Mervidia (17 page)

Taking his captain’s advice, Lachlan lowered his voice.
“It was Gene of House Stonegem, Captain. His was the blade that cut the queen’s throat, though I do not know whose will directed it. The merwin, or house, that hired him is still unknown.”

Zane
took in Lachlan’s words and began digesting them; turning the information over and over, as though it was the key to the mystery of Queen Beryl’s death. He knew it was only one piece of a much larger puzzle though. Without more of the other missing fragments, any conclusions he reached would be tenuous at best.

Lachlan continued to hover at attention, waiting on a response from his captain.

“Are you confident of this information?” Zane asked, returning his attention to the seifeira. At this point, deliberate misinformation was potentially an even more dangerous weapon than the truth. A carefully planted lie could lead to any number of disasters; from misdirected reprisal killings to open warfare between the houses.

“Completely, Captain,” Lachlan replied.
“My source is in a position to know with absolute certainty the identity of the assassin.” A strange wry grin turned up the corners of his mouth.

“Good,” Zane replied, not pushing further for more information on Lachlan’s source.
That the seifeira was so confident in its authority was good enough for him. “I will let our employer know as soon as we are done here.” The neondra thought for a moment about the best way to get this information to Penn. He decided that he should deliver the news personally; the less merwin who knew the better.

Zane squeezed Lachlan’s shoulder.
The informal gesture brought a confused look to the seifeira’s face, causing his smile to disappear. “Lachlan,” the captain said, his voice catching in his throat. “I have some hard news for you, and I need you to prepare yourself before I tell you. It will be difficult to bear.”

“Sir?” Lachlan replied, his forehead wrinkling in concern at his commander’s odd show of
familiarity.

Zane felt Lachlan’s shoulder muscle tense up under his hand in
anxiety.
Best to get right to the heart of the matter,
he thought.
It serves no purpose to drag this out.
“Jade is dead,” he stated plainly.

Lachlan’s entire body twitched abruptly once, moving his shoulder out from beneath Zane’s hand.
The seifeira’s milky eyes went wide, and his mouth gaped open like a dying fish. The merwin’s body began to float upward, the regulation of his own buoyancy suddenly shutting down as the shocking news hit him.

“Easy son,” Zane said, doing his best to strike a balance between a fellow solider and a co
ncerned captain. “One of the Tridents went to relieve the guard outside the bolt-hole in the Ghet where you had the grogstack secured and found the guard’s body wedged into a corner of the ruined building above. When he went inside, he found that Jade had been… killed as well.” Zane was trying to get as much information to Lachlan as possible in the hopes that concrete facts would give the seifeira’s mind something, anything, on which to grasp.

After a moment, some of the glaze fell away from Lachlan’s eyes, and his breathing returned, allowing him to
control his buoyancy once more. As he drifted back down, he managed to sputter out, “Did the grogstack get loose?” Rage abruptly flared to life in Lachlan’s eyes. “I swear on the Fangs, when I get my hands on that malformed disfigured piece of filthy fish crap grogstack….” Lachlan’s voice trailed off ominously.

Zane was momentarily taken aback.
Lachlan was normally a levelheaded merwin, rarely saying a word in anger. The fact that he had used such offensive terms for a grogstack was a glaring indicator of how furious he must have been. Zane put a hand on each of the seifeira’s shoulders. “Easy now, Lachlan,” he said trying to calm the merwin.

Lachlan ripped his shoulders away from Zane’s grip and shot the
neondra a scathing look that threatened to boil the water between them with its fury.

“Stand down!” Zane barked.
His voice, ripe with the authority of his command, cut through the angry red haze that covered Lachlan’s eyes. The seifeira looked at his captain in shock for a moment and then abruptly snapped to attention, his body rigid.

“I understand your anger,” Zane said, still using an authoritative tone.
“But, you’re hunting in the wrong waters. The grogstack was dead as well, still tied to the slab where I assume you and Jade were interrogating him.”

It took Lachlan a moment to realize that Zane had indirectly asked him a question.
“Yes, Sir,” he replied. Though fury still raged behind his eyes, the seifeira was slowly remembering that he was a soldier, sworn to the Captain of the Red Tridents, the merwin in front of him. Zane was awaiting a report but clearly trying to be sensitive to the seifeira’s loss. “The prisoner,” Lachlan hesitated, clearly wanting to use a different descriptor, “informed us, under interrogation, that he had seen a second merwin at the palace the night of the queen’s assassination; a faera. I realized that the merwin who had probably unknowingly given me the tip on where to find the grogstack, who was seen fleeing the palace, had sent us after the wrong quarry.”

“‘Probably unknowingly?’” Zane asked, quoting Lachlan’s report.

“Yes, Sir,” Lachlan replied, his anger continuing to wane as he answered, finding comfort in the routine of discipline. “The source of my information regarding the grogstack we captured would not knowingly lie to me, I believe. He knows the consequences would be too severe. So I concluded that he had been deliberately given false or incomplete information.”

“And why do you suppose that is, soldier?” Zane inquired.
The more formal interaction between the captain and the seifeira was helping Lachlan get his tail beneath him again.

“I could not say for certain, Sir,” Lachlan replied.

“Speculate,” Zane calmly commanded.

“My best guess,
Sir, is that whoever gave the information to my source hoped that the grogstack would die while being captured.” Lachlan looked at Zane, his eyes still angry, but no longer seething with their earlier rage. “If the grogstack had died before we could question him, it would probably have been assumed that he had been the one who killed the queen and the matter would be considered settled.”

“And the true assassin, as well as his employer, would escape unscathed,” Zane concluded.

By the look on Lachlan’s face, the neondra saw that the seifeira had reached the same supposition. Someone had deliberately given Lachlan the wrong information to mislead their investigation and then killed Jade to obfuscate the truth.
I shouldn’t be surprised,
Zane thought.
Nothing in Mervidia can be taken at face value.
Zane’s gaze darted unbidden to the curtain of his bedchamber again.

He
quickly brought his eyes back to Lachlan. “As I said, the grogstack you captured was still tied to the table when the guard’s relief arrived. Neither Jade nor he bore any wounds, other than the ones I assume you had inflicted on him during his capture and subsequent interrogation. A cursory examination suggested that they might have been killed by kalku magic.” Lachlan opened his mouth like he had a question, but Zane continued to speak. “I’ve had their bodies moved to another bolt-hole, closer to our headquarters and placed under heavier guard. Once I can bring in one of our allies amongst the jellod to examine their bodies we will know more.”

The tone of command fell away from Zane’s voice before he spoke again.
“I will have one of the guards outside take you to her,” he said quietly. “You can say your farewells. Once I have the jellod examine her, you understand I will have to give Jade’s body over to her house. After that…,” Zane’s voice trailed off. They both knew that Lachlan would not be permitted to see Jade after her house took possession of her body. Interracial romances were, for the most part, frowned upon in Mervidia, but especially amongst the proud neondra, who felt that their fierce warrior blood needed to remain strong and undiluted. Zane had no doubt that he and Lachlan would be blamed for Jade’s death, more so than the actual killer. They had both lured her away from her
proper
place with her house.
Like Jade was some mindless shrimp blindly swimming towards the light of an anglerfish to be devoured,
he scoffed inwardly. She had been one of the strongest willed merwin he had ever met.

Furthermore, t
he captain worried for Lachlan’s safety. Zane at least had the protection, however distant, of House Ignis. Lachlan was not as fortunate. The seifeira’s house, House Nori, had been all but eradicated. Chances were good that once the news reached Jade’s house they would be seeking the seifeira’s death in recompense. Just as high were the chances that they would not do so openly. In all likelihood, a silent blade in the dark waited for Lachlan.

Zane promised himself that such a thing would not come to pass
, if he could help it. House Nori may be effectively gone, but the Red Tridents remained.

“Once you have said your goodbyes, I want you to come directly back here.
You are to remain by my side at all times.” Zane’s tone clearly indicated that it was not a request.

Lachlan looked confused
, but he did not question his captain’s command.
Eventually, once the haze of grief lifts from his eyes, he’ll figure out why I’m keeping him close,
Zane thought.
He’ll be angry with me, but at least he’ll be alive to be upset.

“Sir.
I’d like to report our findings to the Queen Mother,” Lachlan said deflated, “after I say goodbye….” The seifeira’s voice broke in his melancholy. After a moment, he found it again. “It was Jade’s assignment. I should finish it for her.” Underneath his grief, there was a light of determination in Lachlan’s eyes.

Zane hated to crush it, but practical matters took precedent.
“Negative,” he replied, using his commanding tone once again. “As her captain, the duty falls to me.”

Again, Lachlan looked like he might object, but acquiesced.
“Yes, sir.”

“You’re dismissed,” Zane said formally.
Lachlan saluted, and the neondra returned the gesture. “Go,” Zane said, his voice growing softer once again. “Say your farewells and then return here when you are done. We have much to do, and I will need your help.”

Lachlan nodded resolutely, his
resolve briefly pushing down his grief.

Zane opened the outside door and spoke briefly with the larger of the two guards outside, making arrangements for Lachlan to be taken to Jade’s body.
The guard was to stay with Lachlan the entire time and make sure the seifeira was brought directly back to the Red Trident headquarters. Zane then sent the smaller guard, the seifeira with the easy smile, to contact the rest of the Tridents. As many merwin as could be mustered needed to be made ready, and stay that way, until the consequences of the discovery of Queen Beryl’s killer played themselves out. Every available Red Trident was to gather their gear and report to Zane’s home immediately.

As his merwin swam off into the darkness, Zane faced the curtained portal to his bedchamber.
Taking a deep inhalation of water, he swam to the woven kelp barrier and pushed it aside.

Chapter Eighteen

Marin held her abalone shell top to her breasts with her hands while two of her tentacles fa
stened it behind her back. Another tentacle picked her hooded shoulder wrap off the floor and set it on the side of the bed. She was preparing to leave.

“How much did you hear?” Zane asked, trying to appear as relaxed as possible.
He needed to proceed delicately to find out what the octolaide knew without letting on that he was pushing to find out. The information that Marin might now possess had the potential to be very, very dangerous.

“Enough to know that I need to leave,” Marin replied irritably.
Her face wore an expression of annoyance. “It’s going to be crowded in here soon, and you wouldn’t want your guards to discover my presence here, now would you?” With a tentacle, Marin retrieved her bone choker from the floor, where it had been flung during their initial furious intertwining. She snatched the necklace out of her tentacle’s grasp and quickly tied it around her neck.

“Marin, please,” Zane pleaded.
“Don’t be upset. You know that….” He started to cross to the other side of the bed where the octolaide swam but was brought up short by her words.

“Many things are more important to you than I am,” Marin snapped, interrupting the
neondra with her own end to his sentence. She reclaimed her cape, swept it around her shoulders, fastened the clasp, and pulled up the hood to cover her head as well as a good portion of her face. The garment’s clasp rested alluringly above the v-shaped valley, formed where her shell top pressed her breasts together. Marin was one of those rare merwin females who somehow looked just as enticing clothed as she did bare-skinned. She realized that oftentimes males were more drawn to what they could not see than what was openly displayed. “I see very clearly what I am to you,” she spat, drawing Zane’s attention back up to her face. Whether she had seen his eyes lingering on her cleavage, he did not know.

Normally, she welcomes such attention,
he thought to himself. “Why are you so angry?” Zane asked. “You know how things are.” Before she could respond he continued. “I don’t just mean between us. Mervidia is in chaos right now after Beryl’s death. My Red Tridents can help. Beholden to no particular house or race, they are an impartial force that can be calm and reasonable during this time of upheaval. It’s why I formed them in the first place.”

“Regardless of what others might think or want,” she responded vehemently.
“Even yourself or those who….” Marin’s lips clamped shut suddenly, cutting off the next words before they could escape unbidden from her mouth.

Zane was confident that he knew what those words were going to be.
“I know you care for me, Marin,” he said, crossing the room and taking one of her hands in his. She did not pull away, but she also did not acknowledge his statement.
Such is the way of Mervidia,
he thought sadly.
Emotion is weakness and attachment is vulnerability.
He knew the house in which she had been raised and knew the things that she had been taught regarding caring for others. He had accepted that about her, but he also knew that deep inside, she had true feelings for him. He had the same for her. Sometimes, when they were alone, her shell slipped, and Marin let those feelings show. There was a chance, slim as it may be, that she would not turn out like her parents.

“Because you care for me, you know me;
truly
know me. You know that the Red Tridents are important to me, and that sometimes they need to take precedent over my personal desires.” He pushed her hood away from her face, gently took one of the tentacles that trailed away from the back of her head in his hand and kissed it lightly. “No matter how ardent those desires might be.”

The tentacle in his hand twitched and then pulled away.
She moved back and slowly withdrew her hand from his. Her expression kept wavering back and forth between irritation and sadness. Underlying these emotions he also caught a tiny glimmer of fear. She was concerned for his wellbeing.

“I know,” she said quietly, pulling her hood back up over her head.
“I need to go, and not just because your merwin will be coming in. I’ve been away too long already. My parents will become suspicious.” She enveloped Zane suddenly with her tentacles, pulled him roughly to her and kissed him passionately. As she did so, her sharp teeth cut his lip. He winced in pain, though he did not pull away.

She released him from her embrace, looked sadly into his eyes
, and then abruptly she was gone. He saw a dark blur out of the corner of his eye, felt movement in the water around him and then realized he was alone in the room. His skin tingled, the water around him still charged faintly with Marin’s kalku magic.