Fish Out of Water (32 page)

I wondered if Aegir and Ran had ever considered that the annexing and isolating of this kingdom, and the in-breeding which resulted in such genetic similarities, might make Aegira’s people a trifle intolerant of difference.

“The last place in the circle is empty, but waiting, for my beloved Lecanora, who will join us soon, for the first time ever. The Princess will be an important force for continuity, whatever the future holds. After I am gone. She must begin to learn the important lessons now.”

I could hear the love in the Queen’s voice. Imd had been Lecanora’s mother since the child had been a few days old and she loved her ferociously, as completely as any mother could. She had tried hard to protect her from the serious business of Queenship, but now the time had come for her to start to learn it.

“And Lunia,” Imd continued. “Thank you for coming. Let us begin.”

As I’d been listening to the introductions, my brain had insisted on continuing to stray to Carragheen, like it had wanted to ever since I ordered him out, back in Dirtwater.

I could see his face as I left him, dark and blonde and troubled. Now I knew some of what had concerned Mom. The son of her old lover. A lover with whom something had gone horribly wrong. Did she see in Carragheen the things that had driven her from Kraken? Or, worse, did she see in me something of herself, headstrong and infatuated?

I was trying to focus on the reasons why I was so furious with him.

If he knew, about Kraken and Mom, he should have told me.

But the problem was it wasn’t really his betrayal I was thinking about. I was thinking about kissing him. How it felt, and how he looked, so dark blonde, wolfish but vulnerable. I was thinking about this fighter who despises bullies, who fights often for those who are hurting.

A man of goodness.

And darkness.

As I thought about dark things, and half-followed the sonorous lilt of the Queen’s voice, I felt again the sharp bite of responsibility for the pain I’d caused.

I thought about Doug at the hospital. The thick smoke of my fury almost choked me, but I couldn’t afford thoughts of revenge yet. I could hear the Queen getting down to business.

“Now, we move to the reason I have brought you all here today.”

Her voice sounded so calm, but I knew she couldn’t be, with all that had happened to her, and was happening to her nation. I was impressed by her resolve, and her strength.

“I have called you here today to tell you three things.”

The acoustics meant that even though I couldn’t see them, I could hear tiny movements through the water than meant some of the participants were shuffling expectantly.

“Firstly, I have been gone. Here, but gone. Now I am back. The way I have been, it was not of my choosing, but it’s over. I am here, and your Queen. I will never leave you again. I have taken steps to ensure that I can never be taken from you in that way again.”

I could almost see her eyeballing the assembled honchos, and I wished suddenly that I could be in there to see them, to sniff out the deception on some of their faces. “I do not know how long I have with you. We all know that the billow maiden queens traditionally give birth in their thousandth year to the next queen, and then live only until she comes of age to take the throne. But there are no more queens now, I am the last. I do not know what this means for me, for us. For Aegira. But I do know this.” A pause.

Man, she was good. Guess a thousand years teaches you some tricks.

“We will work this through together, and while I am here, I will be your Queen, in every way I am able. And I will not tolerate any treason.”

Nothing. No responses from the group. I imagined the heads downcast in a collective show of trust and humility.

But who was faking?

“Two,” the Queen continued. “We will not deceive the populace anymore. I know that I agreed to hiding the… Imogen. But that ends tonight. Together with the High Triad, I will call her family in, I will tell them. And we will ask their forgiveness for this shameful deception.”

Wow, impressive. Gutsy. But what then?

“Then we will tell the rest of the community. Including The Lost Ones. They are part of this nation too. I will let it be known what has happened, and what we are doing to find her.”

Shar interrupted at this point, and I could almost smell the outrage seeping from every scale on his body. “My Queen, I must disagree most violently—”

“No,” the Queen cut him off. “You must not. You will not. I have decided. If you are unable to join with me as I do this, you may relinquish your post.”

Faced down, he retreated. “Of course not, Queen. The decision is yours.”

Yay Imd.

“Thirdly, we must tackle the fear about the prophecy head-on. People have been afraid, because they have not known what is to happen to Aegira after my death, how she will be led. For the answers to that, we have all been waiting, hoping for a sign.”

She waited a few seconds, taking the temperature of the room.

“But the answers must come from us. We must decide how to rule our community, if and when I pass. We are able, and brilliant. We can work this out, together. With clear succession plans, we can deal with anything which may emerge. From the prophecy, or elsewhere.”

With the Queen’s words ringing clearly through the chamber, it began. A low, slow crooning, the Aegiran equivalent of applause. It continued for long moments, an ovation.

As it died off, a lone voice broke the silence. Kraken.

“My Queen, you are wise and just and right. But while we are making plans, should we not also be making plans to deal with the future shown to us by the prophecy? Its words are clear. When Ran’s line ends… You are the end of that line, my most gracious Queen. And now only one world can be. Earth or sea. It is us, my Queen, or the land-dwellers.”

He paused, theatrical as ever. “We cannot allow it to be them.”

The Queen was silent for a moment, and when she spoke, it was as though she had been considering his words carefully. “Go on, Kraken. Tell me what you think it all means.”

After some self-important throat-clearing, Kraken continued. “The temperature readings from our scientists and the news from watch-keepers points to one thing. The land-dwellers are destroying the earth. And it will not just be the land they ruin. Already the seas are polluted, dying in some places. The whales’ songs have limited range, from all the noise pollution. The seas are rising, destroying the reef. If we do not act, they will destroy us as well. This is what I believe the prophesy means.” More throat clearing. “If the land people continue, we will perish. Only one world can be.”

When the Queen spoke, she sounded weary, but imperious. “Kraken, I believe you are right. Something must be done. And that is why I have asked Lunia here today. Welcome, daughter.”

A murmured chorus of greetings acknowledged my mother.

I searched Kraken’s tone for any sign of what lay between them, but he was inscrutable.

“Lunia knows earth politics,” the Queen began.

It was true. Mom might be the mayor of some small town but she’s been actively involved in Democratic party politics for years, especially in promoting women. I’d even heard someone say recently that she’d been helping out Susan Murray, the Presidential candidate.

I’d asked Mom, but she’d been coy.

The Queen went on. “I have asked her here because I want to seek her advice. I want to meet with the land rulers. I want to talk to them about what they are doing.”

“What?” In his fury, Kraken forgot his place.

He was silenced with a sharp hiss from Shar, and recovered speedily.

“I am sorry, Leader, but I cannot allow this to be contemplated. Aren’t you concerned? What about the blood in The Eye? It’s his call sign. Manos. We need to act, before the prophecy comes true, and we all perish. The land-dwellers cannot know about Aegira. They are people of vice, and violence—”

The interruption was from my mother this time, and I was shocked.

“Violence takes many forms, Kraken,” she interjected gently.

“Hah.” I could hear the sneer in Kraken’s voice even without seeing him. “You are foolish if you countenance this, Lunia. You know that they will never allow Aegira to live unmolested. No, we must act, but not with diplomacy. The Queen is right. We are brilliant. We must find a way to rid the earth of the pestilence of the land-dwellers.”

“Kraken!” The Queen sounded shocked, and I was too.

What the hell was he saying? Destroying the earth? The freak had gone mad. The whole world was being taken over by freakin’ fundamentalists. Kraken sensed the room’s mood, and retreated. “It’s not what you’re thinking,” he insisted.

Oh, this was gonna be good. How are you going to back-pedal from this one, Lex Luther?

His tone was shaky when he continued. “I simply mean perhaps we can find a way to control their actions, to prevent them from continuing to do the dangerous things they have been doing.”

“Without talking to them?” The Queen’s voice was wry, and very, very tired. “No, Kraken, my mind is made up. All that remains to discuss is how we will do this. And I want my daughter to be part of this conversation.”

Like a neat segue, I heard someone approaching, presumably with Lecanora, and I dashed back to my spot in the ante-room. But it was the Gag-ai-lan, and from the look on his face I could tell that something was very, very wrong as he brushed past me without acknowledgement.

My cop instinct defeated my sense of etiquette as I followed him into the Place of Light.

“My Queen, my Queen,” he burst out in distress. “It’s the Princess. I went to fetch her for the meeting. No-one has seen her. She is missing.”

Chapter Fourteen

Searching and Answers

Epaste took over after the initial shock of Meegost’s announcement.

Carefully, methodically, he extracted the information. The Princess had not been seen for hours, and when she had been sent for to attend the meeting, she was nowhere to be seen. And no-one knew where she had gone. She had been seen swimming south, alone, hours before but no-one had seen her since. And no-one had been able to make contact telepathically.

Epaste summoned the seekers, the closest Aegira has to a police force. Good, clever people with experience in solving problems, cleaning up after bad storms, and the like. They also provide support sometimes to the watch-keepers, and shepherd the Lost Ones back to Aegira when they seek refuge. Because of these roles, the seekers travel far and know the oceans well.

Epaste suggested that everyone who was able to do so should join in the search.

I saw Carragheen appear in the corner of my vision, with the seekers.

He heard. He came.

When I saw him, I was surprised at what I felt.

Warm, pleased, while at the same time I wanted to scratch at his face. But I had no time for guy stuff right now. Even for this guy. I had an ache in my chest and an itch in my feet.

The Queen was frantic. I could see she was afraid Lecanora may have simply slipped back into whatever crack in the world she came from. Her beautiful, gifted daughter. The only one she would ever have. For the first time, the Queen looked old, every one of her thousand years. I knew how she felt. From the moment I heard Lecanora was missing, I felt this slick, sticky fear grip my heart. I imagined her alone, and afraid, maybe hurt like I was, or Doug.

So help me Ran, I could not bear the thought of her going slowly (or rapidly) insane, somewhere we could not find her. Or, worse, dead. I had the full repertoire of life as city cop to aid my own grisly imagination. And if Imd and I were afraid, my mother seemed almost faint with fear. Mom, always so controlled and calm, a font of judgment in trying circumstances. All she could do was listen mutely to Epaste’s instructions. I could see, watching her listen to him, how much she trusted him.

And I could see her muttering something to herself, some silent, repeated prayer.

Lecanora, gone.

I realized I needed to tell everyone what I knew about Zorax. He had Imogen’s locket. And he did something to me, back in Williamstown, to wriggle out of my clutches. He was either responsible, or he knew something. But as I strained my vocal chords to call out to the group, Mom was at my side, and she had Carragheen. Her face still had that ashen hue it had been sporting since the news of Lecanora.

“Ransha,” she said quietly. “Zorax needs to talk to you.”

Zorax skittered over in front of us as well, looking like a fish on a mission.

This had better be good.

I took in his uncustomary pale complexion and the complete absence of eye twinkles. He looked nervously at me, and then Carragheen, who was regarding him like an unappealing appetizer that he was nevertheless considering swallowing whole.

“Speak,” Carragheen commanded a very nervous-looking Zorax.

Oh man, I liked it when Carragheen did the Big, Bad Wolf.

“It’s about the thing, with Imogen. The… mind altering. I… I know how they did it.”

“What do you mean?”

I’d known this little sea snake was holding back on me. I was furious that I couldn’t get this out of him before, even with my Glock.

Zorax sighed, and then settled in to tell the story.

“Well, after all these years, with the Choir, I’d noticed things. I’d noticed how sometimes, when we’d been singing some perfect notes, when the whole chamber was full and the entire group was spiraling higher, the mood would change. Noticeably, you see.”

So far, I wasn’t impressed. Big deal. Everyone knows singing can elevate your mood. And anyone who has any amateur experience of the most b-grade choir knows that the effect is especially pronounced when you sing in groups.

“So?” My challenge was obvious. Tell me something I don’t already know.

Zorax was staring off through the water in front of him, thinking, remembering.

“Well, it’s more than that. I started to be able to isolate particular notes. I’m… ashamed to say I started to experiment. Test the effect of certain combinations of notes. Manipulate the choir’s mood. It was wrong, I see now. But at the time it was magical. I was intoxicated by the possibilities. I’d use it to take them places I wanted them to go with their singing. At first.”