Therin straightened, his fins glittering as they flicked in the remaining light from the fire.“I will tell him.”
Syleen nodded, her voice firm but not harsh.“Fine, but please make it quick, Therin. We have lost enough time in explanation.”
He turned from her and the other two mermen, his attention fully on me, a sense of pleading desperation in his eyes.“What I am going to tell you may make it seem like I want what I am going to request more than I want to honor a relationship with you, getting to know my son. Please know that is not the case, but there is no other way to explain things, and I have waited too long to give you more time to adjust.”
I felt my heartbeat race, fearing what revelation he might be getting ready to tell me. I couldn’t imagine more than what we’d already been through.“Just say whatever it is. All of it.”
He nodded.“I would expect nothing less from you.”He looked back at Wrell and Greylin, for what purpose I wasn’t sure, then focused on me once more.“Seeking you out was more than me wanting to get to know my son.”
My heart sank, already stung with the sense that it was about to be hurt once more. The sensation must have shown on my face, because he rushed on, quicker than he had before.“It is as I told you before. I hadn’t been aware of your existence until I came across your presence by chance as you swam in the ocean. I then watched enough to confirm what my first instincts told me—that you were indeed part mer, and that you were my offspring.”
He paused, as if considering, then rushed ahead.“When I was certain, I made my confession to the tribe. I had hidden my indiscretion with your mother from them. In truth, I had not thought much of it since, only some guilt from time to time, knowing I had broken our laws, but thinking there was nothing of consequence to come of it. Until I saw you, and knew there were indeed consequences I had not foreseen.”
I winced at his words, again frustrated at my weakness at shielding my emotions from the rest of them.
“I do not mean to insinuate that you are a detrimental consequence, Brett. Only that there were things from my actions that I had not known could affect the rest of the tribe.”
I tried to keep my voice steady and was pleasantly surprised when I accomplished the task.“Just get it over with, Therin. Tell me whatever it is you have to tell me.”
He obliged.“I continued to watch over you. Both to make sure you were safe and to try to determine what I had helped bring into this world—testing your reactions. Seeing how much of your mother’s blood affected you.”He paused yet again, looked back at the other mers, then once again brought his attention to me.“It was Syleen that began to think that you could be of use to the mers.”
Unable to control my reaction, I flinched at such harsh wording. I turned to Syleen.“You thought I could be of some use? You’ve treated me like I was a plague sent on us since I arrived, at least until recently.”
She offered no apology.“At the time, I was not aware that you were anything other than human and mer.”Her eyes flicked accusingly toward Therin before coming back to me. I think she tried to soften her gaze, but her accusations seemed to be directed at me.“The fact that your heritage was of more sinister blood than human was not passed on to me. By the time I was privy to such knowledge, of that and your other proclivities, it was too late to fully put a stop to the plan, although I still believe that may have been best.”
I looked between the four mers.“What plan?”
“We need you to—”Greylin started to speak, but Therin interrupted.
“Let it come from me, Greylin, though I appreciate the effort.”He looked from Greylin and back to me.“I know you are aware of our shrinking numbers. I know you have been told of Ventait’s capture by a human boat. He was the son of my dearest friend.”
I nodded in confirmation, and Therin continued.“It is our belief that such capture has started to be commonplace over the past century. It was when Wrell returned from his quest to meet his birth tribe, the Volitan, that we began to put the pieces together. They too had stories of mers being captured at the surface. One that was witnessed, as Ventait’s, others that simply disappeared but are believed to have fallen to the same fate. If both we and the Volitan have had such experiences, it follows logic to assume other tribes have had such happenings as well.”
He paused, and the four mers stared at me expectantly. After a few awkward moments, I realized they were expecting something from me. I shrugged.“I suppose that makes sense. That’s horrible, but I’m not sure what that has to do with me.”
If she’d been willing to lower herself to my level, I was certain Syleen would have rolled her eyes.“We need you to help us discover if our theory is truth, and if so, then to determine what is happening to our people.”
I nodded slowly.“Okay. How? I don’t see how I play into it.”
Greylin interjected.“You’re part human. You have legs.”
I nodded, again feeling slow and miles behind the four mers, trying desperately to catch up to their meaning.
An image of a struggling young merboy, bright-red hair gleaming in the sunlight as he was dragged aboard a boat, came to my mind. His eyes rolled in terror, and his mouth was open in a silent scream. The boat rowed away from the observer under the water. The next image was fuzzy, as if imagined instead of an actual memory. The boy was pulled onto the sandy beach, a group of men dragging him over the rocks by a rope that bound the boy’s arms to his side. They continued dragging him until they disappeared into the trees.
I looked over at Wrell, who nodded. The vision had come from him. And I understood.“I can walk. I can be on land.”He nodded again. I looked over at Therin.“You want me to find the mers that were stolen.”
Syleen spoke before Therin had the chance.“Yes. That or at least who is taking them. How can we protect our species if we do not know the enemy?”
“I’m assuming my power with fire would come in handy if I find them. Maybe take care of them for you.”
She only looked at me.
For what felt like the billionth time in the past hour, I felt my blood begin to boil.“So the very thing you wanted me cast out for is exactly what you hope to use to save your race. Our race.”
She met my gaze but was unable to hold it.“That was not the original intention in seeking you out. However, if you believe it to be a useful tool in liberating our kin or putting a stop to this terror, I would deem it to be an appropriate use of your patronage.”
“Oh, I bet you would.”
