Free Lord of the Deep by Dawn Thompson Page A

wide toward Adelia standing at the water’s edge, arms folded across her sagging breasts. Meg gasped again: the woman gripped a long willow switch in her hand.
    “So, niece, you are found out,” Adelia seethed, the willow branch making a formidable whirring sound slicing through the air as she slapped it against her open palm. “Get out of that water! You’ve had your last midnight swim.”
     
    Simeon dove straight for the tunnel that led to the palace. Surging out of the water, he streaked through the chambers one by one, but they were vacant. There was no sign of the selkie females in seal or human form. All was still. Not even the annoying silt roses twittered. Exasperated, the selkie lord sought out Vega. He found him sorting eel skins in the servants’ quarters where they were stored.
    “Leave that,” he said. “We need to talk.”
    “I’m trying to make you a new eel skin, Simeon,” Vega said, his speech more familiar now that they were alone. “You’re down to your last one. You have got to stop leaving them about.”
    “Where are the consorts?”
    Vega shrugged. “I haven’t seen them since the latest melee,” he said. “You really need to do something with that lot before serious harm is done. This last nearly was the last. I have never seen Alexia in such a rage. I cleaned up the mess in your apartments, but I won’t do it again. I’ll let the purists club me first. There was seal scum in the corridors, on the bedstead—on the ceiling vault. I wash my hands of it!”
    “You shan’t have to worry over that after tomorrow,” Simeon said. “We’re leaving.”
    Vega staggered back from his chore, eel skin in hand. “Leaving? Leaving for where?”
    “I’m taking up residence at the Pavilion…for now. I will need you with me.”
    “ The Pavilion? ” Vega said, slack-jawed. “That outpost hasn’t been inhabited in eons. Father deemed it uninhabitable long before he passed. It’s too far from the Isles to frequent them.”
    “That, Vega, is exactly what I want,” Simeon said. “We need to be ready to leave by midnight tomorrow.”
    “What of the consorts? It is too far for them to travel back and forth. Why, I doubt they could make it there at all!”
    “I’m counting upon it! The consorts are over.”
    “Are you mad, Simeon? There will be slaughter done!”
    “Oh aye, and I shall be the one to do it if they dare oppose me. What went on here earlier will not be repeated.”
    “What went on here occurred because you brought an outsider into the deep—a mortal . What could you expect? You have never done that before. You have always confined your mortal dalliances to land trysts.”
    “This is…different.”
    “Oh now, you can’t mean to take the chit with you?” Vega blurted, realization having struck. Simeon would have laughed at his brother’s sagging jaw and arched brow if it wasn’t such a serious matter. “Y-you do! ” Vega breathed. “Do you not have enough consorts to keep you sated and more patiently waiting to have their turn? Well, you don’t need me for this mad ramble. I’m quite comfortable right here at the palace. Think of all the fun I’ll have placating the consorts after you’ve gone. That Risa is a comely little sea cow. I wouldn’t mind her lips around my cock. When did you say you were leaving, ‘my lord?’”
    Simeon arched his winged eyebrow and gave Vega a withering look. His brother had crossed the line again. “This wouldn’t be a subtle attempt to change my mind, would it, Vega?” he said. “Because if it is, you waste your breath. I have taken Megaleen’s virtue. Two days hence, she is to yield it to the shaman priest in her rite of initiation to become priestess of the Isle of Mists. When he discovers she is no longer a virgin, she will be sacrificed to the gods instead. I cannot leave her to such a fate, and I cannot bring her here among the consorts. You saw the outcome of that. What other choice have I?”
    “Certainly not