Lottery King 5, page 10
If he had, it would be salt in the wounds for the people of Greece.
“I’ve never heard of a power like that,” Rune said.
“Neither have I,” Nyxx agreed.
“I suppose it’s possible such a power exists,” Gemma replied. “But we’ve seen no such evidence of that in the survivors we know were under Rhaiden’s control.”
“Perhaps it was one of his accomplices?” Ivis suggested.
“Which would mean there’s the potential for more people or creatures to be under that kind of control,” I growled. “What do we know about these so-called ‘powerful friends’ of his?”
As if on cue, a merfolk soldier with mint-green hair stepped into the room and walked right over to Gemma.
“Commander,” the soldier said, and he handed a manilla folder to Gemma.
“Thank you,” Gemma mumbled as she opened the file.
We all waited silently as she scanned the report, and my heart started to race as her aquamarine eyebrows rose up with each line she read.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A report from the north Atlantic,” Gemma said with a stunned look in her eyes. “There’s mention of Lady Rain’s disappearance.”
“What does it say?” I asked.
“When the Kraken fled north,” Gemma said, “I had a scout team follow it to see where it was going, and it went directly to Niernan.”
“Niernan?” I repeated the name, and I tried to figure out why it sounded familiar.
“It’s the mercity in the north Atlantic,” Gemma explained. “The one in the center of Lady Rain’s region.”
“Shit,” I breathed.
The Kraken fled directly to where Lady Rain was supposed to be?
Chapter 6
“What’s the report say?” Nyxx asked.
“Lady Rain has been missing longer than we’d thought,” Gemma said with a frown. “And what’s more worrying is that Lord Crane has been spotted in the city.”
“Why is that worrying?” Ivis asked.
“Lord Crane was the representative of the north Atlantic region,” I said. “At least he was, until King Roman replaced him with Lady Rain.”
“Yes.” Gemma nodded. “Lady Rain seems to have disappeared not long after she was appointed to the position.”
“So do we know where Lady Rain is now?” I asked.
“No,” Gemma sighed. “Though my team reported that they are following up on a potential lead. They couldn’t say more in this report for fear of it getting into the wrong hands, and I trust their judgment.”
“Do they need backup?” Nyxx asked.
“We have a code if they require further assistance,” Gemma said. “I hand-picked this team and trained them myself. They’re very good, and they haven’t used the code to call for backup. I’m prepared to give them time to investigate. They’ll report back when they have more information.”
“Alright.” I nodded. “Is there anything else about Niernan?”
“Troubling news.” Gemma nodded as she read further. “The city center has been walled off, and there are reports of Näkki going in and out of the walled-off areas.”
I sorted through my mental catalog of paranormal creatures until I dug up what I’d read on the Näkki when I’d first been crowned king.
The Näkki were a specialized species of water sprites. They couldn’t come above the surface for more than a few minutes at a time, so they hardly spent any time in the surface social circles of the Eternal Realm. There had been a drawing of a Näkki in the books I’d studied, and I recalled the small person with fins, gills, and scales. They looked much more like fish than merfolk did, and they were about half the size of an average human.
“Wait a minute,” I said as I recalled more of what I’d learned about the Näkki. “The Näkki only live in a few isolated locations in the world. Near Finland, right?”
“That’s correct,” Gemma said as her eyebrows furrowed. “It’s very strange that they would be so far west of their home regions. The Näkki are creatures of habit. They don’t stray far from home.”
She studied the report again, and her magenta eyes filled with confusion.
“This is very strange.” Gemma mumbled. “There are also mentions of Vodyanoy, Navki, and Nykur in the city.”
“Nixies?” Rune asked with a spark of astonishment.
I quickly ran through the facts I knew about the Voydanoy, Navki, and Nykur. The Vodyanoy were odd frog-like people, and the one drawing I remembered seeing illustrated a rather ugly creature. The Navki were sort of a mix between sea nymphs and merfolk, and the Nykur were a lot like nixies, like Rune had said.
All three paranormal species were well west of their native regions, and the clues started to string together in my mind like puzzle pieces falling into place.
“I need a map,” I said, and I looked around at the few support staff members in the room.
The mint green-haired merman who’d delivered the report to Gemma turned one of the open laptops toward himself, typed and clicked rapidly for a moment, and then turned the computer screen to me.
“Your majesty,” he said.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Gregor, your majesty.” He dipped his chin in a respectful manner.
“Thank you, Gregor,” I said.
I tilted the screen to get a good view of the world map, and I started to zoom in on the oceans north of Europe and the western side of Russia. The map brought back the rest of the information about the Vodyanoy, Navki, and Nykur that I was looking for.
All three species originated in the seas north of Finland, Sweden, and Russia. They should have been in the Kara Sea, and Barents Sea, maybe as far west as the eastern side of the Norwegian Sea. They were hundreds of miles out of their usual area.
“Who are the representatives for this region?” I asked, and I pointed at the seas where these creatures should have been.
“I’m not sure off the top of my head,” Gemma said as she snapped her fingers at Gregor, and she pointed at a folder on the table.
He picked up the folder and handed it to Gemma as I looked at Rune.
“Honestly, I don’t know, your majesty,” Rune said. “From what I understand, the populations of those seas are so small that they have just one representative.”
“Just one per species?” I asked. “That would still be at least–”
“No, your majesty.” Rune shook his head. “One representative for the entire region.”
“What?” I asked with surprise.
“He’s right,” Gemma said as she pulled a sheet of paper from the folder. “Lord Vagin is the representative for all the ocean species in that region. Once you reach the land, there are more representatives for the other species, but all of the ocean-dwellers are Lord Vagin’s responsibility.”
“Is that normal?” I asked. “To have just one representative for more than one species?”
“It used to be commonplace centuries ago,” Gemma answered.
“When populations were small,” Rune agreed.
“As the world became more populated,” Gemma added, “the need for more representatives became obvious. You won’t find this kind of situation in very many places anymore, your majesty.”
I made a mental note to find out all the locations around the world where this sort of overlapping of responsibilities was still happening, and to resolve the issue.
But for right now, it would have to wait.
“We need to get in contact with Lord Vagin,” I said in a firmly commanding voice. “We need to know why so many of his constituents are so far away from their homes. We need to know why they’re going in and out of this walled-off area in Niernan, and we need to know what connections they have with Lord Crane and Lady Rain.”
“Lord Vagin is a Nykur,” Gemma added.
I already felt suspicious of the guy, but I honestly hoped Lord Vagin was some ancient paranormal who just wasn’t capable of doing the job anymore. That would be preferable to a representative who’d willingly and intentionally worked against me and the entire Eternal Realm.
Which brought my thoughts back to Niernan and Lord Crane.
“I suspect Lord Crane has taken over control of Niernan,” I said. “Either with manipulation and getting Lady Rain out of the way, or by brute force. We should be prepared to encounter a veritable fortress behind that wall.”
“I will send my spies out immediately to garner information about Lord Vagin,” Gemma said. “They will report back what they find, and perhaps we can establish direct contact with him.”
“Instruct them not to make any moves forward without direct orders from us,” I said. “I want as much information as possible before we put our people into possibly dangerous areas.”
“Yes, your majesty.” Gemma nodded and conferred with Gregor for a moment before she turned back to me. “We can have a team there in a matter of hours.”
“Wow,” I said with surprise. “That soon?”
“Merfolk are really strong swimmers,” Gemma said with a teasing glint in her eyes.
“Right.” I smirked. “I also want to prepare as many soldiers as we can from every region available between here and Niernan. I want three times as many forces as we’ll probably need, just in case. We don’t know what these assholes have up their sleeves, and I won’t go in underestimating them.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Gemma said. “Do you want them gathered here, closer to Niernan, or…?”
“No need to induce panic with a huge, amassed army,” I said. “Have them on standby. Are there outposts or bases or something where they can gather?”
“Yes.” Gemma nodded.
The beautiful mermaid came around to look at the map I still had open in front of me, and she pointed at three locations between here and Niernan.
“These bases will allow for shorter response times,” Gemma said as she turned her face to look at me. “And they’re out of the way from the public, so no panic.”
“Perfect,” I breathed as I realized Gemma was close enough that I could smell the salt water in her aquamarine hair.
Gemma gave me a tiny smirk that made me think she knew exactly the turn my thoughts had taken, but then she straightened back up.
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat in an attempt to clear my head. “I don’t like this walled-off shit in the city. Do we have any intel on how long it’s been like that?”
“Nothing concrete,” Gregor reported. “They weren’t especially new, though. The stones had begun to show biogrowth all over them.”
“So they’ve been in place and undisturbed long enough for algae to start making it home,” Rune said.
“Not algae,” Gregor said. “Barnacles. Big ones.”
“I’m not familiar with the life cycle of barnacles,” Rune said in a dry tone. “What time frame are we talking about here?”
“These barnacles were fully grown,” Gregor said. “So the wall is seven or eight months old, bare minimum, but they were present across massive sections of the wall. Since barnacles are immobile, they reproduce with their nearest neighbor, and by the looks of things, there have been years of reproducing. My best guess is that the wall has been up for at least a few years.”
“Wow,” Rune said with a shocked expression.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I had no idea barnacles could be so…”
“Informative,” Nyxx finished in a mildly disgusted voice.
Gregor enlightened us with a bit more information on the life cycles of barnacles and presented the evidence for his estimation on the wall’s age.
But all this wall bullshit made me think of the Berlin wall and the long-standing effects it had on Germany. The symbol of the Cold War had left scars across the city even to this day, and I worried what a similar wall would do to Niernan. I was also worried about what we would find behind that wall, and what it might take to cross it.
It was unlikely to be just a simple stone wall like the Berlin Wall had been. We were deep in the ocean here, it wasn’t like merfolk and sea nymphs were leashed to the ground the way humans on the surface had been. Any merfolk, sea nymph, sea sprite, or hell, even a fucking goldfish could swim right over the top of a simple stone wall.
No, there had to be more to it than just that, and I suspected there were heavy magical elements to it, too.
“Enough about barnacles, Gregor,” Gemma said, and her voice brought my attention back to the room. “Thank you.”
“Yes, Commander.” Gregor nodded and stepped back.
“I’ll put out an alert to all the reserved soldiers within a thousand-mile radius of Niernan,” Gemma said. “We can have ten thousand soldiers on standby in the next twenty-four hours.
My eyes went wide for a second as I was filled with shock at the numbers of soldiers I would imminently have at my command. Gemma may have been the commander, but I was the king. Any soldiers she gathered would follow my orders.
Holy shit.
“Good,” I said.
“We should inform Firo of the situation,” Nyxx said.
“That’s a good idea,” I agreed.
“We can call in shadow nymphs to help us,” Nyxx said. “Niernan has bubble buildings, too, right?”
“It does.” Gemma nodded.
“Good,” Nyxx said. “Shadow nymphs will be well suited to working within the bubble buildings, and that will allow the merfolk and sea nymphs to focus on the open-water areas.”
“That’s a great idea,” Gemma agreed. “Will you be leading the shadow nymphs, Nyxx?”
“Yes, she will,” I said immediately.
“Good,” Gemma replied without skipping a beat. “We will coordinate our teams.”
“Do we have a mirror?” Rune asked. “I can call Firo right now, if you’d like, your majesty.”
“Yes, one moment,” Gemma said.
A second later, one of her staffers dug a small circular hand mirror from somewhere and passed it to Rune. He placed his palm on the smooth glass, and a moment later Firo’s name blazed on the glass in an elegant script.
“Oh, that’s cool,” I murmured.
I’d never seen a mirror call from this side before, I’d only ever been the one who’d been called, so it was a new experience for me.
After a few seconds, the elegant script faded away, and Firo’s flame-colored hair and stern face appeared in the small mirror.
“Yes, Rune?” Firo asked. “Is his majesty in danger? I can get there immediately—”
“Calm your flames, Firo,” Rune said, and he passed the mirror over to me.
“Your majesty,” Firo said with relief in his slitted orange eyes. “What can I do for you?”
“Nyxx, Gemma, and I want to update you on everything we’ve learned,” I said.
It took us several minutes to relay all the information to Firo, as well as our plan, and then I passed the mirror to Nyxx so the two heads of my security could arrange additional shadow nymphs to join us in Niernan.
“There is a small bubble tunnel that’s not completed yet on the outskirts of the city,” Gemma explained. “Your shadow nymphs can mirror portal to that location. It’s well outside of the wall’s perimeter.”
“Good,” Firo said. “We can create a jump point from another of his majesty’s yachts. We’ll leave from the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and hop across in small groups to join you there. How many do you think we’ll need, Nyxx?”
“I’d like at least three hundred,” Nyxx said without hesitation.
“I’ll bring five hundred,” Firo countered.
“Very good.” Nyxx nodded.
We arranged the details about our rendezvous location and how Firo would bring the guards through. His plan was to bring them all to the royal marina closest to Niernan, bounce them one by one onto the yacht, and then down into the city’s incomplete bubble tunnel.
I couldn’t help but think about a wild game of leapfrog, but I trusted Nyxx and Firo to come up with the most straightforward and sound plan to get our troops where we needed them.
“Have them gather at the marina in Newfoundland and Labrador,” I said after all the other details were decided. “We’ve got scout teams going out to gather more information, so we’re not going in just yet.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Firo said.
“We’ll be in contact before we move,” I said.
Firo nodded dutifully before we ended the mirror call, and I heaved a deep sigh.
We were far from the end of this whole mess, but I felt better knowing we had a solid plan in place for the next phase. Plus all the soldiers we could need, and then some.
“I will let you know as soon as my scouts come back from Lord Vagin’s region,” Gemma said, and her tone said the meeting was wrapping up.
“Great, thank you,” I said as I stood up.
“I’d like to look into any maps you have of Niernan,” Nyxx said. “So I can form a plan for my shadow nymph warriors.”
“I can help you with that,” Gregor offered.
“As can I,” Gemma said. “I know the city well.”
“Thank you,” Nyxx said.
“Would it be alright if I explored the city a little?” Ivis asked, and she glanced between me and Gemma as if she didn’t know whose permission she needed.
“Of course,” Gemma said with a chuckle. “You’re guests here, not prisoners.”
“Mind if I join you?” I asked.
“I would like that very much.” Ivis smiled.
“I have more to do here,” Gemma said with a sort of sadness in her voice. “I believe we’ll have to push back our time.”
“I know,” I said softly. “This is important work, and I appreciate all you and your staff are doing. Don’t worry, I can be patient.”
Gemma smiled, and I could see she was as disappointed as me about not being able to spend some time together today. This was really important stuff, though, and I knew we weren’t limited on time.
Nyxx and Gemma set right to work figuring out the layout of Niernan and which areas the shadow nymphs would need to prioritize when it came time to enter the city. Ivis and I walked out of the council room and found the city to be lit exactly as it had been earlier this morning.
“It’s so difficult to keep track of time down here,” Ivis observed.
