Ice Massacre

by Tiana Warner

  “The Atlantic Queen never wanted control of the seas the way Adaro does,” I said. “That’s why humans and mermaids coexisted when you all lived in the Atlantic. Do other mermaids even want to attack humans?”

  “Not many.”

  “But they have to.”

  She nodded once. Of course it made sense. Why would Lysi be here if she didn’t have to be? She wasn’t interested in killing.

  “So Adaro is forming an army,” I said. “When you say we shouldn’t be fighting each other, you mean we should be trying to stop—What’s wrong?”

  She combed her trembling fingers through her hair. “Nothing. It’s just that he wouldn’t . . . I mean, he . . .”

  I stared at her. “What would happen if you resisted him?”

  Her face paled, and almost inaudibly, she said, “You’re right. We should be fighting Adaro, not each other. And I would be dead if someone heard me say that.”

  Everything made sense. Adaro was a tyrant. He forced mermaids to attack humans, to fight his battles, so he could have control of the seas.

  “He won’t let us leave,” whispered Lysi. “Anyone who tries to return to the Atlantic is killed.”

  My stomach churned. This war—the one between humans and mermaids—would get us nowhere.

  “He’ll keep going until humans are out of the seas forever,” she said.

  “And humans won’t rest until we gain the seas back.”

  “So the war will keep going until . . .”

  I gazed across the black water, a chill penetrating my bones. “Until one species annihilates the other.”

  Adaro would never stop attacking my people until we surrendered to his demands—but the Massacres would keep happening, because my people needed the sea. And what about the other nations? We weren’t the only ones dependent on the ocean.

  The Massacre wasn’t the right answer. It was a bloody, dirty strip of cotton over a gaping laceration.

  Until humans submitted to Adaro and retreated to the land, Adaro would keep sending mermaids to fight. Mermaids just like Lysi, innocent ones who had no desire to kill, who just wanted to live in peace as they’d done when they lived in the Atlantic.

  As far as I was concerned, we had one option: we had to overthrow Adaro.

  “We need to stop the problem at its root,” I said, breathless.

  “We can do it, the two of us.”

  “This would end the Massacres.”

  We stared at each other. I could tell Lysi’s mind was spinning as fast as mine. This was the answer.

  “First you need to survive your own Massacre, Mee. Don’t let his army catch you.” She took my hand, squeezing it hard. “Sail home as fast as you can.”

  Zarra, Blacktail, Fern, and I waited in the cabin in a thick silence. What if Annith hadn’t been able to convince the rest of them? What if she’d been persecuted for even suggesting a mutiny? I wondered if I should’ve insisted on going with her. I’d hardly thought about it before I let her go alone to suggest to Dani’s battle-trained followers that they betray her.

  The minutes ticked by, and finally the door creaked open at the top of the stairs. I snapped my head up to see Annith supporting Sage as she limped down the steps. A thick, bloodstained bandage covered Sage’s thigh. Behind them came Holly, Blondie, and Nora.

  Only one person was missing.

  “Texas is with Dani,” said Annith. “We haven’t talked to her yet.”

  I looked at each of the girls in turn. “And the rest of you?”

  “We’re in,” said Holly.

  “For Shaena,” said Blondie.

  Zarra, Blacktail, Fern, and I let out a collective sigh of relief.

  “I nominate one of you to convince Texas,” said Fern.

  Zarra grimaced, twisting the scar on her face. “We’ll work on her later.”

  She, Fern, and Blacktail stood to go stand guard, taking the place of the girls who’d just come down.

  “So what’s the plan?” said Holly, dropping onto the bunk beside me. “How are we going to get her into the brig?”

  “That’s what we need to figure out,” I said. I glanced at Annith, who was wringing her hands.

  “I just have one concern,” said Nora, her face stony.

  “All right,” said Annith with a tone of forced liveliness.

  “What’s going to happen in the battles once Dani is locked in the brig? She’s our best fighter.”

  A few seconds of silence passed. There was no denying that Dani was the best warrior of all of us. It pained me to admit it.

  “That’s the choice we have to make,” I said. “Do we want to lose Dani to the brig and possibly have a harder time in battles? Or keep Dani with us and . . .”

  “Never sleep again,” said Holly.

  Annith grimaced.

  “I’d rather keep Dani safely away from us,” I said. “Just because she’s not there in battle doesn’t mean we’ll lose. We’re all trained for this. We’re all warriors.”

  “Definitely,” said Annith. “I think we’re better off with Dani in the brig.”

  Besides, I thought, Dani won’t approve of us turning for home—and we need to sail home as fast as we can if we want to avoid Adaro’s entire army.

  Nora nodded. “You’re right. This needs to happen.”

  “Well, it won’t be easy to catch her off-guard,” said Sage. “She’s too suspicious already.”

  “And by suspicious, you mean totally insane,” said Blondie. “I swear, she never properly goes to sleep. Sneaking up on her would be like sneaking up on a mountain lion.”

  “A paranoid one that hasn’t slept in a week,” said Holly. “And has rabies.”

  “We could ambush her,” said Nora.

  “Oh, that sounds great,” said Blondie, rolling her eyes. “Ambush the nutcase who’s got a loaded weapon on her at all times.”

  “She has to put down her crossbow at some point, doesn’t she? We’ll ambush her then.”

  “What, when she’s on the toilet?”

  “We could trick her into putting it down,” said Sage.

  Nora shook her head vigorously. “Her reflexes are too fast. I bet she could pick up her crossbow again quicker than any of us can think.”

  “What if we tranquilised her?” said Sage.

  “With what?” said Blondie. “All we’ve got are those seasickness herbs.”

  “We’d have to slip a ton of it in her food to properly tranq her,” said Nora.

  “We could do it, I bet,” said Holly.

  Blondie put her hand up, looking exasperated. “Hello? Didn’t we just establish she’s ridiculously suspicious? Do you really think she’d accept some random plate of food that has a bunch of weird stuff mashed into it?”

  “She wouldn’t notice,” said Sage.

  “Girls,” said Annith loudly. She looked as stunned as I felt at their keenness.

  They fell silent.

  “You know the kohl we’ve been putting around our eyes?” she said. “Do you realise what it’s made of?”

  We all stared at her.

  “They get the colour from grinding up Ravendust leaves. Ingesting just a little bit will knock you out for like an hour.”

  Everyone’s jaw fell open at once.

  “What else is in it?” said Holly, breathless. “Anything poisonous?”

  “Nothing serious. Dani’s been using it to . . . to keep Linoya settled since she hurt her spine.”

  I stood, fists clenched. We collectively looked over at Linoya’s bed, where she lay, soundless.

  Keep Linoya settled. The idea sounded tender, thoughtful, like Dani only wanted to ease Linoya’s pain. Fury curdled in my stomach—but I didn’t want to blame Annith for Dani’s crimes.

  “Who else knows this stuff is a sedative?” I said.

  Annith didn’t meet my eyes. “Just Dani,” she whispered.

  “Why didn’t you tell us before?” said Nora.

  “I . . . She didn’t want me to.”

&nbs
p; Annith looked close to tears.

  We fell quiet. The ship creaked softly around us.

  “Is that what we’ll do, then?” I looked around at each of the girls. Nobody protested.

  “How do we feed it to her?” whispered Holly, glancing at the staircase. “We’ve never brought the meals out on plates—it’s always been help yourself. She’ll get suspicious.”

  “We’ll rub it into the fish,” I said, pacing the room. “Just . . . don’t eat it. Eat everything else first.”

  Nora nodded. “I like that. It’ll work.”

  “What do we do about Texas?” I said.

  “I’ll talk to her,” said Blondie, straightening up. “She’ll listen to me.”

  “It’s settled then,” said Sage, rising from the bunk. She looked like she was preparing to go fight.

  The others rose, too.

  “Tomorrow at dinner, we take down Dani,” I said. “And then we’re going home.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Blackened Feast

  The following night, Blacktail and I were in charge of making dinner. A vial of kohl waited in my tool belt, heavy as a boulder.

  Blacktail turned off the fryer where a slab of whitefish lay greasy and scorched. It smelled delectable, even if mixed with char and smoke.

  “I had to sear it,” she said. “The black powder would stand out.”

  I popped the lid off the vial. “Good call.”

  Her stomach growled as I smeared the powder into the fish.

  “Shame it has to go to waste,” she whispered. “It still looks delicious.”

  “Well, here,” I said, pointing to the end of the tail. “I haven’t touched that part yet. Eat it. The tail’s the best anyway.”

  She hesitated, then brought the spatula down on it and sliced off a piece as big as she dared. “Want some?”

  I opened my mouth—my hands were still busy—and she popped a bit in.

  I rolled the fish over my tongue, savouring it. “Gub ibea,” I said, trying to cool it off by sucking in air through my teeth. “Ib’s yummy eben burnt.”

  She chuckled and took some for herself.

  By the time we finished sharing the measly bit of tail, I’d rubbed the entire vial of kohl into both sides of the fish. The powder blended nicely with the charred surface.

  “Ready?” I said, taking a breath.

  Blacktail picked up the rice and sliced apples. A few seconds passed when we just stared at each other. She resembled a deer more than ever, eyes wide and alert, face solemn, frame thin and upright. I nodded firmly, and together we plastered smiles on our faces and strode from the galley.

  Dani, Texas, Holly, and Annith waited at the table. The other girls were on duty and would take their turn eating after we finished. After Dani was safely locked in the brig. A couple of those girls would be removing the ammo from our makeshift brig at that very moment. Another would be turning the Bloodhound eastwards, starting our journey home.

  “The fish is a little overdone,” said Blacktail cheerily. “But charred meat is a delicacy on the mainland, right?”

  Annith and Texas forced a laugh. Holly looked paralyzed, like a rabbit about to be eaten. Dani glared at the blackened fish as we placed the dishes in the centre of the table, but said nothing.

  The ship rocked steadily, creaking against the rolling waves as we passed the food around. I thought I could feel the ship turning—or maybe I was imagining it.

  The candles flickered in the dim hull, the clouds outside offering little natural light through the tiny windows. Nobody said a word. We took our portions with such forced casualness, my heart thumped with fear that Dani would pick up on it.

  As we began to eat, I watched Dani from under my lashes. She ate all her rice first, one slow bite at a time. Had she always taken this long chewing?

  I slowed my own pace, afraid I’d be done everything else and then she’d wonder why I hadn’t touched my fish. She placed her fork down gently, picked up her cup, and took a long drink of water.

  Under the pretence of grabbing more rice, I glanced up at the other girls. They looked on edge, also eating with unnatural slowness. Holly’s face was clammy, her eyes huge, like she was about to have a breakdown.

  Still, we were dead silent. The only sound was the ship creaking around us. I wanted to say something casual—start a conversation—but not a single topic came to mind.

  Dani put down her cup and made a pointed satisfied sound. Then, piece-by-piece, she started on her apple slices.

  My rice and fish were cold. My apple slices were brown. While Dani focused on her plate, I mashed up my fish to try and make it look like I’d eaten some.

  Dani brought her last bite of apple to her lips, then froze. The ship groaned as we crested a wave. She put down the apple and reached beside her, and I nearly jumped to my feet before realising she was only taking out her compass.

  She stared at the needle for several long seconds, her brow pulled down.

  “Aren’t you going to try the fish, Dani?” said Texas, forcing lightness in her voice.

  Dani snapped her head up and fixed her narrow eyes on Texas’ plate, which had some of everything left. It was unusual for any of us to leave food on our plates. And here all of us had taken our time as though we were fine diners in a French restaurant.

  The rice, apples, and morsel of charred fish in my stomach suddenly felt unsettled.

  “Why haven’t you eaten your fish?” said Dani with the same tone of forced lightness.

  “I have,” said Texas, pointing to a chunk out of the side that I was sure she’d buried under her rice.

  Dani’s eyes widened.

  “You haven’t!” She looked frantically around, then jumped up. “None of you have! You guys put something in the fish!”

  “No!” said Holly. “We didn’t!”

  She jumped up too, but I wasn’t sure what she intended to do. Dani was breathing fast, looking outraged.

  Holly stared into Dani’s bloodshot eyes for only a second before she said, “Look, I’ll show you,” and scooped a forkful of cold fish from her plate and put it in her mouth. I had to force myself not to react.

  She chewed slowly, evidently hoping Dani would believe her before it came time to swallow. There was a moment where she tried to store the food in her cheek, but she seemed to realise that was too obvious.

  At long last, she swallowed. The entire table seemed to draw breath.

  “See?” she said quickly. “It’s fine. Now you can have some.”

  I glanced at Dani, naïvely hoping, for Holly’s sake, she’d believe Holly in the next ten seconds. But already Holly’s eyelids drooped. She seized the edge of the table and swayed dangerously.

  “I . . . I’m just . . . tired . . .”

  I jumped up without thinking as Holly’s eyes rolled back. Her hands slipped from the table. Blacktail lunged for her before she fell.

  Dani screamed.

  “You back-stabbing—you two-faced—you—you think as your captain, I wouldn’t be suspicious?” She leapt back from the table, pointing at us. “You think you’re the first crew in the world to attempt mutiny? You’ve all been jealous since I was elected. I was right not to trust any of you!”

  It was barely noticeable, but Dani’s hand moved a fraction towards her crossbow, which she’d rested against the bench. And without thinking about it, without considering whether she intended to use it, I flung myself at her.

  She screamed as we toppled to the floor. Adrenaline burst through me, every cell in my body desperate to pin her down. I could not let her go. I saw and felt only flailing arms and legs, and then she attacked my face with her ragged fingernails, forcing my eyes closed.

  The girls around me must have been too shocked to do anything, because I found myself in solitary battle with Dani’s teeth and claws. She kicked and thrashed beneath me, all the while shrieking and giving everything she had to scratching and biting any part of my skin she could reach.

  I pinned both her
wrists and opened my eyes, but then she kicked upwards and twisted, throwing me sideways. I automatically let go of her wrists to brace myself with my hands, but my legs stayed in a vice around her. Instinctive tactics came back to me from when I was a kid, and I locked my feet together at her stomach to stop her from scrambling away.

  Annith appeared beside me. I wrapped a fist around Dani’s hair and yanked her back down so I could sit on her. Annith had to use both hands to pull one of Dani’s away from my face. She slammed it into the floor and held it there. Blacktail seized the other arm.

  I gasped for air, winded from the struggle. No longer expending all my effort keeping my eyes from being clawed out, I spared a breath to screech for more help.

  “Texas!”

  She hesitated only for a second before jumping behind me to sit on Dani’s thighs. I rolled off and caught one of Dani’s thrashing legs, wrapping both my arms around her calf to keep her from knocking me in the chin.

  “Grab the other leg,” I said, panting. Texas did so, copying the way I held it.

  “We - have to - do it now,” I said, fighting to keep Dani’s knee away from my nose.

  Conscious or not, we had to get her in the brig. I couldn’t imagine life with Dani still loose aboard the Bloodhound when the rest of the crew had attempted to drug her. What would her revenge be? Who would be her next target?

  Together, the four of us lifted the roaring, flailing Dani and started up the stairs.

  Her teeth were bared, eyes blazing through the sweaty web of hair across her face. She looked completely deranged.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing! You need me!” she shrieked, voice breaking.

  She screamed and kicked against us with such ferocity, even with one of us on each of her limbs we had trouble carrying her. Several times, one of us tripped on the stairs and fell to our knees—but we all knew that no matter what, we couldn’t let go.

  “You’ll die without me! Put me down!”

  Dani’s breathing was so furious, so enraged, I couldn’t tell anymore if she was panting or sobbing. She didn’t stop screaming the entire way across the deck—where the other girls watched in mute horror as Dani roared for them to help her—and all the way down the steps into the hull.