The Marked Ones (29 page)

Then, Bernard came, and he hurt her. He told her he had impregnated a noblewoman, and she had ordered their twin daughters dead. He was sad, but he would have a son. Anna was to stay there, exiled for sorcery-bewitching him into marrying a poor peasant girl, then denying him a son.

Lincoln’s heart spasmed as Anna’s grief hit him as surely as it were his own. She screamed, she beat him, she cursed him that he would never bear a child worth half of hers. Bernard got angry-he was afraid of her, he knew her to be a witch. He pushed her into the water, held her head down and screamed at her.

A dolphin came to Anna’s defense-it tried to push the king away, ramming him with it’s beak, swatting him with it’s tail. But Bernard produced a sword and stabbed it before pushing Anna back under the blood-stained water. A full moon was glowing above and it made the water a hellish sight to behold. Anna held her breath and prayed that she could hold it until she could safely deliver her child, but then everything went black.

Lincoln felt the tears run down his face. He saw the man leave, Anna floating facedown in the water, lifeless. But then the sun rose on a new scene, Anna, her clothes stained pink with blood, her legs fused with a tail. She was scared-and her fear was palatable, even to him. But then the tail began to dissolve and she screamed as her insides cramped up, forcing the baby out. They swum, until the water washed their bodies clean. Then she breastfed the infant and cried as she longed for her deceased daughters.

Then the scene changed again, the color slowly fading from it. Anna rescuing a man in sailing clothes, her breathing into his lungs. His eyes opening, his legs fusing together. Anna smiled-and Lincoln’s heart began to swell with gratitude-she had a mate, and he owed her his life. The last thing he saw, before the pantomime dissolved, was the two, looking no older but surrounded by a litter of children, playing in the waves. The eldest child, a replica of both Anna and Ivyanne, more beautiful than any creature he had ever seen.

Slowly, everything went black. Lincoln’s eyes began to open, but the images would not leave him. He saw Ivyanne staring at him, chewing on her lower lip, eyes wide with concern.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked softly. ‘I know it’s a lot to take in.’

Lincoln put a hand to his heart, taking the shell from her and gazing at it with wonder. ‘Who are they?’ he croaked.

Ivyanne swallowed. ‘Anna L’Autienne, became Princess Anna L’Court. But she lived the rest of her existence as Anna Court-my great-grandmother.’ She smiled. ‘Our creator.’

⁓

The first sign Tristan knew that anything was wrong, was when the small timber table between himself and Pintang suddenly lifted from the floor and was hurled into one of the large wooden poles supporting the roof of the barefoot bar. The cracking sound of the table snapping was astonishing.

‘
Bastard!’ A furious male voice declared.

Pintang squealed, leaping out of her cane chair so quickly that it tumbled over. ‘Ardhi!’ she yelped, some of her hair coming loose from the pins she’d put it up with. ‘Are you losing it?’

Ardhi. Tristan thought, closing his eyes briefly. Perfect.

Guests instantly began to scream and run out the door, sidestepping broken glass and crockery and Tristan’s now ruined mud crab linguine. He sat in the chair for a full moment, shocked but taking in the situation as calmly as he could. Tristan Loveridge was no hot-head,
or coward.

‘I was enjoying that,’ he finally drawled, retrieving the crisp linen napkin from his lap and dabbing at his lips before slowly rising out of his chair and facing Ardhi. ‘I hope you plan on buying me a new one when your monthly cycle wraps up.’

Ardhi practically had steam coming out from his ears. ‘You’re not funny!’ he said, fists clenched, jaw set. ‘You think this is all some big gag, huh? You’re messing with something vital here, Loveridge-something sacred!’

Pintang rushed to Ardhi’s side, tugging on his arm. ‘You have to get out of here!’ she said imploringly. ‘
Please? Before you get yourself tossed out and me fired!’

But Ardhi flung her off his arm without a glance in her direction. ‘If you stand up for this creep, you’re dead to me Pintang.’

‘Don’t talk to her like that-and don’t get violent with her.’ Tristan said quietly. ‘She’s your sister.’

Ardhi’s eyes widened. ‘Like
you care about her feelings! It’s not half obvious that the girl is in love with you-but you take her out on a date, what... hours after you sleep with Ivyanne?’

‘
What?!’ Pintang paled, her gaze flicking over to Tristan. ‘Did you?’

Tristan felt ashamed. He forced himself to look at her. ‘It’s why I asked you here, Pintang.’ He confessed. ‘I wanted to tell you in person.... Ivyanne made her decision today, and she chose me.’

Pintang looked stricken. ‘And so you took her to bed?!’ She screeched. ‘Oh my god!’

The punch came out of nowhere. Tristan ricocheted off the wall, landing on his backside exactly as a well-timed kick sent a searing pain through his ribs.

‘You and Link are both dead, got it?’ Ardhi rasped. ‘No one takes what belongs to me! The king will have you both fed a great white when he hears about what’s been going on!’

‘Ivyanne’s choice has been made! And she chose not to belong to you! She never has!’

‘Maybe not, but once her father knows how close she’s gotten to a human, she’ll never belong to you either! He’ll overrule her judgement! Clearly, she’s not thinking straight!’

But Tristan smirked to the wall. ‘Will he overrule his
wife’s judgement too? Because Vana knows about Lincoln, Ardhi. And Ivyanne is going to tell her that we’ve made love and in the mer world, like chess, the queen trumps the king.’ Tristan sprang back up to his feet, whirling around to face Ardhi. The fist came at him a second time, but Tristan caught it, halting the inertia in it’s tracks before forcing his attackers’ elbow back into his own larynx. Ardhi’s eyes bulged, but before he could react, Tristan sent his free hand into Ardhi’s exposed jaw, smashing it from right to left with enough force that a humans’ neck would have snapped. Blood shot across the room from Ardhi’s mouth, and Pintang screamed, teetering backwards in her spiked blue heels which matched the blue linen minidress she was wearing.

‘Stop it!’ Remi came bursting out from behind the bar, gracefully avoiding a collision with Pintang and then holding the girl protectively in her arms. Her cheeks were the same shade as her hair, her full, almost too-large lips twisted into a sneer. ‘Everyone’s gone!’ She pointed to the door. ‘I don’t know what your problem is boys, but get-
now-before the cops show up! Chase or Link will probably be here in minutes thanks to the hell you’ve raised!’

‘Tell Lincoln to
bring it!’ Ardhi wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and pushed off the pole he’d staggered back against, glaring balefully at Tristan. ‘He’s gonna get some too the second I find that mortal sack of nothing!’ Ardhi pivoted to Tristan. ‘Does it feel good, Loveridge, to know that the only reason Ivyanne would have slept with you, was to prevent herself from sleeping with him?’ He sneered. ‘You didn’t see them the way I did. Our princess was practically purring in his arms. He made her itch-you were just the closest pole to scratch against!’

Tristan’s heart seized, but he forced himself to stare Ardhi in the eye as he said: ‘And what a
responsive kitty she was. Wanna see the claw marks she left down my back during her third orgasm Ardhi?’

Ardhi’s teeth snapped together and he lunged at Tristan again, but Pintang intercepted him, shoving him into the wall. ‘Enough! Both of you!’

‘He’s not fit for the crown!’ Ardhi hollered, lunging at him. Tristan easily stepped out of his path and spun to face him, stance ready for battle.

‘Ardhi stop it!’ Remi put her hands pout, looking around her in horror. ‘Go before you ruin
all our lives!’

Tristan grabbed Ardhi’s shirt collar before he could get his balance, and used it to frog-march him out the front doors into the night air, keeping a wary eye on Ardhi’s hands, remembering Ivyanne’s warning about his powers. Ardhi flailed, but his strength was nothing compared to Tristan’s own. The glow from tiki torches just barely illuminated the backs of fleeing witnesses.

‘You heard the lady! Git!’ When he reached the crest of the hill, Tristan pulled him back against his chest so he could whisper in his ear: ‘She was the best lay you’ll never have, by the way!’

‘I’ll die before you touch her again!’ Ardhi grunted, struggling to get free like a wild animal.

‘Then you’ll die,’ Tristan released the shirt, and Ardhi stumbled, face-first, down the shadowy incline.

29.

Ivyanne allowed Lincoln to sit in reflective silence for at least ten minutes following her statement, and he was grateful for it. As far-fetched as everything seemed, something deep inside him had already accepted it all as fact. Eventually, his desire to know more, outweighed his shock. Lincoln frowned, examining the shell.

‘It’s the most depressing Fairytale I’ve ever heard.’

‘It’s not Disney, Link,’ she said quickly. ‘It’s my life. Your people speak of a man in sandals walking on water and placed humanity in his hands without a second thought. Well, as you know know, this is not some recycled and elaborated story-that is Anna’s memory, preserved, for eternity, within a vessel.’

‘I’ve put my ear to a shell dozens of times in my life.’ Lincoln said. ‘How have I not noticed that before?’

‘Because you’re not mer-only we can allow you to see what you just did. But it’s in every whelk shell I’ll ever touch.’

‘Why didn’t you just tell me?’ he asked.

‘Because I cant.’ She looked surprised that he’d asked. ‘It’s part of the deal. I can’t speak of it to anyone who does not believe.’ She smiled. ‘Neither will you now. You won’t be able to write it either, or type it.... you’re ability to express it to anyone, in any way, was a privilege I retracted the moment you caught a glimpse of Anna Court.’

‘Magic?’ he asked dubiously.

‘Yes. Our species is precious, and the elements which created it cloaked it in secrecy for a reason.’

‘But people
talk about mermaids-’ Lincoln pointed out. ‘There have been sightings, for centuries!’

‘By drunk or lonely men out at sea.’ Ivyanne smiled. ‘No proof, just ramblings. Some of them were wrong, some of them were lying. But yes, there have been several instances where we’ve been compromised, and we haven’t been able to do to them what I just did with you and the whelk. They’ve run their mouths, and it
could have hurt us-but we’ve remained a myth.’

‘Except to me,’ Lincoln said now. ‘I worked it out-
before you showed me.’

‘Yes well that’s my fault, for not walking away after that first summer and leaving too dense a trail of memories.’ She sighed. ‘I’m just thankful that you confronted me alone.
I chose to clear up the mystery and bind you to us with secrecy, but most people in my position would have dragged you out to sea and drowned you before resorting to that.’

Lincoln blanched. ‘That seems a little extreme.’

‘Well it’s not. One human life to protect a thousand mer. This secret is our world, Lincoln.’

Lincoln was confused. ‘So if I can’t tell anybody now, and you’ve been suffering all this time, why didn’t you show me the shell
years ago?’

‘Showing the whelk shell to a human is an absolute last resort.’ Ivyanne said, eyes darkening. ‘Not so much for us, but for the person we share it with. Now that you know the truth, you’ll never forget about me, and I wanted the opposite for you.’

Lincoln frowned. Like that had ever been a possibility! ‘But...am I safe?’

‘That,’ she said softly, licking her lips, ‘depends on
you.’

He frowned. ‘On me
what?’

Her sombre green eyes met his. ‘Letting me go.’

⁓

Ardhi’s throat ached, his jaw throbbed, and his pride had been stripped and replaced with loss-but none of it diluted his anger. He stalked down the centre path of the staff quarters, eyes narrowed into slits, spitting blood and kicking up clouds of dust as his feet scraped up the gravel. His feet hurt worse than anything else. He could feel them, swelling with blisters, coated with grime. But he marched on, knowing that if he had to, he would turn over every bungalow until he located Ivyanne and forced some sense into her.

How much more abuse can I take? He wondered. Ardhi honestly didn’t know. The evidence suggested that she’d chosen Tristan-but her motive for doing so was what baffled him-especially if she cared enough about Lincoln to confess it to her mother.

Yes, he was sure that Tristan had been chosen for convenience and emotional detachment alone. She’d clearly overlooked Ardhi because she’d known that
he had too much of a heart to enter a loveless marriage, whereas Tristan would take whatever curvaceous scraps he could get.

Well, Ardhi wasn’t going to witness
that shipwreck. If the human was the obstacle to Ivyanne’s heart, Ardhi would remove that obstacle.

He spotted Lincoln’s bungalow when he was halfway down the track, and zeroed in on it, heart thumping in his chest. A light was on, and he didn’t think twice about sliding open the door.

‘Oh my god!’ The blonde from the party, Adele, unfolded herself from the bed, clearly as shocked to see him as he was her. ‘Break and enter much?’

‘Hey!’ Ardhi looked around, but there was no sign of the man he was seeking. He forced himself to sound casual, hoping she didn’t know that he’d just helped destroy the restaurant. He was glad that he’d ducked back to Pintang’s room to change. ‘You’re Lincoln’s girlfriend, aren’t you? I was told you’d left.’

‘Ex girlfriend.’ Adele frowned. ‘Who are you? And how do you know anything about me?’

‘I’m Pintang’s brother, Ardhi. I’m here for a visit. I happened open Lincoln and that Tristan guy having a screaming match last night, and so my sister filled me in on what was going on.’ Ardhi spoke quickly, coming up with an edited version of events on the spot. ‘But Pintang said you’d left.’

Adele examined him for a moment, then her posture relaxed and she sank back down on the bed. ‘Yeah well, I kind of did. I couldn’t get a flight out until tomorrow morning, so I stayed in River City last night knowing the stupid bitch Link left me for would be in our room.’

‘Ivyanne?’

‘Yeah.’ Adele’s face was red and puffy as she glared down at her lap.

‘So why are you here now?’ Ardhi asked.
In my way? He added silently. Lincoln could come back at any moment, and he couldn’t wring his neck with a human witness present. In fact, now that his temper was cooling, he realized that he couldn’t actually kill Lincoln in his room. He needed to lure him somewhere else-somewhere private.

Adele continued to gaze sullenly at her knees. ‘I’m not as ready to end our relationship as Link is. I’ve been trying to call him all day, but he ignored me. So I decided to come back instead.’

Ardhi felt a pang of sympathy for her. She was clinging to her storybook ending, just as he was. Then again, she’d brought her pain on herself by crawling under the sheets with Tristan. ‘Did you really sleep with that Tristan asshole?’

She looked up, her mouth in an ‘o’ of surprise. ‘Everyone
knows that?!’

Ardhi recognised the distress in her eyes, and saw a golden opportunity to create an ally. ‘Yeah well, Tristan’s telling everyone how he’s got the hottest girls in the resort after him.’

Adele’s eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘That bastard! How am I supposed to salvage my relationship, or my image here, with him muddying my name? And Lincoln must be mortified!’ At that moment, her face screwed up. ‘Ew! Is that blood on your hand?’

‘Yes.’ He smiled, not missing a beat. ‘I actually just decked Tristan. Seems we have a common enemy.’

She looked intrigued. ‘What’s he done to you?’

‘He tried his little seduction act on my sister.’ Ardhi lied. ‘I just busted him trying to wine and dine her, while that Ivyanne’s apparently off somewhere else. Can you
believe that?’

‘Yes. I can.’ Adele shrugged. ‘It’s a shame you put a halt to the evening though. Would have loved to see the look on Ivyanne’s face when she found out that
she’s being cheated on too!’ She cocked her head. ‘But why are you here?’

‘To apologize to Lincoln, for starting a brawl in his restaurant.’ Suddenly, Ardhi realized what a golden opportunity he’d stumbled upon. He wanted to lure Lincoln and now he had live, blonde bait. A plan quickly formulated in his mind, and he slapped his forehead in feigned forgetfulness. ‘But I just remembered-he’s supposed to be jogging!’ He turned to go. ‘I bet I’ll find him on the beach!’

The bedsprings squeaked as Adele jumped to her feet. ‘The beach? Jogging? Of course! Can I come with you?’

Ardhi paused at the door, glad his back was to her so she couldn’t see his triumphant smile. He fought to compose his face, then glanced back at her. ‘Okay. I guess that’s all right. But let me leave him a note, telling him where we’ve gone, in case we miss him.’

‘Good idea.’ Adele said. ‘My sneakers are out front. I’ll put them on while you do that.’

Ardhi crossed to Lincoln’s dining table, snatching up a notebook and tearing off a sheet, trying to hide a smile as he hastily scrawled a fraudulent message. And as he wrote, he began to hum.

⁓

‘Let you go?’ Lincoln felt his throat constrict. ‘Ivanna, I only just found you again. I
need you.’

Ivyanne reached out, taking his hands in hers. ‘There are over one thousand souls who need me more, Lincoln.’ She sighed. ‘I am at the apex of a large, carefully cultivated family tree which stretches from one end of the earth to the other. And
they need me to marry within my own kind.’

‘Of all of the break-up excuses I’ve heard in my time, leaving because a species needs you more than I do is a new one.’ Lincoln grumbled, running his hand through his hair wildly. ‘This is
off the wall insane. Walking on water sounds more plausible than breathing under it!’

Ivyanne laughed. ‘Well we
don’t breathe underwater-we’re part mammal-not fish. I don’t know why we have scales-none of us have figured it out yet-but it’s just the way things are-it’s not really something we can google, you know?’ She grinned at her joke. ‘And because we don’t breathe underwater, we couldn’t possibly live there. We live in houses, most of the time, in small, seaside communities, where access to the beach is as easy as walking to the front door.’

‘How long can you stay underwater for?’ Lincoln challenged her.

‘In one breath? Personally?’ Ivyanne shrugged. ‘Fifteen minutes. But Ardhi and Tristan are closer to the ten minute mark.’

Lincoln shook his head, amazed. ‘Okay fine-how
fast can you swim?’

Ivyanne shrugged again. ‘About forty seven miles per hour, once I get a good momentum going.... but that
is just me. The others are closer to thirty eight or so.’

‘Where does the tail go when you’re on land?’ Lincoln didn’t know if he actually wanted more details, or if he would even absorb what she did reveal. But his brain to mouth synapses were misfiring. He was afraid if he let silence fall again-she’d leave.

‘It disintegrates. Breaks up into scales within minutes of being on land or willing the tail away underwater. Some can will it to happen almost instantly, others may have to wait up to ten minutes.’ She paused. ‘When did you notice the scales? I’m so careful!’

‘On your swimsuit,’ he said, frowning at the memory. ‘The one you dropped on the chair this morning.’

‘Oh...’ She frowned. ‘Is that what gave it away?’

‘Yep.’ He said shortly. ‘Before that, I was locked in on
cult.’ He crossed his arms, determined to know everything now that he knew anything. ‘What do you eat?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m half human Lincoln, so if you’re imagining me sucking on plankton, you’re
way off. I eat the way you do-only much, much healthier. And I don’t really need to drink, if that’s your next question. We all take exemplary care of ourselves-we have to, if we expect to get the most out of our life expectancy.’

He couldn’t believe how clear and direct her answers were. Her cool-headedness was actually chipping away at his skepticism. ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘What’s your life expectancy?’

Ivyanne raised an eyebrow at him. ‘I can answer two questions at once here.... you know Anna? The girl in the story?’

He nodded dumbly.

Ivyanne smiled. ‘The glimpse of her you caught was from ten forty four. Yet she only died three years before I was born.’

Lincoln rolled his eyes. ‘Oh come on Ivyanne! That would have to make her at
least-’

‘Nine hundred and thirty one years old when she died, to be exact, in nineteen seventy nine.’ She smiled softly. ‘If you think I look good for my age, you should have seen
her! Of course with pollution the way it is, most of us are lucky to live half as long now. That’s why we’re all so involved with taking care of the planet-you’ll often find my kind heading charities, backing lobbyists....’ She suddenly seemed to notice his confounded expression. ‘I’m getting a bit ahead of you, aren’t I? I mean, you’re probably still reeling over the scales thing....’

Lincoln dropped to his backside, holding his head in his hands so his brain wouldn’t leak out of his ears. ‘So you’re
my age?’ he managed to get out. ‘Ivanna really was, anyway?’

‘Yep. Only my aging began to slow radically when I hit sixteen-that’s when we get out tattoos, by the way, in case you were wondering why Ivanna-well,
I, never had one. Once again, we have no concrete proof to back it up, but the legend is that Anna died that night-and was reborn. She was sixteen then, so it must have set a precedent. I won’t look the age we are now until I’m at least eighty. Which is why we move around so much. And why I told such a whopper of a lie when I realized that you hadn’t forgotten me.’ Her eyes dropped. ‘That was...unforgivable Lincoln. But a part of my biology is geared to do such cold-hearted things in the name of self-preservation.’ She knit her fingers together and briefly bit her lip. ‘Doesn’t mean I don’t feel remorse for it though.’