*The currents are in our favor, but it’s a long swim yet until we reach the shore.* Jane’s powerful finned tail churned the water behind them to froth, her head weaving through the waves. *You are certain we can find help in the human city of Brighton?*
Fire Commander Ash’s calm, powerful eyes flashed through her mind. If anyone could stand against the Knight-Commander, it would be the Phoenix.
“John’s friends will help us,” she said to Jane. “John asked them to protect me, when he couldn’t. If we can only get there-“
She broke off, nearly unseated as Jane shied like a skittish horse. The reason was immediately apparent. A vast, triangular fin broke through the sea’s surface in front of them, rising higher than a yacht’s sail.
“Master Shark,” Neridia breathed.
The fin’s shadow swept over them as the shark circled. Neridia felt Jane tremble beneath her. The megalodon’s half-seen bulk under the water dwarfed the female sea dragon.
Neridia patted Jane’s scales, trying to project a confidence that she didn’t entirely feel herself. “It’s all right. He’s on our side.”
I hope, she added silently to herself, as the megalodon rose alongside the sea dragon. He rolled a little in the water, staring up at her. His eye looked tiny in proportion to his vast jaw…yet it was still bigger than Neridia’s entire head.
Neridia met that cold grey gaze. “You were right,” she said, hoping that the shark could hear her. “It was the Knight-Commander. He’s the one who had my father assassinated. He wanted me dead too, until he realized I don’t have any power to threaten him. Now he wants to use me as his puppet.”
The megalodon’s jaw worked, exposing triple rows of serrated teeth. Each one was longer than Neridia’s forearm.
Jane sang an urgent, agonized chord as the megalodon started to sink out of sight again. *Neridia, my brother swims at the Knight-Commander’s side!*
“Wait!” Neridia yelled. To her relief, the shark paused, looking back up at her.
“John doesn’t know any of this.” Her voice shook, despite her best effort to control it. “I couldn’t tell him. He’s innocent. Pleas
e, whatever you do, don’t hurt him.”
Without making any response, the megalodon disappeared beneath the sea. Neridia could just make out a ripple cutting against waves, arrowing back the way they’d came.
*He is calling his people,* Jane reported, her mental tone uneasy. *I can feel the sharks rising to follow him…Neridia, he is calling them to war. Will my brother truly be safe?*
“He’ll be safer than if he knew the truth.” Neridia wound her hands into the sea dragon’s mane again, flattening herself against the indigo scales. “Swim.”
Chapter 30
“Oh, the sea will sing of this day!” The Knight-Commander was a blaze of green and gold in the water, his eyes alight with battle-rage. “Destroy the traitors utterly, my knights! Let this be the hour that the sharks are finally hurled back into the abyss, outcast from the Empire for once and for all!”
The Knights of the First Water roared back their approval, the entire ocean trembling with their gathered wrath. Sea dragons met sharks, upraised claws matched against tearing teeth. Scales of every hue flashed in brilliant contrast to the sharks’ dull greys.
Amidst the sea-shaking thunder of battle-song, John was the only silent voice. Though his fellow knights were filled with the righteous delight of testing their strength against worthy opponents, he could not join in their chorus of joy. He had no heart for it.
His heart was gone, fled across the sea.
Why, my mate, my Empress, why? He called out for her down the mate bond, but only silence met his anguished plea. Why do you run? What do you fear? Why do you not trust me to help you?
He had told her that he would face any danger for her, confront any challenge. He had thought that she had believed him. And yet still she had fled. She had thought his little sister a more worthy protector than him.
Oh my mate, my heart, have I failed you so badly?
There was only one thing he could do. He would follow her, and find her, and win back her trust. Whatever it was that she feared, he would show her that he was strong enough to face it with her.
John extended his claws, his markings glowing with new resolve. He dove at the nearest swirl of combat. He would fight his way to his mate’s side, even if it meant swimming through an ocean of blood.
A dozen sharks scattered at his charge, abandoning the knight that they had been harassing. John was surprised by the pack’s cowardice. A single shark was no match for a sea dragon, but in numbers the sharks’ superior speed and maneuverability made them deadly foes. It was not like them to retreat from confrontation so readily.
“My thanks, Knight-Poet,” his fellow knight sang. Despite his wounds, he laughed, bloodlust lighting his eyes. “It seems even the sharks have heard of your great poem! See how they fear your power!”
John left him to pursue the fleeing sharks, turning instead to help another knight who was beset by foes. As before, the sharks immediately broke off at his approach. No matter how he chased them, they refused to turn and give fight.