Chapter Twenty-One

Of all the things Caspian missed about being immortal, being summoned to attend a council of the gods definitely wasn’t one of them. Admittedly, there had been relatively few meetings during the centuries while the vast majority of the immortals had been sleeping. During those years, Andaman had taken on the role of leader of the pantheon. As a bit of a loner, he’d only called a meeting when he absolutely had to. After the rest of the gods had woken, the meetings had occurred with annoying frequency.

Having been stripped of his powers, he’d thought that would be the last time he’d have to hear the call to come and sit through one of the wretched things.

“What is it?” Marin asked.

Caspian smiled down at the sleep-rumpled merman. “Nothing to worry about, just a summons from the gods. They probably didn’t mean to include me in it. Just go back to sleep.”

Marin nudged him with his morning wood. “I’m wide awake now.”

“So I see,” Caspian replied as he dove under the covers and took Marin’s cock into his mouth.

He ignored the second summons, just as he had the first. When he visited his mother, he’d ask her to mention to the pantheon that he was still being included in the general call, and hopefully they would figure out a way to take him out of the loop.

“Caspian!”

The sound of his mother yelling his name was enough to kill his erection entirely.

“Maybe they did mean to include you in the summons,” Marin suggested with a sigh of annoyance.

Caspian didn’t blame him for his irritation. He was similarly frustrated right now.

“Caspian, didn’t you hear the summons?” Her voice was closer now, right at the bottom of the stairs. Caspian supposed he should be grateful that she hadn’t materialized right in the bedroom.

“Yes, I heard it,” Caspian called as he staggered out of bed and pulled on a bathrobe. He covered himself just in time for his mother to appear in the doorway.

“Then what are you still doing in bed?” Odessa asked.

“Sucking Marin’s cock,” Caspian replied with a wink at Marin, whose face was turning various shades of red.

“You know that’s not what I meant. When the council summon you, you have a duty to answer the call immediately.”

Caspian shrugged. “I thought I was included by mistake. It’s not like I have any say in the matters of the gods now.”

“You have a say in this one,” his mother stated. “Now get dressed and present yourself in the council chamber.”

Caspian walked over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

“You aren’t going to wear those, are you?” Odessa frowned critically at his chosen clothing.

“They’re clean,” Caspian replied, right before his mother ripped them out of his hands and tossed them aside.

“Let me see,” she said as she rifled through his wardrobe, tutting and huffing as she discarded one outfit after another. “How is it my son has no taste in clothes at all?”

“I have plenty of taste,” Caspian argued. “I just happen to have moved with the times.”

His mother gave up on his clothing collection and dressed him herself with a wave of her hand.

“Urgh,” Caspian moaned when he realized what she had put him in.

“What are you complaining about?” Odessa asked. “It’s modern.”

“I don’t wear suits,” Caspian muttered.

“You’re attending a meeting of the Atlantean pantheon. You can put up with it for an hour or two.”

“How long is this meeting going to last?” The thought of a couple of hours listening to the immortals squabbling wasn’t pleasant and certainly not how he’d intended to spend the morning. He glanced at Marin. So much for a lazy morning in bed with his lover.

His mother ignored his question and grabbed him by the arm. A moment later they stood in the council chamber. Caspian tried to hide an ill-timed yawn. Damn it. Had they always called these things at the crack of dawn?

“It’s about time,” Antar said. “Did you think that being mortal meant you could show up here whenever you felt like it?”

Caspian sat down in his usual seat. “I thought it was a mistake.”

“The gods don’t make mistakes.”

“Of course you do,” Caspian replied. “You just don’t admit it.”

He stifled a second yawn while silently cursing his lack of coffee. His father, seated on his right, produced a steaming mug and placed it in front of him. Caspian thought he had quite possibly never loved his father more than he did in that moment. It was funny how he was fully alert when he’d been going down on Marin, but now that he had to sit through a meeting, he could barely keep his eyes open.

“Now that we’re all here,” Antar said, “let’s get down to business. We all know what the problem is.”

Caspian didn’t have a clue, but he had no intention of prolonging the agony by asking. He’d no doubt figure it out as the meeting dragged on, along with why he’d been summoned.

It seemed Caspian was the only one in the dark. Everyone else around the table nodded and there was a fair amount of whispering. Unfortunately, he no longer had the power to pick up anything of what they were saying.

Antar gestured to Cari for her to take the floor. “Granddaughter, if you’d like to tell us what your Oracle reported to you.”

Cari stood and faced the room. She didn’t meet Caspian’s eyes and seemed to be focusing at the opposite end of the table. He should have tried to pin her down and find out what the problem was before now. He had just been so busy, learning how to be human, as well as getting to know Marin. He guessed he had been neglecting his sister, but in fairness, she hadn’t made any effort to see him either and appeared to be avoiding him.

“Ula, my current Oracle of the future, had a prolonged and distressing vision last night. She saw an attack on the new mer colony by Mariana’s priests. There were many casualties, caused by the destruction of the caverns the mer are currently inhabiting.”

Cari sat down.

“Thank you,” Antar said. “Mariana, explain yourself.”

“What’s to explain?” Mariana replied.

“You stated that as long as the mer vacated Atlantis and the surrounding waters, they would be left in peace. Why are your priests now heading for the new colony?”

“My priests go where they please. I do not seek to restrict them in how they carry out their duties.”

“Their duties appear to be terrorizing the mer. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to call a meeting regarding the actions of your sea dragons. For the last two months, they have been dangerously close to discovery by humans, risking the exposure of not only themselves, but also the mer.”

“I really don’t see the problem,” Mariana said.

“The problem,” Cari snarled, “is that your priests seem to have made it their mission in life to drive the mer from the oceans, and when they meet with resistance, they murder whoever stands in their way.”

“Those mutants are not fit to live in my domain. If you all love them so much, find them somewhere to live on land.”

“The mer are creatures of the sea,” Caspian pointed out. “They need the water to survive.”

Mariana glared at him. “You stay out of this. As a mortal, this has nothing to do with you. I don’t even see why you’ve been brought to this meeting.”

“That makes two of us,” Caspian said. “But since I am here, I might as well offer my opinion.”

Antar banged on the table. “You’re here, Caspian, because you have close ties with the mer and because the majority of the gods feel you should be allowed to participate in the forthcoming vote.”

“What vote?” Mariana asked, echoing Caspian’s own thought.

Several of the immortals appeared uncomfortable. He had a feeling he wasn’t the only one to have missed some recent meetings. Something was going on here that Mariana didn’t know about either.

Antar gave Mariana a harsh stare, one that Caspian was thankful he wasn’t on the receiving end of.

“Mariana, it is the determination of this pantheon, by majority vote, that you return your priests to human form immediately—and permanently.”

The goddess laughed loudly. “You aren’t seriously trying to order me, are you?”

“You will do this at once. The pantheon has voted.”

Mariana merely laughed again. “None of you have the power to order me to do anything. You don’t even have followers anymore. Other than Cari and her precious Oracles and Medina’s reluctant human priest, none of you have anyone from which to draw your powers. My priests serve me loyally, and thanks to their devotion I am stronger than anyone here.”

“Do you refuse to abide by the decision of the pantheon?” Antar asked.

“Yes, I do.” Mariana sat back with a smug smile on her face.

Antar didn’t appear surprised at her answer. “You will transform them back to humans or the pantheon will vote today on whether to strip you of your powers. Do you still refuse to obey?”

Mariana hesitated. “Ah, that’s why you’ve summoned Caspian here.”

It took Caspian a moment longer to figure out what she meant. Then he realized that his vote might be needed in the event of a tie.

“Go ahead,” said Mariana with an airy wave of her hand. “I’m not concerned. Unlike him, I have committed no crime or broken our laws.”

Caspian supposed she had a point there, but he already knew how he would vote if it came to a tie.

“If the vote was a tie for Caspian when he had flouted our laws for his own selfish purposes, by rights you should all vote for me to retain my powers and forget this nonsense.”

A tie?

Caspian let Mariana’s words sink in. At first he had thought the vote was unanimous, until his parents had confirmed otherwise. He supposed it was nice to know that not everyone in the pantheon had agreed with his punishment. Not that it made any difference, since the final vote had obviously tipped the scale in favor of making him mortal.

“Oh yes,” Mariana said. “You didn’t know how close the vote was?”

“Get out of my head,” Caspian snapped.

Mariana chuckled. “I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to find out that I voted to remove your powers.”

“I’m shocked.” Caspian put as much sarcasm into his response as he could.

“Not as shocked as I was when the last goddess voted. I thought for sure you’d be getting away with your crime. How wrong I was.” Mariana shifted her gaze to Cari.

Caspian knew exactly what that look meant, even if he didn’t want to believe it. “Cari?”

His sister met his eyes for the first time since he had lost his powers.

“Is it true?” Caspian asked. “Did you break the tie?”

Cari stared at him in silence.

“Is it true?” he roared as he rose from the table.

“Caspian, sit down,” his mother said as she placed a hand on his arm.

His father urged him to take his seat as well. No wonder his parents had decided to flank him at the table today. They must have known there was a risk that Mariana would say something of this nature as soon as the question of her own immortality was raised.

Caspian shook himself free from his mother’s grip. “Is it true?”

“Yes.” Cari offered no explanation or apology for what she had done to him.

He sat down with a thump. He felt sick to his stomach, and for the first time in his life he wondered if he might actually vomit. For so many centuries it had been just the two of them, best friends as well as siblings. They had even raised Justin together. The betrayal of his sister cut deep in his soul and he couldn’t bear to look at her right now.

He realized Antar was still speaking and that Mariana was being asked to leave the chamber while the vote took place. Clearly she had only been present at the start of the meeting in order to give her one final chance to do the right thing and rein in her sea dragons, once and for all.

“Now we vote,” Antar said. He turned to the goddess on his right, who happened to be Medina.

The Goddess of Love rose and faced the table. “The mer do not deserve to be wiped out. They are peaceful and loving, and more than that, they can boost our powers just as much as humans did.”

“Thank you, Medina,” Antar interrupted before she could get carried away. “We are all well aware of the mer and their nature. How do you vote?”

Caspian recalled that Medina was Mariana’s sister. Would she betray her sibling, just as Cari had betrayed him?

Medina sighed. “I would give her one last chance to transform her priests back. If she refuses, even knowing we can remove her powers and thus force her magic to be reversed that way, I’m afraid I must vote to strip her of her powers.”

Antar nodded. “Very well. We will give her one final chance to reconsider. If she refuses, your vote will stand.”

Medina sat down and the god next to her stood to vote to let her keep her powers. He offered no explanation and wasn’t required to.

One by one each of the immortals cast their vote. Cari, unsurprisingly, voted for her powers to be removed, as did Andaman, who added the comment that even if he were to provide armor to every merman and mermaid in the new colony, it would not be enough to save them if the cave network collapsed.

The goddess who spoke after him was one of Mariana’s friends and countered his remark with the comment that the mer should simply move on from the caverns and find somewhere else to live.

“Since the sea dragons have traveled around the world to attack them, where do you suggest?” Medina asked with a fair degree of sarcasm.

No answer was forthcoming and the voting continued.

Caspian’s mother stood to quickly vote for her powers to be removed and everyone turned to Caspian.

“I thought I was just here in case there was a tie?” he asked.

Antar shook his head. “You may vote now, as you would have before.”

Caspian was surprised, but not even Mariana’s staunchest supporters objected. “The mer need to be in the ocean to survive. I know mer who have tried to live on land, and they all return to the sea eventually. I vote the same as Medina. If she refuses to return the sea dragons to human form, she should be stripped of her powers.”

He sat back down and let out a long breath. A part of him felt bad for helping to inflict on another immortal the same punishment that he had been given. He pushed the uneasy thought from his mind and waited for everyone to finish voting.

His father voted the same as Odessa, after which Mariana’s own father’s turn came.

The God of the Sea shook his head as he stood up. “The sea is my domain as much as it is my daughter’s. I wish I could find a way to protect the mer from the sea dragons without the need to resort to such measures.”

“Is there a way?” Medina asked. “Have you tried ordering them?”

“I have. Unfortunately, they do not heed me, and with no followers or priests of my own, my daughter’s powers outweigh mine. I vote for her to be given one last chance, but if not, I will strip her of her powers and immortality, if that be the will of the pantheon.”

“What if she resists?” Cynbel asked. “Unlike my son, who accepted his punishment without a fight, I suspect your daughter might not be so compliant.”

Antar stepped in at this point. “If she should refuse our authority, her powers will be forcibly removed, which will be much more painful but just as effective.”

The God of the Sea took his seat again and the rest of the pantheon cast their votes.

Mariana’s mother, Goddess of the Moon, voted for her daughter to keep her powers but reluctantly confirmed she would abide by the decision of the pantheon and would not try to stop her husband from removing her daughter’s powers. By this point it was already clear that Mariana would be losing her powers if she didn’t comply with the order to return her sea dragons to human form.

“Mariana, you can return now,” Antar called. His voice echoed so she would hear him wherever she was.

She took her time coming back into the room.

“Are you done?” she asked as she took her seat.

“We are,” Antar said. “It has been decided that you should be given one more opportunity to return your sea dragons to human form—”

“Absolutely not,” Mariana interrupted.

“Or you will be stripped of your powers. By majority vote of the pantheon, this is our decision.”

Mariana didn’t appear surprised or bothered by Antar’s words. “You don’t have the power to take me on.”

Antar materialized a trident in his hand and banged it on the floor. Sea-fire shot from the prongs, lighting the chamber with an eerie blue light. “You forget who you are speaking to.”

“I’ve not forgotten at all,” Mariana replied as she conjured up a trident of her own. “You are a forgotten god, old and unworthy of the name.”

“I am of the oldest of the immortals,” Antar reminded her. “I was eons old before your parents were even born. Do not think you can challenge me.”

“You are not of my blood,” Mariana said. “Only my parents can remove my powers, and they would never betray me in such a way.”

She turned to look at her parents and a flicker of doubt crossed her face. “You wouldn’t?”

“Yes, we would,” her father said. “It will pain us to do so, but we will obey the edict of the pantheon, just as you should have done when it was decreed that all Atlanteans were to be banished.”

Mariana’s trident glowed and she aimed it at one god after another, finally settling on Antar. “You will not take my powers, and my priests will retain their present form for as long as it takes to destroy the mer.”

Antar moved too fast for Caspian to see. He wasn’t sure he would have caught his move even if he still had his powers. The God of Space and Time could manipulate both in any way he chose.

One moment he was at the opposite end of the table, the next he was at Mariana’s back, divesting her of her trident and encasing her in a pair of manacles. Even from halfway down the table, he could recognize Andaman’s handiwork.

Mariana struggled and screeched.

Her parents joined Antar at the other end of the table and placed their hands on her shoulders. She tried to shake them off, twisting and squirming against her captors.

“Get your hands off me,” she yelled. “You can’t do this.”

A strange green aura appeared around her, and Caspian recognized it as the same glow that she had aimed at Fabian when she had removed his powers and disowned him. That she had done so while he was underwater, rendering him mortal and nearly killing him in the process, had been nothing short of monstrous. At least she could be thankful that she wouldn’t be risking death in the next few seconds.

Finally it was done and Mariana collapsed to her knees.

“You will all pay for this,” she warned.

“What of the priests?” Odessa asked. “Are they restored to human form?”

Cari closed her eyes, opening them a couple of minutes later with a nod. “They are human again. As they are also Atlantean, they are in no danger of drowning. They are currently fleeing from the mer they were fighting a few minutes ago. I do not believe they will be troubling the mer much from now on, and if they do, the mer should be able to handle them.”

Caspian breathed a sigh of relief.

Mariana’s parents escorted her from the room, promising to get her set up in a new life among humans. Caspian hoped they chose a location well away from anyone he knew.

Odessa took hold of his arm as he stood to leave. “Now, how about you come home with me and let me know how you and your young merman are getting along. From what I saw this morning, we have a lot of catching up to do.”

Caspian knew there would be no avoiding the third degree and decided to succumb to it without a fuss.

They were halfway to the door when Cari stepped in front of them.

“Don’t,” Caspian said before she could speak. The shock of her betrayal was too raw for him to listen to what she had to say in her defense. “I’ll come and find you when I’m ready to listen.”

“I’m sorry,” Cari offered.

Caspian nodded and let his mother lead him out of the room. He knew he would have to hear Cari’s side of things eventually, but he just couldn’t handle that right now.