NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 4 – Acu’Enah
1
But they had to let them go eventually. And then… Then they could feel water in their lungs. It was impossibly unnerving, letting it pour down their throats. Every instinct and sense they had was screaming at them to get back to the surface, that they couldn’t live breathing in water no matter how much of it they pushed into themselves. That it was killing them.
But they hung there, forever suspended in that last moment before they’d drown, their bodies expecting a death that wouldn’t come. In the beginning, the panic grasped them tightly. Only time would make it weaken.
The first to recover was Emony, who kept nervously glancing at Tiphaine, ready to intervene at the first sign that something was wrong.
Was Tiphaine feeling the same way she was? she wondered. The magic keeping her alive at the bottom of the lake was clearly different. Like the king, she did not swim – she moved unperturbed through the water, exactly as she would on land. She slithered down the steps cut into the seabed. As she kept to the ground, Emony swam through the water, seemingly free of gravity, kicking her tail and trying to stay on Tiphaine’s level.
As they made their way behind the king along the polished stone steps that split the seabed, she saw countless schools of fish in every direction, stretching far above them, too, while crabs and snails crawled along the ground, seaweed like tall grass making its way past the pebbles. Eventually, as they reached the bottom of the lake, the steps they followed became a path, before becoming a long bridge where the fields of seaweed abruptly stopped and the seabed was cut short by a pitch-black, bottomless abyss.
“Do not fall,” the king warned Tiphaine once they made it to the edge, before turning back around and moving on. “You would not make it back.”
Emony gulped, awkwardly swimming over to Tiphaine with her golden tail, getting ready to catch her companion if anything happened. The bridge had no railings, and it wasn’t very wide. But to Emony’s immeasurable relief, her companion stayed on it.
“None of this is possible,” whispered Tiphaine as she floated beside her. Her voice sounded different in the water. “There’s no way such a small lake could be this deep. It’s like another world. And can you feel it? The sheer volume of magic?”
“Yes,” she whispered back. “Even I can, at this point. My bones are shaking. It really is all black, isn’t it? It must be hard for you. Let’s just focus on getting through this, okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Hey, um, on another note, you’d just as easily kiss the king as you would me? You literally just met him – way to make me feel special… Even after I saw you staring at me all those times. Like today, while you were on the tree…”
She was only trying to lighten the tense mood, Emony knew it, but she could practically feel the blood rushing to her cheeks.
“You saw...? Ha… Well… My bad,” Emony stammered.
Tiphaine gazed at her curiously.
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Tiphaine said.
“Then… stop looking at me like that!”
“Like what?”
She was obviously smirking. Emony, on the other hand, was quickly finding that her cute new face was far more prone to blushing than her usual one. She looked away, covering up her unfamiliarly rosy and hairless cheeks with her hands.
“…I hate you,” Emony said.
“Oh? Is that why you didn’t want to kiss me?”
“That must be it…”
“Ouch.”
Emony shook her head. “No, that wasn’t it. I just wanted our first time to be different. Like… like not because we were forced to do it by some all-powerful undead king, and… not when I was wearing this face… I’m glad it worked, though. Are you breathing alright?”
Emony could have sworn that she saw Tiphaine smile, even though she had her mask on.
“I happen to like both your faces, so I wonder if I should lie, and apply some force myself,” she said.
Emony flicked her lightly on the shoulder. “Very funny.”
A while later, swimming over the path beside her, she saw the far edge marking the end of the abyss. A bed of seaweed was climbing over the cliff out of the darkness to reach their level. But beyond that, through the clear, dark water, she saw castle walls.
It was another impossible sight. For over a minute, Emony thought her eyes were deceiving her. There was no reason for such a structure to exist at the bottom of a lake. Stone walls and towers, covered in seaweed, grime and sand, stood before them like a human castle on the surface, dirty red banners lined with seashells swaying gently in the current. The stone path led them directly towards open, rotting wooden gates in the center, where a drawbridge was laid down for them.
Once past the walls, Emony stared in awe at the many towers standing tall over the seabed and the palace from which they rose. They made their way towards the building, moving between beautiful statues lined up symmetrically on either side of the marble path, each depicting the most alluring of mermaids. Behind them, she suddenly noticed, stood the undead, the men of the lake. They were completely still, staring at nothing, unmoving despite the tide that was gently shifting the seabed. They stood in groups of twenty, seemingly surrounding the palace.
She, Tiphaine and the king swam, slithered and walked past them, straight towards the doors of the gilded marble palace. The king stopped in front of them, at the door, turning around and speaking to her and Tiphaine for the first in a long time.
“This is the sunken palace of Acu’enah. A place mostly forgotten by the world outside these waters.”
He lifted a hand and gently touched the stone archway leading into the castle. “This is my wife’s home. My queen’s. You will not disrespect it.”
Emony and Tiphaine nodded in unison. “We won’t disrespect it.”
After a long, appraising stare, the king nodded back.
“Then I invite you in. Verena will come to see you shortly, and after hearing what she has to say, you may or may not leave this place alive.”
“Understood,” they breathed.
“And you, siren,” the king continued, “You will not sing while in my presence. In addition, you will beg the lady Verena for some clothing, which you will wear. I will not be brought to lust anyone but my queen.”
The sudden realization hit Emony rather quickly. She’d lost her ripped tunic somewhere in the water quite a while ago. She quickly concealed her bare chest with her hands, again made acutely aware of the magic that was tying itself around her/no, his brain.
But with those words, the king turned around again, grasped the twin mermaid handles of the huge, ornately gilded marble door of the palace, and pushed it open.
About an hour later, in the palace’s dining hall, except for the occasional grunt and nod in their direction, the king ignored them all as he sat at the end of the long banquet table, letting Verena, Tiphaine’s mermaid friend, explain the current situation to them. His expression was one of utter indifference – he clearly didn’t believe they could be trusted with anything. He’d rather simply kill them and have them join the corpses, though luckily, it seemed he would stay his hand due to Verena’s wishes.
The table they were sat or floating at in the cavernous palace dining hall was huge, it could easily seat a hundred men. Emony briefly wondered about its purpose, given the four of them were the only ones there, sitting at one of its ends, while fish of every variety swam under the beautifully ornamented domed ceiling.
“It’s not necromancy,” Verena was explaining in answer to one of Tiphaine’s questions. “They’re not undead – just puppets controlled with strings of magic. The same spell could be used on a wooden doll, it’s just that skeletons and corpses are better suited for the task.”
“What task is that?” Emony asked. She had been avoiding the question for a few minutes now, speaking around the issue instead.
The real mermaid uneasily glanced over at her and sighed. “I suppose I should tell you… We want to find my sister. She’s… missing. She was taken by the humans, over ten years ago.”
“I heard the men of the lake started attacking about two months ago,” she thought out loud, privately wondering about which exit would most likely get her and Tiphaine out of the palace alive if things went sour. There were no good options.
“That’s what they call them on the surface, isn’t it? Yes, you’re right. Aulduyen only recently managed to climb up out of the abyss, gaining these strange powers. But this whole tragic story started much earlier. Did they tell you anything about the rebellion? About the coup?”
“Not really,” Tiphaine said, “But we’ve only been here a day, and we spent it gathering things to unpetrify the villagers.”
“A poor excuse,” the king murmured, mostly to himself. “Nothing is more important than my queen.”
Verena glanced at him for a moment before continuing. “Aulduyen’s taken her loss poorly, as have I. We just want her back… But, Tiphaine, I hope my veil is serving you well. Are you still on your quest to cure yourself of the Eyes?”
“Yes, I am. I’m… not having much luck. It doesn’t seem like the curse can be broken. But the veil is great.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I must confess that I’ve found nothing, either, and I have spent some time searching. Even the sea witch couldn’t find a solution. The Eyes are truly a terrible curse, and for you to be the one unfortunate lamia in the whole world that must bear it… It must be difficult for you, no? I’m so glad you’ve found a companion. But how did you come to meet another mermaid?”
“About that… I first met Emony before I did you, actually. And he’s been great, though I wonder how long he’ll stay with me, considering the things I get him into—”
“You’re admitting they’re your fault?”
“I’m sorry, him?” Verena asked.
The king, sitting on his throne, threw them a bemused look, removing himself from his thoughts for a quick moment.
“Emony is… a guy,” Tiphaine stammered, “Though me and Lenah complicated things slightly a few weeks ago.”
“I’m still a guy,” Emony corrected.
A quiet chuckle escaped Verena. “Lenah? That hedonist? You’re still in touch with her?”
“Yeah. And she is the one who brought us here, actually. We thought you might know something about how to help Emony. You’re the only mermaid any of us know.”
“What happened, precisely?”
“Let’s just say Lenah’s tinkering didn’t work properly. Emony used to be a werewolf, but now… he seems to be human on land, but whenever he touches water, he becomes a mermaid.”
“I’m no human.”
“That’s… some tinkering. Could it really be possible?”
“You can see my tail, can’t you?” Emony asked.
The real mermaid turned to her. “Yes, but to create something like this out of lycanthropy… And for you to be able to leave the water freely and walk the surface, regrowing legs at will… That makes you one of a kind. No mermaid could do such a thing – and Aulduyen tells me you are even able to sing as a siren? Lenah must have seriously improved her craft. The last time I saw her, she was still abusing love potions. I don’t know if I can help you… But… but Aulduyen might be able to.”
The king turned his gaze upon them again. “The only thing that is important is the return of my queen,” he said quietly, before becoming lost in thought again.
Verena turned to face Emony again with a look of uncertainty. “I think… Maybe if you could help us, we could help you.”
Emony exchanged a glance with Tiphaine. She really made the worst kinds of friends.
“Actually, if there is a solution in this world for your curse, too, Tiphaine, it may be here. Aulduyen possesses magic the likes of which has never been seen,” Verena said. “The measure of it is unbelievable. I’ve never seen something so dark, but perhaps it could erode even the Eyes. He may be able to cure you! We just… we need your help first. Emony, your song could prove useful if you could deploy it on land, along with Tiphaine’s Eyes, as long as she has them.”
“Do you really think...?” Tiphaine exclaimed. “I’ve… I never thought… Do you really think I can be cured?”
Emony hoped Tiphaine wasn’t getting her hopes up too high again. Hers was truly a vicious cycle of dreams and disappointment. After being thoroughly manipulated by every sage, mystic and witch they could find, they’d always been told the same thing – that only her death could make it move on, and that nothing could break it. Not the Eyes.
“You want us to help you find your sister – the queen?” she interrupted.
“Yes, that’s right. The villagers avoid the lake, and they always run at the first sight of our soldiers, but you could go ashore and make them speak the truth. If you find Imarah… I can see your doubt. No, you’re right, Emony, we don’t know if she’s alive. It’s been ten years, and while Aulduyen has been in the abyss, I have done next to nothing, as I cannot leave these waters. The last we saw her... well, it was… Aulduyen, it was when you died.”
The king lifted his head and glanced over at them, pulled away from his thoughts once again.
“Yes… It was the day of my greatest mistake. When the bastard usurper came for my head…”
Sickly grief flashed through the king’s gaunt face for a few moments before rapidly turning into a homicidal rage. “Raynardt… He took our kingdom from us! He terrorized my love! She was so scared… I will rip him apart, limb from limb! Oh, my love… Where is she…? Oh, you are wrong, my lady Verena, she is alive out there somewhere. I can still see the strings of magic and love connecting the two of us, I can still hear her songs in my ears. “Aulduyen, save me!” she cries. Oh, my love…”
Verena swam over to the king and laid a hand gently upon his shoulder. The king laid his own hand, trembling, atop it, black tears leaving his eyes and staining the water.
“The villagers will speak of it as the rebellion,” Verena said. “That much I have heard. Who knows what they might say, they may be afraid of the usurper’s wrath. But Aulduyen died that day, ten years ago. He was thrown into this lake, bleeding, tied to an anchor falling into the abyss, while I tried in vain to untie him. I couldn’t help him. But… my sister did not share his fate. She’s not in these waters. They took her off that boat, so she may be alive.”
The king suddenly arose from his throne, staring madly at the mermaid.
“As I said, lady Verena, Imarah is alive! Death has not claimed my queen, I know it hasn’t! Do not look at me now as though I am a fool! It was her song that pulled me off that anchor and lifted me from the depths of the blackened abyss! She cries to me, even now that I must find her and save her! We must do so without delay! Without her…! Without her… there is only darkness.”
“We will, Aulduyen. We’ll find her. We will bring her home, I promise,” Verena murmured.
The king quietly sobbed onto the mermaid’s shoulder. Caressing him gently, she turned back towards Emony and Tiphaine.
“Tiphaine, Emony, Imarah was a siren. Her mouth may have been bound, but she might have gotten a chance to escape. The shortest of songs could have brought her freedom if only a single human had made a mistake. Please… I won’t lie to you, I do not know for sure that we can free you of your curses, especially not you, Tiphaine. But we could really use your help.”
Emony, though likely only due to her altered mind, found even herself slightly moved. She turned to Tiphaine. No doubt she wanted to help her friend, perhaps she even pitied the king… But still. The two were in league with magic so dark even she was disgusted by it. And they were certainly killing a lot of humans…
What if there was a chance, though? She knew full well that she was being a fool, too, but… What if they really could free Tiphaine from the curse of the Eyes? What if their magic was even darker than her legendary curse? There was nothing she had wanted more.
Emony sighed, noticing Tiphaine shake nervously.
Despite it all, she made her choice stupidly easily.
“We’ll help you. Tell us what you need.”
“Thank you. Thank you so, so much,” sighed Verena. “Please, we just need you to talk to the villagers. They might know something. I cannot leave the lake with my tail, and Aulduyen inspires far too much terror. We’ve tried making contact with them before, but they were always so fearful. So… sing to them, make them tell you the truth. And those knights and the soldiers that came, could they be from that city? What was it called, where you were born, Aulduyen, was it Terrena? If so, those men may know something too. Could you talk to them?”
“Yes. We’ll do it, we’ll make them help. What about the men of the lake?”
“You have nothing to fear. They’re Aulduyen’s puppets, he controls them. We can probably even offer you some if you come to fear for your safety, surrounded by those humans – but know that they cannot touch dry ground. Aulduyen’s magic is tied to water, were they to lose contact with it, they would crumble to dust. That is why we are limited by rain – until the snow begins to fall.”
“Understood. I’m sure Tiphaine will be able to keep me safe.”
Emony glanced over at the king, who was merely looking through him, lost in thought.
“The trail leads south,” the king said quietly. “I cannot reach far enough yet, but the trail of magic…”
“We’ll follow it,” Emony said. “We can’t see it, but we will find it. To do so… I think… as much as I hate it, I think that we will need to work with the humans. But if we want to continue dealing with them, at the very least, before we return to them... We cannot rely on our powers alone. We’ll need to employ deception.”
The king stared blankly into her eyes.
“The humans will have seen that we disobeyed them and escaped their camp before the battle began. But we need them to think we are on their side.”
She was understood quite quickly. The king got up from his chair without a word, taking up the hilt of his long sword.
2
The two of them were found by the soldiers just before noon the next day, lying on the pebbly beach, battered, bruised and wounded, in the middle of a large pile of body parts ripped off of men of the lake.
The humans had clearly been expecting to find them dead. Instead, upon hearing Emony’s threats to kill them all if they did not comply, they tossed them bandages from afar, which Emony quickly deployed on Tiphaine’s bloody gash.
“We’re on your side,” he snapped at the soldiers. “Come help! I can’t tie this myself with one hand, and my left is broken!”
“Let me do it,” said Tiphaine, helping him tie the bandage with one hand whilst putting pressure on the bleeding slash that seemed to cut through a fourth of her waist with the other.
The king had been merciless. Lamias healed quickly, so she would be fine in a couple of days – but he took the job of making the wounds look grave very seriously, especially with her. He couldn’t hurt Emony too much, as too much blood would hinder his ability to keep his legs, but with Tiphaine, despite Verena’s protests, he had been downright cruel. It was all for his queen, he’d said. The man was insane. Also, as mermaids were not blessed with the same regenerative powers as lamias and werewolves, Emony would remain unfit for combat for quite a while – though it was his left arm he’d had broken, so he could likely still defeat a couple of ordinary humans.
“Those damned corpses just didn’t stop,” he groaned loudly. “Is that normal? No matter how many limbs we removed, they just kept coming! I swear, taking their heads didn’t even slow them down!”
After exchanging glances with the others, one of the men finally came closer, taking off his helmet and nodding understandingly. “A rookie mistake, going for the head. It’s their arms you need. They can’t swing their swords after you remove those,” he said.
“I guess I’ll have to remember that,” Emony replied, wincing in only half-faked pain as Tiphaine, finished with her own wound, tied up his broken arm and hung a sling around his neck to keep it in place.
“We’re surprised you’re alive,” the human said. “We heard you’d gone missing. Sir Meheyn was found dead – he was supposed to be following you.”
Emony nodded, playing up his display of discomfort. “He was. She and I had gone to relieve ourselves, and the damned pervert was watching us. He served some purpose, though. His scream warned us to finish up quickly. Then we ran.”
“Seems you ran the wrong way, though. Why stray so far from the camp simply to pee? And did it at all occur to you that the men of the lake may have been coming from the lake?”
Emony shrugged, giving Tiphaine a pointed stare.
“You run faster downhill than uphill,” she defended herself.
The human laughed. “Idiots, the both of you. Well, maybe you’re not so bad. My name is Aylard.”
“Emony. This is Tiphaine.”
“Nice to meet you both. It looks like you destroyed quite a few of those things, so let’s get you back to camp. We can use finding you as an excuse to have lunch early.”
After they had made the trek up the hill with the humans to the encampment and had been welcomed back, with obvious suspicion, the two found themselves sitting in the commander’s tent again.
“It seems you had quite the night,” their commander, Yperian, said, after pouring wine into their silver chalices. “I must have made a horrible mistake, not informing you about the location of the pit latrines. It’s good to see you’re still alive.”
“Just barely,” Emony responded. Too bad your man wasn’t so lucky.”
“Thirty-three died last night, by our latest count, which one are you referring to? Bah, forget it. It’s clear you know I had you followed. Yes, Sir Meheyn really must have had a stroke of… bad luck. Some of our men say he was the first to fall. One even claims that he died before the men of the lake arrived… strange… But I’m sure that’s untrue. In any case, Sir Meheyn was a good soldier, an honorable knight. He did his duty, warning the rest of us before he died.”
He lifted his chalice. “To Meheyn.”
“To Meheyn.”
“And all the others,” murmured Tiphaine.
“Yes. So, you were found this morning next to the lake?”
“Yes.”
“What were you doing there?”
He shrugged. “That’s where we ran. It’s hard to avoid two battling armies and go whichever direction you want. I was following her.”
Tiphaine turned her head in his direction. He knew she was glaring at him, from behind her mask. He just smiled at her.
“You must understand why I would find this suspicious. Even though you are wounded, and were apparently found surrounded by defeated foes, how did you manage to survive after running directly into the lion’s den with no weapons? And find yet another change of clothes, while you were at it? Though in poor condition, those seem fit for a king. Did you take them from one of the men of the lake?”
Emony considered what to say for a few moments, tugging on the sleeves of his new tunic. Of course it was fit for a king. It’d belonged to one. He gave the human a wide smile.
“Well… I could spin a lie, I’m sure I could somehow fool you, clever as you are. But why waste the effort? Oops, it seems I’ve spilled my drink.”
“What are you saying? Hm? Magic? Guard—”
The human turned to stone before he could finish uttering the word. Emony somehow managed to remain in her seat, despite the tail replacing her legs. So that was a win.
“Thank you, Tiphaine,” Emony squeaked in that cute voice of hers she hated . “Now, I’m ready. Bring him back. And watch out for anyone who might want to disturb us. Oh, damn it, I forgot to take my pants off. I really should learn how to sew.”
“And quickly,” Tiphaine said, flashing him a smile with her eyes closed. “I think the king might kill you if he sees that. Weren’t those his?”
Urk. That meant trouble.
Tiphaine put her mask back on and slithered over to the petrified knight commander before sticking some ravenwood bark onto his stone lips. Color began to return to him quickly, since he’d only spent a few seconds as a stone.
“You will not make a sound unless directed to do so. You will not try to escape,” Emony said. “Nod if you understand what I’m saying, as soon as you are able.”
After a time, once the color had spread down to his neck, the human did so. It seemed he was struggling against Emony’s magic, his face was contorting into an expression of fear and anger.
“From now on, you will be our obedient servant,” she said, continuing her spelled tune.
“That’s going a little far, isn’t it?” Tiphaine asked.
“Shush. Ah, damn it. I’m sorry, again. You can do whatever you please, Tiphaine. I only command you, human.”
“Ouch,” Emony’s companion moaned, again having to check up on her teeth.
“Now, human. You’re not going to remember that you are our servant, but you will be all the same. You will help us, but not allow anyone to find out that this conversation of ours is the reason why. Now, as soon as I grow legs again, you will regain full control of your body, be under our command, and forget that this latest startling event took place. Nod if you understand.”
Head shaking, with pupils dilated to cover his entire irises, the human did as he was told. Emony took a washcloth from the table and wiped off the wine that she’d spilled onto her hand.
A minute later, the human began blinking wildly, looking around in immense confusion as Emony regained his male form. He needed over a minute to calm down.
“Hm? What happened? I must have dozed off for a minute,” he finally said, bewildered. “I feel like time has gone by without me.”
Emony made a brief expression of bemusement. “Well, we are drinking wine.”
“Oh, yes. I suppose that must be it. So, as I was saying… Hm? … What was I saying?” he asked. “And… I’m sorry, what happened to your pants again? Weren’t they fine just a second ago?”
“It’s not important, though I am going to need some new ones. For now, though, please answer one of my questions. Do you know anything of the rebellion that happened here a decade ago?”
“The rebellion? Everyone knows about it. Oh, that’s right, I suppose you may not, you are foreigners. Basically, the last king of Evaria was deposed about ten years ago. A contentious issue, to be sure, a bastard ascending the throne in his place, but the old king was a brute. I think the land is better off for it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Raynardt, the current king of Evaria, is a naturalized bastard. Ten years ago, after all his older brothers save one died, the appointed king was a man named Aulduyen, the seventh son of the late king Ovesen. Perhaps a year or so into his reign, Raynardt staged a coup, right here in Coldbarrow. The late Aulduyen was deposed by his bastard half-brother, who is now the new king.”
Interesting.
“The man killed his half-brother, and became king?” exclaimed Tiphaine, “That’s horrible! Why do you stand for it?!”
“Because the former king, Aulduyen, was a horrible one,” Yperian said calmly. “A pompous, elitist snob, with no regard for the common man, if memory serves. Well, he was a seventh son, himself, so he was never supposed to amount to much more. He was certainly never expected to ascend the throne – and he didn’t want to, in the first place. But then all six of his older brothers grew ill and died. He had fallen ill, too, but he survived and so became king, as the rightful heir. In any case, Evaria is better off with him dead, too. This is where King Raynardt had him killed. But why the interest? Do you think he might be the king of the lake?”
“Yes, and we’re conspiring with the undead madman to kill you all.”
“Fascinating. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help,” the human replied.
“This is too weird,” Tiphaine said.
“Interesting that he’s letting you go to the village,” said Aylard, their new human minder, the next day. “Only yesterday he was groaning about how terrified the villagers were that you would return. Did you threaten him?”
“Wouldn’t you personally find it more interesting that he only ordered one person to follow us around? I think it’s clear he doesn’t think even a group of you could defeat us. Better only one human die than many if we turn out to be enemies.”
Aylard shrugged. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Lucky me… We can’t exactly fight with our eyes closed, can we? The lady snake is unbeatable. And what are you? An elf? A vampire? A werewolf?”
“Why would you possibly think to ask me that? I’m clearly just like you. I’m human.”
“Very funny.”
The road was a poorly maintained one, with loose stones threatening to twist Emony’s legs the wrong way if he stepped on them carelessly. He had to be careful, given his reduced powers of regeneration. He really did feel like a human at this point, he was so uncomfortably vulnerable. He hated it. Tiphaine was lucky not to have such problems, whether she was cursed or not.
“It’s cold,” she went and grumbled, despite her luck. “I want to lie in the sun – why is it cloudy again today?
“It will be for a while yet, my lady. Summer has long gone,” responded Aylard.
“You know I’m not a lady, right?” she responded.
“I know you could turn me to stone with one look, my lady,” the human replied. Tiphaine chuckled.
Emony glanced around at their surroundings. The forest was to their left, made up of countless pine trees, hornbeams and ravenwood oaks. Far more ravenwood oaks than were in most places. Even if, currently being half-mermaid, he couldn’t smell it, he could see that the place must reek of dark magic.
He also noticed that the forest’s thorny bushes, nettles and small flowers were all trampled into the dirt.
The reason why was obvious. Just on the other side of the road was the lake.
3
Aulduyen
He cursed his imperfect memories every time he thought of her.
Sitting at his throne at the end of the empty dining hall, at the bottom of the lake that had been their home, Aulduyen was perfectly aware of the terrible truth – that his mind had never truly captured her perfection, had never even really come close.
Sometimes, when he envisioned her in his flawed mind, she stood before him, smiling, yet the smile was not the same. Other times he heard her voice calling to him, “Aulduyen, Aulduyen,” as she had a decade ago before he’d died – yet the tone was never exactly as hers had been.
She was always there, haunting the edge of his field of vision, just out of reach. The moment he turned to look at her, she disappeared.
And he only had himself to blame. He’d abandoned her ten years ago, when death dropped him into that abyss with an opened and bleeding heart. He should have returned more quickly. He should have never let himself sink into the abyss in the first place. Even if she’d forgive him once he’d find her, he’d never be able to do so himself.
He got up from the marble throne, leaving the palace that was rightfully hers and walking through the courtyard. The army of puppets stood around there, by the grimy stone walls, awaiting orders. They were a hideous sight to behold. He would never let Imarah see it.
“Begone!” he bellowed, suddenly enraged. “Leave this place, filth, I command you! Stain a different part of these waters!”
The corpses turned away in an instant, then jumped and swam upwards, away from Acu’enah.
“Do not defile our home a moment longer!”
Through the magic connecting them to him, they would hear and obey his orders no matter how far away he was from them.
He lowered his eyes from their repulsiveness and returned to walking through the tranquil garden.
He stopped by a gilded marble statue of a mermaid to the side of the path. It was covered, somewhat, by seaweed and grime, but it remained a magnificent sight to behold, mostly unravaged by time and the water. It was made in the likeness of Imarah’s grandmother. She had her nose, he thought. The eyes were too close together, and the cheekbones were not as high as his love’s. Yet the statue was one of the closest things he had left of her.
It wasn’t fair.
Suddenly possessed with rage again, cursing madly, Aulduyen grabbed the kingly blade on his back and slammed it into the stone path, cracking the bedrock underneath and sending a vicious tremor all across the lake.
“Where is she?!” he shouted through the water, furious at the divines that she had believed in. “Why do you keep her from me?! Answer me! Where is she?! Where does this magic wrapped around my heart lead?!”
Seething, he looked up through the water straight at the dull blue sky, utilizing the eyes of his puppets.
“Continue to defy me, then. It matters not. I demand her return – until she is back in my embrace, all before me will die.”
He violently ripped his sword out of the stone, determined to bring forth rain and death again.
“I hope that does not include me, Aulduyen?” said a quiet, gentle voice behind him.
The lady Verena. Imarah’s sister. He hadn’t noticed her approach.
He turned around to look at her, quickly putting away the blade. Her face was so unlike Imarah’s… But the scales on her tail were the same shape, the same color. Though their voices were different, they shared a similar accent, one that had otherwise been lost to the world.
He had shamed himself before her. It was nowhere near the first time.
“Lady Verena. I apologize for my outburst. I misspoke. You will never be endangered, I swear this upon my unlife.”
She gave him a small smile and swam over to his side with her golden tail. That smile was closer to Imarah’s than her grandmother’s was.
“I was only jesting,” she said. “I know you didn’t mean it that way.”
“Do you have any news from your friends?” he asked after a moment of silence. “I’d like to go to the surface again and scour it myself for any trace of my queen.”
“It hasn’t been much more than a day, Aulduyen. Give them time – they might need a lot of it, considering the wounds you gave them. Please do nothing, at least for a little while.”
Aulduyen frowned. He’d had to be meticulous in creating the wounds. He would take no chances in the deception being noticed, and his queen being parted from him for longer than necessary due to it... But had he perhaps made a mistake, and delayed her return with his own blade? Should he have been gentler with the two creatures?
“I’m sorry,” he breathed, the horror closing in.
He felt Verena’s arms pull him into a gentle embrace as he held his eyes closed. She was warm, alive, unlike himself. Just as Imarah was sure to be.
Once again seeing the shadow of his love for a hint of a moment, before she instantly disappeared from his sight again, he cried upon her sister’s shoulder, falling to his knees on the sandy seabed. “Verena… I must have her back. I cannot begin to describe how much I miss her. My heart… My blackened heart…! It hurts so much!”
Hey! Justin here!
I just wanted to let you know that I'll be adding chapters here periodically, but if you're blessed with the gift of impatience, the full ebook is already available here: