16. The Beast Unleashed
The Beast Unleashed
Sigurd
By the time Valerie and I reach the central wing, the fortress has gone unusually quiet.
Servants have cleared the passages around the Great Hall, and household guards stand at every intersection leading toward it.
Bastian didn't give us further information before hurrying ahead, so I still have no idea what brought Lotan and the merfolk together.
Valerie walks beside me without speaking.
There was no time to finish what began in the staging room.
I nearly suggest she wait outside the hall anyway, then stop myself before the words leave my mouth.
Lotan’s dispute concerns Saltweather. After everything I kept from her, I have no business deciding that she should hear the next part secondhand.
The guards open the doors when we approach. Conversation inside fades as people notice us, leaving behind the scrape of armor and the faint movement of bodies making room along the central floor.
Merfolk representatives occupy both sides of the hall, their guards standing behind them in formal armor.
My mother waits on the dais at the far end with one hand resting over her obsidian cane.
Lotan stands below her in his humanoid form, broad beneath dark armor.
Several senior merfolk have gathered close enough to hear everything said at the center of the room.
Valerie slows when she sees him. Less than an hour ago, Lotan was only a name attached to the threat against Saltweather. Now the creature who believes her town was promised to him is standing in front of her.
I stay beside her as we cross the hall. Lotan watches us approach without moving, his attention passing over me before settling briefly on Valerie.
“You brought half the merfolk court into my mother’s home,” I say when we stop several paces away. “Considering how little affection exists between you, I assume there is a reason they agreed to come.”
“There is a reason, and it has nothing to do with affection.” Lotan turns slightly toward the gathered representatives rather than keeping the answer between us.
“Solveig promised me a coastline, and you have spent considerable effort trying to replace that agreement. I decided the next proposal should be heard by people who have no reason to favor either side.”
A few of the merfolk shift at that, but no one contradicts him. The explanation is obvious now. Lotan has not brought allies but people capable of remembering exactly what my family says next.
My mother’s expression hardens. “You have your witnesses, Lotan. Stop circling the matter and tell us why you came.”
Lotan gives her a shallow nod. “I will accept the basin Rakan is preparing as full satisfaction of the territorial agreement. Once it is suitable for my brood, Saltweather will be released from the promise permanently.”
Valerie’s shoulders straighten beside me. For one moment, I think that is all he came to say.
Then Lotan looks at her. “In exchange, Ms. Valerie Priest accepts my claim.”
Cold pours from my skin before I can contain it. The nearest merfolk guards shift their footing, and Valerie goes rigid beside me.
“What did you say?” I hiss.
Lotan keeps his attention on Valerie. “Your bond with her is incomplete. You marked her at the surface and never finished the claim in deep water. You have not completed the mating since Mount Qaf either, which means another creature with the necessary strength can still break what you started.”
Several of the merfolk representatives avert their eyes. Valerie’s face tightens as the meaning becomes unmistakable. Lotan continues before either of us can interrupt him.
“I can break Sigurd’s claim and remove the effects of the venom keeping you from the surface. I require no bed, no children, and no life with you. You will be free. It will cost you nothing.”
Nothing? The price is that another male will place his claim on my mate. He knows it, and he’s doing it to spite me.
Valerie draws a breath. “You’re saying—”
“No.” I cut her off. “You were finished the moment you suggested claiming her.”
Lotan finally turns toward me. “I was speaking to Valerie, and whether you approve has nothing to do with whether she accepts.”
Valerie catches my forearm before I can move closer. “Sigurd, wait. I need to understand exactly what he means.”
Lotan answers before I can. “I am a leviathan. My power can break a kraken’s incomplete bond. With my proposal, Saltweather is released permanently. The new basin becomes mine once Rakan finishes preparing it. I break the claim keeping you below the surface. After that, you return home.”
Valerie’s fingers tighten around my arm as she absorbs the terms. Lotan watches her reaction and makes the mistake of pressing the point.
“You would regain everything his claim took from you without sacrificing anything else.”
I cross the space between us and drive my fist into his jaw before he finishes.
Lotan crashes into the stone column behind him hard enough to rattle the carvings overhead. The merfolk guards lower their spears, but my mother’s household moves between us before they can advance. I seize the front of Lotan’s armor and shove him back against the column as he tries to recover.
“Sigurd, release him.” My mother’s voice cuts through the shouting behind me. “You are not turning this hall into a battlefield.”
Blood gathers along Lotan’s lower lip, but he still manages a smile. “Imagine what he will do if she actually says yes.”
I slam him into the stone again. His claws rake across my forearm as he twists one shoulder free. Before I can secure him again, his elbow drives into my ribs and his shoulder catches my chest, forcing me several steps backward.
Valerie shouts my name. Lotan straightens, breathing harder now. “She is telling you to stop. You might consider listening to her before deciding anything else on her behalf.”
I catch him around the torso before he can move farther away, and two tentacles tighten over his armor. “Don’t pretend you care what Valerie wants after using Saltweather to force her into your claim.”
“I care enough to let her answer for herself. Can you say the same?”
I throw him to the floor. His armor rakes across the stone as the merfolk guards surge forward. My mother’s people close ranks before them, and the hall fills with raised voices and the scrape of weapons shifting into position.
“If you kill him under my roof, this becomes a war.” My mother has left the dais now, her face colder than I have seen it in years. “Whatever he has done, you need to stop.”
Lotan rolls onto one side, coughing as he tries to push himself upright. I catch his armor before he gets his feet under him and haul him back up. “She still has not answered,” he says.
My grip tightens before I can stop it.
Lotan notices. “You heard the price and attacked before she could decide whether she wanted to pay it. Dragging me away will not change that.”
I force him toward the doors before he can say anything more. He digs his heels into the stone and twists against the tentacles around his torso, making every step harder than the last.
“Take me back and let her answer, Eiriksson. If you are so certain she would choose you, then stand there and hear her say it.”
Valerie calls my name again as we cross the threshold, but Lotan gives me no time to turn toward her. He plants one foot against the corridor wall and twists hard enough to wrench his upper body sideways.
One of my tentacles slips across his armor. His elbow catches me beneath the jaw, and the force sends me shoulder-first into the opposite wall.
Lotan tears himself free and comes back at me with his claws out.
We collide beside a narrow table, splintering it beneath our combined weight.
I catch his wrist before his claws reach my throat, but his other hand rakes across my ribs and opens the skin beneath my shirt.
I drive him into the wall, wrench his arm away, and throw him across the passage before he can lock one leg behind mine.
He lands hard and rolls with the impact. Blood has started at the corner of his mouth, and by the time I reach him he is already back on his feet.
“You wanted me out of the hall,” he says, breathing hard. “What happens now?”
I answer by driving him backward with another blow.
He staggers toward the airlock at the end of the passage and catches himself against the frame. I close the distance before he can recover, wrap two tentacles around his torso, and force him through the open inner doors.
Lotan fights harder once he realizes where I am taking him. His claws catch my shoulder as we crash into the chamber, and he drives his forehead into mine when I try to pin one wrist against the metal wall.
The impact blurs my vision.
Valerie shouts my name from the corridor as I throw Lotan across the chamber and strike the cycle control. The inner doors begin to close before he can come back at me.
I see Valerie through the narrowing gap. She’s running toward us with fury and fear written plainly across her face. Lotan slams into me again before I can turn fully toward her. The heavy panels seal between us.
Water erupts from the vents and climbs rapidly around our legs.
Lotan comes at me again, but the rising water ruins his footing and gives my tentacles more room to move.
We crash against the wall once more as the chamber fills past our waists, neither of us bothering with anything resembling a clean fight.
By the time the water reaches my shoulders, there is no reason to prolong it inside the chamber. I trigger the outer doors and feel the pressure equalize around us as the trench opens beyond them.
Lotan uses the first pull of the open water to break away from me. He surges through the widening gate, abandoning his humanoid form before he is fully outside.
I follow him into the trench and let my own smaller shape go. My body expands into its true proportions, and the cramped limits of the airlock disappear as my tentacles spread through the dark water.
Lotan turns several body lengths away. His body has lengthened into the massive serpentine shape built for these depths, protected by overlapping scales from his head down the length of him.
He swings around and strikes before I can spread far enough to meet him.
His coils close around the center of my body and constrict with brutal speed. The armored plates grind against my skin as he tightens, trapping several tentacles and denying me enough room to turn.
I brace against the seabed and search along his side until I find the edge of one scale. My tentacle hooks beneath it, and I tear hard enough to rip the plate loose.
Lotan convulses. His coils loosen for a fraction of a second, giving me enough space to wrench myself free.
His tail catches the side of my head as I pull away. He circles beneath me and comes back with his jaws open.
His teeth close around one of my lower tentacles.
Pain shoots through the limb, but pulling away would give him room to reposition. I let him drag himself closer instead, then wrap around him and use his momentum to drive us both into the seabed.
The impact shudders through the rock.
Lotan lands beneath me and immediately tries to roll us.
I keep his head turned away from the injured limb and pin him against the seabed.
He struggles for several seconds before he realizes brute force will not get him free.
The movement exposes a damaged scale along the side of his neck, lifted where we struck the seabed.
I tighten my hold until he stops trying to turn.
“If you kill me now, every merfolk in that hall will know exactly what happened,” he projects through the water. “They watched you start this fight. They will know when you chose to turn it into an execution.”
I understand what his death would mean. My mother would be left with a dead leviathan, a hall full of witnesses, and a territorial dispute that could no longer be contained with negotiations.
That knowledge doesn’t make my grip loosen.
Lotan’s body surges beneath mine again, but he no longer has the strength or room to break free.
“Beating me is one thing, Sigurd. Killing me makes this war.”
The warning is clear, and so is the vulnerable flesh beneath the scale I tore away. One clean strike through that opening would end him before he had time to twist aside.
“You should have stayed in the dark, Lotan. You were safer there.”
For the first time in centuries, I intend to kill. And I have no regrets.