Breakwater

by Catherine Jones Payne

  “Off with you!” Mother yelled.

  The bearded mer, whom I assumed to be the naiad’s assailant, slinked away.

  “Someone call for a physician!” Mother shouted.

  Our neighbor, Brendan, nodded and swam away in the direction of the house of physicians.

  In a quieter voice, Mother said, “Bring him inside.”

  Aunt Junia grabbed the naiad’s legs, Mother took his upper back, and they carried him toward our door.

  Moments later, the door closed, and I bolted out of my room, down the corridor and into the living area. Benjamin didn’t follow.

  While Mother and Aunt Junia laid the naiad on our table, I strained for a look at his face.

  It was Pippa’s friend. William. My gills pulsed.

  Blood drained from a gash that stretched from the middle of his forehead to his temple.

  “Will he be alright?” I asked.

  “Get some bandages.” Mother pressed her hand to the wound.

  I hurried up the corridor and grabbed a handful of old cloths and a shell of chilyo paste. Then I rushed back down to the main level and thrust the supplies into Aunt Junia’s hands.

  “Good instinct, dear,” she said, looking at the paste.

  She set the bandages on the table next to William and scooped out a thick dollop of paste with her finger.

  She motioned for Mother to step aside and brushed the paste onto William’s forehead until the wound was covered. Once she contained the bleeding, she wrapped the bandage tightly around the wound.

  “Wake up,” she said, grabbing his hands.

  “His name’s William,” I said.

  Mother shot me a questioning look, but I ignored her.

  “His sister Miriam lives in the naiad quarter,” I said. “She needs to know he’s hurt.”

  “The physician will be here soon,” said Mother. “We can send word once we have more information to report.”

  I went to my room to grab my cloak. Benjamin still sat next to my window, tracing the sill with his finger. “How bad is it?”

  “There’s some blood. He’s unconscious but alive.”

  “Do Mother and Aunt Junia need any help?”

  His voice seemed flatter than usual, and I took a moment to study his face. I shook my head. “They’ve done everything they know to do. The physicians should be able to help more.” I reached for my cloak and pulled it over my shoulders and around my face. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’m fine. It’s just . . . this month’s been a lot, you know? I don’t even know how to respond to any of it, and everything just keeps getting worse. It feels like the whole world’s falling apart.”

  I laid my hand on his shoulder. “We’re all just muddling through as best we can, urchin.”

  “I know,” he said with a deep sigh.

  “I—I need to go do something. You sure you’re fine by yourself up here? Aunt Junia and Mother might be busy for a while, but we could send for George or one of your friends to keep you company.”

  “No. I’ll be fine. I haven’t been through nearly as much as you have.”

  “Doesn’t mean it isn’t hard,” I said.

  “I’m almost fourteen. I can handle it.” A small smile turned up the corners of his lips.

  After a final squeeze of his shoulder, I returned down the corridor.

  “I’m going to find Pippa,” I said to Mother and Aunt Junia. “She’ll be able to tell Miriam.”

  “You will do no such thing,” Mother said in a quiet, steady voice as she checked William’s pulse.

  “It’s the right thing to do. I’m old enough to get married. You can’t treat me like I’m a child.”

  “It is the right thing to do, but you are not the right person to do it. Not now. Not with the unrest in the city. If you get hurt, it will only make everything worse. I’ll make sure his sister is notified as soon as I can.”

  I held her stare for a minute and then glanced down at William. This is my fault. If tensions weren’t so bad, he wouldn’t have been attacked. Not in this part of town.

  With a terse nod at Aunt Junia, I swooped out the back door.

  “Pippa!” I clutched my cloak around my face with my left hand and knocked on Pippa’s door with my right. I hadn’t even pulled the cloak down when I crossed the canal into the quarter.

  She cracked her door open. “Jade? What are you doing here so late? What’s wrong?”

  “It’s William. He’s hurt. Bad. I thought Miriam should know, but I don’t know where they live.”

  Pippa nodded, tightening her lips into a straight line. “Where is he?”

  “In my home for now. He was attacked in the canal outside my house.”

  “Let’s go.” She stepped off the threshold onto the doorstep and locked the door. “She lives just down this way.”

  She extended her left arm, cast a current, and jetted down the canal as fast as I could swim.

  A few naiads glanced at me sideways and took a step or two away, but I still didn’t pull down my cloak. Mother was right—I shouldn’t be seen here, not so soon after the trial.

  Better to be thought a skub in search of contraband or hallucinogens than recognized in a bad part of town at night.

  We turned down one canal and then another until we arrived at a small, rundown house that I couldn’t distinguish from the structures on either side of it. Pippa rapped on the door.

  We waited in silence until a voice called from the other side, “Who is it?”

  “Pippa and Jade,” Pippa said.

  Miriam opened the door. With one look at our tight, anxious faces, she asked, “What’s going on?”

  “William’s hurt,” I said. “You should come.”

  Her face paled. “What happened?”

  “Someone attacked him in the canal near my home. He hit his head and was bleeding when we got him inside. My aunt staunched the wound, but he was still unconscious when I came to find you. They sent for a physician.”

  She opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it and ran a trembling hand through her shoulder-length brown hair. Finally, she whispered, “I’ll just grab a key and lock up.”

  When Miriam reemerged, Pippa gave her a hug. “Everything’s going to be alright, dear.”

  “Yes.” The tightness in Miriam’s voice belied her words. “It will be fine.”

  I thought of how pale William had looked sprawled out on the table, and uneasiness gripped my chest.

  We hastened toward my house. I hoped that William would still be there. Stay alive. Please, stay alive.

  As we reached the edge of the naiad quarter, I caught a glimpse of a silver-tailed merman on the other side of the canal. My shoulders spasmed as I took in his navy hair and laborer’s wrap. A bandage was wrapped around his arm where I’d stabbed him with my scrib earlier that day. Then I locked eyes with him. I tried to tighten my cloak around my face, but it was too late.

  He’d recognized me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “This way,” I said to the naiads, pointing back into the naiad quarter.

  “What is it?” Pippa asked.

  “I’ll explain while we move.” As we faded into the quarter, I asked Pippa to turn around and glance behind us. “Are we being followed?”

  She looked back. “No.”

  “Let’s go up several canals and cross at city center near the statues,” I said. “There are more people there. We’ll blend in easier.”

  “Who are you worried about?” Pippa asked as we sped down the canal.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know his name. A merman.”

  “What does he look like?”

  “Navy hair. Aquiline nose. Silver fin with some blue running through it. Broad-chested.”

  Pippa ground to a halt, her eyes wide.

  “What?” I asked. “Who is he?”

  “A mercenary. His name’s Cassian.”

  “A mercenary?”

  “From Marbella, originally, I think. Came
here three years ago and spends a lot of time in the naiad quarter. He’s always been nice enough to me, but rumors say he’ll take any job for the right price.”

  “Meaning . . . ”

  “Some people say he’s willing to be a hired blade.”

  “He’s an assassin?” I turned my head to glance back in the direction we’d come and saw Cassian creep around the corner.

  “If the stories are true.” She cast a look at him and scratched her forearm. “He’s never been detained by the inspectors, though. At least not that I know of. It might just be gossip.”

  “I . . . ” I trailed off and thought for a moment. “Let’s keep moving.”

  I pondered the strange, new information, keeping Cassian in my peripheral vision. He still followed several dozen tail-lengths away.

  “I don’t think he’s an assassin,” I said finally. “He grabbed my hair. Didn’t even pin me to the seafloor. I got away by stabbing him with my scrib. A trained killer wouldn’t have been so easy to escape from.”

  “Unless he wasn’t hired to kill you,” said Pippa. “Maybe he was just trying to scare you. Or . . . ”

  “Or what?”

  “Take something from you.” She bit her lip.

  “I wasn’t carrying anything valuable. I didn’t even have a money pouch on me.”

  Miriam rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, regardless, if he attacked you, we want to avoid him for now. The why of it doesn’t really matter. Please. We need to hurry.”

  I knew she was right, but the discrepancy still bothered me. No matter how I tried to solve it in my head, I couldn’t make sense of it.

  We careened around the last corner and into city center, barreling past the statues. When I looked down the canal to my left, I saw Cassian drift into city center, his eyes fixed on us. But we didn’t have time to slink away and hide.

  Miriam needs to get to William just in case . . . in case the worst happens. If Cassian’s determined to catch me, he’ll find me sooner or later.

  I quickened my pace, but he didn’t give chase. He stopped near the end of the row of statues and watched us. My heart beat rapidly, but I began to calm when I realized he’d stopped pursuing us.

  For now.

  We burst through the back door of my house to find Mother pacing back and forth and Benjamin sitting at the table.

  “You’re back,” Mother said, her voice flat. Her gills flapped at a frenetic pace.

  “Where’s William?” I asked, anxiety gripping my chest.

  “Two physicians came with a cart to take him to the house of healing.”

  “Is he going to be okay?” squeaked Miriam.

  Mother looked her in the eye. “I don’t know. His injury was severe, but the physicians seemed hopeful.”

  Frustration stirred inside me. For once in her life, can’t she say something calming in a crisis?

  “Well, let’s go to the house of healing, then.” Worry knitted Miriam’s brows, but she’d gotten her voice back under control, and it rang out calm and steady.

  I admired her. I didn’t think I would be as strong in such a situation. I certainly hadn’t been when Father was killed.

  I said, “I’ll come—”

  Mother’s glare cut me off.

  Pippa glanced between us and shook her head. “With Cassian out there, I think we’ll be safer without you. And it’s not like I don’t know how to get to the house of healing.”

  “Thank you for everything,” said Miriam, making eye contact with me. “Really.”

  “Sure,” I said softly. Dull exhaustion invaded every muscle in my body. When the naiads left, I turned to Mother and held up my hands. “I don’t want to fight about it. I’m going to go get some sleep.”

  I woke up late the next morning with an ache in my chest. For a moment, I was disoriented, and then I remembered. William.

  I pulled myself out of my hammock and meandered down the corridor to see if Mother was still home. To my relief, she had already left, probably for the palace. We’d be able to delay the fight.

  It was George’s day off, and I didn’t want to be alone all day while Benjamin was at school. I grabbed a quick breakfast, put on my plainest wrap—Rhea would never allow herself to be seen in such a garment—and set off for the house of healing, hoping against all hope that William had pulled through the night.

  Though I remained on my guard, I reached the house of healing without seeing any sign of the mysterious Cassian. When I entered, I asked the young mer at the front if she had any news on the naiad who’d been brought in the night before.

  “You a friend of his?” She scanned me. “Weren’t you in with that other naiad a few days ago?”

  “Yes, and yes.”

  She shrugged. “Not any of my business, I guess. He was alive last I heard. Last room on the left. Go on back. His sister’s still here.”

  I nodded, relieved that she hadn’t connected my face to Tor’s trial. Then again, my wrap didn’t exactly scream noble. I moved into the corridor and drifted toward the room she’d indicated.

  I floated into a room where Miriam sat on the edge of a bed. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” Miriam said, her eyes swollen and heavy.

  “How is he?”

  “Holding on. The physicians said if he made it through the night, his chances were good, so I’m optimistic.”

  “Oh, good,” I said with a sigh of relief. “You doing okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she replied. “Or I will be, anyway. It’s a shock, you know.”

  “I understand,” I said. “I really do. I—I lost my father quite suddenly to violence a few years ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I remember when that happened. Some naiad kids killed him, didn’t they?”

  “That’s what everyone thinks. The inspectors called it an accident, but that was just to smooth things over. Naiad liberationists, the rumors say.”

  Miriam shook her head. “I can’t imagine.”

  “We just had to learn to live with it. Father wasn’t a vindictive person, which helped. It wouldn’t have mattered as much to him whether they found the killer or not.”

  “Did you see who did this to William?”

  I thought for a moment, rubbing the back of my neck. “I think so. I don’t know for sure. But Mother did. I’m sure she filed a report with the inspectors.”

  Am I sure? She didn’t want me to report Tor. I pushed the thought to the back of my head.

  Miriam nodded, her soft brown eyes meeting mine. “Thanks for checking in on us.”

  “Is Pippa at home?”

  “As far as I know. She left an hour or two ago, when we knew he’d made it through the night. I’m sure she’s resting now.”

  “You should rest as well.”

  Miriam shook her head. “I need to be here in case anything changes.”

  I thought about inviting her to sleep at my house. After all, Mother and I lived much closer to the house of healing than she did—but something stopped me.

  I was already seen as a naiad-lover. It wouldn’t do to have them traipsing in and out at all hours of day and night. The neighbors would talk, and mer would tease Benjamin at school. It was bad enough that Pippa was around all the time, but at least we could say she worked for us.

  “Alright. I’m glad that . . . ” I hesitated. “I’m glad it looks like he’s coming through.”

  As quickly as I could, I turned around and hurried out of the room and down the hall. Heat flushed my cheeks. I hadn’t known what to say, and the awkwardness embarrassed me. I needed to get home.

  And hope that I get there before Mother returns and finds me gone.

  For once, luck proved to be on my side. The house was quiet when I returned. I carefully locked the door behind me and decided to pick up the drawing I’d started of Kiki weeks ago. I had just finished the shading on her fins when I heard a thunk come from the level above me.

  I froze. That’s odd. Is Mother home after all?

  I set down my scrib and list
ened more closely. I thought I heard a slight swish, like a fin flicking through the water. I darted into the kitchen and looked for anything I could use to protect myself.

  I grabbed a knife with shaking hands. Just in case. Better exiled than dead.

  I stared at the entrance to the corridor, the knife in my hand. Several more heartbeats passed with no sign of danger.

  I felt silly. But then I shook my head. I might have imagined the fin, but I hadn’t imagined the sound of something falling. I shifted the knife from hand to hand, wondering if I should stay there, armed, or flee the house.

  Surely it’s nothing. It’s Mother or Pippa or Benjamin. But I was too petrified to call out.

  The silence lingered another minute.

  Then Cassian burst out of the corridor and into the room.

  Time stretched out, and I saw each detail in precise, unforgiving clarity as he jolted toward me. His tight jaw. The tension lines around his eyes. A smooth scar running from his ribs down to his scales. If he carried a blade of his own, it was well concealed.

  I didn’t have the presence of mind to scream. When he grabbed my wrists, the knife in my hand sank to the floor.

  He shoved me against the wall. “Where is it?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Where is what?” I flailed, struggling against his grip.

  He rolled his bright blue eyes. “Playing dumb isn’t cute, milady. I need the tablet that Pippa hid here. I don’t like killing bystanders, and it’ll be a skub of a mess if I have to kill you. Just give it to me, and you’ll never see me again.”

  “What . . . tablet? What the depths are you talking about?”

  He tightened his grip on my wrists. “The naiads told you who I am, yes?”

  “They passed on the rumors they’d heard,” I said with a growl, trying to extricate one of my wrists from his grasp.

  “Then you know I’m not to be trifled with.”

  Fear stabbed my heart. “I—I can’t give you what I don’t have. Please. I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

  “My employer wants to use it to bring Felix to justice,” he said. “You’ll lose a little leverage once it’s public, but that’s offset by the damage it will do to Felix’s reputation. He and Yvonna won’t be able to touch you. They’ll be ruined.”