Where’s John?

Neridia leaned out the tower window, feeling rather like Rapunzel. She couldn’t guess which of the distant, gleaming buildings far below currently housed her mate. There was no-one to ask, either. The two silent, towering knights who’d escorted them to the opulent tower top room had remained outside the door. When Neridia had tried the handle, she’d discovered that it was locked.

Still, if she couldn’t get out, at least no one would be able to get in. Although the tower windows were glassless, the sheer golden walls would be impossible for even a ninja to climb.

No one could swim in, either. An enormous air bubble covered the building, from base to pointed spire. John’s sister had told Neridia that this wing of the palace was used to house high-ranking whale and seal shifters who couldn’t spend all their time underwater like the dragons and sharks could.

She was safe in Atlantis at last. But she didn’t feel safe.

She hadn’t forgotten the Master Shark’s warning about an unknown, powerful enemy lurking in Atlantis. Although after the shark lord’s attack on John, she was no longer quite so sure that he’d been telling the truth. If he really was on her side, surely he wouldn’t have tried to kill her mate. Maybe the Master Shark had been behind the attacks on both her and her father after all.

But he’d sounded so sincere when he’d spoken of his oath-brother…

Neridia didn’t know what to think. The only thing that she knew for certain was that she needed John at her side. He was the only person in Atlantis she could trust completely.

Well, nearly the only person.

“Look at this inlay!” John’s sister ran an admiring hand over a intricate end table carved from coral and set with precious gems. “See how the slices of opal catch the light. And these mosaics! Have you ever seen such pearls?”

In human form, John’s sister stood only a few inches shorter than Neridia herself. She wore the briefest of bikini tops and a short, green-and-blue patterned sarong, exposing the lush curves of her body without a hint of self-consciousness. Her long, braided hair was exactly the same deep indigo hue as her brother’s.

Even though her coloring and features echoed John’s, she couldn’t have been more different from her sibling. Instead of John’s solemn reserve, his sister bubbled over with enthusiasm and energy. She was in constant movement, practically dancing around the room as she tried to see everything at once.

“Oh, the palace is more splendid than I could have ever imagined.” John’s sister spun on the spot, arms opening as if she wanted to embrace the entire building. “I could spend all day just in this one room.”

“Just as well,” Neridia muttered. “Since it’s looking like we’re going to. We must have been here for hours.”

Where’s John? What’s taking him so long?

Part of her wanted to reach for him down the mate bond…but she didn’t dare. Not after what had happened last time.

He parted the whole sea.

The vast rush of energy between them had been as terrifying as a tsunami. Neridia was scared that if it happened again, she’d be swept away entirely.

She could still feel him somewhat, at the back of her mind. She knew that he wanted to come to her, but was prevented from doing so. Whatever the reason, he wasn’t worried or angry about it. Still, his frustration and impatience vibrated down the mate bond, setting her own teeth on edge.

Neridia sighed, turning away from the window. “I wish John would get back. I don’t see why he couldn’t have reported to the Knight-Commander here.”

“From what I’ve heard, the Knight-Commander hates wearing human form,” John’s sister replied absently, busy admiring the intricate mosaics covering the walls. “He only shifts for two reasons: duels, and talking to non-dragons. If he could, he’d probably spend all his time in the sea.”

Neridia leaned back against the windowsill, though she really wanted to be pacing around the room. Seeking to distract herself from her irrational nerves, she asked, “Is that why you all speak English so well? You learn it in order to communicate with other types of shifter?”

John’s sister nodded. “We cannot speak each other’s languages in our true forms. A shark cannot sing like a whale, nor a dragon bark like a seal. And most shifters can only communicate telepathically with those of the same type. If we wish to speak to each other, we must do so in a human tongue.”

“So do you have a human nickname, like John does?“ Neridia asked hopefully. “He said I wouldn’t be able to pronounce your real one, but it seems rude to keep thinking of you just as ‘John’s sister.’”

The sea dragon shrugged one shoulder. “My duties mean I don’t have need to meet with other types of shifter all that often,” she said, sounding a little regretful. “When I do, people just tend to refer to me by the literal translation of my name. Third Dancer of the Mirrored Void.”

“Um,” Neridia said, cautiously. “Is there a short form of that?”

Third Dancer of the Mirrored Void laughed. “That is the short form. My full name is rather longer.” Her turquoise eyes brightened. “But you could give me an air name!”

“Me? Why me? Can’t you just pick one for yourself?”

“Oh, no.” The sea dragon looked shocked at the suggestion. “Names have to be given, not taken. And air-names can only be given by land-dwellers. I was terribly jealous of my little brother when he won his. Ever since I was a little hatchling listening to fairy tales, I always dreamed of walking the fantastical lands above the waves.”

“Why didn’t you?” Neridia asked.

“It is not permitted. The Sea Council says we can’t risk too much interaction with the dry-landers, for fear of another Dragon War. Very few of us ever walk the land.” She clasped her hands together, fixing Neridia with entreating eyes. “I never thought I’d have the chance to win an air name. Please, please give me one!”

“Well…okay.” Neridia quailed at the thought of trying to come up with a name worthy of the strong, vibrant woman. “Um, do you have a preference?”

The sea dragon’s forehead furrowed seriously. “I would like something that matches my brother’s, so that everyone will be able to tell that we are family. Is there a female form of his name?”

“Jane Doe, I guess,” Neridia said dubiously. “But I’m not sure it really-“

“Jane Doe,” the sea dragon said, with great satisfaction. “How exotic. Yes. I shall be Jane.”

Neridia rubbed her forehead, biting back a groan.

I just named a fifty-foot-long sea dragon Jane.

Oh well. At least she seems happy about it.

“I cannot wait to tell my little brother that I have my own air name now.” Jane danced over to Neridia’s side, peering out the window herself. She sighed. “Though I suppose I will have to wait awhile yet. No doubt all the knights of every Order will have their jaws full quelling this pandemonium.”

Neridia stared from the sea dragon to the peaceful city below, and back again. “What pandemonium?”

Jane looked at her in surprise. “I am sorry, I didn’t realize human eyesight was so much poorer than ours. Can you not make out the hordes thronging the Sun Plaza?”

Neridia followed the dragon’s pointing finger. The air bubble surrounding the tower also covered a wide circular area just outside the palace gates, about the twice the area of a football pitch. There was no doubt that it was the Sun Plaza—thousands of golden tiles set into the gleaming white paving formed a huge circle with intricate, spiraling rays.

It was quite easy to make out the design, given that the vast space was mostly empty. There were quite a few scattered groups of people milling around, but it was hardly what she’d call a scene of pandemonium. The plaza could easily have accommodated a crowd ten times the size.

“You mean those people down there?” Neridia asked Jane, wondering if maybe she was missing something.

“Yes! Have you ever seen such a crowd? If there are this many in the Sun Plaza alone, most of the city must be out in the streets!”

Neridia did a quick head count and estimate, just in case she was being misled by the size of the plaza. But she still couldn’t come up with more than a couple hundred people, at the very most.

She looked back at Jane. “You’ve lived in Atlantis all your life, right?”

“Yes. Many sea shifters prefer to reside in the deeps, saying that the city is much too crowded and busy for comfort, but I like being where everything happens.”

“And…how many people live here?”

“Oh, a great many,” Jane said earnestly. “Though most divide their time between the city and the open ocean. There are sometimes as many as three thousand people residing here!”

There were three thousand residents just in Neridia’s tiny home village. Inverness, the nearest city, had forty thousand people, and she knew that Londoners considered it to be a rural backwater.

Neridia stared out at the crowded tiers of buildings dropping away to the distant sea floor. “There are only three thousand sea dragons in this entire city?”

Jane looked startled. “No, of course not. Most of the residents are other types of shifter, of course.” She sighed. “We are not as numerous as we once were.”

“Why not?”

“Not enough of us find true mates, these days. Unmated pairs can still attempt to breed, of course, but they tend to produce only one or two eggs at most.” Her melodic voice hushed, as though speaking of something taboo. “And sometimes…sometimes the young are not even shifters.”

Though Neridia wouldn’t wish her own misfortune on anyone else, her heart still skipped a beat at the news that there were others like her. “Really? They can’t turn into dragons either?”

Jane gave her an odd look. “No. They cannot turn into humans.”

“Oh.” Neridia frowned as something struck her. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. But, if you don’t mind me saying, I thought your people kind of looked down on humans.”

Jane made a wry face. “Many do, I am sorry to say. There are those who would claim that we should have no connection to them. But even the staunchest traditionalists cannot escape the inconvenient fact that we are only fertile in human form. That is another reason why we keep parts of Atlantis under air.”

“So you live in water, but have to breed in air? Like frogs, only backward?”

The sea dragon lifted an indigo eyebrow at her, a smile tugging at her full lips. “I suggest you don’t say that in the hearing of one of our males. I am not sure they would take kindly to the comparison. But yes, that is essentially the case.”

Neridia nodded as the problem became clear. “So those of you who can’t shift…”

“Can never have young of their own. They are dead ends.” Jane’s turquoise eyes darkened with sorrow. “And so our people slowly dwindle.”

“Hmm. Speaking as a conservationist, it sounds like your gene pool is too small.”

Jane’s forehead wrinkled. “You think that we should mate in pools?”

“No, I mean, your breeding population is too small to be viable. You need fresh blood.”

“Ah, I understand now.” Jane made a graceful, sinuous shrug. “I agree, but where is it to come from? Every sea dragon in the entire ocean is known and named. If we sing for our mate, and he does not answer, there is nothing we can do.”

From the sad, minor key of her musical voice, Neridia was certain that Jane was speaking from personal experience. “Well, John found me on land. Maybe that’s where you should be looking too.”

Jane’s eyes widened. “You—you think I too might have a human mate? Me?”

“Why not? John did. My father did. Why not you?”

“I might have a mate,” Jane breathed, looking thunderstruck. “I might have a mate.” She seized Neridia’s hands, swinging her around in a dance of joy. “I might have a mate!”

“Don’t get too excited,” Neridia laughed, trying to keep up with the sea dragon’s exuberance. “I have to warn you, finding him might not be easy. There are, um, a few more humans than there are sea dragons.”

“I don’t care if I have to spend years searching. For my mate, I would go anywhere, do anything—oh.” Jane stopped dancing, as suddenly as she’d started. “But I won’t have the chance. The Sea Council would never allow me to walk above the wave.”

“They let John go, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but that was a special case. The Knight-Commander sent him to investigate rumors of the lost Emperor. It was a matter of the utmost importance.”

“Well, saving the species is of the utmost importance too,” Neridia pointed out. Then she hesitated. “Though maybe I’m wrong. I’m not exactly a good advertisement for sea dragon-human cross-breeds.“

Jane looked at her sidelong, biting her lip. Then her mouth firmed. “My brother is convinced that you will shift. Will you give me permission to look for my mate on land, when you become Empress?”

“Um. Sure, of course.” Neridia’s own mouth twisted. “But don’t hold your breath on that one.”

At Jane’s blank expression, she realized that the expression probably didn’t mean much to a creature with gills. But before she could explain what she meant, the door swung open.

Jane gasped, quickly dropping her gaze to the floor. “Honored Knight-Commander of the First Water, Voice of the Emperor-in-Absence.”

The huge man in the doorway didn’t even glance at the sea dragon woman. Neridia flinched as his gaze fixed on her. Even with his face hidden behind his elaborate dragon-faced helmet, she felt the intensity of that stare like a hot iron.

“You are the human?” His deep voice vibrated her bones.

Dry-mouthed, Neridia could only nod, silently. He was as tall as John, and seemed even more superhumanly massive thanks to his dazzling diamond-encrusted armor. The hilts of two swords protruded over his hulking shoulders. One had a pommel set with a fist-sized, pure white pearl; the other bore a pearl of deepest midnight.

The Knight-Commander studied her for a moment. Whatever he was thinking was hidden behind his jeweled helm.

He turned, gesturing with one gauntleted hand. “You will come with me.”