by Tracy Korn
"I'm sorry, Your Highness. I'm sorry! This is all my fault!" Opal cried, her airborne voice sounding like a distant birdcall.
"It's not. It may not even be Mara's if Mama Luz brought that boat through here. What did Mara tell you?"
"Only that the Gnome Queen didn't just want peace with us. She wanted an alliance."
I shook my head, confused. "Why? Against what?"
"The humans."
"Cora!" Reed echoed, swimming toward us.
"Thank the Mother. We need to get back to the queen," I echoed, but then I heard Mara echoing in pain. "Take Opal back to The Shallows. Tell my mother the Gnome Queen isn't waging war on us. She's waging it on the humans, and the Lawless are helping her."
"Where are you going!?"
"To help Mara."
I shoved Opal into his arms and swam away before he could protest, following Mara's distress echo that had since turned to one of anger. I answered it, telling her to be calm, that I was coming to help.
I followed it back toward the larger boat, where Opal and I had been pulled up in the dragnet. The bodies of men were still falling from the railing, struggling in the water until they were stripped and drowned, devoured, in some cases, while they were still screaming.
I broke the surface of the skim and saw Mara at the base of the boat clutching her shoulder, which had been slashed. Still, she tried climbing the dragnet that was draped over the side of the boat. On the deck, the one they'd called Captain who had fought off the men advancing on Opal and me, was desperately struggling to stop the men from pulling up the net…and Mara.
"She will kill you, too, you fools!" he shouted to them. He was quickly becoming outnumbered, so he strategically started to cut the dragnet with his blade. It became entangled in one of the upstrokes, and Mara did not miss her opportunity. She jerked the net, and the captain flew over the railing into the water.
"No… Mara, no!"
I swam toward them, dodging the fallen bodies and the gnashing Undine until I was in the middle of their struggle. The captain held Mara at bay by her throat, but his grip would not hold for long as she slashed at his arms with her razor-edged fins. It seemed like he'd drown rather than release her.
He didn't understand my commands, and Mara was no longer able to obey them even if she wanted to with his hand around her throat. I had to separate them. I had to get him away from her...from all the Undine.
I launched myself at his torso and pulled him from her, shooting through the water so quickly, he couldn't fight the current. By the time we reached the island of The Shallows, the shore where the Luna Bay had sunk, he was unconscious.
I swam as far as I could onto the shore without risking beaching myself. The water lapped all around us, pushing his dark hair from his face.
"Can you hear me?" I echoed. He stirred, opening his eyes only for a brief moment.
"You?" he whispered before falling unconscious again.
I didn't know his language completely, but I'd studied enough of it to know he was never trying to hurt Opal or me. Not like the others. He didn't deserve to die like they did, although I felt guilty for believing that as well. I needed to get back to my mother to tell her of the war. I needed to tell Reed what the Gnome Queen was planning, and we needed to assemble the Guard. None of this would happen while I lay here in the splashing surf next to this human. This captain. A captain of his own guard.
A warrior. Like me.
***
He was breathing, so I let the tide pull me back toward the rocks, then past them and into The Shallows. I watched the captain lay there until the first rays of sunlight fell over him, and when he finally coughed himself awake, I dove under the skim.
Every joint, every muscle in my body ached, and the burns on my tail from the rope had gone numb in the saltwater. The mollusk shell covering the bite wound on my arm had cracked and dug into my forearm, causing another series of cuts and scrapes. This time, I might just let Reed talk me into waiting for the healer at the infirmary.
But when I got back to the Royal Cavern, no one was there.
"Mother?" I echoed. When she didn't answer, panic rose in my chest. Where had everyone gone? "Enoch! Shoal!" I echoed again for her guards, but they didn't answer me either. I left the Cavern and swam to the barracks to find the Guard, but they, too, were empty. Everything was in order just as it had been at the Cavern. It was just...deserted. "Reed!"
"Your Highness..." the halfling's voice echoed. It was coming from the hole of all places.
"Opal?" I echoed back, swimming quickly to unlatch the small door to the stone cave next to the barracks.
Opal was curled into the corner, darting out like a striking eel when she saw me. She threw her arms around me and wailed.
"I knew you'd come!" she echoed.
"Where is Reed? Where is everyone?"
"Reed took me to the queen and told her what happened with Mara and the Lawless Undines," she echoed, nearly choking on the words and shifting from silver to black.
"It's all right, Opal. Just relax."
"He told her they needed to evacuate The Shallows because of the Gnome Queen and what happened with the boats," she echoed quickly. "He insisted that they go while he went after you."
"But then why weren't you with the evacuation? Why were you in the hole?" I asked.
"I just wanted to help. I slipped away from the Queen's Guards so I could follow Reed. I just wanted to help him, but they discovered me."
"Who, Opal?"
"Mara and the Lawless. They took him to the Gnome Queen."
"Where? Back to the sandbar?"
"Yes, onto her boat. He told me to swim…to hide. I didn't know where to go, so I came here, but then that door closed behind me, and I was so scared…" she trailed off in sobs.
"All right, it's all right now, Opal. Listen to me. The Guard would have led the evacuation to the Southern Depths. We have allies there, but it's too dangerous to go without a school. Your parents must be frantic."
"I'm sorry…I just wanted to help. The others wouldn't have caught him if I'd have listened."
"It's all right, Opal. Reed is a soldier. He'll be all right," I echoed, both to assure the halfling and myself. "I need your help now. I need you to be a little soldier. Can you do that for me?"
She looked up at me soberly, the mottled pulse of her silver and black hair stabilizing to a muted gray. She nodded. "What should I do?"
"Be brave, Opal. And stay close to me."
Chapter 5
We reached the boundary waters only to find the Lawless Undines replaced by a frenzy of sharks, the larger boat destroyed and half-sunken. It would be completely submerged by sunset to be sure. The tide would clear away the scraps of the ship that would not sink, and the sharks would clear away the scraps of men.
The smaller boat Mama Luz was on was also still anchored near the sand bar, but it, too, seemed abandoned.
"Where did they all go?" Opal echoed as we broke the surface of the water. Her voice a thin birdsong in the open air.
I scanned around the sandbar, where there were only more sharks and scavenger fish. No Undines and no Mama Luz.
"Are you sure this is where they took Reed?"
Opal nodded adamantly. "Four Lawless tritons did it. They wrapped him in the rope the crew threw down. Mara and Dynah wanted to go too, but Mama Luz told them they knew there was only room for one more. That's when…" she trailed off.
"Opal, what is it? That's when what happened?"
"That's when Mara killed her."
"She killed the Gnome Queen!?"
"No! She killed Dynah," Opal sobbed and looked quickly over the sandbar. "She sliced her throat and threw her to the sharks in the cove…just there."
"Sacred Mother…" I was hesitant to press for more details, but I needed to know what happened to Reed. "Opal, did Mara get on that ship?"
She shook her head. "No, Mama Luz told her to finish off the boat she'd brought us. She told the four Lawless tritons to go af
ter they tied up Reed, and for Mara to follow them." She sobbed harder, and her skin started to shadow. "The tritons left, but Mara wouldn't go with them. She tried to cut Reed's ropes, and that's when Mama Luz had her crew pull him up."
"This boat?" I gestured to the one in front of us.
"Yes." Opal tried to breathe the air, but her gills kept flaring with her uncontrolled sobs and she choked.
"All right, calm down. The boat is still here, right? Reed must be aboard." I stroked Opal's hair until the black finally faded. "Come with me."
I dove under the boat and pressed my cheek to the bottom of the hull. There was no trace of Reed's echo, so I sounded one of my own and listened.
"I don't hear him," Opal echoed, her expression falling.
"Just follow me."
We swam under the boat to the other side, my short spear in hand. I surfaced quietly, just enough for my eyes to clear the skim, and I nearly splashed when I saw Reed bound in rope from his chest to halfway down his tail. His head was hanging forward, and my stomach dropped.
"There he is!" Opal chirped above the water, which startled him. All in the same second I was both flooded with relief that he was alive and panic that someone else had heard Opal.
"Go! It's a trap!" Reed said, his airborne echo sounding like a screaming hawk. I dove for Opal and pulled her past the underside of the boat, the net that came up all around me just missing her. I cut a hole wide enough to fall through with my short spear, hoping I would fall to the water, but I landed on the barge deck instead of back in the sea.
Reed was dropped next to me, and I quickly cut his ropes, but something was wrong. His silver hair was yellowed and his pale skin covered in a white film that was cracking. He didn't move right away after I cut his ropes. I gripped my short spear ready to fight, but there were no sailors poised to attack. There was nothing for several seconds until we heard the rolling, disembodied laughter of a woman I couldn't find. She was just…everywhere.
"It's her…" Reed said, but his voice above the water sounded squeezed and breathless. "It's Luz…"
She appeared from below deck, rising out of the dark entrance slowly but steadily toward us.
"What do you want from us!?" I shouted to her, but the sound of my voice was pitched and wordless—a series of sharp screams like a diving waterbird.
Mama Luz laughed again, this time, with pity. "Oh, child. You gonna draw dem gulls to peck yer bones." She waved a hand at me, and my throat immediately tightened. I coughed as the constriction increased, the gills under my jawline pinching, stretching until I was sure she was somehow strangling me. I clutched at the invisible hands, but the only thing I felt was my own throat. My gills were…gone.
Reed screeched like a wounded bird, but Mama Luz just laughed even harder, drowning him out.
"Nooo!" I yelled, and this time, I heard the word. I heard my voice, but it wasn't like a hungry gull's anymore. It was human.
"Now, dat's better," Mama Luz said. I felt again for my gills, finding only rough patches of skin that were already peeling in their place. "Listen to me, girl. Yer fishy-man ain't long fa yer world," she added, raising her thin, black eyebrows.
"He needs…the water!" I coughed, clutching my throat again, which felt like I'd swallowed sand.
Mama Luz returned her dark eyes to me. "Yes, he do. But whedder he go back to it or not be up to you, me urchin."
I nodded furiously, and the Gnome Queen just threw her head back in another wave of laughter, her black braids flying in all directions from under her red head scarf.
"Let him go!" I coughed again.
"All righty. I put him in de water, but only if ya help me wit a little problem," she finally managed, her laughter dying off.
"Don't…" Reed called to me, his voice even thinner than before.
Mama Luz clapped her hand, summoning two dark-skinned men with wide, jaundiced eyes. "Bring up da buckets and toss 'em on dis little fishy, me loves."
Neither of the men spoke. They only nodded and tied a stretch of rope to two metal pails, then tossed them over the railing. They pulled them up full of water and emptied them both on Reed. He gasped, his gills flaring, and the silver sheen of his skin reappeared.
"Don't…worry about me, Cora. Don't trust her!" His airborne voice stronger, again like a hawk or an eagle screaming through the sky.
"Aww, hush, now. See de gratitude I git, little princess?"
"What do you want from us?" I glared at her.
Mama Luz smiled widely. "I got me a little exchange in de works wit yer sister, see?"
"Mara? She is not my sister," I said loudly even though it burned my throat to do it.
Mama Luz just shrugged. "She want dat human you skittered away wit gone like de rest on dat gift boat I brought."
"Cora, don't!" Reed coughed again, forcing himself to breathe the air.
"I told her, fine. I send me gnomes out to drag him back to de water, and you know what she said to dat?" Mama Luz's dark eyes widened. "She squeaked at me, oh no, no, no…it got to be de princess dat kills him since she swam him away."
"Kill him?" I whispered. "Mara is delusional, and so are you if you think I'm going to kill anyone!"
Mama Luz's smile withered. "You either be killin' dat son of Eve you swam to da shore or you be killin' dis man-fishy here," she said, reaching toward Reed, and without touching him, she pulled her fingers into a fist. Reed began violently gasping, even though he was nowhere close to her.
"Stop!" I shouted, my human voice strong, but painful to use, but she only kept squeezing his throat. "All right! Just let him go!"
Mama Luz's wide, red smile returned. "Dat's more like it den," she said, releasing Reed. He leaned back gasping and coughing. "All right, now. Let's see 'bout dis tail… You jes keep still."
She opened her palms and held them out at me. My stomach began to turn and a sharp pain started in my back, running down the length of my tail until I thought it might rip in two, which is exactly what it did.
The burning sensation intensified as the scales charred and peeled away, disappearing into ash that blew away in the breeze. Underneath were two pale human legs that moved independently from one another.
I pushed back from them without thinking, only to see them helping me—they kicked and pushed as if they had a mind of their own. It took several seconds to realize they were part of me. Part of my body.
My dorsal fin was gone…the fins on my forearms, gone." What did you do to me?" I gasped.
Mama Luz laughed. "You can't go floppin' onto da beach like a seal now, child." Mama Luz laughed as she threw me a long piece of cloth and pointed to my legs. "Dis is a skirt. Bend de knees right der and put dem feets in da smaller hole, den pull de whole ting up. Can't go ashore wit yer naturals all about. Humans are funny about der naturals." She grinned.
I did as she said, pulling the covering up over my chest as I sat on the ground. I pushed the…knees of the legs together and flattened the feet on the deck, but I couldn't rise. Mama Luz laughed again and moved toward me, her arm extended to me.
"Put Reed back in the water…" I glared at her as I took her hand. My teeth started to chatter, and she gave me a pitiful look.
"We put him in de cage until ya do yer part." Mama Luz nodded to two of her crew, who stepped forward from the shadows and dragged him into an iron cage.
"He'll die in there!" I yelled, my voice loud and shrill. "He needs the ocean!"
"Don't fret, child! We gonna lower dat over de side a de boat…for at least a little while each day." Mama Luz laughed as she took a jar from her shoulder bag and smudged some of the white powder it held over my lips and face, then over my neck and chest before she blew a cloud of it at me. "Ya jes worry 'bout yer part now. I give ya tree days to make dat captain kiss ya of his own free will, and when dat powder make him fall dead for doin' it, you spill his dead man's blood in da water and dive in after it," she said, sprinkling the rest of the white powder into the sea. "Da water will make ya Undine again. Ya com
e back here as yer natural self, and we open de cage fer yer fishy love."
I opened my mouth to say something else, to protest or negotiate more, but two of her crew were already lifting me up and half carrying me to the little boat hanging on the side of the barge.
"Wait!" I finally yelled. "What if I can't find the captain?"
Mama Luz laughed low in her throat. "We bring you to where he is, don'cha fret none."
"But what if I can't kill him?"
"Den de earth will see ya, water child. It will see you and de fishy-man," she said with a low, rolling laugh.
"What does that mean?" I called after her, but she only laughed louder. "Mama Luz! What does that mean!?"
Her crewmen dumped me into the lifeboat, one of them climbing in and grabbing the paddles while the other lowered the boat to the water. I saw Opal circling below and hoped she would get clear. We hit the water with a splash, and I breathed a sigh of relief to see her dorsal fin cutting through the skim. She swam next to the boat until she suddenly veered wide and surfaced.
"Cora!" she called. Her airborne voice pitched and sharp.
"I'll get Reed back, Opal! Mara set up the trap, but I'll get him back!"
"But where are you going?" she sang.
"Ashore, to get what Mama Luz wants in exchange for Reed. Go back to The Shallows before my mother's group gets too far! Catch up and go with them to the Southern Depths to find your parents!"
"When are you coming back? Cora!" she chirped one last time, then glanced at the sun just peeking over the horizon as it vanished beneath the skim. I didn't have the chance to tell her not to be afraid, for it would not really turn her to stone.
Chapter 6
We rowed into a thick fog that rose around the island, the reflecting sun forcing me to squint. It seemed like time stood still while we passed through it, but on the other side, nothing was the same.
The island was gone. In place of the thick forest were huge, gray structures growing from the earth. There were only a few small trees, and several boats sitting in a row against the shore.