Chapter Thirty-Three
ADRIAN
Once again, Adrian found himself in the rowing boat, searching for peace away from the Lion of Helios. Enzo had ruined his favourite damned trousers.
Adrian sighed, lying back and letting the ocean waves lull him.
‘Rough night?’
He jumped, the boat rocking dramatically.
‘I wish you would announce yourself in a more normal manner,’ he hissed, gripping the edge of the boat until the rocking had subsided and he could reach for the blindfold.
He saw only the tip of the mermaid’s tail before his world went black.
‘Unless you want me to turn to salt, that is.’
The mermaid chuckled, sounding closer. ‘It would be a shame, considering how handsome you are.’
Adrian suddenly forgot what he had been annoyed about.
‘You know, human custom dictates that you introduce yourself before scaring the life out of someone. You seem to know everything about me, but I don’t even know your name.’
There was a pause. ‘Oceanne,’ she replied.
‘Oceanne,’ Adrian repeated, smiling as he lay down. It was a beautiful name. ‘How is the water, Oceanne?’
There was a sigh. ‘Still sick. More cases of poisoning are reaching the shores. Even the fish aren’t safe to eat any more. There is havoc in both Neptuna and Altalune. It’s putting people out of work.’
Adrian nodded. He was not surprised. His kingdom especially made much of its money from fishing.
‘So I take it it’s dried beef and pork for me from now on.’
‘Indeed,’ the mermaid replied. ‘I heard it’s spread to other kingdoms too. Something of a plague seems to be sweeping Asteria, affecting only the shadowmancers. The reports of madness have soared.’
Adrian thought of Elara, of the illness she had mentioned and her reason for travelling to Altalune.
‘You aren’t far from the healing kingdom now, are you?’ Oceanne said as though reading his mind. ‘You’ll let me know if you find a cure, won’t you?’
‘If you wish it,’ Adrian said, surprised. ‘I didn’t realize a mythas would care.’
‘Is that what the stories say? That we are all heartless, immoral creatures?’
He thought back to the infamous fable that every child in Celestia knew growing up. ‘Well…yes.’
‘The mythas are noble,’ she replied tightly.
‘And do…do the others exist?’ When he thought of the magickal creatures, it seemed too far a stretch despite him speaking to a literal mermaid.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Though they hid when the Stars began to rule the world.’
Adrian frowned. ‘You mean the mythas are older than the Stars? I thought the Stars created everything as we know it?’
‘I shouldn’t have said that,’ the mermaid replied hurriedly.
‘No,’ Adrian said, sitting up. ‘Tell me more. I’m not a devout man.’
‘Then you just haven’t met the right deity to worship,’ came the teasing reply, and, damn it all, Adrian wasn’t sure if he had his near celibacy to blame—two weeks and counting—or if it was the mermaid’s enticing magick, but he felt a tingle of desire awaken in him just at her words.
‘The mythas roamed, along with other beings, before the Stars ruled,’ she whispered, and Adrian settled back again as she told her story, ignoring the desire that her sultry tone had sparked.
‘Beings that have been eradicated from texts, entire libraries containing knowledge of them stolen in the night.’
‘And what were these beings called?’
‘Celestes,’ came the soft reply.
Adrian sounded out the word, lovely and foreign on his tongue.
‘The mythas protected the land and the skies. Some were even tamed by the Celestes.’
‘And how many Celestes were there, exactly?’
‘Three above and three below,’ the mermaid replied wistfully.
‘Did they have names?’
‘Mm-hmm,’ she replied. ‘The three that ruled below were the Air, the Water and the Earth.’
It was just another story of Creation. The same had been said of Aquaria, Scorpius, Leyon and Verra—that they’d gifted the elemental kingdoms with magick—though Adrian didn’t believe it.
‘And the ones who ruled above?’
‘They were called the Sun, the Moon and the Dark.’
Adrian scrambled up. He’d been indulging the mermaid up until now, half convinced her words were just another story.
‘Wait, what did you just say? The moon?’ Adrian demanded. ‘You mean that orb in the sky?’ The others may have been fanciful tales, he’d thought, but the moon had just appeared.
‘Why, yes. And what do you think the fiery ball of light in the day is?’
‘The sun?’ Adrian asked incredulously.
The mermaid made a sound of agreement.
‘So you’re telling me that isn’t just a story?’ he demanded. ‘That these beings truly did exist?’
‘Of course,’ she replied incredulously. ‘Just like the Stars have their heavenly bodies, so do the Celestes.’
A hundred questions fought for dominance, but his mind snagged on one in particular.
‘And that third upper Celeste? The Dark?’
She sighed. ‘The Dark…is something we all feared. Something that mortals—even to this day, even though you don’t know it as a Celeste—fear.
It went by many names and many faces, which is why it was so terrifying.
People began to not even trust their own shadows when it ruled.
Sometimes it was a man, sometimes a woman, its form always changing.
It was so powerful that it created the Stars. ’
That kind of power was unimaginable to Adrian.
‘What if it has awoken, Adrian? The Sun and the Moon have. It’s why their bodies are in the sky. I think…I think that may be what is causing this sickness. The trenches. The poison. The illness ravaging Asteria.’
‘Why are you telling me this?’ he demanded, heart thudding against his chest.
‘Because I fear that all three are aboard your ship.’