Olympic Cove 2-Breaker Zone (35 page)

Aidan’s right.
She is a manipulative bitch.
Never did he expect her to use Aidan’s
submissiveness as a bargaining chip.
I
can’t let her ruin him, not after what she did to his father. I won’t—

A knock sounded at the door. “Enter,” he
snarled.

It opened. Col peered around the edge,
handsome face dark with concern and anger. “Your mother said you’d be here.”

“Oh, did she?” Liam said bitterly. “And
what am I supposed to do now—go to bed with you?”

Col winced.
“Gods,
no.”
He approached the desk. “I heard what she said.
About
you and Aidan.”

“Oh, even
better.
So who are you going to tell?”

The brown-eyed mer looked stricken.
“No one, dammit.
What you do in your bedroom is your own
business.” He paused, his expression turning wistful. “Is that why you didn’t
want me?
Because I don’t like power play?”

“No,” Liam said heavily. “You’re an
amazing male, you know that, but Aidan was always meant to be mine.” He put his
hand on Col’s forearm and squeezed. “You and I, we’re friends. And believe
me,
I appreciate having you as a friend.”

“So do
I
.” The
other mer nodded slowly. “Well, then. As your friend, it’s my duty to help you
track down your mates.
Both of them.”

“I appreciate the offer, but the tritons
won’t let me leave the council chambers.
Mother’s orders.”

A sly smile crossed Col’s face. “It’s a
good thing I was never as obedient as you.”

****

“Father said that the council had this
built after the Black Wave uprisings,” Col said, edging down a narrow tunnel
carved into the bedrock. “After the First Elder was killed, the rest of the
council wanted a bolt hole in case the rebels stormed the chambers.”

Liam followed the other mer, grateful
for the dim lamps that glowed feebly at intervals, illuminating the rough-hewn
walls. Their tridents bumped it occasionally as they kicked along. “I had no
idea this was here.”

“I’m not surprised. Your mother likes to
keep people bottled up where she can use them. If you knew this was here—”

“I’d be able to get out,” Liam finished
bleakly.
“Gods.
Was I really that blind?”

The other mer glanced over his shoulder.
“She’s your mother, Li. No one wants to think badly of their parents. But I’m
happy you have Aidan and Nick now. You deserve a life of your own.”

The tunnel began a gentle curve upward,
ending at a barred circular gate. Col undid the simple bolt and slipped out,
and Liam followed. They were now in a narrow alleyway in the grotto’s
manufacturing section.

“Where to now?”
Liam asked.

Col squinted upwards at the grotto’s
central exit.
“Not that way, obviously.
Your mother
has rangers guarding it, and they may have gotten the order to keep you in.
We’ll take the worker’s route topside.”

They kept to the alleyways until they
reached the wall of the cavern. A wide tunnel opening there was big enough to
allow four mers abreast through it. To Liam’s relief it had neither ranger nor
triton guard. They swam up, prepared for a fast dash through the vertical
tunnel to open water.

“Councilor.”

Liam whirled. Kasos floated in the
doorway to one of the warehouses, trident at the ready. “I believe Lady Eine
requested that you remain in the council chambers,” the triton commander said.

Liam bristled. “She did. I am not
honoring her request.”

“Forgive me. Her order,” Kasos
clarified, swimming over. “She was quite specific. You’re to remain safely
under guard until this situation is resolved.”

“I repeat
,
I am
not honoring it.” He gripped his own trident more firmly. “One of my mates was
kidnapped by that wounded ilkothella, and the other is tracking them.” He
hoped. “I will not sit by and do nothing while the males I love are in danger.”

“Commander, please,” Colm said in a
conciliatory tone. “There’s absolutely nothing useful that the counselor can do
here. Lady Eine has given him frankly insulting makework.”

“Be that as it may, I have my orders.”
Kasos shook his head. “I’m truly sorry, councilor, but I can’t let you go after
your mates.”

Liam thought quickly. There had to be
some way to trump his mother’s order. “What was my mother’s order?
Word for word.”

“That you were to be kept under guard and
away from danger until we determined what happened at the transfer station.”

And there was his loophole. “But there
was nothing specific about me staying in the grotto?”

The triton’s
mouth quirked.
“No, councilor.
As a matter of fact, there wasn’t.”

“So if you come with me, I’ll be under
guard, yes?”

“Yes, but you’re forgetting about the
second half of the order. You’re to be kept away from danger.”

“I understand,” Liam said triumphantly.
“In which case, commander, I want you to escort me to safety. Take me to Lord
Bythos’s cove.”

****

Nick estimated that the interior of the
sunken ship had been cleared out fairly decently, judging from the varying
thicknesses of algae on the walls and the scrapes of clean metal he could see
here and there.

He drifted along behind Thetis, who
still held the Rod. Halkyone swam at his back, pushing him along when he
slowed. The Nereid turned and gave him another horrible smile as she ducked
through a rusted hatchway. The ilkothella prodded him to follow.

The new room, one of the cargo holds
from the size of it, was lit with the same kind of glowing globes he’d seen in
the mer grotto. Arrayed along one wall were a series of screened boxes and a
variety of cages.

In each cage floated a mermaid.

“I was so lucky to find this ship,”
Thetis said conversationally, drifting over to the cages. The mermaids shrank
from her approach, squeezing into the far corners of their cells. “Apparently
this vessel had been used to transport animals before it sank. The creatures
died along with the crew, of course, but their former cages have proved to be
quite useful.”

She snapped her fingers, and an
ilkothella lurking in the corner swam up to her.
“The one on
the far end.
Bring her to me. And no biting.”

The ilkothella made a clumsy sort of
bow, clawed hands crossed over its chest. To Nick’s surprise, the female it
pulled out of the far cage was no mermaid. Humanoid, she had long flowing green
hair and large blue eyes, and her skin was softly mottled with the two colors.
She seemed torn between fear and anger, fighting the ilkothella’s grip as it
towed her forward.

“This is Claire, a minor sea goddess,”
Thetis said with relish. “Her charge is protecting sailors who serve in human
navies and do battle on the seas. Quite a feisty little thing, I have to say. I
think she’ll do rather nicely for this experiment.”

The word “experiment” made him
go
cold. “My lady, please, you don’t have to do this,” he
begged.

“Oh, but that isn’t the scientific
method, is it?”
Thetis tutted.
“One must develop a
hypothesis, then perform experiments based on that hypothesis and record the
results. How else are we to learn how to use this wonderful world around us?”
She tapped the Rod against her decaying lips. “My goal, you see, is to create
intelligent minions in my own image. The ilkothelloi were only the first step.
They’re useful in their own way, but far too stupid for anything but shock
troops. I need officers now, creatures that can not only follow orders but give
them to the lower ranks.”

Another snap and the ilkothella dragged
Claire before the Nereid. The mottled goddess bared white teeth at her captor.
“Try what you might, I will never bow to you,” she snarled.

“We’ll see about that.” To Nick’s horror
Thetis lunged forward and sank her teeth into Claire’s shoulder. The goddess
screamed, trying to writhe away from the bite, but Thetis held firm for a full
five seconds.
She finally unlatched, grey tongue snaking
across her teeth and licking away the blood.
“Put her back.”

The ilkothella dragged the keening
goddess back to her cage. Nick could see blood streaming from the deep bite on
her shoulder as she curled in on herself, moaning in pain.

“I’ve infected her with a new strain of
my venom, the same kind that created my lovely Halkyone,” Thetis said, holding
up the Rod. “You, Bearer, shall use this and track how the venom moves through
her body and changes her into her new form. I want a full and detailed report
on every change, do you understand?”

Nick stared at the poisoned goddess,
then at the Rod, and finally at Thetis. “And if I say no?”

Suddenly her hand was around his neck,
clamping down in a strangling squeeze. “Listen very closely, Bearer,” Thetis
crooned, foul breath coursing into his face. “The only reason why you are still
alive is that your precious Rod won’t respond to me. Thus, I need you to use it
as I direct. That being said, I only need your mouth and perhaps one hand for
that to happen. I’m more than happy to let Halkyone nibble on your other limbs,
not to mention various body parts you hold dear as a male, should you continue
to be obstreperous. Do I make myself clear?”

The squeeze eased up a fraction. “Yes,”
Nick choked out.

“Excellent.” And the hand was gone. He
hunched over, coughing and trying to draw water past his abused throat. The Rod
was thrust into his hands, and he grabbed the end of it, not wanting to touch
any more of Thetis’s skin than he already had. “Remember, the more detailed
your report, the less likely it is that my handmaiden will be dining on you
tonight,” Thetis added.

The Nereid swept out of the room, her
lumbering handmaiden in her wake. Wincing from the pain in his throat, Nick
kicked his way over to the row of cages. The trapped mermaids stared at him,
eyes dull and hopeless.

In the last cage, Claire clung to the
bars with her uninjured hand, the other one held tightly against her bitten
shoulder. “My name’s Nick—I’m a doctor,” he said quickly. “How deep is the bite?”

“Deep,” Claire said through clenched
teeth. “Gaia, it hurts.”

“Okay, I’m going to try and help you.” He
held up the Rod.
Pythia?

The tiny gold snake lifted its head.
I’m
here, Nicholas. Thank you for reclaiming me from that foul creature.

You’re welcome.
I need to look at Claire’s shoulder.

His mind cleared, and an image of
humanoid shoulder anatomy appeared. Black streaks were already snaking down
from the wound, infiltrating the goddess’s bloodstream with the venom.
We need to stop this stuff. Is there any way
we can do that?

The image in his mind abruptly
magnified, showing a black film being sucked into a softly pulsing vein.
The
Nereid chose well. If she’d bitten a limb, we could have amputated to stop the
venom from spreading.

He grimaced.
Not like I have surgical tools anyway.

Indeed. This venom is similar to the
venom you found in the ilkothella named Halkyone.
Very
powerful, very potent.
The snake
flicked her tongue.
It seems to be directed, somehow. It’s not simply infiltrating her
circulatory system.

Nick cursed.
So Thetis is controlling it somehow. Can we block her control?

Unlikely—we don’t know how she is doing
it. Stopping the venom is also unlikely. If Claire were a mortal, we could
possibly enlist her immune system to fight it off, but immortals have no need
for immune systems.

Is there
anything you can do?

I can analyze, interpret, and diagnose,
Nicholas, but I do not have the power to directly affect a patient.
Pythia’s voice was sad.
That
came from Asclepius. I am merely a tool.

He cursed again, zooming out. Claire was
still clinging to the bars of her cage, but she now looked drawn. He could see
black streaks trailing down through the skin of her shoulder from the bite.

“Well?” the goddess asked, pained.

“We don’t know how to counteract the
venom,” he admitted. “You being divine
is
actually
working against you in this case. Is there any chance that you can stop this?”

“How?”

“I don’t know—use your goddess mojo or
something.”

Surprisingly, the corners of her mouth
tipped up just a bit.
“Haven’t heard that word since the
1970s, human.”
The smile disappeared. “I don’t have the gift of healing,
but if you tell me what to do I might be able to direct my power inward.”

“Works for me.”
He zoomed back
in, tracking the course of the venom. “Picture your body in your mind. Threads
of thick, sticky blackness are stretching out from your left shoulder, crawling
through your cells and into your bloodstream. You need to find it all and force
it back up to the wound on your shoulder, out of your body.”