A burp rose up in my throat and escaped through my teeth, the bubble shooting like a zigzag rocket toward the surface. Now it was down, I had to admit the aftertaste wasn’t horrible. It vaguely reminded me of a mushroom risotto Sonia had made once. It had a kind of warm, heady flavor to it. The texture was the problem, like too-firm tapioca or too-soft Spam.
I watched the three of them eat, nearly lost in the cloud of decayed flesh that billowed around them.“Oh, fine!”I swam up to them, taking a place between Lelas and Wrell.“Talk about peer pressure.”
Wrell gave me another one of his boyish smiles, and I forgot about what I was eating, at least until my teeth sank in for a second time.
Nine
BRETT WRIGHT
The shadowsin the distance seemed ominous, and I felt my heartbeat speed up. The day had been so clear, the water warmer and more crystalline with every mile—the darkness ahead couldn’t be a good sign. I kept squinting, trying to make sense of the shapes. At first I thought a storm raged in the distance, with rain falling in torrents. Of course, I soon realized it doesn’t rain underwater. Half a year and I was still thinking more as a human instead of a mer.
A couple of glances around at the other three told me they weren’t concerned. I’d gotten a little sick of asking questions all the time and feeling like a toddler constantly needing directives. Taking a moment to assess the reactions of those around me was proving to be an effective way to cut down on the hows, whys, and what-ifs. Lelas’s increasingly ecstatic grin finally gave me the hint I needed to figure it out. As soon as I did, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t visualized it instantly. I guess I’d never thought about islands as anything but big floating pieces of land. Granted, I knew they didn’t float from place to place, but I’d never really thought about it. Looking on, I couldn’t help but feel small in comparison. The mountains ahead towered from the bottom of the ocean floor until they were out of sight. What I’d mistaken for too much blur to make out the peaks was simply where the mountains jutted out of the water, their summits the tropical lands inhabited by the Polynesian people and countless sunburned tourists. Small mountains stretched out between us and the islands, huge in their own right, just not having the height to breach the surface.
Even as I sped up at the realization of where we were, I realized the other three were having the same reaction. I glanced at Therin, his white-blond hair streaming behind him, waving in time with his gleaming golden tail.“We’ll be there in no time.”
He glanced over and gave me a smile.“Do not let appearance deceive you. The size can make it seem like we are closer than we are. It will be tomorrow before we arrive.”
I narrowed my eyes at the island mountains. That didn’t seem possible, but I’d learned to trust the others. Saved time on being wrong so often. If they ever visited San Diego, I’d be the expert. I couldn’t suppress a grin as an image entered my mind of them sitting in the passenger seats of my car, their tails hanging out the windows as we zoomed down the Five. My smile faded as I remembered the vampire had destroyed my car. Not that it mattered now.
By thefollowing day, even after a good night of rest, I was beginning to falter as we drew closer to the islands. I was the only one, though. The others sped up with every flick of their fins.
Every mile we swam, the beauty increased exponentially. Lelas was constantly exclaiming over some new fish or darting after sea turtles. Not that I blamed her. As tired as I was, I’d always dreamed of swimming outside of the Southern California coast. The waters around Mexico and Central America hadn’t been much different, but this… this was living up to the fantasy.
As secretly as I could, I glanced over in Wrell’s direction. He wasn’t grinning from ear to ear like Lelas, but his dark eyes shone bright. Although I imagined it was more in hopes of finding a lead to discover what had happened to the other mers than it was over the pretty little fish. The thought gave me a brief flash of guilt. I hadn’t even thought of the other mers in several days. I’d gotten caught up in the road-trip-funness of it all. In being around Wrell and letting myself give in to puppy-dog infatuation. In spending every day with my best friend outside of Syleen’s judgmental eyes. In getting to be around my dad and finally starting to build a relationship with him. All fine and good, I suppose, but this was about so much more than me, more than any of us. If they were right, and we could discover what was happening to the mers and somehow put a stop to it, we could potentially be saving the entire species. The thought gave me another rush of energy to keep up with Wrell and Therin as they streamed ever closer to the islands.
I looked back and forth between Therin and Wrell, then paused to spin in a quick circle in the water.“Dad!”
Both of the mermen paused abruptly and turned toward me. Therin cocked an eyebrow.“Yes, son?”
“I just realized Lelas is missing! I didn’t even notice us leaving her behind.”
He smiled at me and shook his head.“She is not missing. If you recall, she went to inspect a large family of sea turtles a while back.”
I glanced once more in the direction we’d come, but saw no sign of her.“Are you kidding? That was like half an hour ago. What if she gets into trouble?”
Therin smiled, part fatherly indulgence, part you’re-cute-when-you’re-stupid.“Lelas is more than capable of taking care of herself. She knows which direction we are headed, and Wrell showed her the specific part of the islands where we plan to start. She will catch up to us before we arrive, and if she does not, we will wait.”
A crack in the side of the mountain, heavy with coral reef, flashed through my mind. I glanced at Wrell in confirmation.“You both told her all that when she left?”
Therin shook his head.“No, she was already with the turtles. She let us know she was going to spend a little more time with the animals and rejoin us shortly.”
I couldn’t keep the grumble out of my voice.“This whole not being able to talk like a grown-up thing is getting really annoying.”While I’d gotten a little better at directing my thoughts toward certain mers, I was nowhere near the level needed to have an actual conversation or pick up on communication that was too far away. Actually, to say I’d gotten a little better would be a vast exaggeration.
“Are you sure she’ll be okay?”
Again Therin smiled.“Lelas has been on her own longer than you have been alive, my son.”
True as that might be, the image of the hammerhead bearing down on her rose to mind. The four of us hadn’t been out of sight of each other the entire time, except for a very few times when needed for hunting purposes. It seemed too risky to change that behavior now, especially when we were so close to where another tribe of mers was supposed to live. Wrell had told us to be ready for conflict when we found the Scarus tribe, although he didn’t think there would be much trouble since he’d already established contact all those years ago. Even with sharks and hostile mer tribes, I was still getting to know this world under the waves, and Therin was right, Lelas had been doing this for nearly three times the length I’d been alive.
A picture of Lelas came into focus—her eyes bright with laughter, her shoulder-length honey hair a cloud around her face, her lavender tail flicking as she darted in and out of the school of sea turtles.
I nodded in Wrell’s direction.“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure she’s having a grand ole time.”
He gave a small dip of his chin in affirmation, then turned and took off toward the looming mountains in front of us.
“So, Wrell. That picture you showed me, the opening in the island with all the coral and anemones and everything, that’s where you found the Scarus tribe before?”
The image formed again, this time Wrell’s heavily muscled body squeezed through the opening, his lionfish quills flat against his body to keep from getting caught in the coral.
