Read Online Reunion by Kara Dalkey - Free Book Online Page B

land-dwellers. Now, perhaps only land-dwellers can save us. But, yes, Atlantis lives. Or did. I don’t know how many live there still.” She seemed lost in thought for a moment, and Corwin received mental images of blood in water, floating bodies—leviathan and human.
    â€œWhat happened?” Corwin asked her.
    Nia shook her head. “It would take so long to tell you,” she murmured, the sadness in her voice overwhelming him. “An evil mermyd . . . wanted power. He killed our kings for it.”
    â€œThat isn’t so unusual,” Henwyneb grumbled. “We’ve got a king like that, too, here on land.”
    Corwin looked around to make sure the nobles hadn’t come back. “Don’t let Prince Vortimer hear you say that.”
    â€œBah!” said Henwyneb. “That posturing prince is nowhere nearby . . . is he?” The old button-maker turned his head as if looking around.
    â€œI don’t see him, but he may return soon, and with greater forces. We should leave here.”
    â€œIf the Naming had been completed,” Nia said, “I could heal your eyes, ancient one.”
    â€œShould that ever come to pass, lady of the sea, feel free to make a return visit. Well, do not let me detain you if you must seek safety. ’Tis a pity you can’t stay and tell me your stories, Nia of Atlantis. But bide just a moment more and I will give you cloaks to wear, for I feel the night will be chill.”
    â€œI can bear cool weather,” said Corwin.
    â€œThese cloaks have hoods,” Henwyneb added, “so they may cover any features one might not wish noticed.” He fluttered his hands at his neck.
    â€œOh.” Corwin took note of Nia’s lacy neck-gills—not to mention her silvery hair and shiny gown. She would hardly be inconspicuous. “Of course. Hoods. Very useful things, hoods. They keep off bugs, and rain, and suspicion. Good idea, Henwyneb.”
    The button-maker bustled back into the hovel.
    Corwin and Nia looked at each other. The world spun again a little, as the prince-other-mind fought its own dizziness. Nia began to sag toward the ground, and Corwin caught her in his arms. She seemed to draw strength from him, and he sagged slowly, too, until they were both kneeling again. “Um . . . I can see you’re not feeling your best right now, but could you tell me just a little more about this prince and why he’s doomed us? I mean, dying just because I found a shell on the beach seems a little silly, don’t you think?”
    â€œThe Farworlders,” she murmured, and by that Corwin knew she meant the leviathans. “They’re very powerful. The fluid from one chosen to be prince binds his mind to the mind of a mermyd. This gives great power to the Avatar—the mermyd. But first, there must be the Naming. The ritual uses the power to change the fluid . . . so it’s no longer poison.”
    â€œSo . . . we find the prince, do this ritual, and we’re not sick anymore?”
    â€œYes.” She smiled at him. It was a beautiful smile.
    However, it wasn’t distracting enough to keep one important question from his mind. “But I’m not a mermyd. Will the ritual work for me?”
    Nia’s smile melted away. “I don’t know.”
    â€œThat’s . . . not too encouraging.”
    â€œI’m sorry. But we are joined. If the prince dies, we die. If you die, I and the prince die. If I die—”
    â€œI understand ,” Corwin said, a knot forming in his stomach. “I guess you can’t make things seem any more dire, can you?”
    â€œWe have seven days.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œIf we don’t find the prince in seven days, the poison will kill him.”
    â€œAnd so, us, too.”
    â€œYes. The sunlight is going away. I was marked last night. You had yours—?”
    â€œThis morning,” said Corwin