“Wait, Medusa decided to fight?”
My mother’s eyebrows shot up.
“I’ll explain later,” I said, looking around for the others.
Anthias, Galene, Creon and his friends were still skimming the walls in their search.
“How long has she been on the move?” I said.
“A few days,” said my father. “A lot of Adaro’s armies have surrendered under her.”
So Medusa had listened to Meela and me. She was fighting back.
“But how did she get to the South Pacific so fast? When we talked to her…” I counted backwards on my fingers, trying to figure out how she travelled the length of the Atlantic so quickly.
“Talked to her?” shouted my father. “What do you mean—?”
“Never mind. Are you sure she’s in the South Pacific? Where did you hear this?”
“Her army came through the canal,” said my mother. “Adaro wasn’t expecting her to hit his armies from the middle, so his defenses were weak.”
“The canal? You mean the Panama Canal?”
My mother nodded. “She negotiated with the humans. They allowed her passage.”
I let out a bark of laughter. Adaro would be fuming to know she’d beat him because of an alliance with humans.
“Lysi!” Creon waved me over.
I glanced from the crowd to my parents, desperately wanting to spend more time with them. I wanted to tell them everything—and especially about Meela. I wanted to know what they had been doing, and exactly what my brother had said. But this was not the time.
“I have to go.”
They nodded.
My mother motioned to the corral of guards forming in the middle. “Us, too.”
The fight was still going, the taste of blood in the water. I hoped we hadn’t lost lives. We had higher numbers, but the guards were armed and able to fend off several at once.
My father pulled me into another hug and whispered, “We’re proud of you, babygirl.”
I bit the inside of my cheek so I wouldn’t start sobbing again.
They let me go, just like that. They trusted that I’d survived this long, and that I would continue to do the right thing.
I thought of Meela, wherever she was. She, too, had proven her abilities countless times. She’d made it this far. It was my turn to stop worrying. If I truly loved her, I had to trust her. I had to let her live, and make her own choices, and learn from her mistakes.
I darted over to Creon. “What’d you find?”
Before he could say anything, I heard a hoarse voice. “What’s happening?” it said.
I snapped my attention to the wall. The voice had come from beyond the rock.
I tuned out the chaos, and a gap revealed itself in the wall. It was narrow, no more than a hand’s width, too dark to see through. I pressed my palm to it, feeling what was on the other side.
The way the water swirled told me the cell was circular, with smooth walls and no room for comfort. A lone merman was inside. He was weak, his aura pale.
“The others are checking for more gaps in the wall,” said Creon. “We must be getting close because that commander mermaid is getting desperate.”
