His last words sort of trailed off, like a weak wave returning from the shore to a vast sea, disappearing in the limitless water.
Vanessa laughed throatily and deeply. If Eric didn’t look directly at her he could easily imagine a much older, much larger woman, voice husky from years of cigars or hard living. But he did look at her, and the dissonance he experienced while viewing the weirdly innocent face was too much like a fever dream.
“Oh, dear, no,” she said, moving her face in a way that implied she was wiping tears of laughter, but her hands moved differently, still breaking the legs off baby squid. “I will say you have a certain…charm. And youth is always attractive. But, my love, you’re short at least eight tentacles. Maybe six, if I were generous and counted your legs. Also, I like my partners with a bit more…heft to their physiques.”
Eric was unsure if he was more horrified or relieved.
“It’s always the case, isn’t it? Men are pretty much the same the world around, regardless of their race,” Vanessa said, exasperated. “They always assume they have the complete, undivided attention of whatever female creature happens to be in the room.”
“All right, yes, I get it, this is a marriage of convenience, thank you. But why? Why are you here? If you don’t even like me? What is there keeping you here? You’re not even doing magic anymore, are you? I haven’t seen you conjure any spells or do any magic since we’ve been together, since the initial one you cast over me and my kingdom.”
Vanessa looked up at him sharply.
Huh, Eric thought, noticing her reaction. She hasn’t because she can’t. Maybe in human form she couldn’t do magic. He decided to file that thought away for later.
“Well,” she said. “You’re not quite the dumb, handsome prince you look like. Here’s the truth, then, if we are speaking plainly. I find I rather like you humans—I didn’t expect that at all! You’re so venal and shortsighted and power hungry and imaginative and…such a mess of wants and desires. And so short-lived! Hardly any of you has the wisdom that a century or two of living endows one with. Such fun to play with…And there’s so many more of you than merfolk. The possibilities are endless.”
She gave him a winning smile.
Doctor Faustus’s Mephistopheles has nothing on Vanessa, Eric thought. Toying with souls and bodies like it’s all a child’s game for her.
“And here’s the thing,” she said, changing her tone. She stabbed five mussels in a row with her knife and shoveled them into her mouth but continued to talk. Like the hungriest, most brutish old sailor in a pub after months at sea. “True, I was a powerful sea witch. But can anyone really have enough power? Even with Triton gone there are seven sisters defending his crown, and a mer army, and countless other soldiers, guardians, priests, and allies who would effectively keep me from running the show. Here? I am running the show. And all it took was a marriage! Not a drop of blood spilled. Or a person transmogrified.”
“Not a drop of blood spilled?” Eric demanded, leaning forward. “We lost twenty at the Siege of Arlendad and three in the attack north of the Veralean Mountains when you were trying to ‘send a message’ to Alamber. That’s twenty-three young men who will never give their mothers a grandchild, who will never see another spring, who will turn into dirt before they reach twenty!”
“My, you really are quite the poet,” Vanessa said, perhaps really impressed. “But those were the result of empire expansion. My ascension to power, in itself, was bloodless. Also, I don’t remember your being quite so eloquent on behalf of Tirulia’s young male population at the time I first proposed these ventures…”
“I was under your bloody spell!” Eric shouted, standing up.
“Dear, the staff,” Vanessa said primly. “Let’s not let the help know about our marital issues. They’re all terrible gossips.”
Eric made a strangled cry and pounded his fists on the table.
“Just be a good boy and let mummy Vanessa run things. Soon Tirulia will be a power among powers, to rival Druvest or Etrulio. Then you’ll be grateful for what I’ve done. And what will you have had to do, to get all these new lands and resources? Nothing. It’s just me, sweetie. You go and write your plays and operas and let the people love you.
“Actually, we make quite a good team together, when you think about it. You’re the spiritual side of the operation. I’m the tactics. And the…body.”