“Ready?” Jileana asked him. Dremu nodded, and with a deep breath, he followed them as they dived down toward the portal. As they rounded the shelf of coral that led to it, they stumbled right into a cadre of selkie males.
Unarmed and off guard, Jaykun was swarmed by them until they had him seized and helpless. Though he struggled and fought with everything he had, he was sorely outnumbered. More selkie males seized Jileana. Then the sea of selkies parted and exposed Barban, who approached them. Poor Dremu had been captured as well, but unlike Jaykun, he had never been given the gift of being able to breathe underwater. He had not wanted it or needed it before this. So he quickly began to look like he was in distress.
“Barban! Please! He will drown!” Jileana cried.
“Then he should not be here amongst creatures who live and breathe in the waters.”
Barban jerked his head and the selkie holding Dremu dragged him through the portal and swam him up to the surface. Jileana nearly melted with relief. But that did not change her situation with Jaykun and she didn’t know what Barban’s endgame was.
“All the trouble in this world began when you arrived,” Barban sneered at Jaykun. “Well, I am going to put a permanent end to your influence over the sickly empress.”
“If she were so sickly, you would not be so scared,” Jaykun shot at him.
Barban came up to Jaykun and punched him hard across the face, the blow snapping his head back.
“What are you going to do?” Jaykun demanded of him. “I am already leaving. What more could you ask for?”
“To make certain of it,” Barban said. “And to make certain you do not take my wife with you.”
“I will never be your wife!” Jileana spat at him. “The empress has said it is my choice!”
“Well, that is only one of the things that will change once Jalaya is deposed and my father is raised up in her place.” He turned to his men. “Take him through the portal.”
Jaykun struggled the entire way as they swam him through the portal and into the much colder water on its other side. Jaykun fought to free himself as he watched Barban swim up to Jileana and touch a possessive caress down her face and around her throat until her neck was encircled by his hand. He whispered something to her that Jaykun could not hear, but the revulsion that crossed her features told him everything he needed to know about the remark. He redoubled his efforts to free himself as Barban turned to his men and said, “Tear it down.”
That was when he realized what they were about to do. Helplessly he watched as the men on the other side of the portal began to smash at the coral around the portal. They were going to destroy it with Jaykun on one side and Jileana on the other. With Jileana under the power of that selfish, evil bastard. Jaykun fought to free himself and fought valiantly. He cracked his head into the head of the nearest man, then bit the man on his left. He was making headway, but not fast enough.
In an explosive fall of coral and rock, the portal between his world and Jileana’s was destroyed.
The minute the portal was demolished the selkies who had held him let him go. He swam to the surface, gasping for breath—not because he needed it but because he felt as if he were drowning suddenly. As if the spell Jileana’s mother had cast had suddenly worn off. But he knew that wasn’t it. The spell was intact. So why then did he feel as if he were suffocating?
He swam for the beach, then dragged himself out of the water and onto the sand beside where Dremu lay gasping and shaking with fear. The selkie males had turned into seals and disappeared amongst the seal population sitting along the jetty.
Jaykun pulled himself to his feet and the world spun around him. His heart hurt in his chest and panic infused his every cell. Jileana was in trouble! She was under the power of that bastard Barban! And now…now he had no way to get to her. By the time he found another portal, it would be far too late.
What could he do?
He began to run toward the city of Kriza.
Garreth and Dethan were sitting before the fire with drinks in their hands when Jaykun exploded into the common area of the castle. Shocked, the brothers lurched to their feet.
“Jaykun! Where in the eight hells have you been?” Dethan ejected harshly.
“I have no time to explain!” Jaykun said, pushing past his brothers.
“You will explain!” Dethan demanded as he grabbed his brother’s arm and stopped his progress. “Do you know what we have had to deal with in your absence?”
“It could not be helped!” Jaykun said. “I am sorry I was gone so long, I truly am, but there was nothing I could do about it! I was trapped where I was until tonight.”
“Trapped! You mean you were held prisoner?”
“No! Look, I do not have time to explain!”
“You will make time!” Dethan thundered.
Jaykun could see his brothers would not be satisfied, and yet he could not bear to waste a single moment of time. He rapidly explained what had happened. Everything he could fit into the shortest amount of time possible, including what had just happened to separate him from Jileana.
“So, what will you do now?” Garreth asked as they followed their brother into his rooms. Jaykun was still naked. Before he could do what he was thinking of doing, he needed to put on some clothes.
He dressed quickly as he answered his brother’s question. “I intend to take a ship into the maelstrom and find the selkie island.”
“But you can’t! You just told us that it’s impossible to reach the island through the storms,” Dethan said.
“I will find a way through!”
“Why?” Garreth demanded of him. “You were going to leave it all behind anyway. It is no longer your concern. What did you think was going to happen when you left? That everything would remain the way you left it and there would be no more troubles? They have to sort these things out for themselves. There is nothing you can do about it!”
“I will not leave Jileana in the hands of that bastard Barban!”
“Let her brother and father manage the problem. It is not up to you. You’ll destroy a perfectly good ship in a folly that won’t do you any good,” Dethan said.
Jaykun pulled on his boots in tight silence, refusing to argue with his brothers any longer. They couldn’t understand. He couldn’t make them understand. He did not know how. He simply couldn’t leave her like that. He couldn’t turn his back on her and leave her like that. Panic and pain swamped him, threatened to overwhelm him. He couldn’t bear the idea of what Barban might do to her. He had to hurry. He had to go!
He flew out of his room, his brothers hot on his heels.
“Tonkin!” he bellowed through the hall as he headed for the room the page had been staying in when Jaykun had left three weeks ago. Tonkin appeared in his doorway just as Jaykun reached it. “Tonkin! I need a ship ready to leave within a few minutes and a captain brave enough to pilot her into the storms. Do you think you can find me one?”
“I know I can, Sor Jaykun.”
“Then do it! I’ll meet you at the docks.”
“Yes, sor. Right away.” Tonkin didn’t even bother to dress. He hurried away in just his breeches and bare feet.
“You’ll risk the lives of others in a foolish attempt to reach the selkie island?” Dethan demanded.
“I won’t risk anything,” Jaykun said as he turned and headed out of the castle. “And yet I’d risk everything for her.”
“Why?” Garreth asked.
“Because…” Jaykun came to a stop as he weighed the answer to that question.
Why? Why was he so determined to go back to the place he was just about to leave anyway? His brothers were right. What had he thought was going to happen after he left Jileana behind? That she would be safe without him no matter what?
Good gods, what had he been thinking? What had he been thinking, wanting to let her go where he could not protect her? Wanting to let her go at all.
He’d been an idiot. A fool. A fool afraid of his own feelings. Afr
aid to admit that…
“I love her,” he said softly.
That made Dethan and Garreth look at each other with worry.
“You love her?” Garreth echoed.
“Yes. I love her. More than words can say. Damn, I was a fool to think otherwise! Just because Casiria…”
“Casiria?” Dethan said.
“Casiria betrayed me. Because she did, I could not trust myself to feel anything for anyone other than the two of you. I thought…I thought love was an illusion…even though I could see the strength of it in the two of you—with your wives—I thought it was safer to deny it even existed rather than trust myself to get it right this time.”
“I thought you loved Casiria,” Garreth said with confusion.
“I did. I loved her up until she betrayed me…and even beyond. I think that was what hurt so much. She betrayed me and yet I knew I still loved her. Faithless as she was. Damn her to the eight hells. And to think I almost let her ruin my one true chance at something real, something ten thousand times more powerful and special than anything I ever had with her.”
“So because you love Jileana you are willing to go on this fool’s quest?” Dethan said.
“Would you do anything less for your wives?” Jaykun demanded of them.
The brother’s exchanged a look.
“No,” they said in unison.
“What do you need from us,” Dethan wanted to know.
“Dethan, you can do nothing. I will not risk your life. Garreth, I don’t know that there’s much you can do.”
“If you can go, I can go,” Garreth said.
Jaykun nodded. Garreth’s immortality and sword hand might come in handy if they made it to the selkie island.
They were at the dock minutes later. Tonkin waved them over to a ship; the captain greeting them was one of their own men. Probably wisest since the Krizan people were superstitious about the selkies in general. Getting a Krizan captain to sail into the storms would’ve been difficult.
Jaykun impatiently paced the deck as he waited for the captain to launch the vessel. Luckily, the tide was with them and there was a strong wind up. They were at sea quickly, but their progress was still too slow for Jaykun to tolerate. He was left with nothing but his thoughts and his regrets. He didn’t know how he was going to manage the future, how a relationship with Jileana could possibly work given that they were from different worlds and he had a mission he could not be swayed from, but he didn’t care. He would figure it out after he knew she was safe. After he knew Jalaya was secure on her throne, despite whatever it was Barban had planned. And he knew Barban had planned something. He and Jalaya had chosen the council well, picked representatives from an equal number of houses in Jalaya’s corner and in Horgon’s corner in order to help sway loyalties toward Jalaya. But the council was young yet and there was no telling if he and Jalaya had changed anyone’s allegiance. It seemed that civil war was imminent. The selkie people were about to be torn apart and Jileana was going to be caught in the middle of it.
Jaykun was standing at the bow of the ship as they approached, staring hard into the storms, trying to make out the island he knew was just beyond. When the first rains lashed the boat, they came violently, the winds whipping at the sails and the ocean churning beneath the ship.
“We’ll never make it!” Garreth shouted at him through the storm.
Garreth was right. There was no way they would make it. Not above the water.
He grabbed his brother’s arms and brought him to the edge of the ship.
“Jump!” he instructed.
“Are you out of your mind!?” Garreth asked.
“Jump! You cannot drown!”
“I can drown! Over and over again, I can drown. I just cannot die from it!”
He had a point, but there was no other way.
“Please,” Jaykun begged him. “For me will you do this?”
“Ah damn,” Garreth said as he shook his head. He stripped off his boots, made certain Dethan’s sword was secured to his waist, then grabbed the rail of the boat and leapt down into the water. Jaykun shouted to the captain to turn the ship around and head back to port, then he was hitting the water after Garreth.
He grabbed hold of his brother and dragged him down beneath the churning waves and the raging storms. They swam down and down until they were well below the violence above them. Then they swam beneath the storms, heading toward the selkie island. Garreth struggled to breathe, drawing water into his lungs and choking on it. He drowned violently, but then, after a while, he grew used to the water in his lungs and was able to swim in his brother’s wake.
They swam like that for a good half an hour until suddenly the water grew warmer, grew clearer, and Jaykun knew they were close. When he finally could see the honeycombs of coral, he thought he would scream with relief. But there was no time for joy. They had to make good use of their time, and Jaykun started by swimming into the cave that housed Jileana’s sea witch mother. He surfaced cautiously, not knowing what he would find. He swam into the cave and lifted himself quietly out of the water. He came around the lit bend and saw Jileana’s mother.
“Ravi!” he hissed.
Ravi turned with a start. “What is it?” she asked, instantly knowing something was wrong.
“You don’t know? Jileana’s been taken captive by Barban and his soldiers.”
“I heard nothing of this! Are you certain?”
“Yes! Please, I need you to help my brother to breathe beneath the water, and then I need your magic to help rescue Jileana.”
“Of course.”
Jaykun fetched Garreth from the water. His brother threw up a violent lungful of water once he was in the open air, but Ravi cast her magic quickly and it soothed him almost instantly. Now Garreth could breathe underwater and speak as well. They could better coordinate with each other.
Then the three of them went toward the empress’s castle. They knew that if anything was happening, the coral castle would be at the center of the action.
At least this time Jaykun was armed. The sword would not be as graceful underwater as the shell swords the selkies used, but it would get the job done.
As they approached the castle, Jaykun tried to determine if the guards at the gate were friend or foe. He figured there was only one way to find out. Fully clothed as he was, he would stand out as an enemy, so they agreed to send Ravi forward. She went and took the measure of the guards as she came up close to them.
“I am looking for the captain of the empress’s guard,” she said.
The guards looked at each other, then lunged for her. Prepared, she sent a percussive wave of sound at them, setting their ears ringing, their eardrums popping under the pressure. They screamed and writhed helplessly under the pain, and Jaykun and Garreth came up and dispatched them completely.
“We’re going to have to work our way into the castle one group of guards at a time. We can only pray they haven’t killed Jalaya yet.”
“We can only pray,” Ravi agreed.
They entered the castle like that, killing any guards who attacked them, knowing that the guards were loyal to the wrong side. At the center of all of this would be Barban and Horgon. Once they eliminated them, the threat to Jalaya’s throne would end. The beast would fall apart without its head.
Suspecting where they would be, Jaykun led the way to the edge of the throne room. And sure enough, there Barban sat, one leg thrown indolently over the arm of the throne, picking at his nails with a short shell dagger. He was clearly waiting for something. Sitting on the floor beside him, bound and tethered to the ground were Jalaya…and Jileana. The two women fought their bonds helplessly.
“It seems only fitting that you be chained at my feet just as you have chained my father. But don’t worry. Once they have freed my father and he takes his place here, you will no longer have to worry about being bound. We will gladly take that worry away. But as for you, my reluctant wife, you shall have no such reprieve. Once the courtiers a
re called and they realize they have a new emperor, you will be mine to do with as I please.”
“I wonder that you bother with your father at all,” Jileana said, “when you could be emperor yourself!”
Barban sat up straight as the thought played in his mind a moment. Then he chuckled. “Perhaps. One day soon. But the people are far more likely to follow my father than me at this time.”
“They haven’t become too firmly entrenched,” Jaykun whispered to his brother. “I count only six guards in the room with him and no courtiers. I am willing to bet that no one even knows of this coup and so the true reaction is not yet felt. Barban knows that. That is why he has no choice but to kill Jalaya as soon as possible.”
“It’s a wonder he hasn’t done so already,” Garreth said.
“He’s enjoying his victory over her,” Ravi said. “And he wants his father to have the honor of killing her. If it were Horgon here, she would be dead already.”
“We have to get in there, but we have to protect Jalaya at all costs,” Jaykun said.
“Even at the cost of Jileana’s life?” Garreth said. “Because he will grab one of them the moment he knows something is going wrong. The odds of him grabbing Jileana are just as high as him grabbing for the empress.”
“He will go for the empress,” Jaykun said assuredly. “He will want to kill her and solidify his position the instant he can. So your job, Garreth, is to get to her before he can do that. I will take care of the other guards. Cut Jalaya’s tether and get her away from him as soon as you can. Let Ravi worry about Jileana.”
The fact was, he was worrying about Jileana. Almost to the point of paralysis. But he had to move. He had to do something or all would be lost. He refused to see that happen. He refused to see this race plunged into an era of darkness.
Garreth swam away from him and around to the door closest to the throne. The minute he was in place, Ravi and Jaykun entered the room.
Ravi released her percussive blast at the guards in the room, knocking them back as Barban lunged to his feet.
“Kill them!” he screamed to his useless guards once he had recovered from the blast.