger octolaide yelled, pushing her mother away. The orihalcyon sconces in the room began to flicker, as she drew power into her body and looked angrily at Zane. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t….”

Marin’s jaw suddenly went slack, her tongue still and her white eyes rolling back in her head.
She hung limply in the water, and the lights in the room returned to their steady orange glow.

“That will be enough hysterics out of my daughter, I think,” Ambrose said, removing his tentacle from her back.

“If you have hurt her,” Zane said angrily, his blade halfway out of its sheath. The kalku was surprised at the amount of venom in the neondra’s eyes.

It seems you truly do care for her, yet you
try to hide your feelings
, Ambrose pondered. None of the other merwin in the room seemed surprised by Zane’s outburst though. He raised his hands in a gesture of placation. “She is unharmed, I assure you, Zane,” he replied quickly. “She has been rendered unconscious and nothing more. I did not wish for her apprehension to upset the bargain we were about to conclude.”

The red-finned
neondra stared at the kalku, a murderous promise burning in his eyes, but he resheathed his weapon. “She will
remain
safe and unharmed. Am I understood?” Zane asked, though it was unmistakably a command and not a request.

“Of course,” Ambrose replied, his smile disappearing in pretended offense.
“She is my own daughter after all. Also, from what I have seen, she is quite magically talented. I have much to teach her, as I did her mother when she was my apprentice.” Zane appeared unconvinced. “We can even make it part of the agreement, if you wish? Would that satisfy you?”

“And if you violate that,” Zane said, his mouth tight, the burning light still in his eyes.

“Absolutely,” Ambrose agreed. “If my daughter reaches an
unnatural
end, at anyone’s hand, then the agreement is broken and retribution can be taken. That is the Mervidian way, is it not?” The kalku’s smile returned, a shark appearing out of the darkness.

“Mock Mervidia all you want,” Thaddeus said, addressing his brother with contempt.
“Bear in mind, however, that the structure you hold with such low regard saved your life here today.”

“Wait a moment,” Odette blurted out.
“You can’t seriously be agreeing to this.” The alarm on her face was plain.

“Fret not, my dear,” Ambrose replied with false concern for Odette’s distress.
“You still have Ebon. And you are, of course, more than welcome to come and visit Marin at my home whenever you wish. Anytime you deign to lower yourself to visit a
houseless
merwin, that is.” Ambrose leaned forward, and spoke quietly, all civility vanishing from his features. “Make no mistake though, dear Odette, regardless of whatever connection we might share through our daughter,” the kalku’s milky white eyes darkened as they narrowed, “you and I are done.” The female octolaide recoiled from the menace in Ambrose’s words. A small thread of satisfaction snaked through the male kalku’s core, and his predatory smile broadened.

“I call for a vote,” Vaschel announced.
“All those in favor of banishing Ambrose and his daughter from Mervidia in exchange for the return of Cassondra of House Lumen….”

“Only Ambrose,” Zane interjected, turning his heated gaze on the Domo of House Paua.

“I beg your pardon, Sire?” Vaschel asked, his brows knitting in confusion.

“Only Ambrose shall be banished.
His daughter has done nothing wrong,” Zane stated in a tone that invited no disagreement. “Marin may come and go as she pleases.”

Out of the corner of his eye
Ambrose saw Odette shift uncomfortably but did not take his gaze off Zane and Vaschel.
What’s got your tentacles in a tangle now, I wonder?
the octolaide thought, setting the mystery aside for now. He had more important concerns that required his immediate attention, but he promised to root out the source of Odette’s discomfort later.
It may come in handy.

“Yes, of course.
All in favor of Ambrose’s banishment,” Vaschel amended, “in exchange for Cassondra’s return, say ‘aye.’” All the members of the Coral Assembly present raised their hands, confirming their agreement.

Zane neither spoke nor raised his hand, Ambrose noted, and the young
neondra looked relieved that he had not been called upon to preside over a divided Assembly as he had earlier. Still, there was a morose quality in the king’s eyes that would not depart.

“Does House Chimaera not get a vote?” Odette said suddenly, her usually haughty voice heavily colored with desperation.
“We are a member of the Coral Assembly. We should get a say.” Ambrose couldn’t help but enjoy the pathetic way his former lover pleaded before the other merwin.

“There is no representative from House Chimaera present,” Penn stated.

“Besides,” Hasad continued, “even if there was, it would not change the outcome. The motion would have carried eight to one.”

“More than likely nine to one if the
ethyrie representative was here as well,” Vaschel commented smugly.

Odette turned her angry glare upon the
ethyrie. Despite his dislike of the merwin, Ambrose enjoyed watching Vaschel push the dagger further into his former lover’s heart.

“She does bring up a salient point though,” Slone offered.
“Ghita will be joining us, but we are short a member of the Coral Assembly.”

“The House Chimaera seat will need to be filled soon,” Zane continued, “as Uchenna will not be returning.”

Ambrose cleared his throat, and everyone in the room turned towards him. “Might I suggest,” he said, unable to keep the smirk off his face as he spoke, “that Ring of House Chimaera take Uchenna’s seat? He seems to have already filled his brother’s void within the house.”

The anger that seethed from Odette
in Ambrose’s direction threatened to boil the water between them. He ignored her, grinning impishly.

“I’m not sure that Uchenna’s murderer should be making suggestions as to who takes his place on the Coral Assembly,” Thaddeus said, giving his brother nearly the same look as Odette had.

“I see the wisdom in such a suggestion, despite its source,” Odette replied to the shock of every merwin in the room. Even Ambrose was taken aback. The female kalku had swiftly regained her composure. “As the wife of the former Domo of House Chimaera, I believe that Uchenna would want for his seat to be filled quickly, so the Coral Assembly could return to governing Mervidia with its full power as soon as possible. I will bring the matter to Ring. I am confident he will agree.”

Plus, you’ve got your suckers securely attached to his backside already, don’t you?
Ambrose thought.
Not much is going to change from your point of view.
He looked at the unconscious Marin resting peacefully in the grasp of one of his tentacles.
Well, some things will be different.

“Excellent,” Vaschel replied.
“Now, Sire, I suggest we dismiss our visitors and move onto the next matter.”

A heavy fist began pounding on the doors, interrupting the representative from House Paua.

“By the dark depths of…” Penn exclaimed. “What do you want now!?” he screamed at the door.

“You know those have been enchanted?” Ambrose began.
“They can’t….”

The
Domo of House Yellowtail’s angry glare stopped the words in the kalku’s throat. Penn swam across the room and pulled on the handles of the massive uklod bone doors, his shoulder muscles tightening as he hauled the entrance open. “What is it?!” he screamed at the merwin outside.

To Ambrose’s surprise, it was Captain Raygo’s voice who answered.
The kalku whipped his head around to look at Nayan. The jellod grinned an uncharacteristically smug smile, looking the octolaide directly in the eye. Despite himself, Ambrose had to nod in acknowledgement of the machi’s healing talent. Thanks to her, Raygo had recovered far more quickly than Ambrose would have expected.
Impressive,
he thought.

“The city is under attack!” Raygo reported.
Ambrose still heard a faint quiver of weakness in the captain’s voice, but the fact that he had returned to duty already spoke volumes about Nayan and her machi abilities.

“By whom?” Zane asked, already
beginning to swim across the room towards the door.

“Sharks,” Raygo replied.
“Huge numbers of sharks have begun swarming towards the city.”

“The harvesting of the uklod meat,” Hasad ventured.
“The blood is driving them mad with hunger. It was bound to attract predators from all over.”

“My Yellowtails should have been able to keep them away,” Penn replied.

“They did, Domo,” Raygo said, responding to the muscular neondra’s assertion. “Despite numbers like I have never seen before.” The Captain of the Palace Guard hesitated a moment before continuing. Something more than sharks had him shaken. “Until,
it
broke through the line….”

“It?” Penn asked, his tone worried as though Raygo’s anxiety had begun to infect the
neondra leader.

“A large squid has crossed into Mervidia,” said Raygo, the tremor in his voice intensifying.
“The Yellowtails were too busy with the sharks to deal with it, and now it has broken through Mervidia’s defenses. Now, the sharks are uncontained, and the squid is ripping through the Ghet as we speak.”

“So, let’s rally and go kill it,” Slone said, disdainfully.
“How much danger can a large squid present?”

“You don’t understand, Domo Slone,” the Palace Guard capt
ain said, his voice taking on an uncharacteristic tone of panic. “It’s larger than any squid we’ve ever seen before.”

“How big could it possibly be?” Vaschel asked, his voice laced with contempt for Raygo’s fear.

“According to the scout who spotted it, the creature is twice the size of the largest uklod that fell in the city,” the ethyrie’s eyes were wide. “Maybe bigger. He was too busy fleeing to get a more accurate assessment.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Lachlan’s tail flukes kept twitching.
He couldn’t help it. A Palace Guard had come up to the Assembly’s antechamber, saying a Red Trident scout had important news. Following the guard down to the lower ballroom, he had heard the scout’s report concerning the giant squid in Zane’s stead. The seifeira wasn’t sure how to proceed. Zane was still in session with the Coral Assembly, and Lachlan was getting antsy. Normally, the leader of the Red Tridents was swift and decisive, arriving at a plan of action, and just as rapidly putting it into motion.

He’s never had to deal with the Coral Assembly though
, Lachlan thought.
Zane probably has to call a vote to get approval for every decision he makes.
He thought about returning to the Assembly antechamber, but the Red Tridents were anxious; the news of the enormous sea creature had spread quickly. Instead, the tattooed seifeira stayed, his presence helping to calm the merwin in Zane’s absence. Biding his time, Lachlan looked around the ball room, which currently housed two thirds of the Red Tridents’ numbers.
Even with the other fifty merwin still watching over House Stonegem and the handful we left at headquarters,
Lachlan thought,
we’re an impressive sight. A hundred merwin armed and armored, all in one place, and following a merwin who owes allegiance to no house? It’s hardly surprising we make some merwin so nervous.

Lachlan’s eyes came to rest on Khorsmyr, a particularly grizzled-looking
neondra. The merwin’s body carried a daunting collection of scars and a small gap near where his tail met the right fluke. The story was that Khorsmyr had lost the chunk of his tail to an eel that had mistaken his fluke for a passing fish. As was usually the case, the size of the eel grew with each telling of the story, until it had become a veritable sea serpent that had attacked the neondra warrior. Looking at the tail and the size of the bite wound, Lachlan guessed the eel had to have been nearly the length of three spears laid end-to-end. It spoke well of his fighting prowess for the merwin to have come away from the encounter with only a small chunk of tail missing.

While not all of the Red Tridents were as skilled as Khorsmyr, many were close and the rest could hold their own against the average Yellowtail soldier.
The gathering of warriors that waited on Zane’s command could handily overwhelm the majority of the houses in Mervidia. That fact was a testament to what the captain of the Red Tridents had accomplished.
Imagine what the city could achieve if it wasn’t always squabbling
, Lachlan thought.
That’s what Zane has been working for all along though, hasn’t it? A unified Mervidia working together towards the common good.
The seifeira smiled seeing the dream of his captain and friend slowly becoming a reality.
If anyone can unite the city, it’s Zane.

A feeling of triumph settled into Lachlan’s heart as he looked around the room.
The ballroom, larger than many of the houses in the Ghet, was huge with massive windows all along the outside wall. Meant for public celebrations, it was the palace’s main ballroom, a floor lower than the throne room and its adjacent smaller ballroom, used for more private parties. A multitude of tiny spell-shaped coral hooks sprouted from the high ceiling, each one a hanger waiting on an orihalcyon lantern. Currently, only a dozen lights hung from the roof, providing dim but adequate illumination for the Red Tridents who were waiting there. Had every single hook been filled, Lachlan doubted he would have been able to see in such an overwhelming glare. There were similar hangers over the large windows, from which hung thick flowing curtains of preserved kelp on bars resting in the curve of the coral protrusions. Though the draperies served beautifully as decoration, he guessed they served a more practical purpose as well; to keep the light of the ballroom from leaking out. Bright lights tended to attract attention from other creatures of the sea, both predator and prey.

Lachlan was just beginning to wonder where the tables and stools were being stored while the mercenary company was in residence, when the doors to the vast ceremonial chamber were thrown open.
Every single merwin in the room immediately came to attention, their spines as straight and rigid as the tridents they held in their hands.

The Red Tridents’ captain had arrived.

“At ease!” Zane commanded as he entered the room, carrying one of the company’s signature weapons. Its head was polished red coral, yet no more ornate or greater in size than the tridents held by his merwin. The red-finned neondra’s voice, already able to cut through the water like a sharp blade, was further aided by the acoustics of the room. The neondra flinched at the reflected volume of his voice. Domo Slone of House Tigin and Captain Raygo of the Palace Guard followed Zane into the room.

The Red Trident leader waved his tail once, elevating
himself above the other merwin. Lachlan guessed his ascent was so that the assembled merwin could see the neondra’s face as he spoke.

“Brothers and
sisters of the Red Tridents,” Zane said, his voice strong and confident. “As I look at all of you, I am filled with pride and a sense of accomplishment. I see merwin banded together, regardless of house, or race, or circumstance of birth, bound to a common cause. I see neondra side by side with octolaide. I see grogstack alongside jellod, and faera beside seifeira and ethyrie.” Many of the soldiers in the room looked at the merwin beside them, their heads nodding in agreement with their captain’s words. “For many cycles,
we
have built this company
together
, crafting the Red Tridents into a force dedicated to the common good of Mervidia and
all
the merwin who live here. And, while you have seen fit to let me continue on as your captain, it could not have been done without each and every single one of you. The efforts and sacrifices that you have made truly humble me.” Zane’s head bowed slightly.

The butt of a trident tapped the floor in the crowd of soldiers, a solitary sound of that echoed off the walls and high ceiling.
The noise was immediately followed by another haft being brought into contact with the stone floor, and then another, and then ten more, and then a score. In the space of a few heartbeats, the sound of a hundred tridents being banged against the floor filled the room, accompanied by cheers and shouts of approval. Zane lifted his head, his face split with a huge smile.

Lachlan, who was tapping his own trident against the stone beneath him,
glanced at Raygo and Slone, floating behind Zane. The ethyrie and neondra wore matching expression of astonishment. However, beneath the Palace Guard captain’s shocked countenance was a look of apprehension. The extent of the Red Tridents’ numbers and organization was beginning to dawn on Raygo. Lachlan guessed that this realization was not sitting well with the merwin tasked with the safety and protection of the Royal Palace.

Zane raised his hands, calling for silence and drawing Lachlan’s eyes back to his captain.
As the cacophony faded, Lachlan overheard Domo Slone talking to Raygo. “I just wanted to see the
famous
Red Tridents for myself.” The striped neondra realized that the crowd had quieted as he spoke. He looked around the room nervously. If anyone but Lachlan heard Slone’s comment, they did not react. Although the seifeira doubted that the domo’s nervousness came solely from his fear of having been overheard.

Once the Red Tridents had fallen silent once more, the
neondra continued. “However, it is with a divided heart that I come before you today,” the Red Trident leader said, his voice a mixture of sorrow and pride. “The orders I give you today will be my last as your captain.” Exclamations of shock and shouts of protest rose up from the assembled warriors. Again, Zane raised his hands calling for silence and was obeyed. “I cannot continue to be your captain
and
wear the Fangs. My back is not so strong as to carry both burdens at the same time.”

Again
, shouts of objection rang out from the crowd, but Zane asked for quiet once more. “Rest assured that even though I will not be your captain,” the king said, his voice resolute, “that I will still be working for what we have all been fighting to achieve... what the Red Tridents have been struggling for since they were formed: the safety of each and every single merwin in Mervidia, no matter their race, standing, or house of birth.”

Another chorus of cheers and tridents being thumped against the stone floor began to break out, but Zane waved his hands and they quickly subsided.
“As your king, it will fall to me to protect the entire city, not just those who cannot protect themselves. That task will fall to you, and I have every confidence that your new captain will follow ably in my wake.” Zane gestured for Lachlan to join him. The seifeira complied, swimming forward and upward to float beside the neondra.

“As my second to last act as your captain,
” Zane announced, “I am appointing Lachlan as my successor. Follow him half as well as you have followed me, and I am sure he will make twice the captain that I have been.”

The room erupted in
to raucous cheers of approval. Lachlan was stunned by the revelation. Blood rushed to his face. He hoped that the dim light of the room would hide his startled reaction to his merwin’s calls of support.

My merwin
, Lachlan thought, the weight of the mantle being placed on his shoulders hitting him fully.
After today,
I
will lead the Red Tridents. If only Jade was here to see it.
A tiny grain of melancholy settled onto the tender flesh of his happiness, an irritation that he walled away within himself.
There will be time enough for that later,
he promised himself.
For now, Mervidia needs the Red Tridents.

“It appears we have caught Lachlan at a loss for words,” Zane joked, putting his arm around the
seifeira. Laughter broke out around the room, but the king shot his friend a knowing look. Zane allowed him a moment to collect himself. “She would be proud of you,” the neondra whispered, giving Lachlan’s shoulder a quick squeeze before releasing it.

“We must now get to the
important matter at hand,” Zane said, the Red Tridents quieting to hear their captain’s words. The neondra’s voice had become abruptly serious and his merwin reacted accordingly, floating erect once more. “The last order I give you as your captain will be the most important of my tenure. As you have no doubt heard by now, a giant squid has invaded Mervidia. The monster has been brought here by the blood of the uklods that sank into Mervidia earlier today. The city needs our help. The Yellowtails have their hands full dealing with the sharks that continue to swarm around the city, driven into a frenzy by the same scent of blood that must have attracted the squid.”

Zane’s head rose slightly as he looked over the assembled warriors who had sworn to follow him.
Lachlan knew the words that would be coming next and could see the toll they were taking on Zane.
So many have already died,
the seifeira thought.
You don’t want to give a command that will likely bring about others. But, to
not
give them would cause the deaths of so many more.
Lachlan thought about the orders he might have to give, once he was captain, and suddenly felt many cycles older. He again wished that Jade was there, to help him carry the load that would soon be set upon his shoulders.

As he looked at Zane, he imagined the
neondra wearing the Fangs and felt foolish and weak. His friend would soon bear a much heavier weight.
Who am I to complain?
the seifeira thought.

Zane raised his trident.
“So, Red Tridents, it falls to us. It falls to we wise few who have chosen to put Mervidia above the interests of our houses. We who have decided that the safety of the city, and all the merwin who live in her, is more important than the petty squabbling and scrambling for power that consumes the highborn and rots Mervidia from within.”

Lachlan spared a moment to glance at Captain Raygo and Domo Slone.
The pair was doing their best to appear supportive of their new king, but it was obvious that Zane’s words did not sit well with them. It looked to Lachlan as though both had eaten fish that might not have been so fresh.
Choke on it,
the seifeira thought, vindictively.
It’s your ways that have brought us to this. With Zane wearing the Fangs, I’m sure there will be a lot of changes coming that will unsettle your stomachs even more.

“Show them,” Zane continued, his voice rising in volume.
“Show them what merwin united by a common goal can do! Show them what can be accomplished when ethyrie swims beside grogstack, when highborn swim beside houseless, with no care for house or race!
Show them
what we Red Tridents can do when we cast off the shackles of the archaic past and act as a single resilient spear thrust into the heart of any enemy of Mervidia!”

The sound of a hundred tridents being struck against stone returned, nearly drowning out Zane’s words.
“Any merwin who fights with me this day, who sheds blood beside me to defend Mervidia, will now and forever more be considered my kin!” Zane clenched his fist in front of him. “Come brothers and sisters! Come fight with me! Let us be an example to the merwin of today, and to generations yet to be hatched, of what merwin can accomplish when they fight side by side! No threat to Mervidia can last before us! No monster can survive our red tridents!”