Mervidia (4 page)

“Always, sir,” the green-hued female replied, a small smile turn
ing up the corners of her mouth as she nodded to her commander. Jade turned with an elegant but precise twist of her wide verdant tail and swam out of the room. As she passed the guards, she gave them a quick salute, which they returned. She swam towards the center of Mervidia and the higher houses of the merwin. The lower city and the headquarters of the Red Tridents were quickly swallowed up behind her by the dark waters of the ocean depths.

Chapter Three

“My love, our moment has arrived, our chance to get an
octolaide on the throne,” Uchenna said passionately, as his wife calmly circled him in their bedchamber, placing her husband’s jewelry upon him with slow deliberation. Odette’s long soft fingers and charcoal black tentacles worked meticulously, removing the items from a bone-carved box on their dressing table. She slid the rings on his clawed fingers and fastened a weighty bone choker around his neck. As she touched him with her cool fingers, his desire for her stirred, a burning in his nether region that he repressed for now.

Odette remained silent, her visage an emotionless mask.
He wondered if she had heard him at all, and he needed her support in the matters at hand. He needed to hear her say that he was on the right path to their mutual advancement in Mervidia. “
Odette!
” Uchenna called sharply. The female octolaide paused in her work and only responded to the outburst by raising her head and regarding him casually. Odette’s eyes were paler even than her white face and held both virulence and wisdom.
One could get lost in those eyes
, he thought. Uchenna knew better than to mistake her quiet gaze as blank; she was the most astute merwin he had ever known, her scheming and desire to advance in rank glowing brighter and with more devious cunning than any other he knew. She was his equal, a worthy mate indeed.

Odette was the type of merwin whose exterior was composed and calculated, yet she burned with determined ambition on the inside.
One was lucky to get a chance to see her brilliance, to see how swiftly she connected the pieces of Mervidia’s great political puzzle. When only a few small fragments lay before her, she could see the whole picture. Before most even recognized a single player on the field, she would use that perceptive advantage to their great benefit. Uchenna had witnessed Odette’s merits in her mental prowess, her patient unwavering pursuit of power, and in her great magical talent. Especially in his case, he saw it also in her sexuality; she was a fervent lover, and her carnal appetite was insatiable.

The male octolaide
let his eyes wander freely over his wife’s alluring features. The light from the orihalcyon sconce nearest to them beautifully highlighted her assets, starting with her exotic face. Her brow strangely dipped, starting at her luscious lips, then spanned upwards over the flattened slits that served as her nose, and extended back across either side of her skull in perfectly symmetrical, matching arches that ended in delicate spirals. Odette did not have head tentacles like most octolaide, but that did not detract from her beauty. Her pleasing proportions carried from her face downwards, throughout her lean torso and ample bare breasts, lacking any discoloration in the least; they were wholly smoothed over like a ray’s underside. Her white belly blended flawlessly in increasing shades of gray to join her torso with her black tentacles that began just below the central part of her pelvic bone. The only article of clothing or jewel she ever wore was a blue-green choker of seaweed, allowing a full view of her striking body. Those who met Odette for the first time had a hard time looking away; she got more attention than most ethyrie, usually considered the most beautiful of the Merwin races. It was no wonder that Odette had captured the eye of the former ruler, King Reth. She also had given the monarch a bastard son, Ebon, who was a scandalous hybrid of ethyrie and octolaide. The highborn half-breed was their key to the throne.

Uchenna could feel her blood, as well as his own, stirring with his lingering looks, her desire evident in the minute swirl of cloudy mucus that escaped from beneath her tentacles, but she repressed her impulses, maintaining her serene demeanor.
He and she both knew that there were more important matters at hand.

“Husband, you know I am never openly excited about our house’s advancement,” Odette f
inally replied. “We must remain calm and let our plans unfold, to grow with grace and tranquility like zoanthids blossoming on coral.” She touched his forehead lightly, where the three thin bones exited his flesh. Uchenna had told her he had embedded them there decades ago, when he was a young merwin. “Embrace the pain, feel the sorrow, harness your rage, be patient,
remember
…” Odette finished, reciting one of the kalku mantras. Uchenna had pierced his brow in his effort to always
remember
his kalku roots. It was his visual representation, his esoteric headdress and a stark decoration on his otherwise bald head, which marked him as a practitioner of the mysterious dark arts. House Chimaera had advanced greatly under his leadership, from the eighth house to the second, and it would rise to the top, if his and Odette’s calculated diplomacies panned out.

Sadness flashed across Odette’s eyes as fast as a fish darts away from a shark.
“What is it?” Uchenna asked, wrapping his wife in his arms. His head tentacles moved to gently embrace her face, raising her chin until her pale orbs were level with his.

“Beryl’s death…” Odette began, but her voice fell away.
She shook her head, loosening his grasp on her face and as if to agitate away the feeling that had briefly grasped her. Uchenna retracted his tentacles and held her in his arms only a moment longer, before releasing her and nodding knowingly.

“It was by your hand that she entered this world,” Uchenna supplied.
“There would have been no Queen Beryl had you not assisted Reth’s bitch with her infertility.”

“Do not speak so freely, husband,” Odette whispered, her eyes darting about their bedcha
mber, as if someone might hear his insulting words. The only watchers were the room’s soft, blood-red kelp pillows and rugs, silently undulating in the water after the octolaides’ movements swayed them. “Damaris is a dangerous merwin. In her employ, I saw…
things
,” she hesitated. “King Reth may have been straightforward and honorable, but his wife was his balance in that. She was his shadow, and shadows are more dangerous than one might think. You know this.”

“Yes,” Uchenna replied, releasing his wife and swimming over to their bed, an impressive co
llection of sharpened fish bones made into a large circular frame that held a round kelp mattress. “Damaris was dangerous in her time, but now she is a crone, childless and widowed,” he finished, as he donned his purple kelp ceremonial coat. Its sleeves were voluminous around the shoulders, tapered tightly at his elbows, and ended at his wrists, where he wore matching bracelets that were wrought of tiny anthias skulls. The coat’s hem came down just below his pelvis, as to not interfere with the movement of his tentacles. The garment was a display of confidence; wearing any kind of clothing could mean a merwin’s death, impeding one’s movements in the event of peril. However, Uchenna was the Domo of House Chimaera, its status higher in rank than all save House Paua, the first house, and House Lumen, which sat on the throne of Mervidia. He felt it important to stand out, despite the danger, and his magic had always been able to deal with any threats. He had never had to flee from his enemies; they had simply died before him with the proper hand gestures and spoken words. Power was always there at hand, ripped from the surrounding waters, life drained away and refocused into a lethal magical tool.
That is the kalku way
, he thought, as he settled the garment on his shoulders.

“Yet she still holds a seat on the Coral Assembly,” Odette added.
“She holds onto her power as long as she is the ethyrie representative.” Uchenna was silent, refusing to be led off on a tangent that he felt was not a threat in the first place. He could see the realization of that fact settle into Odette’s visage as she relaxed, the muscles elongating and smoothing under her skin. She had known him long enough to recognize what his silence meant. She was off topic from his initial inquiry into her feelings. Odette nodded in acquiescence, letting the matter drop, and returning to the former topic. “Yes, the maternal part of me feels sorrow for Beryl. Females casting fertility spells tend to get attached to the produced offspring. I am fine,” she said. “Regardless, if we are to get an octolaide on the throne, we must outsmart the traditionalists like Thaddeus of House Tenebris.”

“Or just kill him,” Uchenna stated plainly.

“You grow too bold with your success, my love,” Odette said. “You let your jealousy show as well.” The female octolaide fixed her husband with a knowing smirk. “Your hatred of Thaddeus has nothing to do with his brother, Ambrose, does it?” she asked, her tone dripping sarcasm.

“It does indeed.
Ambrose’s
attachment
to you, even after you discarded him, makes him pathetic,” Uchenna replied.

“Even though he is the most powerful kalku of us all?” Odette inquired.
He knew she was not really looking for an answer; she simply wanted validation of her statement.

“Powerful, yes, but not the brightest…” Uchenna stated.
“Once again, my love, you are off topic.” Odette just smiled and motioned, with a wave, for him to continue. “Yes, we will let our plans unfold,” he said. “We may need to make some quick
changes
here and there to accomplish our goal, but the current pulls us; we are all moving together now, whether the Coral Assembly wants to or not. The old ways are gone. The Divine Family is all but extinct. A new reign rises from the Deeps, an
octolaide
reign.”

“Indeed, husband,” Odette purred, obviously pleased with his confidence.
“We have many avenues open to us. If the Coral Assembly votes to keep Iago, he will need a new consort or Queen. Marin must be their choice,” she said definitively.

“Yes, our daughter has a good chance at consort,” Uchenna stated, “but if the Coral Assembly insists on
ethyrie blood, not wanting Marin even as a consort, we’ll push for Ebon to be made king. He is King Reth’s own son, and the Divine Family lives on in Ebon’s blood, even if he is half octolaide and a bastard. I believe he has a better chance to advance our house than Marin.”

“And if Reth’s sister, Ghita, and her twins are brought up?” Odette asked.
“They are the last of the Divine Family. Ghita may be too old to marry, but her daughter Cassondra is ripe for wedding. Flinn could even be selected as king. What would your plan be then?”

“Then we
will implement some of those
changes
I spoke of,” Uchenna smiled mischievously, his words garnering a grin from his wife as well. “In any case, I am ready,” he stated, patting himself down, feeling the talismans and totems in the coat’s concealed inner pockets, making sure he had everything he might need should the meeting turn hostile.
The garment isn’t just for looks
, he thought, pleased with his ingenuity. “The Coral Assembly awaits and my position there is strong. House Chimaera is second to the Divine Family. All of our labors have brought us to this moment. Let us depart, my love,” Uchenna said and held out his arm for Odette to take. He escorted her to the uklod bone door, pushed on the skull handle engraved with enchanted runes, and held the door open for his wife to pass through first.

Chapter Four

Odette
swam through the bedchamber doorway. As usual, she was welcomed by the familiar sight of the school of lanternfish that glided from one side of the House Chimaera’s, enclosed inner courtyard to the other, their bioluminescent photophores alight in ventrolateral rows along their bodies, heads and near their eyes. On its sandy stone floor, crabs peeked out at her from their burrows.

Odette’s attention was drawn by the
muted sound of shells clinking together. Uchenna’s younger sister, Liane, was swimming their way. The route she took was along the long stone passageway, indicating that she was probably headed to the kitchens. The source of the noise was the vest Liane wore. It was made up of layers of prickly cockle shells. The neckline formed a deep “V” down to just above her pelvic bone and attached to a matching belt that circled her hips in an eye-catching manner. She stopped and nodded respectfully to Odette. She bowed fully to Uchenna, when she saw him emerging from the bedchamber behind his wife.

Liane held a fish in one hand, out
of which she was biting chunks. She chewed and, using the strength of her chest gills to draw water through her body and out of her mouth, propelled the regurgitated food into the open lips of the babe in her arms. The fry was tiny, recently hatched, her slender tentacles resembling a dark-skinned hand with too many fingers. It was Liane’s fifth child, and Uchenna had four other siblings, all of whom had children of their own.
House Chimaera’s line will be long indeed,
Odette thought
. I was wise to choose to marry into such a
productive
family.
The Coral Assembly would have an easy time finding future heirs should one of House Chimaera claim the Fangs. When Uchenna nodded to her, acknowledging her homage, Liane continued on her way without a word.

The house was built like a fortress on the outside, with no exterior windows to maintain the domicile’s sa
fety from the predators of the Deeps, but it had a dazzling interior. With its specks of orange light in the darkness, the orihalcyon embedded roof was beautifully constructed. Flowing sea-life carvings and arches decorated the interior with exceptional craftsmanship. All of the bedchambers and common rooms were situated around the massive sealed atrium that also served as home to the family’s personal food supply, the crabs and the fish that lived in its waters. It was somewhat of a mutual arrangement; the fish ate the algae, which kept the house clean, and the octolaide ate the fish. Other members of House Chimaera traversed the courtyard, and Odette smiled at a shoal of youngsters that were playfully chasing a crab, trying to catch it.

Odette turned the corner, headed to the front door of House
Chimaera to depart for the Assembly meeting. However, her son Ebon intercepted them, swimming swiftly into their path as if he had been waiting for the two kalku. He was a beautiful fully-grown merwin with his biological father’s pearlescent scales on his chest and face, mixed with his mother’s white rubbery skin. Ebon was obviously part ethyrie with his single tail, but it resembled a long suckerless tentacle and was black like one of his mother’s. At its end though was a feathered and tendril-covered fin that was common amongst the ethyrie.
A perfect mix of both races
, Odette thought.

Her son was physically strong and handsome, but it was her daughter
who was her pride and joy, blessed with powerful kalku magic like her parents. Odette looked around for Marin, thinking she would be with Ebon, both anxious for more news of the Queen’s death. She did not see her daughter though, so she resigned to smile coolly at her son.

Uchenna brushed passed her, using his tentacles to hold her still so they would not collide, and fully embraced Ebon in a fatherly hug.
Despite Ebon not being his blood child, Uchenna had taken to the boy early on, having watched him emerge from his egg and mature into the grown merwin he was now. The family all knew that Uchenna favored Ebon and doted on him constantly, all within the privacy of House Chimaera’s walls of course. Though their fondness for one another was genuine, affection was often considered a weakness amongst merwin. Odette had long ago filed that information away in her mind for future use should she need to dispose of one or the other. Using males to advance herself was common for her; Uchenna and Ebon were no different from the rest.

Marin, on the other hand
, Odette thought,
she is special. She will follow my path and, one day, possibly surpass me in status
.
I would be proud if she could take my life.
Marin’s magical talent was vast, yet unbridled and unrefined. Her mystic clout, while great, still needed much practice, so that she could control the torrent of magic that constantly washed through her body, threatening to pull her into its maelstrom and consume her. Odette had felt it, when they had cast spells together previously. The raw amount of power her daughter could channel was staggering.

Odette studied her husband closely, passing the time as the two males talked about the Queen’s death, which was old news to the female merwin.
The bones in Uchenna’s forehead were unfortunately his best feature, giving him an air of danger that mirrored his moderate kalku talent. His bulbous milky eyes and traditional, octopus beak nose were unattractive to Odette. In their recent conversation about her former kalku lover’s magical talent, she didn’t feel it necessary or appropriate to mention how physically attractive Ambrose was to her, a far cry from Uchenna’s more plebian charms.

Uchenna has been good to me though
, she thought,
and Ambrose is houseless. Staying with him, playing into his hatred of Mervidia’s hierarchical structure, would have served me naught in my desire to be close to the throne.
Instead, Odette had married Uchenna, a domo of a rising house, soon after Damaris had her cast from the Royal Palace. The Queen had tolerated Odette’s relations with the King, until his seed quickened in one of the octolaide’s eggs.
Little did King Reth know that I was also sleeping with Ambrose all along,
Odette inwardly smiled,
and I still visited Ambrose for a time after I was wed to Uchenna.

Wh
ile Odette had been sharing the king’s bed, she had often felt Uchenna’s eyes on her when he had come to the palace for Coral Assembly meetings. It hadn’t taken much convincing on her part for Uchenna to take her into his bed, even with Ebon’s egg growing nearby in an orihalcyon-warmed crib. Odette had insisted that they be wed before they first had sex, and Uchenna had readily agreed to own such a treasure. Odette might have benefitted more though from their marriage; she was lawfully claimed, given a valid place in a High House, and Uchenna had thankfully ended up being a clever merwin.
He certainly knows his way around the bedchamber too
, Odette thought pleasantly, feeling desire rise in her loins. Uchenna was an
attentive
husband. Their daughter, Marin, was evidence of that fact.

Uchenna had not been bothered when Odette failed to produce any more children.
They were both growing older, and he had been pleased with the one blood child she had given him, even if Marin had not been the male he had wanted; Mervidia had been mostly a patriarchal society until Beryl had worn the Fangs. In the end, Uchenna had been pleased with Ebon, even though he was not of his flesh, and had high hopes that his royal-blooded stepson could put House Chimaera on Mervidia’s throne.

While Uchenna’s plan to get Ebon made king made more sense and was more
easily achieved, Odette knew that Ebon would just mirror King Reth’s way of ruling. Marin would do so much more on the throne, once she came into her own. She would take the Merwin into a new age, one that would favor the octolaide and the other kalku as well. Odette was patient though; a lifetime of strategy had taught her well to bide her time, to wait for the right opportunity to insert her true intent into a series of events.
Let Ebon rule for a time
, she thought, smiling harmlessly at the two male merwin as they discussed the royal assassination. Ebon was asking all sorts of questions as to the nature of the late Queen’s death. Odette didn’t pay attention; her mind was elsewhere.
Marin will grow in her mystical skills and gain wisdom through experience. She’ll rule in the end. I’ll make sure of it.
The males’ discourse grew more pointed, so Odette abandoned her thoughts and began listening carefully.

“Father,” Ebon said, “as you well know, King Reth was my natural father.
With my half-sister, Queen Beryl, dead, am I not next in line for the throne?”

“It is more complicated than that,” Uchenna replied, with a supportive hand on his stepson’s shoulder.
Ebon’s white eyes swam with confusion.

“I don’t understand,” Ebon said
, his forehead crinkling in confusion. Odette let out a sigh, and Uchenna shot her a heated look.
Don’t look at me like that, you old fool
, Odette thought, but kept her demeanor cool, returning his scowl with a smile that she knew was dampened in its sweetness by her pointed teeth.
Marin would know the proper line of succession.

“Iago is technically still the
royal consort, even if not a blood member of the Divine Family,” Uchenna supplied. “The Coral Assembly will give him a trial period to prove himself. If Iago is found worthy, he will be made King and a new consort will be chosen for him. Also possible, but much less likely, would be that a new Queen is chosen, and Iago married to her.”

“And, if Iago fails to prove himself
?” Ebon asked, with a greedy glint to his eyes and a sly smile on his lips.

Before the domo could answer, a
nother of Uchenna’s siblings, an unusually muscular octolaide that Odette knew only by his nickname, Ring, swam close by. Not wanting his brother to overhear their conversation, the kalku held his tongue.

Ring
got the name from his choice of weapon, a bone
chakram that was carved with skulls surrounded by enchanted runes. Ambrose had ensorcelled the weapon, so Odette had known of him before she had wed Uchenna. Ring’s weapon was lethally sharp, and she had seen him use it with abundant skill. He was not an octolaide to cross. As deadly as he was, he often dealt with the seifeira on behalf of the house, negotiating for pearls and their other source of food, kelp. In his time with the seifeira, Ring had even acquired one of the tattoos common to the other Merwin race. The body art was a simple black spiral that started at his wrist and went all the way up his left arm, ending in the head of a striking eel over his pectoral muscle. Odette’s eyes travelled up the tattoo, lingering on his chest, as she admired his sculpted torso. She felt his eyes linger a moment too long on her as well. She gave him a mischievous smile, moving forward and leaning into Uchenna to hide the expression from both her husband and her son. Ring snapped his gaze back to his sibling.

Uchenna nodded to his brother, who saluted him with a fist to his chest and headed on his way, knowing better than to eavesdrop on the
domo’s conversation. Uchenna waited until Ring was far out of earshot before responding to Ebon.

“Then a new king will be elected, and you would most likely be the Coral Assembly’s first choice,” Uchenna
finally answered Ebon’s question and removed his hand from his adopted son’s shoulder. “Be patient, Ebon, and be ready. You may be going with me to the next meeting.”

Ebon recognized his father’s dismissal and respect
fully bowed his head, withdrawing until his back was close to the wall of the courtyard. Uchenna continued on to the door to the house’s exterior. Odette paused in front of her son, raising her right hand for him to kiss. Ebon complied; it was one of the few ways they still interacted with each other. Odette paused a moment longer than usual, feeling a twinge of curiosity.

After Ebon released her hand, she stroked her fingers through his long white hair in a motherly fashion and pulled his chin up so she could gaze into his white eyes.
Odette saw a child’s eyes, a guileless longing to belong with no strength of their own. There was no energy there, no individuality, and no real desire other than to please his parents. Her son had not been blessed with visions, as was usual in the Divine Family’s bloodline, nor had he developed kalku talents. Ebon’s eyes were as vacuous to Odette as a corpse’s, and he only amounted to the flesh he wore so well. Lacking intelligence and any magical talent, with beauty as his only asset, Ebon would not last long on the outside, not without help.
Perhaps that is Uchenna’s plan all along, to rule Mervidia through my weak-minded son
, Odette supposed, making her re-evaluate her husband’s relationship with Ebon.
Uchenna may just be using him
. The domo’s bond with his stepson could be highly staged, an elaborate plan for him to rule indirectly through Ebon.

Odette set that hypothesis aside and went back to analyzing her son.
Unfortunately, the Merwin’s practice of keeping their children indoors until they were old enough to defend themselves sometimes made them soft. While Ebon had survived his Culling and without a doubt could protect himself with a weapon against the Deeps, he would not survive the schemes of other merwin nor would his adequate martial skill alone earn him the Fangs. Ebon opened his mouth to speak, but Odette laid two delicate fingers on his lips, silencing him.
So eager to please, yet nothing useful will come from that mouth,
she thought
.
Her curiosity sated and her previous assessment of her son reconfirmed, Odette left Ebon without a word and swam languidly after her husband. She felt Ebon’s eyes on her as she abandoned him in the cold stone hall. She could feel his worthless devotion reaching after her, grasping like the phantom tentacles of a rejected child, begging her not to leave him, but she did not look back.