Dark Waters

Chapter 11

"You," was all I could say. "You. How could you?"

Lanntryns chuckled, a throaty noise that was nowhere close to the smooth laugh he used to have. "How could I? Excellent question. A better one is; how did you not see it coming? Can you really be that naive, sweet Marin?"

I stood still for a moment, unsure of how to answer. This second of silence was the only prompt Lanntryns needed to launch into an explanatory speech.

"We've been under council rule here for too long," he mused, rising from his florid coral throne and swimming slowly towards me. "They are weak-willed, feeble. Too old and weathered to do a proper job."

Stall him, my brain advised.

"And what, you think you could do better?"

Another chuckle. "I know I can do better. Your arrival produced the perfect distraction for me to launch my plans."

I returned his laugh, trying to sound more confident than I felt. "Plans, huh? And who else is in on your mad scheme for power? Henchmen? Accomplices? Who would your council be?"

"Oh, I will have no council."

"Then- oh," I halted, realization dawning. "You're going to make yourself a king. An absolute ruler, you're going to put a crown on your head and lord over the people that you decided to spare from a horrible death, you despicable-"

"Now, now," Lanntryns interrupted me, frustratingly calm. "Mustn't get tetchy. I have no intentions of killing civilians; most of them, at least."

"Oh, excuse me," I snarled sarcastically.

"Do you know, my dear, how I managed the feat of mass capture?" he asked, taking my hand and interlacing our fingers. I tugged my palm from his grasp.

"Do I want to?" I responded, but he continued as if I hadn't spoken.

"We live in the sea, Marin, and we share our home with a great many lovely and bizarre creatures. Their blood, their venom, their scales, their organs, all of them have very... interesting effects on a mermaid."

My eyes widened. "I was right. You did poison them."

A wicked smile split his face wide open like a cut. "Very good." He slid an arm smoothly around my shoulders and led me to the other side of a room, towards a tall cabinet that I hadn't noticed before. He flung the door wide and revealed a complex assortment of glass bottles and bubbles and stone crucibles. All of them held strange substances; some were beautiful and colorful, others were disgusting in texture and muddy-looking. Other vessels held small fish or crustaceans, equally ugly or ethereal.

Lanntryns took hold of a flask with a wide neck and bottom and narrow middle, full of a gelatinous liquid that glowed softly white. He held it up and swirled it in front of my nose.

"Banthemah," he announced with a hint of smugness. "Produced from the glowfish you see around this chamber. Turns the recipient into a homing device, makes them return to the draught's place of origin." Much to my relief, he stopped shaking the vial in my face, but picked up another. The substance in this one was nearly solid, like clay, with a grainy texture to its moss-green surface.

"Kahy'her," he said, "although it's more commonly known as the Accomplices' Bane. Often used on accessories to murder or mass theft, so that those who get caught don't reveal the others before they themselves are executed." I shuddered. Lanntryns didn't seem to notice. "It makes the victim very susceptible to suggestion for a short amount of time. They'll do whatever they're told, although the exceptionally strong-willed try to fight back against it and can cause physical effects."