Chapter 6 #2
“Oh, Marlin might think that, but I assure you they are.” Xavier’s voice booms out of his mist, the power behind it causing the lead warrior to flinch.
“Right then, shall we go?” Lila turns, not waiting for any more arguments, and starts marching toward the mainland.
She startles slightly as she catches sight of the main building on the island.
It’s a castle-like creation, made from gleaming white sandstone, surrounded by palm trees and other tropical plants.
Nobody else is allowed to have a dwelling above water except for the king, and anyone wanting to spend time on it must apply for permission.
By order of the king, Aquilians don’t get to spend much time in their human form, though I believe a lot of their houses below the ocean are water free.
The warriors hurry forward and surround us, but Lila doesn’t stop.
She keeps marching forward with Xavier, William, Eric, and me following.
Tirrian remains behind. It’s probably not a bad thing, because she is worked up enough as it is, and we don’t need him to make it worse.
I’m assuming he’s going to shift and then soar on the small coastal breeze.
Hopefully he can sort out his issues with his inner beast and come to some sort of agreement.
The walk to the palace gates doesn’t take long, maybe ten minutes, but Lila is muttering about sand in her shoes and sweaty under boob by the time we get there, which doesn’t bode well for the Aquilian royals. She was already annoyed, so this is just making things worse.
The warrior captain hurries ahead, shooting an annoyed glance at the pace Lila has set. We’ve all had to hurry to keep up with her. The thing is, she could have used her Vilaxian speed and been there within moments, but she didn’t.
“I should have just teleported us all there,” Xavier mutters to the side of me.
“Why didn’t you?” I ask. My tentacles are feeling dry and sandy too.
“Dude, look at our wife. She is fucking mad. I thought maybe the walk would cool her down so we don’t have an intergalactic incident,” he tells me, nodding at Lila who is close on the heels of the lead warrior, the rest of them having to fall behind us in the narrower hallway.
“That was a bit of a failure, wasn’t it?” Eric says dryly from behind us, and Xavier’s hand pokes out of the mist and flips him off.
The doors to the palace are thrown open as we approach so we don’t have to stop.
Lila continues her march through the halls, not even stopping to take in the pearly wonder that is the inside of the castle.
She just mutters about ostentatious hard to clean surfaces, and how it had to have been a man who picked such a vain thing.
“This is not going to go well.” William sounds worried, and I can’t help but agree with the man.
“You think?” Xavier’s sarcasm is thick but unhelpful.
There is another set of large doors in front of us with two more mermen guarding them.
They startle as the lead warrior approaches and jump to open them.
They do, and we all file into a large, open throne room with dual pools of water running along either side, creating a barrier between the people spread out along the walls and the walkway to the front of the room.
Up on a raised dais at the front of the room is a large, ornate throne made from dead coral.
Sitting on it is a man, one I have never met in person but have heard many tales about.
“King Marlin, Lila Adams, as you demanded, is ready to stand trial for insulting the Aquilian royal family,” the lead warrior announces, slightly out of breath.
Lila comes to a stop slightly in front of the dais.
I can see her taking in the Aquilian king in front of us.
He looks nothing like the rest of his fit warriors and citizens who line either side of the throne room.
He is an immensely overweight man with jowls and rolls, covered only by a garishly ornate robe.
Standing on either side of him are a number of women and children, one whom I recognize as his wife.
She has her hand in Nixie’s, who mouths, “I’m sorry,” to Lila. Both of them look concerned.
“Whoa, man, you must look like a mantiti in your shifted form.” Lila looks at the king with amazement. Xavier and Eric stifle snorts of amusement, but William groans. Crap, she just compared him to one of those Earth sea cow things she was telling me about once.
The king frowns and looks at his lead warrior. “What is this mantiti she speaks of?”
The warrior shrugs, and I sigh with relief that nobody knows what she is talking about.
“A great and powerful sea creature, no doubt,” the king says out loud, and the rest of the Aquilian citizens murmur their agreement.
As I gaze around the room, I can see the fear and worry on a lot of these people’s faces.
The king stares down at Lila like she’s a piece of sea kelp marking the pristine sand of his beach.
“Now in payment for insulting my son, I demand a half share in the Galaxy Circus and for you to be imprisoned for the rest of your life.”
The crowd bursts into loud murmurs as Xavier starts to spark powerfully beside me, but Lila just laughs.
“Are you serious? I yelled at Nikos about something, and he comes running to you to cry about it?” Lila’s head swivels between the king and Nixie. “I had every right to be mad at him. He put my babies in danger.” She crosses her arms stubbornly.
“You ruined him for anyone else,” the king sneers, looking down his nose at Lila.
“He is useless to me now. I have had to raise Raen to be my heir.” He gestures to a man just behind his chair who has the same kind of soulless look in his eyes that Marlin has.
He has stringy, long black hair and glares at me before sticking out his tongue and waggling it. Eww, gross.
“What, because he decided to give me a mating bite, but I didn’t reciprocate?” Lila’s disbelief is obvious.
King Marlin gets to his feet. “No, you worthless trollop, because he is with child, and nobody will want him now that he carries your bastard.” With that announcement, two warriors wheel out a pod similar to what the children have for their kraken form, except this is adult-sized and contains a merman.
“Oh fuck,” I whisper as Nikos floats around to display the very obvious bulge in his belly, telling us the king is not lying.