I was trying to come up with a way to make it sound like the white-blonde mermaid was onto something when everyone turned to the cavern exit. Something was happening outside.
“They’re back,” said Dreadlocks.
Murmurs broke out around the room. Dione held her gaze on me a moment longer, then turned away.
“Then let’s not keep our comrades waiting.”
Everyone pushed away from the table.
Noticing our confused faces, the blonde addressed Lysi and me. “There’s an acoustic channel nearby. It moves between Utopia and the northern military line. We take shifts monitoring it.”
We followed everyone out of the grotto to join the flocking crowd.
“What’s an acoustic channel?” I whispered to Lysi.
“It’s a current that sound travels down better than anywhere else. There are only a few, and the kingdom reserves them for long-distance messages.”
“How long?”
“The best ones carry sound past the equator. Sometimes you can hear a blue whale from the other side of the ocean.”
I gaped, adding yet another item to my list of reasons why the ocean was so mesmerising.
Lysi hummed thoughtfully. “This is probably why they picked Kori Maru. Adaro wouldn’t suspect anyone of eavesdropping on the channel way up here.”
We joined a growing crowd at the mouth of the canyon. The mood was light, cheerful, a pleasant tingling across my skin that dulled the itch of iron. Conversation and bursts of laughter rose over the chatter of fish and shrimp in the reef, and the colourful tails added a glow to the otherwise brown, red, and grey landscape.
Several minutes passed before the approaching group came into view.
As we waited, an odd feeling overcame me, one I couldn’t identify, that brought to mind the distant past. I turned to Lysi, intending to ask her if she felt anything strange, and saw her staring open-mouthed at a mermaid floating a few lengths away.
“Lysi?”
Then someone behind us called out a greeting—I thought it sounded likeCoho—and Lysi startled as though someone had slapped her. She shot in front of me and put both hands on my shoulders. All colour drained from her face.
“Mee, remember I started to tell you something before? The merman—the former human who was part of the assassination attempt?”
“Sure. Yeah.”
Her eyes flitted away from mine for a moment. “He was from Eriana Kwai.”
If Lysi hadn’t been holding onto me, I would have sank.
“What?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. There’s been too much going on.”
My mind jumped to a million possibilities. Was he a former warrior? A kid who’d wandered too close to the water? Did he get lured?
She kept looking over to that mermaid floating a few lengths away. Why? I followed her gaze. The mermaid was curvy, with long black hair and caramel skin. Her attention was on the returning group. They’d arrived at the canyon and were being swarmed with questions.
I shook my head. My lips felt numb. “Lysi, who is he?”
Lysi seemed to choke on her words. It was a moment before she got them out.
“It’s Nilus, Mee.”
A fog engulfed my brain, disconnecting me from everything. The gurgling of the reef and the laughter and conversation died.
