Blood of a Mermaid (17 page)

A few minutes later, he was just far enough away to be out of the swirling vortex. His leg muscles ached from their efforts, his biceps straining to hold onto the other man’s life vest.
It’d be so much easier to transform
, he thought, but knew right away that would raise too many questions.
Need to keep up appearances
.

“Shea!” He heard Chip’s voice carrying across the water. “Is that you over there?”

Finally turning around to look, Shea saw that the life raft wasn’t far. “Hey! Could use some help over here,” he yelled back.

“Is that one of the pilots?” Chip called as he and another of the passengers used the paddles to bring the raft closer.

“Yeah,” Shea said. “The other two guys in the cockpit were already dead.” He didn’t feel the need to go into gruesome detail, not when there were so many listening with injuries of their own.

Several hands reached down to grab the still unconscious man, slowly pulling him on board. Shea heaved a huge sigh, relieved that the man’s life was no longer dependent on Shea’s swimming ability. Every muscle in his body ached.
Swimming with legs is tough
, he realized with a grimace.

“Your turn, Shea.” Chip extended his open hand and Shea grabbed it gratefully, allowing the older boy to pull him up onto the raft. Chip was smiling. “I’m glad you made it out okay. You did good, kiddo.”

Shea cocked his head to one side. “This is a new look for you, Chip. An actual smile for a change.”

Chip lowered his eyebrows and scowled. “No need to get all sarcastic on me.” He nodded toward his sister. “Anyway, I don’t have a whole lot to smile about right now. Hailey hasn’t woken up yet, our plane totally crashed into the ocean, and six people are already dead.”

“Six?” Shea tried to count. “Two in the cockpit, that one guy in first class…”

“One of the flight attendants kicked. She must’ve had a heart attack or something,” Chip said, nodding to a person on the far side of the raft. Shea thought she looked like she was asleep, not dead. Even so…

“That’s only four,” he said to Chip, puzzled.

Chip lowered his voice so that Shea could barely hear him over the wind. “Remember those two empty seats we saw in first class? Sucked out the hole in the side of the plane. There are forty of us on the boat. Forty-one, if you count the dead body. Good thing it’s a big raft.”

Shea looked around the remaining passengers. One of the surviving flight attendants was doing her best to patch up the wounded. Most sat quietly with dazed expressions on their faces as the waves buffeted the boat. Only Hailey, Howard, and the pilot remained unconscious, although Shea thought some of the other passengers looked like they might pass out at any moment. “What now?”

Chip shrugged. “We wait for someone to come looking for us? Airplanes don’t just crash without people noticing. Don’t you think the pilots would have used the radio to call for help? The flight attendant is sure someone will be searching.”

“The pilots may have been too busy trying to control the plane,” Shea said absently, turning to scan the waves. If the plane crashed because of magick, it was a fair bet there were sorcerers searching for survivors, too. Maybe even Demyan himself. These people wouldn’t be safe sitting here.

“Hey, look over there!” One of the other passengers frantically pointed toward the horizon. “Is that land?”

Shea twisted to see where the guy was pointing. It did look like there was indeed something looming through the storm clouds. He caught his grandmother’s eye and she nodded. If there was any chance of saving these people, they needed to be on land, not on open water. He took the paddle from Chip’s hands. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s get this boat to shore.”

Kae threw her arms around her father’s shoulders, hugging him tightly. “How did you find me?”

“Quickly! There’s little time.” Lybio took his daughter’s hand, pulling her into the hallway. A petite Nerine mermaid hovered nearby, a glowing lantern in her hand. She gestured for the father and daughter to follow her and swam off. Lybio slipped a transmutare medallion over her head, then dragged Kae along by his side as his powerful tail made quick work of catching up to the blue mermaid.

The corridor’s twists and turns confused Kae’s sense of direction. At every intersection, the Nerine mermaid held up one blue hand while she peered around the corner, her waving white hair casting strange shadows along the walls. Although they passed by countless doors, they had yet to encounter another living soul or hear any other signs of life. Finally, Kae thought she felt the water getting a bit warmer, and saw natural light at the end of the hallway. She squeezed her father’s hand and he smiled at her. “Almost out,” he said softly, confirming her hopes for a quick escape.

They slowed again as they neared the end of the hall, letting the Nerine advance alone around the last corner and out into the light. Kae held her breath. After several long moments the mermaid came back around the corner and nodded her head. “All is clear,” she said, her voice unexpectedly light and musical. “Swim straight and true, and don’t stop to look behind you.” She stroked her hand along Lybio’s cheek. “It warms my heart to see you again.”

“And I to see you,” Lybio said, his voice gravelly. “It’s been too long.”

She smiled up at him. “The passing years are but small drops in the ocean of time’s memory. Take good care of your lovely daughter.” With that, she swam right by them, back down the darkened hallway from which they’d just emerged.

Kae stared at her father, her mouth hanging open. Could it be that he had even more secrets in his past?

His eyebrows lowered as he glared at his daughter, but she noticed a blush on his cheeks. “She’s an old friend, nothing more,” he said gruffly, grabbing hold of Kae’s hand once more. “Let’s swim out of here.”

She nodded and followed him down the rest of the hall and around the corner. The tunnel ended soon after the turn, the rough rock walls tapering off into a jagged but narrow opening. They slipped out without speaking, but stayed close to the rocky opening as Lybio scanned the area for any sign of danger.

Kae blinked rapidly trying to adjust, her eyes unused to the brightness of the Arctic waters in daylight. She looked back to where they’d just emerged and was surprised to discover she couldn’t actually see the opening, it blended so well with the surrounding rocks.
This is how Demyan is able to hide
, she thought.
In secret caves not even a mermaid can find
.

She’d lost all track of time as well.
How long was I underground? How long ago did Xander leave for Nantucket Sound? Does Father know of Demyan’s plans?
She needed to warn him, and King Koios, but first she wanted to put a great deal of distance between herself and the cell where she’d been trapped.

Lybio squeezed her hand and put a finger against his lips, a signal to stay silent. Kae took a deep breath and turned her head to follow his line of sight. An enormous narwhal swam near the ocean floor, stalking a large Arctic cod. The cod tried to escape by blending with a low crop of rocks, but as the narwhal drew closer it looked as though he drew in a deep breath, sucking the cod and a stray rock straight into its mouth. The cod struggled to swim free of the vacuum but to no avail. He disappeared inside the giant beast.

Kae had heard stories of narwhals, but had never encountered one in person. The whales lived only in the Arctic Ocean, only getting anywhere close to the Atlantic in the summer months with their young calves. Her eyes widened as the narwhal turned to the side and she took in the legendary tusk protruding from the creature’s snout. Long and pointed and paler than the rest of his body, the twisting spear winked in the sunlight that filtered down. While the whale was only about fifteen feet long, its spiraling tusk was almost that length again.

Although he was still a good distance from their location, the narwhal had positioned himself squarely between the wall of rock and the open ocean. Kae and Lybio would have to swim directly past him in order to escape.

Her father bent to put his mouth right next to her ear. “He must be truly old to have flanks so white and have that long a tusk. Probably the leader of a large pod. We need to swim with care so as not to alarm them.”

“Them?” Kae whispered back. “I only see the one beast.” But even as she spoke, several more appeared near the first, smaller in size, some with tusks and some without. Most appeared more black and white in coloring, with mottled darker markings across their bodies. The smallest of the whales were blotchy grey in color, the babies of the group, who themselves were all larger than Kae.

“They like to socialize in summertime,” Lybio said, keeping his voice at barely more than a whisper. “Family groups of ten to twenty are not uncommon all year round, but in the summer the groups congregate and there can be hundreds of narwhals all in one place.”

She stared at her father. “How do you know so much about Arctic creatures?”

He pressed his lips together in a thin line, as if regretting his words. Finally he said, “It matters not. What does matter is that we move slowly and quietly so as not to upset this grouping. You don’t want to see a narwhal elder when he gets anxious or upset. Nor do we want to be around them when the younger bulls start to tusk.”

“Tusk?” Kae glanced back at all the long ivory spears protruding from the male snouts. No, she didn’t think she wanted to be around for any whale swordplay. “Can’t we swim upward, and go along the surface to pass them?”

Lybio shook his head. “These creatures are
whales
, remember. Although they are foraging for cod here at the bottom, they need air to breathe, especially the young.” As if on cue, two of the smallest whales made for the surface, one of the tusked males following at their side like a bodyguard.

Kae nodded and followed closely as Lybio inched along the edges of the rock wall, trying to keep their progress flowing smoothly, with no sudden movements. Finally, the wall of rock curved away from the pod and Lybio increased the speed of his swimming, once again grabbing Kae’s hand and pulling her along with him.

Once they were a good distance from the whale pod, Kae asked, “Were we truly in danger? Are not most whales gentle creatures?”

“Most, but not all,” her father answered. He hesitated, as if wondering whether sharing his knowledge would raise more questions in her mind. A long stream of bubbles blew out from his gills while Kae waited. They had covered almost a mile of distance before he continued his explanation. “Narwhals are meat eaters, and although their diet is strictly fish, there is no love lost between their species and either the Nerine or the local Inuit drylanders. Both races hunt narwhals for their valuable tusks. An elder like that has most likely seen his share of whale hunts and would not hesitate to end our lives before we could harm his calves.”

“End our lives? Are their teeth that impressive?”

Lybio chuckled. “Just the one, actually.”

“Which one?”

“You saw it. The large ivory tusks?”

“The horn protruding from the front of their heads?” Kae couldn’t believe it. “That’s a tooth?” She shook her head, wishing Shea were here right now to communicate directly with these fascinating looking creatures. Which reminded her.

“Father, Demyan sent a message to Windmill Point, trying to lure Shea here to the Arctic.”

Again Lybio’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Lure him, how? For what purpose?”

Kae felt the heat rushing to her face. Even though she knew her father was well aware of her relationship with the boy, she also knew he didn’t approve. “I think Demyan’s ultimate purpose is to hold Shea himself captive, as leverage over King Koios. The ‘how’ is me. The messenger was to threaten my life if Shea doesn’t return with him.”

He squeezed her hand and said nothing for a long time. When he broke the silence, he said, “I’m glad we got you out of there when we did. The messenger will not find Shea in Nantucket Sound, or in the Atlantic at all, and then your life would have been forfeit.”

“Not in Windmill Point? But why?”

“King Koios sent him to Atlantis in your place, to testify at the trial.”

“Atlantis? But that journey itself is fraught with danger!” Kae slowed her swimming to a complete halt and pulled her father to a stop beside her. “We must intercept him on his journey before Xander…before the messenger reaches him!”

Lybio smiled and brushed the hair from Kae’s face. “Is Xander the handsome green-haired merman I heard tell of in the castle? The one who tricked you into leaving with him? I must meet this merman someday. He must be truly special to make you forget your duties.”

Her face grew several degrees hotter, despite the chilled ocean. She looked down at her tail fin, fluttering in the current, wondering if it was Xander’s magick alone or if she was indeed attracted to him in some way. Her stomach clenched into a tight knot, disappointed to realize Lybio was more accepting of her running off with a kidnapper than he was of her dating Shea. “Yes, Xander is the one who brought me here. He deceived me about who he truly was.”

“Do not think the Atlantic king so inexperienced at these games of intrigue,” Lybio said with a small chuckle. “He’s been playing longer than the Adluo pretender and can stay a move ahead.”

“What do you mean?”

“Shea is safe from Demyan’s forces, traveling in the guise of a drylander. He won’t be underwater at all until he is safely under the protection of Atlantis’s Lord Chancellor himself. It would take a sorcerer to divine Shea’s true location.”

A fresh wave of fear shot through Kae’s body. “A sorcerer? But the messenger
is
a sorcerer. He’s Zan, Demyan’s master of the Dark Arts. Xander and Zan are one in the same merman. Father, Shea is in trouble!”

Any trace of a smile slipped from Lybio’s face. “I’ve heard tales of this Zan. They say his heart is filled with darkness, his abilities with magick are unprecedented…and unpredictable. He has powers beyond those of any other magick user in the whole of the Atlantic.”