Tonight, as Llawan swam around her private suite of chambers, she smiled. Gossips among her court in the south and Aboshan's in the north couldn't help but comment on her clear pattern of marriage, retirement, and relocation. The rumors describing her as a kept woman in a golden cage amused Llawan a great deal, almost as much as the ones describing her as a beaten, bitter exile. Indeed, she had started both stories to keep her name circulating around Aboshan's court, lest she be completely forgotten.
Llawan was thinking of her husband the emperor as the strangers swam off the walls of her private corridor. She only thought for a moment, however, before she spun in place and jetted back the way she'd come. It didn't really matter if Aboshan had sent the three cephalids armed with tridents and the huge, yellow shark-man who were now pursuing her. What mattered was survival.
Llawan propelled herself forward on a powerful stream of water jetted from her octopod body. Her two forelimbs stretched out to pull herself along and to steer, while her six secondary limbs trailed out behind her. Her imperial crown was both ornament and helmet, protecting her soft skull while cleaving the water before her as she swam. Over short distances, there weren't many things in the sea faster than she was. The shark-man was capable of giving her a good chase, but he seemed to be held back by the others.
The corridor was long, however, and every time Llawan stopped to draw in more water her pursuers gained on her. Two of the cephalids hurled their tridents, and Llawan froze while the spears buried themselves in the coral by her head. Before she could regain her momentum, the unleashed shark surged up and clamped down on one of her tentacles with its powerful, jagged teeth.
Llawan did not cry out. She curled her forelimb around the tridents in the coral, and as the huge creature heaved its head back Llawan and her weapons were dragged off the wall and into the center of the corridor. After a whistled command from one of the cephalids, the shark turned Llawan loose and began to swim around her in a tight circle.
"Your empress is under attack," she clicked as loudly as she could. "Assassins! Murder!" Then she drove her borrowed tridents into the shark-man's vacant, black eyes. His shriek of pain vibrated against Llawan's skin as it echoed and reechoed off the walls.
Llawan jetted toward the nearest assassin as the blinded brute flailed and roared. Her offensive charge surprised her attacker, and Llawan wrapped her forelimbs around his soft cephalid skull. She gave the assassin's head a mighty squeeze, and he went limp.
The stunned cephalid floated peacefully in Llawan's grip. The final two assassins looked at each other, then one loaded his trident into the other's crossbowlike launcher.
The shooter sighted down the center prong of the trident, targeting Llawan's head. The empress paused momentarily, listening. She could hear her bodyguards and the Imperial Guard approaching, and the water around her began to whirl and churn. She clicked at the assassins in disdain.
"Too slow, cretins," she said. The whirlpool around her solidified into a hard, transparent shell, complete with phantom eyes that blinked as the assassin's tridents bounced off their surface. Llawan's shield defenders had finally arrived. These strange creatures were pledged to put themselves between harm and their empress, and they were capable of transforming their bodies from flesh to water to a substance harder than polar ice. The assassins launched a second volley of tridents into the unyielding barrier around Llawan, and the empress turned her back on them just as a dozen lean, savage bodies exploded out of the corridor behind her. The vicious fish tore into the cephalid assassin's arm before he could pull the trigger again, and the forgotten trident fell straight to the coral floor.
Each of the empress's barracuda was three feet of tooth and muscle and killer instinct looking for a target to maul. They had been trained to tear huge, bloody scraps off of anything that she ordered them to attack or threatened her. Llawan watched impassively behind her shield defenders as her more aggressive bodyguards reduced the remaining assassins to chum and clouds of inky blood.
The survivor in her tentacle shuddered as he woke. Llawan brought him close to her face, with her harp beak a short lunge from his eyes.
"What do you want?" she said. She didn't expect an answer from a professional assassin, but if he was a zealot or a deluded patriot
She shook her captive. Behind her, she could hear the palace guard darting up the corridor. Her barracuda continued to squabble over scraps of the still-heaving shark-man.
"Answer us."
The assassin's eyes fluttered. He struggled for focus, recognized Llawan, and his face fell.
"We asked you a question." Llawan tightened her grip. "Tell us."
The assassin sneered. In a series of clicks and calls, he said, "You and Laquatus both shall fall." And then he flicked his tongue at Llawan in the undersea equivalent of a spit in the eye.
Llawan squeezed his brain again and watched his eyes roll back. As the captain of the Guard swam onto the scene, she clicked, and the transparent shell in front of her dissolved and began to reform itself into her servant's bodies. Llawan slung the unconscious assassin at the captain of the Guard like a stone.
"He probably won't say much," Llawan said, "but ask him in earnest. Just in case."
"Empress," the captain struggled to salute and control the assassin's limp body simultaneously, "are you all right?"
"We endure. But there will be a serious inquiry into this episode. Fools will be punished."
"Yes, Empress."
Llawan clicked for her barracuda, and they obediently fell in alongside her as she swam for her throne room. Her evening's rest was ruined, now that she had business that wouldn't wait until morning.
She maintained whatever power she had by staying on top of situations that involved her. Her own subjects were trying to kill her, and Ambassador Laquatus had been mentioned by name. If Laquatus was involved, Aboshan was involved. If Aboshan was involved, she could not miss an opportunity to slap him back into line like the egotistical child he was. Aboshan and Laquatus had made three attempts on her life since her retirement, all of them half-hearted affairs like this one. Some husbands send gifts to their wives. Hers sent killers. Still, she regarded the attempts more as reminders to stay alert and informed rather than actual death threats.
The empress needed more information, and she needed to know the extent of Laquatus's involvement. As one of the only merfolk on or around Otaria, Laquatus was not tied to the empire by family or tradition. Indeed, his human features reflected a decidedly human character. He was a consummate politician, a notorious opportunist, and ambitious to the point of lunacy.
Llawan needed to talk to someone with a better understanding of how he thought.
The Mer empire encircled the entire continent of Otaria and stretched far out into the depths of the ocean. The coastal waters around Otaria itself were called the shallows, and Director Rillu Veza lived there on the coast in an area called Breaker Bay.
Veza acted on behalf of the empire as combination negotiator, harbormaster, and customs inspector for all commerce between the Cabal's northern stronghold and the empire's southern quarter. It was not a prominent position to hold. Most of the trade between Otaria and Mer was routed through ports and storage depots further north, along shipping lanes that were better protected. In Veza's opinion, she had been confined to such a remote weigh station for not being a staunch supporter of the emperor's faction. She also believed she was in charge of Breaker Bay depot because she was qualified to run it. Her comfortable bayside cottage with access to the sea and the main road into town were proof of the emperor's partial approval. After all, he could have put her in charge of a bare piece of rock completely off the trade routes and without any other inhabitants.