Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

XLV: Some Things Stay the Same

Ch. 45: Some Things Stay the Same

The dark patio was silent. Tai and Mara stared at the tree in absolute stillness as thick red sap ran down her trunk. The spearhead had sunk into the bark, but not completely. When the Kerana tree moved, straightening despite the spear, the Sentinels breathed again. The tree was okay. The tree would live.

The sounds of the battle came back.

"Defend the Kerana tree!" Elena shouted from the gate. "And bring me that damned torch, Godofredo."

"Let's go, Mara. If her brother is in the elevator, we need to get closer," Tai said. They brought Teresa closer and furrowed their brows. "We need to end this...fast."

And Tai was right. There was something inside Mara. Something merciless and hungry and violent; something that had attacked this mermaid, threatened Kiki, and ruined her best opportunity yet to find Mother. The taste of mermaid flesh came back to her mouth. Mara knew that if Teresa died, it would be her fault—it would be irreversible, the final step to changing her forever, and she didn't want that, not again. Besides there was also the Kerana tree. Mara didn't want her to become collateral damage in her failures.

Godo peeked from behind the boulder and nodded. "I'm going with you." He raised the welding torch. "In case your plan doesn't work, whatever it is."

The three of them ran the rest of the way to the gate, but they had to slow down when they neared the thick of the fight. Their presence made more of an impact than Mara expected. As the trio passed, they attracted both the Sentinels' and the mermaids' eyes.

Mara steeled her voice to shout, "I want to speak with Uauiarará of the Third Atoll, Prince of Manaus!"

Tai's eyebrows arched while Mara stepped forward; there were little more than half a dozen mermaids spread on the patio, but all of them paused to look at her. In a silent truce, the Sents that were fighting them stopped and assumed a defensive stance, sidestepping as if to put themselves between Mara and the mermaids. Some of the invaders flinched back when they looked at Mara; the whispered words flesh eater reached her sharp ears.

At the gate, watching Mara from among the shield-bearing Sents, Mimi stood. She dropped the heavy chain in her hands, hard eyes focused on Mara's bloodied fingers. The sound of the chain echoed on the patio, and she ignored it when Godo tried to offer her the welding torch.

"What are you doing here?" Elena asked. She eyed the mermaids' reactions with distrust, never lowering her guard.

The mermaids at the gate stepped away from the bars, and the Senior Sents turned to look at Mara, heads angled just enough to see her from the corner of their eyes. A small commotion started at the elevator shaft; whispers and shoves parted the crowd while a pair of beyond-fleshers passed, warm knife on butter.

The man was Uah, the real version of him, more regal than ever in his deep-black armor. His worried eyes locked on Mara, and sometimes stole glances at the woman in front of him.

That woman made Mara swallow hard as a shiver climbed up her spine. Unlike the other mermaids, she didn't wear a helmet; a crown made of brain coral rested on her head like a cloche hat, with long strings of nacreous pearls falling over her shoulders and her armored chest. The woman's hair had no specific color; hers was a shade of black onyx and gold, of summer love and sunsets on the beach. Wet, it changed as she moved, glistening pink or red or green over the dense silky black. Her face, her lips, her body; she was all seduction and soulless black eyes.

And as the woman passed, the mermaids knelt before her. The Queen walked with her arms open, palms up like a scale, water dripping from her arms.

"You are Mariana, I presume," she said. Her eyes lifted to something over Mara's shoulder, and if she looked indifferent before, now her face and voice hardened. "I'd ask how you know my brother's full name, but seeing that your people are carrying my bloodied sister, I guess I don't need to." She looked at Elena. "Open the gates. I tire of you."