Breakwater (11 page)

The water stilled and I shot up and out of it to suck in a lungful of air. In my hand was not only his gills, but a huge section of his trachea that came with it. Gulping a lungful of air and treading water I waited to see if another attack would come, but nothing did. The water lowered once more until I could stand. Only then did I start to take stock of my own body: open gashes along my thighs, the punctures in my stomach, and a spinning in my head from holding my breath too long.

The water around me was dark with blood. Did I move and hope I could at least put my back to the wall, or did I hold still and pray Mako couldn’t see where I was any more than I could see him?

An air bubble popped up across from me and I tensed. Mako’s back floated to the surface and bobbed, face down. A ruse?

Above us, the crowd I’d forgotten about cheered. The water drained completely and the footing I stood on began to rise. Mako stayed face down, chunks of meat and gills floating around the sides of his neck, his trachea in my hand. I threw it to the ground and refastened my vest.

The slow clapping of one person turned me around. Requiem smiled at me, his teeth bright white and far too big for his face. The smile was cold. “Well done. I must say I am surprised. Where did you learn to fight? Enders always play by the rules but that . . . that was truly impressive.”

“I did play by the rules, though he didn’t. He raised the water. I suppose that means you owe us.” I knew no such thing, but I was pissed. Not to mention the fact he’d said he was looking for a way to kill us both.

Dolph, headed my way with a blanket, stopped in his tracks. His mouth moved over three words.
Don’t do it.

I glared at Requiem. But it was Belladonna who spoke. “Your champion cheated. We all saw it.” Her color was slowly coming back. Ayu was at her side and obviously had been helping her. “What will you give us in compensation, Requiem?”

Requiem looked from Belladonna to me, then back to her. His button black eyes were thoughtful, a calculating mind behind them. That much was obvious. “Well played, Ambassador. Well played. We will have a dinner in your honor tomorrow night, and you shall be our guests of the highest standing. There, I shall give you your . . . gifts.”

I gathered my weapons, doing my best to attach them as we walked from the coliseum. Dolph helped me out of the arena, and Ayu helped Belladonna. Around us, the other Undines parted. Without fail, each Undine we passed gave me a quick bow, a few reaching out to touch me. A mark of honor; I had done what none of their Enders had been capable of. I should have felt proud, but I wasn’t. We were in so much hot water I couldn’t see the way out, and the death of one violent bastard wasn’t about to save us.

No one spoke as Dolph and Ayu took us to a sumptuous room decked out in pearls, silk sheets, and carpet made of a material I couldn’t identify. Some sort of sea moss was my guess by the way it gave under my feet. All I knew was it was soft enough to lie on and sleep for days.

Ayu helped Belladonna into bed and then gave me a vial. “Drink it, your wounds will heal faster and you will be ready.”

I held the vial to my lips. “Ready for what?”

She looked to Dolph behind me, and just shook her head. They left me standing, staring at the large double doors as they shut behind them. The not so subtle click of the door being locked chilled my spine. I downed the vial of potion, the salty and sweet taste refreshing me even as my body slumped with fatigue. I should have stayed awake, should have forced myself to guard her. The exhaustion though was too strong for me.

I flopped onto the bed next to Bella. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow what we need to be ready for.”

She opened one gray eye and looked me over. “Let’s hope we can go one day here without getting injured. Shall we try that?”

I dropped a hand over hers, surprised to feel her fingers tighten around mine. “Sure, I’m game to try anything once.”

Closing my eyes, I let sleep tumble me down. And prayed to the mother goddess we would both make it out of the Deep alive.

e slept through much of the next day, our bodies drugged with whatever Ayu had given us both to help speed our healing. When I woke, Belladonna was already up and searching through the closet. Actually, it had been her exasperated grunt and the thump of something large hitting the ground that snapped me out of my deep sleep.

“Lark, the clothes they have here, they are ridiculous. Look at this.” She tossed something toward the bed. It was a dress made of fish net. I picked it up by one edge. “Maybe it’s supposed to go over something else. Like layers.”

“That sea worm wants us to dress like common prostitutes.” Her outrage was all the more amusing because of our previous conversation. Maybe she’d decided she wasn’t going to tease the men to get her information now. Then again, maybe even Belladonna had standards when it came to those she was willing to taunt. Requiem was not one she wanted to get any closer to than she had to. I certainly didn’t.

From the bed, I watched her move, amazed that she barely limped. The bite marks in her leg were mostly healed with only tiny pink lines marking where they had been.

I slid from the bed with a groan. My thighs burned and I rubbed a hand over each. The furrows from Mako’s claw-tipped toes were ridged, sore, and itched like fire ants had been nipping at me all night.

“Lark,” Bella’s voice was soft as she stood in front of me. “No one has ever fought for me.” She looked away, her throat bobbing as she swallowed hard. “I thought you were going to leave me there to die, but you didn’t.”

I shrugged. “Family is family. I promised I wouldn’t let you die. Maybe it’s been too long since we’ve spent time together, but you should know I always keep my promises.”

She gave me a weak grin and swiftly changed the subject. “We both have to dress for the dinner.” She held up two pieces of fish net, one in each hand. “Do you want to wear the fish net or the fish net?”

I stood and shook my head. “I’m your bodyguard. I’m not going anywhere without my—” I reached for my spear and found nothing. A quick check of my body, all my weapons were gone except the tiny knife tucked into my vest. The knife Ash had given me for just this reason. Our only weapon that stood between us and Requiem was a wee tiny knife.

Not exactly the protection I was hoping for.

Belladonna lifted a sheer piece of silk, light green and shimmering. I put a hand on hers.

“Bella, we have to play this right or no matter what Requiem said, we’re going to have our heads handed to us on a platter.”

“I know.”

“He thinks you caused the earthquake on the island.”

Her eyes widened. “Why would he think that?”

I took the sheer green material and folded it in half, then motioned for her to turn away from me. I spoke as I wrapped her body in the silk. “It makes sense. Father doesn’t know what I am capable of, no one does. So to Requiem it looks as though Father has sent an ambassador who can cause tsunamis. An ambassador to be feared.”

She glanced over her shoulder as I tied off the silk. I’d wrapped her from just above her chest to just above her knee. Scrounging in the closet I found a second cut of sheer material, a pale blue dotted with seed pearls.

“Lark, that means he’s afraid of me,” she breathed. “It gives us power.”

I wasn’t so sure. “Maybe. But he’s wary of me because I killed Mako.”

A slow smile slid across her face and for a moment she looked so like her mother that I stopped moving. “We have more power than you realize, Lark.”

“I don’t give two worm shits about power. We just need to survive as long as it takes to get us the hell out of here. I think we can both agree that if Father is to back anyone, it should be Requiem’s sister, Finley.”

I took the seed pearl material, tied a swath of it over her breasts which finally gave her decent coverage, then wrapped it in a slow loop down her body, tying it off at the bottom.

“You missed your calling, Lark. You could have been a fabulous dressmaker.”

I snorted. “I’ll keep it in mind if this job doesn’t pan out.”

She giggled and then stopped. “You look terrible. We need to clean you up too.”

There was no denying she was right. I was covered in blood, bits of Mako’s gills hung from my hair and my leather was crusted with dried salt.

“No. Let them see me like this. Covered in their champion’s blood. Requiem . . . I don’t think he’s afraid of us, Bella. Not for an instant. He is not a stupid man.”

“He should be afraid of us,” she said, her haughty tone telling me her arrogance was back full force. Which in that instance was a very good thing, seeing as we needed to face him down at dinner.

I helped arrange her hair so it hung in long loose curls around her face. The length spooling down her back helped to give a bit more skin coverage. The only jewelry we had left between us was Griffin’s gift to me. The tooth corded on leather that kept me safe from the lung burrowers. The tooth of a griffin was a powerful talisman.

I slipped it off my neck and over hers. “Here, put this on. A reminder to them that while you may wear their pearls, you are a child of the earth. A child of the beasts and a power to be reckoned with.”

Her back straightened and she covered my hand with hers. “Thank you.”

A knock came at the door and we turned. I stepped back, allowing Belladonna to take the lead.

“Enter,” she called out, sounding every inch the princess she was. Barefoot and wearing material meant to demean her, she swayed forward as the door opened. A tall gangly boy who couldn’t have been out of his teen years, and looked to be a younger version of Dolph, goggled at her.

“Spit it out, boy.” She snapped her fingers and I fought not to smile. Maybe Father was right to have sent her after all. Then I remembered he might be trying to bump us both off. I had no way of telling Ash how poor things were going.

“The dinner is ready.” He gave her a bow, which also gave him a chance to check out her bare legs. I reached out and put a hand on Bella’s shoulder.

“We need to send a message to your father.”

She frowned at me. “Boy, how do we do that?”

He swallowed hard. “You could send a seabird. Would you like me to get you one?”

“Yes, immediately.” Belladonna snapped her fingers at him a second time.

He backed out, closing the doors behind him.

“That was good thinking, Lark.”

The boy, Urchin by his stuttering introduction the second time around, didn’t take long. He thrust a piece of paper at us, a seagull tucked under his wing. “He’ll take the message right to the Rim.”

Belladonna took a piece of paper and I all but snatched it from her. “I need something to write with.” She frowned at me, but blessedly didn’t argue.

We searched the room; there wasn’t a single pencil or quill. I should get into the habit of always carrying a bag with the bare necessities. Parchment, a quill, small things that could be useful even if my weapons were taken away.

“Here,” Belladonna handed me a hunk of kohl we’d used around her eyes that was smooth on one end. “This should work.”