War for the Wilds, page 1
part #4 of Fall of the Sages Series
War for the Wilds
Fall of the Sages, Book 4
Jada Fisher
Copyright © 2021 Jada Fisher
All Rights Reserved
Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. All people, places, names, and events are products of the author’s imagination and / or used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Cover Design by J Caleb Design
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Thank You
1
Baerdon
Mermaids were fond of celebrations and festivities, as Baerdon soon found out. Even if they had a tinge of sadness to the occasion, they would party. For funerals, they would celebrate the life of the departed. And when one of their own was going away, they gave them a parting sendoff like no other.
That was where Baerdon Lorrickson found himself. And he was happy, well and truly happy.
Maybe it was the kambaya’sol—the strange, fermented fruit drink that the mermaid made. It was incredibly sweet and potent, leaving his head warm and his chest giggly. He couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. So yeah, that probably had something to do with it, but as he watched the proceedings, the joy of these people filled him.
They really cared for one another, loved one another, like one big family. It reminded him so much of home. He ached and yearned to return to his father and brother, worried endlessly of his father’s health, but soon they’d return. They’d found the sage.
The question that ate at him was, now what? Brokar the Blue, the late Sage of the Seas, hadn’t exactly told them what would happen once they found his replacement. Did they have to take her somewhere? Help her, teach her? Baerdon didn’t know. Asoka was still just a girl, only a few years his junior.
She may have had a millennium of sage wisdom and memories locked within her, but Baerdon felt wrong if they just left her to sort that out by herself. Of course, he and Ivara weren’t exactly equipped to help her either. They knew nothing of sages and magic.
These sober thoughts could wait until the morning. For now, they had a celebration to enjoy.
And enjoy it he did. The festivities took place outside, beneath a canopy of stars and heavenly colors of reds and blues. A large fire was made in the center of the village and strange glowing blue shells were strung around the buildings that flickered like candlelight.
The mermaids sang and danced around the bonfire, not a smile absent from any of them. If they were sad that Asoka was leaving them, then they poured all that sorrow into their bodies and let it loose through dancing. The mer had such amazing control of their bodies, contorting and bending and swirling as if they were underwater.
Yeah, I can’t do that.
Asoka, naturally, was the center of attention. She danced around the fire, the scales of her chest glinting into the light. She wore a grass skirt woven with shells, though the top of her thighs and knees still glimmered with her scales.
She twirled and twirled, all smiles, eyes alight. She was the star of this night, and everyone wanted a chance to say good-bye with a dance.
She even managed to rope Ivara into a dance, which was quite the lovely sight. Ivara protested, but Baerdon found that it was hard to say no to Asoka’s brilliant smile. Was it magic? He didn’t know, but he could imagine she usually got her way. She pulled Ivara toward the fire and then they were arm in arm, spinning and dipping and laughing. Ivara had shed her dirty trousers, shirt, and armor, replacing them with a grass and shell skirt similar to Asoka’s and a top that covered her breasts and nothing else. It was just about the most flesh he’d seen from her since…well, since the roskmoot, when things had been very different between them.
He missed those days before he ruined everything they had.
The mer tried to do the same for Baerdon, making him wear one of their outfits. He allowed them to remove his shirt, but he kept his trousers and boots. They weren’t about to get him in one of those skirts.
He contented himself to eat fruits, fish, and crustaceans and sip the delicious fruity alcohol and watch Ivara have fun for once. The indominable Chief Keet was reluctant at first, but soon, she was smiling as wide as he’d ever seen, her laughs filling the air and warming his very soul. Her skin shone with a sheen of sweat, but she didn’t care. She and Asoka danced with a precision he couldn’t comprehend. It was as if Ivara had lived with the mer her whole life and knew how to move and dance like one.
Again, Baerdon was left wondering if maybe there was magic in the air. It sure felt like there was.
Either way, he was beyond happy. Even Tuk ran around the perimeter, barking merrily, the little mer children chasing after him. He’d occasionally bound into the dancing and dance on his hind legs with a mermaid that was brave enough to withstand his weight.
It has to be magic.
As with the dancing, mermaid music was something else—magical, enchanting, particularly their singing. He’d heard stories of sirens, carnivorous mermaids that used their voices to lure ships to them and drag the enchanted sailors into the depths and a watery grave.
That wasn’t what this was. This was simply singing, enchanting in the sense that they had the most perfect and beautiful voices he’d ever imagined. Baerdon had no inclinations to dive into the water and let someone drown him. He was content to just close his eyes and let the music swaddle him in peace and warmth.
He was surprised when Ivara rustled beside him and stood. He opened his eyes and found her leaning over him with a hand out.
“Care to dance?” she asked. Which absolutely flummoxed him.
“I… Uh… You sure?”
She scowled. “Answer quick before I change my mind, chiefling.”
Well, I can’t pass this up, he thought with a wry smile. So, he took her hand and she hauled him to his feet before dragging him to the sand around the fire. The singing mermaids and the musicians switched up the song to something slow, something elegant and beautiful.
Ivara wound her arms around Baerdon’s neck, her body pressed against his in almost tender embrace. He would have been a tad embarrassed if most of the merfolk present hadn’t also coupled up at the advent of this new, slow song. So, he gulped and slipped his arms around her waist, his cheeks flushing.
They maneuvered around the fire, their dance slow and meandering, but pleasant. He’d danced with Ivara Keet far ago in the past, though those were battle dances, which had been intense and fast and loud and exhilarating. This was exhilarating too, but for other reasons.
It took a lot of effort to not look down at her chest. Baerdon wasn’t usually so prudish, but most people weren’t Ivara.
She smiled at him, as if knowing where his thoughts were. “Do you enjoy this, chiefling?” she said, a hint of tease in her voice. Her breath was tinged with the sweet scent of kabaya’sol.
“I don’t hate it.”
Ivara rolled her eyes, that signature of hers whenever he annoyed her or said something stupid. Which happened to be quite often.
What was he supposed to say, though? That he loved this, that he missed being able to hold her close in his arms? That seeing her like this, in this celebration and dressed like a mermaid, made him so very happy? He couldn’t say that.
Because that was embarrassing as hell. What if she got mad? Worse, what if she actually thanked him for the compliment?
No, best to just keep his thoughts to himself and just enjoy the moment.
“So, what do you think of her?” he asked, trying to broach a subject that wasn’t about how stunning Ivara was or how much he wanted to tell her that.
She cocked her head to the side, her eyes peering into his, no doubt trying to gleam some hidden meaning from his question. There was no ulterior motive, though. He genuinely wanted her opinion.
“She’s something else,” Ivara finally said with a smirk that was a little too drunk. Her eyes found Asoka nearby, dancing with a pretty mermaid around her age with bright red hair. “Her smile lights up a room, and I swear she knows exactly what to say to make you listen to her.”
Baerdon snorted with a smile. “I felt the same. It’s like she’s already using magic but doesn’t know it.”
“I don’t think it actually is magic. She just has a natural, infectious charisma.”
“Definitely. If we took her back home, I have no doubt she’d be chieftain of a tribe within a moon.”
Ivara laughed. “She’d make a better one than half the brutish idiots we have to deal with all the time.”
“And at least she’d be better to look at.”
“Baerdon!” she exclaimed, pulling back and punching his arm. But she wasn’t really offended since she was still smiling. “She’s…young?”
“Please, she’s barely younger than us, and besides, you and I both have no clue how fast or slow mer grow and mature. She may look young, but who knows, maybe she’s a century.”
“I doubt that very much.”
He shrugged.
The slow song faded, the magical singing dying down i
Then the music kicked in again, and it was aggressively fast. Which gave him an idea. He released her and stepped back into a limber stance, arms out.
“Do you remember how to battle dance, Chieftain Keet?”
Her brows furrowed and she smirked wickedly, accepting that challenge head-on. She charged him, kicked out and contorted to avoid him, the wind of her attack brushing by his head and ears.
“Do you, chiefling?” she shot back.
And so, they danced how the tribes of the Human Plains danced.
It was a violent exchange, or at least appeared that way to the casual observer. Battle dances were aptly named, for they looked like a fight—a flurry of kicks and jabs. None ever connected. Or didn’t if you were skilled in the dance.
Most of the merfolk around them stood back and watched with wide eyes. At first, they were startled, thinking this was indeed a fight, but soon, they caught on. They saw Ivara’s smile, saw the grace in their movements, the beauty and intimacy of two people in sync, coming so close to hurting one another but having enough control, enough knowledge of their partner, that they’d never get hurt.
Baerdon had feared that all these years apart would have made them forget the moves, but as they danced, it was like they were back at the roskmoot, like nothing had changed. His heart fluttered, swelling at the thought.
When the music crescendoed to a close, Baerdon brought Ivara close and dipped her low, so that they were both horizontal and panting. Then it was over, and all the mer were clapping for them. Baerdon should have been a bit embarrassed, but he drank it in and waved with a smile.
Baerdon was thoroughly spent after that intense display, especially considering his lingering wounds from the sandrake. He was sore all over and was happy to allow Ivara guide him back to where they’d been seated before. Tuk bounded over to them and licked his face senselessly.
Free from sweat only to be covered in dog slobber.
As others danced and sang and laughed, Asoka came over to Baerdon and Ivara between her fun—breathless, her cheeks flushed, amethyst hair matted to her forehead with sweat. She was radiant, aglow, truly a magnificent sight. Every mermaid was beautiful, it was just what they were, but Asoka seemed to stick out even amongst them.
She sat cross-legged between them. “That was amazing!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never quite seen dancing like that before. Is that how humans dance?
Ivara laughed. “Not at all, at least not the city dwellers.”
“That was battle dancing,” Baerdon said. “Only humans from the plains do that. It’s mostly used in celebrations, or to settle arguments without bloodshed.”
“Though lately, everything seems to resort to bloodshed,” added Ivara with a scowl.
“Unfortunately.”
Asoka looked between them, her knees butterflied out and her hands on her ankles. She smiled. “So you two are having fun then?”
Baerdon shoved some pineapple into his mouth. “Oh yeah, this is amazing.”
Ivara snorted. “Swallow before answering, you pig.”
“I’m partying, Keet.”
She just rolled her eyes. Asoka laughed at the exchange. “I’m glad to hear it.” She leaned back on the palms of her hands looked at the sky, at the stars and the colors of the heavens. Her smile was warm, and her golden skin glowed from the bonfire and the kabaya’sol.
Baerdon leaned forward, head swimming for a brief second, his drink swishing. “Hey this is just a curious question, so if it’s rude, feel free to ignore me, but are you always covered in scales, or can you control them? Is there human skin beneath?”
Ivara smacked his head. “Baerdon!”
“I said I was curious!”
Asoka laughed, full-bellied and seeping with joy. It was the type of laugh that a man would yearn the rest of his life to be worthy of. “It’s okay! Yes, we can control it. but the scales are our skin. It’s… Well, I’ve never really had to explain it before.”
She reached out, extending her arm toward him. The scales on her biceps twitched, and then her skin seemed to harden all the way down her arm, all the way to her hand, until her golden skin was replaced by a pinkish-gold layer of scales.
Baerdon couldn’t take his eyes off them. It was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
“Wow.”
Asoka giggled. She clenched her fist, flexing her arm, and the scales retracted back toward her shoulder, until her smooth skin was back.
Ivara shook her head beside him. “I swear you are too much sometimes.”
“Oh, you’re telling me you weren’t a little bit curious about that?”
“I was, but I had enough common sense to not ask such an embarrassing question!”
“Whatever,” he grumbled, crossing his arms.
Asoka watched them with a smile, thoroughly entertained. “You two are funny.”
Baerdon smirked. “Give it time, it gets a lot better.”
“And worse,” Ivara added. She cleared her throat, trying to right the ship of their conversation.
Asoka chuckled some more and settled down, watching the dancing and the merriment. Her smile faded as the song went on. Baerdon could tell that she wasn’t really watching anymore. Her mind was far away.
“You okay?” he asked.
She glanced at him and gave a small, reassuring smile. “Yeah, I’m just… I’m gonna miss this.”
He could understand. She was leaving the only life she’d ever known—all her friends and family, the whole village—to go into a bright and strange world and thrust with a world-altering responsibility. Honestly, she was handling it pretty well so far, but Baerdon expected that deep down, she wasn’t having it so easy. This type of sudden change could drive a person a bit mad.
He adjusted so he was sitting beside her, his shoulder a hair away from brushing hers. Her hair spilled over and tickled his skin.
“I know this isn’t easy. Truthfully, I’m not even sure what it is we’re asking of you. I have no idea what it means to be a sage. The only reason we were sent to find you was because we just happened to find the previous one, Brokar, as he died.”
Asoka tucked her legs against her chest and hugged them, her chin buried in her knees. “I’ve gotten a sense of it. Through dreams and the memories that haunt me all day. I’m still trying to sort it all out, but there’s so much.”
She grabbed the coral staff from where it sat in the sand beside her and brought it close to her face. “There’s just so much. I… I don’t know if I’m ready.”
Baerdon wasn’t sure what kinds of things were happening in the world, what that bad Sage Bishta was planning, but somehow, when he saw the type of joy that Asoka could so easily instill in people, he had the feeling that everything would be okay.
“You’ll be great, Asoka. You’re incredibly kind and caring, and I think that’s what the world needs from the sages.”
She smiled at him, her eyes glinting with unspent tears. “Thanks, Baerdon Lorrickson.”
Ivara sat down on the other side of Asoka and looped an arm around her waist affectionately. “We’ll help you in any way we can until you figure it out.”
We will? Baerdon wondered. He had to get home, back to his brother and his ill father. They’d already been gone for far too long. He wanted to help Asoka too, but they had other obligations as well. Had she forgotten about her own tribe? Decimated and displaced by a rampaging demon? They needed her leadership.
But now didn’t seem like a good time to remind her of that. Later, before they went to sleep, when they weren’t trying to comfort this girl who was dealing with so many conflicting emotions.
So Baerdon didn’t say anything, instead just watched the fire cackle and the merfolk dance around in bliss.
