A Fair Fight (12 page)

“
You're trying to butter me up,” Lani said.

“
Doesn't make me wrong,” Megan replied.

“
I'd … need to consult with my dad beforehand,” Lani said. “And still couldn't guarantee anything. And we still wouldn't have time to go back home and try to find scuba-gear that's mystic-ruins-compliant.”

“
But that'd be great,” Ashling said. “You could stand in some underground grotto, fidgeting with your tools—that'd look suspiciously like a fork and a pipe—gazing up at the statue and singing 'Part of That World.'”

“
Hmph.” Cassia had clearly been trying to continue dozing on the floor during all of this, but she finally spoke up. “I can arrange for someone to be guided, breathing, through mystic underwater ruins. With pretty much no notice, even. But it's pulling in a heck of a favor, and it's probably for only one of us.”

“
People are trying to kill us, and distracting us from preparing for the potential war that's trying to kill everything,” Megan said. “I think it's worth calling in favors. I'm totally happy to owe one for it, and despite what plenty of people seem to think, I've got some clout around here. So, what is this mystic scuba gear?”

“
Not so much 'what' as 'who'.”

Chapter 17: Patient

“
I was never here,” Nell said as they all walked alongside the shore of Murias. The leopards continued to jump from rock to rock around the narrow paths, and Megan was happy to leave that to them. Yet another session of crawling over otherworldly rocks had gotten really old for her, and she'd had to send her boyfriend right back up again. Justin had, as usual, gone without complaint.

As they waited for Lani to finish consulting with her father, Megan found herself staring at Cassia's lead singer, particularly the membranes on her eyes. "I was especially never here if the Greek delegation is involved," Nell said as she unzipped her dress to reveal a green one-piece bathing suit. Her slightly wiry legs didn't seem to match the rest of her, Megan noticed.

Cassia looked at the suit. “Now I'm disappointed,” she said.

Nell rolled her heavily lidded eyes. “Of course you are.”

"Cassia, this isn't about fun," Lani said from above. Justin was helping her down the narrow paths and over the rocks. She carried a large diving bag and wore a hefty secured flashlight. "We need to deal with those guys. They came close enough to killing us a couple of times already."

The satyress grinned. "And that was kind of fun too."

“
So this will work?” Megan asked, to interrupt Cassia's being Cassia. “That's a real mermaid thing? Helping people breathe?”

“
Depends,” Nell said as Lani revealed her own bathing suit. “Unlike most of my relatives and those they're equated with, though, I actually have every intention of bringing the person back up.” Nell looked to Lani reassuringly. “And I will.” She wrapped an arm around Lani's shoulder.

“
Hmm. Too bad we can't all go down as a full cuddle-puddle,” Cassia said.

“
I'm not sure who's more impressive for putting up with what an annoying flirt you are: Violet or the planet,” Nell said.

“
What's impressive is a siren who can be annoyed by how much other people flirt.”

“
Yeah,” Nell said drily as she and Lani slowly stepped into the water. “Part of why I was never here.”

Once the two had disappeared into the murky depths, Megan looked Cassia. “Siren? I've seen the Greek art. Sirens aren't mermaids. They were bird-women who lost their wings so they were just left with the voices and the stupid bird-legs. Yeah, yeah, don't say it, confused with mermaids for millennia, same word in the Romance languages, but it... I mean how...?”

Cassia sighed. “The power of words is complicated. Magic is complicated. And family...family is very, very complicated. Nell refuses to talk about it.”

“
Yeah, sounds like it. How'd you get her to even come near any of this? I thought she refused to get involved at all, and the concert last year didn't exactly end smoothly.”

“
People do a lot of things they normally wouldn't for a successful artistic collaboration,” Cassia said with a shrug, as if that was explanation enough. “Besides, like she says, she's not here.”

“
Yeah.” Megan sat on the shoreline and frowned. “Nell's a civilian.”

“
Very,” Cassia acknowledged. Justin sat beside Megan.

“
And so's Lani,” Megan continued. “She's an engineer. She's worse with a sword than I am, and that's saying something.”

“
You won't be able to use yourself as an insulting comparison much longer,” Justin said quietly, his arm settling on her shoulder. “You're getting much better. But I know that's not the point.”

“
It's not. Lani's never going to be a fighter, and she keeps going into these dangerous situations—that she knows are dangerous, when she'd rather be mathing around or whatever—and getting herself hurt. Especially in these ancient cities. And who knows what's down there, and they're all alone, and if anything happens, it's my—”

“
Megan,” Justin interrupted her. That wasn't something he tended to do. “Lani is one of the finest and bravest people I have ever known, and I suspect she would want it said that she doesn't allow you to blame yourself for the risks.”

Megan started to nod, then frowned. “About time you said my name. You've been 'my lady'ing me all week. You're my boyfriend, for Pete's sake.”

“
And you are an excellent girlfriend, Megan. And your name is wonderful. But in some times, places, and levels of danger, you
are
, foremost, my lady, and people need to know that. I'm sorry to make you unhappy, but—”

“
There better not be some guy-line about how I'm cute when I'm angry.”

“
No. If I learned the word right, you're cute when you have pastel smudges right on the line of your cheek. You're appropriately worrying when you're angry, but you're still beautiful, and at any rate it's worth enduring for the chance to reassure you: Lani is nearly always exactly where she chooses to be.”

“
...Okay.”

Rather than stand there staring at the water, Megan made herself step away to try her father again. Riocard was having meeting after meeting in his tent. For these latest ones, it seemed, his mood had been slightly improved by having Ashling on one shoulder and the Count on the other. Eventually, when there were no more messenger sprites about the tent, even they had flown out on a brief errand.

The Unseelie King finally ended up shooing the Dullahan away to listen to everything Megan had to say: the attacks, the ogres, the exiles, everything. From a few of his stray words, he'd apparently heard a few things already, but he stayed intent on her descriptions. He fidgeted occasionally whenever Megan mentioned his former seneschal, but asked for details and reiteration several times regarding Tiernan.

“
Really, he said that? 'The age of mortal heroes is long past'? All that time in the dark has left him nearsighted. He's still thinking Culain's Hound and doesn't know what a hero these days looks like."

“
Thanks, Dad. I think. I'm getting really tired of hounds, though.”

“
A shame. I'm told that Victor is a fine fellow, though apparently the Kahuna regrets he has not yet learned to fetch an Allen wrench.”

“
Victor's a real labrador, not a fake hound.”

“
Granted, dearest. And I wish I could be of more help, but Fomoire were as plentiful and unique as very ugly snowflakes. It looks like you have plans of your own, though.”

"Okay, is there anything you can tell me about Murias, or the statue, or anything?"

"In its time, Murias was an extremely dangerous place."

"Compared to the city of the dead and all? Wasn't Murias like, kind of a library or something?"

"Precisely, dearest! The undead are a problem, no question. They proved that. But information, now that's dangerous on a grand scale. There's reasons the Fomoire sunk the city."

"So, what about the statue?"

"Very impressive workmanship."

"Right, but is there anything else to it?"

"Oh, I'd imagine quite a few things."

"As much as you appreciate information, I'm surprised you don't know. You'd have thought the fae would have gone through anything that had proved to be resistant to the Fomoire."

"I'd imagine they have, many times. Anything of use that's left down there isn't for our hands. Your secret compartment theory sounds quite plausible, dearest, but if so, that doesn't mean I could open it any more than the Fomoire could smash the statue."

"Wasn't Semias your ally, though?"

Riocard considered that for several seconds. "That's a very good question. We had common enemies, certainly."

"With the Fomoire, you'd think that whole enemy of my enemy thing would apply."

"Hm, you'd think. And sometimes you'd be right. But then things get complicated. Speaking of complicated, I understand you brought a souvenir from your visit with Tiernan?"

"He was poisoned. We couldn't just leave him."

"Certainly you could have. You chose not to. Tiernan will have to decide what that's worth, as will your captive."

"I wasn't thinking in terms of favors, and he's not a prisoner."

"If you like. But you'll probably find things much less complicated that way than if you called him a guest. The nice part about prisoners is that you can release them at any time."

"He's not a guest, because there are rules, and if Kerr got in trouble, Lani would freak out even if Kerr didn't. But he's not a prisoner, because Tiernan's weirdos aren't our enemies. We're meeting with him to discuss an alliance, right?"

"And when that meeting is over, perhaps we'll be allies. Until then, he's the person who made you fight a duel to get concessions out of him, and who remains a somewhat bitter exile."

"Right, so don't trust him, but still, whenever he wasn't just being a xenophobic jerk, he seemed to have some points."

"Indeed he does. He always has. While rather missing the target entirely in other areas."

"Like the whole mortal heroes thing?"

"Very like that thing, yes."

"So, how does that work? Are there like, prophecies and stuff?"

"Sometimes. But most often, more often than a lot of the stories would like you to believe, really, heroes are just those who rise to the occasion."

Megan was about to ask more questions when the Dullahan poked his head in again. Even as many times as she'd seen him, Megan still wasn't prepared for the fact that that involved the head being held in one hand, then stuck through the door. "More visitors to meet with Your Majesty."

Riocard nodded. "One moment, I have a royal visitor but shall see to the others soon."

Megan shook her head. "Dad, I'm not..."

"You are, and you should get used to it. Like titles or no, it's one more weapon in your arsenal. And you'll need them all. Now, was there anything else?"

Megan thought about that a moment, then nodded. "The boatman isn't a prisoner or a guest. He's a patient. He'll be discharged for the meeting with Tiernan, no strings attached."

"Very well, and very good. They may appreciate that, or grow more suspicious. But either way, I approve of freedom without strings."

"I think that's it. Thank you, Dad. Good luck."

"You too. Come to me when next you know enough to need anything. Cut in line if you can. In the meantime, I'm sure your Miss Kahale will do something terribly clever. The two of you always seem to keep up with each other, after all.”

Chapter 18: Revelations with Illustrations

Megan returned to the water, paced for some time, and was just starting to panic when the pair emerged again, with Nell mostly pulling Lani through the water, so Lani, her diving bag already bulging, could hang on to several dozen sealed scrollcases. Once they were pulled up onto the shore, Lani deposited everything at the group's feet. "I think there might be something in there."

"So there was something hidden in the statue after all?"

Lani grinned. "Sort of. Mostly keys, and a library directory."

Nell nodded. "I didn't even notice it. I think it was a mortal thing."

Megan grinned. "So Mr. Subtle wanted to make sure nobody more immortal could get the run of his stuff and warded his security stash accordingly.”

"Something like that," Lani said. "So we used it to try to find anything sealed well enough not to be ruined. That place is amazing. I want to spend a lot more time down there."

"But not today," Megan said. "Everybody pick up a few scrolls."

“
Good luck with that,” Nell said. “I'm going to rest here for a moment, just swim without pressure.”