I pictured Zef’s sickly, thin form piled down with rocks.“He’ll die.”
Greylin took a large bite of the fish he still held, his appetite seeming to return now that he was more focused on Zef’s fate than on Wrell’s death.“He tried to kill a member of our tribe. He will die anyway, unless something is uncovered that would prove Syleen or myself were being traitorous to the Chromis.”
While I was glad Rulus and Flain had stopped him from harming Syleen, the thought of Zef in such agony was disconcerting.“Without a trial? Without knowing why he is so adamant we not search for the vampires?”
Therin offered a patient smile.“Our ways are not human ways, my son.”
At my words, Syleen refocused, coming back to the present. Ice-blue eyes trained on me. Her upper body leaned forward in anticipation. Even her lacelike fins were rigid at the base of her tail.“What do you mean search for vampires?”
Therin told her and Greylin on all the legends Queen Akamaii had passed down regarding the deal the mers had struck with vampires for immortality.
After a few moments of discussing our time with the Scarus, Lelas swam several hundred yards away and curled into a ball in the shadow of a large cluster of stones. I started to go after her, but Syleen shook her head at me, though not unkindly.
Following her directive, I let Lelas grieve in private.
At the end of Therin relating the tale, both Greylin and Syleen sat in silence, trying to take it all in. Maybe even making connections to things they had heard over their long lives.
After a while I noticed Syleen staring at me, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Every so often she’d look over at Therin but quickly return to me. Finally she spoke to Dad, all the while continuing to inspect me.“Were you truthful when you said that you mated with Brett’s mother only once?”
Therin’s tone was cautious.“Yes, Syleen. I did not lie.”
Unconsciously, her hand came to rest on her lower abdomen, just below where her black scales began her body’s transition into her tail.“Such an effortless conception. And the Scarus are plentiful in number?”
“Yes, Syleen.”
“If what the Scarus say is true, and I believe it to be, then whatever side effect the vampire blood has on our reproduction, it must take place within the female.”
Before I could ask what she was thinking, she sat up straighter, looking more like a queen than ever.“I know where we must go.”She narrowed her eyes in my direction.“Where you must go.”
Greylin looked up at her in surprise.“You do?”
She nodded.“I should have seen it a century ago. If only I’d put together that it was vampires taking our kind.”
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who was not tracking. Therin too leaned forward, cautious hopefulness filling his words.“How does knowing our persecutors are vampires tell you how to find them, Syleen?”
The smile that broke across Syleen’s face was so full of excitement she almost looked beautiful.“Actually, it is thanks to Zef.”She looked back and forth quickly between Therin and Greylin.“As I am sure you recall, there is that small stretch on our southern migration where we swim away from the shoreline, traveling through the deeper waters before returning to travel once more through the shallows?”
Therin nodded.
Greylin’s“Of course”nearly sounded impatient.
Syleen continued, her expression growing more triumphant with each word.“Zef is the reason we keep such a journey. He told me that, no matter what happens to him, I am to never let our tribe swim anywhere close to shore during that section of our migration. He said that is where the vampires live.”
Twenty-Seven
BRETT WRIGHT
My heartpounded to the point I was afraid I was going to burst into flames. Maybe I should have expected such a reaction, but it took me by surprise. I’d lived with humans, with people, the first twenty-three years of my life. Now, after less than a year with the mers, I was terrified to finish the last quarter of a mile and be among humans once again. Surfers peppered the water, and the beach was packed with people. After the vast openness of the ocean, their motion seemed chaotic. Even though it wasn’t really comparable, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the night with the Volitan little more than a week ago.
I continued toward shore until I was close enough that only the more adventurous swimmers came out to where I was. When one came within a few yards of me, I ducked under the surface, darting down as quickly as I could, until I realized even if the man had seen me, I would just be another person out in the ocean. I wasn’t a merman.
After a stern self-lecture, I made my way to the point where I was nearly among the mass of them before having to head back out to deeper water when I remembered I was naked. While glad I hadn’t been noticed swimming naked out in the open, the idea of having to put on clothes was repugnant and foreign. How quickly life had changed.
It was a relief to have an excuse to swim a while longer. I swam up and down the shoreline. There were beaches at fairly regular intervals. Between each were strips of dense jungle and rock outcroppings. I swam far enough that the jungle gave way to a small beach town, rows of shops and lampposts visible from the distance. I swam back the way I’d come.
I knew they couldn’t, but I wasn’t able to stop myself from taking comfort that Therin could still see me. Ridiculous, of course, but it was a nice sensation. I couldn’t believe how much I’d grown accustomed to being part of our small group—first the tribe, then our smaller number as we embarked on the quest. On my own, I felt completely vulnerable and at a loss.
Therin and Greylin had committed to staying where we’d parted, a few miles out to sea, next to a small protective cluster of kelp. We didn’t know how long it would take me to confirm what we suspected, but they’d both thought they might be needed if I was able to rescue the mers that might be alive, if any.
