Siren's Call (32 page)

Tessa cut her hand through the air with a kill- it motion. “Both of you be quiet,” she snapped, ordering them to silence.

She scrambled to make sense of the entire scene. Right now she had a lot of pieces, but none of them fit together. It was going to take some work to assemble the entire picture. She wished it was as simple as sitting down over a pitcher of strawberry margaritas and dishing.

Unfortunately, she doubted her greeter, rigidly adhering to proper etiquette, would welcome such informality.

The priestess pointed to Kenneth and Jake, seemingly impressed. “I see your pets are well trained. You had them silent immediately. They seem to obey your commands well.”

Tessa’s brows rose with surprise. “My pets?” She looked toward Kenneth and Jake. “You mean these humans?”

“Humans, yes. That is what they were once called, though we have not used that term since the ancient age.” Lips curling with disgust, Doma Chiara spat toward Kenneth. “They are useless creatures.”

Tessa felt a slow sinking in the pit of her stomach. Oh, shit. Had the sea-gate been sealed because of a conflict between humans and Mer?

A war would definitely explain the lack of Mer in the ocean’s waters at this time. After Ishaldi was taken down, any Mer remaining in the human world would probably have scattered, attempting to find a safe refuge wherever they could. Hunted, perhaps relentlessly, their numbers would have quickly thinned.

The gruesome picture of men slaughtering Mer the way they still massacred other defenseless sea life flashed through her mind.

Tessa attempted to will away the terrible images. “You speak as if you despise them.”

Chiara frowned, nodding solemnly. “The inferiors have always caused problems.” Her hand again moved to the weapon sheathed at her hip. “But we have done our best to control them.”

Tessa’s brows rose in surprise. “Inferiors?”

Chiara indicated the rear of the temple. “The
huslas
, our human slaves.” She pointed out people hovering on the periphery of the Mer crowd. She sighed as though exhausted. “It has taken much time, but we have tamed their savage natures.”

Tessa looked. Her brows rose in surprise. She hadn’t even noticed them before. They were kept separate from the rest of the group by guards, who kept them in place with snapping whips.

Unlike the Mer, who were clad in elaborate leather outfits, the people wore almost nothing at all. Men were clad in little more than loincloths. Women wore loincloths and cloths binding their breasts. All wore shackles around their necks, wrists, and ankles. They were chained and kept like dogs.

These people, she guessed, were descendants of the people left behind in Ishaldi when the threshold between the two worlds closed.

Tessa felt her grip on self-control slipping through her fingers. Here she was in an unfamiliar land, among an unknown people who lived in a way she couldn’t begin to understand. Any kinship she might have felt with Mer instantly evaporated. They were nothing like she’d expected.

Acutely aware a response was expected, Tessa affected an attitude of interest. Dismay gnawed deep in her belly. “I see you have succeeded well in that endeavor.”

Since the Mer considered human beings to be a sub-par species, it might be safer for Jake and Kenneth if she went along with Chiara’s impression that she owned the humans. They were under her care, so to speak.

Tessa swallowed the thick lump building in the back of her throat. “I assure you my pets will behave. I will see they are kept in their proper place.”

Chiara nodded gracefully. “Of course. You must be tired from your long journey, Mira Tessa,” she said, automatically granting Tessa the rank and status of an honored and esteemed guest. “I am sure you will want to rest before meeting with Queen Magaera.”

That one took her by surprise. “I will?” She’d stupidly assumed she’d soon be on her way back through the thing Chiara had identified as a sea-gate. Of course, that was an insane notion. She’d just unlocked some sort of doorway sealed for almost two millennia. It only made sense the people locked inside would want information about a world they hadn’t laid eyes on in, well, ever.

The priestess nodded. “Now that you have given us back our freedom, we Mer shall have a chance to reclaim the waters that are rightfully ours.”

Fighting back a faint surge of nausea, Tessa inwardly gulped. The weapons the Mer carried weren’t for show-and-tell. The women were armed and ready for a fight. Comparing the well-armed Mer to the pathetically kept humans, an uneasy suspicion crept up from the shadows in Tessa’s mind. Cold awareness prickled the fine hairs on the back of her neck. She shivered faintly.

I think I’ve made a huge mistake
.

Kenneth didn’t like the looks of the shackles the Mer were fitting around his neck and wrists. Though the women were doing nothing to cause him undue harm, their attitude was one of distance and disinterest. He was just another human, and a worthless one at that.

A gut-level sense of dismay and embarrassment filled him. “Why do we have to wear these?”

Her expression tense but controlled, Tessa leaned in. Pretending to check the grip of the collar circling his neck, she whispered, “Humans are like slaves here.” She spoke so quietly he had to strain to catch her words. “They regard you as little more than animals of low intelligence.”

“Can’t you tell them in your world you don’t treat people like animals?”

Tessa frowned at him impatiently and shook her head. “I’ve tried to tell them you are my companions and quite intelligent, but they aren’t buying it. In their minds, humans are untrustworthy and need to be fully controlled.”

Attempting to dig a finger in between his wrist and the tight cuff to loosen the pressure, Kenneth jerked his head toward Jake. “So why the fuck are they so gaga over that asshole?” Instead of treating him like a mongrel dog, the Mer seemed to take more interest in the archaeologist. They petted and pawed him like a prize stallion.

Tessa shot a look toward her ex-lover. “It’s his hair and eyes. For them, he’s a perfect specimen for breeding.”

Kenneth snorted. It never failed. He should have guessed Jake would find a way to take advantage of his looks and charm the ladies.

“So what am I? Chopped liver?”

“It’s not you,” Tessa explained. “It’s your hair color. You’re considered an inferior, not suitable for fathering their daughters. Your purpose is more like a slave.”

Understanding dawned. “Ah, someone who does the heavy lifting.”

She nodded. “Right.”

He blew out a breath. “Figures.”

The woman who had initially acted as greeter ambled over. She looked at Tessa. They exchanged a few words.

Kenneth shivered. The Mer tongue sounded like gibberish to his ears. He couldn’t understand a single word and it made him feel like a second-class citizen.

His mouth drew down.
In their world, I am
.

He glanced around. From what he could see, all humans were shackled, both males and females. Some, he noticed, seemed to be treated better than others. Those who were poorly kept were pathetic creatures. In the human world they would be considered plain or merely average. In the Mer world, they had no hope. Hair shorn away, their skin was covered with bruises. Many were badly scarred, the damage inflicted by the whiplike lashes all Mers carried. Looped at their belts, the objects of punishment were within ready reach.

Those treated better included men—and some women—lucky enough to be born blond. Not only were they dressed a bit more nicely, but they were paraded on leashes the way some people would show off a pedigreed animal.

One of the Mer who had helped shackle them handed their leads to Tessa. Giving Jake a final warm pet, she sauntered back to her duties.

Tessa looked at the leashes. “I’m sorry. They require you to be leashed in public.”

Jake perked up. Instead of fighting his shackles, he seemed to be enjoying all the attention he attracted. “Excellent.”

Kenneth shot him a look. “Excellent? They’ve got us collared.”

Jake shrugged. “When in Rome you do as the Romans do, my friend. It only makes sense that the Mer would be the dominant race. After all, this is their world.”

“Yeah, but instead of being equals, they’ve made us into slaves.”

“Which is exactly how our own human civilization evolved,” Jake said. “When the strong roll in, the weak roll over. To survive means to adapt to the ways of the ruling race.”

Kenneth grumbled. “I don’t call slavery survival.”

The Mer who had greeted Tessa hurried over. A look of disapproval pursed her lips. Handing over a whip, she made a slicing motion with her hand. The words that accompanied her gesture sounded sharp, scolding.

Tessa nodded her response, snapping the whip savagely in the air to indicate her understanding. “She thinks you are speaking out of your place and she wants me to punish you.”

Jake eyed the forbidding whip. “Oh, kinky. A whip and chains.” He waggled his brows. “Tell me, darling, don’t you feel all butch now?”

Tessa cracked the whip, giving him a neat smack across the arm. “You’d better have a care with your tongue.”

Jake rubbed the red patch rising on his skin. “Hey, watch where you’re swinging that thing, damn it!”

Tessa smacked him again. “If they think I can’t control my humans, they might take you away. I can’t say what would happen to you if they did, but I don’t think it’d be pretty.”

The archaeologist flagged a distracted hand. “What are they going to do? Pet me to death? I don’t have to speak the language to figure out more than one of those ladies would like to put me in her bed. How long do you think it’s been since they’ve had new blood added to the gene pool?” He pointed toward his beltline. “What I’ve got down here is pure gold.”

Kenneth shook his head. “I think I’m going to puke.” Leave it to Jake to figure out how to feed his libido, and all in the name of new world discovery.

Tessa delivered a third smack. “You’re pissing them off, and you’re starting to piss me off. Put a lid on it before I really have to lay some hurt on you.”

Putting on the face of an angel, Jake smiled and said nothing.

Kenneth breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to feel that leather come down across his skin. He had a feeling he wouldn’t enjoy it half as much as Jake was. That asshole was just a glutton for punishment. If it were kinky, illegal, or immoral—preferably all three—Jake would be there in a second.

A tug on his leash reminded him he needed to start walking.

Trotting along beside Jake, he followed Tessa. Tessa in turn followed their guide, who led them outside the elaborate temple.

Catching his first glimpse of the city, Kenneth caught his breath. All the trouble it had taken to reach it was suddenly worth the risk.

A magnificent vision to behold, Ishaldi was vast, a metropolis stretching as far as the eye could see. Streets of pure limestone wound between temples and other buildings that served as public and private dwellings. Beautifully sculpted lawns and lush enclosed gardens were liberally sprinkled with pools of clear sparkling water and intricately carved stone fountains. It was like walking through a crack in time and somehow arriving in an ancient Greek city.

The atmosphere above the trees wasn’t a wide- open stretch of endless space. Nor did any sun shine in the sky above. Ishaldi’s heavens shined with a pure and incandescent white light. To stare directly into its depth was almost blinding.

It took Kenneth a moment to realize he wasn’t looking at an overcast sky, but one formed entirely of crystal. The Mer world, the whole of it, existed entirely underground.

Interrupting his sense of wonder, Jake leaned close. “Amazing. I’m going to say the Mer live much as their ancestors did. My guess is their civilization has hardly changed since their world was sealed off from ours. They’ve had no outside influences to integrate into their civilization for almost two thousand years.”

“It feels like the whole place is part of a giant terrarium,” Kenneth whispered back. “How can their world exist under the freaking ocean anyway?”

Jake pondered a moment. “I’ll agree they have a very unusual ecosystem going on here. So much so that I’m beginning to suspect that their world and ours inhabit the same space, but in different dimensions.”

That brought his eyebrows up. “I don’t get it.”

“Wormhole,” Jake mouthed.

“What’s got worms?”

“Not
got worms
, idiot,” Jake corrected. “A wormhole is a shortcut through space and time.”

Kenneth glanced around. “Are you saying we’re on another planet?”

Jake quickly shook his head. “Based on the architectural similarities to our own ancient cultures, I’d wager we’re still earthbound. It’s a long shot, but I’d say some glitch in dimensional shifting aligned their world beneath ours.”