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He glared at her, “Contrary to your species, whose spermbanks have just dried up.”
For a moment a look as if she was holding an ace in the hole, passed Sarissa’s features, but then her eyes slitted, “Sspermbankss?”
Myles and I only glared at her. The moment she realized that Myles had freed all the Zuten as well was easy to pinpoint by her expression. She hissed and slithered forward, straight for Myles and me. Myles didn’t blink. Crossed swords from the dragoons stopped Sarissa’s advance.
“So you see the only species that is doomed on Oceanus is yours.” Myles added triumphantly. “Your reign of terror is over, Sarissa.”
“We will ssee,” she lisped, lifting her chin and slithering out of the room like the queen she was.
“Is it over?” I asked Myles.
“I doubt it, but the main battle is. She’ll be back, begging for favors.”
When I eyed him concerned, he smiled warmly, “Don’t worry, this time it will be on our terms.”
Our terms.
I loved the sound of it. I rose on my tiptoes to kiss him and was rewarded by being pressed against his chest and a kiss so deep it told of all the longing and fear for me he too had experienced through his captivity.
Most of the Zuten decided to return to Fall Mountain Island, to cope with their sudden freedom. Assisted by my dragoons, they opened several exits into the mountain, so they would never be trapped inside again.
While Sarissa, Niara and I had held our little chat, I had ordered the siren’s nest plundered. All viable embryos were taken to a safe place. In time we would give the sirens their seffy offspring but keep the males to raise among us like we had done for so many rotations.
I extended invitations to Thyre and human seffies to the delight of my males and within the first two months I presided over many new mating bonds. It seemed with the sirens’ retreat the curse had been finally broken and even the Thyre seffies liked Oceanus.
One more obstacle lay ahead of us. Aecor needed to be moved.
I was looking forward to having the Zuten as our new neighbors and Arcoro had expressed his happiness over it as well. He said in time, his people would integrate into our society, already, every day Zuten left Fall Mountain Island to live in Aecor or to explore Oceanus by boat. As their leader though, he would be the last one to join us and I promised him a position of leadership in my realm when the time came.
I suspected he would take it only because he wanted to set a good example for his son, but the reason didn’t matter, he was an asset and would make my realm much stronger.
Niara was busy exploring the underground cave system of Fall Mountain Island. Recovering many treasures from the Zuten past and she and Arcoro were working together closely to inspect and catalog everything.
Every morning she left on one of the transporters going back and forth and every night she returned. I hated being parted from her during the day, but we each had our own responsibilities. She had offered to help with mine, but I knew her heart was in the ruins, plus there wasn’t much she could do that couldn’t be done by Nathan or the hundreds of dragoons busy with the move.
Slowly Aecor emptied of its citizens, as they packed some of their belongings and moved to transporters, boats, Horn and Fall Mountain Island for the time being.
I missed having her by my side during the day and at night we didn’t get much sleep, too busy talking about our day and… other things. But it was only for a short time, so we would make it work.
Nathan had mapped out all of Aecor, had trained several of my dragoons and we had ordered specially treated, water-resistant leather from our surrounding neighbors. The other vissigroths had been more than happy to help us out. We bought the leather from them, but their prices were fair, nobody tried to take advantage of our desperation.
Nathan’s citizens built giant pumps to fill the bladders as they were placed in precise locations he had mapped.
When moving day finally came, there were only a handful of Leanders and me inside Aecor. Nathan was in charge of the ships that would begin pulling as soon as Aecor rose from the ocean floor.
“It’s going to work,” Niara assured me, gripping my hand.
Against my better judgement and protests, she had insisted on being here, with me. The male in me rebelled against the idea, but the vissigroth in me was not only proud of her, but understood that we needed to stand united and show that we believed this would work.
The massive pumps began to work, their noise was ear shattering as we stood on one of the piers, watching and waiting.
“Do you think the tall towers will hold?” Kyle asked, looking up skeptically.
“Nathan assured us they’re sound,” I strained to portray more confidence than I felt for my brother in law. There were so many things that could go wrong. One miscalculation on his part could shatter all of Aecor.
If just one of the many tunnels cracked and filled with water, my entire city would go under. If any of the giant towers crumbled, it could crack the tunnels as well.
“There,” breathlessly Niara pointed at the water as we slowly began to rise.
