-12-
Lady Nemea and the guards followed us back to Rocky Beach. Lottius and Katia helped hand out fruit while I talked to the elders. They had a list of complaints, minor and major. Some minions took their share home, while others sat and munched.
Lottius, Katia, and I joined them. Lady Nemea and the guards didn’t. She was such a buzzkill. I ignored her long-suffering expression as laughter and excited chatter filled the air. I soaked it all in.
No more thoughts about the Guardians and what they’d stolen from me. No more thoughts about making them pay. I glanced around, exchanging smiles. These were my people, my concern, not the Guardians. I found out that Seraph’s mother was called Ziminair and that her father, Anzu, was a day laborer in the fields.
I searched for Green Eyes, but he hadn’t returned. I couldn’t feel him, either. It was hard to explain how the mere thought of him sent my pulse racing. I had a serious crush on the guy. Probably more than a crush, but the situation was hopeless. My father would find me a mate, and minions weren’t qualified.
Silence spread across the beach like a giant wave. I turned and grinned. Father had arrived. Minions went down on their knees. Even Lottius and Katia joined them. I guessed I should be nervous about interfering in matters that didn’t concern me again, but I wasn’t. This was the right thing to do.
“May the Principalities guide you, Lord Valafar” followed him as he walked past the people. He paused to pat heads and shoulders, ask about family members. Some reached out to touch him as he passed them. From their reaction and emotions, they revered him.
I waved. “Over here.”
“May the Principalities guide you, sire,” the elders said when he reached us.
“Thank you.” Then he turned to me. “Daughter.”
“I’m happy you came,” I said, offering him an apple.
He smiled and took it. “I’ll always come when you need me.”
I grinned and patted the sand. “Want to sit?”
He looked around, face expressionless. I don’t think so.
It shows that you are one of us, Father.
I am one of you, he said stressing “am”. Someone appeared with a chair for him. The guards stayed standing.
No one offered me a chair, I griped.
That’s because you’re not our leader yet.
Yet? Did that mean he meant to step down? I didn’t want to think about that now. “Sit, please,” I told the guards. “Grab some fruit.”
They acknowledged my words with a nod, but they didn’t take me up on the offer. Instead, they studied everyone and the horizon as though they expected Guardians to pop up from the sea of harmless minions or from the water.
The minions pressed closer as though waiting for Father to say something. The children grew restless. A few tried to move from their mothers’ sides but were stopped by firm grips. I closed my hand around the mango core and felt it shift and change texture. When I opened my hands, the core had turned into sand. I made eye contact with Seraph’s mom.
Ziminair, the children are bored. I want to play with them in the water. Can you see if it’s okay with the other mothers?
She smiled. Of course, Princess.
I stood when she nodded, and took Seraph’s hand and the hand of the friend she’d been playing with. The other children, nudged by their parents, joined us.
“Where are we going, Princess Lilith?” Seraph asked.
“We’re going to play in the water.”
She giggled. “You can’t swim in a dress.”
“Oh, but I can. This is a special dress. It can change into a swimsuit just before I get in the water, and as soon as I step out of the water, it changes back into a dress.”
“You have earth powers,” her friend whispered softly. “My mother said so.”
I smiled. “Yes, I do.”
“Can you make my swimsuit blue with snowflakes?” she asked.
“I want pink snowflakes,” Seraph cut in.
“Ask your parents first,” I said. “If they say it’s okay…”
The children ran to their parents to ask permission. The water was blue and clear; I could see the sandy bottom. My sundress changed into a bikini as soon as I stepped in the water, but I was too busy adding polka dots, flowers, and hearts to swimsuits to feel self-conscious. Not that I had any reason to be. I wasn’t pale and scrawny anymore. I’d filled out.
Most of the children, like their parents, were in their Neteru/humanlike form, so that made things easier. I didn’t have to deal with tails and whatnot. I guess the ability to shift depended on the psi energy. I focused on creating more pink, blue, red, and yellow snowflakes, balls, bugs, and bikes on shorts.
Help, I begged Katia.
Katia helped with the swimsuits, then with keeping an eye on the younger kids. She was good with them. She laughed and splashed with them, chased them under the water like an eel. Their level of playfulness was different with her. I guessed no matter how hard I tried, I’d always be their princess and they’d always treat me differently.
I knew the moment my father left. There was a mass exodus into the water, but it was more than that. My father had a presence and a powerful energy that was hard to ignore. I wondered if that was how people felt around me. According to my tutors, I had the strongest psi energy on the island.
Lady Nemea left with his guards, but mine stayed. Lottius walked to the edge of the water and waved.
A little help with my swimsuit, Prime Earthlings, she teased.
Katia laughed. “Do you want to do the honors?”
“You do it. You know what she likes. Besides, she called us earthlings. That is insulting and demean—”
Hands wrapped around my waist and pulled. Arms flailing, I went under. The kids were finally treating me the way they treated Katia. I glanced over my shoulder and my eyes widened.
What are you doing? I asked Green Eyes.
He smirked, letting me go. Trying to get your attention. What to see something cool?
I shook my head and surfaced.
Chicken, he said, still underwater.
Not.
Please. His gorgeous eyes twinkled and his ridiculously long hair floated in the sea like a mermaid’s. I couldn’t resist, so I nodded. He beckoned me to join him and I dove in. He took my hand and I expected us to teleport.
The water parted around us as we swam until we were inside some sort of bubble. Instead of floating to the top, the bubble moved farther from the others and the shore and into deeper waters. It was weird. Green Eyes held on to me as we sank until our feet landed on the bottom of the ocean.
The seabed was rocky and bubbles shot upward from cracks on the floor, probably from some nasty sea creatures wondering why we had invaded their space. But I didn’t care. I was alone with Green Eyes.
A school of colorful fish floated past us, skirting our dome as though they knew the inside had no water. Above us, light rays streaked through the water like splashes of white paint on a watery canvas. I poked at the wall and my finger sank into the cool wetness of the ocean, but when I pulled it out, the bubble didn’t pop.
“Did you do this?” I asked, glancing at him. I caught his smile. He really had a beautiful smile, and from the look in his eyes, he was enjoying my reaction. Heat crawled onto my cheeks and I was suddenly aware that he was holding my hand, and that I was only partially dressed in a bikini while he wore a surfing suit.
“Did you?” I asked again.
He shook his head. “How could I? I’m only a minion. Maybe your water powers are appearing.”
Could they? He laced our fingers. Holding his hand seemed natural.
“I don’t buy it,” I said. “Do you have wings?”
He laughed as though the idea was absurd, then let go of my hand, leaned against the bubble, and crossed his arms. “If I had wings, I’d be up there flying, not down here.” He angled his head and studied me. “Why do you ask?”
I pushed my finger into the water. “I had a dream about you.”
He wiggled his brow. “Only one? I’ve had plenty with you.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “Yeah. Well. In the dream you had massive black wings.”
“Nice. My dreams tend to be more…”
His smile changed and something shifted in my stomach. “More what?”
“Realistic.”
“Oh.” I’d expected him to say something more, I don’t know, romantic.
He smirked as though he’d read my thoughts. “Meet me at the sublevel library at midnight tonight and I’ll show you. I’ll be in the east study room with the giant globe.”
I cocked my eyebrows. “You plan to show me your dreams?”
“Yep. I capture them on canvas.”
He had paintings of me? Now I was intrigued. “You paint?”
“Beautifully.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“I have it from a reliable source that I’m a brilliant artist.” He grinned as though enjoying a private joke. “So, you’ll come?”
“No. I have guards with me all the time, you know.” That sounded like I wanted to meet him. “And I can’t meet with someone whose name I don’t know.”
He shrugged. “You do a good job of ditching your guards all the time, and Green Eyes is a perfect name for me.”
How did he know? “You listened to my thoughts?”
He rocked on his heels and made the bubble wiggle. “Nope. I’ve heard you use it.”
“I’ve never mentioned that name to anyone.” I wanted to cross my arms and lean against the bubble, but I was sure I’d fall into the water. I didn’t believe I was controlling the water. He was. He had to be. If I got inside his head and listened to his thoughts, I could get my answers.
“You don’t want to do that, Lil,” he warned.
I pointed at him. “Ha. Gotcha. You just read my thoughts.”
“No, I didn’t. The gleam in your eyes said you were thinking naughty thoughts and I was the subject.”
“You wish.”
Grinning, he closed the gap between us. I didn’t feel threatened or scared, but for some reason I stopped breathing, which was really stupid. I could feel his warmth. It was strangely comforting, yet exciting. He reached up and twirled a lock of my wet hair.
“Dreams aside, do you think about me at all, Lil?”
“All the time,” I said.
He chuckled and lowered his head. I knew he was going to kiss me. I wanted him to. I’d thought of us making out and always dismissed my thoughts and feelings accompanying them as impractical. I was the princess and he was a minion.
“Not the way you’re thinking,” I lied. “You knew me before the battle with the Archangels and I don’t remember anything. Will you tell me about how we met?” And why I keep dreaming about you, I wanted to add. Every time I looked into his eyes, heard his voice, even thought about him, I heard echoes of my lost memories. Like all I had to do was focus hard and I’d remember. Except I never did. Some days the feelings were strong, but other times, they were hardly there.
“I can’t.” He stepped away from me. “You should head back to the shore.”
I didn’t want to leave yet. “Why can’t you tell me?”
“Because you are on a journey, and anything I say will interfere with it.”
“What journey?”
He shook his head.
Getting frustrated, I asked, “Did we meet when I was on the road with the old man?”
He frowned. “Old man?”
“Master Kenta told me I was raised by an old man, a Cardinal Psi Guardian. Is that how we met?”
His eyes narrowed. “When did he tell you this?”
“Does it matter?”
“What else did he tell you?”
I gave him an overview of what I’d learned about my life with the Guardians. He didn’t interrupt, but his eyes flashed. I didn’t have to be an empath to know he was furious. For the first time since we had sunk to the bottom of the sea, I was scared. Not of him, but of what he might do.
“I, uh, think you’re right. I should teleport back to the beach,” I said.
“Don’t believe everything that bastard tells you,” he ground out.
“Then tell me the truth. Why don’t you like him?”
He opened his mouth as though to speak, then clammed up and glared into space.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “You know about my past but you won’t tell me. You warn me about people but don’t explain why. You encourage me to do things, then you disappear. You talk about my journey, and then you won’t explain. What’s going on?”
He glowered without responding.
“Seraph’s mother said you always bring them supplies and then disappear. She said you did the same thing on Coronis Isle. Where do you go? Where do you live?”
“The lowest sublevel, where little princesses are too scared to visit. Have you ever visited the sublevels below the warehouses?”
His attitude was pissing me off. “Don’t make this about me just because you don’t want me to know your secrets.”
He angled his head and smiled as though my anger amused him. “They’re doing a psi sweep. Go. Teleport to the beach before they find you down here.”
“No. Let them find us.”
He wiggled his fingers in a goodbye. “See you at the library tonight. I’ll bring the paintings.”
I thought he was going to teleport. Instead, the bubble rose, leaving him behind. The water swirled around him. He still stood on the ocean floor, confirming what I’d suspected all along. He was the one manipulating the water.
I teleported to the shore and appeared beside the minion elders, startling them. Guards and minions appeared around me, their concerns impossible to escape.
“I’m okay,” I reassured them. “Sorry for scaring everyone.”
“Scare? Let’s talk about full-blown panic,” Katia scolded. “I was about to telepath Lady Nemea. I don’t care if you can control water, air, land, and everything in between. You don’t just disappear like that. We thought the Guardians—”
I hugged her. “I’m here and I’m fine.” I stepped back, my eyes volleying between Katia and Lottius. “I got carried away. It was so beautiful down there.” Except for the last few moments.
“We both tried to contact you, but it was as though you were gone,” Katia said.
“I told you she blocked us,” Lottius said. “I’m going home to change out of this. Telepath me with the plans.” Then she was gone.
Callum handed me a dry towel just as my swimsuit transformed back to the sundress. A wet sundress. I wished it dry, but nothing happened. I definitely had no water powers.
In the next week, Father held a meeting with the minion elders. He visited them in the fields, their homes, and even went back to the beach. I wasn’t included in the visits and felt a little left out. After all, if it hadn’t been for me, he wouldn’t have known about how the minions were being treated.
I tried to bring them up during dinner, but he wouldn’t discuss what he was doing. I had a feeling he had put Sir Malax in charge of domestic affairs and was equally appalled by the minions’ situations. Or maybe I just hated the idea that he might have known and not cared.
Bilal and the kitchen staff made special treats for me, more so than usual. Whenever I stopped by, Kasset was chattier than usual. Solange, on the other hand, became cattier. Most of the time, I ignored her. Other times, I gave as good as I got.
Then Father dropped the bomb. “The minions need a representative to the High Council.”
We having dinner and at first, I thought he was talking to Solange, until I caught her staring at me. “What?”
“Your precious minions need an advocate,” she said.
I glanced at Father, then at Solange, my heart pounding. “Are you saying…?”
Father nodded. “Do you want to be their representative?”
Did I? “What do I do?”
“Listen to their whining and placate them,” Solange said, grinning.
Father shot her a warning glance. “You attend meetings and represent their interests.”
I grinned. “Then, yes. I will be their representative.”
He nodded. “Good. The High Council will hold a meeting next week. Be ready.”
I didn’t start to panic until I left my father’s dining room. I was a member of the High Council, a representative of the minions. What if I couldn’t do it? What if I failed them?
Suddenly, I felt the familiar gentle brush of energy against mine. I welcomed the effect. I needed to be calm, confident, like there was nothing I couldn’t conquer, and it did the trick.
Ruby and Callum were waiting upstairs. “Telepath Lottie and Katia and tell them to come here, Ruby.”
She nodded. “Yes, Princess.”
“Callum, find Jazreel, Kasset’s daughter, and bring her here, too.”
I was in and out of the shower in ten minutes. Jazreel and Katia were in the entertainment room when I stepped out of my bedroom.
“What’s going on?” Katia asked. “We were getting ready to go clubbing.”
“Where’s Lottius?”
“She’ll be here. I left her a message. So”—she glanced at Jazreel, then me—“What’s up?”
“I have to attend High Council next week to represent the minions. Argh, I hate that name as much as I hate P-zero. Anyway, I must have something to tell the council.”
Katia squealed and hugged me. “That’s huge. We’re going to make sure they get everything they need. Salary, better homes, education…”
Lottius joined us while Katia was still listing possible reforms, and she wasn’t alone. Skylar, Ravan, and Gus teleported behind her.
“Did you say the High Council?” Lottius asked. I quickly explained my new duties.
“I can’t believe we missed the excitement at Rocky Beach and almost missed this,” Skylar griped.
“We were just discussing the minions a few weeks ago and now this,” Ravan piped in.
“Imagine what will be happening six months from now,” Gus added.
“Something great, I hope,” Katia said.
“Okay, guys,” I said, drawing their attention. “I want to know everything about the minions if I must be ready for next week’s meeting. I also plan to pay them a visit and talk to their elders.”
Jazreel looked unsure of her place.
I indicated a chair. “Sit. I need to hear what you know, too. In fact, all of you”—I gave them a sweeping glance—“are officially members of my little initiative council.”
“Can we get something to eat as we talk?” Ravan asked, and Skylar laughed. “I’m starving.”
“You’re always starving,” Skylar teased him.
“Shall I tell the kitchen you need food and drinks, Princess?” Ruby asked from somewhere behind me.
I gave her the go-ahead and she disappeared. I faced my friends, who were all seated now. “First, we need a name for the minions.”
The kitchen workers streamed in and out with drinks and food as we brainstormed. Finally, Jazreel said, “Most of them live on sublevel six. Can we call them Level-sixers?”
“Or Sublevel-sixers,” Ravan suggested.
“Too mouthy,” Skylar said.
“Subsixers,” I said, and the name got everyone’s approval.
The more I heard about the way the minions were being treated, the more I knew I was in way over my head and the more worried I became. I had to be prepared. The stakes were too high.