Ice Kingdom

by Tiana Warner

  “Wanna tell us where your girl is, Lysithea?” said Nestor, flashing yellow fangs.

  “I don’t know where she is.” It was the truth, however terrifying.

  “Come on. We’ll let you swim without the ropes.”

  “You think I’m going to believe that?”

  “All right, how’s this?” said Beluga. “Tell us where she is, or we don’t let you breach next time.”

  “I don’t know where she is! You think I was hanging out between those icebergs because I felt like it? We lost each other when the glacier broke.”

  They all glared at me. After a pause, they resumed arguing over how to divide my bounty and whether they would find Meela.

  When Thetis and Beluga began shouting at each other, I seized the opportunity and made an abrupt dive, twisting so the ropes tangled together.

  The shouting grew louder. “Don’t let her go!” said Gurr stupidly.

  In the ensuing chaos, I felt two of the ropes slacken.

  But the other ropes tightened. They stopped me easily.

  I hadn’t really expected it to work; I was too overpowered. The huge knot that had formed in the ropes was a small consolation, though. It took some effort for them to untie.

  “Would you cooperate for once in your life?” said Nestor, fighting with the ropes. “You anarchy warriors are half this kingdom’s problem.”

  “It’s not anarchy I want.”

  Nestor gave the others a maddening grin. “What they all say, isn’t it?”

  They laughed.

  “We’ve got enemies to fight,” said Thetis, “yet you warriors are doing everything you can to divide and weaken us.”

  “Enemies? We wouldn’t have enemies if it weren’t for Adaro!”

  Nestor gave me a condescending look. “I’m just saying, we’ve got enough problems at the luna bin without you anarchy warriors causing problems at home, too.”

  Luna bin? Anarchy warriors? Did these terms come from Adaro himself, or was this some new slang I hadn’t heard before?

  “It’s a selfish battle you’re fighting,” said Thetis. “He’s your king, and you need to accept that.”

  “He’s not my king. I’d rather die than serve him.”

  “Looks like you get to choose your fate, then.”

  When we next breached, I swiped a finger through the snow again to point Meela in the direction of our current. Once more, I managed to keep the action subtle enough that no one noticed.

  After travelling another quarter-tide that felt like a year, my captors began arguing about whether to detour to find food or keep taking this current. I silently hoped for the detour. My stomach was painfully empty.

  “We need to veer further east, anyway.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  “We do. The acoustic channel is east.”

  “That one goes to the luna bin, you cod.”

  “I thought that’s where the king was headed.”

  “No, he’s headed towards their queen. She’s in high security. West.”

  I looked up at the word queen, hoping someone would elaborate.

  No one did, so I said, “Is that where I’m going? High security?”

  “No, darling,” said Thetis. “You’re inked for execution.”

  Somehow, the threat incited no reaction in me. Maybe because I’d suspected as much for a while.

  “So what did those prisoners do to avoid being executed?” I said.

  “They have valuable information to give His Majesty. You, on the other hand, are no more than a glorified anarchy warrior.”

  Yes, a queen would have key information to give. It sickened me to think what Adaro might be doing to extract such information.

  “So what’s the luna bin? Do you get the word from moon?”

  They exchanged a look that told me I was right. They were talking about the Moonless City.

  “Queen Evagore’s alive, then,” I said. “Interesting.”

  Thetis tensed. “We didn’t say—”

  “Nice work, fishface,” said Nestor.

  “Not much she can do with that, anyway, guys,” said Beluga.

  Frustratingly, he was right. The rest of them appraised the ropes binding me to them and relaxed.

  Evagore was alive. She was somewhere in a high security prison, being pried for information.

  I considered what kind of information that might be. Insight into her kingdom? It must have been something vital. Adaro wouldn’t keep opposition alive unless he got something out of it.

  “I’m starving,” said Beluga, scanning the ice. “Can we veer closer to land?”

  I tried to imagine where they would keep high-security prisoners. It would have to be somewhere remote, off-limits to civilians and humans.

  Abandoning pretense, I said, “Where is the high security prison? Can’t be anywhere near Utopia.”

  “Like we’re telling you,” said Nestor. “Even if you are about to be executed.”

  I considered whether it would be worth sweet-talking the information out of him—but I couldn’t bring myself to charm these idiots.

  We made a sudden stop.

  An enormous fishing net blocked our path, suspended from the ice floes and fluttering in the current.

  “Dinner!” said Gurr.

  This confused me, because the net was empty. Then they all turned to me.

  I was the only mermaid—the one with the allure. I could catch them the easy meal.

  “No,” I said.

  Thetis cracked me on the head with the butt of his mace. “We’re hungry. Get us those fishermen and we’ll consider letting you have a bite.”

  I opened my mouth to argue. All of them glared at me, shifting their weapons. I huffed.

  “You’ll have to untie my hands.”

  They traded uneasy looks. Hunger must have won out, because Thetis finally loosened the rope from my hands. He added an extra loop around my neck to be sure.

  How was I going to get out of this? I’d never lured a human with the intent to kill. I didn’t want to start now. I wondered if I’d be able to let these people escape and make it seem accidental.

  I swam between Nestor and Thetis, refusing to make eye contact with any of them.

  The fishermen were inexperienced. I could feel them stomping around loud enough to scare off every fish within a league. Also the ice was barely a hand thick and dangerously cracked. One wrong step and they would fall through. And what were they doing so close to a merman army with everything going on? Something was off.

  Surfacing carefully to make sure no one was poised up there with a weapon, I prepared to turn on the charm—and stopped.

  It wasn’t fishermen. It was Meela, peeking out from behind a mound of snow.

  I nearly shouted in relief.

  She waved me over. I hesitated, still processing what was happening. Had she set up the net? Or had she found it here and climbed up? What the heck was her plan?

  Meela gestured again, more urgently. I pointed to the ropes around my neck and tried to indicate that they were tied around my waist, too. She nodded in acknowledgement, but kept beckoning me over.

  I supposed that even if she helped me sever the ropes, the guys would notice the slackening and come investigate before I could be cut free.

  She must have had a plan. Or was this another reckless moment of hers?

  I met her wide, green eyes.

  She wouldn’t endanger me. I had to trust her.

  I hoisted myself onto the ice, doing my best to use the same careful pace I would use in luring a human. As far as the guys below were concerned, I was still hunting their dinner.

  “Catch,” whispered Meela, her voice a breath on the wind.

  She threw something to me. It was a bag, jammed full of something soft.

  What the—?

  The stench hit me and I wrinkled my nose. The bag was full of blood and guts. It had begun to freeze, turning thi
ck and slushy. Where did she get this from? What was I supposed to do with it?

  Meela mimed shooting a crossbow at me.

  Comprehension dawning, I curled my lips in a smirk. Her answering smile was the most wonderful thing I’d seen in days.

  Giving her a grim salute, I upended the bag and let out my most blood-curdling scream. The bag’s contents spread across the ice, most of it freezing instantly but some trickling into the cracks.

  I imagined the guys below panicking, thinking I’d been shot. If they felt threatened by iron, they wouldn’t surface right away—if at all. It gave me a precious fragment of time.

  Meela slid a blade across the ice. I picked it up and began sawing the ropes.

  “Hurry,” she whispered.

  After a tense moment that felt like ages, the ropes gave way. I’d just begun hacking at the one around my waist when a shout rang from the gap in the ice behind me.

  “She’s alive! Quick, grab on.”

  I whipped around. Beluga’s fat head had popped out of the water. He extended a hand to me. For a moment I almost felt sorry for tricking them. Then I remembered he was trying to save me so he could collect his bounty.

  The bag of guts caught his attention; he stared at it in bewilderment. I tried to angle myself to block his view of Meela, but it was too late. He had seen her.

  Thetis popped up next to him. His jaw fell open in a mirror of his comrade.

  “Pull her in!” he shouted, ducking back into the water.

  The ropes jerked. I slid rapidly towards the gap, smearing blood in a bright trail across the ice.

  I screamed, clawing uselessly at the bald surface. But the ropes cinched like a noose, and I had nothing to hold onto.

  There was a sharp exhale, and one of the ropes snapped loose.

  Meela was suddenly in front of me. Her fingers closed around my wrists, pulling me in one direction while the remaining ropes pulled in the other.

  Another rope slackened. What was going on? Did she have her crossbow?

  No, both hands were pulling me. So how—?

  I looked over my shoulder and gasped. There sat my best friend, two unconscious mermen at his tail and a rock the size of a small child in his hands.

  “That’s what I call two birds with one stone,” he said. “Or maybe it’s two cods with one boulder in this c—”

  The ropes yanked hard. I slid from Meela’s grip, and she screamed. I caught a glimpse of Spio’s surprised face before plunging into the water.

  A pair of arms dragged me under as soon as I hit the surface. I thrashed. The ropes tightened so painfully, I wondered if I wouldn’t be split in two.

  Two splashes came overhead.

  “Let’s rock!” shouted Spio.

  He heaved the stone, bludgeoning someone in the back of the head.

  I caught a glimpse of Meela’s crossbow swinging by my ear.

  Thetis seized my wrist. I aimed a punch at him, but the ends of the ropes tangled around my arms and blocked the swing.

  In a blink, Thetis’ arm locked around my throat and he pressed something sharp to my temple.

  “Stop!” he said, deafening in my ear.

  Meela and Spio turned their attention to Nestor, weapons raised.

  “It would seem you’ve hit rock bottom,” said Spio.

  Nestor seemed to realise his comrades had been rendered unconscious, because he turned and fled.

  “I said, stop!” shouted Thetis.

  Meela either didn’t hear or did not care. She caught up to Nestor in three strokes and descended on him like an eagle with talons outstretched. Nestor roared as she wrapped an arm around his throat, locking him between her bicep and forearm. With her other hand, she raised my black longblade to his chin.

  She lifted her gaze and perhaps caught sight of the blade pressed to my head, because her jaw fell slack.

  She regained her composure quickly. “Let Lysi go or your friend is dead, mister.”

  “Mister?” said Nestor. He tried to turn his head, but Meela pushed the blade harder into his skin.

  “She was in the Battle for Eriana Kwai,” said Spio. “She’s spent too much time around humans.”

  A muscle in Meela’s jaw twitched.

  “Ha,” said Thetis at my ear. “You’re the Eriana girl, aren’t you?”

  “And?” she said.

  “Thetis, just let her go,” said Nestor in a strangled voice.

  Thetis tightened his hold on me. “We’ve got orders.”

  “I don’t care. I’m not dying today.”

  Thetis pressed his blade harder against my temple, the point sharp and stinging. I didn’t know it had broken through the thin flesh until I saw the ribbon of blood waving like seaweed in the water.

  We were at an impasse, Meela’s arm around Nestor’s throat and Thetis’ arm around mine.

  Spio looked back and forth between us, calculating.

  “Nestor, we can turn them both over,” said Thetis.

  “Hey,” said Spio. “What about me?”

  We all looked at him.

  “I tried just as hard to get the king to snuff it, you know,” said Spio. “I deserve to have a price on my head, too.”

  Seizing the opportunity, I reached up and grabbed Thetis’ hair. With a roar, I pulled him over my shoulder and twisted out of his grip. Before he could retaliate, I punched him in the face. A cloud of blood burst from his nose.

  Three more quick punches and he went limp.

  I disentangled myself from the ropes. Finally. My skin burned where the ropes had been rubbing all day. When I looked up, Meela and Spio were staring.

  Nestor made a choking sound. Meela eased off the blade, which she’d been driving into his chin.

  “All right!” he blurted. “Go. I won’t say a thing.”

  I must have been a terrifying sight. The pressure in my eyes and the ache from my fangs cutting into my lips reached a peak. I was stained hair to tail in blood, most of it not mine.

  It dawned on me where the bag of guts had come from. Of course. I should have known Spio was behind that ridiculous plan.

  “I have a family,” said Nestor. “Please. I’ll stay quiet.”

  I tried to decide if he was a liar, a coward, or if he was possibly on our side.

  Meela and Spio looked to me.

  “We need information,” I said, voice flat. “What do you know about Adaro?”

  Nestor swallowed. His chin was bleeding. “He’s been attacking human settlements along the coast.”

  “We know. Do better.”

  “Wh-what do you want to know?”

  “Where would someone go if they wanted to find him?”

  “He’s c-coming this way. He’s hitting the Atlantic next.”

  “Right now?” said Meela. “So he’s taken everywhere else?”

  “Y-yes. He’s coming.”

  If Nestor was telling the truth, this was our chance.

  How long did we have until king tide? It must have been a few days away, at most—and then we had about a day to work with until he transitioned back to merman.

  We had to time it right.

  I didn’t like this. We still needed to recruit help. We couldn’t take down Adaro on our own, even if we did know where to find him.

  “He just hit that big city in Canada,” said Nestor, the panic in his voice rising at our silence. “You know it?”

  “Shut up,” said Meela, keeping the blade to the merman’s chin. “You say he’s passing through here?”

  “He told the northern detachments to meet him at Steller Point.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “The Aleutians. Sort of. A little northeast. It’s on some current—I can’t remember its name—”

  “All right, stop,” said Meela. “Let me think.”

  A red gleam appeared in her eye. I knew what she was thinking. But it was too risky to tail him until he transitioned. He could easily set
the serpent on us before we got anywhere near.

  “Mee—”

  “Where were you taking Lysi?” she said to Nestor.

  He spluttered.

  Meela pressed the blade upwards, drawing more blood. “There’s a price on her head, is there not? On both of us?”

  “You’re wanted for treason!”

  “So you’re supposed to take us to Adaro?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you just kill Lysi, if she’s a traitor to the crown?”

  “The king wants to question her on the rebel group.”

  I didn’t like the look in Meela’s eye, or the feel of her racing pulse. What was she thinking about so hard? Was she worried they were closing in on Nilus? Or was she planning something?

  Before I could voice my concerns, she said, “Take me to him.”

  “No!” I said.

  “Uh,” said Spio.

  “The timing is right. He wants information, so he won’t kill me. If I can get close enough to him at the right moment, I can finish this.”

  “But Mee—”

  She addressed Nestor. “I have the information he wants. Take me to Adaro and I’ll let you live.”

  “Done,” said Nestor.

  I grabbed Meela’s arm. “Mee, think. Even if he doesn’t kill you right away, you’re still in danger.”

  “Not if I time it right. I’ll make sure I get to him as the tide is pulling.”

  Spio looked between us, evidently unsure what the best option was.

  “Lysi, this is how I can get close enough to kill him,” said Meela. “It’s worth it.”

  I tried to understand her desperation. This was her chance to end the life that had caused her so much suffering. I thought of her people, and Nilus, and the stress of the Massacre. It was a tempting plan. But that didn’t mean it was smart, or safe.

  “Take us both, then,” I said to Nestor.

  “Am I chopped sardines over here?” said Spio. “Make it three.”

  Nestor made a gagging sound. Meela relaxed her hold, not looking at all sorry that she kept managing to choke him.

  “When you’ve finished deciding how noble you all are,” said Nestor, “I’d like to breach.”

  Meela glared at me, and then at Spio. “Fine. All of us.”