Saving Her Destiny (7 page)

He froze for a second, tipping his head like a dog. “Why, Cara, you
can
use telepathy. It has been so long, I thought you forgot.” He rubbed his hands together. “That will make things easier, I think.”

“I have hours before my cry erupts! Release me!”
she projected again. From the effort, her head throbbed even harder.

“My dear.” Norton swam closer to her and ran a wet hand over her hip. “I'm counting on it.”

Chapter Six

There's no sign of her out here
, Duncan thought. Thank the stars. He didn't want to find a body in the water.

He wanted to find Cara.

Alive and well.

Yet with every passing moment, he was more and more certain that something horrible had happened.

Because if she'd gotten distracted, they would have found her by now. There would have been a magical trace in the water—show where she'd been, just like on shore. The spell he'd cast would have illuminated her trail.

Yet there was no sign of the trail.

No sign of her anywhere.

Duncan didn't like this development. It meant something sinister had to be afoot. Like someone with magic had her—because only magic could block the tracer spell from working.

“She must have gotten inside the Kingdom,” Keefe said, swimming around a rock.

“No other place, really,” Kealan agreed.

They'd circled the entrance cave to the Merrow Kingdom hoping that Cara hadn't made it inside.

Well,
hoping
wasn't quite the right word. But she wasn't out here.

As they entered the underwater cave that led to the kingdom's entrance, Duncan shook his head.

“It amazes me you don't have guards here at the entrance
.
”

“You can't get through without a
cohuleen druith
.” Keefe approached the wall, and the red seaweed atop his head swirled around him as he put his hand on the solid-looking stone. The
cohuleen druith's
strands brushed against the stone and the wall glowed, the light almost blinding in the dark cave. The rocks slowly disappeared, revealing a much brighter cavern on the other side.

“Would someone have let her in?”
Duncan asked as the three of them passed through the entrance.
“Is there any record of who comes and goes?”

“No record,” Keefe said.

“Maybe you should do something about that…”

“Maybe,” Kealan said. “We're more concerned about keeping others out. She can't get in without her
cohuleen druith.”

“She doesn't have a
cohuleen druith
.” Keefe led the way as they glided through the water. Soft, green-glowing torches placed at intervals along the cavern's wall illuminated the tunnel toward the kingdom.

Duncan didn't think he'd ever come this way. One of the fairy benefits—if he wanted to be somewhere, he could just appear there—within reason, anyway. He didn't have to swim for it like this. But if he tried to teleport inside, he might miss some clue to Cara's whereabouts.

Of course, the only reason he could break past their security magic was his FID status. Not just any fairy could pop in and out of the Merrow Kingdom.

“Cara does too have one. I've seen it,” Kealan said.

“She does not have red seaweed sticking out of the top of her head,” Keefe said, stroking his long red strands. “I think I would notice my cousin's
cohuleen druith
by now
.
”

“No, it's on her wrist,” Kealan said. “I asked her about it. She's got this bracelet thing on her wrist. It was Great Aunt Meira's
cohuleen druith.”

“Wait. Stop
.
”
Duncan hovered in the cave, letting the merrow's words sink in.
“Cara's your cousin?”

They both turned to look at him. “Aye, she is. Didn't you know?” Kealan said.

“How is she your cousin? She's a banshee.”
Banshees and merrow didn't have any lineage connections—not pure ones, anyway. They descended from different mythical base beings. And cross-bred beings, unlike how they were shown in movies, wound up being twice as vulnerable as full-blood mythical creatures. They'd have both beings weaknesses, rather than double the strength.

“Her grandmother, Meira, was our Crown Princess. She fell in love with a banshee and left the Merrow Kingdom,” Keefe said as he swam ahead, the light in the water getting brighter.

“That must not have gone over well.”
Duncan followed him through the tunnel's exit.

“It wasn't the most popular thing Meira could have done,” Keefe replied, pausing just outside the exit.

Duncan caught up and stared at the kingdom before him. A soft green glow illuminated the rocks that surrounded a kind of valley on the sea floor. From this angle, Duncan could see the kingdom was made up of several rings of buildings—turret-like structures surrounded the outer ring, with the center enclosed under a dome of…

“Is that magic?”
Duncan asked, gesturing to the dome.

“Aye,” Keefe said. “Sealed away and protected from harm.”

Duncan shifted in the water, kicking his legs slowly.
“The center of your kingdom?”

“The most important part,” Kealan added. “You've never seen it before?”

Duncan shook his head.
“It looks like a castle
.
”

Thick walls surrounded the external ring, and even from this distance, he could make out other merrow swimming about. Some merrow had carts, being hauled by larger fish, in and out of the few gated entrances.

His gaze followed the lines of the turrets, and he realized something.
“Those are connected to the island!”

“Aye,” Keefe said. “We shift as Avalon shifts.”

Duncan waved his hand, gesturing toward the kingdom.
“Does everything move? The ground, everything?”

“All connected,” Kealan said. A swarm of small blue fish swam by them, and Keefe made a gesture in the water, followed by a few noises Duncan couldn't decipher. The fish shifted their path and headed toward the castle.

Duncan raised his brow.
“You speak to the fish too?”

“Of course,” Kealan said. “They will take our report to the king.”

“You need to get out more, fairy,” Keefe said. “Figured they'd give you more details…” As Keefe spoke, he kept scanning around the rocks, as did Kealan.

Duncan started looking around as well, though what he was looking for, he wasn't sure.

“Upset a lot of merrow, that's for certain,” Kealan said.

“What did?”
Duncan asked.

“Aunt Meira turning over her crown,” Kealan said and flicked his tail. “You know, how Cara's related to us?”

“That's how our line inherited. Meira's brother, our grandfather, became king. And so on and so on.” Keefe twirled around, spinning on his back as he spoke, then upright again.

“Quit that. You look like a girl when you do that,” Kealan said.

“I am quite comfortable with my masculinity,” Keefe replied, smoothing his
cohuleen druith
.

Duncan wracked his brain, remembering the conversations he'd had with Cara over the years. They would talk about anything and everything, including her family. But not once did he remember her telling him about her grandmother being a merrow.

Think she would have mentioned that particular detail.

“How upset did that make your people?”
Duncan asked.

“Well, there was some battling early on—especially in our father's generation. I think one of Aunt Meira's kids even tried to get the throne at one point,” Kealan said as he swam ahead.

“Yeah, but Aunt Meira sided with our line. That was just after our father became king,” Keefe said.

“We have to find Cara. Is there anyone with anything against Cara? Or maybe against the monarchy?”

“Sure. The king always has enemies.” Keefe and Kealan started rambling on about the kingdom's political stance on several subjects that currently were causing strife among the different classes in the kingdom.

None of it screamed as a possible motive to cause the royal family harm. Trade disputes between the different classes of merrow and all that, but nothing that seemed volatile enough to tie back to Cara. Even with their own internal difficulties, the merrow were generally a peaceful race.

Yet this had to be magic related. And if it was magic related, then whoever did this was looking for a banshee scream. A banshee scream was one of the strongest forces in the Realm. Energy that could not be contained.

And Cara was the only banshee that came into the Merrow Kingdom.

Then Keefe and Kealan started talking about Cara's family again. The
other line
, as they called it. Duncan's instincts sprang to life. Something about that felt right. Like that was where he needed to go with this.

This was personal with Cara. This wasn't political at all. This had to do with the family. He could feel it.

He waved his hand.
“Who in the family would have a grudge against the king?”

The two Merrow glanced at each other, and a light sparked in their eyes.

“Norton,” they said together. “Norton Lynch.”

“Then we need to find him. Now.”

“Not a bad idea,” Keefe said, though he stared at the rock around the entrance.

Duncan twisted around, trying to see what Keefe was staring at. Then, before Duncan could get a good view, Keefe took off, slapping hard against the water as he dove deep and stuck his hand into a crevice.

“What is it?” Kealan asked, swimming down to join him.

Keefe jerked out his hand, and held a red band of seaweed-looking vines, woven together in a braid.

“God's knees,” Kealan said.

“What?”
Duncan asked.

“That's Cara's bracelet. Her piece of
cohuleen druith
,”
Kealan said.

“I was hoping that wasn't what it was,” Keefe said and muttered a curse.

Duncan agreed with the sentiment.

“She's in here then,”
Duncan said.

“Right, but where? If her bracelet's here, then she could be anywhere. Whoever took it could have taken her to any one of a million…hiding…places… Wait…” Keefe trailed off as he dove again, and this time, Duncan followed him, seeing a flicker of silver on the floor that didn't belong.

Keefe snagged it and returned with the little piece of metal. “What is this?”

Duncan accepted the metal.
“It's a breather.”
Duncan patted the one on his face and held up the slightly smaller one for them to see.

“Well, she has to be around here somewhere,” Keefe said.

“She can't get too far if she can't breathe,” Kealan agreed. They started to pan out, looking for a singular spot that might hint where Cara had been taken. Duncan stuffed her breather in the pouch on his hip, because when they found her, she'd need it.

If it wasn't too late.

He brushed away the thought. They'd know if she wasn't alive anymore—the scream would erupt.

On land, Duncan would have just used magic to track her…

On land.

Wait
.

He pulled out his wand and Cara's breather. He held out the small piece of metal and waved his wand around it to generate a tracking spell.

“What are you doing?” Keefe pulled on his arm.

“Trying to find Cara.”

“You can't do it with magic,” Keefe said.

“Why not?”

“We have to do this with our eyes,” Keefe said.

“That could take too long,”
Duncan said and waved his wand. The magic started to glow, then began to fizzle and pop and fade away.
“What the—”

“Told you. You can't use magic down here. The only person who can do that is the king.”

Duncan put his wand away, muttering curses the whole time. How in the world was he supposed to find her? He was FID. They used magic—that was what they did. And now he was down here, looking everywhere for a girl, with little to no sign that she was anywhere.

They spread out again and Duncan grumbled as he looked for signs of his friend. While he had decent land tracking abilities—part of the FID training—underwater was a different story. He didn't even know what he should be looking for. Water didn't leave tracks like on land.

He scanned the rocks, looking for some sign of a disturbance. Not that he knew what that would look like.

Mud moved?

Something out of place, maybe. There had to be a clue, since they'd just found her breather and her bracelet.

“What is that?” Kealan said, swimming down the rock face just below where Keefe had found the bracelet.

He twisted around and jerked a rock out of its notch. “Look at this…”

“The algae's been disturbed,” Keefe said. Sure enough, the algae on one side had been rubbed off in about the perfect formation of a handprint.

A merrow handprint—with the light webbing between the spread fingers.

Duncan's heart began to hammer, adrenaline pumping as the two merrow pushed the rock over. The rock hid a small entrance to a cave.

“Where does that go?”
Duncan asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Keefe said and headed inside.

Duncan followed the two merrow.
“Are you sure this goes somewhere?”

“No, I'm not. But it's rather obvious something is going on here. It's too much of a coincidence finding Cara's
cohuleen druith
and breather just outside the entrance,” Keefe said.

“You sure it's hers?”

“Who else would need one?” Kealan asked.

“True.”

The tunnel, deep and narrow, pretty much had them swimming single file. The inky dark was only broken by the little sprinkles of algae on the walls, evidently agitated by water movement.

The tension increased as they swam deeper in the tunnel. The two brothers pulled from their wrist-holsters a funky bone-knife, shaped like a fish's rib cage. They held them out as they swam, like they were ready for a fight.