GRP Chapter 17

"I suppose that's roughly all the business taken care of. Oh, there was one more thing. Welcome back. Cheers."

Samthyeon raised an empty glass.

"...Don't tell me this is the homecoming banquet."

"You're settling it with this? This half-heartedly?"

"This shamelessly?"

The assembled company grumbled and responded to the halfhearted toast. Mariaeks glanced across the table at Oze, who sat opposite her. He had had even his cup confiscated, and he looked profoundly miserable. It was remarkable, she thought, that expressions showed so legibly on a face so entirely black.

At that moment, Oze snapped his head up and opened his mouth wide. A high, piercing cry rang out from his throat—something between a scream and a bird's call. The sharp wave of sound cut through the banquet hall's noise in an instant. Every scattered attention snapped to Oze at once.

"We have a guest. Shall we all prepare?"

A killing edge surfaced in the eyes of those who had been grinning like fools. Mariaeks, too, sensed something approaching—concealing its presence within the rough wind.

BOOM!

The tapestry-covered window in the banquet hall wall exploded inward with a tremendous crash. A splinter of wood grazed Mariaeks's cheek and drew a thin line of blood. The intruder came in faster than the blizzard itself. The white intruder landed on the table piled high with food.

CRASH, clang, thud-da-DUMP—dishes fell and food flew through the air.

Something white slid across the tablecloth of the long central table and barreled forward at speed. Snowflakes driving through the ruined window and scales shed from the intruder glittered alike in the light.

The size of a massive elk. White hair. White eyes. A body of beautiful curving lines and a smooth, fish-like tail. A snow mermaid—the kind sometimes glimpsed on blizzard days. But this one looked somewhat different from what Mariaeks knew of them. Unlike an ordinary snow mermaid, her teeth were as long and sharp as the icicles hanging at cave mouths, and she had grown two additional pairs of arms. She also appeared to lack the voice that ordinarily charmed all who heard it.

[KEEEAAAAAAHK!]

"Augh!"

Oze clamped his hands over his ears and staggered.

[AAAAAAAAHHH!]

The mermaid's song, pouring out like a scream, was shot through with ecstasy. She lashed her tail and hauled herself across the table in great strides on all six arms. At the end of that path was Mariaeks.

The mermaid's mouth opened wider and wider. She seemed to be smiling—beaming, even. Saliva streamed freely between her threatening teeth. The evidence of appetite was unmistakable.

'I need to get out of the way.'

The distance narrowed with every moment. Unlike her mind, which continued to turn calmly, her body had frozen entirely. Mariaeks could not move at all—she could only stare blankly at the mermaid bearing down on her. The threat had come to within reach.

"Doesn't feel like I’m here for a rescue, does it?"

It was a calm, low voice that had no business existing inside all that chaos. She had barely recognized whose voice it was when a large hand closed around her waist. The force that seized her was decisive. Before her face met his chest, the last thing Mariaeks saw was Garthe kicking the mermaid aside—perfunctorily, as though she were an inconvenience rather than a threat.

CRASH!

The mermaid slammed into the wall. The sound that echoed through the hall was larger than the one the window had made. Mariaeks stood rigid, breathing hard. The sharp smell of medicinal herbs and a faint trace of blood bored deep into her where she had drawn herself small.

It was only when she caught that scent that Mariaeks understood. She was cradled against him, locked within the heavy, unyielding circle of his arms. Her forehead, where it had struck his chest, still throbbed. She carefully tilted her head up. The ash-gray eyes that met hers were calm—so calm they had crossed over into something closer to stillness—and seemed to find nothing particularly remarkable about the situation. Garthe's gaze flicked down to her.

"A familiar face?"

When she turned to look, the enormous snow mermaid was hauling herself upright. Mariaeks's breath stopped. The mermaid's state was worse than anything she had expected.

One side of her skull was deeply caved in, and the skin scraped by the cabinet hung in ragged strips. Blood seeped from multiple wounds and ran in streams down her body. Around the round gemstone set in the center of her chest, it flowed like a river. The gem in her chest was the mark carried only by the queen of snow mermaids.

Seeing it, Mariaeks thought of the snow mermaid queen she knew. But that queen was not this large, did not have this many arms, and did not have teeth this sharp. This appeared to be the queen of an entirely different school.

Mariaeks gave a small shake of her head.

"Is that so?"

Garthe murmured, as though the answer surprised him.

The mermaid dragged herself across the floor, looking as though she might collapse at any moment—and yet not collapsing. She attempted several times to lift herself into the air, but the others had already blocked the broken window with a cabinet to keep the blizzard out. Without snow and wind, a snow mermaid could not fly. In that brief moment—remarkable judgment.

The giant-like man called Salenoke raised his axe overhead. He looked ready to bring it down on the mermaid's neck at any moment.

"Wait."

At Garthe's command, the enormous axe stopped.

The mermaid paid no attention whatsoever to what hung above her head and continued to drag herself slowly across the floor. The caved-in skull and the blood flowing without end foretold her death. She must have felt her own life going out, and yet she seemed to have no intention of fleeing. She only looked toward one place and advanced.

The direction where Garthe and Mariaeks stood.

Mariaeks did not think she would have made that choice, had she been in the mermaid's place. From the moment the enemy appeared, Garthe's power had been radiating through the room like something filling an empty vessel—dense and pressuring. The mermaid would have felt it too—that he was stronger than anyone else in that room.

The fear of death was an irresistible impulse laid at the foundation of all thought and reason. What is called instinct. Mariaeks had not thought there could be any desire strong enough to overcome it.

Shhk... shhk.

Her immense body, soaked in blood, rasped against the floor with a sound that raised the flesh. Mariaeks looked into the mermaid's eyes as they drew closer and closer. Perhaps the desire contained in them was what had made her forget instinct. She wanted to know what it was.

But what was reflected in the mermaid's eyes was nothing else—only Mariaeks, herself alone.

With every advance, with every inch closer, rapture gathered in those pale white eyes. The hair on Mariaeks's arms rose. She had begun to back away without realizing it, when the hand Garthe had kept around her waist quietly checked the movement.

She was left with no choice but to stand enclosed in his arms and watch the mermaid approach.

At last the mermaid reached her feet. It was around then that Garthe, who had only been watching until now, finally moved. He raised his foot and pressed it down on the mermaid's head—steadily, with deliberate weight. Not a kick this time. Just enough to stop her moving.

Long nails raked wildly at the floor, producing a sound that set the teeth on edge. The mermaid seemed desperate to get closer to Mariaeks but unable to manage it. The frustration visible in every struggling inch.

After struggling briefly under Garthe's foot, the mermaid opened her mouth wide. Broken shards of teeth and a long, blood-soaked tongue pushed out from within. Each movement of the tongue made a wet, sticky sound. The long tongue squirmed and crawled like a snake until it wound around Mariaeks's ankle. Wet and slick, it moved slowly up over her skin.

The color drained from Mariaeks's face. She held her breath, then drew it in sharply—over and over. She wanted to run, but she could not run. Garthe's hand still held her waist. The pressure of it was not forceful—it simply defined the space she was permitted to occupy. From where she stood now to the inside of the arm Garthe had wrapped around her from behind. The more she pressed against him, the smaller the permitted space became.

A hand's width. That was all.

There was no corner to hide in within that space.

The red tongue traveled past her calf and grazed the tender skin behind her knee. Mariaeks shuddered. The feeling of rough bumps pressing against her sensitive skin was unbearable.

The long tongue lifted the hem of Mariaeks's long tunic like a theater curtain being drawn back. A thin line of blood was visible, running down her exposed shin. The wound was from the shattered window. The mermaid's tongue followed that red trail upward. Then, with agonizing, meticulous devotion, it began to lick the wound clean.

A sudden surge of nausea had Mariaeks clamping her mouth shut. She had barely eaten anything, and yet her stomach rolled.

Gulp.

The mermaid's throat moved in a large swallow. Then her body shivered—and her mouth stretched into something that was a smile.

At the same moment, the mermaid's divine power surged with a sudden, violent fluctuation. It dropped deep, then billowed huge. Larger and larger. Like waves retreating and crashing in. The snow mermaid trembled her tail as though in pleasure.

Crack.

A large fracture had formed in the gemstone at her chest. Something dangerous was about to happen.

Then Garthe's voice rang out, low and quiet.

"Salenoke."

"Sir!"

At Garthe's call, Salenoke brought his axe down on the mermaid's neck. BOOM! The axe buried itself deep in the stone floor. Blood pooled in the gap it had made. The severed head rolled once and came to rest directly at Mariaeks's feet. The head lay there—face flushed with blood and excitement—still licking, still licking. It seemed unaware that the neck had been cut.

Mariaeks met those eyes, which still held nothing but her. She was too dazed to think that she ought to look away.

Garthe's leather boot came down on the mermaid's face. An instant before the sickening crack rang out, Mariaeks shut her eyes by instinct.

Pfuhk. KRAK.

The sound of something solid breaking. At the same moment, something hot and viscous spattered heavily across her legs. The mermaid's tongue went limp and slid away in an instant. The turbulent divine power faded out. The mermaid was dead. It had all happened in the space of a moment.

Mariaeks could not bring herself to look down. The fabric of her clothes, soaked and clinging to her legs, was unbearable. The smell of blood pierced her nose, and her stomach turned and her head swam.

Garthe passed by Mariaeks where she stood. Vacant and still. Having just crushed the life out of something underfoot, his stillness had not shifted in the slightest.

"Oze. Check."