Syleen gave another noncommittal gesture.“I have not been among them. I only know what has been passed down. Whether they have lost the ability to communicate through words over the centuries or whether it is just their way, I do not know.”
It overwhelmed me to think of all Wrell had been through. It was no wonder he had such little reaction to the pain of this most recent shark wound and my fire. Why would he care about some burn scars? He’d handled worse than that. I may not have known my mother as a kid either, but I hadn’t seen her ripped apart before my eyes. I’d also always had my grandparents. Wrell had watched his mother die, then been taken in by strangers. Strangers who had probably been the villains in his bedtime stories, if they’d been warring for as long as Syleen said.“Why did your tribe raise him? Shouldn’t you have taken him back?”Another thought hit me.“If you are at war with his tribe, why did Therin and Riendt save him?”
Syleen’s wide-eyed, horror-stricken look gave me a flash of guilt.“We are not at war with the young. They are innocent. As I told you, we do not kill upon sight, only if one side is unwilling to let the other pass in peace.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I’m just really unclear on what happens.”
She continued, not acknowledging my apology.“As for taking him back to his tribe, we searched for several years. We never found them.”
“You never found them? How is that possible?”
Again, incredulity flooded her features.“The sea is a large place, Brett. It is a rare occasion we cross paths out of chance, and we never seek each other out.”
“Wrell’s been to see them, though.”
Her eyes widened once more.“How did you know that truth? It is unlike Wrell to share so much information.”
I shrugged.“He has a tattoo. I should have thought about it before and realized he wasn’t a part of your tribe. No one else here has a tattoo. He must have gone to them and gotten it done. If not them, then at least some other tribe of mers.”
“What is a tattoo?”
I made a sweeping motion from my shoulder over my chest, mimicking Wrell’s tattoo.“The purple swirls on his skin. Tattoos.”
She gave me an approving smile. Of actual approval. The first I’d seen from her.“Ah. We call them markings. Very perceptive. Sound logic, Brett. You are partially correct. He has gone to see the Volitan tribe. However, he had his markings before he returned to them.”
“He got them as part of this tribe?”
She shook her head, her hair beginning to fall out of her makeshift ponytail once more.“He had his markings when he came to us.”
My jaw dropped.“He had his tattoos when he was a kid?”
“Yes, why is this a surprise to you?”
“Humans only get them when they are adults. They’re painful.”
“As I said, Volitans are a fierce tribe.”
My respect for Wrell continued to grow. Although the thought of tattooing children seemed like child abuse.“So if he has been to see his tribe, the Volitans, why is he here?”
Syleen hesitated, obviously trying to decide if she should be telling me so much information.“I do believe this is Wrell’s story to tell you.”
I started to interrupt to tell her it was okay, that she didn’t need to tell me, but she cut me off.
“However, Wrell informed me of the oath he made to you. He has put his life in your hands, in your debt. As such, he can have no secrets from you, and I would prefer to save him the pain of having to relive the event simply to satisfy your curiosity.”
There she was. I knew the bitch was in there somewhere. Though I couldn’t really blame her. I actually was finding new respect for Syleen at her protectiveness of Wrell, especially considering her views on other mer tribes.
“Wrell left the Chromis tribe for a few years to—”
“What is the Chromis tribe?”
She gave me baffled look, probably for interrupting her, but maybe for not knowing who the Chromis tribe is.“We are the Chromis tribe.”
“Oh.”I did feel stupid then. How did I not even know the name of my own tribe? Surely that had to have come up over my months among the mers. Surely.
She continued, thankfully choosing to not dwell on my faux pas any longer than necessary.“Wrell left us to seek his tribe. While we loved him and he loved us, it was hard for him to be the only one of his kind among all of us. It was only right for him to try to return to his family. However, when he found them, he learned how he and his mother came to be away from the tribe on their own, without weaponry.”She paused, obviously hating telling me so much.“She had been banished from the tribe, she and her son.”
“Banished? For what?”
