Seaborne (25 page)
Authors: Katherine Irons
Tags: #Romance, #Paranormal, #Fantasy, #Chick-Lit, #Mythology
Morgan could hear the pain in the boy’s voice, but he was right. Wounded or not, the lad would have to remain on his feet and keep moving. It would be impossible to tend his wound or even carry Marcos through the narrow stone corridor. They had to reach the other end ahead of their pursuers or they’d all die on the sword points of Knut’s men.
“Not far now,” the queen called back. But a few yards later, she stopped. “There’s a rock fall. The passage is completely blocked. We’ll have to back up.”
“And then what?” Alex asked. “Wait in that storeroom like fish in a barrel?”
“Fish in a barrel?” Their mother laughed, and Morgan wondered if she’d become hysterical. Not that she ever had in his memory, but nothing like this had ever come to pass before, either. “Go back,” she said. “It’s the only way.”
In the king’s bedchamber in the royal palace of Atlantis, Halimeda became aware of a strange sensation. The room had begun to spin and undulate.
“What’s wrong?” Poseidon asked, peering into her face. “You look pale.”
“Nothing, I—” She gasped as a sharp pain seized her lower abdomen.
She looked down at her golden bowl. It seemed as if the container had transformed to a real ship and was pitching up and down. The pain in her belly intensified. “I’m ill. I …”
“What’s wrong, wife?” Poseidon smiled down at her. “Something you ate didn’t agree with you?”
“You … you …” Moaning, she clutched her middle, staggered up, and tried to run. He caught her before she’s gone an arm’s length, turned her towards him, and held her fast, his strong fingers digging into her shoulders.
“Do you like the soup, wife? You should. It’s of your own making.”
Bile rose in her throat. She choked and blood spattered her hand and the front of her robe. “No. No,” she protested. “I did nothing.”
“Nothing?” He shoved her and she fell to her knees.
He came to stand over her, his face a pitiless mask. “What’s wrong, witch? Don’t like the taste of your own brew?”
“Poseidon, please …” She screamed as the pain rose, rolling through her, gnawing her bones with sharp teeth. “Mercy,” she begged. “Mercy! I’m innocent.”
“Hades take you, you traitorous bitch. Do you think me such a fool that I could be tricked so easily? I switched the bowls. The dish you planned for me is your reward.”
“Back the way we came,” Queen Korinna insisted. “At that last turn, there’s a hole in the roof. You can climb up on Alex’s shoulders and pull us up, one by one.”
“You might have mentioned that when we passed it,” Morwena said.
“I didn’t remember. The last time I came through here, as a child, none of us were tall enough to reach the ceiling, let along strong enough to lift someone else.”
“And you’re certain that’s the spot?” Alex asked. “We’ve come a long way along this tunnel and—”
“I’m sure,” Korinna said. “There’s a trident carved into the wall. Not much higher than your waist, but my fingers brushed against it as we passed it.”
It was Morgan’s turn to lead them, and when they found the trident exactly where their mother had said it would be, he also discovered crude footholds carved into the rock. It was a simple matter to climb up to a larger passageway above. Alex came next, and Morwena was able to help Marcos. The boy was clearly failing in strength, but he made no outcry as they hoisted him up. In minutes, they stood in an ancient hallway, dimly lit by glowing shells set into the walls.
“Which way?” Alex asked, picking up Marcos. The boy offered a token protest, but it was clear that he couldn’t have traveled much farther on his own.
The queen reached for Morgan’s hand. “You haven’t told me where your brother is? Where’s Orion?” She squeezed his hand. “The truth. Tell me that he isn’t dead too.”
“No,” Alex said. “Not dead. They gave him too heavy a dose of the sleeping drug when he was locked away. We sent him with friends to the temple. Lady Athena will restore him.”
“You can’t know that he’s alive,” Morwena said. “If someone murdered our father, they could as well murder him.”
Alex shook his head. “Orion’s not so easy to kill. In the temple, he’d be safe from attack.”
“I wish I could believe that,” Korinna said. “But I never thought that I’d see Poseidon murdered.”
“Orion is alive and well,” Alex said stubbornly. “You know the link we share. I feel his strength returning. He’s well, don’t worry your heart on his account.”
“And Father? You had no inkling of his death?” Morgan asked.
“No, I didn’t. I sense a bitter blackness, nothing more.”
Morgan looked from Alex to Korinna. “Tell us which way to go, Mother.”
“Left,” Korinna said. “Take the first flight of stairs, then right at the top. You’ll see a doorway ahead, at the end of the hall.”
“What is it?” Morgan asked. “We haven’t reached the dolphin stables yet, and I don’t think we’re close enough to the surface.”
“Weapons storage,” Morwena said. “I’ve been here before, but not through the tunnel from the garden. The tridents and swords are the old design, but they’re fashioned of some strange metal. They never rust. And there are arrows aplenty.”
“But not bowstrings, I’ll wager,” Marcos put in.
“No. No bowstrings that I remember. Luckily, I brought my bow with me,” Morwena declared triumphantly. “And the weapons cache opens directly to the sea. We can escape that way, if we want.”
“We can’t leave the palace with Lucas and little Danu still prisoners,” Korinna said. “But if they reached the treasure room, they’ll be safe. No one can break through those walls.”
“We’re not leaving them,” Morgan said. “I’m still not certain that Damasko betrayed you. I don’t know if there were traitors among your servants, but according to my count, there can be no more than seven of the elite guard still able to fight.”
“Once we have the three of you in a safe place, we’ll retake the palace and rescue the others,” Alex said. “You can count on it.”
“The two of them,” Morwena said. “I fought beside you, brothers, and I know I killed at least two guardsmen. You can’t deny me the opportunity to help you save the children.”
“Oh, but we can,” Morgan said. “It will be your mission to protect Marcos and your mother.”
“But I—”
“You heard the crown prince,” Alex said. “If Poseidon is dead, he’ll be our next king. You have to obey him.”
“Not when he gives stupid orders,” she protested.
“You’ll find it’s a habit of kings,” Korinna said.
The light was dim in the hallway, but he could see the strain on her face. She would truly mourn his father. For all his faults, he’d been a great king and a good father. There was no time now to think of what Atlantis might be without him.
Later, he promised himself. There was Halimeda and her son to deal with and a rebellion to put down. He couldn’t imagine that anyone on the High Council would believe that he or the twins or Queen Korinna would be guilty of murdering Poseidon. He hoped they wouldn’t. More important right now was getting those who depended on him to sanctuary, doing what must be done, and getting to Claire.
What if she’d been with him here during the attack by soldiers? Could he have protected her? He’d failed to protect Marcos. The thought that he could bring Claire to Atlantis as his wife and still lose her turned his blood cold. He would have given half his lifetime to hold her in his arms at this moment, but it was impossible.
Wait for me a little longer
, he vowed silently.
Wait for me, my love. I’ll come for you—though Melqart and all his legions bar my way.
, he vowed silently.
Wait for me, my love. I’ll come for you—though Melqart and all his legions bar my way.
CHAPTER 25
H
e’s not coming back
, Claire thought, as she looked out over the railing of her bedroom balcony at the sea. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining; the temperature hung in the low seventies, and she’d dined on freshly ripe cantaloupe and blueberries, a chocolate croissant, and a lovely Earl Gray tea. She should have been happy, but she didn’t know how to end this longing for something she couldn’t have … something she might never have actually had.
e’s not coming back
, Claire thought, as she looked out over the railing of her bedroom balcony at the sea. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining; the temperature hung in the low seventies, and she’d dined on freshly ripe cantaloupe and blueberries, a chocolate croissant, and a lovely Earl Gray tea. She should have been happy, but she didn’t know how to end this longing for something she couldn’t have … something she might never have actually had.
She was trying not to mope, attempting to keep busy, to make plans. But the sadness remained. As the days and nights had passed since her last dream of Morgan, she’d tossed all her pain medication away. The suspicion that it had been drugs that had conjured him and his watery world lingered at the back of her mind. She still lived with the pain, and she slept poorly, but she managed.
She tried to fill the hours of each waking moment with something positive. She exercised harder, paid close attention to her diet, and did something she hadn’t done in a long time. She’d taken out her makeup case and began wearing eye shadow, mascara, and lipstick again. The woman who looked back at her in the mirror was still confined to a wheelchair, but she looked younger and more interesting. She looked like someone that she would like to know better. “I’m not dead yet,” she’d said aloud. “And I won’t look like it anymore if I can help it.” Maybe she’d even do something different with her hair, add highlights, get a new cut.
No more poor me
, she thought. No more self-pity, and no more anger. What was done was done, and the world was tough. As Jackie often said, “No matter how bad things get, you can always find somebody worse off. You’ve got to be happy with what you do have.”
, she thought. No more self-pity, and no more anger. What was done was done, and the world was tough. As Jackie often said, “No matter how bad things get, you can always find somebody worse off. You’ve got to be happy with what you do have.”
Jackie would be pleased when it came time to pay college tuition for her children or to make her next mortgage payment. One of the things Claire had done yesterday was to pay off Jackie’s home mortgage, and provide funds to send Jackie’s children to college and grad school, all anonymously, of course. She’d also doubled Mrs. Godwin’s salary and plumped up her retirement account.
Billy Anne had phoned yesterday, overjoyed with the donation to Mustang Haven. They’d discussed ideas for improving the program, and Billy Anne had invited her to come out for an indefinite stay to see the ranch firsthand. It was what Claire had hoped for, and she was thrilled, or she would have been if she wasn’t so worried about Morgan.
More than just missing him, she’d awakened in the night with the feeling that she’d heard him call out to her … that something was wrong—that he was in mortal danger. By the light of day, she could try to discount her fear for him, but it remained, shadowing her hopefulness. She might go down to the beach later, but for now, she was content to sit here, staring out at the green grass and the blue sea in the distance. “Be safe,” she murmured. “Wherever you are, be safe.”
Danu was angry. She didn’t like the bad men who’d come into the garden and frightened Lady Freya or Gita, and she didn’t want Lucas to take her away from her new daddy. Lucas said it was just a game, but it didn’t seem like a nice game to her. Men with swords had taken them to the servants’ quarters and locked them in a storeroom. There was no food here, but Danu didn’t want to eat anyway.
She missed her dolphin Echo. When the bad men had come into the garden, Echo had swum away so fast that they hadn’t been able to stop her. Danu didn’t know where she was or when she would come back. She wanted Echo. She wanted Queenie and Morwena, and she wanted her daddy.
She and Lucas, Lady Freya, and Gita stayed in the room for a long time. Danu didn’t know how long, but she had slept and awakened and slept again. Now she was awake, and everyone else was sleeping. There were no beds and the stone floor was hard against her bottom. She missed her lovely shell bed with the colored icicles and the music. She wondered if the orange and blue fish missed her.
Danu kept quiet. She was good at staying quiet when people were sleeping, but she was hungry again. She was searching the room when she heard a familiar whistle. When she looked up, she saw Echo’s head on the other side of the window.
“Echo!” she cried, but not too loudly, because Lady Freya could be cross when people were naughty. In a flash, she was at the window and reaching through the bars to stroke Echo’s skin. The dolphin had missed her too. Danu could tell because she made lots of little clicking sounds and rubbed Danu’s hand with her long nose.
“Where did you go?” she demanded. The dolphin made a noise that sounded like a chirp and banged at the window with her nose. “Do you want to come in?” Danu whispered. “I don’t think you could fit through this window, even if the bars weren’t there. It’s a very little window.”
Echo wiggled and snorted.
“I wish I knew what you were saying,” Danu said. How old did she have to be to learn dolphin talk? Morwena had promised that she would when she was older. But Danu had an idea. Lucas was big. He was eleven. Maybe he would know what Echo wanted. Danu swam back and shook him. “Lucas, wake up,” she whispered in his ear.
He blinked his eyes and sat up. For a moment, Danu thought he was going to be angry with her, because you could never tell about boys. But when she pointed at Echo, he nodded and went to the window.
When Echo saw him, she made a lot of excited whistles and squeaks, and to Danu’s surprise, Lucas made noises that sounded just like Echo’s. “She wants you to come out,” he said. “There are enemies in the palace. People who want to hurt us.”
Danu sighed. “We know that.”
“Echo says they are Lady Halimeda’s soldiers. She wants Mother dead so she can be queen.”
“Oh. I don’t like her.”
“Lucas frowned. “No one does but the king. And maybe Prince Caddoc.”
“Why do they like her?”
“Caddoc is her son, and the king …” Lucas trailed off. “I’ll explain when you’re older. But Echo needs your help now. She’s saying something about a lock, but she’s so excited it’s hard to understand it all. Wait, Echo,” he said. “Slow down. Tell me again.” Lucas stroked her beak and the two exchanged a few more whistles and clicks.
Lucas glanced back, and he looked scared, maybe even like he was going to cry, and that scared Danu too. “The soldiers killed two of mother’s fighting dolphins with spears when they tried to help Damasko,” Lucas said. “Echo says Lady Halimeda’s men drove the palace dolphins into the stable and locked them in. She thinks they want to kill all of them, the Atlanteans and the dolphins.”
“But why? Our dolphins are good, aren’t they?” Dolphins had big mouths and a giant row of teeth, but she hadn’t seen them bite anything bigger than a squid. “Why do they want to hurt the dolphins?”
“Because they aren’t wild dolphins. They’re our dolphins, and they will remain loyal.” Lucas bit his bottom lip. “Do you know what loyal means, Danu? With our dolphins it means they are bonded to us, like Echo is to you. They will care for you, fight for you, remain faithful, even if it means their own death. Once a dolphin is pledged to a person, they stay with them all their life.”
“But the bad men wouldn’t hurt the mother dolphins or the calves, would they?”
“All of them. Dolphins know what people are thinking,” Lucas explained. “They can read minds. Echo says if we don’t stop them, the bad soldiers won’t leave a single dolphin alive so there’s no one to tell what they did to us.”
“I thought Damasko was bad too.”
“He was pretending. Do you know what pretending is?”
“ ’Course, I do,” she replied, small hands on her hips.
“Mother’s loyal guard, Damasko’s men, and most of the servants are in the dungeon. But Echo saw the bad soldiers throwing bodies to the sharks.”
“Can’t our dolphins swim away?”
“By Zeus’s great toe! You’re such a baby, Danu. I told you that the stables are locked. There’s a key. Echo needs you to unlock the gate. Then she and the other dolphins can rescue Damasko’s soldiers.”
“I’m not a baby! Why can Echo let the good men out but not the dolphins? Why does she need me?”
“Dolphins can’t do keys,” Lucas explained. “Keys are too small for them to hold. There’s just a bar on the dungeon door. If the dolphins can get past the soldiers, they can open the door. We can’t waste time, Danu. The window’s too small for me to fit through. Will you do it? You have to be very brave.”
“I am brave,” she proclaimed, spreading her arms wide. “I didn’t cry when the bad men scared us. Lady Freya did.”
“All right. Stand back. Echo’s going to push the bars and the window casing into the room, then you can squeeze through.”
With a pop and a clatter, Echo knocked the window in. Danu swam through the opening and the dolphin wiggled and squeaked.
“I think she wants me to hold on to her harness,” Danu said to Lucas. “Maybe I’m starting to learn dolphin talk already.”
“What are you doing?” Lady Freya sat up. “Danu, come back here.”
Danu pretended she didn’t hear her.
Lucas did too. He was busy propping the window casing back in the hole. Before Lady Freya could say anything else, Echo started swimming, and Danu had to hold on tight to the harness handles. Echo swam fast. It was usually fun, but today was too scary to be fun. Danu didn’t want any of the dolphins or people to be hurt, especially Morwena, Queenie, or her daddy.
When they reached the entrance to the stables, Danu didn’t see anyone around at all. Echo nosed open a hatchway, swam inside, and followed the hall to the big gate. Sure enough, it was locked. Danu could hear clicks and whistles from the far side. The dolphins sounded scared. Echo clicked and chattered, and the noise stopped.
The silver key was hanging on a loop of braided seaweed. It was easy for Danu to pull the key off the hook, but when she tried to fit the key in the hole a man shouted.
“What do you think you’re doing, brat?”
Danu was so startled that she let go of Echo’s harness and slipped off her back. Echo’s high-pitched whistle hurt Danu’s ears, but that wasn’t as bad at the man coming after her with a long, pointed trident. Clutching the key, Danu swam as fast as she could under Echo.
The dolphin gave a cry of pain, and a stream of something red dirtied the water. Echo made a sound that Danu had never heard before and zoomed over the man’s head.
“Don’t leave me!” Danu cried. Terrified, she did a flip and dove into a rack of dolphin harnesses. She wiggled through a small opening and out the other side, but the man swam around the rack and jabbed his trident at her.
“Echo!” she cried. “Help me!”
He said a bad word and tried to stab her again, but she dodged the sharp points and darted back through the hole. The man was coming. The dolphins were whistling and banging into the far side of the gate. She wanted to try to unlock it and let them out, but there was no time, and there were no more places to hide. The bad soldier was between her and the hallway to the ocean.
Danu screamed as the man closed in on her.
Then there was a wave of white water and Echo came swimming fast and butted the man. He grunted, dropped the trident, and tumbled head over feet. Echo opened her mouth wide and made a hissing sound in her throat. Snap. Snap. She closed her teeth on his leg, and Danu heard an awful crunch.
The man squealed and tried to get away, but Echo grabbed his arm and crunched that. Danu pushed the key in the hole and turned it. The gate opened and angry dolphins came flooding out.
Echo turned and nosed Danu. She grabbed hold of Echo’s harness, and Echo swam down the hallway and out into the water. The dolphins came after them, bulls, cows, and calves, but the man didn’t follow. Another dolphin bumped against Echo, and she made a hurt sound and shivered.
“Oh,” Danu said. “You’re hurt.” There were three bloody holes in Echo’s side where the soldier had stabbed her with his trident. “Poor Echo,” she crooned.
Some of the mother dolphins and all of the babies swam with them to a seaweed jungle not far from the palace. Echo thought they would be safe there. Danu was happy that she had gotten the gate unlocked and helped the dolphins escape, but she was worried about the others. What if the bad men had come to hurt Lucas? She was afraid, but not as afraid as she had been because Echo was with her. “Will my daddy come soon?” she asked Echo, but the only answer she got was a worried whistle.
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