Chapter Seventeen
Rip
Staring into the mirror, I watched as Laurie hugged her father and mother before setting off from their house.
The holidays were over, and she was heading back to the big city, from what I could discern.
Audio didn’t translate through the mirror, but I knew the date, and I figured she was headed to her home after spending the week with her family.
It made me happy to see smiles all around and no signs of tension, even though she’d left alone. I’d checked in on her daily, several times, when my duties permitted, to ensure everything was okay. But, despite my secret longing, the Watching Mirror had never again deposited me outside her bedroom.
I could only look from a distance.
There had been no further signs of Eric, which was a relief. However, there was a lot of pain and crying, which struck several chords within me. I should have been there, helping her, consoling her. Instead, I’d pushed too hard, too fast, and driven her away.
A time would come when I could return to Earth and pursue Laurie the right way, but the Deeps were their most active at that time of year, and incursions were rampant. I spent more time in the water than—
The alarms began to blow. A new incursion had been sighted.
Sighing, I pulled myself away from the mirror and headed for the door.
I paused for a moment just before pulling it open to stare at the spear in a rack off to the right.
The shaft gleamed a green-metallic color, rippling in the light, indicating its magical origins.
I didn’t know from what material it was made.
Nobody did. The Spear of the Heir was a powerful weapon bestowed upon the Tidal Clan in the mysterious foundations of our world.
But it’s no Trident of the Seas.
The weapon of the Prince of Tides was in the throne room, its base embedded in the very throne itself.
Only the prince himself could remove it and wield its protective power.
Many had tried to draw it, including me, but to no avail.
Only when I had passed the Test and had the blessing of the God-King would I be able to wield it.
So, until then, the spear would have to do.
I snatched it off the rack and walked out into the corridor, heading for the War Room, where information would be coming in about where the incursion had occurred and what sector would be hit.
“Speak!” I barked as I entered the room, waving people back into their seats. “What do we have?”
“Lord Crest is reporting pressure in the Eastern Fire Sector!”
“Lord Flash reports the same in Northern Storm Sector!”
I turned to look at the map on the wall, a giant delineation of the entire dragon realm.
The lands were mostly empty, except for the capitals of each realm and the border lines separating the four clans.
Fire Clan ruled the northeastern quadrant, while the Storm Clan held the lands in the southeast. The reports put the incursion in the center of the eastern coast.
“They’re pushing hard.”
“So it would seem, Suh,” I replied, addressing Suhnamy, head of my Royal Guard. “That’s a very wide front if the reports are accurate.”
“Then we should get going,” Suh replied, his comment a brilliantly dry wit.
“I suppose we should,” I agreed.
Major incursions like that always warranted a response from the Royal Guard.
Minor attacks and probes were dealt with by the local Lord of the Deep, such as Crest or Flash.
But a major incursion was dealt with harshly, using maximum force, to ensure the creatures were banished to the depths for as long as possible.
“We go,” I told the room, turning and marching out, Suh leading the way and opening the door for me.
The butt of my spear hit the stone floor of the Tidal Bastion as I headed for the balcony at the end of the hallway.
My skin shimmered and hardened as scales covered me from head to toe.
My ears flattened until they were little more than earholes, while my face jutted forward slightly, becoming more snoutlike.
I grew in size, sprouting until I was nearly ten feet tall, while my fingers became webbed claws, and my feet did the same.
Wings burst from my back, staying tucked in as I walked onto a balcony without a ledge.
Below, one hundred and twenty dragons of the Royal Guard were already lined up. Suh dropped off the edge of the second-floor balcony to stand at their head.
I paused briefly. “Duty!” I shouted, the warriors echoing my call.
“We go,” I ordered, launching myself from the balcony and skimming low over the calm waters of the Bay of Summoning. The arms of the Tidal Bastion stretched out and around in its giant C-shape. At the head of my guard, we aimed for the opening.
Around us, pennants snapped smartly in the breeze while the palace guards saluted us, envious expressions on their faces as we went to battle.
Children on the shores shouted and laughed as they chased the formation of dragon-men who marched into the water while the women tried to corral their charges.
The birthing floats moved aside, clearing a path for the guard, which marched forward, becoming more submerged with every step until they leaned forward and began to swim in formation, tails swishing back and forth, propelling them like sharks.
As I reached the bay's opening, giant underwater gates retracted to let us out. I hovered briefly, looking back at those we fought to protect.
“For the Clan!” I roared, lifting the spear over my head.
Then I tucked my wings in tight, extending the spear in front of me as I dove into the water, and took my place at the head of the formation.
Water swirled around us as I called to the spear, and a current tugged at us.
We sped up, the seas wrapping us in a cocoon as we shot forward along the coast, accelerating far faster than we could swim.
The spear followed my guidance, shuffling us along the coast until we passed into the realm of the fire clan and rounded the northern border to head to the east. Nobody spoke.
Everyone focused on swimming along in our little bubble, moving normally, while outside the group, the sea floor whipped past at an incredible rate.
“Suh, we’re almost there,” I barked a short time later.
The head of the guard spoke several commands, and the smartly dressed ranks split into V-shaped squads. Weapons were drawn as we began to slow.
Ahead of us was a pitched battle. Dragons and creatures of inky blackness swirled and darted, clashing in ones and twos as each sought to get the upper hand. Water itself was a weapon in the hands of the dragons, but the creatures blunted much of its power.
Outnumbered, the dragons were being slowly driven backward. I bared my teeth and turned to Suh.
“No mercy.”
Suh nodded. “No mercy,” he echoed, not that it was ever in doubt.
With Suh and me at its fore, the Royal Guard hit the flank of the enemy attack like a meteor, driving deep into our ancient foe. Sword and spear and claw struck deep. Stunned by our arrival, the attackers hesitated.
That was all that Lord Crest’s defenders needed. The sea dragons, most of whom were young and had the strongest control over the sea, struck back in a wave of savagery that was rarely ever seen above the surface. They tore into their enemy with abandon. Claws and teeth shredding them.
We rolled up the flank, turning the attack as we went, driving them back.
I plunged my spear into a creature’s head, leaving its eel-like body to slowly sink to the ocean floor.
Inky black blood filled the water. I watched for a moment, then swam onward, putting my weapon to good use.
The more I killed, the fewer of my people would come to harm. It was simple math.
I came upon two creatures ripping the scales off a young dragon pinned against a rocky outcropping. The dragon bellowed in pain and tried to strike back, but the creatures had it at a major disadvantage.
That was until I arrived. Angrily, I dove toward them, twisting my spear as I went. Pulling the spear apart halfway down, I revealed a second pointed tip. Holding one half in each hand, I drove the blades up through the heads of the creatures, killing them instantly.
But I was too late. The young dragon wasn’t moving. Its body sank to the bottom of the sea floor, limbs stiffening already.
Fury consumed me at the sight of such an honorable warrior gone too soon. Although it happened daily, I couldn’t help but feel that I should have been able to save him.
I stared at the spear in my hands and united the two halves. It was strong. But not strong enough. If I’d wielded the Trident, the young dragon would still be alive. He would still be full of life.
Focusing the anger in my mind, I pumped it into the spear, setting off a sonic wave attuned to the frequency the creatures of the deep used to communicate. They writhed and shook off the pounding in their ears, but it was much more debilitating to them than it was to dragons.
We fell on our distracted foes. I swam hard and fast, trying to be everywhere at once as I slew handfuls and dozens of foes. I was the tip of the spear of the Royal Guard, driving harder and deeper into the incursion's flank until I left the Guard behind. I didn’t care.
I killed and killed and killed, my mind reverting to the baseless fury of my younger days when that was the only way to ensure survival.
Feral lethality guided my hand, and I only saw the enemy from the deep.
My spear glowed green as it sucked the life from everything in a fifty-foot sphere around me as the creatures tried to overwhelm me.
“Die!” I howled, casting my fury at them.
At some point, they turned back, but I pursued them. I swam faster, striking them down as quickly as I could, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies until no more were in sight. I turned and spun wildly, looking for more to fight, but there were none.
“They’re gone,” a voice pulsed in sonar from nearby. “They’re gone, Rip. You can relax.”
My head snapped around at the noise. For a moment, I only saw a creature in front of me, and I started toward them.
“Riptide, Heir to the Throne!” a voice bellowed in high-pitched sonar. “Stand. Down.”
The pulse acted like a slap, and I wrenched my head around, my senses returning.
“Lord Crest,” I said, noting the dragon who approached, his bright blue-green scales a dead giveaway to his royal blood.
Beside him was Suh, the original speaker.
“Suh,” I added, giving him a nod of apology.
“They’re gone,” Lord Crest replied. “Thank you, Rip. My men are rolling up the rest of the flank into Lord Flash’s territory now.”
“Good,” I said, pulling myself back from the brink of savagery. I’d been close to losing myself, a return to the mindset all young Tidal Clan warriors were forced to adopt. I had thought myself past it. But perhaps not.
“This was an extensive front,” Lord Crest observed, staring into the depths where the creatures had once again retreated. “Much wider than normal. Spanning two sectors? Unusual, even during their peak season.”
“But not overly strong,” I said. “If they’d focused their forces into an area half as wide, they would have done a lot more damage. So, why?”
Neither of them had an answer. Unfortunately, neither did I. I stared once more at the spear in my hand. The ancient enemy was, it seemed, growing in strength.
Could it be because we were waning? Was I hurting the clan by not working harder to claim my mate and thus wield the Trident of the Seas?
“Come,” I snapped to Suh, willing the spear to call us a new current. “We’re going home.”
I had a lot of thinking to do and much of it centered around a woman who wanted nothing to do with me.