Leith takes up the other oar. Yda and Elae move to relieve Jye at the back of the raft.
The haunting mating screech lingers in my bones.
We’ve been warned.
3
Dragon Rumors
We row through dusk,searching the darkening coast constantly. We’re all beyond tired. My muscles twitch and shake, an ache took root behind my eyes hours ago, and my palms… I wince thinking about them. Even with years of built-up calluses, they’re raw. Every few minutes, I lift them up and blow on them.
It’s been quiet between us. The mermaids lost their playfulness after the chilling screech, and I know we’re all thinking the same thing. What was the thing in the jungle? What’s stirring now with the comet soaring across the sky? The moon has risen by now, and it glows as red as the comet, as if the comet’s light has changed it too.
The comet appeared several weeks ago, but I almost didn’t notice it because of the moon. I’d never seen the once-silver moon anything else but a dull yellow before—and red… the shift was startling and abrupt.Only the sun has ever been red.
Thoughts run through my head like whirlpools. But there’s no time to spend my energy talking about it—we all want to make good time to our destination.
As the sun dips below the horizon, the skies turn a deep blue-gray and wafts of torch-smoke appear in the distance, lighting up the shore.Torches.
Sand’s Hunters.Thank the crystal waters below.Now all I can think about is the cot they’ll have made up for me and the sleep I’ll eventually enjoy. But first, they’ll celebrate Leith’s arrival.
A murmur of collected relief echoes around me, and I know we’re all having similar thoughts.
As we row toward the sandy enclave and the rising cliffs, two women come forward to greet us, helping us from the raft. I feel my limbs quiver in the woman’s grip. Her fingers tighten around me, giving me strength.
Once I’m on steady ground, we press our brows together in greeting. Then she moves to attend my brother with the other woman, and they begin to carry the gifts we brought and my brother’s items to a nearby lift.
Sand’s Hunters doesn’t have the walls of a lagoon to protect them like my Shell Rock. They have a series of landmasses that have long ago fallen away from the jungle cliffs. The landmasses, like the cliffs, rise far above the water, and so, the only way to get to their village from the beach is by climbing or by lift. There are three sky islands in total, all covered in shady jungle trees and huts, and they are all connected by rickety driftwood and rope bridges. A final, single bridge connects them to the jungle.
And I know, from my previous visits, that they keep a hunter stationed at the jungle bridge at all times. Just in case something emerges from the trees.
I turn to the mermaids lounging on the beach with a sagging breath. “Thank you for your help. We never would have made it here so quickly without you.”
“Most welcome, friend,” Jye’s voice says in the waning gloom. I squint to make out her face.
“How long should we wait for your return?” Elae asks.
“Tomorrow.”
“So soon?”
“It’s for the best,” I whisper. “Leith will be made a man tonight, and my duties will be done.” I try to keep the sadness from my voice, but I know the mermaids hear it.
“We will be waiting,” Jye hums softly back to me. “Sing our names if we’re in the water.”
I nod, and they slide into the shallow waves like eels, disappearing without so much as a sound.
The women and Leith are waiting for me by the lift. My brother and I ascend first with our gifts.
Bonfire and laughter await us. The light of the flames nearly chase back the red glow of the comet—the moon, which when I glance up, is like a beady evil eye staring directly down at me.
It’s just the moon,I remind myself, forcing my thoughts away from it.
As I watch Leith being introduced to Sand’s Hunters’ chosen bride, quiet pleasure takes away my eerie unease.
I stiffen when I see her.
She is a beautiful, curvy girl his age with thick dark braids tossed over her shoulder and kept in place by a heavy-looking band of gold shells, gifted with slanted dark eyes that are heavy with kohl. She wears a snakeskin over her breasts with a skirt to match. Braided threads and many more gold shells dangle from her hair, her neck, her wrists, and her ankles.
