Breakwater

by Catherine Jones Payne

  I shook my head. Better to go in two or three days and give her a little more time to work through the numb disbelief.

  How well I remembered the numb disbelief. I would go in the morning in two days, I decided.

  And in the meantime, I wouldn’t go anywhere else.

  Benjamin arrived home from school that day with a vacant expression on his face.

  “What’s wrong, urchin?” I hugged him. “They didn’t give you a hard time about Tor and me, did they?”

  “It’s not your fault,” he said.

  I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach, but I managed a winning smile. “Who was mean to you? I’ll throw them to a school of sharks.”

  He laughed and rolled his eyes. “Really, it’s fine. They just like to talk. That’s all.”

  “I’ve had quite a day myself.”

  “Sounds like I might need to throw someone to the sharks.”

  I curled my arm around his shoulder and ruffled his short but perfectly coiffed blue hair. “That’s why you’re my favorite.”

  “Hey,” he said, quirking his lips as he smoothed his hair back into place.

  “Seriously, though.” I pulled back and crossed my arms. “We’re gonna get through this together. The whole family. And if anyone gives you a hard time, I’ll beat ‘em up.”

  He stared into the distance. “Do you think Pippa’s doing alright?”

  “No.” I toyed with a thread that had come loose at the edge of my wrap. “I’m sure she isn’t. I mean, you remember how it was when Father died.”

  “I dealt with it differently than you did. It didn’t seem real to me for the longest time.”

  “And when it hit you?”

  He paused. “Yeah, I guess Pippa’s probably pretty bad off right now.”

  “I’m going to see her in a couple days. She’ll appreciate your concern.”

  He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Are you afraid?” he finally asked. “About all of this?”

  “You’ve grown up a lot when I wasn’t looking.”

  “You’re avoiding the question.”

  I sighed. “Yeah. I’m a little afraid and a lot sad. Yesterday morning I was planning a wedding. When I came in from the reef, I caught myself wondering whether we should serve lobster or swordfish to the guests after the ceremony.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “And I know you must be disappointed, too,” I continued. “You admired Tor.”

  He snorted. “I don’t admire him if he’s killing people.”

  I burst out laughing. “No,” I managed. “No, I don’t suppose you do.” My laughter turned to sobs, and Benjamin rested his hand on my shoulder. “It’s just awful,” I whispered. “Everything about this whole skub situation.”

  “Yeah. It is. I wish I could fix it, but since I can’t, want a snack?”

  “You know how to cheer me up,” I said with a chuckle. Numbness still clenched at my heart, but it felt good to remember that I wasn’t alone. “What do we have in the kitchen?”

  Two days later, George provided me with Pippa’s address, and I found myself donning a cloak and flitting toward the naiad quarter. Kora was right; it was easier to move around the city with my identity concealed.

  My nerves fluttered as I soared through the sandy-bottomed canals and crossed the boundary between the part of Thessalonike that belonged to the mer and the section we had given to the naiads when they’d sought refuge with us ten years earlier.

  Even though my identity was hidden, I couldn’t conceal that I was mer, and I caught several curious glances from naiads as they jetted through the water on currents of bubbles.

  It wasn’t that mer never came to this part of the city—I saw two others on my way to Pippa’s—so I wondered why I was attracting so much attention. They couldn’t know I was Tor’s fiancée.

  Ex-fiancée, I reminded myself. Something like grief took hold of me, but I shook it off and swam faster to try to distract myself.

  More naiads turned to look at me as I hastened through the quarter. Pulling my cloak tighter around my face, I counted the canals I passed until I found Pippa’s.

  I blinked several times in succession at the small, worn homes chiseled out of rock. They probably consisted of only one room each. Barnacles clung to the exteriors, and tan sandstone—rather than the brilliant coral I was accustomed to—made up the walls.

  Not that I’d expected the naiads to live like the nobles. When I thought about it, I wasn’t sure what I’d expected.

  I hesitated in front of Pippa’s house and rapped on the door three times. After a long, agonizing moment, she opened the door. Her bloodshot eyes widened. “Lady Jade? How can I help you?”

  “I’ve brought you a mourning gift,” I said, holding out an elegant sapphire necklace that I secretly hated. “And I thought you might like some company.”

  “Oh. Of course,” she said, taking the necklace from my hand and glancing at it with a wry expression. “Come in. It isn’t much.”

  I followed her inside and tried not to let my astonishment show. How could two people live in such close quarters?

  Not that it matters anymore, I thought grimly. Only one person lives here now.

  I cleared my throat. “I’m very sorry about your sister,” I said, sinking into one of the fishing-net hammocks that lined her rough-hewn table.

  “From what I understand, you discovered her?” she asked, her voice quavering. She set the necklace on the table and smoothed her flowing dress.

  “Yes.”

  She ran a hand through her long, chestnut locks. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

  My throat tightened. “Yes,” I said, desperately searching for something to say. “You saw us after Father died, so you know that I have some understanding of—”

  “Stop.” Pippa held up her hand. “It was kind of you to come here today, but you don’t understand.”

  “I—”

  “Lady Jade, with all due respect, I’m sure you grieved when your father died, but you are among your people. You have family and friends and enough money to get by even if all your connections are stripped away. My family is dead. All of them. My parents died when the poison began to course through the rivers, and my brother was killed by a hydra during the journey to Thessalonike.

  “And this promised land? Where we were assured we would be welcome because of our longstanding trade relationship with the mer? We live in poverty. We are harassed. We are hated. They’re afraid of our water-casting. And now Anna is gone, along with her income, which helped pay the rent for this house. No, Lady Jade, you do not understand.”

  I opened my mouth and then closed it again. I cannot imagine.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “You mean well. I overstepped.”

  “No.” I threaded my fingers together. “I was insensitive.”

  She chuckled quietly, scratching her neck. “It’s been a difficult week. I still half-expect her to burst through the door at any moment.”

  “Let’s start over,” I said. “I’m very sorry to hear about Anna. Do you want to talk about her?”

  A wistful smile played on her lips. “What can I say? She was my baby sister. Headstrong, annoying, beautiful.” Her voice cracked.

  I remained silent and imagined how I’d feel if someone hurt Benjamin. I marveled at her composure. In her place, I’d hunt down Tor and kill him myself.

  “She worked hard. She’d grown up so much in the last couple of years. What was your father like?”

  I glanced up, startled. “Well, he was a really good person. A huge help to my mother but successful in his own right. So perceptive it frustrated me. Now I miss his ability to pinpoint what was going on at any given time. He was a lot like George, actually. They always got along. They were friends, despite their difference in rank.”

  I’m rambling now, I realized. I fell quiet.

  A soft smile played on her lips. “Perhaps you do understand, just a little.”

  I me
t her gaze, and we both relaxed. “What did you and Anna do together?”

  “Well, recently we worked a lot.” She crossed her legs underneath her billowy dress. “The owner raised our rent two months ago, and we couldn’t really afford it anymore.”

  I arched an eyebrow but couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound like an insult.

  “When we were younger, we liked to cross the breakwater and swim over the deep ocean.”

  “No way!” I leaned forward. “My dolphin and I do that all the time.”

  Her eyes lit up. “I’ve never heard of a mer who voluntarily left the safety of the reef to swim over the drop-off.”

  “I know. My friends think I’m crazy. I used to go with them when we were small, but they’ve grown afraid like everyone else. I know it’s a risk, but I figure as long as I have Kiki with me, it’ll be alright.”

  “How’d you end up with a dolphin?”

  “She was orphaned by a webbed-foot dragon when I was eleven. One of the very first times my parents let me leave the city alone, I saw her mother get dragged off the reef. Have you ever heard a dolphin scream before?”

  She shook her head.

  “It’s the most haunting thing you can imagine,” I said. “Kiki was just swimming back and forth like she didn’t know what to do. The whole pod must’ve been scared off. Even though I was nervous that the dragon might come back, I waited out there with her for three hours, but her pod never returned for her.”

  “I’m surprised she let you get close.”

  “She actually swam right up to me as soon as she saw me. It was like she knew I wanted to protect her.”

  “What’d you do when you realized she’d been left behind?”

  Laughing, I said, “I brought her right past the guards into the city and hid her in my room for almost two months before Father caught me. I thought for sure he’d make me return her to the reef, but he said I could keep her until she was big enough to take care of herself. Mother took more convincing, but Father persuaded her. After she got too big to stay in my room, I took her back outside the city. She’s stayed nearby ever since, so I go out to swim with her a few days a week.”

  Pippa’s face lit up. “Anna would have loved that story. She would have wanted to meet Kiki.”

  “Well, I’ll have to take you out to see her someday when you aren’t working. We can swim in the deep water and pretend that Thessalonike and all its nonsense doesn’t exist.”

  “Do you mean that?” Something like hope flickered in her eyes.

  “Yes,” I said, reaching across the table to grasp her hand. “You and I both feel alone in this city, I think.”

  “You lost a lot that day too, didn’t you?”

  “Hmm?”

  “When Anna died. You threw away an engagement.”

  “I was engaged to a powerful merman with a violent streak,” I said, smoothing my fuchsia hair. “That’s a nasty combination. It sucked, but I don’t think I lost anything by giving him up. Although half the city seems to hate me now. I think his mother may literally be going from house to house spreading lies. And everyone loves him, so they want to believe her.” I stared at the dull sandstone wall.

  “His mother’s a harpy.”

  “You do the mending for them?”

  She held her hands in front of her and cast a stream of water from fingertip to fingertip. “No, but Anna worked in their house. She was always coming home with stories about how Yvonna had been awful to her.”

  “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “She seems sharp with anyone from a lower social strata. Maybe that’s why she’s always made me uncomfortable.”

  “I mean, she’s not a monster. The family paid Anna fairly. They offered better wages than almost any of the mer, in fact. And even though Yvonna got shrill, she never hit Anna or threatened to fire her, like a lot of our friends’ employers.” She sighed. “I don’t know. Anna was always frustrated, but it was a good job.”

  “Well, regardless, Yvonna’s angry, and she’s powerful, so that makes her dangerous to all of us. We’ll just have to be careful for a while.”

  “Thanks for going up against them. I don’t know that I would’ve been that brave in your place.”

  I shrugged. “It wasn’t—”

  Shouts from outside the house cut me off. Pippa and I looked at each other.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Then a tremor shook the house.

  Pippa stood, and I darted upward.

  A male voice called out, “Naiad scum!”

  Pippa’s lips tightened. “You need to get out of here,” she whispered. “It’s dangerous.”

  I wasn’t sure I was the one in danger.

  Another tremor. She grabbed my hand.

  “Through here.” She dragged me toward the back wall, moved a pile of rocks one by one, and exposed a door in the floor.

  “What the—”

  “Not now,” she hissed as she opened the door and pushed me through it.

  When my eyes adjusted, I found myself in a shadowed, horizontal corridor that seemed to run the length of the houses on the canal. The yells from above me grew louder. I heard a resounding crack.

  “Pippa?” I whispered.

  She jumped down beside me, a money pouch hanging around her neck, and then reached up to pull down the trapdoor. When it was secured, she started down the corridor, casting a gentle current behind us.

  “Hurry,” she said. “This won’t hold them off for long.”

  We hastened down the corridor until we reached what I assumed to be the end of the canal.

  “Up here,” she said, unhooking another trapdoor and drifting upward.

  With a flick of my fin, I followed her, and we broke out into the light. I hazarded a glance back in the direction of her house just in time to see a mob of about a dozen mer break down her door and stream inside.

  “Depths, Pippa! Can—”

  “I’ll explain later,” she said again. “We have to go. Out of the naiad quarter if at all possible.”

  I realized I’d left my cloak in her house in our rush.

  “Sure,” I said, hoping we wouldn’t be noticed. “We can go to my house. No one will bother us there.”

  We surged forward. The last remaining merman on the canal turned toward us just before we rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight of the mob.

  “Hey!” he yelled, recognizing either Pippa or me. I wasn’t sure which.

  “Swim.” I darted forward as fast as my fin could propel me.

  Pippa shaped a stream of water with her hands, creating a narrow but rapid current on which to push herself forward so she easily kept pace with me. We careened around a corner and onto a wide canal, sparsely populated by naiads.

  But the mer in pursuit proved faster, and before we could reach the edge of the quarter, the fastest of them grabbed my fin and tugged me backward. Pain shot up my tail, all the way into my waist.

  “What do you think you’re doing with the naiads, Lady Jade?” the merman spat. “More conspiracies?”

  Pippa shot a stream of water at him and knocked him backward. I scrambled away.

  With a shout, he launched toward Pippa and grabbed ahold of her body. He delivered one punch to her side, and she doubled over. I screamed and darted forward to push him away from her, but another merman grabbed my arms and pinned them behind my back.

  Pippa drew her hands back to pelt her assailant with another surge of water, but he grasped both her slender wrists in one of his hands. Then he yanked a small coral blade from his belt and plunged it into her side.

  Chapter Five

  The merman floated backward for a moment, surveyed the damage, and darted away.

  I froze. Everything stopped.

  Then Pippa sank toward the seafloor, a stream of dark red blood curling upward away from her body, and I rushed forward to catch her.

  “Help!” I screamed. I looked desperately from house to house, but the canal was
empty except for the mob now slowly backing away from us.

  I caught a glimpse of a naiad peeking out from behind a curtain across the canal, but no one came to our aid.

  Gathering Pippa up, I pressed my hand against her wound, lunged forward, and surged out of the quarter toward the house of physicians, praying I could get her there before it was too late. Blood leaked through my fingers, and I looked up toward the surface, on alert for sharks or dragons that might be drawn to the smell.

  “Move!” I yelled at a dolphin driver blocking my way as I turned onto a busy canal. The house of physicians lay two blocks away.

  The driver looked up at me and down at the blood seeping from Pippa’s wound. His face blanched. He reached forward and slapped his dolphin’s side, and they rushed away from us.

  Murmurs spread through the crowd as I soared down the canal. I burst into the house of physicians.

  A mermaid in a close-fitting, white wrap met my gaze.

  My hands trembled. “She’s been stabbed.”

  I looped up and down the corridor near Pippa’s room. The physicians had assured me they were doing everything they could to control the bleeding and mend the damage, but it brought me no comfort.

  Did I bring the danger to her? Was I followed?

  Another white-clad mermaid approached me. “Lady Jade? You brought in the naiad, right? With the stab wound?”

  I nodded, entwining my fingers. “She’s a friend. How is she?”

  “We’re going to keep her for a few days to make sure infection doesn’t set in, but she’s very lucky you were there to bring her in. I think she’s going to be just fine.”

  Relief swept over my tense body, and I pushed water through my gills. “Thank you. I’m very glad to hear that. Can I see her?”

  “Sure,” she said. “We’re done working on her for now.”

  I followed her into a room with light blue coral walls. Pippa lay on a bed on the far side of the room.

  “How are you holding up?” I asked.

  A hint of a smile cracked her lips. “It’s been a rough week.”

  I tilted my head. “It speaks well of you that you can still smile.”

  “I learned a long time ago that you have to be able to laugh no matter what. Otherwise you start weeping and never stop.”