The Mermaid's Madness (27 page)

Read The Mermaid's Madness Online

Authors: Jim C. Hines

Snow pointed to the closest tower, which sat partially submerged at the edge of the moat. The tower would allow Lirea to hide away from the world, but her scent would still wash out to the rest of her tribe. The wind was stronger here, raising whitecapped waves along the moat and chilling Danielle’s skin.
“Air spirits,” Snow said.
“Can they see us?” asked Danielle.
“I’m not sure.” Snow turned to look along the shore.
“They’re racing up and down the edge of the land. I can feel others farther back.”
“The air spirits guard the land while the kelpies guard the sea,” said Talia.
They crossed the moat to shallower water. Danielle guessed this to have been a garden of some sort. Green algae covered a submerged statue of a winged horse, giving it a monstrous appearance. Broken fountains formed the boundaries of a path.
Danielle studied the tower. Rock and rubble lay piled around the base, blocking any entrance. The only way in was through the windows. Lirea could take human form and climb the wall, but no other undine would be able to follow her. Nor could any human approach by land or sea without being spotted. “This is the one place she can feel safe.”
Snow was still staring into the sky. “The spirits share an empathic bond with Lirea. They have no specific orders, but they share her fear. I should be able to ease that fear long enough for us to get inside.”
Talia shook her head. “I’ve broken into a lot of places, but I’m not about to sneak into this thing naked.”
Snow had already crawled onto the shallow rocks. She pulled her tail to her chest, eyes squeezed shut as her body began to change. Skin enveloped scales, and her fins pressed flat against her legs and feet. She doubled over, coughing water from her lungs.
Her voice hoarse, she said, “Make sure to exhale all of the water before I remove the spell.” To Talia, she added, “If you’d prefer to wait behind while Danielle and I go after Lirea, that’s fine.”
She might as well have spat in Talia’s face. Talia followed her onto the rocks. “Just cast the damn spell.”
Danielle looked up at the tower, then down at her pale skin. This was not going to be fun.
CHAPTER 9
T
ALIA MOVED AROUND THE BASE of the tower ahead of the others on the pretense of scouting the terrain. She hurried until she reached the ankle-deep water in the back. Here, unseen by undine or her fellow humans, she collapsed against the wall and fought to regain control.
The pain wasn’t a problem. Returning to human form might feel like being skinned alive, but at least the pain had helped to distract her from whatever potion Lirea had spread through the water. And now that she was human, the scent and taste of the water no longer seemed to affect her.
Her own mind was another problem. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Snow bobbing in the waves, her hair slicked back, water dripping down her body ... Deliberately, Talia turned to study the mountains in the distance, little more than a serrated shadow cutting across the sky.
It wasn’t as though this was the first time she had seen Snow naked. Several of their previous missions for the queen had required them to switch disguises in a hurry, but on those occasions Talia had been able to control her body’s reactions. Not this time, thanks to Lirea pushing her to the edge.
Her skin tingled when she heard Snow and Danielle approaching. Snow was fully human now, wearing nothing but Morveren’s harness, which accentuated—
“
In’a’een ya mavas,
” she swore, digging her nails into her wrists.
“I should have brought shoes,” Snow was saying. “The rocks are murder on my feet.”
Talia tried not to look at either of them. “We can climb here. The undine shouldn’t see us, and as long as Snow keeps the spirits busy, we should be able to sneak in.”
Danielle stepped closer. “What’s wrong, Talia?”
Talia didn’t answer. Snow’s poor powers of observation had always made it easy for Talia to keep her feelings hidden. Danielle, on the other hand, actually paid attention to such things. Damn her.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Talia whispered. “Aside from the two of you making enough noise to reach the
Phillipa
.”
“Ignore her,” Snow said. “She always gets uppity before a kidnapping.”
Talia started to respond, but the words caught in her throat. What was
wrong
with her? Beatrice could be dying, and all she could think about was kissing Snow’s lips, running her fingers through that sleek black hair.
A gentle touch to the middle of the back made her gasp. She twisted away from Danielle’s hand.
“I’m fine.” Talia’s voice sounded hoarse even to her own ears.
Danielle looked past Talia to Snow, and compassion softened her face. “Snow, I’ve seen you cast illusions before. Would it be terribly difficult to use your magic to clothe us? I’m . . . I’ve always been self-conscious. This is too distracting.”
Shame burned Talia’s cheeks.
“You’ve got nothing to be self-conscious about,” Snow said, grinning. “You’d never know that body spat out a prince.”
“Please?” Danielle asked.
With a shrug, Snow touched her mirror. A low-cut blouse and trousers shimmered into existence, covering Danielle’s body. Similar garments soon appeared on Snow and Talia.
Talia sighed. She recognized these clothes from Snow’s wardrobe, and they weren’t too much better than being naked. Nor could they do anything to erase the images in Talia’s mind. But it was better than nothing.
She started to thank Danielle, but that would mean acknowledging what Danielle had done. Instead, she turned to the tower wall. “Keep your body close to the tower, and try to put your hands and feet where I do. Move one limb at a time.”
Illusory clothing did nothing to protect her body from the rough-hewn stone. The lowest window was three stories high, and she was soon bleeding from scrapes on her arms and legs. She peeked through arrow slits as she climbed, but the interior was too dark to see anything.
The marble sill of the window was wet and slick to the touch. She found a higher foothold and pushed herself up. She held her breath, listening for any sound inside: a footstep or a quick breath as someone prepared to decapitate her. The only sounds were the lapping of the water below and Snow’s muttered complaints.
“Wait here.” Talia pulled herself through the window, landing lightly on a stone floor inside. There, she waited for her vision to adjust. She could make out an orange glow rising from the center of the room. The light showed the outline of a pit where the center of the floor had crumbled away. She didn’t trust the broken floor enough to investigate more closely.
A staircase wound along the outer wall. Overhead, she could see the fading stars through holes in the roof.
She returned to the window and reached down to help Danielle and Snow through. Danielle’s sword clinked against the windowframe as she climbed inside. Talia froze, waiting for some sound from below, but if Lirea was down there, she didn’t appear to have heard.
“Stay close to the wall.” Talia led them to the steps. “Keep quiet.”
This must have been a guard tower originally. The very top would have held cannons or ballista, as well as a signal bell. The weight of all that equipment was probably what had broken through the floors.
The stairs descended through a makeshift armory. Many of the old weapon racks were bare or broken, but Lirea had built up a fair collection of her own. Undine-style spears and knives carved from wood, stone, and bone stood in neat rows. Lirea kept enough weapons to fight a small army. Further along were more exotic weapons. Danielle picked up a grooved paddle that curved into a hook at one end.
“Spear thrower,” Talia whispered, helping herself to a curved sword. The blade was tarnished but still sharp. It wasn’t old enough to belong to the tower’s original inhabitants. How many of these weapons had come from sunken ships? Her fingers tightened to fists when she spotted a knife with a polished white stone set in the cross guard. Such knives were common in the northern part of Lorindar, and the shine of the blade meant this was a new acquisition. “Come on.”
They descended through another room, this one lined with broken, moldy bunks. Through the broken floor, Talia could see candle flames reflecting on the water below. Rusted hinges showed where a trapdoor had once locked the lowest part of the tower off from the rest. A dungeon of some sort? That might explain why it had been built below sea level. Locking prisoners in waist-deep water would be a good way to break their spirits. For humans, at any rate. For a mermaid, this was probably the perfect bedroom.
Talia kept her sword ready as she crept down the stairs, searching for Lirea. Dead, moldering flowers hung from the walls, filling the air with the sick-sweet smell of rot. Polished shells were mounted between the flowers, the kind of random decoration a child might have done.
On the far side of the tower, a sickly tree grew from the water. It resembled a willow, but with shriveled pink leaves. Many of the leaves had withered and fallen, floating on the water like tiny boats. The top of an ancient bell rose from the center of the water like a corroded island. Iron rings in the wall which might once have chained prisoners now served as candleholders.
“There.” Snow pointed to the tree.
Within the curtain of leaves, a pale shape stood unmoving in the water. It was broader than the mermaid Talia had fought. She studied it more closely, until a flicker of candlelight showed not skin but white marble. She was looking at a statue.
A second form huddled at the base of the statue. Lirea lay curled around the statue’s feet. She whimpered, and Talia switched her sword to her left hand, drawing a knife with her right. But Lirea didn’t move. She appeared to be asleep.
“I can kill her from here,” Talia whispered. One throw and it would all be over.
“You can’t.” Danielle grabbed her arm. “We promised Morveren.”
“You heard that merman.” Talia tugged free. “Lirea is the one leading them to war and glory. Without her, the attacks against Lorindar will end. You’re princess of Lorindar, remember? You have a duty to protect your people.”
“What about my duty to Beatrice?” Danielle asked. “You think Morveren will help us if we betray her and murder her granddaughter?”
Forget Lirea. Maybe she would just kill Danielle instead. She glanced at Lirea to make sure the mermaid hadn’t heard their whispers. “We’ll still have the knife. Snow can save Beatrice.”
“Are you sure?”
They both turned to Snow. Her only response was silence.
“We take Lirea back,” said Danielle. “Maybe Morveren will be able to help her. Either way, I don’t intend to simply let her go free. We’ll still protect Lorindar, and Beatrice will live.”
“Lirea has killed too many people already.” But Talia moved aside to make room for Snow. “Someone has to pay for those deaths.”
Snow stepped down the stairs, squeezing past Talia. The illusion of clothing did nothing to mediate the sensation of skin against skin. Talia tightened her jaw and concentrated on Lirea, ready to kill her if she so much as twitched.
“The stairs are slimy.” Snow held the doll in both hands as she hummed to herself. Her brow wrinkled, and she turned toward Talia. “I can hear her dreams. Her memories of her time with Gustan.” Her eyebrows shot higher. “Mermaids are awfully flexible.”
“Stop prying,” Talia hissed. “Cast the damn spell.”
“I’m trying. But her dreams are
intense
.”Was Snow actually blushing? Talia wouldn’t have thought it possible. “It probably has something to do with the spawning.”
“Snow, please,” said Danielle.
“Sorry.” Snow swallowed and turned back to Lirea.
“Her dreams are so happy, but her mind is an angry, frightened place.”
Talia twirled her knife through her fingers as Snow resumed her spell. Talia started to ask how long this would take, then caught herself. Snow was too easily distracted as it was.
“She’s fighting me, even in her dreams,” Snow said. “She shouldn’t be able to—”

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