by Sarah Jaune
Keela cocked her head to the side and gave a short nod. “Open a way, and we’ll help you.”
“Deal,” Ivy assured her as she straightened. She backed up against the wall as the mermaids sank back into the lake’s dark, roiling water.
“Ivy…” Eli started to say something, but at the sharp shake of her head he cut off.
“It’s no more than fifteen minutes of work for you and Thane to clear a hole in the grating,” she informed him.
Eli shook his head. “You don’t know that, though,” he said heavily. “It could take us hours, and we could be caught.”
“You should do it,” Claire piped up as she touched his arm. Eli winced as her fingers brushed along the bite mark from his fight with the street boss, Dingus. It was still red and throbbing. “They need your help.”
This put an end to the debate. It was difficult to say no to a kid urging him to do the right thing.
“How do we do this?” Thane asked her curiously.
“I think the steel grates are in sections,” Ivy explained to them. “What I felt was there were weaker sections where the water flows easier. I think you two can push one of them out.”
Thane and Eli exchanged a glance. They both shrugged as though to say, ‘why not?’
“Let’s go now,” Thane said as he started to skirt down the wall of the dam.
“I don’t think this ledge goes the whole way,” Ivy said as she followed behind Thane.
Eli let Claire go next, then he followed up on the rear. “We don’t need it to go all the way, just enough to get away from the police. Hopefully, they won’t try to follow us.”
“I doubt it,” Thane added quietly as they continued along the foot-wide wedge. “They won’t be looking for someone to have crashed that building down. It was always going to fall down at some point. Most of the time they’re torn down.”
They moved on for another fifteen minutes before Thane stopped and boosted Ivy up first, then Claire when Ivy said it was clear.
“You need help up?” Thane asked him.
“Nah,” Eli waved his hand.
“Great, then you can help me up,” Thane told him with a chuckle.
Eli webbed his fingers together and Thane stuck his foot in, jumping up to grab the edge of the wall, and deadlifted himself the rest of the way.
It was impressive, especially for someone without strength. Eli, however, had been working on a trick and now seemed as good of a time as any to testing it out.
He just needed a small burst of energy, but it was really all in the timing. He took a deep breath, and used his telekinesis to throw himself upwards a few feet. It wasn’t much, but enough that he was able to grab the ledge and hoist himself up.
“Did you fly?” Claire asked him in amazement as soon as he was straightened.
“It’s more like floating,” Eli explained as he inclined his head towards the bridge, which was still a good quarter of a mile away. “Have we heard any cars go by?”
“I haven’t heard anything,” Ivy replied as she craned her neck around to see if she could spot anything. “The city really does appear to be on lockdown. We should have checked on that, first, before attempting anything.”
“It’s too late now,” Thane told her as they took off towards the bridge. “If my family is in town, which might prompt the lockdown, then we have very little time to get those kids out of here.”
“How far in do we have to go, Ivy?” Eli asked her as they jogged to keep up with Thane’s long strides.
“It isn’t too far,” Ivy explained as a wispy cloud floated over the moon, temporarily blocking out the only light around them. “I think it was about a hundred feet in, or so, before I felt the weaker parts. We won’t have to travel very long.”
“The real key is just not being caught,” Eli said with a grimace as they came up upon the bridge. Nothing about this situation felt right. They were going to be really lucky if this worked and the mermaids were still there to help, but they had to try because Ivy was correct; this was the right thing to do. The mermaids hadn’t asked to be trapped. It was time they were freed.
CHAPTER 21
PHASE ONE
The bonus in the plan was working against the Overseer. No one said it, but Eli was sure Ivy and Thane were thinking along the same lines.
Thane knelt on the bridge and put his hands down on the metal. He closed his eyes, much as Ivy did when feeling the water. It didn’t take more than ten seconds for Thane to say, “It isn’t metal.”
“What?” Ivy appeared stunned. “You’re sure? I mean,” she grimaced. “Of course you’re sure, but I could have sworn it was.”
“I have no idea what it is, but it isn’t metal,” Thane glanced over his shoulder towards Eli. “You got this?”
The unspoken statement, the one that made Eli’s spine stiffen, hung between them. Could Eli handle it alone? Anger flared white hot through him as he narrowed his eyes. How dare he assume that Eli wouldn’t—
Claire touched his arm, jolting him from the internal rant. He glanced down at the little girl, who smiled winningly. “I know you can do it.”
The anger melted, and he turned back to see Thane staring at him curiously.
Realization dawned, along with embarrassment. Thane hadn’t been questioning him. He’d assumed that Eli could do it.
Resentment. It was so easy to be furious with Thane because Thane was able to see Beth. It was more difficult to step back, see the jealousy, and accept that Eli couldn’t see Beth or Naomi because of who he was.
Maia’s voice filled his head asking him what he was really upset about. Thane wasn’t a runt. He wasn’t scrawny and short. He was also a nice guy, who was clearly street smart. He had a lot going for him that Eli didn’t have. But the hardest pill to swallow was accepting that Thane had Beth, and Eli was starting to accept that he never would again.
He was undeniably jealous. Annoyed with himself, he forced his anger back down. It wouldn’t help to blow his top, especially not in front of the others.
Thane’s dark eyes scanned him warily, as though watching for a volcano to blow it's top. He had to be more than his ingrained bad habits. "Yeah," he said in a tone of hard earned calm. "I can do it."
"I'm coming down to the water with you," Ivy told him.
He would have argued, but Eli knew it was a better idea to have her with him. Eli knelt and scanned the bridge below him. There was bracing which they could use to climb down, but he knew it would be pushing Ivy to attempt it.
"I can jump into the water while you climb down," Ivy said as she saw the drop. "I can use the water to cushion my fall."
"Okay," Eli agreed as she winked at them and took a jump off the bridge. Eli watched in amazement as the water flew up to catch her, almost like a hand reaching to cradle her fall.
"That is seriously impressive," Thane whistled in admiration.
"There is no way to compete against that," Eli agreed as he took hold of the ledge and swung himself down. It ended up being a controlled fall down the metal garters. He slid down slick steel, swung a bit when his feet flew out from under him, and was saved from a painful death when he fell by Ivy who used the same water trick to keep him from plunging to his death. Eli's heart skipped a beat as he drifted down into the water next to Ivy. Her blonde hair clung to her face as she effortlessly treaded water. "Your hair is wet."
"It's too much work trying to stay dry," she informed him as she took his hand. Immediately the waves stopped their relentless crusade to push him into the inky depths. The water, which had been cold, was now a very comfortable temperature. "The grate is about ten feet down," Ivy said as she swam them over to the fence that kept the lake from the rest of the world.
Eli tried to concentrate on the fence, but found he couldn't budge it. "We have to go down to it," Eli explained to Ivy. "I can't seem to find it without my hands on it."
"All right," Ivy nodded. "I will pull you down to the right place. You ready?"
No.
>
"Yes," he lied as he pulled in a lungful of air. Ivy dragged him down into the water as the blackness and the crashing waves were cut off. It was as peaceful as any place on earth under the water, but it was still terrifying. Here, breathing was impossible, even for Ivy.
Her hands guided his to a slime-coated, plastic web that was rigidly kept in place by he didn't know what. He only had seconds to work. Eli took hold of the plastic and began to pull. A flash off to the side caught his attention and he turned to see several faces with glowing eyes staring at him from the murk. He screamed, or he would have if he hadn't inhaled a lungful of water. Panic overwhelmed him as Ivy hauled him to the surface. His face broke as he coughed and gagged until he threw up.
Ivy's arms stayed around his waist until the spasms stopped. He turned watery eyes to Ivy, whose face was close to his. "Again," he wheezed out.
She was going to refuse. He could see it, but the mermaids surfaced near them and silently watched. Waiting.
"On three," she said before counting. "One, two, three!"
They dove down again until Eli could grasp the bars. He closed his eyes and let the magic flow through him as he pried the plastic away, seamlessly melding his strength and telekinesis until the plastic gave, with an extra jolt of too much power. It propelled Eli and Ivy backwards a dozen feet. Eli dropped the piece and turned to hook his arms around Ivy's neck as she floated them up to the top.
They broke the surface laughing in relief and elation. Eli hugged her hard as the grin spread painfully over his mouth. "We did it!"
"Thank you," Ivy said into his ear. Elated didn’t even begin to cover how Eli felt.
"We is helping now," came the voice of Keela from their side. “Be thanks to you.”
Eli turned to her. “We need a boat of some kind, something that can hold a few people.”
“There is nothing like that,” Keela told him. “You has to make it.”
“Great,” Eli muttered almost under his breath.
“We’ll figure it out,” Ivy promised. “Tomorrow night we’ll be back in the lake with a boat. Will you come find us to help?”
Keela nodded her bald head and sank into the black lake.
“We have a small problem,” Ivy said a moment later. “I have to get out of the lake.”
Eli slowly scanned the scaffolding. “I think I have this.”
It half-worked. Ivy used the water to booster her out of the lake and onto the lowest railing. Eli tried, in vain, to hold tight to the pylons that supported the bridge, but they were so slick it was nearly impossible. In the end, Ivy had to boost him up as well.
Once onto a solid ledge, Eli was able to use the magic to move Ivy up higher and higher, alternately climbing up after her, or pushing himself up using the bridge. Several times he nearly fell back into the lake.
The moment they were in arm’s reach, Thane hauled them both up where they collapsed onto the bridge in a state of complete exhaustion.
“It’s done?” Thane asked as he surveyed the two. Eli nodded weakly, unable to form words.
“You look like drowned rats,” Claire said cheerily. “We found a place to hide.”
It was all Eli could do to crawl to his feet. Ivy was little better. She, though, wasn’t stupid. When Thane offered her an arm to help her walk, she accepted.
Eli’s pride had him stumbling along behind them, ready to throw up as they went off the other side of the bridge and around.
What Claire had discovered was a niche under the bridge that was sort of a bricked up room. It even had two old reclining chairs and a table. Ivy dropped into one and Eli fell into the other as a cloud of dust flew up around him, making his eyes burn. Ivy coughed twice, but then curled into a ball.
“I’m going to go get the blankets and some food from the jeep,” Thane told them. “I’ll be back in an hour or so, then we can work on a plan. Claire will look after you.”
Claire beamed at her brother, who ruffled her hair.
Eli barely heard him. All he could manage to do was close his eyes and drop heavily into sleep.
The dreams, as they often did, came fast and hard, knocking Eli’s senses off kilter. Naomi’s young face swam around him like ripples in the dark lake water. Her face was pale, almost scaly like the mermaids, but her hands were red.
So much red as she cried and pressed them to her side. Eli wanted to reach out to her, but she screamed at him and ran from the room.
The room he was in spun until he saw a door that held nothing but black. He backed away from it, but the room began to close around him until there was no room to breathe, to think…
“Eli,” a voice called to him, shaking him from his nightmare.
He blinked his eyes open and spotted Claire’s amber eyes watching him anxiously. “I think you were having a dream,” she said in a whisper. “Are you okay?”
He nodded and rubbed at his aching head. It sometimes happened when he used too much magic. “I’m okay, just a nightmare. Is Thane back yet?”
“He’s been and gone,” Claire explained as she pointed to the blanket that covered him. “Ivy is still asleep. Are you hungry?”
Eli was starving. He didn’t even stop long enough to taste the food he was shoveling into his mouth. His clothes were still damp from the lake, his hair was plastered to his head, and he smelled rank, but all he could think about was food.
Claire silently handed him things until he was stuffed. “Thane does the same thing,” she mused in a whisper.
“Where did he go?” Eli asked now that his brain was refueled, and he could think straight.
“He’s gone to try to find something to use as a boat,” Claire explained as she packed away the rest of the food. “The only boat on the lake belongs to the Overseer, so we can’t exactly steal that one.”
“We could,” Eli chuckled. “Or we could blow it up. That’s what we did with my dad’s boat.”
“You blew it up?” Claire giggled as she beamed at him. “Oh, my father would have been so mad!”
Eli shrugged. “Mine was mad, but I didn’t give him the chance to do anything about it.” That sounded a lot like bragging, which left him shifting uneasily in his seat. “We were fighting when it exploded,” he explained as he turned at Ivy’s shifting on her chair. He thought for a moment that she’d wake up, but she rolled over and went back to sleep.
“She’s been out for hours now,” Claire said as she moved over to the entrance and gazed out into the breaking dawn.
“Have you slept any?” Eli asked her. When she shook her head, he forced himself to his feet and pointed to the chair. “Sit, it’s my turn to take watch.”
Claire shook her dark braided hair. “I’m okay.”
“You need to be rested before tonight,” Eli reminded her. “We have some kids to save, and I need you to be in good shape.”
Claire sucked her lower lip in and seemed to worry at it for a minute. “Are you really going to let me help?”
“You’ve been helpful so far,” he reminded her honestly. “I think you’ll be good to have along.”
She smiled then, but it was a tired smile. “Okay. I’ll get some sleep.”
She curled up under the blanket he’d been using, on the chair that was still wet and rank from Eli’s clothes dripping onto it all night, and fell almost immediately asleep.
Eli glanced around the hole they were using as shelter and found that there wasn’t much to it, save some dirt on the floor, and trash in the corner. He scrubbed at his filthy face with even dirtier hands and wished he could get a shower.
Ivy yawned, and he turned to see her stretching in her seat. She tried to run a hand through her hair, but it stuck almost immediately. “Ew,” she muttered, but shut her mouth when he held his finger up to his lips for quiet, then pointed over to the sleeping Claire.
“The lake was foul,” Eli grumbled as Ivy stood and moved over to rummage through the food which was in a bag on the floor.
“Mmhmm,” she mumbled around a mouthf
ul of bread. “It was really polluted,” Ivy said as she swallowed a huge chunk of cheese in one go. “Daggers, I’m starving.”
“I was, too,” he said as he squatted down next to her and peeked through the bag. Thane hadn’t brought more than a good day’s worth of supplies, but that was okay. They wouldn’t need much. “Thane went to find a boat of some kind.”
Ivy yawned again, hugely, and stretched upwards, twisting her neck to the side until they heard a pop. She sighed in relief. “Good, we need to get that settled before tonight.”