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  Seeing that talking was calming him down, Amadala continued to speak of the past.

  “When I met you, you were ready to kill me.”

  “Still am!”

  Bad choice of words, she thought as the water picked up its eerie boiling again.

  “But then I went with you to find Neima.”

  “You fought off sharks,” he said.

  “And I prevented you from killing off the council,” she reminded him.

  “Yes,” he replied. “And I walked away from them! I gave you what you wanted, Amadala, power. I gave you the ultimate power, my throne.”

  “You sacrificed your throne on the altar of your guilt,” she said. “And yes, I was there to receive it. But the council’s decisions were not your mistakes, Storm. Just as Elanna’s death is not your fault!”

  “She would be alive if not for me!” he shouted.

  “She would have been dead if you had not protected her.”

  “She is dead anyway!” he said in a voice filled with regret, and abruptly the water calmed.

  “Dead,” Amadala said as she moved closer to Storm. She was still terrified of him, but he was her friend, even though she hadn’t been acting the part lately. “Yet you are alive, Storm! You survived!”

  “I am tired, Amadala!” he sighed as she came close enough to touch him.

  Then he seemed to collapse into himself, the guilt and anger that had sustained him melting away for the moment, and his body began to break down.

  “Rest, Storm,” she said softly, as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her chest. “You will rest and then we will grieve together. You for your human and me for my lost chance.”

  “I will probably kill you later,” he whispered as he closed his eyes and rested his head on her shoulder.

  “Thanks for the warning,” she chuckled. “And I thought that we were friends.”

  “Maybe once,” he sighed, as he began to sleep and to dream. “But then you turned into a bitch. And don’t touch her body. I am not…ready yet.”

  “But…”

  “Tomorrow. I will be brave tomorrow.” He said as he stopped fighting the waves of mental and physical exhaustion that swamped him.

  “Tomorrow then,” Amadala repeated, as she held Storm tight.

  Chapter Twenty

  Storm remembered seeing what was left of Neima’s body, blood-red billows spreading across the surface of the suddenly cold water, then he remembered little else.

  But he remembered the council.

  The members waited in their stone coffin as he, dressed in his wedding finery, slowly approached, the smell of blood and death surrounding him.

  “What—what has happened?” the eldest member of the five-man council asked, fear masking any concern that he may have had.

  “Where is Neima?” a second drawled. “Should we be prepared for weeping and accusations, Storm? We did what we thought was best, what we still think is best. Your powers should not be diluted.”

  “Quiet!” Amadala said, her own adornments torn and disheveled. “You know not what you speak of!”

  “Look at that,” still another council member pointed out, oblivious to Storm’s blank face and insane eyes. “That is the bravery you want bred into your children, Storm! Is Amadala not the perfect mate? The perfect match for the throne, I say!”

  “Please!” Amadala insisted, her eyes wide, frightened, her pink scales starting to shimmer as they began to drop. “Please listen to me!”

  “Already she takes control of him,” another elder observed. “This is what the boy needed.”

  “You killed her,” Storm said calmly, as the temperature in the room began to plummet.

  “What?” several confused voices asked at once.

  “You fools!” Amadala hissed, glancing wearily at the council and to the barely contained man. She could feel his power begin to build violently. “Neima is dead, destroyed in your foolhardy quest!”

  “Impossible!” the first elder stuttered, unwilling to accept responsibility in this scenario. “There is no way…”

  “Sharks!” Storm growled as the water began to swirl around him. “Sharks don’t leave much for burial.”

  There was a loud gasp as the members of the council were suddenly slapped in the face with their guilt, with what their actions had wrought.

  “Sharks?” one said, as if the creatures existed only in nightmares.

  “You murdered my conscience,” Storm said quietly as he watched the members digest his words, then fear began to fill their faces.

  They knew it was his inbred conscience that held him in check when his powers demanded a release in destruction, kept him from harming others and forced him to pay heed to the elders’ voices.

  Now with that barrier gone, there was nothing standing between them and the full power of a true Child of Triton.

  “No, Storm!” Amadala screamed as she turned towards the council. “Please!”

  She had looked into his pale amethyst eyes and had seen the gaze of death.

  The walls trembled as strange underwater lightning began to strike at the stone cavern, tearing stone into bits of rubble as it tumbled downward.

  White water bubbled and loud cracks of breaking stone filled the air!

  Diving for cover, the council took refuge underneath the massive table that represented their power, a useless symbol now in the face of a Triton’s abilities.

  “They deserve to die!” he said calmly as he turned glowing eyes to Amadala.

  “No one deserves death!” she pleaded. There were several family friends under that table, men she had grown up with and respected. She could not see them dead. “They do not deserve to die!”

  “Did Neima?” he asked as his vacant eyes turned to the scene of the council scrambling for cover and cowering like the lowly scavengers they were.

  “No, Storm! She did not! As they do not!”

  “They are responsible!”

  “They are not sharks!”

  “They are worse. They are humans tainting everything they touch!” There were loud gasps at this insult, because humans were known as the despoilers of the sea. “No, they are not humans, they are less than human! They are bottom dwellers, planning and plotting against the underbelly of true power! You want power? You want to control my life? You want to rule and make my decisions? Then choose your death!”

  Still staring at the five men who had caused him no end of shame growing up, who had manipulated him as they saw fit, who wanted to control the power coming to the throne, he smiled.

  A loud clap of thunder made everyone’s hair stand on end, before a blue glow began to fill the cavern.

  “What are you doing?” Amadala screamed, gripping his arm with her sharp nails and pulling desperately.

  “I am giving them power,” he answered. “The power of unbreakable stone that will fall on their heads, crushing them, thereby giving them a true demonstration of power. Ingenious, no?” he asked as the glow began to intensify.

  “You can’t!” she argued as the wildly spinning water ripped her hair around her face. “You are not a killer!”

  “What I am is not a ruler!” Storm said in a singsong voice. “No ruler would take joy in their demise. Besides, I don’t want to rule any people who would follow filth like this!”

  “But you can’t kill them!” she argued.

  “Am I not the ruler?” he asked peevishly, the first real emotions crossing his face since he’d seen his lady die such a horrid death.

  “But you don’t want this! A ruler can’t do this!”

  All the while they were speaking, the blue glow was growing brighter, hotter, the water rolling faster and harder. Still, Storm remained untouched, the water swirling around him keeping him in a calm eye as the seas around them began to wage war.

  “What would a ruler do?” he growled, anger in his voice and now showing clearly in the flattened features of his face. “What would you do?”

  “I would banis
h them!” she screamed, her eyes going to the men she had known all of her life. Anything to save them, her teachers, she thought.

  “Good!” Storm said suddenly, throwing her emotions off with this sudden change of mood. “Then you are ruler! Hear that, you old misguided pack of barracuda! I am no longer the leader! From this day, this gracious pink-haired one…” He didn’t even remember her name.

  “Amadala!” she said, realizing what he was doing with some awe.

  “This Amadala,” he corrected “is now the ruler! She chooses to banish you as a just leader would. But since I am no longer the leader, I can choose to do with you what I will!”

  “Please!” Amadala said, recovering form her shock as a fierce determination to keep this office filled her even as death loomed around them. “Please, let me handle this! You passed power onto me, let me exercise it!”

  “But they killed her!” he bellowed, as the cavern began to shake. “They killed her because of me!”

  “No!” she insisted.

  “Yes! Because of me!”

  His hands tore through his hair as frustration, anger, and confusion crashed down upon him, all at once.

  “If I had not loved her, if I had not chosen her, if I had left her alone, she would be alive!”

  “Storm,” Amadala said cautiously. “This was not your doing!”

  “But it was done in my name, for the purpose of controlling me! Me! That means I am to blame!”

  Even as his cool exterior cracked, very real emotions poured out of Storm, emotions he had never felt before in his life.

  What was this pain in his heart, this ache in his stomach, this fear that filled his mind?

  In his confusion, he lost his hold on the elements, the blue glow leaving the room as the cavern stopped trembling.

  Still cowering, the council watched in awe as the only true Child of Triton to be born with such powers broke down and sobbed like a child.

  And even more disheartening was the fact that Amadala, the chosen power-hungry bride, was staring at them, a look of disgust on her face.

  * * * * *

  “I have nothing left to strive for,” he said as the memories began to fade, then jumped as a pair of strong arms surrounded him.

  “Live for you,” Amadala said as she wrapped her arms around his massive shoulders, shoulders that were now bent in despondency.

  “I don’t think I can do that,” he breathed brokenly. “She was my world, and without her I am nothing.”

  “When you are ready,” Amadala said uncertainly. Was she doing the correct thing, saying the right words? “When you are ready, you will find a reason to live.”

  “I am ready,” Storm said as he pulled away from Amadala. “Let us prepare her body.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  He hadn’t expected many people to show up and he was not disappointed.

  Elanna had very few opportunities to meet Merpeople, and it showed as a treasured few filed past the stone altar that held her remains.

  Stoically, Storm stood by her body, acknowledging the condolences of the few people Elanna startled, made curious, and befriended.

  Storm looked down at her body, draped in iridescent mother-of-pearl shells from her neck to her pretty little toes. He remembered Elanna had been distressed by anyone seeing her naked, so he provided what cover he could. Cloth was hard to come by here underwater, and he wanted something special to acknowledge her importance to him.

  Her hair was that exotic pouf of curls he so adored, sprinkled with crushed shells and pearls as it framed her head in a soft brown halo. At her ears hung the largest and rarest black pearls, their sheen almost seeming like rainbows where the light of several torches touched them. Around her neck hung several strands of matched black and pink pearls, harvested by Sting and Rage earlier that day.

  Her body lay on the softly glistening mother-of-pearl shells, which continued up and around one shoulder, leaving the other bare. They draped over both breasts, hiding the rich darkness of her skin so odd to his race, and narrowed to a thin stripe across her stomach, only to widen below her navel and cover her from her crotch to toe.

  She was a sparkling, glowing, undersea angel, an angel who died and took his heat with her, leaving him alone to mourn his loss.

  Storm felt numb as he watched the few who showed up file past to pay their respects.

  He tried his best to put on a façade of confidence and strength, but his face looked blank, devoid of all emotions. This whole ceremony was killing him inside by slow degrees.

  Finally, the last Merperson swam past, looking down at the empty shell that had once contained his life’s love. He knew it was time for him to say good-bye.

  “Storm,” Amadala spoke as she slowly made her way to his side. “For what it means, I am truly sorry.”

  “That’s the trouble,” Storm said, his voice as emotionless as his face. “Everyone is always sorry, yet nothing can be done to change things.”

  Storm turned and looked down once more at Elanna, the one who had opened his heart after that long season of loneliness, and felt his scales begin to tingle.

  He reached out with one trembling finger to trace, for the last time, those lips he loved so well, those eyes that saw his world with wonder and excitement, the hair that still continued to fascinate him. And the first scales began to fall.

  “Elanna,” he breathed as his words backed up in his throat. “I will indeed miss you, human.”

  He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, feeling the weight of his sadness on his chest. But he knew he had to face this, so he opened his eyes again and looked down upon her body.

  With the rest of the mourners watching, Storm began to make his final farewells to Elanna Richfield.

  “You were my life and yet you were here for such a short time.”

  He smiled a bit at a memory, but then his face fell into its emotionless mask again.

  “I think I started loving you when you vomited on me.”

  There were a few restrained chuckles from the observers, but most remained silent.

  “But then,” he continued, “then, you threatened to scale me and I began to fall. I have no idea where you came from, Elanna, and I do not care! I would have lied to keep you by my side; I would have killed to keep you here with me. I discovered that I truly needed you.”

  He looked down again, almost lost in his confused jumble of emotions, and then he looked up, his eyes angry and hot.

  “But damn it, you left me! Why didn’t you fight? Why didn’t you try harder? I know in my mind you had no choice, but I am very mad at you.”

  His eyes dropped down to her face once again and he reached out to grasp her hand, so stiff, so cold.

  “But I forgive you,” he sighed. “I forgive you and I will do my best to make you proud. I will not blame myself, or any others, Elanna; I swear. I will do my best to live, but don’t expect too much too soon.”

  He leaned down to kiss her hand, again marveling at how small and delicate it was. He sighed as he lowered his face to rub that tiny hand across his face, finally resting it against his forehead.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you more than my life, and now I let you go.”

  Rising in a cloud of softly falling blue scales, Storm took on last look at Elanna and let her go.

  As he moved back, several Mermen, the drummers, stepped forward, and began to pound out a slow, steady beat.

  Then the people who knew Elanna, the ones who had aided her or had any contact with her, began to file forward.

  First came Sting, carrying a large conch shell, the insides a soft swirling pink and white.

  “For courage,” he said as he lowered his one black eye in a moment of sadness, then placed the shell upon her chest. “And I was so fascinated by your legs, too.” He glanced quickly at Storm as a small blush tinged his cheeks. “But I suppose there are other humans out on land. Good-bye, female.” Then he turned and swam away.

  Next came Rage and her two sist
ers. Each carried a colorful variety of underwater grasses in vibrant reds and oranges.

  “For beauty,” Rage said as she and her sisters arranged their offerings around Elanna, outlining her body in the colors she so loved. “We didn’t get to play dress up with you, human, but we sure had fun listening to you and Storm argue.”

  With that, she turned, with a flip of her tail and swam away, her sisters following close behind.

  Next approaching the altar was the Life Binder. He held in his hand several colorful rocks, geodes that were cracked open to show the yellow crystals inside.

  “For wisdom,” he said solemnly. “All of you young think you know everything, but you need to learn to meditate and reflect on what you actually do know. And despite your claims, human, you did not know it all. But you recognized what you had, and that was a grand start.”

  With a nod in Storm’s direction, the Life Binder swam away to the rear of the small crowd who had already made their offerings.

  Last, Amadala left Storm’s side to face Elanna, her adversary, and the winner of their little tug-of-war over Storm.

  “For strength,” she declared as she pulled an intricate knife from a jeweled belt at her waist and laid it across Elanna’s chest.

  “You had fight in you, human,” she said as she stared at the corpse of one she had so hated. “I can respect that. And I now understand why you fought so hard. I wish I could follow your example, but I know what I have lost.”

  So saying, she turned and waited for Storm to make his final offering to his beloved mate.

  Taking a deep breath, Storm faced his mate for the final time.

  “For love,” he said quietly as he produced a pouch and slowly untied its thong. Upending it across her body, he sprinkled a thin layer of purple powder across her body. Almost immediately, a rainbow of colors swirled around her, brightening up the room, heating with its joyful hues.

  “You should always have rainbows,” he whispered as he bent to place one last kiss upon the lips that would never smile again.

  “I love you, Elanna,” he sighed as the drummers came to a halt.

  The silence in the small chamber was deafening as the mourners filed out, waiting for the final part of her ceremony.