Ambassador to the Freaks

(6) Reunion

Most of the breath Auren had taken was knocked out of her when the current threw her body against the stones. She protected her head as well as she could as the water twisted her around and pulled her further downward. There was no light. She had no sense of what was up or down. Her lungs began to cry out for breath, but she had no air to give them. Further, further downward she went.

The current slowed. Auren reached out to feel her way around. There was a thin gap of air between her and the ceiling, but not enough for her to breathe. She would just end up with a mouthful of water. The water continued to push and her feet could not grip the stone beneath her. There were two different channels of water pulling at her now. She let the left tunnel grab her and she started down another chute.

A high-pitched chirping sound echoed through the water. Before she had gone very far down this new tunnel, a hand of webbed fingers grabbed onto her wrist. She felt Monsta’s body moving around in the tight space; both of them were pushed against the walls. The mermaid gathered the human in her arms and started swimming against the current. Her tail was powerful, but this was a fully-grown human. They made slow progress.

Auren’s lungs were serious now. They demanded a breath. It would be nothing but pain until they were given air.

The mercenary grabbed the edge of the tunnel and helped to pull them back out. They burst into the chamber where the water moved more slowly, but were only there for a moment. Monsta turned them toward a different path and pushed. Their two bodies tumbled down through the dark and the cold, the human fighting against her own body to keep from sucking in a lungful of the castle’s moat. The mermaid’s tail had never worked harder.

They were no longer swimming, but tumbling. The tunnel around them grew smaller and smaller; they nearly lodged in the small space, but the force of water behind them threw both into the open air of Monsta’s cistern. Auren gasped for a breath, but upon hitting the water it was knocked back out of her. She was thrown under from the force of the fall, but at least she finally stopped moving.

Auren surfaced and sucked in the moist and stagnant air. She coughed up some water that had made it in despite her best efforts. Monsta surfaced next to her and started coughing as well, not from swallowing water, but from pure respirational exertion.

“Wow. That was quite a ride.”

Monsta could not believe this woman. “Why did you jump in moat!?”

“I was not done talking to you.” She felt her eyes trying to adjust, but there was no light at all down here. “Is there somewhere I can stand?”

This human was clearly insane. Still, Monsta took her hand and swam them over to the old tunnel with a staircase that now led nowhere. Once she felt hard ground beneath her feet, Auren stood and walked up until she was out of the water. Her clothes were plastered to her body and her hair was sopping wet. She sat and wrung out her hair on the steps. The splashing drops echoed up the hall above her. “Thanks for your help, little fry. I was worried for a moment.”

Monsta rested on one of the submerged steps. “You were very foolish to follow me.”

“I knew my luck would see me through. You seem to have luck on your side as well. You survived all on your own for years.”

The mermaid took some time to respond. The words she had to say were heavier than normal, so they took longer to make it up the few steps to reach the human. “Why did you leave me?”

Auren wasn’t sure if mermaids cried, but this one sounded like she might. She reached around in the darkness until she could feel Monsta’s smooth head. She recoiled a bit from Auren’s touch, but the human stroked her finned ears like she might stroke someone’s hair. “I didn’t want to. Believe me, I looked everywhere for somewhere to leave you where you would be safe. I couldn’t raise you by myself; a mercenary who lives on land can’t care for a water-born baby. But when I found you all alone, in a small pond with no family or friends, I couldn’t leave you.”

“Where did you find me?”

“Have you ever heard of Angel’s Cave?”

Monsta perked up. “Lewin?”

“That’s his name, right? The Ambassador?”

“You found me with him?”

“No.” Auren closed her eyes to remember, though the stairs where she sat were plenty dark already. “Idan and I had to split up to find the place. It doesn’t exactly have a beaten path. He found the boy in the cave; I found you swimming around nearby. I guess a river had flooded, and when the water receded it left you stranded in a puddle.” She squeezed Monsta’s shoulder in support. “I looked, but never found any other nereids. I don’t know who your parents were.”

The mermaid was making a sound, somewhat like the little chirps, but lower and softer. It must be how she cried. Auren lowered herself to Monsta’s level so that she was sitting in the water. She draped her arm around the mermaid and held her while she mourned.

Monsta took the human’s un-webbed hand in her own. “Y-you left me here.”

“We passed through many lands on our way home. The felians would have eaten you, the dwarves live in a dry land, and as for the fae… I don’t trust them, and neither should you. I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I spoke to Mellius. He thinks humans are the only ones who belong in Irid.”

“He hates me. The humans do not like me. They call me names. They attack me.” She flopped her caudal fin up and ran it against Auren’s hand until she could feel the cut. “I was alone.”

Auren held her closer. “I was afraid to come back, little fry. Afraid because I didn’t want to hear you say that. I’m so sorry. I thought the best place to leave you would be with the Ambassador. I thought that, surely, he would treat you with respect. I guess if he grew up in Mellius’s castle…”

“Lewin is… my friend.”

Auren let out a sigh of relief. “So, you had someone. Is he your only friend?”

“…no. Queen didn’t hate me. Princess is nice, sometimes. Terra never hurts me. Shen gives me food.”

“Well, that’s more friends than some people have. Well done, little fry.”

Monsta smiled a little in the darkness. She tried to build up the courage to say what she was thinking. “I thought… when you said that you brought me here… I thought you might have come to take me home.”

Auren shook her head, a completely pointless gesture in the darkness. “I’m here to get Lewin ready for his journey, and then I’m going to accompany him.”

A few drops of water flew off of Monsta’s ears as they flared up. “Lewin is leaving?”

“Not for a few years. I’ll be living here for a while. It’ll be the longest I ever lived in one place.” She slapped the mermaid’s back good-naturedly, sending a wet echo up the corridor. “I look forward to getting to know you.”

All three meetings were over now. In the early morning hours before the sun, a wet, wet woman climbed up out of the moat and reclaimed her possessions from the bridge. She had just enough time to dry off and catch a moment’s sleep before the clock tower rang out its morning chimes. She unpacked the dress that she only had a need to wear about twice every year. Luckily she hadn’t grown much since she bought it. She affixed the badge with the Prince’s Emblem on her chest and strapped on her foreign sword. Now she looked the part of a mercenary who was ready to meet the king. In her opinion, that part looked stupid. But money was money.

She purchased an apple on the way to the castle. It hung in her teeth while she tried to arrange her hair into something other than her usual styles, which were ‘tangle’, ‘mess’, and ‘snarl’. All the time she had to be careful not to step on the hem of her dress with her big mercenary’s boots.

When she arrived at the guardhouse, they were in the middle of changing the guards. It was not hard to spot which was the fresh man and which had sleepiness dragging down his eyes. The woman pulled out a faded document and displayed it to them. “The king is expecting me.”

They looked the paper over and motioned her through. But the woman stopped on the bridge. One of those guards looked familiar…

“Meh-eh-eh.”

The older man turned his head, certain he had heard a goat. All he saw was the woman strolling across the bridge.

The footman ushered the woman into the courtyard. He had her stop at the stairs that led up to the main foyer and instructed her to wait there for the king.

As she waited, the woman took out her heavy silver coin and began to flip it in the air. It caught the morning sunlight and tossed it in every direction as it turned over. After a moment, she caught the coin and brought it close enough to whisper. “What do you think of this little undertaking?” She flicked the coin high into the air and let it fall. It bounced off of the stairs and rolled to her feet. The coin came to a stop at the edge of her dress, but did not fall to one side or the other.

The woman let out a great bellow of a laugh. “Well, guess I’m going into this one blind. Lot of help you are!” She bent down to pick it back up.

“Auren?”

She looked up to see a boy at the top of the stairs. He was healthy for a boy his age. Not particularly strong, but she could fix that. The eyes were grey, like she had been told. “Well, if it isn’t Lewin the Ob-Enon.” She straightened up and curtsied to him. “Haven’t seen you in fourteen years.”

Lewin began to descend the steps toward her. “Then you are Auren, of the Chaser Company?”

“At your service.”

“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you! You’re the ones who brought me here all the way from Angel’s Cave.” He extended his hand to her.

Auren took it and gave a confident shake. “It was a job I was happy to do, Ambassador. And happier to get paid for.”

“Please, no need to stand on ceremony with me.”

“Good, because I wasn’t planning to.” Lewin immediately liked this woman. “It will be a long five years of work before I turn you from a boy into the Ob-whatever. I get tired of using titles pretty quickly. First, however, I would like to meet the mermaid that I’ve heard so much about. Your first job as Ambassador, I guess. Do you know where she is?”

“Oh, she doesn’t like strangers. It will probably be weeks before she shows herself to you.”

“Well, best start trying now.” She took a large step forward up the stairs.

“Aren’t you waiting for His Majesty?”

Auren flicked her head around, throwing her hair aside. “Mellius is going to learn how hard I am to work with eventually. Might as well be today.”

Lewin and Auren walked through the gardens together. She did not seem to care as much about her clothes as most of the women in the castle, and stepped with confidence through bush and briar. They came to the secret spot and Lewin motioned that she should sit. Instead, Auren walked to the stream and took out a half eaten apple. She tossed it into the water and waited. Lewin was certain that nothing would happen.

It therefore shocked him when a finned shape lunged up out of the water, the apple in her mouth. Auren reclined on her side in the grass so that she was at eye level with the nereid. “Hello. My name is Auren. What’s yours?”

She took a bite of the apple before responding. “They call me Monsta.”

Auren raised an eyebrow. “Really? Well, I’m sure that’s just because they don’t know you.”

“Ahem.” Someone cleared his throat to get their attention. Auren and Monsta looked up to see a man standing by the stream. He looked like a younger, beardless version of the king. “Out of the way, beast.” He gave a half-hearted kick at Monsta, who was already slipping back into the water.

Lewin stood up. “Prince Bredan. Good morning, Majesty.”

Auren stood up too, though she did not hurry.

The prince looked her up and down. “You’re the mercenary? Where is the rest of your company?”

“Staff is in the city with the wagons. My cousin is dead. I’ll be training the boy. Don’t worry, I’ll have him ready by the time…”

“The Ob-Enon leaves today. Start preparing.” The prince then turned and left.