Stacia coos and places her hands gently on my biceps and then blinks up at me. “No, love, it’s not your fault. And she never said a word differently. Provided that everyone agrees she’s guilty, including herself, well then, she’s guilty.”
A screeching noise starts, and it takes me a minute to realize the sound is only in my head. I’m grinding my teeth together. I release the tension, and my jaw aches from the pressure. “You know the truth.”
“Truth is relative.”
“Falsehoods do no one any good.”
She laughs, this time, deeper, throatier, and haughty, like her expression. “It certainly did you some good. I didn’t see you running up to my father to tell him the truth. You may as well have pointed the finger at her yourself.”
Cut, slash, stab. Right to the core. My chest aches from her sharp words, and a lump forms in my throat. I swallow it down. “No one wants to be bottom feeder. And I’m starting to believe no one should ever be bottom feeder at all. The whole system is barbaric, and it only gives the court more power than they should have. If the Elder and his court truly cared about everyone in the Bermuda township, they would care about the hurt, sick, poor, and those they believe beneath them.”
She shakes her head with a huff and shrugs her shoulders. “You sound like a renegade.”
“I’m starting to understand the position.”
She glares at me, narrowing her green eyes. “No. You need to take responsibility for your actions. You accepted my accusation the minute I pointed the finger. You accepted it because you knew you were guilty and found yourself relieved when the finger wasn’t pointed at you.”
I wasn’t going to let her sidetrack me by piling on the guilt. Right now, she’d say anything just to keep me in check. When I’m feeling guilty and inadequate, she feels most at power. I take a deep breath. I will never win an argument with this maiden. She’ll never attempt to see reason from my position, and I have no intention of letting myself return to my position of servitude. So I shrug and start away.
“Where are you going?”
I continue without answer. I’m tired of answering her question, much less listening to her at all. Instead of turning about as I know she would like, I dart away faster, cutting through the current with water magic.
9
Late morning, and I know that I’m early, but I can’t help myself. I have nothing better to do then to spy on what the bottom feeder might be up to. I forage through my family’s food stores and stab a portion of tuna with my spear before I take off. She’s so useless as a hunter, it wouldn’t surprise me if she’d not had anything to eat today.
I swim to the north and west, and decide to start at the reef where I’d left Verona the night before. Would she still be there? She could be anywhere in the entire ocean, provided she didn’t get too close to a Mer township. The marks on her body would prevent her from getting any help from Mer-kind but also might cause her greater harm than good.
From a distance, I spy Verona as she starts away from the reef. My heartbeat quickens and a feeling close to happiness blossoms in my chest. I nearly call out to her, but hesitate, as she swims even more to the west, focused on something. I wonder if it’s food, but then I realize she’d forgotten to carry the spear with her.
Foolish.
Then I hear the low hum of an outboard motor. My gaze shoots up toward the bottom of the small boat. Small boats in the middle of the ocean usually only mean one thing. Divers.
My chest tightens, and my stomach churns. Why is she swimming closer to the boat? I frown and rush toward her. I pull up behind her and reach out for her, but then I pull my hand back. Instead, I clear my throat. “It’s amazing that you’ve even survived seventeen years, born as stupid as you are.”
She gasps and whips around, her hair concealing her face for a moment. Then her blue-green eyes meet mine. My heart flutters in my chest, and blood rushes to my face. To hide my reaction at seeing her, I shove the spear I’m holding between us, the portion of tuna stabbed on the end still. There’s a knocking at the wood above our heads, and I frown as my eyes are drawn to the boat not far off.
“Have you eaten anything at all?” I ask.
She shrugs and lifts her chin, trying not to look at my catch, but her ravenous eyes have already betrayed her. “I had a few crabs.”
Yuck. No one eats those bottom feeders if we can avoid it. They are better used as bait. I curl my lip. “Crabs?”
She nods, crossing her arms over her chest as she sinks lower in the current. “They were easy to catch.”
I sink lower in the current with her, happy to be drawing away from the danger at the surface. I peer down at her from above. “Of course, they were. Scavengers. Bottom feeders. Dirty and opportunistic. I suppose you might feel kinship with them.”
I wince at my words. I’d meant to say it jokingly, but that wasn’t the tone my voice had carried.
“I’m not dirty,” she says, pouting.
This childish side of her tugs at my lip, but I try not to smile. I yank the piece of the tuna from the spear and toss it toward her. “Whatever you say.”
She grasps the hunk of meat against her chest, her brow furrowing for a moment like she’s considering dropping it. I frown at her. Surely a bottom feeder cannot have so much stupid pride that she’d reject the first bit of real food she’d had all day? After several seconds, her forehead smooths, and she takes a dainty bite of the tuna. Then she peers up at me through her lashes. “Would you like some?”
“I’ve eaten already. That one is yours.” I stab my spear into the sand as we sink to the ocean floor. My gaze returns to the boat that has been idling above our heads for all this time. The outboard motor is off, but no divers have come under the surface, no fishing lines. Strange.
Verona continues to eat the fish while staring at the boat with me. Her appetite is good. The wounds on her back are swollen, red, and angry looking, but I can see the shallower edges have already started to heal.
Overhead, the outboard motor on the boat starts up, and it sits for another moment. I swim up toward it a short bit, keeping an eye out for any more strange behavior, but it just turns about and heads away. Relief relaxes my shoulders. When I turn back around to Verona, she has finished her tuna and is staring at me. I frown. “The coast is clear. Let’s get the salve.”
With a nod, she follows me as we dart for the reef nearby. I sink close to the bottom and reach under the reef in the hole where the shell is hidden. Verona has already approached me and turned her back toward me. Her trust and vulnerability shake me for a moment, and my hands begin to shake. My skin tingles at the thought of touching her again. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and work to calm myself.
“Will the clan be moving to northern waters with the waxing of summer?” she asks, breaking the moment of silence between us and waking me from my emotional state.
“Of course,” I huff, spooning the salve with my fingers and then rubbing it aggressively into her wounds once more. Her back tenses against my touch. “A few will stay behind here in the waters of the triangle…. I plan to stay.”
Her head turns toward me a little, but she stops, hesitant. “Really?”
I’m so stupid. Of course I plan to stay, but it can’t be for her. She can’t know that. In my frustration, I finish the salve and slap a hand on her shoulder to let her know I’m done and then make up a story.
“I’d heard from my father that some of the Mer have joined an expedition.” I use some of the story he told me to make up a lie. I pull away from her to return the clamshell to its hiding place. “I’ve been following a group of divers who appear to have dug a Spanish galleon. The humans seek treasure, but I seek knowledge. I’m hoping to find some literature among the ruins. Buried books tend to keep for a bit before the water destroys them.”
She nods, but her shoulders fall a bit. Is she disappointed? My heart flutters again.
I swallow and raise my voice to hide my chagrin, pulling my gaze fr
om hers. “The salve is doing good work, and your wounds are healing quickly. I believe I need to come tomorrow to check on it once more, but that should be all that’s necessary.”
My glance returns to her, and her brow furrows again. Her gaze has dropped to the sand. I clear my throat, trying to remain logical, undeterred. Her eyes meet mine again at the sound. I continue, “Stay west of this reef, understand?”
She nods.
“The clan will not come this far west, but it’s best if you keep your distance. I don’t believe you’ll have any trouble here.” I’d done a lot of researching to figure out the best way for her to wait out her exile. For what would she wait? I hadn’t quite figured out that part yet.
Her head tilts to one side, and her frown deepens. “Why do you care?”
I blink at her for a moment, the question startling me. I’d hardly stopped to ask myself that question. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I glare at her. “Who said I care?”
Her eyes are filled with surprise and even more vulnerability than before. I’m tempted to pull her into my arms and steal her lips. But instead, I grip my spear tighter and turn away. I just need to get away from her—clear my head. The emotions she’s spinning inside me make no sense. I can’t possibly have those kinds of feelings for her. I deny it completely. But then I think of the innocence and unguarded look in her eyes, and my heart flutters again. My jaw tightens, and I swim faster, cutting though the current, blindly. I cannot be feeling this way. One more day and the bottom feeder is on her own. I only need to last the day, and then I’ll be free of her and the mixed-up feelings in my chest.
I return once more to the cove. Gabriel is asleep, and Stacia is nowhere to be found again. I frown. Most of the time, the twins are completely inseparable, but over the past few days, I find Gabriel alone more often. And where is the Elder or Gabriel’s mother? I hadn’t seen either of them in the cove since the day of Gabriel’s injury. I settle in the sand next to Gabriel, but my gaze is trained on the man across from him again.
Verona’s father stares off into the distance, like he does every day. His lips continue to move, and though I can’t hear him from where I sit, I know what he’s saying. I blink away the stinging in my eyes. Would he ever see his daughter again, or were they star-crossed like the lovers in the town for which she’s named? Even when she sat beside him, he didn’t seem to know she was there. Did it really make a difference that she’s missing now?
“You’re here again, hmm?”
I glance up at the healer who is standing with a bottle of herbs in his hands. Today he wears a pair of human glasses. I quirk my eyebrow. “Do those things work for you?”
He blinks and then quickly removes them from his face, a blush rising to his cheeks. A sheepish smile tugs his lip before his gaze returns to mine. “Not as well as on land, I suppose, but they do help magnify the labels when I’m struggling to read the fine print.”
I nod; it makes sense. The patina in the healer’s hair has matured past what most older Mer I’d seen. Wrinkles deepen in the corners of his eyes. He is of an age where his vision would have deteriorated to some extent.
The healer swims over to the other side of Gabriel’s nesting and sets a hand on the sleeping Mer’s shoulder. The pressure of the hand wakes Gabriel, and he blinks, pulling himself to sit upright. Gabriel’s glance shoots toward me, and his brown furrows. “You here again?”
I shrug. “Nothing better to do.”
His eyebrow quirks, and a half-smile tugs his lip. “Really? That’s kind of sad you know? Seems my sister has better things to do. And my father…”
“What about your mother?” the healer asks, handing him the bottle of herbs.
Gabriel’s frown deepens as he takes the bottle from the healer and pulls the cork. He places it to his lips quickly as a droplet pulls from the bottle and clouds the water around the top, making it green. Once he tips the bottle back, he sits up and hands it back to the healer. “My mother is gone. I haven’t seen her in over a year.”
I blink. The healer blinks, too. We’d not heard anything about it, and the Elder hadn’t shared that information with the township in general.
"Surprising, isn’t it?" Gabriel asked.
"A little bit." The healer took the bottle from Gabriel's hand and replaced the cork. He seemed to be looking everywhere except to meet gazes with the Mer lying in the nesting.
Gabriel’s eyes met mine. "Everybody thinks the Elder is a great Mer. They expect him to have a perfect family. They expect him to have everything under control. But it's quite the opposite of the truth.”
"You really don't have to tell us all of this. It’s none of our business," I say.
"It's fine. Sometimes it's better to get things off my chest. I'm really tired of hiding." Gabriel sinks back to a prone position.
The healer's eyes are kind and soften toward his patient. "Everybody needs a support system. Including you, and the Elder."
Gabriel closes his eyes. "I don't think the Elder agrees. He seems perfectly happy without me."
Curiosity got the better of me. "Where did your mother go?"
Gabriel's eyes are still closed, but he shakes his head. "I don't know."
Mermaids rarely just disappear. Sometimes, they join a new clan, or perhaps she passed on. Maybe she’d done one of those things. I don’t mention them, but neither does the healer.
I stay until the setting sun darkens the waters. The tide is lower, and Gabriel is asleep. The healer divides his time between the Gabriel and the Elder patient evenly. Neither one of the patients had any visitors at all. Before leaving for home, I swim over to the bedside of the Elder patient.
"Verona…." he whispers his daughter's name. Did he even do that asleep?
I lean toward him and whisper in his ear, “She’s fine." And then I swim away.
10
With the early morning light of a new day, I head toward the schooling reef. Just before I arrive, I see Stacia talking to an older Mer. His form looks slightly familiar, and somehow seeing his presence evokes unease. When I draw closer, I realize why. "Brandeeb."
My brother turns around at the sound of my voice and gives me a wry smile. "Baby brother!" He swims over to me and slaps his hand on my shoulder. My skin stings from his touch. Stacia doesn't meet my eyes. Instead, she keeps her gaze fixed upon my brother.
"Well then, I guess I will leave you two to your learning." His gentle tone and Cheshire cat smile both leave my stomach queasy. I watch him as he swims away until all that is left is the blur of a silver tail.
When I turn back around, Stacia has already left. I frown. When I enter the reef, I feel the weight of Gabriel's absence. Instead of sitting near the back, where the twins and I always remained together, Stacia is sitting halfway through the school reef with the other girls. Normally, she didn't have much to do with them. My frown deepens. Toward the front, where Verona usually sits in the white sand, there is another empty spot. But somehow that absence isn’t a loss felt by myself or anyone else in the schooling. Instead, it only brings a feeling of anticipation to my heart. My eyes keep the measure of the sun’s trail across the bottom of the seafloor. Zenith cannot come fast enough.
Nothing the teacher has to say today can distract me from the other things I want to do. My tail fin taps nervously upon the sand, creating a small cloud that drifts toward the gaggle of girls. When it reaches them, two of the girls shoot a glare my direction. Stacia, however, does not even turn my way. Is she ignoring me? Inwardly I laugh. There isn’t much of me that cares.
When zenith finally comes, the Mer within the schooling reef scatter. I wait behind them so that none can see the direction I go. Once the coast is clear, I slowly head to the east. Occasionally, I peer behind me and double check to make sure no one follows. Once I draw myself far enough away from the schooling reef, I cut through the waters and dart in the direction of my charge.
There is a certain feeling of freedom to swimming along at a fast pace. The waters part for me
but not without leaving their pressure and their imprints upon my cheeks and face. The sun is directly overhead, and it leaves no shadows in the waters below. The light dances upon the sand and leaves me with a feeling of joy. It's amazing that the sun can do that all on its own, and lately I've been looking forward to the zenith.
A silver glint catches my eye, and I slow down. Sunbathing near the surface, a trout sits. I grip my spear tighter and cut through the current, stabbing it just behind the gills. It struggles for a long moment before it settles down, taking its last few shuttering breaths. Now at least Verona will have something other than crabs to eat today.
Not long before I approach the reef, I see her swimming toward me from the east with a wide grin, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight. Is she really this happy to see me? Maybe I could come for her tomorrow, too. I could make some kind of excuse…. I scowl to keep from smiling in return. “Why do you look so happy?”
She shrugs and gestures toward the spear in my hand. “I was able to catch a trout today of my own. I’m getting better at using a spear.”
My heart sinks a little in my chest. Not only did her smile have nothing to do with me, but she doesn’t need this trout, either. I lower my spear and the trout on the end. “Simpleton. It’s not a difficult thing to accomplish for any young Mer. And for you to get so excited by such a small thing… I guess life is easier when you’re not using much of your brain.”
The smile slips from her face at the sound of my scolding, and she looks down toward the sand. I bite my lower lip. She’d made me feel useless, and I took my anger out on her. I’m the one who’s stupid. But it makes no difference. I duck beneath the reef, lying my spear and the fish down in the sand, and retrieve the clamshell of salve.
I find her still sitting in the same position, her eyes toward the sand, lost in her own thoughts. I clear my throat and glare at her. “Turn around.”
Her eyes meet mine, and then she quickly spins and exposes her back to me. I don’t hesitate this time and scoop the medicine into my hand and then begin the vigorous rubbing. The wounds are no longer swollen and angry. The tips of the scratches have already started to scab over. I was right when I said today would be the last day she’d need me. I finish up and then turn to replace the salve at the bottom of the reef. She might hurt herself in some other way and have need of what’s left.
Sirens and Scales Page 26
