by Tiana Warner
A man with a neck as wide as his head stepped forwards. “We thought the serpent was commanded by the merman king.”
“The king is dead. The serpent is under my control, now.”
The crew tensed. There was a groan of fingers tightening over triggers.
“She will not harm you.”
“And if we kill you?” said the wide-necked man.
Eriana gave a low hiss. Careful, daughter. These soldiers do not know control is passed by blood.
“Then the serpent will avenge her master,” I said, lying easily.
There was a beat of silence. I felt Eriana’s pain, her second head still beneath the surface where the noise blasted.
I said again, more firmly, “Please stop that noise.”
“Are you surrendering?” said wide-neck man.
“No. I’m negotiating a cease-fire.”
Once, I would have considered this guy intimidating, but now that I’d spent time in the presence of mermen, he seemed laughably small.
“Why the sudden change?” he said.
“This war was King Adaro’s. I used to be human, and more than anyone, my people understand what pain this war has caused. With cooperation, we can stop this.”
The man raised his eyebrows. “What are your terms?”
“I only want peace—starting with ending that noise.”
I forced my anger down, not wanting to transition into demon mode. I wanted them to feel like they were talking to a human. My tail was masked behind Eriana’s mane of horns, and I had the impression they’d relaxed a little since I’d begun talking.
The crew stared, seeming to weigh the threat of the serpent against my request.
The back of my neck prickled at Eriana’s continued discomfort. Any living thing for leagues around was suffering, and we all knew it.
The wide-necked man turned and strode into the helm. He was gone a long time. Nobody spoke. Finally, Eriana let out a groan of relief. A moment later, the man returned with a phone.
“I’ve told the others to pause the sonic charges. Now start talking.”
Others? How many places was this happening? My mind jumped to Lysi. I gritted my teeth.
The man held out the phone as though expecting me to come aboard.
“Um,” I said, scanning the machine guns aimed in my direction and wondering if the bullets were iron. “Pass it to the serpent, please.”
Eriana raised her other head beside the ship. The nearest soldiers scrambled back as seawater cascaded onto the deck.
The man obliged after a moment’s hesitance, dropping the phone onto Eriana’s tongue. She brought it to me. I picked up the phone gingerly, trying not to get water on it. I had the urge to laugh. What was wrong with me?
A call was connected, the timer on the screen counting up. I raised the phone to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Officer Miller here,” said the other end brusquely. “I understand you are holding my ship hostage.”
“My name is Metlaa Gaela. I am a mermaid and a former human from Eriana Kwai. King Adaro is dead. I have possession of the serpent, and I intend to make peace between us.”
He was silent, then said in a constricted voice, “That is quite a remarkable achievement, Metlaa Gaela.”
“Um. Thank you.”
“Are you prepared to have all merpeople cease their attacks on human ships and beaches?”
“Yes. The king’s armies no longer serve him.”
“I see,” said Officer Miller. “Interesting.”
“We have a new queen. She would like to meet you and sign a peace treaty.”
It wasn’t an outright lie, but my stomach twisted all the same. The plan had better follow through on Lysi’s end.
“A treaty? Metlaa Gaela, are you aware the last peace treaty we signed with merpeople was broken? Are you aware we lost lives in the Aleutian Islands?”
“Those actions were King Adaro’s. You have my word that merpeople will stop invading beaches and sinking ships under our new queen.”
“What’s the word of a girl from Eriana Kwai?”
I flushed at his taunt. “What would you know of Eriana Kwai? You left us to die.”
“The struggles of one small island aren’t—”
“I am offering to end this war,” I said, not wanting to hear his pitiful excuses. “Given that I have the serpent under my control, I recommend you accept.”
Officer Miller sighed. “That’s exactly the problem. You’re on one of my most valuable ships with twenty American soldiers aboard, and you have the power to destroy it in seconds. You’ll understand why this conversation feels like a hostage situation.”
I closed my eyes, summoning calmness. “I do not intend to harm your crew, Officer Miller. If you agree to meet, you can discuss your terms with the new queen of the Pacific.”
He paused. I wished I could see his face, read his aura.
“I see,” he finally said. “And then what happens with the serpent?”
“I will destroy it.”
“Destroy?” His tone was harsh, clipped.
“Yes. Once we come to an agreement, the serpent will cease to exist.”
“But it’s the only one of its kind!”
I didn’t respond.
“Metlaa Gaela,” he said, a note of false warmth in his voice, “it would be a shame to lose something as incredible as the leviathan. What can we offer you in exchange for it?”
“I will not let her become a weapon.”
“We’re prepared to offer you anything. Any amount of money.”
“The serpent is not my bargain.”
“Consider—”
“No. I have seen what she is capable of.”
So have they—and that is why they want me, said Eriana.
“A peace treaty. That is my request,” I said.
“And if we don’t agree?” said Officer Miller.
I hesitated. “Then I suppose you will keep dropping iron bombs in the water, and issuing these sonic attacks, and doing everything you can to destroy all life in the Pacific Ocean. But you should know that I have spent my life training for war and fighting in battles more terrible than you know. And if you keep fighting, I will fight back.”
There was a long silence.
“All right,” said Officer Miller. “I need to contact the right people. Can you meet me in Anchorage?”
“No. I want you to come to Eriana Kwai.” I looked towards the setting sun, weighing how long it would take me to get there. “Tomorrow. Sundown.”
Another pause. “I can make that work.”
“You won’t drop anything into the ocean? You won’t issue any more assaults, noise or otherwise?”
“Not between now and then.”
I chewed my lip. If he was being honest, at least I’d be able to get to Eriana Kwai without helicopters or ships waiting.
“I’m passing you back to your crew,” I said. “See you tomorrow.”
Without waiting for an answer, I tossed the phone back to the crew on deck.
Eriana and I disappeared beneath the surface before they caught it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - Ben
Grouse and Cormorant
Reeves screeched into the airfield and leapt from his truck, leaving the keys in the ignition. Their fastest jet waited on the asphalt, a DH-70R Grouse. It was already running, the engine bellowing its war cry. He smelled the fuel, pungent and toxic on the fresh Alaskan air.
Officer Miller was striding towards it. Reeves sprinted to catch up.
“What do you want?” said Miller.
“Anderson told me my team’s dispatching—”
“Yes. Her team, not yours.”
“Yes, sir. But she said the mermaids want a peace treaty.”
“They do.”
“And you’re sending special ops?”
Miller stopped at the jet. He faced Reeves with crossed arms, as th
ough bouncing the Grouse’s entrance.
“A mermaid has control of the serpent now. She killed the merman king.”
Killed? The merman king was dead? Reeves hardly dared to believe it.
“Who’s this mermaid, sir?”
“Don’t know. Some girl. Used to be from Eriana Kwai.”
“A girl? What, like a kid?”
“She sounded like a teenager. Who cares? She’s a mermaid now.”
Reeves rubbed a hand over his eyes, making sense of this. A mermaid, a former human, killed the merman king, and now she wanted a peace treaty.
“Incredible,” he whispered.
And yet, special ops was going. Why?
“So you’re going to sign the treaty?”
Miller placed a hand on the railing. “We need that serpent. There’s only one way to get it.”
“Wait—you’re going to kill the mermaid?”
“She won’t give it to us. Says she’s going to destroy it.”
Anderson and her team arrived. Reeves kept his glare on Miller as they climbed into the Grouse.
“Isn’t that a good thing if this mermaid wants to destroy it, not use it?” said Reeves.
“You want to destroy the most powerful weapon in the world?” said Miller.
“Sir, think about what it would mean to have power over it. You’ll spend your life with a target on your head, because once word gets out that it’s passed by blood—”
“This isn’t your decision to make.”
“You’re going to kill a teenage girl!”
“She’s a mermaid, Reeves. There’s a difference.”
“There’s not!”
The words burst from Reeves’ mouth with such volume that Anderson leaned out the jet door to check on them.
For a long moment, he and Miller stared at each other.
Miller’s lip curled. “And you wonder why you were demoted.”
“Sir—”
“Go home.” Miller pointed eastwards, as though indicating all the way back to mainland USA. “I don’t want to see your face here again.”
Reeves trembled from anger. He clamped his jaw shut, afraid of what might come out if he opened it again.
He watched the officer climb into the jet. Anderson cast him a look of mingled apology and exasperation before the door slammed.
Reeves backed away as the ground crew jumped into action around him.
He couldn’t let this happen. Miller’s words about the mermaid being a former human settled uneasily over him. It drove home exactly what Reeves had been struggling to comprehend all along. The value of a mermaid’s life was no less than the value of a human’s. They were at war like nations around the world had been throughout history—and like all of those wars, there were innocent civilians to protect on both sides.
He had to get to Eriana Kwai before Miller did.
There wasn’t a proper airport, however. Miller and the team must have been going to Seattle first. Would they take one of the big choppers from there? Would they pick up the President, or Secretary of State, or anyone else arriving from the White House? Dammit, why was he so out of the loop?
The only way Reeves could get to Eriana Kwai first was if he went straight there in a helicopter.
He scanned the airfield desperately. How far was Eriana Kwai? 750 miles? He’d never be able to get there in something standard. He needed something long-range.
Then his eyes landed on her, waiting on the flightline in all her glory: the LM-80 Cormorant.
Reeves shifted his weight from foot to foot.
Miller hadn’t officially relieved him of command. He’d only yelled at him a bit.
He’d surely be sent home for real after this—but he could deal with those repercussions and overly supportive but secretly disappointed parents later.
Right now, he needed access to that helicopter.
He pulled out his phone. It rang twice.
“Bagh. I need a favour.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - Lysi
Queen Evagore
The queen who had been missing for so long was here in front of me. Dione and her council, Anthias, Spio, and I remained motionless, staring at her.
We’d spent so long searching, and still, I could not get over the disbelief at having found her. In the back of my mind I supposed I had never expected it to happen.
Or maybe I couldn’t yet process the idea of living under any power other than Adaro.
“Is he really dead?” Queen Evagore whispered.
I nodded.
A shudder swept over her frail body. She gazed across the dark cavern towards the crowd. Surrounded and overpowered by the Utopian army, the Nereid guards’ defiance had faded. They were silent, their fear heavy in the water.
The dreadlocked merman from Kori Maru came forwards with a bag in his hands. He opened it and produced a pale blue crown. It was smooth and opaque, with a single prong at the front.
Dione took it delicately into her hands as if holding a newborn baby.
“The Pacific is yours once more, Your Majesty,” she murmured, and passed Queen Evagore the crown.
I studied the queen, understanding what Dione had meant when she said Evagore would be in no condition to make negotiations. I’d worked her up to be bigger in my mind, longer, with the aura of a deity. I’d half expected her to burst out of here with all the power and glamour of Medusa, ready to rebuild the kingdom.
But she was a normal mermaid. Beneath her withered appearance she was small, even young. Evidence of torture was burned across her stomach and back. Would she want to be queen after all she’d been through? Would she be able to sway the masses—or, more pressingly, negotiate with humans?
All I could think was that we needed to get her to Eriana Kwai, and fast. How much time did I have? Through the hole in the ceiling, I couldn’t see where the sun was.
With trembling hands, Queen Evagore took the crown from Dione. She didn’t put it on. She held it, staring down at the pale blue point. The emotions that surged from her caused a lump to rise in my throat.
There was a scuffle in the crowd. A few guards tried to break away from where our army had them corralled.
I heard a few thumps of a weapon against a body, and the scuffle died.
“Please don’t,” said Guenevere. “You can take Evagore if she’s who you came for, but don’t hurt my guards.”
She hovered away from the rest of us. No one tried to restrain her.
“We won’t,” I said, and then louder so everyone could hear. “We don’t want to hurt you. That’s not what we’re here for.”
Queen Evagore’s eyes flickered to me. They were soft, kind, and heavy with exhaustion. She said nothing, so I continued.
“Adaro is dead, and his government has fallen. It’s time to restore the Pacific Kingdom to what it once was. Under Queen Evagore—”
“The king is not dead!” shouted a merman from the crowd.
“If you don’t believe me,” I said over top of him, “I ask that you consider the word of this soldier, who has proof in his hands!” I beckoned to Spio in what I hoped was an impressive, sweeping gesture.
Spio blinked at me from where he floated. His hair was singed and blackened from the ship fire, the barrel-sized mace dangling at his side. He scratched his nose.
“Spio,” I whispered, “the crown.”
“Right.”
An unbearable silence fell as Spio struggled to pull the crown out of his bag. It caught several times on the straps before he managed to yank it free.
He held it high over his head. The single beam of light poured from the ceiling and illuminated its opaque black points. The severed locks of hair fluttered around it. The crowd broke out in whispers.
“The serpent is under the control of Queen Evagore’s allies,” I said.
“Control?” said Dione, temper flaring. “Meela controls the serpent? How?”
“She’s using
it to approach the humans,” I said, evading the question. “We’re asking them to meet Queen Evagore at Eriana Kwai to make a peace treaty.”
I looked meaningfully at the queen, hoping she would agree to this without question.
She frowned. “When you refer to a serpent, are you talking about the Host of Eriana? He unearthed it?”
“Yes.”
Evagore dropped her gaze. I caught a quickening in her pulse.
“How do you know about the serpent?” said Spio.
Her aura flickered with shame. She traced a finger over the cracked skin on her arm. “The legend of the Host of Eriana was passed down my family.”
I glanced to the iron burns wrapped around her midsection. Was this the information Adaro had been trying to pry from her this whole time?
Guenevere narrowed her eyes. “Is it true that Medusa already overpowered his armies?”
I nodded. “She’s pushing back in every direction.”
Across the cavern, the army and guards fell into absolute silence.
“Why should we accept this southern mermaid as our new queen?” said Guenevere.
“Commander, remember his warning. We swore an oath,” shouted a mermaid from the crowd.
Guenevere ran a hand over the rubies in her braid and straightened, seemingly bolstered by the feel of them. “Adaro’s reign has ended. Utopia and the South Pacific are resisting. His army is surrendering under Medusa’s power, and the serpent is allied with those in front of us. We must consider the future of our kingdom.”
“We don’t intend to force a leader upon anyone,” I said. “We’ll hold an election. Everyone gets a vote.”
I felt horribly unqualified to be saying such things, but someone had to. Why not me? Why not someone who’d been working towards a new kingdom as tirelessly as I had?
Dione cast me a look of mingled surprise and anger.
But Queen Evagore said, “Everyone votes. You all have the right to decide what kind of kingdom you wish to live in.”
“And what will you have to offer?” said Guenevere.
Everyone turned to Queen Evagore. She looked too tired to hold herself upright, much less defend her position as queen.
