by Tiana Warner
Crap. I froze, considering whether to flee.
“Hello?” he said again.
Unless I was mistaken, this guy’s aura was kind enough. Plus, he was alone. Maybe he could help me.
“All right, I can’t tell if you’re there or if I’m hallucinating again,” he said. “I did eat some anemones that might have been a bit off. So if you’re a mermaid, I’m going to need you to say words.”
As his shape materialised, I wasn’t sure how I possibly mistook him for Lysi. He was a bony, lanky merman about my age, with the hairstyle of someone who’d stuck a fork in an electrical outlet. He wore a backpack that had a stone blade sticking out the top.
“Have you seen a blonde mermaid?” I said, throwing caution aside.
“Wow, you really are looking for Lysi,” he said.
“Yes, I lost—wait, what?”
“You know Lysi.”
“You know Lysi?” I squeaked.
We stared at each other. He turned to my scattering baitball.
“Nice job. I felt it from a league away and thought it must be the work of a pod. Did you do this by yourself?”
I kept staring at him. “Sorry, but who are—?”
He slapped his forehead. “Of course! You’re Meela!”
“How—?”
His gaze fell to my tail. “That hypocrite!”
I looked down at my tail as well, too confused to respond.
He extended a webbed hand. I took it and was met with an enthusiastic handshake. I wondered if merpeople shook hands or if he was doing the human-like thing for my benefit.
“Pleased to meet you. Name’s Spio.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Lysi
Northern Detachment
I opened my eyes to a blue-white haze. It brought to mind the blind eye I’d once seen on a dolphin.
Oh, no. Had I gone blind?
I turned my head and pain stabbed my spine. I groaned weakly.
Beside me, the haze gave way to clear water. So the blindness was just a glacier in front of my face. I would have been relieved, if not for the pain.
I tried to raise a hand to touch the glacier and found I couldn’t. My arms were pinned across my stomach.
How had I ended up like this? I tried to remember what I’d been doing. My brain felt murky, slow to react to what was surely an unusual—maybe dangerous—situation.
Something hard pressed into me on all sides. Pain throbbed in my shoulder blades. I couldn’t feel my tail at all.
I was pinned between two chunks of ice. They’d been thrust against each other, with me in the middle.
I had a fleeting surge of gratitude that these chunks weren’t big enough to crush me to death. Then the gratitude vanished, because I couldn’t tell if they were big enough to have paralyzed me.
But how …?
The breaking glacier came back to me. An icy feeling plunged into my gut. Where was Meela?
I opened my mouth to call to her. A sharp pain stabbed my lungs, and no sound came. I watched the bubble leave my mouth and float downwards.
I frowned. Downwards?
My heart jumped. I was pinned upside down.
I cast my senses and felt only ice. The sliver of open water beside me revealed nothing. I tried to wiggle and a jolt of pain shot down my spine. I moaned. Was it broken?
Doing my best to ignore the stabs of pain all over, I kept wiggling, trying to free myself. I was not going to drown here. I’d been through too much to die pinned helplessly between two pieces of ice.
A long time passed before I could make any progress. My chest and stomach felt less constricted, and I was able to move my arms enough to uncross them. My exertion must have created enough body heat to melt the ice.
But I still couldn’t feel my tail.
What would happen if I was paralyzed? How far could I get using my hands?
No, I told myself. Don’t think like that. You’re fine.
I pressed my hands against the ice, trying to push it away. Nothing moved.
You won’t be swimming at all if you don’t get to the surface soon, said a voice in my head.
I let out a whimper of frustration.
“Well, well,” said a merman beside me. “You’ve gotten yourself into a situation, haven’t you?”
My lips prickled as my teeth lengthened. I hissed defensively before I could stop myself.
“Easy,” said the merman. He was upside down—or rather, right side up.
His eyes raked over the ice, over my trapped body, and settled on my face. He was fit, youthful, all sharp angles and overworked muscles.
More mermen drifted shortly behind him. I couldn’t count how many.
“I’m Thetis,” he said. “We’re part of King Adaro’s northern detachment.”
Any panic I should have felt at being discovered by Adaro’s army was nowhere to be found. I needed to get out of here, and they could help me. The pain in my lungs told me I should have breached a long time ago.
“Want to help me out?” My voice was weak, as though the ice had squeezed the substance out of it.
“Of course.” Thetis turned and shouted, “When I give the word, push.”
A flurry of activity picked up as countless mermen positioned themselves around me.
“Ready?” shouted Thetis. “Go!”
The ice groaned and vibrated, sending pain down my body. I helped push, probably to minimal effect.
The pressure eased. A slow wave tickled my skin. The icebergs were moving apart.
I tumbled out without warning, flipping over. Pain shot through my tail as blood flowed back into it. It felt numb, swollen. But it had feeling, which meant I wasn’t paralyzed.
I let myself float suspended, too exhausted to move. Air would come in a moment. I needed the shooting pains to ease off my tail before I tried to do anything.
“Thank you,” I croaked.
“Of course,” said Thetis.
Everyone was staring, dead quiet. Taking in the size of the army, my immediate danger dawned on me. I had to get away from these guys before they recognised me.
“I should keep going,” I said.
I made to swim to the surface to catch a long-overdue breath. My tail barely functioned. I flushed at how laboured my swimming was.
A hand closed over my arm.
“Ouch!”
Despite my cry of pain at his firm grip, Thetis didn’t let go.
“Wait a moment,” he said, voice low.
My skin prickled. I didn’t like the sneer curling his lips.
“Let go of me.”
“No,” he said calmly. “I never said you could leave, Lysithea.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Ben
Military Tech
“What happened to your vacation?” said Officer Miller, watching Reeves bound through the tall grass at him.
Reeves leapt onto the trail and picked up a jog, keeping pace with Miller.
“The Caribbean is all booked up.”
“The entire Caribbean?”
“Sir, I have information about the serpent you’ll find interesting.”
Miller glanced sideways with an air of exasperation. His mustache twitched. Then he returned his attention to the trail and grunted, which Reeves took to mean he should continue.
“I did some research, sir, and the legend spans several cultures. There’s the Midgard Serpent in Norse mythology, and the leviathan from the Old Testament, of course. The indigenous peoples—” he tripped over a stone and caught himself “—of the Pacific Northwest have Sisiutl. Dharmic religions have Naga, and—”
“What’s your point, Reeves?”
“This serpent is all over human history, but given the merman’s pattern of attacks, I think we should look at one in particular.”
Miller was silent. Their footsteps drummed through the silent morning air as they continued along the dirt trail, approaching the coastline.
“The P
acific Northwest, sir. I think we should find out more about Sisiutl. Maybe they have information on how this merman king got it in the first place. If you look back at the satellite images, the earliest indication shows up near Eriana Kwai about three weeks ago—”
“Near who?”
“Eriana Kwai. That island in the Gulf.”
“Oh. Right.”
“I think we should go there. Ask them about the serpent. I think the merman was targeting them.”
The trail turned. They emerged from the meadow and continued on a low clifftop along the jagged coast. The scent of wildflowers faded on the wind, replaced by seaweed and brine.
“Reeves, I don’t think those people will be happy to see us. We haven’t exactly been helping—”
“There’s something else, sir.”
He heard the desperation in his own tone. Miller looked at him.
“The University of British Columbia has a primary document from Eriana Kwai. They must have bought it from the island ages ago. I’m not sure. But it mentions a serpent.”
“What is it, a book?”
“Parchment. It was transcribed. I think it was an oral legend.”
“So it’s a story.”
“Sir, you’ve seen the serpent with your own eyes. You know it’s not a story.”
The trail narrowed, and Reeves fell into step behind the large teardrop of sweat on the back of Miller’s shirt. They jogged in silence, following the winding clifftop. Far below, the sea glistened, peaceful and unassuming. Waves purred against the rocky beach.
“Does the legend tell anything about an attack plan?” said Miller.
“Plan? No, sir. It talks about—”
“All right, look.” He stopped and turned, forcing Reeves to an abrupt halt. “I appreciate the research you’ve done here, but save your breath. We’ve already decided we’re going to nuke it.”
“Nuke—what? No!”
“You’re choosing to believe a legend over science. You want something this big gone, use a nuke. That’s a fact.”
“We can’t blow up the ocean!”
Miller turned and resumed jogging. Reeves followed after a stunned silence.
The officer concentrated on navigating the narrow path for a moment before saying, “You seem opposed to retaliating against the mermaids—even before the whole thing with Perseus happened. Not a good quality in my number one man. Something going on with you?”
Reeves’ stomach flipped. It was lucky Miller’s back was to him, because he was sure his face betrayed him in that moment.
“No, sir. It’s just—I don’t know if nukes will work.”
“Of course they’ll work!”
“Sir, would you have believed a few weeks ago that this serpent could have existed?”
Miller said nothing.
“Me neither, sir, which is why I think we should be careful of what we assume about it.”
“We need to get rid of this thing—”
“The legend says it’s completely indestructible.”
Miller hesitated. “Well, the legend was written before we had modern technology.”
“I saw it chew up seventeen supercavitating torpedoes like a bowl of cereal!”
“Look, we’re tracking the serpent on the most high-res satellites we have access to. Every time it surfaces, we plot it. It won’t be long before we close in.”
“That’s great, but—”
“The problem is that we don’t yet know its pattern. We don’t know where it’s going to be, so we don’t know who to evacuate or where to send the helicopters. We’re at an estimated thirty thousand deaths, Reeves. That’s thirty thousand too many. So unless you know where it’s going to attack next—”
“The serpent’s power is passed by blood, sir.”
Reeves’ breath was shallow as he waited for the officer’s reaction. This was the Holy Grail, as far as he was concerned. He had shared the key to the most powerful force in the world.
If Miller would trust him, everything would be fixed. He would have his respect back from Miller, his peers. From himself. More importantly—something he would never admit aloud—he would finally be able to ease his conscience. No more innocent mermaids would be killed by his country. He might, finally, feel like he’d made up for what his team did—what he did—to the one who saved him.
If Miller decided not to act on this knowledge, Reeves wasn’t sure what else he could do.
Miller slowed his pace. After a moment during which he seemed to struggle for words, he said, “What the hell does that mean, passed by blood? We drink the serpent’s blood like vampires?”
“It means if we kill the merman, we become master of the serpent.”
Miller stopped so abruptly that Reeves ran into him.
The officer turned, heaving. “What?”
“We have to kill the merman.”
“And if we kill him—”
“We control the serpent.”
They stood panting, Miller more elevated on the narrow trail. Behind him, the tree line started, and Reeves could see mist reaching out from the dark woods in a way that reminded him of spirits.
“Jesus,” said Miller. “You sure?”
“It’s what the legend says.”
“What about the other legends? That Asgard snake or whatever.”
“None of them say anything about controlling it. Eriana legend is the only one that talks about transferring power.”
Officer Miller ran a hand over his bushy mustache, contemplating in silence. Reeves studied his face, wishing he would think aloud.
Come on, he thought. Don’t make a nuclear war out of this. We’re better than that.
“I mean, think of what this could …” Miller swore under his breath. “The tech we’ve got is one thing, but to have the power of the leviathan under the American flag?”
Reeves waited, hardly breathing.
Abruptly, Miller pushed past him and started jogging back the way they’d come.
“I’m calling the Secretary of State. See what we can do to locate the merman.”
Reeves stayed frozen. Was Miller agreeing to give it a shot? Would they actually try to target the merman instead?
He ran to catch up. “Where would you like me, sir?”
“Call UBC and get that document pulled. We don’t want knowledge of this getting out.”
Call UBC? What was he, an office assistant?
“I can, sir, but they’re under the Canadian government so we can’t really force them—”
“Ask anyway. Be polite about it. Say ‘please’ and ‘sorry’.”
“Don’t you think if we tell them to classify a document that’ll invite them to look at it more closely?”
Miller seemed to consider this for half a second. “Say you’re part of a preservation initiative for Eriana Kwai. Tell them you want to buy it from them. They can name a price. Anything.”
“I—yes, sir.”
He wasn’t trained for this kind of negotiating, but he would have to try—even if it did mean letting another nation in on the secret.
They ran back along the shore in silence. Reeves’ chest lightened with relief at having changed Miller’s mind. He looked out at the glistening sea, thinking of the gleam that had come on like a light in the man’s eyes.
Were others similarly entranced by the possibility of controlling the serpent? It was hard to believe they and the merman could be the only ones who knew about the legend.
The victory faded as quickly as it had come, shadowed by a sense of foreboding. How many would soon know about the leviathan—and how many would be racing to gain control of it?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - Meela
Eriana’s Gift
I pointed southwards, and then back to Spio, trying to make sense of this. Though I’d never met him, I felt a wave of relief on Lysi’s behalf that he was alive and unharmed.
“What are you doing way out here?”
“The Arctic isn’t part of any kingdom, so it’s a good place to hide,” he said.
I glanced around at the barren iceberg hell that had just tried to kill me. The baitball had scattered, plunging us back into isolation.
“I guess. If you can stand it.”
“Stand it!” said Spio. “Good one.”
I raised an eyebrow.
He pointed at his tail. “Stand it?”
When I still didn’t respond, he said, “It’s not that bad, being a nomad. It’s given me the chance to think about the universe and existence and life and everything.”
We nodded wisely.
Spio motioned to my crossbow. “Is that all you have with you?”
“I’m pretty good with it.”
He jabbed a thumb at his backpack. “I got a few weapons, kelp pus, and a couple of emergency buoys in here, if you need anything.”
Kelp pus and buoys? I wondered what use those would be, but didn’t feel like betraying how little I knew, so I just said, “Thanks.”
We fell silent for a moment, looking at each other.
Spio swam past me. “So, you think she went this way?”
I followed. I supposed this meant Spio and I would stick together, now, and I was grateful for the company.
“I don’t know. This is the direction we were headed when I lost her.”
“She can’t have gone too far. What happened?”
I explained how we were separated by the breaking glacier.
“Do you think Lysi would have continued to the Pacific?” I said. “Or do you think she would have gone back the other way to look for me?”
Spio considered. “She would do whatever she thinks you would do.”
I groaned. “I’m trying to do whatever she would do!”
“I believe that is what’s called Capelin’s Conundrum.”
I’d never heard of such a thing, but I took his word for it. We wove through the ice floes, Spio in the lead like he knew exactly where we were going.
“How long have you been up here?” I said.
“I can’t keep track because of the sun. Hey, have you seen any belugas?”
“Sorry.”
“Guess not,” said Spio thoughtfully. “Well, I managed to train an attack pod.”
