Chapter 37 #2
I’d endured so much here in Naiadon. Yet lived so much as well. I left Oakhaven for the first time in my life. I found these strange people in the sea. A good man cared for me well.
I found Lumina and Morvyn in the crowd, watching me in horror.
I made friends.
And I tried my best to save Oakhaven.
If I died, I knew it would be with few regrets.
Elspeth returned to the front of the crowd. “Remember, stepping beyond the confines of the Jawro circle shall cause immediate forfeiture and thus banishment from Naiadon’s walls in shame.”
I could step out now and it would be over. But that would mean leaving Arlo behind. I needed to survive this, somehow. Or die trying.
“Do you both understand and accept these rules?” Elspeth first looked at me, and I nodded. Then at Draveen, who did the same.
“Good. Now let the Jawro competition begin!”
The stadium roared in applause.
Elspeth raised her moon-pale hands skyward, and a loud song chimed from her fingertips. The room shook with song as the pool in the center of the armory vibrated, then filled in with a giant stone plate. It rose past the floor, creating a raised, circular platform. The circle we must remain in.
“Enter the Jawro ring,” Elspeth commanded.
I took a large step into the still-wet ring. Draveen traversed the lip with ease. My thoughts were frenzied. He was so damn big. His oily, grayish skin alone was enough to cause bile to rise in my throat.
This was it.
“Begin!” Elspeth shouted. Loud music blasted from her, pulsating in rhythmic surges that vibrated my body and mind.
Draveen circled me as I kept out of reach, and we danced around one another in lazy half circles.
I wished Nixie was there to tell me what to do, like she did when we trained. To dodge, roll, or punch when I needed to.
Only Raylik stood there, arms crossed.
When the world is hard and fast, you can be slow and calculated.
I took in a deep, cleansing breath, feeling my body and calming my mind.
I set my stance, holding my arms up firmly, digging a big toe into the hard stone for balance.
I thought of the large oak tree I climbed as a girl in front of Granger House. Rooted and sturdy.
Draveen lunged in my direction. I gasped, stepping back, my foot nearly slipping from the ring. This drew a putrid laugh from the beast.
“Puny girl, I’m going to eat you for dinner.” Draveen picked at his teeth disinterestedly. This was all a game to him.
My eyes flickered to Morvyn in the stands, who now stood tall above the crowd. His eyes softened for me as our eyes met above the spectators’ heads. Lumina stood beside him, pressed into his arm for comfort and unable to tear her eyes away from the impending disaster.
“Or maybe I’ll have you for dessert,” Draveen cackled.
Disgusting. His confidence was overbearing.
In fact … Too overbearing.
The thought slammed into me. Arrogant men littered history and fairy tales alike. The loudest and most self-assured always seemed to hide something. Their certitude always masked an insecurity.
That was it. At least, it bloody well had to be.
“What did you say, fish breath?” I spat, trying to hide the shaking in my voice.
A nervous chuckle slipped from someone in the crowed.
Draveen turned around to mark whoever dared laugh at him. Then returned his soulless black eyes upon me.
“What did you call me, little girl?” he seethed, the words rattling my bones. But I mastered myself.
“Fish. Breath,” I enunciated. “And I’m twenty-fucking-five years old, clearly a woman. Not sure if you’ve ever been this close to one before though.”
Another laugh flew from the crowd, unmistakably Morvyn’s.
“Or are your eyes just fucked from that dark hole you slithered up from?”
More laughter clanged, cutting deeper into Draveen’s pride.
I kept at it. “Is every disgusting beast from the depths you dwell in as ugly as you? Or are you just particularly hideous? Because you look like the bottom of the ocean shit you out.”
More laughter ensued. Draveen darted his head around, greasy black hair whipping with the movement, each one of his muscles tensed under his oleaginous skin as he growled again, deeper and more guttural.
Keeping my stance firm and my eyes locked onto his, I inched back as close as I could to the rim of the circle, readying for my impending doom.
“What’s the matter, you don’t like when they laugh at you?”
He bared his teeth and shook with anger. It was working.
“Stupid human, this is why your people die so young.”
“Better than walking around looking already dead.”
I let out the best laugh I could muster.
My heart faltered. That was it.
“You. Shall. Die!” he roared, charging at me full speed, his large legs slamming into the ground with each step, Elspeth’s music speeding in tempo as Draveen’s hard footfalls shook through the ground.
I held fast, despite every nerve in my body screaming to run. Silence fell over the crowd as vile noises gurgled out of Draveen as he charged me. Closer and closer he came, eyes wild. Pure predator. I the prey. Nearly in his grip.
Then, just like Raylik told me in this very armory, I followed his advice.
The best way to remain standing in a fight is to avoid getting hit at all.
In the blink of an eye, I sidestepped from Draveen’s path of destruction, causing him to tumble off the Jawro circle, hurling himself into the crowd.
I let out the breath I’d been holding.
I did it. I fucking did it!
I turned to Draveen, on the ground and rubbing his head in pure disbelief.
Elspeth’s music came to a halt. “Forfeit!” she yelled.
The sirens laughed wildly at Draveen’s disgrace.
Simmering, his eyes, black as death, whipped up to me.
Black claws extended from his finned hand.
Oh shit. He shook with anger, then lunged in a flash.
He clutched a finned hand around my neck, the claws biting into my flesh.
The ground gave way as he lifted me by the throat.
I struggled to fight against his grip, but he was too strong.
“Forfeit! Forfeit!” Eslepth’s voice sounded far away, muted by the blood pooling in my ears.
Draveen didn’t let go.
“Stupid little girl. It will be as easy as Calypstra said to kill you. Disgusting pest.” He shook me about with ease like a plaything. He was going to kill me. I had won, but that didn’t matter. Because it wasn’t about the competition at all. It was about murdering me at Calypstra’s command.
Then, a large mass of force slammed into us, throwing me from Draveen’s grip. I thwacked into the hard ground.
It was Raylik who was on Draveen in a red blur.
Elspeth walked to the center of the Jawro circle. “Draveen of Twynox Circle has forfeited the Jawro competition. Elowyn of Blackthorn Circle is champion!” she belted.
The room resurged with applause. My hands reached the tendons of my damaged throat. A small price to pay to live another day.
I searched the room for Calypstra, who had vanished amid the chaos. Draveen clawed and thrashed like a wild animal until Raylik sent an earth-shattering blow to his jaw that knocked him unconscious. The now-raucous crowd cheered on. I stepped out of the circle, somehow, with my life.
Morvyn cut through the crowd and breezed up to meet me. He clasped his alabaster finned hands around my face, pulling me from the prayers I was sending to the Guardians, thanking each above. He gave me a big dramatic kiss on the cheek.
“You fucking genius idiot!” he shouted.
I smiled, wiping the wetness away with a still-quivering hand.
“Not exactly the way the tomes say to do it, but effective,” Lumina said beside Morvyn.
“Draveen—did you hear him? He said Calypstra told him it would be easy to kill me,” I asked, scanning the room for her.
“Yes, everyone did. He practically screamed it.”
“She has to be behind everything that has happened to me then, right?”
She was nowhere to be found in the rushing crowd that was still cheering in celebration and watching as Raylik wrangled Draveen.
“She has to be,” Lumina agreed.
“Well, looks like she’s not here anymore,” Morvyn said, scanning the room too.
Hylos walked up to us. “Are you okay?” He grimaced at my neck, telling me it was already bruising.
“I will be fine. What are your plans for Calypstra?” I asked pointedly.
“I’ve sent my guards to find her, I heard what Draveen said and she’ll be questioned.”
“She likely poisoned me and possibly killed all of your prisoners … Infernum, she might even have been behind the kelpie attacking me. Now she has directly worked with someone to murder me in front of you and your entire court and you’ll question her. That is it?” I argued.
“Sirens believe in innocence until proven guilty,” he said carefully. “But Draveen will be questioned as well before he is banished from Naiadon.”
Raylik was dragging Draveen’s motionless body out of the armory.
“I need to make sure Raylik doesn’t beat the life out of him. Good job, Elowyn. I’m happy you didn’t die.”
Hylos followed Raylik, dismissing me. That was it.
I looked to Morvyn and Lumina, who just held sorry, sympathetic looks. They saw it too. Hylos would never hold Calypstra accountable.
Summer 5344 AT
The contractions began early this morning.
I have gone the day with the pains growing and growing but show not an ounce of pain.
Tonight, the babe will come. A funny thought crossed my mind.
Maybe it is the pain that is making me mad, or this entire situation, but today I realized the purpose of this silly journal that I’ve kept for so long.
Aegir gave it to me to allow a place to pour out my soul, an escape, a haven for my truth.
I wonder if he always knew that even under the sea, behind closed doors, I hid parts of myself to never pain him.
This journal has held my true heart for so long, and now I know why.
It is for you, little babe. So you may know me when I am gone.
Because after you are born, sweet child, I shall send it with you to the other side of the portrait, in Naiadon. Then I will face my husband, with you no longer a swell in my stomach. He will be angry. Furious, even, but I will never let him put eyes on you.
In my absence, you may have the absolute truth of my heart.
Please, do not be sad for me. Not for a single moment. The many lives I’ve lived, even in the worst of times, have been the greatest any one person could wish for. They led to your sister. They led to you.
Your father will tell you of me, and when he speaks of me, if even one tear wells in his eye, remind him not to be sad either. Because this life was beautiful. Messy at times, but entirely mine. I have loved it. As I loved him. As I love you.
Please remember, I will always be with you when I am not with your sister. I will need to divide my time equally between you two as any good mother should. But one day, please find her. That will make my work of being with you both all the easier.
When you find her, tell her of the freedom below the waves. Tell her of Naiadon and your great people. Tell her that there are worlds where women are leaders. Where they are safe to love who they choose. Tell her of me and the life I truly lived, not the lie she witnessed.
See you again, my love.