Page 31 of Surfaces
Or was it me—the manifestation of my power?
Whatever it was, this song was the most enchanting thing I’d ever heard. The music was as breathtaking as a sunset painting the ocean waves.
My eyes still closed, I raised my right hand, and I felt the music speed up in response to my movement. I pushed forward and the notes surged higher and faster, staccato.
“Whoa,” Lizza breathed.
I opened my eyes to see a sphere made out of steam churning in front of my hand, the heated gas bubbles struggling out of the sphere, escaping to bound up to the ceiling.
My awe was just as frantic as those little bubbles, my conscious mind pinging with excitement.
I took a deep breath and imagined the voice slowing, the tone growing deeper.
The sphere in front of me slowly stopped hissing and churning, becoming a mass of spinning water, before solidifying into ice.
Madness.
I lowered my hand and the song slowly faded as water dripped like tears down the sides of the rapidly melting ball of ice. My gaze rose to meet Lizza’s and a flash of fury struck me strong as lightning. An abrasive feeling like a chipped comb dragging across the scalp ran through my chest. Humberto’s face appeared inside my head and I imagined thrusting my hand out and wrapping it around his neck, squeezing until his eyes popped from their sockets.
I gasped, breathing hard, and the image fell away as quickly as it had come.
I reached out and grasped Lizza’s cold hands, folding my shaking fingers around her palms as I stared into her rotten face and urged, “Please, it happened again. You have to help me, Lizza.”
The mage gave me a slow nod. “Alright. Let’s get to Navagio. Then we can practice.”
I nodded, releasing her hands and staring at my fingers as the lilting song tried to rise up inside of me again.
I couldn’t let it. I wasn’t prepared for the consequences.
I swam to the door of my room, throwing it open, letting the noise and bustle of everyone in the hall drown out the sound of my magic.
I wasn’t ready to harness it again. The next time I tried, I would be.
* * *
Five different competitorscongregated around my gilt carriage where it floated, drawn by six white seahorses, on the outskirts of Reef City, just above the drop off of the continental shelf. Deep blue water ebbed beneath it and the cold tendrils from the deep swirled up onto my skin. The scales lining my outer legs and arms loved it. The chill tickled the scales that lined my cheekbones. But the rest of my skin grew cold with goosebumps. I fluttered my betta fish fins harder, trying to warm myself up, cursing my idiocy in refusing that shawl Gita had offered me.
We were about to head to Navagio, the town made of shipwrecks and scavenged treasures. I was equal parts excited and terrified of what I’d find there, after the bedpan debacle.
According to Julian’s descriptions, it was a place of ingenuity.
According to Ugo’s grumbles as Gita packed up my things this morning, it was a dump.
Still, I found myself a bit giddy for the next part of our journey. We’d made it through yesterday without an incident from the rebels, which I considered a massive win. Last night had been utterly boring, full of facts and figures and careful negotiation, just as a monarch’s life was meant to be.
I took a deep breath and grinned at the fact that my biggest challenge this morning was keeping my hands off Mateo before we were closed into my carriage.
I glanced over to the right, where Gita was supposed to be supervising the last of my things after selecting my crown and dress for the day.
She’d opted for a circlet of dangling pearls and a dress with a pale white-and-gold-striped corset that ended just below my breasts. At first, I wondered if she’d overheard my scheming with Felipe about her traveling assignment, but then she’d offered to toss a gauzy wrap over it. I’d declined since I’d be in the carriage most of the day—and I now regretted it. My breasts were on display for the first time, in the style common under the sea.
Gita had mercifully arranged the bottom of my woven hair, pulling the free ends forward so that it provided some coverage. Not quite as much as I wanted, but it was something. When I looked in the mirror at my reflection, with my betta fish fins fluttering free and my short skirt, I felt a little like the vase paintings of water fairies that lined one of the hallways back in Evaness. It was pretty. And I finally looked like I truly belonged to the sea. After experiencing its magic, I was finally starting to feel like I did too.
Of course, I hadn’t protested Gita’s clothing choice even once, which had made her cock her eyebrows suspiciously at me.
“Who’s riding with you in your carriage then?” she’d tried to be casually curious.
“Not Humberto,” I’d replied. She’d glared and hadn’t asked further.
