Page 43 of Surfaces
The mayor might hate me, but the children would love me and my competitors.
“Well, since it was your mother’s idea, why doesn’t she judge?” I asked brightly.
Sahar narrowed her eyes at me.
Keelan’s expression grew skeptical. “I’m not sure she can count that high.”
Sahar’s scroll went flying and bonked her son in the head. He chuckled and caught it as she berated him.
“You ungrateful little slime. You cruddy little barnacle! Just you wait—” she shook a threatening fist in his direction.
He merely stuck his tongue out at her before handing me the scroll. Then he swam off to go announce the miniature competition to all the men.
As we made our way through the net of light into Navagio’s crowded main street, where people lined the road and also hung out of windows and floated above rooftops—every single competitor in the tournament began to perform acrobatic feats. Not just flips, but backflips and cartwheels through the water.
Stavros and Julian decided to balance on one another’s shoulders like court jesters, though where they got the idea, I didn’t know. Julian just swam right up and perched on Stavros’s shoulders. The other man’s hands held steadily onto Julian’s calves and marched down the road as Julian waved, trying not to tumble backward as the water pushed at him. They had several accidents—they were completely bad at it, but they made the crowd laugh. Even serious scientist Julian laughed and Stavros smiled, so everyone was enjoying themselves.
I heard the crowd gasp in enthusiastic surprise when Valdez spun three times in a row like a court dancer, one foot kicked out into the water, which had to be incredibly hard due to the drag of the waves. The squealing delight of children danced in my ears as I blinked and my eyes adjusted after the onslaught of the light array, looking for the next amazing performance.
That’s when I had to hold in my own gasp of surprise.
Navagio was a fascinating amalgamation of buildings. My carriage floated just above a sandy road that stretched straight through town toward the mayor’s home. On either side, there were pure white brick constructions that resembled the most stately houses on land. But there were also bulging buildings that were made out of wine casks that had been sawed in half and stacked, then mortared together with bubbly colored glass so that they were odd, bumpy little constructions.
There was a mill that rose taller than most of the structures in town. But instead of having a windmill turned by air, the giant rotor was sideways so that the current made it spin until it was a blur.
We passed a small square, traversing around a giant sculpture made of anchors collected from sunken ships. They were arranged into a tall spiraling pinnacle and pink and orange starfish had been strategically placed to provide pops of color against the rusting metal.
Down a side street, I did see a fence barring a mountain of what could only be called junk—a pile of items scavenged from shipwrecks. The crowd grew even more dense down the side streets, mer people with purple tails and wide eyes drawing my smiles, distracting me from gaping at the town like a newborn who’d just seen his mother.
We reached the final three blocks of the main corridor leading to the mayor’s home. That’s when the decorations began. The people of Navagio had spared no expense in hosting the next challenge for my suitors. The promenade was draped with the brightly colored sails of sunken ships and painted with the banners of the competitor’s various houses. All around bobbed lanterns made out of sailors’ pants, which had been re-purposed. The leg holes and waist had been tied shut with bits of rope and then the cloth had been inflated with air until it bulged. I wasn’t certain where the interior light sources came from, but they were all different colors, soft reds, light greens, orange. Some of the lanterns were tied to windows. Others were carried by children with strings, the pants bobbing like kites above their heads.
I wasn’t certain if the balloons were a normal celebratory activity or a dig at sky breathers, so I just smiled and waved.
Scattered about the final blocks were vendor shops and stands. I heard mermen and sirens hawking various trinkets and other items from sunken ships. Some of their re-purposed wares were quite beautiful - coins with holes bored into them strung into necklaces and broken glass from bottles crafted into earrings. Others, like the forks and spoons I saw twisted in people’s hair—tines and heads diving into teased and curled strands as if someone invisible was about to devour hair rather than noodles—were quite hilarious.
But then we arrived and the crowd stopped, leaving me to press my lips together to tamp down on my awe. We entered a large sandy square right in front of the mayor's palace. The palace itself was a work of art. The roof was made out of golden bars collected from treasure ships. They had been stacked like tiles. The rest of the edifice was made of pure white bricks with columns in the front made out of carved whale bones.
Floating just before the massive front doors were Gorgono and his wife. Marea was indeed beautiful, the patterns on her skin were enchanting lines of blue and dots of orange, but most fascinating of all for me was the fact that she didn't have any hair. Instead her head was crowned by a very delicate, scalloped, pale orange fin that wavered in the current.
Next to her, Gorgono was absolutely plain. He was a large mer with a bit of a belly and a green tail and matching hair. He had a sharp face and it would have been hard to guess his age if thick bands of gray in his green hair hadn’t betrayed him.
“Welcome! Welcome, Your Majesty!” He gave the world’s smallest bow before straightening. “Please join my wife and I up here to watch the festivities.”
“Festivities?” I asked as I swam up and turned so that I floated next to him, my betta fins fluttering lightly.
“Yes, just a little welcome celebration. Please, everyone, gather around!”
The twenty competitors left swam closer to us, lining up alongside me, Valdez instantly darting forward and claiming the spot at my left side.
I raised a brow in the pirate’s direction but he simply smirked, making his lip ring gleam. “I won your company for the night.”
I hadn’t realized that Sahar had picked a winner, but then I’d been distracted by our surroundings and not paying much attention.
“Wonderful,” I responded, with a bit more enthusiasm than I might if Gorgono weren’t overhearing our conversation. I was still highly suspicious of Valdez. But that was a matter for another moment.
I was shocked, however, when Valdez leaned around me and clapped the mayor on the back. “Good to see you again, old man.”
Gorgono’s brows lowered. “Old man, huh? That’s what you call your best patron?”
