Twenty-Six
BRETT WRIGHT
We continuedon through the rest of the afternoon, resting again that night and then continuing on the following day. Perhaps Therin knew where we were going or had a destination in mind, but it seemed we traveled on aimlessly.
Lelas swam on her own. Her body seemed to function normally, though she never spoke. By the end of the second day, she even began to eat, which made me believe whatever happened, she was going to live through this. That somewhere in there a part of her was fighting to survive. However, I never saw any aspect of my friend looking through her eyes.
Therin and I didn’t speak again. The silence wasn’t stressed or angry, only quiet. Both of us caught in our shared and individual grief. Occasionally, he would stretch out his hand and let it rest on my back as we swam. He did the same to Lelas.
At some point during the third day after the deaths of Wrell and Nalu, or maybe it was the fourth, Syleen and Greylin joined us.
I knew they didn’t simply appear out of nowhere, but they might as well have. I’m certain Therin saw their approach, but I didn’t, caught up in my inner world where Wrell, Sonia, Finn, and Nalu were continually morphing into one body, then dispersing again.
By thetime I really began to attend to their presence, Therin had filled them in on the events with the Volitan—having also explained who Nalu was and why he’d been with us.
Greylin had swum away, far enough to be out of eyeshot. He and Wrell had been as close as brothers. I was willing to bet he was beating himself up as well, wondering if his friend would still be alive if he’d joined us on our quest instead of returning with Syleen to keep up appearances. I was thankful Greylin hadn’t been with us—one more death I would have been responsible for.
During Therin’s synopsis of the tragedy, Syleen sat beside Lelas, her hand covering my friend’s, her thumb making tiny circles on the back of Lelas’s hand. Of all things, I think it was this motherly act that truly brought me back to the moment. It was such an un-Syleen-like thing to do.
Though she didn’t speak, nor did I see any spark of Lelas inside, she was clearly aware of who was with us, her gaze traveling over the darker mermaid, flitting to Therin, then to me, then somewhere out to sea. Whether eye contact was too much or she was searching for Nalu off in the distance, I couldn’t be sure.
A strange sense of normalcy came over me with Syleen in our presence, offering a modicum of relief and highlighting the absence of Wrell even further.
I’d almost grown to like Syleen in the last few weeks before we’d undertaken this quest. After meeting the Scarus and Volitan queens, I no longer had any question. Syleen didn’t even refer to herself as a queen, even though she fulfilled the role. I had no doubt she would do anything for her tribe. I guess the same could be said about the Volitan queen as well, but I wasn’t really willing to give her the same consideration.
Even how difficult Syleen had made life for me was an effort to protect the rest of the Chromis tribe. She should have tried harder, as it turned out.
She turned her plain face toward me, her majestic mass of black hair clouding out around both her and Lelas.“I am most grateful that I was wrong about you and your power, Brett. Your tribe is indebted to you.”
I flinched back at her words. From the expression I noticed on Therin’s face, he seemed to be having a similar sensation.“I don’t think you understood the story correctly then, Syleen. If I—”
She cut me off in her typical fashion.“If you had not been present, our tribe would have lost two more members. You have proven that Moheetla’s will is wiser than my own.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from taking issue with yet another reference to Moheetla.
She continued without needing a response from me.
“I want to ask what you may have learned from the Scarus, but I feel it necessary to show respect to the warrior we lost.”Her gaze lingered on Lelas, her light-blue eyes holding a rare soft warmth. “For both of the warriors we lost. I shall wait in respect for their lives and give Greylin time to regain his composure before we discuss anything further.”
After several more minutes, Syleen moved her hand from where it was folded over Lelas’s. She leaned closer, wrapped her arm around Lelas’s shoulder, and squeezed. At the gesture, Lelas wrapped her arms over her chest and curled her tail up to shelter her body.
With a small flick of her ink-black tail, Syleen rose in the water from her seated position, the small cloud of disturbed sand sparkling around her and Lelas in the light.“I shall return shortly.”
Greylin returnedbefore Syleen. He gave me a nod as his eyes met mine but didn’t offer any words. He swam over and came to rest by Therin. For once, I could tell they weren’t communicating without letting anyone else hear; they were simply sharing in each other’s grief.
It took me a second to realize what was different about Greylin. When it hit me, I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been obvious. While he’d been gone, he’d used his blade to hack off his long blond braid. The uneven hair now floated about his boyish face, making him look even younger than he had before. I hadn’t heard of the custom of mers cutting their hair to mourn. I doubted it was a custom, since Therin and Lelas hadn’t completed such a gesture. Not that Lelas was in any state to make the effort.
I was further surprised when Syleen finally came back. Reminding me of Wrell so much that my heart clenched painfully, she held two spears laden with large redfish.
I definitely couldn’t see Queen Akamaii hunting for her subjects.
Syleen gave the first fish she unskewered to Lelas and sat down close to her before she passed one of the spears to me and the other to Therin and Greylin. I was even touched she remembered I always needed to consume more than everyone else—one more fun demon aspect. Either Syleen had truly and completely accepted me into the family or I was just overly emotional. Or both.
Lelas bit into the belly of her fish with a little more vigor than I had seen thus far. The small sign gave me a rush of hope.
We ate in silence for quite some time. I was on my fourth fish when Therin’s words signaled it was time to pause in our grief and face the task at hand.“I must confess, though my heart sings at the sight of your faces, I am confused by your presence with us.”He looked back and forth between Syleen and Greylin, confirming my notion they hadn’t been speaking.“What has happened?”
A part of me expected Syleen to turn the question around, to get all the information from us before sharing anything of her own. She surprised me yet again.“Things have changed since your departure. I thought…”She nodded at Greylin, at the same time gesturing toward the merman.“We thought it would be best if we joined you on the quest.”
