Princess master 3, p.3
Princess Master 3, page 3
“Joe, that was amazing!” Jessamine gushed. “That thing was huge! And I can’t believe Cienna reversed time! She told us all about it while you were fighting.”
“I know,” I panted. “She was incredible, and that final fight was intense! I’m glad I won, but I missed having you all there fighting beside me.”
“It seems like your powers have gotten a lot stronger, Cienna,” Jessamine continued as she turned to the blonde with a bright smile. “I’m so proud to call you my sister-wife.”
“Yeah, I’ve felt I could hold my spells longer since Ariana’s ritual, but this was something new,” Cienna admitted, and then she kissed me on the cheek. “Joe, you were amazing. But, ew, you still taste like octopus blood.”
“Sorry,” I chuckled. “I guess no one’s in the mood for calamari now…”
“Are you talking about eating that thing?” Jessamine asked as she wrinkled her nose. “Joe, between your egg muffin this morning and now this, I think they must eat some pretty weird stuff where you came from.”
“Octopus is delicious,” Ariana interjected, and I noticed my red-haired wife was swimming shyly off to the side. “But I’ve never seen one this big before. In any case, I’m just glad you’re okay, Joe.”
“Thanks, Ariana,” I replied, and I pulled my wives in for a hug. “I couldn’t have done it without you three killing those other octopuses. We all fight together, we all win together. Team Joe!”
“The increase in Cienna’s powers is interesting,” the redhead continued. “I’ve been thinking about other ways we can increase our powers, and I’ve thought we may be able to combine them in new ways using science--”
She was interrupted by the sound of cheers from behind us, and we looked back at Cordelia’s farmhouse, where a small crowd of merpeople were all clapping.
“It appears we have some admirers,” Jessamine commented with a grin.
“I guess we should go talk to them,” Ariana said, and a huge flush spread up from her chest.
“Yeah, it seems like they saw us kill the octopuses,” I replied as I rubbed the back of my neck. “And they are our royal subjects.”
“Let’s go over there so they can compliment us,” Jessamine said with a huge smile as she wiggled with excitement. “Come on, hero, or, should I say, heroes?”
“Well, when you put it that way…” I grinned and grabbed her arm. “Time to meet our adoring fans.”
We swam closer to where the merpeople had gathered to watch the fight, and Cordelia swam toward us. A tall, handsome merman with blond hair trailed behind her with the little boy in his arms, and I assumed it had to be her returned husband.
“Princess Ariana, Your Highness, I’d love to introduce you to my husband, Kai,” Cordelia exclaimed. “I know he’s so honored to meet you.”
“Your Highness.” The merman dropped his torso into a deep bow. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for my family. From taking care of Cordelia and our son while I was gone, to overseeing our home repairs, to protecting our house from those octopuses… Our family will never be able to repay you.”
“No repayment is necessary,” Ariana assured Kai. “It’s our job to take care of our citizens, and I have a particular soft spot for your wife and son. I’d also like to introduce you to my h-husband, Joe, and these are Princesses Cienna and J-Jessamine.”
Both Cordelia and Kai dropped into bows upon our introductions.
“We’re her sister-wives,” Jessamine told the couple as she looked directly at them with unflinching dark eyes, and Ariana blushed even deeper.
It seemed like this was the first time the mermaid’s new marriage situation had been discussed with any of her citizens, so I understood why she was stuttering a bit. Ariana was so cute and shy.
To their credit, Kai and Cordelia didn’t miss a beat when they learned of Ariana’s untraditional marriage. They both smiled at us and nodded politely, and I was sure my red-haired wife was relieved.
“Thank you again, Your Highness, Your Highnesses, Joe,” Cordelia said. “Are you sure I can’t offer you something to drink?”
“To be honest, I could use something after that fight,” I chuckled. I didn’t want to speak for the princesses, but it seemed like breakfast had been a long time ago.
“Of course,” the brunette mermaid told me. “Please, come see our home. You can see the progress that’s been made on its reconstruction.”
The princesses and I followed Kai and Cordelia into the house that now had a frame for both its roof and walls, and I could hear hammering from outside, which gave me an idea.
“After we have that drink, I’d love to see how they’re fixing your place,” I told the young couple. “I used to repair things back home, and I’m always interested in that sort of thing.”
It wasn’t a lie, I really did enjoy repairing things, but I was also interested in interacting with some merfolk on a more casual basis. It was still insane to me that I was actually breathing underwater and speaking with fish people, and I wanted to get to know them better.
Plus, they were kind of my people, too, now that I was Ariana’s husband.
“Yeah, I like fixing things, too.” Kai nodded at me. “Let’s have a bottle of ale, and then I can show you more about how we’re plastering the exterior walls.”
Cordelia grabbed a few bottles from a chest in the corner, and she passed them out to me and the princesses. Then she handed another one to her husband and kept the last one for herself.
“Please, sit,” the brown-haired mermaid told us, and she gestured to a set of black rock furniture that had clearly been replaced since Morgar’s attack.
The princesses and I settled down onto couches and chairs, and Cordelia and Kai soon followed and sat opposite us. Their little boy was still holding onto his ball as he wandered around the room, and Cordelia addressed him now.
“Dillon, come sit with mommy.”
Dillon swam over, and his mother pulled him onto her lap, where he sat and stared at Ariana.
“Pretty,” the little boy mumbled around the thumb that was always in his mouth, and we all laughed gently.
“Yes, Princess Ariana is pretty,” Cordelia agreed with a warm smile. “And she is tough, too! I know the entire kingdom is grateful to you for destroying Morgar, but my family in particular would like to express our gratitude. When our home was destroyed, it was the worst moment of my life, but now I have a sense of hope again, and it’s all thanks to you.”
“Yes, thanks again.” Kai nodded vigorously, and then he squeezed his wife’s hand. “It’s been a terrifying time in our kingdom, as I’m sure you well know. Once the possibility of random attacks gets in your head, it’s impossible to relax. Even before Morgar destroyed our home, we’d been living in fear for a long time. It seemed like everyone in the kingdom knew someone who’d been choked by a cloud of poison or attacked by his terrible shocks, and I couldn’t believe it when I returned and our family had become his victims. Cordelia’s sister had been hit by a cloud of poison, but we are so grateful she has recovered. Thanks to all of you, things are starting to look up.”
“Yes, things have been so terrible,” Cordelia said with a shudder. “And then when Kai was missing, of course I feared the worst.”
“Yes, Kai, we’re all so glad you returned safely,” Ariana told the merman.
“It was crazy,” the merman muttered with wide eyes and shook his head. “My buddy had heard of a place called the Pirate’s Boneyard. I’m assuming you know what that is?”
Kai looked around at us, and we all nodded. The Pirate’s Boneyard was a deep trench filled with countless sunken ships, and it was where we’d found the Hero’s Potion that saved Ariana’s advisor, Marinus.
“Yes, we’ve visited it ourselves,” Ariana explained. “Please, go on.”
“So, my friend wanted to go see the ships while we were out fishing, and it sounded like it could be fun. We didn’t realize how far away it was at first, so just getting there was our first obstacle. I knew Cordelia would be worried, but it got so late we were forced to stop. I have to admit we spent some time the next day poking around on the sunken ships for a little bit, but then I told my friend I had to get home. Unfortunately, we started to swim in the opposite direction of the kingdom, and we got lost out in the wilds of the sea for a few days…”
“Thank the gods you had your strongest spear with you,” Cordelia replied, and I could see a shiver run down the young mermaid’s body. “If anything happened to you, I have no idea what Dillon and I would do.”
“I know, I know.” Kai shook his head and looked at his wife with regret in his eyes. “If I could go back, there’s no way I would have headed out to the Boneyard in the first place. At least we were able to forage for edible plants and catch fish, but we saw some really… weird… stuff out there. Have you seen the fish with lanterns on the front of their heads? And these gross sharks--”
“Did they have teeth like people?” Jessamine interjected as she leaned forward in her seat. “Because I think we saw those, too!”
“Yes, that’s them,” the merman replied with his lips curled up in disgust. “Wow, those were nasty. Luckily, we only ran into a couple, but when I speared one, the grossest, gooey orange blood came out.”
“We fought hundreds of them at once,” Cienna told Kai and Cordelia, and she wrinkled her nose. “We were absolutely covered in that goo…”
“Thank goodness the hero was there to save us,” Jessamine said as she squeezed my arm, and Kai and Cordelia nodded politely.
I could tell the couple didn’t know about the hero’s legend, and I wasn’t surprised, given how Ariana hadn’t heard of it before we’d met her, either. It seemed it was my destiny to work alongside the princesses to defeat Chernabog, the great demon who threatened all of Fairyland, but that was a lot to explain right now.
“In any case, I made it home safely, and our family is back together now,” Kai said, and he squeezed his wife tightly around her shoulders.
“We’ve heard there’s still a witch, though…” Cordelia said and wrung her hands. “So, we aren’t completely at ease yet. I suppose you can’t tell us anything about that…”
“Cordelia, Kai, all you need to know is alongside Joe, the other princesses, and my father, I am going to protect our kingdom and keep you and little Dillon safe,” Ariana vowed in a firm voice, and I nodded. “Morgar first, Eudora next.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Cordelia sighed with relief, and she leaned down to kiss the top of Dillon’s head as he wiggled in her lap.
“So, Joe, you said you wanted to see what we were doing with the home repairs,” Kai spoke up after a moment of silence, and he drained his bottle of ale and set it down on the table that sat between us. “Come outside, and I’ll introduce you to the crew.”
“Sounds good,” I replied, and I looked at my wives. “Are all of you alright in here?”
“Of course, Joe.” Cienna nodded. “We’d love to stay and talk to Cordelia some more.”
“Great, I’ll see you in a few minutes, then,” I responded, and I stood up to follow Kai out the door.
He led me around the side of the house, where two mermen wearing some sort of safety helmets were stuccoing a wall with a glittering material I’d never seen before. When they saw Kai and me, they stopped what they were doing and watched us approach.
“Joe, meet Troy and Sam,” Kai introduced us. “These guys are helping me rebuild our house.”
I nodded and held out my hand to them.
“I’m Troy, pleased to meet you,” a short merman with auburn hair responded with a warm, open smile, and he shook my hand.
Sam, who was larger with a thick black beard, approached me with an expression that was almost a sneer. Before I had a chance to prepare, he’d reached out with his palm down and gripped my hand a little too tightly. I could tell he was trying to dominate me, and I returned his power grip and stared him in the eyes until he let go.
“Yeah, I’m Joe, nice to meet you,” I muttered and inwardly rolled my eyes.
“So, a human, huh?” Sam said as he looked me up and down.
“That’s right.” I nodded as I continued to stare at the man, and I raised an eyebrow.
“So, what’s the deal with you and Princess Ariana, anyway?” the black-bearded merman asked, and I hoped I wasn’t going to have to punch someone.
“Hey, Sam, that’s a little rude,” Kai interjected, but I held out a hand to indicate I wanted to answer the question.
“Princess Ariana is my wife,” I told the black-haired merman, and I continued to stare him down.
“And I see you’re traveling with a couple other women, too,” Sam snickered. “Are they single, or are you married to them, too?”
“Yeah, actually I am,” I replied, and as I watched, the bearded merman’s face broke into a huge grin.
“Hey, man, good for you,” Sam laughed. “Three wives, huh? That’s impressive. And I saw you fighting that giant octopus out there. That was also quite impressive.”
“You’re serious about having three wives?” Troy cut in.
“I am.” I nodded. “Princess Ariana is my wife, and so are Princess Cienna and Princess Jessamine.”
“They’re all princesses?” Sam asked with his mouth hanging open, and I noticed both of the workmen were staring at me with newfound admiration.
“Yep.” I shrugged. That was pretty much all I had to say about that, and I was glad when I saw Ariana swim around the corner of the house. “Hey, Ariana, what’s up?”
“Your Highness,” Troy gasped, and he took off his hat and bowed before Sam followed suit.
“I was just interested in seeing what you were up to out here,” Ariana replied, and I reached out for her hand. “I’d been working with the palace scientists to develop some new building materials for the kingdom, and I’m curious to see how they’ve been working out.”
“Yes, Your Highness, the seashell-enhanced plaster has been great,” Kai said, and the other two mermen nodded in agreement. “I think it’s going to be way stronger if, gods forbid, there’s another attack.”
“Did you show Joe what we’ve been doing to reinforce the houses?” the mermaid asked.
“We were just starting to talk about it,” Sam said with a smirk, but when I stared him down, he wiped the expression from his face and looked away.
“So, we would previously construct houses from stakes we carved from coral,” Kai began to explain. “If you stand enough stakes up close together, you have a wall, right?”
“Right.” I nodded.
“Until Morgar started attacking people’s homes, Joe, the main purpose of walls under the sea was for privacy and to keep fish and other creatures out, since obviously they don’t have to be watertight for merpeople,” Ariana explained.
“That makes sense,” I said. “So, the plain coral walls were strong enough for that?”
“Yes, that’s right.” Ariana nodded. “However, we soon realized Morgar’s blasts were too strong for just coral to be used anymore, so I spoke with the scientists and began to develop a solution. They were able to create a paste made of sediments from the seafloor mixed with crushed shells, and you know I have the ability to make protective barriers.”
“So, there’s a little magic in there, too?” I guessed.
“Exactly,” the mermaid confirmed. “But I have been casting the protective spell when the paste is made so any worker can apply it without me having to be there. Obviously, we have been making it in very large batches. And another good thing is we can use it to reinforce existing homes by plastering a couple of layers over the coral stakes.”
I loved it when a woman talked construction to me.
“That sounds really cool, Ariana,” I told her with a grin. “You never cease to amaze me.”
“It’s just a little thing we’ve been working on,” the redhead said and blushed bright pink at the compliment.
“You’re helping our kingdom immensely, Your Highness,” Kai replied, and Ariana’s cheeks flushed even darker.
“Well, thank you, Joe, Kai, everyone,” the mermaid princess murmured. She didn’t stutter as much when she was talking to our royal subjects, but there didn’t seem to be anything that could stop her from blushing.
“Can I help you put some of the plaster up?” I asked Kai. “I haven’t done any work like this in a while.”
“Be my guest,” the blond merman said, and he gestured toward the big tub of glittering plaster and a stack of seashells I saw the men were using as trowels.
“Joe, I’m going to go around back to check the crops again,” Ariana told me, and I squeezed her hand. I’d been so turned on by her knowledge of all things science and building that I wanted to give her a kiss, but her face was already red enough.
“Sure, be careful of any more octopuses, but I’ll see you in a little bit,” I told her with a big smile, and I turned back to the mermen, who had all turned to watch her swim away.
Once the princess had turned the corner, Sam addressed me again.
“Guess you weren’t lying about being married to her,” the black-bearded merman snickered. “You’re definitely a lucky man.”
If there was one thing I hated to do, it was to kiss and tell. He was right, I’d gotten lucky enough to marry three princesses so far, and while I appreciated the man’s admiration, I certainly wasn’t going to do anything to fuck it up.
“Hey, man, let’s stick to talking about the walls, alright?” I asked, but it wasn’t really a question.
“No offense meant,” Sam said, and he held his palms up to me in a peace gesture. “If I had beautiful wives like that, I’d want to talk about them all day long.”
“Listen, dude, I get that you think it’s awesome,” I growled. “But being married to Princess Ariana makes me royalty, too, so…”
Sam apparently got the point, because he turned around and faced the wall to start stuccoing it again.
I grabbed a seashell and some of the magic cement from its tub and began to smooth it down along the coral stakes. Sam had irritated me a little, but doing physical work always helped to calm me down, so I took some deep breaths and tried to get into the rhythm of what I was doing.
