The Savage Blue

by Zoraida Cordova

  “I mean like beasts. I mean creatures that roam in the shadows of our world while we try to make it so—livable. After the Amazon, he brought me here to run things. Downstairs is filled with the most exquisite beings on this plane and others.”

  The taper candles are long and bright; their flickering flames seem to have a sway of their own. Outside is the faint sound of sirens and commotion. Then there’s the echo of laughter coming from somewhere downstairs. “So you’re a beast tamer?”

  “I’m a beast master.”

  “And you know what that thing that attacked me was?”

  “It was a sea dragon.” He smacks his knee and practically shakes with excitement. “I’ve never seen one before, and boy, it was beautiful. You know, a lot of people think the Loch Ness monster is a dinosaur? But it’s not. It’s related to the family of sea dragons. Did you know that sea dragons are the only branch of the dragon family that can’t breathe fire?”

  “I had no clue,” I say, trying to hold back a laugh.

  “Not many people do. Nasty venom in the saliva. They’re supposed to be extinct. The few that are left are controlled by beings more powerful than you or me. I can tell you one thing. Whoever sent that creature after you is not your friend. It took all of my concentration to get him to let you go.”

  Even as he says that, I know who it might be. Someone who wants to rattle me. Someone who’s trying to get under my skin. “I think I have a clue.”

  “Would you like to see more of these creatures?”

  Kai twitches in her sleep. I know I have to go home and keep pushing. But part of me is curious and I want to see for myself what he’s talking about. “I really have to get going.”

  “Tell you what.” He cocks his head to the side. His hair never moves. It’s a perfect swish to the side. “We have a special show, not open to the public. I’ll give you these to take.” He holds his closed fist over the table. There are thin scars all over his hand. I wonder if they are from his father or one of the beasts he claims to be in charge of. He presses two gold coins into my hand. They’re stamped with the Roman numeral II.

  “Tokens,” he says, “for the show. You don’t want to miss it.” “Thank you.” I pocket them quickly. “And thank you for the save.”

  “Don’t get too sentimental. As cute as you are, I did it for the dragon. A thing like that, goddess knows what would have happened to it if it had been captured.” He dips in a proper bow, then retreats behind the curtain.

  Because Kai is still passed out, I do the one thing I’ve been trying to stop myself from doing, and that’s get my parents involved. But I can’t exactly carry a girl with a bloody gash on her arm in the subway, and just holding her makes the pain in my shoulder flare.

  So I called my dad, who must’ve broken all the speed limits, because it only took him five minutes to get here. I can smell the crackling nervousness around him, like burning cables.

  “Saw it on the news.”

  “Was there footage?”

  He shakes his head. “Some blurry camera work on cell phones.

  It’s gray and foggy. No real eyewitnesses except some kids.” That’s the thing, right? No one believes children. “Mom?” He doesn’t have to answer that one. “It’s amazing the things people will say. The official story they ran on the news was a failed Air Force experiment from the base out on Long Island.” “Yeah, because all jets have scales and teeth.”

  “You’d be surprised, son. Sometimes the mind can’t process things, so it creates its own reality.”

  I stare at the dashboard.

  “Your mother said you were fine.” I can feel him look over at me, then at the traffic. “But I know better. I felt the same way when your aunt was born.”

  Now I turn to him.

  “The baby is not going to replace you,” he says.

  “Dad—”

  “Hear me out.” He turns the volume down on the radio. “When your grandfather came for your birth, he said he’d bind your powers or whatever they do. I never truly trusted it. And when you started swimming, loving it the way you do, I was afraid to let you do it. Maybe if one day you went out, you might never come back.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “I didn’t.” We run our hands through our hair at the same time. “I was right. In the end. It’s like you’re going off to college. Maybe, just maybe, if I think of it that way, it might be better.”

  “Is it better?”

  “No. But you’re meant for big things. I always said so.” He reaches out and grips my shoulder. “Even without your mermaid tail.”

  “Merman.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  I raise the volume on the radio. The song carries through the thick summer air. The strain in my shoulders loosens just a bit and I lean back into the passenger’s seat.

  “What was it, anyway?” Dad asks.

  I consider lying, but I’ve never lied to my dad. “Sea dragon.” Then typical Dad, he busts out laughing. “What’s so funny?”

  “And here I was wondering what to get you for Christmas.”

  •••

  I’m ready for my mom to go into hysterics when we come through the door. I’m ready for the news report, but thankfully, the camera crew arrived way too late to get any footage of the beast. There are only fuzzy videos and low-resolution photographs. What I’m not ready for is Kurt and Gwen sitting at Command Central looking pale and green.

  Gwen rushes to me and punches me on the shoulder I banged up during the dragon attack, throwing all of her weight into it.

  “Gwen!” Kurt shouts.

  My face must be blue from holding my breath. “Why are you hitting me?”

  “You left us!” She sees Dad carrying sleeping Kai into the living room and takes a second to process the information. “Then we couldn’t find you and saw the wreckage.”

  I cradle the aching side of my body until I nearly double over. “I was making a love connection after Violet said she wanted to have Kurt’s babies. With his eyes and her hair they’ll be the biggest purple—oh my god, this hurts—”

  Kurt tries to grab me but I recoil from him. My reflexes are slow and his thumb is digging into my shoulder. “It’s dislocated.”

  “No. It’s not.” I walk backward around the kitchen table and he follows me. “It’s just a bruise.”

  “Let me see you roll it, then.”

  I bite on my lip, and my eyes water when I try.

  “Come here.”

  “No.”

  “Trust me.”

  “No, no. It’ll just heal on its own. I mean it—” And then he grabs hold of me, and I swear the pop can be heard all over my building.

  “Better?”

  I squeak out a “Thank you” and lie spread out on the cool tile of the floor. Dad walks over me to get something out of the fridge for my mom. On his way back, he holds out his hand and pulls me up. “What’s with Sleeping Beauty?”

  I grab the stool beside Kurt.

  “Kai tried to stop me from stabbing the dragon. She was all Oh don’t kill it—it’s going extinct.”

  “Hippies,” Dad jokes.

  “She’s right.” Mom takes the bag of popcorn Dad is still holding. “I had one once. It wasn’t meant to be mine. Pretty little thing. She had this funny tail, like a rainbow fish—”

  “Uh—and lots of venomous spit? If I want an evil pet, I’ll get a cat.”

  Mom shoots me her “You be quiet” glare and points to the living room. “Get me an aloe leaf, will you?”

  “Fine.” The leaf crunches when I rip it off and leaves a sticky trail.

  Mom cuts it down the center. She likes to drink the liquid, which is disgustingly bitter. Growing up, I had so many cuts, rashes, and scrapes that an aloe plant in the house came in handy. I still make an ick sound when she scoops up the jelly and eats it. The second scoop she takes to Kai and rubs on her wound. Dad throws away the bloody paper towels.

  “Remind me again, why we
re you out with this girl today? I just thought—”

  “Dad.” I don’t want my love life to be a topic of discussion, ever. But especially not right now. “The princesses are like a resource. My cousin Brendan has a boatload, literally. We picked out the ones who might lead us closer to the next oracle.”

  My parents exchange skeptical looks.

  “It’s true,” Kurt says.

  “It doesn’t matter, because all three of my dates have Bombed. Capital B. One tried to chew my arm off. The next one was using me to get to Kurt. Yeah, I’m talking to you. And Kai got pissed off because I was trying to slay the dragon that was going to eat her. What does it take?” I take the bag of frozen peas my mom hands me and let the cold numb my shoulder. “I used to be good at this.”

  “Wow,” Dad says. “You really are a bad date.”

  “Thanks. That’s comforting.”

  “How did you manage to escape its grasp?” Kurt asks.

  “This guy from the freak show. He’s got this cool staff thing and he’s a beast master.” I tell them all about Charlie Comit and his welcome save.

  “I don’t like this,” Mom says. For the first time, I smell her fear. It’s real fear, like sand coating my tongue.

  “I’m fine, Mom. Look.” I raise my hands in the air but hold my breath at the angry stiffness in my muscles. She’s all pregnant with her shiny new baby, and I have to show her that I can be fine, that I can take care of myself. I go to her because I’ve been the worst son ever and hug her. I whisper, “I’m sorry,” and she rubs my back. She has that face Kurt’s so good at—focused and all business.

  “Focus on your next target,” Mom says.

  Gwen points at the living room. “Kai is the answer. Her father has the most archives. There has to be something about the location or existence of Eternity in his records.”

  “She’s really passed out, Gwen,” I say. “In the meantime, we should figure out a way to disaster-proof this apartment. That sea dragon knew just where to find me.”

  “This apartment is still under the king’s protection.” Kurt stands and closes the blinds. “For four more days, anyway. And then the championship will be over.”

  “So was Greg’s house,” I say, “and look at what happened.”

  Kurt paces around the kitchen counter. “What if Kai—”

  “What if Kai what?” Kai says, walking from the living room into the kitchen/Command Central.

  “Kai, these are my parents. And you probably know Kurt and Gwen.”

  Still with a dazed look, she takes the stool my dad gives up for her. Then she takes in the room, the framed family pictures, the rooster magnet collection on the fridge. She smiles at the maps on the wall. Then she gets to my mom and freezes.

  “Lady Maia!” She gets up so fast that she fumbles with the blanket around her shoulders. “I forgot myself.”

  Princess Kai takes my mother’s hand and bows. Even though she reminds Kai that she’s not royalty anymore, Mom isn’t exactly shooing her away. Maybe it’s hard to forget everything about being the daughter of the king.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re safe here.”

  I fill Kai in on what happened after she passed out. Assuring her a hundred times that “Yes, the dragon is fine.” Even though I don’t know that for sure. “Remember what we were talking about before the dragon came? About the trident?”

  “Yes,” she says, embarrassed. “Forgive me for not being more grateful for saving my life.”

  “No sweat.” I give Kai my full attention. It makes her uncomfortable, as if no one ever looks at her. “Do you think you could look at something for me?”

  She rests her hand on the bandage around her arm, thumbing the unfamiliarity of it. “What is it?”

  I grab the parchment drawings from the kitchen and rest them on her lap. “This is—”

  “The Star of the Sea.”

  “Come again?” I say.

  “It’s the symbol, right here. This star? It’s the symbol of an ancient oracle. She was called the Star of the Sea because she was so beautiful. Her magics made mortals believe she was a goddess. Though there was no way she could be. Her power made her lose her mind, stuck between her sight, the future, past, and present.”

  “Crazy oracles,” I say. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

  I catch Kurt’s scowl when I say this.

  “But Tristan.” Kai goes to get a better look at the maps on the wall. “How did you come by these parchments? They’re not supposed to leave the Hall of Records.”

  I tell her about Gregorious. The manic look in his eyes. The way he changed after drinking the water. The way I did, for a little bit. I roll my shoulder and remind myself that I’m clearly no longer impervious.

  “He’s dead?” She sits back down, clutching her heart. “He was friends with my father. I remember the last time he came to visit us. They argued and my father sent me away to collect items from a shipwreck for study.”

  I can practically feel her mind racing. She gets up and traces a hand over my crappy drawings of the oracles. “You didn’t say you found another oracle. The nautilus maid?”

  “Nothing to say. She didn’t have a piece of the trident.” I say it so quickly that I can hear the guilt in my voice. But I agreed to kill her, or die myself.

  “I don’t understand,” Kai says. “What makes you think I can help?”

  I read the prophecy aloud.

  “When known is the last son of kings,

  Only the sea will remain.

  The sky will shatter

  And the king will rip the earth once more.

  Beneath, the heart of the sea awakens.

  When Death sets fire to Eternity,

  The daughter of the sea weeps darkness

  In darkness we will remain.”

  I study her face as I say it. She’s more wonder-struck than frightened. Then a tiny smile plays on her lips, and I know she’s thinking what I’m thinking. “Can I ask what your theory is?”

  Theory? I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t have theories. I have accidental enlightenments.

  “Greg was in possession of powerfully healing water.” I pace back and forth in front of my parents, Gwen, Kai, and Kurt. “I drink it and for a little while, I heal like I’m in one of those fast-forward sessions on the Discovery Channel. This makes Shelly suggest I’ve already been to Eternity.

  “Now I know it has to be a place because her sister Chrysilla, the nautilus maid, said that’s where she belongs. But oh no, my mom and Sir Doubts-alot over here think I’m wrong because it doesn’t fit in their old mer-textbooks.” Then I add, “Sorry, Mom.”

  At once, they start talking over each other.

  Mom’s all, “It’s not that I doubt you—”

  Kurt’s all, “I decided to go forth with your plan, did I not? It was my idea to search for Violet—”

  Kai’s all, “Really, you went to Violet first?”

  Gwen’s all, “Just because Tristan figured something out, finally, I believe Kurtomathetis to be jealous.”

  I lean back. “Me too.”

  Dad, the only sane person among us, holds his hand up. “I have to say, as the only original human biped here, I’m completely shocked at how incredibly close-minded you all sound.”

  They start to argue again, but I take out my scepter. It glows in my hand, and a thin whistle settles over the room, like it’s the sound of the light inside the scepter. It’s enough to make them quiet and listen to my dad.

  “You’re merpeople,” he says. “By all laws of nature, you don’t exist in this reality. Yet here you are, fighting for your futures.”

  “My dad’s right. Kai, is there a physical place called Eternity?”

  The shift in Kai’s posture is drastic. When she’s around the princesses, she’s like a crab digging herself back into the sand. Now, she’s beautiful and confident.

  “Yes,” she says. I cross my arms attentively, but it’s to fight the urge to wag my finger in front of Kurt�
��s face. “In fact, all the protective charms that come from the king have been bathed in water from the Springs of Aurora, or Eternity.”

  “My grandfather gave Layla a necklace. She was poisoned by merrows and it saved her.”

  “But the necklace was the symbol of the king’s family,” Kurt says. “Spirula spirula. That’s what grants protection.”

  “Haven’t you been listening?” Kai counters. “It’s a symbol, Kurtomathetis. Which, as there is no king, no longer matters.”

  Kurt gets huffy. “We’ve always been told it is the protection of the king.”

  Kai leans forward, a deep red blush creeping over her face. “What you haven’t been told is what it was blessed with.”

  “Why would it be kept from us?” he shouts.

  “Tristan, where is your dagger?” Kai turns around to me like a whip.

  “I don’t think violence—”

  “Get it, please!” And the pleading look in her eyes reminds me that she’s trying to prove a point. So I unsheathe Triton’s dagger. She takes a marker and draws the Spirula coil on a piece of paper. She gives it to Kurt to hold.

  “There. Tristan, stab him.”

  “What?” Kurt takes a step back.

  “Go ahead,” Gwen says. “Take a stab at Kurtomathetis.”

  Kurt’s mouth is hanging open, maybe partly because he’s wondering if I actually would. “Very well, Lady Kai. You’ve proved your point.”

  Kai smiles victoriously. “This is a symbol. The king is power. And his symbol has power, but it needs something else. Water from the Springs of Aurora.”

  Kurt raises his hands. “Don’t stab me, but if this place is real, wouldn’t we all be drinking from it, Lady Kai?”

  “Don’t forget,” Gwen says. “We were immortal once.” “So the Springs of Aurora and Eternity are the same place?” I ask.

  Kai’s smile is wicked but brilliant, as if she knows all the secrets we aren’t privy to. “One and the same. It was said that the water from the springs was the source of our immortality. It was the original home of the Sea People. Its waters have the most regenerative properties on Earth.”