Chapter Fourteen #2
After gorging himself on her and then breakfast. Jaykun followed Jileana out of the cave and, with a harrowing dive off the cliff face, into the water.
As they swam downward, Jileana changed back and forth between woman and selkie seal, playfully swimming across his path each time she did.
She was quite beautiful in both forms, Jaykun thought.
Her body was sleek and dynamic, fast and incredible.
He found himself thinking how easily he could get used to her being around.
But he quashed the thought instantly. They were from different worlds.
He could never live in this world and she would not likely want to live in his.
And in any event, in both worlds he was a cursed man.
A man with a mission in life that did not leave room for things like relationships with women.
As it was, he was letting things get too far out of hand, letting his desire to be around her cloud his better judgment and get in the way of his goals.
Now his brothers would have to cope with the aftermath of his rash choices.
They would be forced to wait another three weeks for the moon to come full before they could go home to their families for the winter.
He felt very guilty about that actually.
He had been selfish and his brothers would pay the price for it.
He wasn’t kidding himself any longer. He had come here under the guise of diplomacy, but the truth was, he had not wanted to leave Jileana’s company.
He had not yet been prepared to do that.
Their time together had been too short. But now he would have her for the better part of a month, until the week of the full moon, and he found himself glad of it.
He should feel worse for it, he supposed, but he couldn’t make himself hang his head with heavy regret.
He enjoyed being with her too much to come by too much guilt honestly.
They went deep into the water, but he did not feel the pressure of it.
He should have, but he didn’t. He imagined that the sea witch’s spell must have something to do with it.
As they went down, they passed a great many other people.
To his shock, there were more than just selkies.
There were morari and mermaids and mermen.
When they reached the seabed, there was a vast plain of white sands that led to a golden gate.
They swam through the gate and along a busy byway toward a huge coral reef.
Only this coral had been shaped like a castle, built and grown into grand rooms and apartments, more of the caves dotted along every inch of it.
There were selkies everywhere and all of them turned to watch him go by with more than a little curiosity.
A selkie in human form looked no different to him from a human, but they had no such trouble telling that he was not a selkie.
“It’s your smell,” Jileana said when he remarked upon it.
“Mychal?”
“Your smell. Selkies have a very sensitive sense of smell and we know what other selkies smell like. You smell human. It’s not a bad thing”—she laughed when he gave her a look—“just different.”
“Oh. Good. I was worried I was offending people for a minute there.”
“Well, to be honest there are those who will be offended by your presence. Some selkies are purists. They think humans are trouble and they should be kept away from us at all costs. It is why we do not often allow humans to come to our world.”
“Have you … have you done something you will get in trouble for?” he asked her.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said. “You are here to see the empress on a matter of diplomacy. You made the request. How can I refuse it? I really don’t have the authority to decide who should or should not see the empress.
That is for her alone to decide. If she finds you offensive, she will send you away herself. ”
“Wonderful,” he said dryly. “So she might kick me out the moment she lays eyes on me?”
“She might, but I doubt it. Our empress has always had a fascination with humans. I think she will be entertained by you.”
“I hope so,” he replied.
“Well, you are about to find out,” she said as they neared a soaring archway.
On either side of the archway were guards, each armed with swords of what looked like sharpened shell.
They were long and curved and very deadly looking.
Even being immortal as Jaykun was, he did not like the idea of being on the receiving end of such a weapon.
The guards swam forward and impeded their progress.
“What is your business here?” one demanded gruffly.
“This man wishes an audience with the empress,” Jileana said firmly.
The guard laughed. “Everyone wishes an audience with the empress. What makes a human so special that our empress would want to bother with him?”
“It is not for you to decide whether he is special enough to see her. He is here on a matter of diplomacy. He is to be treated like any other ambassador and be given all the same courtesies.”
“It is our job to make certain no one wastes the empress’s valuable time.” The guard sneered at them. “And I say no human deserves that time.”
“And when I tell my father, the captain of the empress’s guard, that you refused to let his daughter pass into the empress’s hall, what do you think he will say?”
The guard seemed to blanch at that. The second guard gave the first guard a shove in the arm.
“Idiot,” he said. “I am sorry, Jileana. He does not recognize you. He is new to this watch. Be warned, however. The empress is not in the best of moods today. But perhaps you will provide some entertainment for her,” he said thoughtfully as he gave Jaykun a once-over.
“I don’t know if I should take that encouragingly or not,” Jaykun said dryly in response.
“Come on,” Jileana said, urging him forward. “There is only one way to find out.”
With that, they swam past the guards and into the empress’s great hall.
The room was filled with people, all of them congregating in groups.
But almost every conversation stopped as Jileana and Jaykun passed.
They proceeded to the head of the room, where a woman was swimming back and forth in an agitated sort of pacing as a man spoke to her from a distance of about ten feet.
“No!” she said suddenly and sharply. “I have had enough of Horgon’s excuses! Tell him he is to come to me immediately or risk my unending wrath! I will not stand for this!”
“But … Your Majesty … Horgon is a true and loyal subject. He would never do anything to incur such a negative emotion. He only wishes to please you in all things,” the man said, bowing his head to her.
“Ha! He only wishes to give me pains in the stomach! He wishes to be emperor himself! I know he plots my downfall every chance he gets. Tell Horgon to appear here before me by tomorrow evening or I will have him dragged here in rusted chains!”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Of course, Your Majesty, he will make every effort to please you. I shall have him sent for immediately.”
“See that you do!” she snapped. Then she waved him off with a sharp motion of her hand. After a moment her attention drifted toward Jileana and Jaykun. “What is this?” she asked with a frown.
“Majesty,” Jileana said, swimming forward. “This man is Jaykun, the ruler of many cities in the human world. He has come with a request, if you are so inclined to hear it.”
The empress’s brow rose. “You have come to a very strange world, human. Not many have the bravery for such an adventure. I will hear your request since you have come so far to make it.”
“Majesty,” Jaykun said, “I come with a personal request from Weysa.”
There were gasps and laughter from the room around them. The empress joined with a laugh of her own.
“You speak for a goddess?” she asked.
“I do,” Jaykun said. “I am Weysa’s champion.
I have been sworn to do as she bids me and she bids me to bring word of her to every land I go to.
My request is simple. Weysa asks that you remember her.
That you remember conflict is the predecessor to peace.
That all problems are resolved through her.
She asks that you remember her in temples and prayers to her. ”
The empress looked at him intently for a long moment as she digested this. “And how do I know you speak the truth? How do I know you are truly Weysa’s champion? For all I know you are just a human man with delusions of grandeur.”
Jaykun was silent for a moment, then he looked around the room. He saw a guard standing beside the empress’s dais and went over to him. He spied a dagger at his belt—one made of the same sharpened shell.
“May I use your dagger?” At the guard’s dubious look, Jaykun promised, “I mean no one any harm. You may stand behind me with your sword at the ready if it pleases you. I will remain at a distance from your empress.”
The guard looked at the empress and she gave him a nod.
The guard removed the dagger from his belt and handed it to Jaykun.
Then the guard drew his sword, coming to stand behind Jaykun, the weapon at the ready.
Jaykun kept a respectful distance from the empress but stood where she could easily see him.
“If I prove I am who I say I am, then will you heed the words of my goddess?” he asked her.
“If you can prove it, I will weigh your words most seriously,” she assured him.
“Very well.”
With a powerful movement, Jaykun stabbed the dagger into his chest and into his heart.
The entire audience reacted in shock as he yanked the blade out and a cloud of red blood swelled within the water.
Jaykun threw the blade down to the sandy floor and looked at the empress.
She was wide-eyed with shock and surprise.
She waited for several beats of his heart before she realized he wasn’t going to fall aside and die before her.
“Remarkable,” she said after a moment. “You cannot be killed?”