“I ran into a mermaid,” I said before she could get angry. “I mean, swam into. Is that an expression here?”
Lysi opened and closed her mouth. Then she glanced down at my hand, which oozed a ribbon of blood. I crossed my arms.
“Anyway, it’s that way to the Reinas,” I said, nodding in the direction the mermaid had indicated. “Half-tidefurther—ouch!”
Lysi punched my shoulder. “Don’t leave like that! What if you’d gotten lost, or eaten, or attacked?”
“Thank you so much for your confidence in me.”
She huffed, expelling a jet of bubbles. I shrugged and rose to the surface, Lysi hesitating before I felt her follow behind, grumbling about keeping track of me.
We hauled ourselves back onto the raft and I told her what had happened, glossing over the part where the mermaid had fled because I threatened her.
“At least we know which direction to go,” said Lysi.
“You’re welcome.”
“I still think that was stupid.”
I shrugged. Stupid or not, it was worth it.
We slept another couple of hours and departed at dawn. Breakfast was a school of mackerel, which we shared with a pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins.
A short while later, the water shifted from Pacific to Arctic. The waves grew even choppier and took on an icy blue tinge, and the wildlife became a lot more blubber-y.
“Ugh, no wonder they’re meeting out here,” said Lysi, watching the waves thrash overhead. “I thought the trek to the South Pacific was bad. Adaro wouldn’t waste time sending an army through this.”
“What about the mermen stationed at the Northwest Passage—I mean, the Ice Channel?”
“They wouldn’t get there by travelling this far out. They’d stick closer to the shallows where it isn’t so miserable.”
“I don’t think it’s miserable,” I said, admiring the way the waves looked as they frothed and churned overhead.
Admittedly, the chaotic swells made it harder to breach, and I worried about what sleeping arrangements we would have to make if we went another day without finding Kori Maru. We wouldn’t be able to stay on a raft in seas as violent as this. We would need to get to land. But if my geography was right, we were about as close to Alaska as we were to Russia.
We kept swimming. Lysi didn’t project any fear, and I trusted her instincts more than my own.
“I was thinking,” said Lysi, breaking an hour-long silence, “maybe whenever we have time—when this is all over, or if we have free time before the Reinas execute whatever plan they have—”
“Free time? We’d better not. If we have any free time once we get there, I’m going to spend it trying to come up with a faster plan.”
Lysi said nothing. A moment passed before I realised how obtuse I was being.
“I’m sorry.”
She cast me a sidelong glance.
I poked her ribs. “What were you going to say?”
“I thought maybe …” She blushed. “Maybe we could go on a date.”
My stomach gave a swoop, and every thought I had about finding the Reinas dissipated. I couldn’t stop the grin breaking across my face.
“You’re asking me out?”
She laughed.
“What do mermaids do on a date?” I said.
