Chapter Eight.
Willow
H undreds of Atlanteans, all looking similar to the captured merman, appeared. But what horrified her was they all rode enslaved dragons. Those on dragons formed lines on both sides of the gates while merman without mounts swam out armed to the teeth with weapons.
They created rows in front of the dragon riders while, finally, from the gate, spilt archers who took their places at the front. They all wore silver armour, a feathered helmet like the Romans, and a silver cloak.
From what Willow could see, they all held tridents and swords, apart from the archers who carried a crossbow. They had knives in their belts, and Willow saw some carrying what looked like laser guns.
Others held thin rods, which made no sense to Willow. It should have taken ages for the ranks to form, but Willow doubted that even half an hour had passed.
Willow glanced at Poseidon, whose face was full of anger. He rose from his throne and seemed to grow before Willow’s eyes.
“You have a minute to release those innocents enslaved by you before you all pay the price,” Poseidon roared.
There was silence, and then jeers returned from the army, which Willow reckoned numbers at least five thousand. The noise was deafening, but Poseidon held firm. Willow started worrying. There were so many enemies and so few of them. She was about to order her court to flee while she remained behind when Poseidon slashed a hand out, and everyone fell quiet… and not by choice.
Willow could see each of those who’d been jeering clasp their throats as they tried to speak out but couldn’t.
“General Rychill. Approach the front,” Poseidon ordered. A merman swam forward, not on a dragon, and Willow wondered why. He was clad in gold armour, gleaming in the city’s lights.
“We no longer recognise the law of Poseidon. He had been too busy lately with his own concerns. Siera, Queen of Atlantis, has been meditating the problems of the Seas and Oceans. Therefore, The Atlantis claims the title Queen of the Seas and Oceans as your rightful mate,” General Rychill announced.
Poseidon snickered, and Willow agreed. For all his words, General Rychill did not agree with what he’d just spoken.
“The punishment for treason is to be expelled from the waters and returned to land. Take that to Siera and return with her answer,” Poseidon said.
“The Atlantis expected such threats, and her reply is, you have no power over Atlantis anymore. She begs you to leave rather than face disgrace and defeat. The Atlantis wishes no bloodshed to be spilt and asks you to take the sea creatures with you. But the human stays. The Atlantis wants to punish her for the audacity to claim to be your mate. The Atlantis is the true one and, therefore, Queen of the Seas and Oceans,” General Rychill stated.
Poseidon extended his hand and questioned, “Really?”
Willow watched as nothing happened at first, and the mermen began to laugh at him.
Moments later, a tremble shook the water.
Willow looked around her. It hadn’t been a big tremor, and those facing them remained chuckling, but then there was a second, and Willow felt it more keenly.
Those laughing stopped and started looking, too. Their eyes widened as a light emerged from Poseidon and spread out.
A heavy weight lifted from Willow, and she frowned as sea life suddenly appeared. Whales, dolphins, sharks, eels, jellyfish, and many different fish came from the darkness.
“When I first embarked on my dive, I lessened the pressure by easing the water density and called for witnesses. They have come,” Poseidon said.
“We are here,” the sea life replied as one.
“I call you all to witness. I offer Atlantis one last chance to surrender or face charges of treason, enslavement, inciting war, and, finally, murder. Should you continue to resist, the punishment will be as agreed as when you first descended and was recorded by King Atlantis himself. I shall return those guilty to the land,” Poseidon stated.
Jeers met his words, and Willow wondered at the sheer idiocy and arrogance of those facing them.
It never crossed her mind to doubt if Poseidon had control over the issue, even though she worried her court might be injured.
General Rychill swam forward. The look on his face was apologetic. “I am sorry, Sire. These are my queen’s orders. We will not retreat or submit ourselves to your tyrannical rule any further. Leave before we are forced to take you captive and put your alleged mate on trial.”
Poseidon nodded. “You have all witnessed. Atlantis was offered surrender and chose war.”
General Rychill retook his place, in front and higher than his soldiers, and dropped a command. Arrows raced towards us, and Willow flinched slightly. Poseidon held his hand up and closed his fist.
Despite being in mermonster form, his face was remarkably placid, Willow thought as she watched. The arrows hit a hard wall of water and then fell to the seabed.
Willow’s gaze followed them with a smile. That was a hell of a handy trick, and she wanted to learn it. Another flurry of projectiles headed towards them, accompanied by yellow rays of light.
“Yellow means cause pain and incapacitate,” Lyris said with hate in his voice.
“You’ve felt them,” Willow replied, knowing instantly he had.
“Yes.”
“I want to stab them all with cattle prods,” Willow hissed.
Poseidon turned his head. “I shall arrange that, mate.”
“Not your mate, and I’m not giving my powers up,” Willow snarled, and Poseidon laughed.
“Not the time or place for this argument,” he stated as a third barrage of arrows leapt towards them, followed by sickly green lights.
“Green means render unconscious by causing too much pain,” Lyris growled and snapped his teeth at the mermen.
“Bastards!” Willow hissed as she watched General Rychill bellow commands.
The archers started peeling off and forming behind the captured slaves of the Sea Dragons.
As they formed ranks, they fired at will.
But Willow was more interested in Poseidon’s actions. He’d raised his other hand now and was holding it palm open.
General Rychill bellowed an attack order, and the front rows of foot soldiers charged forward.
Poseidon shook his head and slowly closed his fists.
Willow could make out a second line of hardened water before the foot soldiers clashed into it. They were shouting and roaring and hacking at it with their weapons.
What nobody apart from Willow saw was the wall moved to encircle them. Willow stared, enraptured, as it formed a square around them and pressed in from each side.
The first inkling something was wrong that anybody received was when they began pressing against each other.
“Attack!” General Rychill screamed as he watched his foot soldiers imprisoned.
The mermen riding Sea Dragons raced forward, and Poseidon turned his head to stare at them.
There was a flurry of movement and hundreds of Sword Fish, Sword Sharks, Blue Marlins, and Sail Fish darted towards them. They used their noses to cut the gold chains on the captured Sea Dragons.
The mermen fought back, trying to kill them, but the fish were too fast and agile. Within minutes, there was pandemonium as Sea Dragons freed themselves and retaliated on their captors.
With huge roars, Sea Dragons took their angst out on those around them.
Chaos hit the well-formed lines, and the archers made a break for it, only to find themselves dragged backwards and slammed into another prison. Willow’s gaze flew from one scene to the next.
“Red is dead,” Lyris murmured at her side.
And indeed, there were now mixed green and red bolts of energy hitting random Atlanteans. Flashes of light bounced off the walls where the imprisoned foot soldiers were and hit their own people, knocking them unconscious or killing them.
And the walls still continued to close in on them, making them like sardines in a tin.
Willow’s gaze turned to the archers who were firing bolts with similar coloured lights at their walls and getting no further than their brethren.
They’d stopped using arrows or cross bolts and were throwing small cylinders, which Willow guessed contained the same energy as the rods.
Their aim was just as bad as that of their counterparts. They could not penetrate the solid wall of water and struck their own men.
“Stop! Cease all actions!” General Rychill yelled as he watched his soldiers collapse as their own people took them out.
Willow shook her head in disbelief. It was a total shit show, and she wondered how they’d managed to conquer the Sea Dragons. And then she remembered the kidnapped princess.
The mermen riding the dragons were now encased in their own prison.
Willow saw a few who’d escaped racing back to the city, no doubt to inform the mysterious Siera of their failure. Above them, struggling and raging, was the merman who’d tried to kidnap her.
Panic, confusion, hatred, and sheer anger filtered through the water and touched her.
Willow stretched out her fingers and moved them through the ripples, wondering at her new ability to sense such things. The current was almost talking to her, and Willow’s eyes widened in wonderment.
She glanced up and saw Poseidon watching her closely.
“The ocean is speaking to you,” he said, and Willow nodded.
“I can feel their emotions. Is that normal?” she asked.
“No idea. I’ve never had a mate before,” Poseidon replied.
Willow noticed the flash of amusement in his eyes as she hotly retorted, “Not your mate!”
Sounds of drums and trumpets came from the city, and Poseidon glanced over. His gaze narrowed on a small figure riding a sapphire dragon.
Lyris hissed in sheer anger.
“Princess Marcina,” he spat as the dragon neared.
Willow noted how the dragon sagged, beaten and defenceless against a cruel dictator who swept triumphantly into view.
“Release my men, Poseidon!” Siera demanded.
Willow’s eyes widened. Siera looked human apart from her tail. She glanced across at Poseidon, confused.
“As part of the evolution, they can shapeshift,” he explained in an aside. “I answer to no man or woman, Siera. You would do well to remember that. You have one choice: surrender, or I return Atlantis to the surface,” he said to Siera.
A tinkling laugh floated to us, and Willow wondered about Siera’s mentality.
Surrounding Siera were six guards, all heavily armed and in merman form. Siera, however, clearly wanted to stand out and wished for Willow to see her beauty.
Because she was stunningly beautiful, even if she was a nutjob, Willow decided. She also carried a sword and a sceptre in her left hand, and her crown was gold with pearls and emeralds.
“Don’t threaten me, Poseidon; you are not the power here,” Siera laughed, thrusting a mer-hip out.
Willow scowled. This mermaid had a screw loose.
“I charge you with treason, enslavement, inciting a war and murder. And you’ll release the Princess Marcina immediately,” Poseidon ordered.
Siera ran a possessive hand down her captive’s head.
“No, I don’t think I will. See, I did something you couldn’t manage. I enslaved the Sea Dragons. They answer to me, Poseidon. You may have freed them from their pearls, but I still command Marcina, and they will not risk harm to her,” Siera sang out.
“God, what a bitch,” Willow murmured.
“I’ll not repeat myself again. This is on your head,” Poseidon said and snapped his fingers.
Instantly, everyone held captive turned into humans, two legs and everything.
Siera stared open-mouthed as they started choking in their prisons.
The water began draining out soon after, and they all pushed upwards, gasping for air. Willow was unsure where to look as thousands of penises confronted her. Well, she did, but thousands of them were overwhelming.
“Change them back!” Siera screamed as she brought her sceptre down on Marcina’s head.
The dragon flinched as Siera hit her again.
“Enough!” Poseidon roared and, using the water, dragged Siera from Marcina’s back.
Willow shot forward as Siera struggled against Poseidon’s command of the ocean.
Willow reached the wounded dragon and winced at seeing blue blood dripping from the wound.
Angrily, Willow yanked against the golden chain and wrestled to remove the pearl. A light tap on her shoulder made her glance backwards, and a swordfish waited beside her. He tapped his sharpened rostral bone against the gold chain, and Willow let go.
Within seconds, he’d cut through the links, and Willow was yanking the chain off Marcina.
As it sank to the sea, Lyris crowded in, crooning and licking the wound.
Willow’s eyes widened as the cut began to close and heal. There was a flurry of bubbles, and then Marcina shifted into a human form with gills.
Willow stared at her in surprise.
“I am weak,” she muttered, stretching a hand out to Lyris.
He immediately bent to her, and she climbed on him.
Willow glanced at the pale girl with long silver hair streaked with blue that fell to her waist. Large sapphire eyes gazed calmly back at her on a heart-shaped face. Her form was wrapped in a loose-fitting dress that floated on the ocean’s current.
Anger built in Willow until it exploded.
“A child?” she screamed, almost tearing her throat. “You kidnapped and enslaved a kid?”
Willow’s horrified gaze swept from Marcina to Siera, who looked bored with everything.
Marcina was no older than thirteen and in a fragile condition. She was all skin and bones, and her pale skin had bruises everywhere. It was clear her captivity had been brutal.
“Challenge.” The word floated on the current, and Willow cocked her head.
Poseidon exclaimed, alarm in his voice. “I forbid—”
“I challenge you, Siera, to a duel,” Willow said simultaneously.
“No!” Poseidon roared.
“Accepted!” Siera almost crowed.
Poseidon shot forward, grabbed Siera by the throat, and threw her against the walls of the city. Intent on his mate, Poseidon ignored the hisses around him as he dragged her close.
“What are you doing? She is a warrior, trained to fight long before you were born,” he hissed.
“She needs a beat down!” Willow snapped.
“And you are going to give it to her? Somebody who’s never fought in the ocean before. Siera knows every trick in the book, and you’re a mere babe,” Poseidon replied.
“Well, you wanted rid of me,” Willow retorted.
A part of her puffed up that Poseidon was so worried about her. The other half was furious that he didn’t think she could hold her own.
Willow had grown up learning a few tricks, tricks the sea people wouldn’t see coming. She could fight as dirty as Fish Face opposite her.
Willow laughed when Siera shifted into her other mermaid form. It was as scaly and ugly as the rest of them.
“Is that meant to frighten me?” Willow asked, drifting down to the seabed. “I’ve faced him in a mood.” Willow pointed over her shoulder at Poseidon, who loudly huffed, but it was absent of any bad vibe.
“Come on then, bitch,” Willow taunted, beckoning to Siera.
Siera exploded into an outburst of movement and used her powerful fin to speedily head towards Willow.
Willow waited until the last moment and pushed herself to one side, so Siera shot past her. A tingling sensation hit her hand, and Willow gave into it and was surprised when a golden trident appeared. A quick inspection showed Willow it was a smaller version of Poseidon’s.
Ripples in the current alerted Willow that Siera was heading for her again. Willow pushed upwards this time, and her trident caught Siera’s shoulder as the mermaid slapped upwards with her tail.
She missed hitting Willow, but the force of the wave sent Willow tumbling through the water. Siera crowed loudly as Willow landed in a crouch on the ocean floor.
Willow knew she had to end this quickly. Poseidon was right; she had no experience fighting in the sea, and while she knew she could win on dirty tricks, Siera would outlast her in stamina.
She swept her hand down in the sand and rose with the trident before her. Siera was already coming at her when Willow gained her feet, spotted yellow eyes flashing in anger, and threw the sand at them.
Siera reared back with a scream as Willow stabbed forward and speared Siera’s shoulder with the trident. The trident blew Siera backwards and pinned her to the ground. The roars of the Atlanteans died as they watched in disbelief at their fallen ruler.
“I win. Does that mean I get to decide their punishment?” Willow asked a stunned Poseidon.
His mouth had flapped open, and his reddened eyes stared at her.
“I do not concede,” Siera gasped as she struggled to free the trident.
Willow looked at her, picked up a rock, and swam over to her.
“I’d love to stamp on your head like you hit Marcina, but this’ll do,” Willow stated, bringing the rock down Siera’s head.
A variety of emotions trickled through the currents as Willow stood victor.
“Their punishment is to be banished to the surface with their merform intact. But they’ll never swim freely in the ocean again, as all Seas and Oceans will reject them,” Poseidon stated.
“Not all of them are guilty,” Willow said, her eyes on General Rychill.
Poseidon followed her gaze. “No?” he asked softly.
“No. He had no choice. Siera threatened his family with death. The currents tell his story. And many of the soldiers had similar threats levelled against them. Oh, quite a few are guilty of treason and the other charges, but not all,” Willow replied as she twisted her head to study the captives.
“I am perfectly happy to send Atlantis back to the surface,” Poseidon stated, crossing his arms.
“But you don’t punish innocents. I know that’s a fact. You’re fair, Poseidon, to your people, and these are yours; even if some were treasonous, not all were,” Willow argued.
“Fine, I’m not sitting in judgement. You will. But she goes and is locked into a two-legged shape,” he demanded, pointing at Siera.
“Lock her form, but we don’t get to judge her. The Sea Dragons do. She committed a crime against their kind. They get first dibs at her,” Willow decided.
“Sure!”
“Good!”
Willow looked around. “What a mess, where do we start?”
“By getting Rychill to order the rest of the troops inside the city to step down or face banishment. Then take the throne of Atlantis, or nobody will believe you have the right to hand judgment down upon them,” Marcina added as Lyris came closer.
“We need to contact your parents,” Willow muttered.
“They are already here. They were the first to surrender and the first to die,” Marcina said, her gaze on the statues that were covered in dragon scales.
“No!” Willow gasped, horrified.
“Yes. I am the Queen of the Sea Dragons now. And I will call you a friend,” Marcina stated.
“I am so sorry,” Willow murmured, tears forming in her eyes as she reached out and hugged the young queen.
Protocol be damned.
That child needed a cuddle!
Poseidon/Jase
He watched as Willow embraced Marcina and marvelled at her empathy. It would never have crossed his mind to offer Marcina a hug. Nor would he have considered giving Siera to the Sea Dragons.
Poseidon’s heart ached a little more now he knew whose scales adjourned the monuments Siera had raised of herself.
Molun had been a good king and Bellaine an amazing queen.
All that remained of their legacy was Marcina.
What Willow didn’t understand was that dragons aged slower than any other creature walking the planet.
Because of their high intelligence and ability to perform magic, dragons aged at a reduced speed to absorb the needed knowledge. Marcina was technically thirteen in human years, but she was actually sixty-five. Sea Dragons aged one year to the humans five.
Even so, Marcina was mature for her age compared to other teenagers, but she was still a child. A regent would need to be appointed. Then again, maybe not. He reconsidered as Marcina’s eyes narrowed on Siera.
Beside her, watching was the royal guard or what was left of them. Poseidon noticed a few faces missing.
Marcina would be safe and grow into her own in time, but the loss of her parents would deeply mark her.
Hate swirled in Poseidon as he regarded Siera. She was truly disturbed and demented. He wondered when it occurred.
Poseidon hadn’t visited for a while, and his visits were always brief, but how could he have missed this? It had not changed overnight. And when had she decided she was his mate, his equal? Poseidon wanted answers. This would not be allowed to happen again.