In Over Her Head

by Judi Fennell

  The shells shattered in her fist. She was taking it back. With one of their own. Wouldn’t that be divine retribution?

  She scooped another handful from her garden, stuffing the last diamond into her net bag. It was all going swimmingly. She hadn’t foreseen this when she’d sent the boys out to that wreck, but now…

  Mato’s silver scales zipped through the sunny courtyard. He jerked to a halt before her, his head dipping in salute, his gills working harder than she’d seen since his ancestor had raced to tell her of Scylla’s death. “My Goddess, there is word of The Council.”

  Ceto tugged the ties of the bag closed. “What is it?”

  “Their forces have surrounded The Vault. Every ally has sent representatives. It appears they are moving the diamonds.”

  “Moving the diamonds? They can’t be!” She fisted her hand around the small bag. Moving the diamonds!

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  in. Her boys had assured her the operation was still undetected.

  She rolled the bag in her palm, her fingers playing over the stones there. Perhaps it wasn’t her attempt to burrow into The Vault that had frightened them into moving the diamonds. Maybe someone else was on to them.

  “Get the devil rays assembled. Two hammerheads and a patrol of tiger sharks. Tell them to meet me at the Travel Chamber.”

  Mato was off to carry out her orders. Ceto studied the bag. Damning evidence if she was caught with it…

  She surveyed the garden. No stray fish loitering about. Barracuda had a way of doing that whenever they were around. She swam over to the volcanic garden wall and tapped against one of the pits in the rock. Nothing emerged. Good.

  With one last surreptitious glance around, Ceto shoved the bag deep in the hole, grabbed one of the few remaining spiny sea urchins, and stuffed him in.

  “Tell one soul, and I’ll pull out all your spines and feed them to you. Do I make myself clear?”

  The spines shivered in answer. Good. That solved that problem.

  Now, to go solve a bigger one.

  Too bad she’d have to put her procreating activity with Reel on hold until she got back. But when she did…

  Reel came to in a cell. His arms ached and his hand felt like he’d been playing with fire coral. He sat up, gingerly rubbing the back of his neck where it’d been at an odd angle. How long had he been out?

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  He kicked over to a narrow window to gauge the angle of the sun. Hades. It was late. Ceto was going to be here soon, and he hadn’t had any time to come up with an escape. And Erica—what must she be thinking? Zeus. He’d promised her it’d be okay. He should be harpooned. But not yet. He still had to plan a way out of this dungeon. He swam to the door. The steel rods were set in a net-like pattern just big enough to get an arm through but not the rest of him. That option was out. While the sun stretched through the window, casting long shadows on the sandy bottom, he covered every inch of the cell. Ceto had thought of every way to thwart an escape. There was no coral or wreckage anywhere in the room to jimmy the lock. He tried chipping at the edge of the window slit, but the only result was sore, bloody fingers. The volcanic rock wouldn’t give. He swam back to the door. “Dufu—uh, hello?

  Guards?” He plastered his face against the bars hoping to catch a glimpse of someone. “Anyone there?”

  The current’s soft whisper was the only thing he heard. Son-of-a-Mer—he was stuck.

  Erica whittled the coral to the same size as the hinge pin then set to work, wrapping the net around her hand to protect it while she pushed on the pin. The rust acted like mortar. She wriggled the coral, pushing upwards, biceps and triceps straining. She should have gone to the gym more often. After a half hour of nudging, the first of six pins slid an eighth of an inch. Considering they were at least five inches long, this would take a while.

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  The speed with which the sun was setting didn’t offer her a while.

  She wriggled it harder, pulling on the exposed flat head of the pin. It slid a tiny bit. Beads of sweat dripped from her forehead as she pushed and pulled harder. Her fingers slid off the head just as she tried ramming the pin from beneath, and the coral splintered. Damn. Now she had to start all over again. Taking a deep gulp, she swam back over to the coral, replaced the net on her foot then kicked off half a dozen more pieces.

  It was going to be a long night.

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  Chapter 20

  “You… you… want… want… wanted… to…”

  The flounder shook so hard, Ceto had a hard time understanding his words. Hades. Wasn’t it always the way? She hated having to rely on the locals, but Fisher would get his fins in a twist if one of her contingent made an appearance anywhere near the precious Vault.

  “My dear, uh…” She snapped her fingers trying to remember the pancake’s name.

  “Flounder,” he squeaked.

  Original. “Yes. My dear Flounder. I can assure you that the wife and fry are fine and will continue to be as long as your reports keep coming. So, why is The Council moving The Vault?”

  His beady little eyes fluttered like a penguin trying to outrun a seal. And, truth was, she enjoyed toying with this lower life-form every bit as much as seals did.

  “I… d… don’t know… My… My Goddess. All I’ve been able… t… to ascertain is tha… that the… entire contents m… must… g… go… immediately.”

  “Where?”

  Flounder’s eyes bounced between her boys. The tiger sharks were sufficiently threatening for the job—which was why she’d brought them. A bit difficult to travel incognito, but that’s where the lionfish Chamber guards came in handy. For the right price—or hostage—anyone could use the esteemed Council’s Travel Chamber. InOverHerHead.indd 167

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  “I… don’t… know.”

  Ceto flipped over on her tail so she was eye to eye with the pathetic excuse for a Sea Dweller. “It’s your job to know. It’s your fry’s life for you to know. I’ve been here for two days, and this is the best you can do?”

  She somersaulted back to her original position. No use lowering herself any more than she had to. Bad enough she had to deal with the bottom-dwellers herself, but certain situations called for immediate action.

  “You.” She pointed to the tiger shark on the left, a new hire. Let him prove himself. “Take your pick of one of the fry. If Flounder doesn’t report back within the hour on at least the mode of transport, you’re to eat it. And another one every hour after that.”

  She pointed to Flounder. “Do I make myself crystal clear?”

  The quivery mass of spotted tissue nodded the portion of his body near his eyes.

  “Good. Now go get me some information I can use.”

  She dismissed the rest of the tigers when Flounder wriggled from the old cave she rarely used if she could help it. Hades, she hated this place. Bottom-dwellers, murky cold waters, and a pile of treasure totally out of her reach.

  But not for long. The spoon worms she’d brought in from New Zealand were hard at work tunneling into The Vault. They swore no one had detected them and, from the hive of activity in the waters, she believed them.

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  The one Reel had a tendre for. Reel, who was also trapped in her home.

  Ah, the irony.

  Fisher
was going to pop a fin when he found out. Reel was going to kill Ceto the next time he got his hands on her. If he got his hands on her. If he could move his hands when he got them on her. He’d been rattling the metal door to his cage for days, and the damn thing hadn’t budged.

  He grabbed the bars again and yanked.

  “Yo! Spare! Quit the racket, will ya? I’m tryin’ ta take a siesta!” Dufus One was on duty today. Yippee kay-ay…

  Reel rattled some more. Not that he expected Dufus One—or Ray, as he was really called, if you could believe it—to let him out. The electric ray still hadn’t gotten over the knife incident. Even though his buddy, Bob, was going to be fine, he was still pissed. Yeah, well, welcome to the club.

  “Ray, I need something to eat.”

  “Catch it yerself. Something oughta swim through any minute.”

  “Ray, you’d better see to it. Ceto’s not going to be happy if I’m left to starve.”

  Ray wriggled into view, the key to freedom on a chain around his dorsal. “Ya know? Yer really getting on my nerves.” The spotted fish poked a pectoral at him and the chain clinked. “As long as yer alive when the goddess gets back, she ain’t gonna say a word. Now quit with the noise already—agh!”

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  Reel lunged, thrusting his arm through the grillwork on his door and grabbed the little runt. Ha! All those times dodging jellyfish had paid off.

  And then Ray turned on the juice.

  Erica struggled to get the last pin free. Hiding her tools whenever someone brought a meal—or from the schools of fish that came like clockwork to stare at her like kids on a zoo field trip—had made it take two days longer than she would’ve liked, but, with a wrench of the door, the pin snapped in half.

  Her hands were scratched, strips of flesh missing in some places—even using the hammock hadn’t been enough to protect her skin. But finally she was set to leave once the last migration of fish swam by. Then off to find Reel and somehow get the diamonds from Ceto.

  Sunlight gave way to shadows before the final school of gobies slipped through the window.

  “Excuse me?” Erica held her hand in front of them, remembering not to skeeve when three of them bumped her palm with their noses. “Do you know where Reel is? Any of you?”

  After the blank fish looks, she tried it again in high-school Spanish and had more luck. See? She was adaptable. Capable. That remove-the-hinges trick was proof.

  “Sí, señorita. Está en la cueva debajo de la puerta al palacio.”

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  general area. Problem was, she wasn’t quite sure where she was in relation to the front door. From another jumble of Spanish she learned she was as far opposite Reel as she could be and still remain in the palace. The plus side, they said, was that she had one of the best views. Okaaaaay….

  The fish swam off with a buenas noches, and Erica poked her head out the door and around the corner of her prison. Whatever Reel had done to her system to make it possible for her to breathe had also amped up her night vision, so while she couldn’t see as well as in daylight, it was definitely more than shadows. That was going to come in handy as this little escape mission progressed. Especially since she had no weapons except for a piece of coral she hadn’t managed to break, no clue what was waiting for her, and, oh yeah, there was that whole sea monstress thing…

  Part of her wanted to slink back inside the room and hang out in the hammock until Reel came to find her. The other part recognized that she’d cut the hammock, wrecked the door, and if she did decide to stay here and wait, Ceto was not going to be pleased to have her home destroyed. She was screwed either way. Better to head down her own path to destiny than to let destiny decide it for her.

  She pushed the niggling little voice inside her head out of the way when it reminded her that those kinds of thoughts were exactly what’d gotten her in trouble in the first place. If she hadn’t wanted to prove something so badly, she never would’ve taken the charter and thrown Grampa’s ashes—and Joey’s diamonds—overboard. But then she’d still be the scaredy-cat landlubber her brothers always teased her for being.

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  She stuck her head out the door again. The gobies were nowhere to be seen, and a lone crab scuttled across the sea floor a couple dozen feet below her, dragging a remnant of some sea creature.

  The barracudas had brought her in from the left, so she’d head that way. New bravado aside, she needed her weapons and those were by the entrance near Reel. Rounding the corner of her prison cell, Erica remembered to check each direction before crossing the corridor—left, right, and up and down. No one. The crab had disappeared, too.

  Hanging a right at the next corridor, Erica stole a look out another narrow window to where Ceto had put the small bag in the garden wall.

  She should get the diamonds first then find Reel. A long, black-and-white-spotted eel slithered up the wall, pulled the sea urchin from the hole, swam in, turned around, and poked its polka-dotted head out in time to catch the urchin before it hit the bottom. Then it began to pick the spines off and spit them out like porcupine quills.

  Retrieve the diamonds. Yeah, that should be a piece of cake.

  “Why Ceto wants anything to do with Spare is beyond me, Rasgo.” The words echoed off the walls, and she recognized the voice underwater.

  Dropping ten feet, she slid in behind a trio of orange barrel sponges, pulling her dark hair around her face and shoulders as Carlos and Rasgo glided by.

  “You’d think she’d kill him just because she can, but no. The woman was all about planning a big seduction. Ugh. The thought of it makes my scales trawl.”

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  “But then she left. Maybe she’s changed her mind and will let us have him,” Rasgo said, grinning. “She’s already promised me the other Human’s limbs. I’ve never tasted a female one.”

  “Eh.” Carlos shrugged. “They’re scrawnier than their male counterparts. Taste like flounder.”

  Their tails steered them into the corridor opposite where she’d come from. Thank God they hadn’t been going to check on their “midnight snack.”

  So, Ceto planned to serve her for dinner, hmmm?

  And a seduction scene with Reel? Good luck with that. She’d need his cooperation and, unless he’d been lying about repelling Ceto’s advances in the past, Erica didn’t think it’d work out so well.

  But where had Ceto gone? And why had she left Reel?

  No way was the sea monstress going to allow them to leave, and she obviously hadn’t planned to, no matter what Reel thought.

  All the more reason to get out of here. She peeked out from behind the coral. The passageway was clear. Furtively, she made her way down the corridor away from where Reel was being held. She’d get the diamonds first then free him since he was near their way out. That only made sense. Besides, she needed those diamonds. The trip to the garden turned out to be surprisingly uneventful. Not that she was complaining, but with the adrenaline rush and heightened anxiety of being caught, it was almost a dénouement when she made it to the garden with no interference. Nor would there be any here, it seemed. The crabs and urchins had disappeared, and nothing was moving in the garden but sea anemone tentacles. Even those disappeared when she swam above them to the garden wall. InOverHerHead.indd 173

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  Now she just had to figure out a way to get the diamonds away from the eel.

  “You don’t look like a fish,�
� a squeaky little voice said by her elbow. A young midnight parrotfish hovered there.

  A young midnight parrotfish with a severe dental problem.

  “That’s because I’m not a fish. And why aren’t you with your school?”

  “It’s boring. If you’ve seen one kelp bed, you’ve seen ’em all, and, well, you look kinda interesting. So, if you’re not a Mer, what are you?”

  Great. Just what she needed. A kid with a “what?”

  complex. The best way around one of those was to get him focused on something else.

  “A Human in a hurry is what I am. Want to help?”

  “Well… I don’t know. My school leader always says not to talk to strange fish.”

  “Since I’m not a fish, I guess the rule doesn’t apply, right?” She waited for him to digest that. “I’m Erica, by the way.”

  “I’m Chipper. What do you want me to do?”

  She couldn’t, in good conscience, send a little kid into those holes. “Do you, um, do you speak moray?”

  She’d swear Chipper had eyebrows by the way he cocked that portion of his head at her. “Doesn’t everyone?”

  Smart-ass. “ ’Fraid not. I don’t.”

  “Oh. That bites. So, what do you want me to ask?”

  “Well, you see, here’s the thing. Somebody stole something of mine and put it in one of these holes. There’s a moray in there, and I don’t want to go invading his space without asking. But since I don’t speak moray, I can’t ask.”

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  “So you want me to see if it’s okay for you to put your hand in his home?”

  “Would you mind?”

  The little guy puffed himself up—as best a parrotfish could. Balloonfish could do it better, but, still, with genetics and all… his was a fairly impressive puff.

  “I can do that. I can do lots of things. Which one?”

  Chipper did a couple of high-octane figure eights. Great, an ADHD fish. Was there no end to anthropomorphic behavior?

  “That one.”

  Chipper made a few gulping movements with his mouth, plus a little wriggle, and suddenly a very large, very spotted triangular head torpedoed out of the hole.