Fire Stones - By Kailin Gow Page 0,30

that,” Varun whispered. “I guess I did hope that coming down here – coming down to the ocean and seeing how beautiful it was...I hoped it would make you homesick.”

Varun's eyes met mine. I wanted to swim in their blue. “It did, Varun,” I whispered back. “I don't know what that means. But this place – it's so beautiful. Like I'm connected to it. It's calling me.”

“The true siren song,” said Varun. “The song of the sea. So lovely that nobody who hears it can ever forget...”

We arrived a few hours later at Abzu's door – if you could call it that. Abzu's palace was a monstrosity of coral, built out of abandoned sunken ships and coral reefs, studded with shining gems. Piles of bones – of hapless sailor, I could only imagine, a shiver running up and down my spine – held the beams of wood aloft.

Varun knocked. No answer.

He knocked louder. Still we heard nothing.

“Maybe he's not around!” I ventured hopefully.

“Enter!” My heart sank. A deep, booming voice called to us from within.

“Brother Abzu,” Varun bowed low as he entered. “It is Brother Poseidon, come to pay a visit to the furthest reaches of my kingdom.”

The man sitting in the throne rose to his feet. He was as dark as Varun was golden – his long black hair tangled upon his shoulders, his skin still dark – though somewhat pallid from so many centuries without sunlight. His eyes blazed with an intensity I had never seen before. It was not Chance's passion – no, this was seething hostility, powerful in its darkness. I could tell from the way Abzu moved that he was a man of great power; his muscles rippled with the ocean waves.

“Brother Poseidon,” it was Abzu's turn to bow. “What an extraordinary pleasure.” Yet from the way his tongue seemed to curl about his teeth I got the impression it wasn't a pleasure at all, extraordinary or otherwise. “It is fully within your rights as King to call upon my home. Is there something I can do for you?”

“A social call, merely.”

“And you've brought...a mermaid? A siren?”

Varun and I traded glances.

“A human,” Varun said at last. “My human. My girlfriend, in fact.”

“Girlfriend?” Abzu's aching laugh seemed to shake the walls of the palace. “A human girlfriend? You're the same as ever, aren't you, Poseidon.” He looked me up and down. “And what will you do when the waters come, my dearest?”

I said nothing. It was best to play the part of a fool – human and all too intimidated – than to let him suspect that I was Vesta.

“They won't come,” Varun said firmly. “I'll make sure of that. Humans must survive – regardless of what our war is with Fire. We cannot waste life needlessly.”

“I'll be sure to spare her when the flood comes.” Abzu nodded, smiling to himself. “Man thinks himself a terribly powerful little creature, doesn't he? All his ingenuity, his creativity, his imagination. And yet all it takes is one tidal wave to turn him to naught. I discovered a shipwrecked treasure this afternoon. Not twenty miles from here.” He motioned to a treasure chest that lay open on the floor before us, all manner of gold and gems spilling out. “Men lived and died for these riches. But now they lie here – along with the corpses of those capsized sailors – utterly useless. And you want me to spare the vermin?” he laughed. “In five thousand years one gets up to a lot of collecting. All of human history turned to shiny rubbish! But I'm not complaining, Brother Poseidon, even though you never freed me. You always treated me well – although you could always have done better. You did your best. And now that my time is up, I will be sure to treat you kindly when I become King of Water!” he grinned maniacally.

I gulped.

“I'm not afraid,” Varun scoffed. “If you wanted to have me killed today you would have done it by now. But you know that the Water deities would pin the crime on you, and imprison you once again. You know that I have the support of the other Water Ones.”

“For now,” Abzu bowed with excruciating politeness. “My kraken gain in strength daily.”

“For now.”

The two smiled at each other – evenly matched in power and strength, only mutual self-interest keeping them from tearing out each other's throats.

“Now,” Abzu began. “Shall I show you my collections? I have a wonderful collection of tridents inlaid with