Tessa felt her grip on self-control slipping through her fingers. Here she was in an unfamiliar land, among an unknown people who lived in a way she couldn't begin to understand. Any kinship she might have felt with Mer instantly evaporated. They were nothing like she'd expected.

Acutely aware a response was expected, Tessa affected an att.i.tude of interest. Dismay gnawed deep in her belly. "I see you have succeeded well in that endeavor."

Since the Mer considered human beings to be a sub-par species, it might be safer for Jake and Kenneth if she went along with Chiara's impression that she owned the humans. They were under her care, so to speak.

Tessa swallowed the thick lump building in the back of her throat. "I a.s.sure you my pets will behave. I will see they are kept in their proper place."

Chiara nodded gracefully. "Of course. You must be tired from your long journey, Mira Tessa," she said, automatically granting Tessa the rank and status of an honored and esteemed guest. "I am sure you will want to rest before meeting with Queen Magaera."

That one took her by surprise. "I will?" She'd stupidly a.s.sumed she'd soon be on her way back through the thing Chiara had identified as a sea-gate. Of course, that was an insane notion. She'd just unlocked some sort of doorway sealed for almost two millennia. It only made sense the people locked inside would want information about a world they hadn't laid eyes on in, well, ever.

The priestess nodded. "Now that you have given us back our freedom, we Mer shall have a chance to reclaim the waters that are rightfully ours."

Fighting back a faint surge of nausea, Tessa inwardly gulped. The weapons the Mer carried weren't for show-and-tell. The women were armed and ready for a fight. Comparing the well-armed Mer to the pathetically kept humans, an uneasy suspicion crept up from the shadows in Tessa's mind. Cold awareness p.r.i.c.kled the fine hairs on the back of her neck. She shivered faintly.

I think I've made a huge mistake.

Kenneth didn't like the looks of the shackles the Mer were fitting around his neck and wrists. Though the women were doing nothing to cause him undue harm, their att.i.tude was one of distance and disinterest. He was just another human, and a worthless one at that.

A gut-level sense of dismay and embarra.s.sment filled him. "Why do we have to wear these?"

Her expression tense but controlled, Tessa leaned in. Pretending to check the grip of the collar circling his neck, she whispered, "Humans are like slaves here." She spoke so quietly he had to strain to catch her words. "They regard you as little more than animals of low intelligence."

"Can't you tell them in your world you don't treat people like animals?"

Tessa frowned at him impatiently and shook her head. "I've tried to tell them you are my companions and quite intelligent, but they aren't buying it. In their minds, humans are untrustworthy and need to be fully controlled."

Attempting to dig a finger in between his wrist and the tight cuff to loosen the pressure, Kenneth jerked his head toward Jake. "So why the f.u.c.k are they so gaga over that a.s.shole?" Instead of treating him like a mongrel dog, the Mer seemed to take more interest in the archaeologist. They petted and pawed him like a prize stallion.

Tessa shot a look toward her ex-lover. "It's his hair and eyes. For them, he's a perfect specimen for breeding."

Kenneth snorted. It never failed. He should have guessed Jake would find a way to take advantage of his looks and charm the ladies.

"So what am I? Chopped liver?"

"It's not you," Tessa explained. "It's your hair color. You're considered an inferior, not suitable for fathering their daughters. Your purpose is more like a slave."

Understanding dawned. "Ah, someone who does the heavy lifting."

She nodded. "Right."

He blew out a breath. "Figures."

The woman who had initially acted as greeter ambled over. She looked at Tessa. They exchanged a few words.

Kenneth shivered. The Mer tongue sounded like gibberish to his ears. He couldn't understand a single word and it made him feel like a second-cla.s.s citizen.

His mouth drew down. In their world, I am.

He glanced around. From what he could see, all humans were shackled, both males and females. Some, he noticed, seemed to be treated better than others. Those who were poorly kept were pathetic creatures. In the human world they would be considered plain or merely average. In the Mer world, they had no hope. Hair shorn away, their skin was covered with bruises. Many were badly scarred, the damage inflicted by the whiplike lashes all Mers carried. Looped at their belts, the objects of punishment were within ready reach.

Those treated better included men-and some women-lucky enough to be born blond. Not only were they dressed a bit more nicely, but they were paraded on leashes the way some people would show off a pedigreed animal.

One of the Mer who had helped shackle them handed their leads to Tessa. Giving Jake a final warm pet, she sauntered back to her duties.

Tessa looked at the leashes. "I'm sorry. They require you to be leashed in public."

Jake perked up. Instead of fighting his shackles, he seemed to be enjoying all the attention he attracted. "Excellent."

Kenneth shot him a look. "Excellent? They've got us collared."

Jake shrugged. "When in Rome you do as the Romans do, my friend. It only makes sense that the Mer would be the dominant race. After all, this is their world."

"Yeah, but instead of being equals, they've made us into slaves."

"Which is exactly how our own human civilization evolved," Jake said. "When the strong roll in, the weak roll over. To survive means to adapt to the ways of the ruling race."

Kenneth grumbled. "I don't call slavery survival."

The Mer who had greeted Tessa hurried over. A look of disapproval pursed her lips. Handing over a whip, she made a slicing motion with her hand. The words that accompanied her gesture sounded sharp, scolding.

Tessa nodded her response, snapping the whip savagely in the air to indicate her understanding. "She thinks you are speaking out of your place and she wants me to punish you."

Jake eyed the forbidding whip. "Oh, kinky. A whip and chains." He waggled his brows. "Tell me, darling, don't you feel all butch now?"

Tessa cracked the whip, giving him a neat smack across the arm. "You'd better have a care with your tongue."

Jake rubbed the red patch rising on his skin. "Hey, watch where you're swinging that thing, d.a.m.n it!"

Tessa smacked him again. "If they think I can't control my humans, they might take you away. I can't say what would happen to you if they did, but I don't think it'd be pretty."

The archaeologist flagged a distracted hand. "What are they going to do? Pet me to death? I don't have to speak the language to figure out more than one of those ladies would like to put me in her bed. How long do you think it's been since they've had new blood added to the gene pool?" He pointed toward his beltline. "What I've got down here is pure gold."

Kenneth shook his head. "I think I'm going to puke." Leave it to Jake to figure out how to feed his libido, and all in the name of new world discovery.

Tessa delivered a third smack. "You're p.i.s.sing them off, and you're starting to p.i.s.s me off. Put a lid on it before I really have to lay some hurt on you."

Putting on the face of an angel, Jake smiled and said nothing.

Kenneth breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to feel that leather come down across his skin. He had a feeling he wouldn't enjoy it half as much as Jake was. That a.s.shole was just a glutton for punishment. If it were kinky, illegal, or immoral-preferably all three-Jake would be there in a second.

A tug on his leash reminded him he needed to start walking.

Trotting along beside Jake, he followed Tessa. Tessa in turn followed their guide, who led them outside the elaborate temple.

Catching his first glimpse of the city, Kenneth caught his breath. All the trouble it had taken to reach it was suddenly worth the risk.

A magnificent vision to behold, Ishaldi was vast, a metropolis stretching as far as the eye could see. Streets of pure limestone wound between temples and other buildings that served as public and private dwellings. Beautifully sculpted lawns and lush enclosed gardens were liberally sprinkled with pools of clear sparkling water and intricately carved stone fountains. It was like walking through a crack in time and somehow arriving in an ancient Greek city.

The atmosphere above the trees wasn't a wide- open stretch of endless s.p.a.ce. Nor did any sun shine in the sky above. Ishaldi's heavens shined with a pure and incandescent white light. To stare directly into its depth was almost blinding.

It took Kenneth a moment to realize he wasn't looking at an overcast sky, but one formed entirely of crystal. The Mer world, the whole of it, existed entirely underground.

Interrupting his sense of wonder, Jake leaned close. "Amazing. I'm going to say the Mer live much as their ancestors did. My guess is their civilization has hardly changed since their world was sealed off from ours. They've had no outside influences to integrate into their civilization for almost two thousand years."

"It feels like the whole place is part of a giant terrarium," Kenneth whispered back. "How can their world exist under the freaking ocean anyway?"

Jake pondered a moment. "I'll agree they have a very unusual ecosystem going on here. So much so that I'm beginning to suspect that their world and ours inhabit the same s.p.a.ce, but in different dimensions."

That brought his eyebrows up. "I don't get it."

"Wormhole," Jake mouthed.

"What's got worms?"

"Not got worms, idiot," Jake corrected. "A wormhole is a shortcut through s.p.a.ce and time."

Kenneth glanced around. "Are you saying we're on another planet?"

Jake quickly shook his head. "Based on the architectural similarities to our own ancient cultures, I'd wager we're still earthbound. It's a long shot, but I'd say some glitch in dimensional shifting aligned their world beneath ours."

Kenneth grimaced. "Is that even possible?"

Jake shrugged. "It's physics. The thing we stepped through seems to be some sort of wormhole. But instead of taking the traveler through outer s.p.a.ce and time, it transports intradimensionally through two different points in the planet's evolution."

Kenneth resisted rolling his eyes. "I guess that makes some kind of c.o.c.keyed sense."

They followed Tessa, who in turn followed the woman called Doma Chiara. Their guide led them toward a fine chariot, elaborately designed and gilded in gold. Instead of horses doing the grunt work, several men waited to pull the chariot to its destination.

Kenneth looked at the men. They waited patiently for a command, as docile as any well-trained animal. He doubted it could have been easy for any human, male or female, to a.s.sume the role of slave. But then again, did the humans of Ishaldi even remember freedom? They'd apparently been kept in captivity and bred like animals.

Doma Chiara climbed up to take the reins. Saying a few quick words, she made a motion for Tessa to join her.

Tessa resisted. A quick exchange pa.s.sed between them. Neither woman appeared happy.

Tessa finally shrugged and threw up her hands. "I'm sorry," she said to Kenneth, joining their hostess. "While it's a custom for their petted ones to ride, the true inferiors are expected to walk."

Kenneth frowned. "What the f.u.c.k is that supposed to mean?"

Jake grinned and stepped up into the back of the chariot. He looped his hands around Tessa's waist, cradling her close, making a show of protecting his mistress. One hand slipped up, cupping her breast. "It means I ride with my lady and you walk with the dogs."

Kenneth's jaw dropped in disbelief. "What kind of twisted s.h.i.t is that?"

Wriggling uncomfortably in Jake's grasp, Tessa gave her ex-fiance a sharp elbow to the gut. "Get your hands off!"

"Hey!" Jake moved back, rubbing his aching solar plexus. "Have a care there. I'm a prime specimen."

Kenneth's hands balled into tight fists. Prime specimen, my a.s.s.

Catching his anger, Tessa gave him a surrept.i.tious look. She quickly shook her head, sending a silent signal. Cool down, it said.

He looked up at her and frowned. "I don't like this place."

"Bear with it," Tessa mouthed. "We haven't got a choice."

Doma Chiara snapped her whip. The men pulling the load took off at a steady trot.

Kenneth felt a tug on his collar. He reluctantly pushed his body into motion, jogging beside the chariot. d.a.m.n good thing he'd gotten himself back in shape. He had no choice but to keep up. His leash was looped around a peg designed specifically for the purpose.

Tessa had better figure out a way to make nice with the Mer and then get them the h.e.l.l out of here. The shackles were beginning to make him itchy and nervous. He didn't like losing control of his hands.

For now he'd have to play along. The last thing he wanted to do was endanger Tessa. The Mer seemed to be accepting her as some sort of conquering heroine. Acting up would only damage her credibility.

He was going to have to be a good boy and play by the rules. Even if those rules sucked.

Slipping on a mask of blank acceptance, Kenneth trotted on beside the chariot. Right now all he could do was hope that his final destination didn't involve a dog-house and table sc.r.a.ps.

Chapter 16.

The sanctuary of Queen Magaera was a multistoried building spanning five and a half acres of land, which housed not only the regent, but numerous chambers for private dwelling, a throne room, multiple pools for bathing, and a courtyard sculpted entirely in stone.

In addition, the fortress held inside its walls a central antechamber branching off into various corridors, leading to the administrative chambers of the queen's advisors. But that wasn't all. There were enormous storerooms stuffed with trade goods, as well as work-rooms for creating the intricate leather fashions and jewelry the Mers seemed to favor for personal adornment. Weapons, too, were created from the precious metals.

An intricate plumbing system tied everything together. Life at the palace hummed with a machine's precision. Everyone had their place, and kept to it.

As an honored guest, Tessa and her human companions had received a grand tour. Though Kenneth had the sense to keep quiet, Jake had jabbered on, comparing everything he saw in Ishaldi to similar instances in the human world. Fortunately their guides took his excitement with good grace, pampering him with extra attention.

It was enough to make a person sick.

"I can't believe the way those women are fawning all over you," Tessa commented once they were ensconced in a suite overflowing with every luxury the Mer had to offer. At last they had a moment alone to catch their breaths, compare their impressions.

Jake sniffed at the carafe of wine a servant had recently delivered. Finding the vintage to his liking, he filled an earthenware cup. "They know a good thing when they see it."

Kenneth looked up from the couch he had collapsed on; a simple wooden frame with rope webbing and mats lay on top. Having kicked off his shoes, he was giving one foot a liberal rub. "d.a.m.n. These boots definitely weren't made for that much walking. It felt like we went ten miles, maybe more."

Since Jake wasn't offering anyone else a drink, Tessa poured another cup of wine. Carrying it over to Kenneth, she sat down beside him. "I'm really sorry. I'm going to try to get us out of here as soon as I can."

Kenneth accepted her offering. "Thanks." He took a deep swallow. Lowering the cup, he grimaced and wiped his lips. "Man, that's some strong stuff."

Jake swirled the remnants in his own cup. "Wines in the ancient world weren't the best vintage. The heavy taste of spices is usually added to disguise spoilage."