Lords of the Sea (30 page)

His brows rose. “You did something grand,” he whispered back.

Excitement surged inside of her. “It worked?”

“Let us just say it has calmed the waters considerably, and I have far more hope that this will end amicably than I did a few days ago.”

Cassie wanted details. She wanted assurance that the hopefulness she felt soaring inside of her wasn’t false hope, but the servers interrupted any possibility of pursuing the subject. When they’d placed plates and glasses in front of all of the guests, the councilor rose. “Rather than bore everyone with a very long speech and ruin the lighthearted mood, I will only delay your dinner a moment. But I did want you all to join me in thanking Lady Cassia—who has shown us the way to the path of peace we all cherish and given me a great deal of hope that we will find it.”

“Hear! Hear!” a woman’s voice down the table called out loudly, drawing everyone’s attention, thankfully, from Cassie.

Cassie smiled when she saw that it was Linda.

Grinning back at her, Linda shrugged and lifted her glass. “To Cassie! The bravest of us all!”

Cassie couldn’t help but chuckle at the tongue-in-cheek toast. The Atlanteans, although they looked puzzled by Linda’s brash toast, lifted their glasses and murmured

“Hear! Hear!” self-consciously.

Biting her lip to contain her amusement over the puzzled looks on the faces of the Atlanteans, Cassie glanced at the councilor. He was studying her with bemusement. He sat down again and leaned toward her. “I am not at all certain I completely grasp this custom, my dear,” he murmured in a low voice.

Cassie chuckled. “I’m not sure I could explain it. In fact, I
am
sure I couldn’t.

It’s just something we do … uh … at special occasions.”

Linda stood up again. “Speech! Speech!” she demanded, grinning at Cassie wickedly.

“Shut up, Linda!” Cassie commanded, laughing at her.

“Perhaps we should move her closer so that she does not need to shout?” the councilor suggested, looking pained.

Cassie compressed her lips, struggled with her amusement for a moment and finally conquered it—most of it, turning her attention to her meal when she saw everyone else was eating. The food was excellent. She had no idea what it was, but the meat tasted like chicken. The thought brought another surge of amusement since that was often said about anything unidentifiable. “The broadcast worked?” she asked the councilor after a moment.

177

He grimaced. “I believe so,” he murmured. “I am cautiously optimistic.”

Cassie frowned at that. “Only cautiously optimistic?” she pursued.

He nodded. “You had been particularly distressed about the fact that everyone was fleeing the coast. We have observed that they are returning now. We have also noted that the number of ships has dwindled somewhat and there do not seem to be quite as many aero-planes buzzing about.”

Relief washed through her. “That does sound promising,” she observed, allowing herself to feel more hopeful.

“Your government has requested to ‘come aboard’ and offered assistance in repairs,” he added after a moment.

Cassie’s smile flat lined. She frowned, returning her attention to her food with less enthusiasm.

“You do not seem … particularly pleased at that development,” the councilor probed gently.

Cassie wrestled with her conscience and finally decided not to ignore it. “They want to snoop,” she responded flatly. “It isn’t necessarily a bad sign. They might just be looking for reassurance that your intentions are peaceful.”

“It is not necessarily a good sign, either, though?”

“I’m afraid not. They might just be looking for an opportunity to check for weaknesses they could exploit. And, if they’ve offered to consider allowing you to stay here, you don’t want to. They’ll be trying to annex Atlantis to the U.S.”

He lifted his brows at her but shrugged. “We would politely refuse. We will be moving the Atlantis to international waters when possible. We would not be here now but for the disaster—and if it had come a few weeks later, we would not be here at all.

We grow much of what we need on the outer rings, but we are primarily farmers of the sea. That is where we get most of the raw materials we need, and we never stay until we have depleted the area. We would have been moving the Atlantis after harvest.”

“I know you know what you’re doing and don’t need my advice, but I also know you don’t really understand them or how their mind works. In the words of the Indians

‘white man speak with forked tongue’, unfortunately.”

The councilor seemed to search his mind for the reference. “The Redmen?” he asked finally.

Cassie nodded. “They were here when the first white settlers arrived and were peaceful and friendly for the most part—at first. They quickly discovered, though, that they couldn’t trust anything white people told them. Not quickly enough, I don’t suppose, or they might not have ended up on reservations.” She glanced at the councilor.

“Just be very, very careful when you talk to them and examine everything they say for the possibility of a different meaning entirely,” she advised him earnestly. “Sometimes they lie outright. Sometimes they twist the truth to suit themselves, and sometimes they just use the language to say one thing when they mean something else entirely—politicians. I assume that’s who you’ll be dealing with.”

He nodded and reached over to pat her hand, smiling faintly. “They are not very different then, my dear, than politicians in the rest of the universe—myself excluded, of course.”

178

Cassie chuckled at his little joke. “Oh, I’m convinced that you are a rare man, indeed,” she assured him. “A politician who actually has the best interests of his people at heart—instead of self-interest—and who does not abuse his power.”

He colored faintly but looked extremely pleased. “Thank you, my lady, but you must take care with the compliments. If I were not far too old for such nonsense I might get the idea that you were considering
choosing
me,” he said with a chuckle.

Cassie studied his face. Seeing that he was teasing, she favored him with an arch look. “It
is
tempting,” she teased him back. “You’re not too old to be very handsome, and very charming,” she added with perfect truth. He
was
still a handsome man, despite the fact that she gauged his age at around sixty. He must have been a real heart-stopper when he was young, she mused.

“My Ophelia seemed to think I would do,” he murmured, smiling nostalgically.

“But I am as certain as I can be that, even in my youth, I was never half as handsome as my grandson.” He grimaced. “Not half the man, either.”

Cassie blinked at him in surprise. “Ophelia? What a
strange
sort of coincidence!

She became Ophelia det Ophelia when you two married?”

The councilor stared at her blankly for a moment and finally smiled. “It does not translate, does it? I had not realized … No, my dear. Your word ‘married’ is not entirely the same as our ‘union’. As I understand your culture, this a vow between a man and a woman to one another?”

Cassie nodded.

“In our culture, a union is specifically a commitment to bear young. Quite often, if one is fortunate, there is a good deal of affection—as you would say ‘love’—but that is not necessarily the case. It is more a recognition in the woman’s eyes that the male she has chosen is her genetic equal, or better, and will give her a child of excellent stock—and also a commitment to parent the off-spring of the union. It is very similar, I will admit, but not entirely same. The union is about the off-spring. And, naturally, if the male chosen feels he could do better for his off-spring, he will decline—graciously, of course. A male must always appreciate being chosen at all since it is a compliment.

“
I
, however, became Augustus det Ophelia ap Xandai when my lady chose me.

This means—as closely as I can translate it—chosen of Ophelia, off-spring of Xandai—

Xana and Daigon … Or would that be daughter?” he mused. “No,” he finished after a moment. “Off-spring would be more accurate.”

“Oh,” Cassie responded flatly, trying not to think about all the days she’d spent wavering between happiness and despair over the fact that Raen had, apparently, lost all interest in being ‘chosen’ after getting her hopes up. So much for thinking he cared!

He’d just been looking to breed her!

The fucking asshole!

“That’s … what an interesting custom!” she managed to say with an appearance, she hoped, of pleased surprise. Casting around in her mind for something to say to change the subject, she remembered his comment about his grandson. “Who’s your grandson?” she asked brightly. “You’ll have to introduce me to him.”

He lifted his brows in surprise and then looked uncomfortable. “Raen ap Aquinox. I thought since you had been so much in his company … But we are estranged.

It is entirely my fault, of course, but I thought he might have mentioned ….”

179

Cassie decided she’d had enough of the ‘chicken surprise’. Setting her fork down, she drained the glass of wine instead. “I thought it was just me he didn’t talk to,”

she muttered. “Don’t feel badly. He doesn’t seem to
have
much in the way of conversational skills. I’m surprised he doesn’t just grunt when spoken to.”

The councilor, she saw when she glanced at him uncomfortably, was studying her with amusement now. “Since you are finished, perhaps you will allow me to introduce you to a young man—whom I believe is very good at conversation—and who has requested an introduction.”

She didn’t especially want to meet anyone. What she wanted to do was to retreat to Raen’s quarters and lick her wounds. She smiled and nodded anyway, pushing away from the table and standing. The moment she did, the world spun around her.

Fortunately, the councilor offered his arm.

She shouldn’t have gulped the wine, she realized, belatedly remembering the effect it had had on her before. It was odd, really, that it hardly even tasted like alcohol and packed such a wallop.

Despite the dizziness, Cassie recognized the ‘young man’ the councilor led her to immediately. She couldn’t seem to remember his name, but she knew it was the same man that had controlled the console in the monitoring room. “Lady Cassia, this is Claudius ap Simsark.”

Blond god, Cassie thought in bemusement when he smiled down at her—a little young, maybe, but beautiful. “And you are … unattached?” she asked, beaming back at him.

He looked disconcerted for a moment, but then grinned, his beautiful aquamarine eyes gleaming with amusement. “Aye, lady.”

The councilor chuckled. “Do not allow her to drink more of the
fermentè.
It seems to have an … uh … unexpected affect upon the native metabolism. If you will excuse me, I will leave you two to become acquainted and attend my other guests before they begin to feel neglected.”

“So …,” Cassie said when the councilor left. “Is Claudius Roman?”

He looked disconcerted. “I am Atlantean.”

Cassie stared blankly at him a moment and finally grinned. “The name. I meant is the name Roman?”

He blushed.

Oh how adorable!

“This is possible. It was my grandsire’s name ….”

Before he could finish what he’d been about to say, a squeal of glee interrupted him. Cassie whirled at the sound and met Linda as she swept her into an exuberant embrace and gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek. “I am so
proud
of what you did!”

she exclaimed, grabbing Cassie’s hands and dancing her in a gigging circle. Her enthusiasm was contagious and Cassie laughed with her.

“What did I do?”

Linda stared at her a moment and uttered a snorting giggle. “Just saved the world, woman!”

180

Cassie reddened to the roots of her hair. “God! Linda! I thought you were serious! How much of that stuff have you had?”

Linda snickered. “Not as much as I’m going to. I’m celebrating tonight. We’re
not
going to get blown to hell, because
you
had the guts to do something, and …,” she paused for effect, “I chose Adan, and he said yes!”

Cassie stared at her, feeling her smile slowly freeze on her face. Considering what the councilor had just told her the first thing that popped in her head as she divided a look between Linda and Adan was ‘poor fool’. “That’s … that’s so wonderful!” she managed to say with enough enthusiasm that Linda didn’t seem to notice.

She looked at Adan and saw that he was smiling happily, too.

Poor fool, she thought. If he thought he was going to breed up ‘excellent stock’

on Linda, he was in for a shock. Linda was a mutt—A perfectly wonderful person, but she was American—ergo—mutt.

She
was a mutt. Besides the Cherokee a couple of generations back, she represented the UK and half of Europe.

Remembering her manners, she gestured toward Claudius and introduced him to Linda.

Linda smiled at him brightly. “Everybody else is outside,” she said, dividing a look between Claudius and Cassie. “Wanna come? We’ve got booze!”

Cassie sent Claudius a questioning look. He issued one of the quaint little bows they constantly bobbed at one another. “Thank you, yes.”

“He is soooo cute,” Linda murmured in a loud whisper as she looped her arm through Cassie’s and led her across the room.

Cassie sent an agonized glance over her shoulder to see if Claudius had heard and saw that he had—He was grinning, anyway. She didn’t know if it was because he was amused at Linda’s antics or if he’d heard. If he’d heard, the six foot plus package of male brawn and beauty following in their wake with Adan didn’t seem to take exception to being called ‘cute’.

“You should tap that before you go,” Linda continued after a moment.

“Linda!” Cassie gasped in horror, throwing Claudius an apologetic glance that time before in clicked in her mind what Linda had said. “What do you mean, go?”

“You haven’t heard? Adan says the Atlantis is almost fixed—the thingy they needed to fix, and the Andromeda’s going to cut them loose in a couple of days. They’re trying to figure out how to get us home without running afoul of the military out there—I told Adan y’all would want to avoid ‘debriefing’ at all costs. Even if things aren’t looking as nasty as they were, it’s easy to see they’re not ready to make friends, yet.”

She shrugged. “And just between you and me, I don’t think they’ll be as happy you helped the Atlanteans as the Atlanteans are.”

Cassie blinked at her. “What do you mean, y’all?”

She shrugged. “I’m going to stay with Adan, of course.”

181

“Oh.” She studied Linda worriedly but decided to keep her mouth shut. Linda was a grown woman, old enough to fuck up her life without any help. “It’s a good thing I got invited to this party,” she added after a moment. “I wouldn’t have known a damned thing that was going on.”

The ‘everyone’ outside, Cassie discovered, included the entire crew of the
Clara
Belle
and their ‘keepers’, except for Carl and David. Mark divided an assessing look between Cassie and Claudius when they arrived with Linda and Adan. “What happened to Romeo, Juliette?”

Cassie gave him an irritated look. She wasn’t about to tell them she had no idea.

She hadn’t looked for Raen. She’d been too uncomfortable until she’d discovered Linda to look around at all, certain she wouldn’t see anyone she knew.

“Play nice,” Linda said. “We’re together and about to be homeward bound. It’s time to celebrate and have fun!”

Cassie glanced at Linda, realizing she hadn’t confided in the others that she didn’t intend to go back. She shrugged inwardly. If Linda didn’t want to announce it she probably had a good reason.

Mark handed Cassie a glass of
fermentè.
“Sorry,” he murmured. “Not my business, I guess.”

Cassie met his gaze and glanced at the Atlantean woman beside him. “No,” she responded as she met his gaze again. “It isn’t.”

“Aw, come on, Cass,” Mark muttered. “Don’t tell me you blame me ….”

Cassie smiled faintly. “I don’t. The problem is, Mark, it just doesn’t bother me, and it should. You know what I mean?”

She moved away from him after that, sipping at the
fermentè
as she wandered down to the channel. The lights from the party gleamed over the surface, making the water far darker beneath.

“He was your lover?”

Cassie glanced at Claudius in surprise at the question. She smiled faintly. “Nope.

We didn’t even actually get close.”

His gaze flickered over her face. “I regret that we will not have time to know one another better before you must go,” he said. “I like what I have seen … very much.”

Cassie smiled at him. “Oh! That was a fabulous line! You are such a charmer!”

He looked disconcerted and confused. “I am not certain I understand this idiom.

Or is this slang?”

Cassie looked away uncomfortably. “What it was, was rude. You gave me a compliment and I implied you were being insincere instead of saying ‘thank you’.”

“I am sincere in my regret,” he said, smiling faintly. “I did not say it to try to get in your pants.”

As horrified as she was, Cassie burst out laughing. “You’ve been studying our slang, I see.”

He grinned back her. “I got this right?”

“I believe you did.”

“You are embarrassed at everyone’s praise,” he continued after a moment, “but what you did was a brave thing, knowing that you might be punished for it. And it was a good thing for your people. This is one reason I regret that I have not had the chance to know you.”

182

Cassie shrugged uncomfortably. “It wasn’t a great deed! It was a just a little thing.”

“That no one else did,” he said. “And because you did a little thing that no one else would, the council will be able to make peace between your people and mine.”

She looked up at him, studying his face. “You really think they will?”

“Yes,” he said, but frowned. “I wish that you would consider staying with us. I do not like to think that there is even a small chance that you would be punished.”

Cassie’s belly performed an uncomfortable little flip flop, but she resolutely ignored it. “Where would my claim to fame be, then?” she asked teasingly. “There’s nothing brave about throwing a rock and then running to hide and swearing someone else did it.”

His gaze was plainly appreciative. “There is brave and then there is … unwise.”

She chuckled. “Stoopid, you mean? I don’t really believe I have anything to worry about—now. If they’d declared war, it would’ve been a different matter. Then, I could’ve been looking at serious trouble. As it is, they won’t be happy. I’m hoping to avoid the unpleasantness of being questioned, though.”

Linda and Adan joined them at the edge of the channel. Linda was giggly, which was almost annoying—or at least would have been if Cassie wasn’t feeling particularly mellow herself. “Anybody in the mood for skinny dipping?” she called out.

Jimmy, who’d obviously already had enough to drink to remove all of his inhibitions, let out a rebel yell and raced for the water, dragging off his robe as he went.

Cassie laughed as she caught a glimpse of skinny white ass disappearing beneath the water. Uttering a delighted shriek, Shelly was right behind him and hit the water almost on top of him.

“That’s their drinking water!” Linda yelled. “No pissing!”

Their escorts, whether they were ‘in’ to the spirit of the thing or just wanted to drag Shelly and Jimmy out, pulled their robes off and dove in after them.

Linda gave Cassie a challenging look. “You in?”

“I’m not getting naked with a whole party going on right there!” Cassie snorted, gesturing toward the building behind them.

“Don’t be a chicken shit!” Linda said, laughing as she pulled off her own robe.

“They
all
do it!”

She screamed as she hit the water. “Oh my
god
it’s cold!”

Cassie glanced at Claudius questioningly. His eyes were gleaming with suppressed laughter. Shrugging, he pulled his own robe off.

Feeling reckless, Cassie uttered a chuckle and snatched hers off, leaping toward the channel even as she tossed the robe away. She discovered Linda was right. The water felt like ice. It snatched her breath from her lungs as she went under. She strangled and came up coughing. “It’s not fresh water!” she exclaimed accusingly. “It’s salt water!”

“So?” Linda smacked the water with her hand, splattering Cassie in the face.

Blinking, Cassie splattered her back. Within a few moments they were both laughing like idiots and trying to drown each other. Claudius and Adan merely looked on, their expressions nearly an identical and equal mixture of amusement and confusion.

When Cassie and Linda had mopped the water from their faces, they grinned at each other, looked at Adan and Claudius, and then exchanged a conspiratorial glance.

183

“Water war!” they shouted almost in unison and whirled to pelt Adan and Claudius, taking both men by surprise.

Claudius and Adan mopped the water from their faces, looked at each other, and then sent their attackers a look of intent. Uttering a shrieking laugh, Cassie whirled to flee as she saw the mermen curl their tails and realized they meant to slap the water with their tail fins. A veritable wall of water rolled over Cassie before she’d managed to put more than a few feet between them. She emerged a moment later with her hair in her eyes. Parting it, she peered around for Claudius just as he shot from the water in front of her. “Oh my god!” she exclaimed in dismay, sucking in a quick breath and covering her head when she saw him arching toward the water.

To her surprise, he clove the water with hardly a ripple.

A moment later a hand closed on her ankle, snatching her beneath the surface.

She pin wheeled her arms through the water, trying to claw her way back to the surface. Releasing his hold on her ankle, Claudius skimmed upwards along her body, caught her waist, and carried her to the surface. She emerged sputtering and pushed her hair from her eyes again.

Claudius chuckled at the indignant look she gave him. “Unfair!” she accused him without heat.

He shook his head slowly, his grin slowly fading. “Fair.”

She saw the intent in his eyes even as he tightened his hold on her, bringing her against him. For several heartbeats, she simply stared at him, still gasping for breath.

Before she could actually make up her mind whether she wanted to kiss him or not, someone shouted something from the rim of the canal. Cassie glanced toward the furious voice instinctively, even though what he’d said was incomprehensible.

She blinked in surprise and not a little dismay when she saw it was Raen standing on the rim, his hands planted on his hips, his expression furious.

“Uh oh!” Linda muttered. “Somebody’s pissed!”

“Guess romping in the water’s a no-no,” Ben murmured.

Feeling perfectly blank with shock, Cassie glanced at Claudius as she felt his hold on her slacken. Looking almost as furious as Raen, he uttered a retort—
also
in their language.

“What’s going …?” Cassie began. She broke off when Raen snatched his robe off and threw it down, her jaw sagging in stunned disbelief as he dove in.

Claudius pushed her away as Raen surfaced.

Cassie glanced from one man to the other and then at the other people in the water around her, trying to figure out what was going on. When she looked back, it was just in time to see Raen and Claudius slam into each other. Tangling in a wrestler’s hold, the two men dropped beneath the water.

“Holy shit!” Shelly squealed.

“Fight!” Jimmy exclaimed with excited glee.

Still stunned and confused and uncertain of what to do, Cassie glanced around the water. Just beneath the surface, she saw an almost florescent glow. She stared at the neon flash of red dumbfounded.

“Would you look at that!” Ben exclaimed. “They’ve turned red! Shit! I didn’t know they could do that. Did you know they could do that?”

184

Abruptly both men, still entangled, shot from the water and straight up into the air. Screaming, Cassie headed for the edge of the canal, swimming for all she was worth.

Everyone else merely gaped at the two men as they flew upwards, broke apart, and arched toward the water again.

“Run!” Linda screamed as it dawned on her that both men were going to hit the water at high velocity.

The wave they created when they hit slammed Cassie against the side of the canal. She went under, briefly, and clawed her way upward again, reaching blindly for a hand hold on the edge to pull herself out. A hand curled around her wrist and pulled her clear of the water. Coughing and brushing at the water and hair in her face. She was stunned when she managed to clear her vision to see that it was the councilor.