Excerpt from
"Fish out of Water" from Once Upon a Dyke

© Karin Kallmaker,2004

No portion of this work may be reproduced by any means
without express written consent of the publisher.

Prologue

“Please.”

Her voice plays on my body like the tide. I rise and fall to the cadence of her words while past and present eddy in my mind, muddied by shifting sands of need and desire. She asks me if I want her. The gooseflesh along my arms says yes. The wet I can feel surging between my legs says yes. I try to say yes with the intensity of my eyes, the eagerness of my hands, the curve of my lips.

“Please say yes.”

She doesn’t understand that I can’t give her the one thing she needs to release us both from the cage our passion has created.

I cannot say yes. Or no. I cannot speak.

From Part 1

“Fly, baby, fly!” Ariel gave the cork one last shove with her thumb and whooped at the resounding pop that heralded the gush of bubbling Champagne.

“Happy New Year!” Shouts bounced off curving grotto walls that pulsated an answer in splashes of crimson and gold.

“Only thing humans know how to make that’s worth stealing,” Caliba enthused as she held her diamond glass under the pouring stream.

Ariel, Seventy-Seventh Daughter to Queen Vellia, drew herself up to her full height, which brought the top of her head level with Caliba’s shoulder. “Liberate, please. Mer do not steal, you know that.”

“As you wish.” Caliba sipped from the glass, then sighed happily. “I’ve always liked the human custom of New Year’s Eve. Excellent reason for a party.”

A caterwaul of ill humor turned the crimson lights to burnt red. Ariel clutched the precious Champagne bottle and turned in time to see Laveena’s long sapphire-tipped nails leave four perfect scratches down the side of Zee’s cheek. Blood welled in their wake.

“Oh, to the abyss with this,” Ariel thought. She strolled across the room while shaking the bottle, and looked down in distaste at Laveena and Zee writhing as they fought in a tangle of legs and slapping hands. Clumps of costume and hair began to litter the floor.

Thumb over the top of the bottle, she upended the bubbling froth on both of them.

Laveena screeched with outrage. Ariel glanced worriedly at the chandelier, but Caliba appeared next to Ariel. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t shatter.”

Zee rolled out of Laveena’s reach. “I did not start that!” She angrily shook her wet clothes. Ariel was genuinely sorry that the delicate garment of rose petals was ruined, but more damage had been wrought by Laveena’s nails than the Champagne.

“You bitch!” Laveena didn’t bother to quash her mer voice. The chandelier rattled dangerously.

“My, my.” Caliba examined her manicure. “You obviously missed vocabulary classes—”

Ariel quieted Caliba with a gesture. “It’s New Year’s Eve. No fighting. The party hasn’t even really started yet.”

“She stole Kareel again, took her home from a flesh party I had escorted her to!” Laveena gave Zee a poisonous look.

“Yeah,” Zee snapped back. “And we had a fabulous time.”

Laveena scrambled to her feet. “I’m going to tear your face off!”

“Quiet!” Ariel let her lights sparkle faintly. “I’ll let you go party with fourth circle brats.”

“Don’t threaten me, Ariel.” Laveena’s eyes glowed orange. “I don’t care whose daughter you are.”

Kareel, easily setting the evening’s standard for slinky, moved out of the gathered crowd. Her gown, shimmering with prized Angelfish scales, cupped her breasts and hips like a lover’s greedy hands. “I’ve had it with you, Laveena.” Her stiletto heels—a toe-pinching human affectation that suited her long legs—kissed the floor lightly as she advanced on her sometime lover. “Ariel, I know exactly whose daughter you are, and I ask you to take witness.”

Ariel would for a long time regret that she didn’t hide her smile. “I’m listening.”

Kareel looked over the sodden Laveena, shaking her head. “We are done. Your voice has no song for me.”

“You don’t mean that!”

“We are done,” Kareel repeated. She turned to Ariel. “I mean it this time, Ariel.”

“Do you really? That’s what you said last year, and the year before.”

“And last century, and the one before that,” Caliba chimed in.

Kareel slowly pushed her elegant bronze hair over her equally elegant bronze shoulder. “Yes. She has watched too many of those human movies. Witness it.”

Laveena gasped in horror as Ariel raised her hand. “You can’t do this, Ariel!”

“You’re sure?” Ariel looked directly into Kareel’s eyes. “Absolutely sure? I’m not going to be able to undo this one. I don’t want to undo it either. This scene got boring two hundred years ago.”

“Do it.” Kareel closed her eyes.

Laveena leaped to intervene, but Caliba stepped in her way. It was always useful to have the tall, muscular Caliba at her back, Ariel thought. She summoned her power and cast the spell in a matter of moments. It wasn’t hard for a daughter of a queen, and resolving lovers’ spats was one of the few perquisites of rank a seventy-seventh daughter got to enjoy. It was a good spell, and would hold for a while. If Laveena wanted it undone she’d have to find someone stronger than Ariel. Not that there weren’t plenty of mer who were stronger. The difficulty lay in getting any of them to care enough to help out the unpopular Laveena.

“This changes nothing.” Laveena eyed Caliba with a near snarl. “Kareel sings for me before anyone else. Get out of my way.”

“Next thing you’ll be saying Kareel should be exclusive to you.” Caliba shrugged. “That would be so human.”

“Shut up, Caliba!”

Caliba struck a pose. “Kareel…you…complete me!” She spun in place, spreading her arms dramatically to appreciative laughter. “I honestly…” she made a loud choking noise. “I honestly…love you.”

“I do not like that human drivel!” Laveena looked about to jump Caliba, but that would have been a mistake.

Kareel gasped and opened her eyes. “Is she speaking?”

Laveena and Caliba were continuing to trade insults. Caliba was winning. Ariel had often wished for Caliba’s quick and easy wit. Ariel nodded at Kareel. “She’s jabbering away.”

Kareel’s smile was savage. “I don’t hear a thing. How wonderful. Ariel, I thank you.” She bowed deeply, with her head tipped back. Ariel made sure she carefully studied the ripe pleasure of Kareel’s ruby-studded breasts. To have ignored them would have been rude, especially since several times in their past she and Kareel had dallied. It hadn’t been particularly well-mannered of Kareel to leave with Zee when she’d arrived with Laveena – especially to a flesh party – but Laveena had overreacted, as usual.

Laveena slipped past Caliba and seized Kareel’s arm. “I know you can hear me. You need me! You can’t walk away.”

Kareel pulled her arm free, shaking her head. When Laveena made another grab, Ariel said silkily, “Do not make me do worse, Laveena. She chose and so did you.”

“You had no right to do this!” Laveena’s snarl was so enraged that Ariel nearly stepped backward. “Who do you think you are, working magic on me? Just wait until my aunt hears about this!”

Caliba, casually cleaning her nails with the long garnet-tipped pin that she’d slipped from her collar, said, “Yes, we know. Aunt Travesta will be here any minute to avenge you. We’ve heard it all before.”

Laveena gave Caliba a poisonous look, but addressed Ariel, her face twisted with malice. “You have no idea what you’ve done, Ariel.”

Ariel knew that Laveena was highly connected, but she was hardly concerned. Laveena had managed to alienate her more powerful relatives over the last several hundred years. Travesta of the First Circle, favorite of Queen Vellia, had yet to waste her influence on such a pain-in-the-kelp niece. A daughter of the queen– even a seventy-seventh one –had precedence.

“I’m giving you a chance to change,” Ariel said. “Caliba is right, you’re behaving worse than a human.”

“Beautiful Ariel, smart Ariel, so kind, so good, so unbelievably perfect!” Laveena added, her voice dripping with spite, “Not so perfect. Maybe I would like Kareel in my bed, but at least she’s mer. You only run hot with humans!’

There was a collective gasp and Ariel fought down her rising color. “I haven’t bedded above sea in decades, and you know that.” She paused to laugh in her most sultry manner. “And most of those here will witness I am hardly shy at flesh parties. But since I decreed no fighting, I will forget you said that.”

“I won’t,” Caliba muttered.

“You think you have friends? Just wait,” was Laveena’s parting shot. She stalked from the chamber in the direction Kareel had headed.

“She can’t leave, I want a duel.” Zee had not bothered to staunch the flow of blood from her cheek. “For her disgusting touch to my face and her insult to you.”

“Stop,” Ariel said. The party was better off without Laveena. “This is foolish.”

“Are you suggesting I’m not worth it?”

Zee was too hotheaded for her own good, Ariel thought. She wished briefly for the power to fix everybody. Squabbling was boring. So far, this entire party was boring. Maybe she and Caliba could sneak off to a flesh party later. Sex would be more fun than this. It was a party night, after all, and maybe someone would have a grand entertainment to watch. “It’s a holiday. No fighting tonight. I don’t want to spend tomorrow explaining to some toady of my mother’s why my parties turn into brawls. This matter is closed and there will be no duels. Is that understood?”

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Once Upon a Dyke: New Exploits of Fairy Tale Lesbians is a collaboration between Karin Kallmaker, Barbara Johnson, Therese Szymanski and Julia Watts, comprised of lesbian erotica novellas based on classic fairy tales. Part of the New Exploits series. Available from: