I looked to Zeke, discomforted. I didn’t know this man. True, he was related to Zeke and Ina, but then so was Ren. Given that, and the tension between him and his grandson, I wasn’t exactly certain I could trust him.
And that was assuming I even knew what to say. The Sylphaen had called me an abomination. They’d called me the daughter of a landwalker whore. They’d said a lot of things, and if Jirral was right, that probably had to do with their obsession with dehaian purity or whatever.
But they’d also injected me with drugs to make me change and talked about a ceremony. They’d dragged a bunch of human girls under the water and killed them, simply to figure out which one was me.
And before he’d died, one of them had said something about a Beast waiting…
I shivered. I didn’t want to say that. I didn’t even want to
remember
it. And telling a man I didn’t know about what’d happened, a man that Zeke didn’t really seem comfortable around…
“They’re crazy,” I replied with a tense shrug.
Jirral’s mouth tightened. “And this thing my grandchildren say you do?”
I tried for another shrug. “I don’t–”
“That it?” Zeke cut in.
The old man turned to him. “I want to help here, Zeke. If they’re after her, then you need to make Torvias understand: the Sylphaen won’t stop. They were single-minded as hell in their heyday, and I doubt they’ve changed. If they learn she’s here, you’re all in danger.”
“Dad has the royal guard out looking–”
“What were their stories?” I interrupted.
They both looked to me, and while Zeke seemed cautious, Jirral’s eyes just narrowed.
“The doomsday stories,” I pressed.
“Old myths,” the man said. “Stories of beings called landwalkers, people that looked human but were actually the opposite to us in every way. In these stories, landwalkers and dehaians had once been the same. We travelled deep inland without getting sick, and they swam in the ocean just as we do. But some ancient event split us apart, creating these distinct sides.” He paused. “The Sylphaen believe in all that, except to them, the landwalkers are impure – worse even than humans – and thieves who stole our ability to stay above land. They want to take that back from the landwalkers. They think that if they don’t, the landwalkers will try to take our abilities instead, and somehow, the result will recreate the disaster and bring our world to an end.”
Zeke made an annoyed sound. “So in short, their beliefs are psychotic and so are they. Which we already knew. Thanks for the information.”
“Insane or not, the Sylphaen believe it, and that’s more than enough to make them dangerous.”
Grimacing, Zeke looked away.
I shivered.
“Do you know anything about this?” Jirral asked me.
Awkwardly, I glanced to Zeke. “N-no, not really. I was just curious.”
I could read the doubt in the man’s eyes.
“We should go,” Zeke said.
“You need to tell Torvias,” Jirral insisted. “Make him post extra guards around the palace.”
Zeke glanced to Ina. “Maybe.”
He turned, pushing aside the leaves blocking the door.
“It was good to see you again,” his grandfather said.
Zeke hesitated, and then swam from the room.
“It was good to see you too,” Ina replied quietly.
I followed her as she pushed the plants aside and left.
“Whatever it is,” the old man called.
In the doorway, I looked back.
“I can tell you know,” he continued. “At least something of what they’re after, you know. And if you let it hurt my grandchildren…”
A chill ran through me at the threat in his eyes.
“I don’t,” I managed.
And I fled out the door.
~~~~~
Zeke was a hundred yards ahead of us by the time I made it outside, though the guards hadn’t moved. They fell in around me the moment I swam past the doorway and boxed me in on four sides.
Still shivering from the look in the old man’s eyes, I tried to ignore them. Zeke had to be right; the Sylphaen couldn’t get here. With the guards I’d seen everywhere, they’d have to bring an army just to get past the front door. And that was assuming Ren didn’t find something to change his mind out there, and maybe convince him I wasn’t a spy after all.
There were plenty of reasons not to worry, no matter what Jirral said.
Clinging to the thought, I continued on. Ina kept pace with me, still glancing back to her grandfather’s door with unhappiness lingering in her eyes.
The veil on the palace wall parted when we reached it, letting us back into the courtyard. At the door, Zeke paused, waiting for us to catch up.
“I’m going to ask Dad to put more guards around the palace,” he said, grimacing. “Ina, could you…”
“Hang out?” she offered, humor coming back into her tone.
“I’ll be fine,” I told them both, hating the feeling that I was some child they had to keep an eye on. “The guards can–”
“Oh, please,” Ina replied, her amusement strengthening. “It’ll be fun.”
She hooked her arm through mine and started toward the palace door, pulling me with her. As we swam by Zeke, she looked past me to meet his eyes, and I could see a hint of something less lighthearted tinge her gaze.
And then we were inside and the expression was gone.
“So,” Ina said. Dehaians paused around us, bowing and watching as we passed by. She ignored them. “Where are you from? No one’s told me anything beyond, you know, the weird water thing.”
I hesitated. “Kansas.”
Her brow furrowed.
“It’s one of the middle states,” I supplied.
The confusion became skepticism. “Seriously?”
I nodded, and then looked back toward the door. Zeke was nowhere to be seen.
“He’ll be fine,” Ina assured me. “So how’d you deal with being so far from the ocean?”
I shrugged.
“Did you, like, make saltwater in a bathtub or something so you could change shape or…”
I shook my head. “I never needed to. I just found out about dehaians last week.”
She paused. “Ah.”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing.”
I glanced to her. She rolled her eyes.
“Really,” she acquiesced. “It’s just… well, that explains it a bit.”
My brow furrowed incredulously. Of all the responses I’d gotten so far – including being flat-out called a liar – I hadn’t expected anyone to say that. “Explains what a bit?”
Her mouth tightened as we headed up toward the level where they’d given me a room to use. “You’re just not very… dehaian.”
I tensed. “What do you mean?”
She didn’t answer, swimming on till we reached the room. At the door, she paused, glancing to the guards. “Guys, hang out here, eh?”
Without waiting to see if they agreed, she tugged me after her into the room. On the other side of the plants, she released me and slapped a hand to a small discoloration on the stone doorframe. The leaves stilled, taking on the texture and solidity of wood.
“Let me guess,” she pronounced. “My suddenly and
inexplicably
conservative brother knows you’ve somehow managed to be new to all this, but in spite of that, he didn’t tell you anything about us. About what we are or what we can do.”
I gave a small shrug. The room had seemed big before, but it felt the size of a matchbox with her in it now.
The girl was like a force of nature when she wasn’t distracted by her family.
Ina sighed, rolling her eyes again as she started to swim back and forth, almost like pacing. “It’s fine. It’s obvious. I mean… maybe you’re just modest as hell or reserved or something but…”
I looked at her in confusion.
She gestured to me. “You’re so quiet. And then there’s the scale thing. I mean, you know we can do what we want with that, right? In the water, out of the water…”
At my silence, she shook her head. “Okay, listen. One, you’ve got to loosen up. Dehaians… we know how to party. It’s kind of our thing. Topside and inland? Yeah, they can be all uptight. But here?” She grinned. “Life’s too short for that. We live longer than humans, but it
still
is.
“And two,” she continued, “we can control these things. The scales. Out of the water, they can become like human swimsuits. Help you blend in till you can find some clothes since, you know, folks tend to frown on the whole public nudity thing, typically speaking. You can even change your feet to handle the terrain till you find shoes, because let’s face it, rocks, hot sand, and whatever just aren’t that fun. And in the water…”
She paused, and the skin of her torso changed, the vaguely tribal markings from the back of her faux-bikini suddenly growing and twisting across her stomach and arms like vines.
“You can get creative,” she said as the shapes faded back into skin. “And trust me, the boys find it all
kinds
of sexy.”
I could feel a blush creep across my face.
Her grin widened. “Come on, give it a shot. I mean, honestly. You look like you’re in some kind of scale apron.”
I hesitated, irritation taking the place of my embarrassment. I’d known I was dehaian for less than a week, and already I was getting criticized over their version of how I dressed?
Zeke’s sister or not, it was suddenly very hard not to start disliking her.
Ina’s eyebrow rose as she waited.
I drew a breath and attempted to concentrate on making the cream scales on my stomach change.
Nothing happened.
Ina’s brow furrowed. “Are you trying?”
“Yes,” I said, fighting to keep from snapping.
“Huh,” she commented.
“The Sylphaen gave me something. Neiphiandine.”
Her confusion faltered. “Oh. Uh, I’m sorry. I didn’t…”
“It’s fine,” I said tightly.
“Well, after that clears up then. You just think of what you want, and it’ll happen.”
I nodded for lack of any other response to give. Hopefully the neiphiandine would wear off. Sometime soon anyway.
“But still,” she said, regrouping. “You have
no
idea how good things are down here. Drugs or not, you can still enjoy it. And if you ever
do
get bored, you can always head topside once that neiphiandine goes away and just hang out there for a while. Come back when
that
gets boring, but meet all kinds of fun people in the meantime.” She grinned again. “Just make sure you don’t get
too
carried away. You wouldn’t want to slip up and make someone fall for you.”
My brow furrowed.
“Eh, magic,” she explained with a wave of her hand, as though she didn’t really want to dwell on it. “Aveluria’s what we call it. Makes things all heightened and exciting with other dehaians, but humans react to it like a drug. You get too caught up with one of them, you might lose control of it. Get them to fall for you, hard. And then that poor soul’s going to pine away, not wanting food, water, anything till they just die of longing for you. Which totally sucks, and also will get you in heaps of trouble down here, since it’s super illegal and basically murder.”
I stared at her.
“Don’t worry,” she assured me. “You mostly have to
want
magic to happen for it to work. And if you’re careful and you don’t let yourself get too wrapped up with them, you’ll be fine – and so will they.”
I managed a nod.
Her grin returned. “Okay, well,” she continued, setting the topic aside. “I don’t know what you had planned, but you really should let me introduce you to some people. Show you how dehaians have fun, eh?”
“What about the guards?”
She gave the door a dismissive look. “Oh, they can come. Probably do them some good, not just floating in the hall all day.”
I hesitated. Given at least half the dehaians I’d met so far, I wasn’t really sure I
wanted
to get to know any more of them.
But I didn’t have a good excuse to stay.
“Alright,” I allowed.
The guards fell in around us as I followed her from the room, and they didn’t once question Ina for bringing me with her. At the massive central corridor between the many levels of the palace, she turned downward, weaving a path through the bowing servants and guards toward a wide archway on the first floor.
I slowed in shock when we reached it. Easily five stories high, the cavernous chamber beyond was lined with white marble and gold accents. Dehaians were everywhere, resting in groups on cushions on the ground or secluded in booths perched high on the walls. Lights shone far overhead, illuminating the people scattered below, while on the opposite end of the room, a woman hovered above a platform halfway up the wall as if she was on a stage.
She was singing. I could hear it, despite the buzz of myriad conversations between us, and somehow, her voice wove them all into her song. Dropping below the murmurs and then rising above them again, she seemed to anticipate every change around her and turn it into something beautiful.
I looked to Ina. She grinned. “Nice, huh? Siren song. Part of that aveluria thing I was telling you about – though unless you’ve touched someone with magic first, the vocal stuff is mostly just for show. Pretty and attractive, but won’t really do much. Touch is where it’s really powerful.”
Ina started into the room, only to pull up short as the crowd parted ahead of us.
“What?” I asked warily.
“Oh, nothing,” she replied as several nearby dehaians rose from their cushions and bowed to her. “Some people had to leave court early today, I guess.”
She drew a breath, pushing any trace of hesitation from her face, and grinned at me again. “It’s fine. But watch out for the Deiliora twins. Especially Siracha.”
Without explaining what she meant, she continued across the room, ignoring the bows and ‘your majesties’ that followed her. Surrounded by guards, I trailed after her, till we reached four dehaians reclining on multicolored cushions of woven seaweed.
“Princess!” a bronze-scaled young man exclaimed when she came close. “We were beginning to think you’d forgotten us today.”
Ina laughed as he embraced her. “Never,” she promised.
“You’ve been gone too long, your highness,” a young man with blue scales and copper hair said, rising as well and kissing her cheek.