“How do you know all this?” Marty asks.
Ewin shrugs. “My ex-girlfriend is a Wiccan.”
Then a car flashes its hazard lights and jumps the curb. Ewin reaches out a hand and places it on the hood of the car. The tires squeak, and the engine cuts off. “State your name and purpose.”
The side gate opens and Frederik is a flash beside the passenger door. “That’s dinner.”
“Not me, right, Fred?” the short delivery guy says. “Just the pizza, right, Fred?”
Frederik shoves an envelope into the delivery guy’s hand. The guy tries to help carry the pizza in, but the vampire holds up his hand in a “stay” motion.
“Hey, Fred, when are you going to let me into the Alliance?” The delivery guy pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I’ve got skills, man. I’m real handy in a tight spot. What are you planning, huh? An evil force about to take over the city? You’re not wearing that, are you? Superheroes need spandex and a big symbol.”
“We’ll talk,” Frederik says with a pained smile. The guy drives away and Frederik mutters, “Soon as you stop calling me Fred.”
“Can you guys go inside?” I shout.
I take this moment of being alone to look up at the gray overcast sky. Thick clouds hang so low it looks like they’re eating the tops off buildings. Mermaids don’t believe in heaven, so what’s the point of looking up and giving a shout out to my grandfather? “I won’t fail you.”
I said the same words to Isi in the Vale of Tears, but this time it’s different. I can only promise to try as hard as I can and hope my words find him.
I feel a hot twinge between my shoulder blades and blame it on all the beatings I’ve taken. Six bags of salt later, I’ve drawn a thick line around our perimeter. I run to the empty second floor, along the white balcony banister, until I find the empty room where Shelly could be. She floats over the tiled floor as if she’s moving underwater.
“Shelly?”
I inch closer. Her black eyes are dilated toward the ceiling, and her lips move rapidly in the language of the gods—that’s what oracles speak.
“I wouldn’t interrupt,” Frederik says.
I jump and put my hand on my heart. “Don’t do that.”
“We have a problem.”
I rub the pain in my skull. “What is it?”
Below, my cousin Brendan is trying to push back a merman who’s pointing a finger at Amada. She gets ready to crouch on her hind legs, but when she sees me, she resists the urge to change. The merman punches Brendan, who stumbles into Penny’s outstretched tentacles. Kai has her hands up, yelling at them to stop, but dozens of punches fly. Glass shatters and walls are punched to dust. I fear we may kill each other before our enemies have a chance.
What was I expecting?
That the landlocked, the Alliance, and the Sea Court would get along famously? That they would see that we are in this together? That if we start fighting over things that happened hundreds of years ago, we don’t stand a chance?
That all it would take would be me to bring them together? And if I can’t pull together this army, how will I pull together a kingdom?
I run downstairs, narrowly avoiding a blow to the face. I snatch the golden conch from a guard’s neck and blow.
They turn, one by one. I blow the conch again, the hollow noise vibrating against the walls.
“What is going on?” I stand at the center of the room.
Brendan wipes a cut on his lip and brushes his red hair out of his face. He and Amada stand behind me.
Dylan has a white-haired merman by the arms, pulling him away from Jim, one of the landlocked. Jim is shaking so hard that the light protruding from his forehead blinks like a strobe light. Penny puts an arm on his shoulder and begs him to calm down. He points at his attacker. “Stay away from me.”
I have new sympathy for my coach after all the times my boys and I started fights with other swim teams.
“Is this why we’re here?” I ask them. “To rip each other to shreds? Because you really should save some for Nieve and her merrows.”
They erupt in wordless chatter. Their voices are so loud that they sound like a swarm of mutant wasps.
I bang the Scepter of Earth on the cement floor. The sharp sound makes some of the merpeople cringe. “Enough! ”
I can sense that everyone is ready to grab their weapons, and I know that, for better or worse, I have to end this.
“This is not conducive to defeating the sea witch,” I say. “Toliss is overrun. The Glass Castle is destroyed. We have to band together or there won’t be a Sea Court to save.”
“So it’s true?” Penny asks. “The Glass Castle is gone?”
I nod my head. “Kurt and I blew it up with an entire merrow army inside it.”
“Kurt?” Penny raises her eyebrows, eyes shifting to Thalia. “Where—?”
“He’s gone,” I say to Thalia. “He didn’t say where, but wherever he is, we know that he’s with Lucine.”
Thalia nods silently.
“Nieve wants to rule,” I say, standing between the people of land and sea and those in between. “She’s terrorized you out of your homes. She’s taken hold of the island. She has her magic and her army of merrows. But she doesn’t have this.” I hold up my scepter. “I won’t let her.”
“Then tell us.” The white-haired merman loosens himself from Dylan’s hold. “Tell us how you plan on stopping the most powerful mermaid of our lifetime.”
I don’t answer them. Come on, Shelly, I think.
Nieve thinks she knows me. She’ll assume I’ll go straight for Layla. It kills me inside, but I have to go to the nautilus maid first.
“I don’t suppose the prince knows,” says a shrewd-looking, slender mermaid with scalloped braids piled atop her head. “I suppose he’ll send us out as bait to give him time to rescue that girl. We don’t stand a chance.”
“Wait a minute,” I say defensively. “I never said that.”
“Don’t talk to him like that,” Penny says.
The scarlet-scaled mermaid points a finger in Penny’s direction. “Who are you to talk to the prince, you banished scum?”
“That’s unnecessary,” I tell her.
“Taking their side, are you?” shouts another mermaid. She’s shaking and has a bright red gash on her arm. “They said you’d be fonder of the banished than of the true folk.”
“I am true,” Penny says, but her courage is failing her. It’s those years of secret meetings in abandoned subway rooms, led by a man who wanted nothing more than to exploit them. Use them. Always reminding them that they were of the sea but could not be part of it.
“Penny fought side by side with me right on this shore,” I say. “Can any of you say the same?”
Some cross their arms, refusing to look at me. Others look torn between what they’ve always been told and a future that is completely unknown.
“Most of you have known me for the blink of an eye.” I point to both sides of the room. “It’s a lot to ask for your trust, but know that you are not just bait to me. And if you can’t at least be civil with each other, then we’re all dead.”
The warehouse is silent for a long time. Everyone trades suspicious glances until finally my friends decide to lead by example. Dylan walks up to me and bows his head, then nods to the Alliance and landlocked behind me. He takes Penny’s hand and shakes it. His men follow suit, bowing at me on the way to take arms with strangers.
I have a knot in my stomach, waiting for swords to fly, but it doesn’t happen. Finally there are a few merpeople left, still on their side. They’re older, and under the fluorescent lights their skin is tinged with an algae-colored paleness.
“I’m not shaking hands with him,” the old merman says, pointing at Jim with the flashlight dangling from his forehead.
Jim tur
ns his cheek to the old man but doesn’t respond. I suspect he’s had a lifetime of those kinds of comments.
But the old man persists, walking toward him with an accusatory finger pointed at him. “His father was there the first time around with Nieve. He and his kind should have stayed buried in their caves.”
Jim, who I’ve never seen smile before, bares a hideous set of teeth. His jaw unhinges and elongates further than his upper lip.
The old man draws his sword.
And then so does everyone else.
I bang my scepter on the ground again. “Get. Back.”
The old man looks like he wants nothing more than to drive that blade into the closest body he can find. So I stand between him and Jim.
“If you won’t consider the things I’ve said, then the best thing for you to do is leave.”
Some of the mermaids gasp.
“Do you know who I am, boy?” the old merman says.
“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“I am Sulas, son of Tulastian.” He puffs up his chest the way I’ve seen those red-breasted birds do. “I fought alongside your grandfather. What did that mongrel do but come from a long line of banished folk? What did these beasts ever do, other than hide in the shadows of the dry land?”
I get up close to Sulas, son of Tulastian, and he doesn’t pull his sword away. The tip pricks my skin. Brendan and Marty step forward, but I hold my hand up and they stop advancing.
“I’m only going to say this one more time. If you won’t consider the things I’ve said, you can leave. I will not force anyone who doesn’t want to be here to fight with me. I don’t have time for titles or lordships. We’re not in Toliss. We’re in Brooklyn. I want people who are true and willing to fight for the future, not the past.”
It isn’t the thing he wants to hear from me.
It isn’t the thing many of them want to hear from me.
So, Sulas, son of Tulastian, sheathes his sword. He smiles at me and says, “Then you will die at the hands of the silver mermaid, Land Prince,” and walks out into the Coney Island night.
The chill air comes in, along with the stink of rotting flesh polluting the water. The building shakes. A light pulses through the air, the walls, and my skin, right down to my chest. The headache that’s been pounding in my head is gone, and I feel weightless.
Then my remaining army of strays gasps in awe at the light coming from the second floor. It’s Shelly, floating, her black hair thick and long and moving as if underwater. She descends over us, landing right in the middle of the room. Hands reach out to touch her, just to make sure she’s real.
Her eyes trained on me, Shelly says, “Don’t ever say I don’t come through on my promises, Tristan Hart. It will only last until morning, I’m afraid.”
“That’s fine,” I say, “because tomorrow, we fight.”
“How many does that make?” I ask, though I don’t want to know the answer.
Marty looks up at the chandelier and counts the people who’ve left on his fingers. “Twenty-one.”
“Seventeen.” Dylan corrects him. “When my kinsman learned Shelly favors you, he and his brothers decided to stay.”
Dylan sits beside Marty and accepts a slice of pizza. Even though Frederik says the entire city has been evacuated due to a massive hurricane warning, Dominick’s Pizza is still open. After our little scuffle, most of the pizza was splattered on the art deco walls. We reordered a hundred large pies—cheese, bacon, and pineapple—because it’s my way of getting the merpeople to trust me.
Brendan appraises the newcomer. “Pardon me, but what are you?”
“I am Ewin of the Vasiks clan,” he says. “I am not man nor beast. I simply am. I come from the Vasiks dimension, which is now a black hole.”
“Do all your kind have those?” Brendan touches his own chin.
“Those who are left, yes. I am indebted to Tristan Hart and his generals. They saved me from a lifetime of unhappiness.”
“Generals,” Marty says, liking the title. “I can live with that.”
There have been zero arguments over hundred-year-old grievances for half an hour. We have enough cliques to put my high-school cafeteria to shame. The court mermaids are fish out of water, touching every surface of the great room. There is not a single vase, portrait, or light switch that is left untouched. Those with children have commandeered all available bathrooms to keep the babies in water because they can’t shift yet and scream bloody murder.
The Sea Guard is more willing to mingle with the landlocked and Alliance members. The Alliance is schooling the guard on life on land, and the guard shows the landlocked new fighting techniques.
Some of the older folk stay close to Shelly. Every couple of minutes, she looks over to me, like she’s on a date she can’t escape. She’s not used to being the center of attention, but I think a secret part of her has always wanted to be as powerful as her sisters. It’s easier to be humble about the things you have when you’ve gone so long without.
Me, on the other hand, I’ve always been in the spotlight. Captain, lifeguard, and all-around stud. Now? The landlocked and the Sea Court come up to me to touch my hands, as little kids run around wielding weapons to be like me and run up just to have a look at the Scepter of Earth close up. I don’t know what to do with this kind of influence. One older mermaid with pale green hair that reminds me of pistachio ice cream smiles her wrinkled face at me and kisses the scales at my ankles.
“It’s the worship of the king,” Kai tells me as the woman walks away.
I want to say that I don’t like it, but I don’t want to hurt their feelings.
Marty edges closer to where Dylan sits with his legs crossed. “So you were in that Neverland too, huh?”
Dylan’s golden face becomes red. He has a mouth full of pizza and mumbles, “Mmm-hmm.” I can tell he’s burning his tongue but he swallows without chewing. “I found Lord Tristan when he was getting attacked by the—”
I clear my throat and give him a look that says “Shut the hell up.” Amada retreats into her seat and I put my hand on her shoulder.
She frowns. “I was not attacking him. I was trying to get him out of the mud pit.”
Dylan looks sideways, raking his fingers through his blond mane. “The growling must’ve confused me.”
“Either way, I’m glad Tristan has found a new protector,” Frederik says, leaning against the wall with a Slurpee cup. The straw fills up with a deep red liquid, which makes Dylan and Brendan gag, not being used to vampires.
“You did a brave thing, Tristan,” Kai says. “The landlocked have never had a voice in the court. Most of them—us—never think of them unless vile stories are being told. Those who’ve stayed are doing something their ancestors never would have.”
I pick a pineapple chunk off my pizza and let the sugar coat my tongue. “It would have been nice to have those numbers.”
“Numbers aren’t everything,” Rachel the Red Menace reminds me. “A true soldier is better than a dozen soldiers who don’t believe in your cause.”
“I’m not doubting my people,” I say. “What if, even despite my best intentions, half of them end up as bait?”
“Wars have their casualties,” Kai says, like she’s reading a line from one of her dad’s textbooks.
“These aren’t casualties. They’re people. Or merpeople. And vampires. And werewolves.”
“And demigods,” Rachel amends.
“And demigods,” I say. “They’re real, live creatures who are caught in something that is my family’s fault.”
“That’s true,” Brendan says, eliciting a head slap from Kai. “What? I only meant that each of the three trident pieces has gone to members of the Triton line. Nieve, the first daughter of King Elanos. King Karanos’s son and grandson. Except me. He said I’d have my own role.”
“And what’s that?” I ask.
“To remember my family.”
“A shiny weapon would have also been nice,” Marty whispers to Dylan.
“And to never let you forget that I’m more handsome than you,” Brendan says, reaching for another slice, but I have a feeling there’s more to what our grandfather said to him. “Are we finished already? By the seas, you must keep better stock if you want to feed an army, Cousin Tristan.”
“Marty,” Frederik said “Call Dominick’s—”
Then it hits me. “How is Nieve feeding her massive army of flesh-eating merrows?”
“She’s not going to do it here.” Frederik throws out his drink cup. “We’ve got our patrols up. I’ve called our allies in Staten Island and on the Jersey Shore and warned them to post guards.”
“I’m going to double ours, to be safe.” Rachel conjures her crossbow from smoke. She turns to a group of the landlocked. Points at the green sumo wrestler and the guy wearing the Hurricane Gym tank. “You two. Names?”
“Monty,” says the sumo.
“Alligash,” say Hurricane Gym.
“Come, you’re with me.”
The room shakes as they follow the Red Menace out onto the boardwalk.
I rub my itchy eyes. Other than my concussed naps, I can’t remember the last time I had solid sleep. I’m too wired. Too crazed. In my mind, I can picture Nieve waiting for me. She’s got Layla. She’s got the nautilus maid. The full moon is tomorrow, and I’m running out of time. She’s got the upper hand, and she’s not going to give it up. The next move is on me.
“Guys, I think I should go to Nieve alone.”
A dozen eyes fall on me instantly. Swords clink in practice, and there’s even some hushed laughter and the buzz of conversation. Then in seconds, my friends are up in arms around me.
That’s suicide, Cousin.
That’s why we’ve joined forces!
Yeah, you said yourself that we’re stronger together.
What good can come of you dead before you reach her?
Vast and Brutal Sea Page 15