The White Queen (Beyond Endless Tides #1)

Parts 7 and 8 (Updated)

Her eyes sprang open. She was in another white cave, smaller than the last. She was lain face up. Blue light shone up from below and was moving. Ethos held her. His belly nestled in the small of her back.

She was stiff, unable to move, not even to shiver. Her arms, cradling her dugs, were encrusted with crystallised white. Ethos's arms unravelled from her and his body left hers.

She felt a sense of unease at his absence, not only did she feel colder but she had a sense of being empty as if part of her was missing.

He appeared at her side and held a limp lifeless inconi to her mouth.

'Eat, it'll warm you.'

She took a large bite. The warming in her came slow. When she was done eating the first, Ethos placed another and another and soon blood flowed free and her body loosened. Shivering struck but ebbed and she was able to move her tail.

'Where are we?' she asked as Ethos moved behind and held her anew. She felt comforted by his touch.

'Still in Stiff Water. The White Queen has incarcerated us, look.' He rolled her to one side. Where he pointed was a single entryway, it was barred with frozen water, thick and heavy and criss-crossed.

'How long have we been here?'

'Not sure, it never gets dark here. I'd say two soltaire ups.'

'I've been asleep that long?'

'Yeah your body used up the blubber we built up and you've shrunk.'

She curled her tail. It was slim, as it should be. Trying to picture the last moments she could remember, she couldn't think what had caused them to be in this predicament.

'Why are we here?'

'Don't you remember? The White Queen went mad at you for not going through with the mating. I think she means to make you do it, just like that leader of yours. I don't know it for sure, but we're to stay here until porene of the Lewellian Order arrive.'

'The Lewellian Order? Aren't they descended from the Muird?'

'No, Morg, they are the Muird under a different name. Not many know this but the stories of the Muird going on to land are just that, stories. They wanted to trick asperini into believing they'd abandoned us so we would follow.'

'You mean the Muird never walked the land?'

'I never said that. I said they didn't abandon us. The Muird can transform their tails into legs and have been known to walk the land among the nghozas. They did so in secret, and never interacted with them.'

'Why don't the Lewellians or Muird or whatever they are, just go on to land then and do whatever it is they want my young ones to do. It'd make sense and would have been quicker.'

'I don't think you understand, Morg. The move to land is so we survive. We, according to some, must leave the ocean and never come back. Any who do not will die when all life in the ocean ceases.'

'That's not true. It can't be.'

'I know that.'

'So I think it is you that doesn't understand. There is something else they want from us. I don't know what it is but they want us to do something to the land dwellers. It has to be, there is no other explanation.'

'I hadn't thought of that.'

'Neither had I till I came here.'

'That makes more sense. I'll tell you one thing though. There's no way I'll ever know.'