Page 1 of Depths
Prologue
Raj
I waitedin a line of imbeciles, hovering in a street in the middle of the ocean, miles beneath the surface of the water, between two rows of mottled green glass buildings housing shops that sold everything from barnacles to bells. The light drifting out from the shops gave all the men on the streets sallow coloring as they swam hither and yon, baskets on their arms as they completed their shopping. Idiotic mutterings filled the water around me, and I was tempted to slaughter the sea people in line just for talking.
“Did you see the price of eel last week? Outrageous! Mad, I say!” a siren with pink hair complained to his friend.
“Indeed. Where they getting it from that makes it so precious, then, the river in Rasle?” the siren with a robin’s egg blue top knot replied.
“Remember that vendor—Bale, I think it was—who tried to sell ’uman dick that one time?”
“Oh, right, after that shipwreck! Ha. Yes. Scavenged those sailors.”
“Smallest eels that shifter ever sold!”
“I remember hearing the rumor it was nasty, creamy gristle. Too chewy.”
“Bet the idiots who bought it off him couldn’t wait to wash that taste out of their mouths!”
They laughed, their long, thin forms looking waif-like in comparison to the burly merman who was in front of them. Their golden skin turned a spring green color in the light shed by the nearest shop’s glass walls. They almost looked human but for their ethereal beauty and the fact that they could kick their feet so fast they blurred when they swam. Sirens. Such fools. Most of them spoke prettier than this pair did. But clearly, these two were a special sort. They were not the golden-tongued stereotype of the siren courtier. They could hardly be called intelligent lifeforms. I twisted the black ring on my finger, breathing slowly and carefully out my mouth to try and calm myself down.
In normal circumstances, I’d have had a servant wish up a scimitar and slowly skin them, then perhaps roast them while my musicians played a song and I forced some shuddering peasant to bathe in their blood. But these weren’t normal circumstances.
Idiots have a purpose,I reminded myself. They were excellent arrow fodder in a war, bodies to distract the archers from better targets, or here, in the kingdom under the sea, great to draw out the attacks of the aggressive bull sharks the soldiers rode. The fool in front of me had particularly long pink hair, which would make it easy to grab so that I could swing him around in a giant arc and toss him at the bloodthirsty predators before making my own escape. A small smile played about my lips at the mental image.
I’d witnessed a glorious fight just last night when I’d first entered the capital city, Palati. Two men had been flung out of a five-story blue glass tavern, and they’d shifted right before my eyes. Their brawling fists had turned to gnashing teeth and fins versus tentacles as they’d mutated into a shark and a squid, shifting right in the middle of a jeering crowd. I’d watched in amusement as one bit the other’s head off, literally.
It was a pity that most of the kingdoms on land had banned the sea shifter battles years ago. I recalled that, as a young man nearly eight centuries past, I’d loved watching the huge tank brought into the palace in Cheryn and set in my father’s sandy fighting pit. I had stared raptly as two men climbed in, shifted, and fought until the water was streaked a glorious red. I’d give these sea shifters that, they did know how to battle. They did know how to make the blood pump and nerves sing, how to make you rise on your tiptoes in anticipation of that final moment. They gave death the flair it deserved.
Sirens, unlike sea shifters, were practically useless. Their voices didn’t entrance the sea creatures in the same way they did humans, so they were practically magicless down here. Thus, easy to kill. Dull. At least mermen were stocked full of muscle and made good soldiers, even if their memory modification powers failed to work under the waves. Most of the soldiers at the registration table up ahead were mer.
I glanced around me as the two siren dolts in front of me continued a conversation so exaggeratedly stupid that it only felt fit for the stage. Their golden faces stretched wide as they went on about some seal fight that they’d attended and bet upon the prior week. I tried to distract myself from the urge to simply wish for their heads to explode, by looking about.
Wishing for that would be a waste of my magic. It would also put those idiotic royal guards on high alert. I didn’t want high alert. I wanted to slide into that underwater castle in the distance undetected.
I glanced over at it—my destination. The palace was a magical feat of wonder, a crystal clear base with twisting green glass spires piercing the ocean as it glowed like an enchanted peridot gem under the water. My gaze grew hungry, but before a desirous expression could cross my face, I looked away. I had to stay in character, practice the part I was about to play.
Unfortunately, a couple fishwives caught my eye, saw the grin that had been forced on my face when I’d removed that sarding curse set upon me—or had it partially removed, the stupid smile was a side effect I found difficult to get rid of—and taken it as an invitation. They swam forward to ply their “wares.” Some had actual goods to sell: shell combs, algae cure-alls, amethyst glass potion bottles with any elixir one could desire. Other women just came up to sell themselves. And with the ratio of men to women in the entire world at approximately five to one, these ladies were quite expensive.
“Eight sand dollars for a quick suck!” the man behind me exclaimed. “I could eat for two weeks on that!”
“Not my pussy, you couldn’t.” The nubile young mermaid winked at him and flicked her pink tail.
I heard him moan in longing before digging foolishly into his purse.
Apparently, that tail flick was an attractive thing. I tried not to roll my eyes at the pre-mating ritual taking place behind me. I hadn’t really figured out where mermaid pussies were located. I had more important goals right now.
Like vengeance. Like destroying the enemies who had cost me the war against Evaness and humiliated me in a way that meant no punishment was bad enough. Blinding fury rose in me again at the knowledge that the queens of the sea and Rasle, my allies, were both dead. I couldn’t believe we’d lost our bid to take that country. Even more, I couldn’t believe that I’d lost my own standing as Sultan. I’d lost my crown in Cheryn. I was the strongest djinni ever to live, and still … that upstart of a girl, that weak excuse for a queen, Bloss, had found the single chink in my armor, armor I’d spent centuries building. She’d made a wish for my happiness. My eternal, orgasmic happiness. She’d made me into a moaning, mindless fool! A laughingstock. She’d defeatedme, the endless king. She’d unseated my mind, made me lose my crown, changed everything.
Black fury seethed in my stomach like tar, a bubbling pit.
Though the world had toppled onto its head, these idiots around me went on as though nothing were wrong. As if the world weren’twrong.
I focused on my fury instead of satisfying my menial curiosity about anatomy as the man behind me abandoned the line, following the maid with the pink tail. Then the line ahead of me moved, and I shoved the golden-skinned siren in front of me when he failed to swim forward.
“Hey, watch it!” he said.
“Sorry.” I showed him my teeth in what might have looked like a smile or—if he were smart enough to recognize it, which I doubted—a threat. “Just anxious to sign up.” I let my eyes drop so that I hid my violent desires.
