Undertow

by Michael Buckley

  “Like a jury?” Bex asks.

  “Yes, but they will make their decisions in the open, in front of us all, and quite frequently, they become part of the trial themselves. Now, when they find her guilty—”

  “When?”

  “Lyric, I don’t want to give you false hope. There is very little chance that she will be found innocent. She did what they are accusing her of.”

  “She did it for me,” I cry.

  “Which does not concern the high accuser. She was an agent of the prime. There’s an old Alpha saying that the prime’s wishes come before the beating of a heart.”

  “And what will the punishment be?” I can barely get the question past the dread rising up my throat.

  “Like I said, I have talked to many who have the prime’s ear, and I’ve urged them to suggest banishment for her. He can, however, call for her execution.”

  Suddenly the air is filled with shouts and warnings. Alpha run along the shore. They point out at the horizon, where a huge silver ship sails toward Coney Island. The American flag flutters on its deck. It’s as big as a city, imposing and fear­some.

  “What is that?” Bex cries.

  “The U.S. Navy is here,” Terrance says.

  “Are they going to attack?” Bex worries.

  I look back at the wall of trash behind us. There’s no place to run if that ship fires on us. We’ll die on this filthy beach.

  “One crisis at a time,” Terrance says. “Come. Your mother’s trial is about to start.”

  The entire nation is gathered in the massive arena I saw on the day I first came to the camp. I remember Foster telling me they rebuild it every day after the tide destroys it in the night. Now I know the gloves Ghost, Luna, and Arcade wear make it happen. Their power is startling.

  Terrance pushes us through the crowd and barks something at a Selkie guard, and the hulk shoves people out of the way indiscriminately so that we can descend flights of steps made from hard, coarse sand. When we get to the bottom, we walk onto the arena floor, a wide-open circle as big as a basketball arena. Standing in the center is the priestess. She’s dressed in her gown of sealskins and carries a long staff carved from what looks like whalebone.

  “That’s the high minister,” Terrance explains, “and your best asset in this trial. She used to look after your mother when she was a child. She speaks for the Great Abyss.”

  “The what?” Bex asks.

  “It’s their god,” I try to explain. It’s embarrassing how many bizarre things I’m going to have to explain to her about my life.

  “The Great Abyss is both a god and a place, Lyric. Your mother never taught you about her religion? Oh, never mind. The high minister is the Great Abyss’s priestess and the deliverer of its words,” he says. “All verdicts must be sanctioned by her, the divine speaker.”

  “So she can keep my mother alive?”

  “Theoretically, but a high minister hasn’t challenged a prime’s sentence in four hundred years. Now, about your role in the trial—”

  “Huh?”

  “Lyric, please just listen. You can sway the verdict. Do you see the Alpha standing on the edges of the circle? That’s the Council of Ten, representatives of the ten speaking clans. Pay a lot of attention to them, especially the Selkie. He’s Surf’s father, Nor.”

  I scan the council and spot Nor right away. He’s the same Selkie I saw fighting Fathom on the beach. He’s wearing an eye patch today, and the jagged wound on his chest is open to the air.

  “He’s the one who tried to kill Fathom?”

  Terrance nods. “And believe it or not, he’s the most level-headed of the bunch. He has openly defied this prime, and many think of him as a successor to the throne if things change. Nor has many friends, and if you can win him over, others may vote along with him. It’s a long shot but it’s the best chance we have.”

  I look at the other members of the council. Next to Nor is Fathom’s stepmother, Minerva, wearing a sinister smile. Next is an elderly, bitter-faced Nix leaning on a cane, and a Ceto woman who looks bored. There’s a man with lavender skin and a fin on his back, and Nathan, the same pufferfish man I pissed off on my first day at the camp. A beautiful man with golden hair and raspberry-colored scales on his neck and hands is next—clearly a Sirena. The three remaining people are wildly different from the others. One has the upper body of a man but a lower body that divides into three snake tails. The second looks almost human, except for his milky-green complexion and the sharp, barbed teeth in his mouth. I know him from my mother’s descriptions. His kind call themselves the Feige. He’s ghastly, the stuff of nightmares. The third looks like a little man curled inside a massive hermit-crab shell. He’s something out of a low-budget horror film—Attack of the Crab People. For some reason he’s more terrifying to me than all the others.

  “Is that a Rusalka?” I ask, remembering my mother’s conversations.

  Terrance looks at me hard. “What do you know of Rusalka?”

  “I’ve heard you use the word, and my mom told me some things. I know they are slaves.”

  “Do not mention them in this place,” he says sternly.

  “Because they are untouchables?”

  “No, because they are mass murderers,” he says. “They are the great terror that destroyed the empire. I’ll tell you more when there aren’t so many ears.”

  The prime descends the steps to wild applause. He charges into the circle, and the Alpha, including Terrance, pound their chests three times, raise their fists into the air, and let out a bark. A moment later Fathom enters, and the crowd salutes again. His face is bloody and recently wounded. I wonder if he got that fighting off a challenge or if that’s a gift from his dear old dad for falling in love with a bottom feeder. It hurts to see him again. Why didn’t he come to me? I deserve a chance to explain why I lied to him.

  “Bow your heads,” Terrance whispers.

  Bex and I do as we are told, and the high minister speaks.

  “The warriors of the ten clans gather today to judge the life of one of our own. I apologize for speaking to you in the human language, but the accuser’s family does not know our glorious dialect, so today’s proceedings will be spoken for their ears, as is their right.”

  The crowd boos.

  The old woman is not intimidated by their anger. “At this time, as the high minister, it is my right and duty to demand praise and respect for the Great Abyss, the giver and taker of all life, the beginning and the end of the sea, and mouth that feeds the world. Show your gratitude for its many blessings.”

  Everyone thumps their chest again, raises their hands, and barks. The noise rises into the sky, terrorizing a small flock of seagulls.

  “I call on each of you to witness the defense of one accused of a most heinous offense to the First Men. Bring her forth,” she shouts.

  Terrance turns to me. “Don’t sit quietly and watch. Fight, shout, do your best to prove your mother’s points. This isn’t like an American court of law. Boldness is respected by these people, so storm right into that circle and get in their faces. The more of a spectacle you make, the better your mother’s chances.”

  “We need a little of the wild thing,” Bex says, taking my hand and squeezing.

  “I also have a message for you from Arcade. She says to be prepared.”

  “For what? Is she going to kill me?” I cry.

  “You’ll see.”

  A short, stocky Sirena with long brown hair enters the circle to rousing cheers. His neck and hands are alight with blue and gray scales. He wears a robe made of bleached white shells.

  “That’s the high accuser. He’s making the case against your mother,” Terrance explains. “I have to go.”

  “You can’t leave us here,” I cry.

  “I have to, Lyric. Do what I told you. I pray the tide turns in your favor.”

  He spins around and disappears into the throng.

  “Where are you going?” I shout, but he doesn’t come back.
/>   “Lyric! There she is!” Bex cries.

  I turn and see my mother being dragged into the circle by two Selkie guards. They toss her to the ground like she’s garbage and then spit on her. They’ve dressed her in her own suit of armor and she looks exhausted, but she gets to her feet and stands tall. Bex and I rush to her side, and she wraps herself around me, kissing us both.

  “Have you heard anything about your father?” she asks.

  “They arrested him,” I explain. “They’ve taken him to the camp.”

  “You’ll have to find him, Lyric. You can’t let them hurt him.”

  “We’ll find him, Mom,” I correct her.

  “Be brave,” she pleads with me. “Alpha children shed no tears. If you are weak, it will be used against me. They’ll say I am soft and human.”

  The high minister calls for the crowd’s attention. “It is my honor and duty to invite the high accuser to present his truths.”

  “Thank you, most blessed high minister,” the Sirena says. He turns to the crowd, flashing a smile to the prime and the council. Then he turns to us, and his smile turns to a sad little frown. “All look upon this Daughter of Sirena, who has taken the human name of Summer Walker but is known to us as—”

  What comes out is moaning and clicking, almost like dolphin song. It’s my mother’s real name.

  “She stands accused of treason. She turned her back on her own people and chose a life with the humans, in direct violation of the wishes of her prime.”

  “A life I was ordered to make, high accuser!” my mother shouts. I’m startled by her fierce words.

  “Indeed?” he says. “You were told to build a bond with humans that would be stronger than your responsibility to your mission? I was there when these tasks were given to you. I don’t recall anyone telling you that you were allowed to choose humans over your own people.”

  The crowd barks in agreement.

  “Perhaps the mission was a bit naive, high accuser!”

  The crowd roars and the prime barks something angry and, I’m guessing, offensive. His words spur the crowd on, and they rage at my mother until the high accuser calls for their silence.

  “Our prime is naive? How insolent you’ve become here in the air. But who can blame you? Twenty years walking on legs and living like a human has softened you. Perhaps the lure of a roof over your head was too enticing.”

  My eyes find Fathom. He stands at his father’s side. I can’t stand to look at him. He could stop this. He’s a prince! But no, he’s going to punish my dishonesty by letting my mother face this horror. Right now I wish I could challenge him myself.

  “We were not told that we’d be here for twenty years, high accuser,” my mother says. “We were not told that we would be abandoned.”

  “Abandoned?”

  “Yes, abandoned! Not a word from any of you for decades. Not a message to tell us what the next step of this glorious plan was, or even the purpose of our sacrifice. Now I have learned that we were spies, sent to prepare for an invasion that the prime has bungled.”

  All eyes turn to the prime. Even from here I can see his face is red.

  “So we did what we were told. We started families and made friends. Do you really think that the influences of this world would not seep into us? Do you think you could have withstood it?”

  “I am not on trial, Sirena.”

  “Yes, you are. All of you are!” my mother shouts.

  The crowd grows silent.

  “For twenty years we honored the prime’s wishes, and what good did it do? Look how you treat us now. We are like jellyfish underfoot. How many of you have cast your eyes at the ground rather than look at me—or Terrance? I hear you call his son half-breed trash. Is that the honor that we have earned for surrendering everything we loved? Is that Alpha appreciation?”

  The high accuser breaks into a titter, and the crowd joins him. “Appreciation? You are a subject. You do as you’re told. Unless, of course, you are somehow more special than the rest of us.”

  The crowd boos my mother, and the high accuser smiles.

  “She was going to join you!” I shout.

  The crowd goes quiet as I step into the circle.

  “She was on that beach the day you came. I was there. I made her leave.”

  “You made her leave?” the high accuser says with exaggerated disbelief. I hate how he turns words into jokes.

  “I dragged her away,” I say.

  “Is that how it happened, Summer Walker?”

  My mother shakes her head.

  “I can’t lie. I can’t defend myself against dishonor by acting dishonorably. I left the beach because I chose to stay with my husband and child. I have a loyalty to my people, high accuser, but I built a family during the time I was here, a family that I was instructed to create by the prime, and they needed me as well. My daughter is Alpha. To walk away from her—would that not be a betrayal to my people as well?”

  “You chose a half-breed—”

  My mother leaps forward, clearing the thirty or so feet between her and the high accuser. When she lands, she snatches the man by the neck and knocks him to the sand.

  “My daughter is no half-breed, Son of Sirena. Your words may charm this crowd, but your insults will not go unanswered. I challenge you right now,” my mother cries. “Watch me tear that clever tongue out of your mouth!”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The crowd roars its approval and stomps its feet.

  “The accused cannot challenge the representatives of the court. It is law,” the high accuser chokes, and scampers back.

  My mother allows him to stand.

  “When this fiasco of a trial is over, it is law that I can challenge you, and for your insult I will spill your blood into the Great Abyss!” my mother cries.

  The crowd roars. They want to see it. Even members of the council are cheering.

  “An interesting play, Summer Walker. Entice the crowd and the council with a fight and perhaps they will find you innocent just to see the battle. I think they’re all smarter than that,” the high accuser retorts.

  “End this trial now!” the prime grunts. “This has gone on long enough.”

  “I agree!” his wife hisses.

  “Long enough?” I shout. “So this is the justice my mother told me about? Let’s rush through it before anyone’s opinion can change? Well, before you judge her, you should know she walked away from the beach for me but she refused to leave her people. There were countless times that we could have run and never looked back, but she stayed because she hoped she could help you.”

  “She should have run!” Minerva shouts. I look to her face and see the blood lust in her eyes. What a horrible creature, a bottle of poison wrapped in sparkly paper. Unfortunately, the crowd agrees with her. They pound on their chests and shout at us in their severe language. Bex cringes, and I suddenly realize how terrifying this must be for her. Unfortunately, we can’t walk away.

  “Let us end this,” the prime cries.

  “I am not done!” I shout. The crowd is muzzled. Not a word is spoken and not a breath is taken. I won’t have their attention long, and judging by the look on the prime’s face I might not be alive much longer, but Terrance told me to be a pain. I used to be really good at it back when I was a wild thing.

  “I have a question,” I continue. “There were twenty Sirena sent here. One died, two didn’t show up to the beach. That leaves seventeen members of your nation who followed the rules. They did as they were told. They started families, and when the Alpha arrived, they abandoned those families to return to your nation. Where are they? Can anyone point them out? High accuser, do you see them in the crowd?”

  “They were captured by your government!” he snaps.

  “Well, there must be a plan to rescue them, correct? You wouldn’t let them be tortured and experimented on, would you? So, when are you going after them?”

  Everyone’s eyes are on the prime.

  “Unless you aren�
��t going to rescue them. That would be convenient for you,” I snap. “With them out of sight, you don’t have to feel bad about how the prime has failed.”

  And then I cross the sand and stare right into his face. “Or am I wrong, Your Majesty, and there is a plan to rescue them?”

  The prime burns holes into me with his eyes.

  “Please, let us know when we will see the others.”

  He’s not angry. He’s not amused. He simply doesn’t care.

  “That’s what I thought,” I say. “You’re going to let them suffer because they remind you of what a complete loser you are. And look at your poor son, Fathom. Look at the scars all over his body from fighting your battles. Where are your scars, old man?”

  The prime’s blades pop out of his arms, and he leaps at me. I fall back, onto the sand, knowing that soon I will feel the cuts and the blood and the pain.

  “NO!” the high minister shouts. “The accused has not been sentenced!”

  The crowd boos, but the prime crawls off of me. “I’ll get you soon enough,” he whispers, then returns to his seat.

  “End this now, high accuser,” the priestess cries.

  The high accuser nods. “Summer Walker, how do you excuse your treachery?”

  “I have no excuse. I love my people, but I would do the same thing again in the exact same way if I had the choice,” she says as she helps me stand.

  “You are unrepentant?”

  My mother smiles at me. “I am. When the choice is between my family and this prime, it is an easy one to make.”

  Fathom’s father snarls.

  “Then it is my duty to proclaim to the council, our prime, and all those assembled that this woman is a criminal and a traitor to the Alpha. It is my opinion that she deserves punishment, and I lay that duty upon the council now.”

  The high minister nods. “Then what says the council?”

  Nor stands and looks at my mother. “Daughter of Sirena, I knew your mother. I was there the day she and the rest of your family died. I know that she taught you right from wrong, and I know you admit your crime. Your sentence is as clear as the sky, but sometimes life presents a problem that neither right nor wrong can answer. In this, you and I are alike. You are guilty of making the wrong decision in the eyes of the prime, but I believe it was well intentioned. I proclaim you innocent.”