Chapter 7

He saw Kyri.

She was looking down at him the way a doctor looks at a patient for whom he has no affection but whose health is a matter of mild concern.

She didn’t act as if getting up was an issue, so he closed his eyes and didn’t bother. He felt as if he slept for a few minutes, but Kyri was still sitting beside him when he looked up again. She helped him when he tried to sit.

They were in the temple, and he was propped up against the bottom of the serpent statue. Save Pegasus and Unicorn, who were in their small limbless forms sleeping nearby, there was no one else around. The clouds of blood in the water had thinned out to near-invisibility, save what was still dripping from the pathway. The air was cold and still.

"…What happened?" he asked quietly.

"I tried to heal you after Unicorn got you out of the water," Kyri began. "Tsuna almost attacked the two of us, but she got hit in the face with a rock…."

Aikel blinked. "W… a rock?"

"One of Gelrini’s rocks. Pegasus was able to stomp all over Tsuna, and it really turned the battle. With Gelrini and Himeki’s help, the others were able to keep her busy while I finished healing you. She attacked again and you hit her."

He couldn’t remember hitting her, but he limited his question to, "And then what?"

"Nothing really. You slit her throat. That was it. Once the magic was broken, I was able to heal her enough that her wounds weren’t fatal. She’s underwater right now, recovering…. She asked me a few questions…. She recognized Saraelye’s name, but she kept looking at our orbs like she was confused. She looked even more confused when I said Saraelye was at Nalya, not… wherever she had assumed she was. It was a long weird name…."

Kyri gave wry smile. "She told me to tell Saraelye that she was going to try to visit, and that Saraelye had better be prepare to explain how she ‘bent those magical rules.’ I don’t know what she was talking about, but…." Another wry smile. "She said the first thing she would do when she was better would be to scrub this whole place. I figure that’s quite a task, but I’m sure she’s most worried about the floor. That sorceress wasn’t the first foolish mermaid whose blood was spilled here…."

"Is she alright? And Gyozoki’s mother?" Aikel asked anxiously.

"They’re both fine physically—Gyozoki’s mother wasn’t hurt at all—but they seem a little traumatized…. I’m sure they’ll be alright though."

Aikel sighed. "Where are the others?"

"Outside, in the city," said Kyri. She drew her legs near her and wrapped her arms around them. "I figured you shouldn’t be moved into the water until you woke up—on your own that is. Himeki and Gelrini were in some kind of ‘I told you so’ battle that no doubt would have helped you if I hadn’t told them to leave. I had Yousei go with to baby-sit them. Speaking of which, are you okay yet, so I can go back to worrying about Yousei?"

Startled, Aikel asked, "What’s wrong with Yousei?"

"I don’t know. That’s why I’m worrying." Upon Aikel’s blank look, Kyri said, "Haven’t you noticed that she’s been acting differently? She’s got a loud voice that she’s not afraid to use, but she hasn’t said anything unnecessary since we got down here. When she had to speak, she spoke so quietly."

"Oh…. You’re right…. Maybe being so far underwater just bugs her more than the rest of us…."

"I hope so, because then she’ll go back to normal when we get back to dry land…."

"You don’t seem hopeful…."

"I feel like that isn’t the problem…."

"Then what do you think it is?"

Kyri’s mouth moved as if she were about to speak something that started with an L, but she just shook her head, said, "Let’s go…" and got up. She handed Aikel the fist-sized blue orb that had come so close to causing more deaths that day. It shrunk and split in half while both their hands touched it. Aikel fit his half into its medallion and after they picked up Pegasus and Unicorn, followed Kyri to the entrance. Gyozoki waited with the medicinal things they needed to breathe underwater, but the Sea Orb erupted into a glow, and they didn’t need it.

There was a crowd of merfolk in the temple courtyard. As Aikel looked over them, a wave of red spread across his face, and he quickly turned around in search of something else to look at. The source of his embarrassment didn’t have any interest in him anyway. The jewel-adorned mermaid waved away the small crowd of hysterical sorceresses surrounding her and swam up to Kyri. Her long gold hair glittered in the piskari light.

She didn’t seem to feel a need for clothing; she wore only chains of gold, jewels, and beautiful shells draped over her head and shoulders. Aikel dared to turn his head back far enough to glance at Kyri. Judging by her face, she had met this mermaid—the princess, he later learned—while he was unconscious.

Before speaking, the mermaid spent a few seconds observing the half of the Sea Orb that hung from Kyri’s chains. She said, "You can understand me?"

"Yes," said Kyri. She fumbled over the end of the word, wondering if she should add "your majesty," or something. The Sea Orb’s faint light pulsed in time with every syllable either of them spoke.

"My mother was right about you, I suppose, when she said you were different—more important—than the other land-dwellers that have stumbled into our world…." She gave Kyri a chance to comment, but when the girl only waited for her to continue, she asked, "Are you finished here?"

"Yes," Kyri answered. "We’ll leave."

The princess’s unemotional face flickered but did so too fast to read. "How?"

"I don’t know yet."

"Where are you going?"

"To… the Southern Continent."

"There are no continents south of here, nor one that is particularly more southward than the others, and we don’t learn the geographical names used by your kind." She waved to another woman nearby, who hurried to hand her a rough beige-colored ball about six inches in diameter. The princess tapped the dot on the top of the ball and said, "This is north. Show me your Southern Continent."

Kyri took the ball. It was made of marble or something similar. It was rough and uneven because its surface simulated that of the water-covered portions of the planet in impressive detail. Kyri identified a deep spot near the equator as their current location and look for something shaped like the landmass she’d always seen on paper maps. The shorelines on the globe were shaped with perfection, but the land was smooth and flat, as mermaids didn’t care about dry mountains. Kyri pointed at the shape that looked like the Southern Continent and wanted to ask Aikel for confirmation, but he looked like he would rather die than end the staring contest he was having with his feet.

"That’s it," Kyri informed the princess.

Considering the globe, the princess said, "Good. We’ll take you there on mareques."

"Oh! Th… thank you!" Kyri stuttered. She bowed low.

As the princess left to arrange the transport, Himeki left Gyozoki’s mother and approached Kyri. "They can understand you, can’t they? Can you tell her something for me?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Tell her to make sure Venali doesn’t get in trouble for helping me…. And… tell her to tell Venali I said ‘Thanks.’"

Kyri had barely enough time to make sure Gyozoki’s mother understood the message before the princess’s attendants herded her and her companions to the nearest stable.

"Oh, they’re so rude, aren’t they?" Himeki said to Kyri with the voice tone that she would have used to compliment their amenity. She looked around to make sure none of the mermaids could suddenly understand her before she said, "Shoving us off like this after we saved the life of two women…."

"Well, the princess herself is coming with us to see us off personally…" Kyri said more quietly.

"Only to make sure we don’t come back. Humans are more hospitable than this, right? If we were among elves, the least we would get is a couple people putting in to pay our inn fare. If we were in Alfheimana, and we’d done something significant enough to attract the attention of royalty, we’d probably get to stay in the castle for a night."

"Wow, if I go to Alfheimana again, I’ll have go out of my way to be nice…."

"Ah, you wouldn’t need to really." Himeki winked.

They were given instructions on how to use the seahorses in far less detail than they would’ve liked. When mermaids used seahorses, they provided the swimming power of their own tails, which reduced the effort needed to keep hold on a seahorse’s straps. But since these land-dwellers could hardly swim, and their hands were covered in soft flesh instead of scales, the trip required many rest stops. The princess, the four huntresses, and the male meryouth who came along as a servant could have crossed the distance within a day, but it now required three.

"I never want to eat another fish for the rest of my life," Himeki told the others right after she’d swallowed a piece of fish.

"I don’t blame you," said Kyri. As on most of the rest stops, they were sitting on the sand together, rather segregated from the merfolk. Aikel sunk to covering his eyes whenever possible. Yousei drew aimless swirl patterns in the sand with her finger. This inspired Gelrini, who drew more tangible pictures of stick-figure centaurs and lopsided houses in the same way.

Eventually, the princess gave a signal to start ascending. While the slope didn’t seem like much, the eventually approached the surface. Once their heads cleared the top, land was not far away.

"You’ll have to swim the rest of the way by yourselves," the princess told them.

"That’s fine," Kyri said. "Thank you." The princess dived, and it was a matter of seconds before she and her companions were out-of-sight.

They made their way toward land slowly, more floating than swimming. When they reached the beach, Aikel fell over into the sand, curled up, and looked every bit asleep. Yousei did the same, and Himeki seemed to be fighting the urge.

"I’m too hungry to be sleepy," Gelrini mumbled. "I hate fish food."

Kyri started to respond, but she was cut off by a ground-shaking trumpet. She turned toward the nearby line of trees that formed the edge of the forest. Gelrini wailed as a dark shape shot from the trees and into the air. The others stirred at the sound, then scattered as the shape plummeted downward. It’s massive form smashed into the sand as a mountain of gray-green scales and crumpled reptilian wings; its long thick tail thrashed at the waves. The spear that was stuck into the creature’s leg snapped in half.

"Wyvern!" Pegasus growled. It was rolling about in agony, tossing its shredded wings, and concentrating on something hidden between the sand and its body. Sparkles whirled around it, like bright pieces of glitter on the wind.

"Hah!" Yousei lunged and stabbed at its neck. It trumpeted again and reared up enough to allow view of a blood-drenched human-shaped form trapped beneath its talon. Yousei jumped away from its snapping jaws and raised her spear. "Fae-ju-wa!" Her hand glowed, and when she swung her spear forward, the glow was flung from the weapon as a beam of light. The beam collided with the wyvern’s chest and replenished the fading swirls of glitter.

The bloody prey quickly saw his chance to crawl away as the wyvern staggered back. The beast saw his movement and moved to recapture him, but a lasso of white rope looped around its muzzle.

"Kiruah!" he yelled to the faery that held the other end of the rope. He yelled at Aikel to stay back when he saw him drawing his sword. He lunged for Yousei. She tossed her spear at him and jumped away. The other faery fought with the wyvern until she pulled its head back, and the man threw Yousei’s spear at its throat. With a final dying roar, the creature fell over backward, choked up a glob of dark blood, and lay still.

Kyri ran up to the man and kneeled by him the moment it was safe to do so. Within a few moments, his mangled fleshed was sealed up, and when the other faery landed on the ground beside him, he asked her, "What happened to the others?"

"I… don’t know. I lost them."

"Don’t lose them again."

"Shall I go look for them?"

"Not yet, but do a berroukah."

"Roki?" Kyri asked as the other faery took flight. With all the blood, she hadn’t recognized him before.

He made eye contact with her for the first time and said, "Thanks."

"I couldn’t fix your wings, or…." She touched one of his antennae, which was broken in the middle and dangling down in his face. The unrecognizable shreds that had been his wings extended only a few inches out of his back.

"Don’t worry about it," Roki said. He wave her hand away and batted his wounded antenna in the process. It broke completely off and landed in the sand.

The other faery had flown up and used her magic to glow brightly enough to be seen from some distance. Over the next few minutes, a total of four more faeries arrived, and Kyri felt obligated to heal them as much as possible. Apparently, there were two faeries missing. Two of those accounted for were sent to look for them, but they were to return if the others weren’t found within five minutes. The other three got to work burning the wyvern’s corpse after Yousei had retrieved her spear.

"Queen Saraelye is worried about you," Roki said to Kyri. "You’re coming back with us."

Kyri nodded. "We’re tired and wet though. Won’t we slow you down?" Roki only looked over his shoulder at his wings. "Good point…" Kyri admitted. "Just give us a few minutes to rest."

"I need it too…" Roki said, but he lowered his voice considerably. "When you get back to Nalya, get all the rest you’re capable of while you have the chance…." As the two faeries he’d sent off returned without their comrades, he straightened up and addressed his squad with his normal commanding voice. "You have two minutes, then we’re back to Nalya on foot. Be ready to look for Yeclo and Zaika on the way back."

"No fly-aheads?" one of the faeries asked.

Roki seemed to notice Gelrini and Himeki for the first time. "Are they coming with us?"

"Y-yes…" Kyri said uneasily, worried he’d object.

"Have someone get ready for all of them," Roki told the inquiring faery, "and Yeclo and Zaika will probably need medical attention. Koli too, if they have room." The faery named Koli had two broken antennae and a single large rip in one wing.

"And you?"

"Whatever."

The faery seemed to take it as a "Yes." She used her magic to shrink her body size and flew off towards the forest.

"‘If they have room…’" Kyri heard Himeki mumble.

Roki sighed. As soon as two minutes had passed, he wasted no time in standing up and herding everyone in the direction of Nalya.

"Walk quietly," he ordered. "It’s time to get used to sneaking around in shadows since there won’t be anywhere else to walk soon."