“Ah,” I say out loud. “It seems that Blacky has an issue with water.”

  Binna, who had been around Blacky for the last couple of days and had even gotten to pet him extensively, goes down to one knee in front of him and places her hands on either side of his face.

  Softly she tells him, “It’s ok, Blacky. My dad’s magic can help you. See that globe that is around Alex’s head?”

  Blacky looks away from her to look at me, and I lift a hand to poke the globe in question.

  “Well,” she continues. “That will help you breathe underwater. And I know you’re a powerful creature, so you will be fine. You won’t need to swim, as we will be walking at the bottom of the ocean.”

  He cocks his head and stares at her. Through our connection, I get a feeling of confusion, not understanding what she means.

  “Here, let me try,” I tell her.

  I close my eyes and I imagine all of us, including him, walking on the sandy floor at the bottom of the ocean, with fish swimming around us -which might be stretching it -and with the globes around our heads allowing us to breathe.

  He cocks his head again, and somehow I get the impression he got what I sent him mentally. Suddenly, I get another image in my head, although it’s not as high grain as the image I produced, and it’s of him drowning under water.

  I get down on one knee next to Binna and I tell him softly, “Trust me my friend. I don’t want to die either, but Binna and her dad said we would be safe. I trust Binna.”

  He turns to her and gazes at her for a full ten seconds before he barks and licks her face, causing her to squeal with laughter. I get from him that he trusts her as well.

  “There,” I tell everyone. “I got him to understand what we are going to be doing.” I turn back to Nigel. “Lead on, sir.”

  “Nigel,” he says absently, reminding me he said I could call him by his first name.

  He turns around and heads into the water, and we all follow him. Binna rushes to walk next to me, and I turn to her with a welcoming smile. That’s when I notice that everyone else is standing back and staring at me.

  Leeha gives me a grin and a thumbs up. “Take one for the team!”

  “Hey!” I reply with a laugh. “That means either getting killed or hurt. I’m trying to avoid that.”

  “Fine, but then you’re the gerbil.”

  “It’s guinea pig,” I correct her.

  I had been using slang around them, but sometimes it either translated wrong, or they got it wrong when they tried to repeat it.

  I turn back to the ocean. We are on a sandy beach that leads up to the Forest of the Giants. It’s maybe a good 100 feet from the water’s edge. The sand is white, similar to the sand that I had seen one year when I went to Florida to get away from work. Actually, it was more like I was forced to go on vacation by my boss since I had accumulated so much overtime.

  My mother tried to convince me to go somewhere nice. I went somewhere cheap instead, which ended up being a beach in Florida. She had meant an exotic location, but I hated spending money on anything other than books, games, and my hobbies.

  As I near the water, I stop and look at Binna.

  “Our clothes will get wet,” I point out.

  She shakes her head. “Not with our Magic. Right now, it’s only over your head, but there’s a very fine shield over your bodies that will keep you dry, among other things,” she ends mysteriously.

  I stare at her for a second or two and, crossing my fingers mentally, I walk into the water with my suit of armor. I had debated on taking it off, but we are heading into unknown territory. While I trust her, I don’t trust the ocean. There are sharks, and who knows what else is in there!

  Once the water is up to my knees, I look down in surprise. I don’t feel wet! I look at Binna, who laughs at me.

  “See! The Magic keeps you dry. That’s on purpose. Otherwise, we would always be walking around with wet clothes.”

  She grabs my hand and begins to drag me into the water, but thankfully it’s not a hard and quick drag, or I’m sure I would have freaked out. As I walk, the water comes up to my chest, and finally, it’s at my chin. Now, for the moment of truth.

  I take a deep breath just in case, close my eyes, and walk deeper into the ocean until my head is underwater, but yet again, I don’t feel wetness. I open my eyes, and I can see the sun peaking above the water. I turn to Binna, who is grinning at me.

  “You can take a breath, Alex.”

  I’m so shocked that she can talk underwater and that I can hear her, that I let out the breath I had been holding.

  “We can talk?!?”

  “Of course,” she giggles. “It would make it hard for us if we could not talk amongst ourselves. The Magic of the shield does a few things. It allows us to breathe underwater, it allows us to stay dry, and it also allows us to communicate amongst ourselves. You can talk to anyone within a 50-foot radius.”

  “Do you have a long-distance speech spell?” I ask her quickly, thinking that maybe I won’t need those Communication Stones.

  Sighing, she shakes her head. “Unfortunately, no. I would kill for a Magic like that. I hated being away from my family and not being able to talk to them.”

  “We all missed you as well,” Nigel tells his daughter with a smile.

  “I meant to ask, Father,” Binna says suspiciously “How did you know we were coming?”

  He looks embarrassed as he scratches the back of his head. “It seems you aren’t the only one with dreams. I dreamt last night that you would be returning. It was so strong that I could not ignore it.”

  “So, having dreams and them coming true, is that a thing in your family?” I ask them both.

  Nigel shakes his head. “Until Binna here had them, we have never had a Seer in our family line. Though in her case, it seems the dreams were mostly of you, young man.”

  Binna nods as her dad explains. Suddenly, I hear an exclamation of wonder behind me.

  I turn, and Leeha is there, with Tia and Sara beside her, and looks of amazement on their faces. Bryan and Bo are behind them, with the water going up to their chest, but then their heads came underwater and I notice that I’m not the only one who came in with eyes shut tight, as they are doing the same. Even Blacky, who is next to Bryan, has his eyes closed, but he is also shaking.

  “You can open your eyes, guys,” I tell them with a chuckle.

  Suddenly, all three open their eyes wide and look around with the same amount of wonder as the girls. I’m sure that’s exactly how I looked earlier when I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn’t wet or drowning.

  Binna laughs and slaps my arm, her hand traveling through the water without resistance.

  “Don’t laugh. You did the same thing.”

  I look at her, confused. I lift my hand up and wave it back and forth, expecting to have the resistance of the water slow it down, but instead it feels like I’m not even in water. I look at her questioningly.

  “Yes,” she says with her own chuckle. “That’s another advantage to the shield. It makes it so that we feel no drag from the water. It also makes it so that we stay at the bottom of the ocean. Though for us Mer, we can jump up and remove that ability, so that we can swim freely in the water.”

  “Because of your tails?” I ask, hoping I wasn’t offending her.

  She grins and nods. “Watch.”

  With that, she moves away from me a good ten feet, until she’s at least 20 feet or so underwater and jumps up into the air. Once she gets a good three feet up, she is suddenly floating in the air. Or I guess in this instance, the water.

  Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, her legs are gone, and she has a mermaid tail! The tail is longer than her legs, and while it might look like a fishtail, it doesn’t take away from her beauty. If anything, it enhances it. If I thought Mer would look animalistic with tails, I was wrong. I’m not disgusted by it or even turned off. If anything, she looks more beautiful and in her element.

  Her scales are blue like her ears, but that’s not the only blue I see. There are blues of every shade and hue. She flicks her tail and it moves her around, and she begins to show off her swimming skills. She does loop de loops, figure eights, and even at one point flashes off from one location to another, faster than I could have walked. Hell, faster than I could have run even!

  The entire time she’s doing that, the other girls are all making sounds of amazement and laughing at her antics.

  “I want one!” Leeha cries out with a laugh.

  “Same here!” Tia exclaims.

  Sara turns to her and laughs. “Why? You can do the same thing in the air!”

  “But this is the water!” she pouts. “I would love to be able to do the same underwater.”

  She turns to me. “Alex! You need to learn this spell,” she says, waving at her head to indicate the water breathing shield or whatever the name of the spell is. “And figure out a way to get me a tail!”

  Even Blacky barks at me, with the impression from him of flying through the water like Binna.

  I laugh at them all and shake my head. “I will do my best. As for the tail, that might be something I can’t help with, as I’m sure it’s a racial thing.”

  “You would be correct,” Nigel tells me with a laugh. “But I’m sure we can work something out for the spell.”

  Behind me, Bryan mumbles under his breath. “I’ll keep both my legs on the ground, thank you very much.”

  Apparently, the ability to talk to each other within 50 feet also means we can hear each other’s whispers, since everyone hears him and ends up laughing, and even Blacky turns to him and barks, and I can feel the laughter coming from him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “So, do you all live underwater with these globes on you all the time?” Leeha asks Binna, waving at her own head.

  Binna shakes her head and laughs.

  “No. We should be getting close enough for you to see it.”

  She points up ahead.

  I look at where she is pointing, but I have to squint, as the surrounding water still has that odd fuzzy look you get underwater. I did some snorkeling when I went to Florida, and this reminds me of that. As we keep walking, it gets dark and darker the further downhill we go. Makes sense, since we are heading deeper into the ocean.

  I look up and I can see where the sun is, but it’s like it is dusk. I can’t tell how far up the waterline is, though I figure it’s at least a good forty or fifty feet or more.

  “Oh my gods!” Leeha cries out in amazement.

  I turn back, and my mouth opens wide in surprise.

  Off in the distance ahead of us, probably a mile further into the ocean, is a large underwater structure that is lit up from the inside. The only reason we can see it is because of those lights, as the surrounding area is pitch black. The dome is like a beacon in the darkness, lighting the way.

  Speaking of the dome, it is, for lack of a better word, massive. I can’t even guess at its size. Wait a second. It’s not just one, but multiple domes! They go on and on. I count at least ten or twelve, with others behind them that I can’t see.

  I turn to Binna, who’s grinning at me proudly.

  “Welcome to my home!”

  “Binna! It’s incredible! How many domes are there?”

  Her grin gets wider. “We have a total of 75 domes. Though, this is just this city. We have another five cities, but this is the capital, so it’s the largest. The second largest city is roughly, what Dad? Nine domes?”

  He shakes his head. “That would be Lombra. It has ten domes, though there is a second underwater city under construction, which should be finished within the year.”

  “What’s the name of this city?” I ask Nigel.

  He beams proudly. “My capital city is called Crystal City. It’s also where my home is. That’s where we shall be heading to.”

  Suddenly, I hear, “Sire!”

  Nigel looks up, and following his gaze, I see that the caller is the same Mer from before. Grimlar, if I remember correctly. He still has his armor on, and just as I suspected, the armor is only on the upper part of his body. The bottom part is a tail, similar to Binna’s. But this man’s tail is more green than blue. It’s still a thing of beauty, though.

  “Grimlar,” the king nods to him. “Did you get the Mages out?”

  Grimlar floats closer, and suddenly his tail is gone and he has legs, as he slowly sinks until he is standing in front of his king. Strangely, he now has armor on his legs. Jesus, I need to figure that out. Too much to learn about this world. Good thing I will live for a long time.

  “Yes, Sire. I have informed the Guild. They are sending a squad or two right now to shore up the shield.”

  “Good, good. Lead the way. I assume the chamberlain has been made aware that our guests have arrived?”

  Grimlar nods quickly. “I also informed your wives that you are back as well.”

  He then turns to Binna and bows to her. “I have also asked that baths be set up for your guests, as I’m sure they need to clean up.”

  Binna laughs and says, “I do as well. It’s been an interesting last couple of days.”

  “I bet it has, if those Giants are any indication,” Grimlar says with a chuckle.

  “Come on,” Nigel says with a laugh. “I can’t wait to show you my city and her people.”

  As we walk closer to the domes, I can’t get over just how big those things are. They are massive. Distance in the ocean can be deceiving, and so can size, apparently. Glancing over at the girls and Bryan and Bo, they all have looks of amazement on their faces.

  Bridget walks up next to me and says, “Alex. I get some context of this from your world, but it’s small compared to this. I thought your world had amazing things, which it does, but this?” she says, pointing to all the domes. “This is unheard of!”

  “I know. I would love to know what Magic does this!”

  Nigel hears us, obviously because of the globes around our heads, and he laughs.

  “If you wish, I can give you a tour of the one that is under construction? We are only about an hour from it.”

  “I would love that!” I tell him passionately.

  “Is that a good idea, Sire?” Grimlar asks his king in a worried tone.

  Nigel turns to his guard and quirks an eyebrow at him. “Are you saying that you will deny the Elem what he wishes?”

  At the comment, Grimlar turns to me swiftly and shakes his head vehemently. “No. No, of course not, Sires.”

  I smile and tell him, “Alex is fine.”

  He nods quickly and swallows. “Of course, Sire.”

  I look at Binna as if to ask what the hell she has been telling everyone about me from her dreams. As if reading my mind, she laughs. “It’s not just you. We know the stories of the last Elem from a thousand years ago. We still have writings about that time.”

  “And yes,” Nigel says before I can ask, chuckling. “I will have our historian bring you the books. Though, you might not be able to read them. Maybe Binna can translate them for you, as I’m sure you don’t speak Mer.”

  “Don’t be so sure of that,” I tell him, switching automatically to the Mer’s own language.

  Binna, her father, and Grimlar all stop and look at me in shock.

  Nigel goes to open his mouth, but his daughter laughs. “See, Father. I told you he would be special.”

  He shakes his head and then finally nods. “Right. Shall we keep going? I can see that there are guards waiting for us at one of the entrances.”

  I look at where he is pointing, and he’s right. On the dome, which is at least 100 feet in height, if not more, is a doorway that is at least ten feet tall, and in front of it is a large contingent of soldiers. Some are on the ground with legs, but others are floating in the water, the movement of their tails keeping them in place.

  They are all wearing the same armor as Grimlar, in gold, and they are carrying large pikes. I see that a couple of them have swords on their hips as well.

  As we get closer, those who had been floating in the water slowly make their way down to the ground and sprout legs. I count twenty of them.

  I hear a growl, and looking down, I see Blacky staring at them, and I get from him an impression of protectiveness.

  I place a hand on his neck and am surprised to feel his fur, even in the water. God, I love Magic.

  “It’s all right,” I tell him with a scratch to his neck. “They are here to protect us.”

  He looks up at me and barks, and I get from him doubt.

  Binna bends down and hugs him. “Don’t worry, Blacky! They are there for our protection.”

  Blacky barks at her and licks her face several times, making her laugh. But I get from him a feeling that he is good with her explanation.

  Once we get closer, one of the guards comes forward and salutes Grimlar.

  “Sir. We have everything in order. No one has seen anything. We should be good to enter the City.”

  I look at Nigel. “Something wrong?” I ask him, concerned.

  He turns to me and shakes his head. “No. We had issues a month or so ago with some of the larger sea creatures trying to attack our city. But it was taken care of by our Mage’s Guild. Mostly it was just the large octopi that we had to deal with. For some reason, they tried to attack us, which has never happened before.”

  I look at Leeha, and she’s frowning. I can think of only one thing, or one person, who might have the ability to send something like that out, just like the Giants. Maybe he tried to destroy the Mers’ cities too?

  “Too much of a coincidence,” Bridget says out loud.

  “I have to agree,” I say with a sigh.

  “Something I should know?” Nigel asks me.

  “Can we talk about it in private?”

  He doesn’t answer immediately but gazes at me with a thoughtful look. Finally, he nods. “As long as you explain, it can wait.”

  “I would be happy to. I just think that this is something that the fewer that know, the better.”

  Nigel turns back the guard who had come forward, and says, “Lead on, Migron.”

  “Sire,” he says, bowing and turning around, before barking out an order. “Fall in!”