Page 4 of Surfaces
A second later, Lizza was back with a tiny vial. One second she held it and the next she’d dumped it onto her palm and was rubbing black powder on the left side of my chest. To my horror, not only did my translucent skin seem to disappear—but my muscles started to rot away making the bones beneath visible.
I shrieked.
The door to my room flew open and my personal guard, Felipe, peered inside.
I waved my translucent hands frantically to stop him. "Go away! I'm fine! I'm fine!"
The handsome merman cocked a dark blue brow as he stared at me in utter shock. "Shite.”
My other regular guard, Ugo, poked his head in as well, the tip of his spear appearing around the door. “What’s going—oh my sarding hell!” The orange-haired merman burst into the room, spear pointed right at Lizza.
“Get out!” I screeched, trying to cover my chest out of habit, though if they saw anything there other than nightmarish bone and half-rotted muscles and tendons, I didn’t know.
“Are you sure?” Felipe asked, raising his scarred eyebrow and sounding disinclined to listen to my request. “This isn’t harming you?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Leave.”
“You don't look fine. You look see-through." Ugo couldn’t help but point out the obvious.
"Out." I hissed the word from between my teeth.
"Magic stuff going on in here. Lady things. About monthly cycles and nipple circulation; all that fun stuff." Lizza turned to them with a grin that showcased her decaying lip.
I wasn't certain if it was Lizza—or what she said—but Ugo shuddered and the two mermen exited in a flurry of bubbles, the door closing behind them with a definitethump.
I let out a massive sigh of relief and a half-sobbing laugh followed. “Well. That was … traumatic all around.”
Lizza didn’t respond. She was too busy bent over and prodding at me, rubbing in little bits of leftover powder. "Ah! There it is! It worked! You have a hole where your heart used to be ... kind of odd to see all those arteries just disappearing into midair."
I glanced down, and sure enough, even the bone seemed to disappear underneath Lizza’s black powder. The left side of my chest appeared to hold only a lung and a couple veins that dangled like vines. But the thing that made my stomach lurch was … well seeing my own stomach and the snaking pink of my intestines.
I fought against the lurch of disgust that went through my system at the knowledge that this freakish sight was my own body. But I couldn't quite fight off the lightheadedness. My still-translucent hands grabbed onto the dressing table in front of me and I leaned into it for support.
"How long until this wears off?" I asked, trying to avoid looking at my face in the mirror or my hands or my feet. It didn't really leave me with a lot of options. I ended up glancing upward at the ceiling of my coral room, back at the skylight that mocked me.
"Scare powder lasts about an hour.”
“Scare powder?”
Lizza answered, “Yes. The undead army used to use it to intimidate their foes. Not many men can stand to see someone’s innards—even soldiers. Rub a little on. Show off an intestine or two and they flinch away—easy targets. Chop their heads off fast as chickens at supper.”
My nose wrinkled but I couldn’t argue with the truth of her words. I’d never been in battle myself—not unless one counted the attack on my carriage as we traveled here to Reef City.
But neither I nor my guards were able to handle the sight of me right now. I could only imagine the vision that would have faced soldiers squaring off against the undead army. Too bad they’d mostly disbanded, many desiring the afterlife. I had a few left in Okeanos. Posey, a half-flower sprite. Lizza. Not too many remained.
Lizza continued on, “I haven’t used the x-ray fish before; that’s something I picked up visiting some of the local healers in your capital city, Palati. Not sure about that one. It could last longer or shorter."
“This stuff lasts about an hour? I have meetings ...” I brought my palm toward my face but stopped short, distracted by the stretch of muscle and vein. Lizza was right. It was so disorienting. I closed my eyes in frustration.
Of course, a knock came on my door at that very moment. I turned to see Felipe open the door and quickly lower his eyes to the floor. He tried to hide a shudder but failed. “Majesty, I’m sorry to interrupt, but there are several competitors here to see you.” He chewed his lip, an unusually nervous sign from my normally stoic guard was normally so stoic. “There are at least four men out there. And they all wish to withdraw from the tournament.”
Withdraw? Well… isn’t that the golden topper to this shite-cake of a day?
2
Lizza helpedme dress because I refused to terrorize my poor mermaid, Gita, with the sight of her mistress as a ghastly … gross … well, nearly undead figure because my muscles were still exposed beneath my skin. For Lizza, dressing me wasn’t much worse than looking in the mirror during her own daily routine. Or so she told me as she walked to the dressing room to select something for me to wear.
“I didn’t know the undead got dressed,” I said stupidly. What I didn’t say was that I very much hadwantedto believe that Lizza’s clothes had melded with her rotting body and were never ever removed. Anything else was just too horrid to imagine.
