by Brandon Witt
“Why haven’t you been there before? I thought you’d been everywhere. You’ve only been swimming in the ocean for almost seventy years!”
Therin spoke before Lelas could reply. “I was under the impression Syleen told you of the other tribes.”
“She did. She said mers don’t get along and if the tribes happen to run into each other, they both go their own way. If one of them refuses, then fighting breaks out.”
He nodded. “That is true for those of us who refrain from using the sea at the cost of its health. There are those tribes that do not take that into consideration. They have staked their territory, and out of respect for their choice, we do not infringe on their space.”
As typical with Therin, I had to take a moment to translate his meaning. Lelas had spoken often about our tribe moving frequently so we wouldn’t take too much from the sea life around us. Spreading out our impact on the ocean instead of overusing one space. However, now that Therin brought it up, I remembered Syleen mentioning tribes that stayed in one spot. I hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
I looked back and forth between Lelas and Therin. “Where do the Scarus live?”
He pointed toward the west. “In the mountains, north.”
No sooner had he spoken than Wrell sent an image that flashed through my mind of coral reefs and brilliantly colored fish. It only took me a second to realize where we were going, and I felt the same excitement Lelas expressed. Hawaii. It had to be. No other coral reefs I knew of were even remotely close to us. Wild-goose chase or not, I was finally going to see some other waters beyond the western American coast. Lelas was going to love it!
“How long has it been since you’ve been there, Therin?”
“I have never been there. As I said, we do not invade the Scarus’s territory. To my knowledge, none of our tribe has been within a couple of days’ journey of their waters.” He glanced toward Wrell. “With the exception of Wrell, of course.”
I nearly asked how Wrell had been there, but remembered what Syleen had said before I brought up something that was none of my business. Wrell had been adopted into the Chromis tribe when he was a child, after his mother had been killed. When he’d grown up, he had gone to search out the Volitan tribe he’d been born into. I wasn’t sure if they were a migrating tribe or not, but it made sense that Wrell would have gone places members of the Chromis tribe wouldn’t go. I looked over at him. “Did you meet any members of the Scarus tribe?”
He simply nodded.
I looked back at Therin. “What makes you think they are still there?”
“If the Scarus tribe had moved or changed their behaviors, we would have seen them during our migrations.”
Yeah, ’cause the ocean was tiny. No way a small tribe of mers could have been overlooked. Goose chase was the understatement of the year.
“So, we go and try to find the Scarus tribe, and then what?”
“If the Scarus are unable to answer our needs, then we find the Synchi tribe.”
“Are they another tribe that stays in one location?”
“Yes.”
I knew Therin’s answer before I even asked. “Has anyone in our tribe ever seen them?”
“No.”
“Even Wrell?”
“Only one.”
I tried not to roll my eyes and was surprised when I succeeded. “And what tribe do we go to next if they can’t tell us what we need to know?”
“We search until we find others of our species.”
I stared at him for a moment before asking yet another obvious question. “There are only two tribes that are stationary, aren’t there?”
“Yes, Brett. To be honest, there is little chance either of these tribes have experienced what we have, losing mers in such a way, since they stay in their territory. We believe it is in the open sea that the captures are happening. However, the Scarus and Synchi tribes are the most logical places to begin. If nothing else, they may at least be able to tell us if they have heard of other such losses.”
“If they keep to themselves, why would they have heard anything from other tribes?”
Lelas interjected softly, as if feeling guilty for gossiping, “Not all tribes respect the Scarus and Synchi tribes to the same extent as we Chromis.”
Before I could reply, Wrell sent an image of a small group of mers, both the mermaids and mermen muscular and fierce-looking. Their lionfish quills flaring and quivering. Their spears raised in aggression.
I nodded at him, his message clear. From what I’d heard from Syleen about how the Volitan tribe treated Wrell’s mother, I wasn’t surprised they might be the kind to seek out war with other tribes.
As much as the thought of only two tribes having permanent locations made our task seem daunting, it was more than I believed we had to go on a few minutes before. I’d thought we were simply setting out to swim until we ran into some other tribe. “Since there are only two tribes that stay in one place, it makes sense they would be where we should start. What makes you think Zef wouldn’t think the same thing and come to look for us there, if he decides to follow us?”
Lelas looked at Therin and Wrell. “That is true. While I do not understand why Zef would be opposed to us embarking on this journey, it does seem logical he would come to the same conclusion.”
Therin hesitated slightly. “I believe the possibility will cross Zef’s mind, but I think he will not expect us to invade their boundaries, and even if he does, I cannot picture him bringing the rest of the tribe on such a journey.”
I thought for a moment. Every interaction I’d had with Zef made me think he’d not take too much for granted, but I agreed with Therin. It didn’t seem like him to force the tribe to undertake so much travel for the sole purpose of stopping us. Besides Lelas, Zef was the first one to show me any kindness before I’d saved Wrell’s life during the Great Hunt. “What if he comes on his own?”
Therin shrugged. “He is welcome to join, though he has made his feelings very clear that he believes it is not only a waste of time to entertain such possibilities but a disrespect to both Moheetla and the other mer tribes.”
While I didn’t give a shit about respecting Moheetla, or even the other mer tribes—save avoiding a war—I couldn’t say I disagreed with Zef. To start all of this and risk inciting other tribes all for one incident seemed not only a waste of time but pure madness. For once I kept my thoughts to myself. I’d given my word that I would help, and if there was even a chance they were right and mers were being captured or killed, it was a risk worth taking. Besides, I had eternity. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do with my time.
“Have we rested enough?” Therin offered me a smile. “We do not need to continue at such a hurried pace, but there are still many days of travel ahead of us, and I find myself anxious to get this undertaking started. There have been few days since Ventait’s capture that I have not wanted to find a way to help him.”
Before I could respond, a huge gray mass swept past us, knocking Lelas to the side. Therin’s blade and Wrell’s spears were instantly raised and aimed in the direction the shadow had disappeared.
Turning, I found Lelas. She had been swept several yards away from us. With a couple of strong flicks of her lavender tail, she’d righted herself and was swimming back toward our group. As she wiped at her face, a trail of blood flowed behind her. From this distance, I couldn’t tell whether her nose was broken or her lip was cut.
Lelas hadn’t even closed half the distance before the gray form appeared again out of the murky water, zooming directly at her. It only took a moment for my eyes to make sense of the shape this time—the wide anvil head huge as its jaws opened, ready to tear into Lelas.
Therin darted past me, his blade lifted above his head, preparing to smash into the hammerhead’s skull. Even as he beat his powerful tail, it was obvious the shark was going to reach Lelas before he could help her. I glanced over at Wrell. His spear was up, and he zipped this way and that, trying to find the a
ngle from which he could throw without impaling Therin or Lelas.
The shark was mere feet away from Lelas. Thoughts of Finn didn’t enter my head; neither did the pain of Sonia’s death. I was about to lose Lelas, and without her, there truly would be no one else I cared to live for. With a yell, I kicked myself forward, arms outstretched as if to strangle the beast. The water rippled in front of me, blurring Therin, Lelas, and the shark from view, as if I was swimming through grease.
Although through a haze, I could see both Therin and Lelas whipped to the side, spinning end over end, a mass of tangled arms, tails, and hair. The shark suffered the same fate, revolving over and over. Its tail caught on the sand midspin and sent it careening onto the ocean floor, dark sand spewing up and blocking it from view as it crashed onto the hard ground again and again.
Startled, I pulled up short, trying to make sense of what my eyes were seeing. Turning, I searched for Lelas, expecting to see her lying broken on the sand.
She floated about thirty feet away, seemingly shaken and disoriented. Therin was near her, apparently in the same condition, his long hair tangled about him.
I rushed toward them, crushing Lelas in my arms as I reached her. “Are you okay? Please tell me you’re all right. Please be okay!” I was pretty sure I was crying.
Her voice was shaky and quiet, but it was there. “I’m fine. At least I think I am.” I felt her pull against me. “I love you too, Brett, but let me go, please. The whole world is spinning.”
After another moment of holding her too tight, I let go. I turned and found Therin, his eyes wide as he stared at me. “Are you okay, Dad?”
Even in his dazed state, he smiled at the use of such a familiar term. “Yes, Brett, I am fine. I am fine, son. What happened?”
“I don’t know. I thought you were going to get to Lelas too late. I thought she was going to die, and then both of you were spinning through the water.”
At the mention of Lelas dying, Therin’s gaze traveled behind me. Following his stare, I saw Wrell hovering over the shark’s body, the sand settling around them.
Lelas took off toward him. Therin and I followed.
By the time we reached him, Wrell had speared the hammerhead through the side, and blood seeped from the wound. It had been a mercy killing as much as anything. Both its tail and dorsal fin were broken and twisted at unnatural angles, and one of its fins had been nearly ripped off as the shark crashed into the ocean floor.
“It is not like a shark to attack us for no reason.” Lelas looked down in pity on the dead animal. I couldn’t fathom how she could conjure an ounce of concern for the shark. It was taking all my strength not to plunge my hands into it and burn it until only ashes were left in the water.
Therin nodded his agreement but looked around as if searching for something. “That is true, but the real question is what caused such a current out of nowhere.”
Instantly, I saw a vision of me from behind. I was swimming after Therin, racing toward Lelas and the shark. From my outstretched hands, the water rippled to life and gushed forward, blurring the others from view until they began to spin out of control and out of the path of the current. Just as abruptly, the vision left.
Wrell, Lelas, and Therin were all staring at me. It seemed Wrell had shared his view of the events with all three of us. Lelas gaped at me openmouthed. Wrell looked at me in awe, as if in the presence of a deity.
“Did you know you could do that?”
I focused on Therin. “I’m not even sure what happened.”
He looked from me to the body of the shark and then back again. “You controlled water and saved Lelas. You made the water do what you wanted.”
“I did?”
No one responded. It was obvious I had done it, even if I didn’t know how. Kinda like when I set the vampire on fire. “Maybe it’s some recessive mer trait I didn’t know I’d inherited.”
Therin’s eyes narrowed. “No. As I’ve told you, mers have no power over the ocean. We have no magic of our own.”
“Well, it has to come from my mer blood somehow. There’s no way it could come from my demon side. Finn’s family told me that fire demons and water don’t mix.”
The four of us hovered, dazed, staring at the shark and at each other.
Therin caught my eye again. “It seems they do now”
We left the shark where it was and continued on our way, all of us lost in our own thoughts. By the time we started up once more, the sun was bright in the sky and the water around us was crystal clear.
Lelas and I followed Wrell and Therin, who, while still fast, had adopted a more manageable pace.
After a while, Lelas stretched out her arm and took my hand in hers. “Thank you for saving my life, Brett.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I felt my throat close up, the ache of nearly losing her bringing me close to tears again. “I can’t lose you.”
She smiled. “You will not.”
After a little more time, she turned to me again. “You really have never done anything like that? You’ve never had power over water before?”
Unbidden, the boy on the beach came to mind. His boiled and blistered skin. The gallons of water he vomited onto the sand after kissing me. His terror-filled screams. It seemed like lifetimes ago.
I shook my head.
Two
FINN DE MORISCO
I blinked as her finger brushed across my eyelashes when she wiped away a tear. Her long hair fell around my face as she leaned over me. Through the nymph’s nearly transparent, cyan-tinted hair I could almost make out Caitlin’s scowl when I glanced in her direction.
“Lady Amalphia”—despite her desperation to leave San Diego, Caitlin’s tone was genuinely respectful and beseeching—“can you please just assure us that our sister will be spared? That she will live?”
Amalphia turned her head, her compassionate smile never wavering. “Dear daughter, you know it is neither the Creator’s nor nature’s way to flood before the falling of rain. I am but a servant of both. Therefore, I know no more than what flows before me.”
“But you’ve given prophecies before. You or one of the other nymphs. There must be something you know about Cynthia.” I searched her crystalline eyes. “Something that can let us know if she’ll be okay or what we need to do.”
She looked back at me as I spoke but let her hand fall from my cheek. “My child, if there were words that would give you what you seek, I would not hesitate to utter them.”
My gaze fell. Maybe if I worded the question differently she’d be able to answer it. Maybe we weren’t asking the right question at all, like with Hazel, and she was waiting to tell us when we figured out the right wording. I shook myself inwardly. The nymphs weren’t anything like Hazel, who loved nothing more than acting superior and taunting me like I was a stupid child. Nor were the nymphs a magic eight ball that would display the right answer if held at the right direction. That we were even here asking was a testament of Caitlin’s and my desperation, and of Mom’s, too, I suppose, since it was her idea we come here in the first place.
Unbidden, my gaze traveled the few feet to the base of the massive willow tree. The patch of irises was still there. It even looked like new flower buds were forming, the ivory of the petals gleaming through their fading green sepals. Maybe they were really here to stay. It had been a little over a month since I’d been here with Jordskote, she too wiping my tears and using them to give life to the small patch of irises. I’d thought she’d be the one to answer us, if any of the nymphs would at all. Maybe if she had, we’d be getting more of a direct response.
My disrespectful thoughts shocked me, and I looked back up, expecting to see anger in Amalphia’s face. If she was aware of my thoughts, she didn’t show it, only giving me a sad smile.
“The only thing of which we are certain is that you are on the right path. That by choosing to face your sister’s captors, you are taking steps that will lead to the purest outcome.”
Caitlin ste
pped closer. “So she will be okay. If we are taking the right steps, then she must be!”
Another sad smile curved Amalphia’s lips. “I hope that is so, that your sister returns to us and flourishes once more.”
For the first time since Amalphia’s appearance, Caitlin’s voice betrayed her typical irritability. “But you just said—”
“It is clear you are embarking on the right path. Down that path lies freedom and a righting of wrongs.”
“Exactly! Then Cynthia will be—”
Amalphia cut Caitlin off once more, her voice still soothing and full of love. “I cannot say your sister will be part of that exodus. I pray it will be so.”
Caitlin threw her arms out in exasperation, but Amalphia interjected before Cate could say anything we’d regret. “Know you are loved, dear children, you and your sister. Know your pains are our pain, your joys our joys.”
Without any further words, she sank like a mist into the ground. The earth around my hands and knees grew moist, then dried once more.
Caitlin glanced down at her feet when the dirt grew moist, then looked at me, eyes blazing.
“Don’t say anything, Caitlin. Not yet. Just hold your tongue, okay?”
To my surprise, she did—closing her mouth and whirling around. She began to make her way down the cliff. Maybe it was our ingrained and innate respect for our nymphs; maybe she was finally getting a hold of her temper. Or we were all going to act a little out of character until Cynthia was safely back home and Mom and Dad were out of the hospital and no longer in danger from the Vampire Cathedral’s attacks.
I shoved my hands against my knees, pushing up from my kneeling position. Looking away from Caitlin’s retreating form, I gazed out over the ocean. The sea was calm and glistened a deep gray blue under the warming blaze of midmorning.
While the nymphs don’t always appear when a witch comes to the willow, typically, the one that arrives is the nymph most closely connected to our greatest power, our strength. It would have made sense if Dad or Christina had come, since they both identified mostly with Amalphia and her affinity to water, but not me. I’d expected Jordskote. Her earth-toned skin and wild, mosslike hair always instantly began to put my soul at peace, and that was before she’d even spoken. I’d hoped to see her. Needed to. If anything, the fact that Amalphia had answered our call made me more ill at ease. I couldn’t make sense of it.
