“Yeah,” I said. “I guess it did.”
We passed beneath a raft of wood and plastic. Strands of seaweed and ropes dangled several lengths deep. Small fish darted in and out, plucking off algae and burrowing inside.
“Let’s stop,” said Lysi. “We might not find another good spot and I don’t want to be up all night again.”
Every part of me was sore, but I wrinkled my nose at the idea of stopping.
“You know, we could just go straight to the Atlantic instead of searching all over the Bering,” said Lysi.
I glared. She didn’t need to tell me how hopeless this search seemed. But I maintained that it was more productive than leaving the Pacific Ocean altogether.
Lysi hoisted herself onto the raft.
I rubbed my burning eyes. “All right. Sleep.”
I pulled myself up next to her and felt suddenly grateful that mermaids didn’t suffer seasickness, because something told me the bobbing raft would have made me queasy at one time.
The storm had calmed, but the waves were still enormous, each one taking several seconds to rise and fall. The movement lulled me into sleepiness. I lay on my side and pulled a tangle of seaweed over me like a blanket—not out of necessity, but out of habit. The first night I’d done it, Lysi laughed at me, but now she helped arrange it over my tail.
“Warm?” she said teasingly.
“How long do you think before I forget what it was like to sleep with a quilt and a pillow?”
She kissed my cheek and lay facing me so our noses touched. I breathed in her sweet scent, hoping to bring her with me into my dreams.
“I hope you never forget that part of you,” she said.
“What part?”
“Your humanity.”
I offered a smile.
“Look around,” said Lysi.
Perplexed, I raised my head off the raft. I let out a gasp. The sea glowed, flecked with what looked like brilliant, sapphire stars.
“Who needs outer space?” said Lysi.
I dipped my hand into the water. The blue dots glimmered, bright as lanterns, where I stirred them.
“What are they?”
“Plankton.”
I met Lysi’s eyes, finding sapphires more brilliant than those below us.
“Have I mentioned how much I love the ocean?” I said.
She smiled.
We fell asleep with our arms wrapped around each other, tails entwined, lulled by the motion and sound of the waves.
I dreamt I was human, on a tiny sailboat in the middle of the ocean. There was no wind so I was trying to use my hands to paddle back to Eriana Kwai.
Annith appeared wearing a sombrero and told me there was no point. The war was over and this was everything left in the world—empty water and nothing, nothing, nothing.
I awoke with a start. The sky was indigo, overcast. Lysi was asleep beside me. The waves lapped against our raft, a few wisps of plankton lingering nearby.
