Ice Crypt (Mermaids of Eriana Kwai Book 2) (4 page)

Nineteen and at the peak of fitness, Katus and Ladon embodied the hulking crocodile appearance better than anyone. Some mermaids went for that. I sooner would’ve kissed an anglerfish.

As they dragged me back, the vibrant ripples of the kelp forest gave way to a dirty, lifeless city. Stone pillars towered beside us, barely visible through the murk.

With Utopia nearly finished, Adaro had begun colonising further south. Most of this city was under construction, the surrounding coral beaten and dead. Even the water tasted sour, the result of constant stirring of dirt and grime.

Ladon held my prison entrance open with his spear.

I tried to bite Katus but he leaned away, shoving me into the cave with extra force.

“I’m warning you, fish face,” he said. “We’ll knock you out next time. Drag you back by your pretty golden hair.”

I blew bubbles in his face before the curtain of tentacles fell closed.

Jellyfish didn’t usually bother me. Their sting was painful, sure, but after feeling the molten burn of iron in the early years of my life, it was hard to get worked up over those soft, slippery creatures.

These jellyfish were an exception. I recoiled as they swayed towards me. Their tentacles fell two fathoms deep. Above, their guts were visible inside the pulsing bells. I wouldn’t have been able to wrap my arms around one if I tried.

I backed against the rocky wall, feeling the jellies’ sting without touching them. My prison was barely a cave—an indentation, really—and I had to be careful where I drifted. A tiny pocket of air at the back served as my oxygen supply, and I had to bend my neck painfully to get it.

The first day, I’d braced myself and tried to blast through the tentacle curtain before anyone knew what had happened. I’d blacked out before I made it to the other side.

Since then, I’d discovered easier ways to escape—like hauling my guard through the curtain instead.

“Babe, it’s in your best interest to give up,” said Ladon.

I snarled. “Feel free to take a break if you’re tired.”

“He’s serious,” said Katus. “Keep going and you’ll get sent to the labour camp.”

“Better than being here.”

They laughed.

“Never heard about the labour camp, babe? No food. Rationed air. Depths that make your eyes feel like they’re about to pop. The only creatures that survive down there are the scavengers feeding on the corpses.”

“Don’t forget the viperfish,” said Katus. “They’ll tear you piece by piece for breakfast.”

“Still sounds like better company than what I’ve got here,” I said, not buying the intimidation.

Ladon shrugged. “If you think digging into rock until your fingers bleed is better than here, I’ll be sure to tell—”

The guys’ sneers vanished. They whirled around. I caught a whiff of fear.

“Now, if a captive repeatedly escapes, ought I to punish the captive, or her guards?”

I froze. The jellies’ sting blinded my feel of the current, so I never sensed his approach.

“We have her under control, Your Majesty,” said Katus.

A third merman drifted between them like a dark ghost. Larger, thicker, more impressive in every way, he brought everything to silence. Anyone would recognise that black hair, long and matted, anchoring the black crown on his head.

I dropped my gaze as he fixed me with his crimson eyes.

“Open it,” said Adaro.

Ladon pushed the tentacles aside.

“Your Majesty,” I said, heart pounding.

“Lysithea. You have convinced me.”

Two thick bodyguards floated behind him. They gripped stone clubs rough with barnacles. The left one held a coil of slime-encrusted rope.

I’d heard Adaro had started taking bodyguards everywhere. I’d also heard the guards once ripped the arms off a group of mermaids who had refused to sink a sailboat. I hoped the limb-ripping part was a rumour.

“Convinced you of what, sir?”

“Of letting you go.”

He was too calm. I waited.

“You have a certain quality,” he said.

“If being a slippery eel can be considered a quality,” mumbled Katus.

“Whatever it is, it seems to get her past my guards,” said Adaro, a dangerous flare in his eyes.

Katus shut up. He and Ladon exchanged looks.

“It would be a waste not to utilise those skills,” said Adaro. “Your academy training was, after all, expensive.”

I didn’t miss the threat. “The battlefront?”

Adaro flashed his yellowed fangs. “Not Eriana Kwai. You clearly cannot be trusted near humans.”

I opened my mouth. A silent “oh” escaped in a bubble. He was going to make me fight below the surface.

He knew I would have no chance against mermen. Mermaids were trained to fight above water, and mermen to fight below, and there was reason for both.

“Must be a relief, babe,” said Ladon. “In our battles, you don’t need to worry about iron.”

Right,
I thought,
I only need to worry about a merman cracking my skull.

“A shame,” said Katus. “No chance to add more texture to that cute little waist.”

He reached for the scar on my side—the iron-made burn earned from a friendship with a human. It had become my tattooed reminder of why I needed to fight Adaro’s rule.

I grabbed Katus’ wrist before he could reach me, letting my eyes fill with blood.

“Don’t touch me.”

I barely got the words out before Ladon swiped me across the face with the end of his spear. I let go, but refused to back away.

“Take her to the south military base,” said Adaro. “She will depart for battle with the next detachment.”

The strand of hope that had remained—that maybe I would be sent to the same military base as my big brother—snapped.

“South?” I said. “Why south? I thought you were battling for India.”

His aura darkened, and I added, “Sir.”

“If I ask you to fight in the south, you will fight in the south,” he said. “If I ask you to fight for a wisp of volcano at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, I expect you to fight until you have either won it, or died trying.”

I said nothing. After a moment he added, with a threatening note, “Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So, men,” said Adaro, backing away. “Get moving, if you want to arrive before sundown.”

The bodyguard handed Katus the slimy rope. My back collided with the rocky wall of my cell.

“You’re supposed to keep me alive,” I said. “That was your deal with Meela.”

Whatever Adaro sensed in my mood made his lip curl.

“It is not in my hands whether you live or die in battle.”

“Please,” I said. “I don’t want—”

I stopped myself.

Adaro’s eyes widened. “You don’t want?”

Behind him, the two bodyguards drifted closer.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Of course not. Fighting Adaro’s war was the only
want
anyone should have. Even as a prisoner, I felt nothing but the deepest loyalty to my king.

I thought of this as I stared him in the eye.

A mermaid I’d gone to school with came to mind. Her family had claimed she couldn’t enter the army because of an illness. The day after admitting she couldn’t fight, she disappeared. Her parents said the illness finally took her—but something was never right with them after that.

“I do not need to remind you that you are sworn under oath,” said Adaro.

“My life is dedicated to your reign.”

He studied me, as though trying to dig beneath my mask of sincerity. Afraid of what he’d find, I recited the oath I’d taken at thirteen years old.

“I swear that I shall be unconditionally obedient to King Adaro, ruler of the Pacific Ocean and all merpeople within. I shall be ready to give my life for the quest to unite the seas under one kingdom, one rule, with King Adaro the deserving wearer of the absolute crown.”

He revealed nothing.

When I spoke again, my lips felt numb.

“Your Majesty, I would be honoured to serve in the south army.”

After a long moment, the king turned away. He nodded to his bodyguards. They followed him into the depths.

I watched them go, feeling their presence long after they disappeared from view.

My attention snapped back as Katus and Ladon reached into my cell. They hauled me into the open and forced my hands behind my back. Could I break loose as they tried to move me? With full lungs, I could make it further into the kelp this time.

Ladon wrapped a fist in my hair to force me to stay still.

“Watch out for lice,” said Katus. “I think one bit me coming back from the weeds.”

I rolled my eyes. “Can’t that shrimp-sized brain of yours come up with a new insult?”

He bound my wrists, wrapping the rope all the way up my forearms so I wouldn’t be able to snap it. He yanked it tight. It dug into my flesh.

“He has a point, babe,” said Ladon. “Heard of a comb? Have some respect for the men in the world.”

He disappeared to get supplies, leaving me at the end of Katus’ rope like an otter on a leash.

I ignored his comments. I’d spent my whole life teased by other mermaids. These guys had nothing new to say.

While the average mermaid spent half the day obsessing over her appearance, any ribbons of seaweed in my hair likely got there by accident while I was chasing a dolphin. My parents had tried for years to get me to care. They gave me the latest makeup and hair products, with kelp paste and ground pearls and farmed caviar. One day, after spending most of my life without friends, I decided I’d try it. I woke up before sunrise, spent a quarter-tide on my hair and makeup, and went to school. I somehow got teased even worse than when I’d gone to school with knots in my hair. My day ended early when a group of girls told me I missed a spot and shot squid ink in my face. I went home and threw out all the makeup—except the caviar, which I ate. Then I got sick because it apparently had been farmed for beauty, not eating.

Ladon returned with a sack of food and two stone clubs. Katus pulled the rope, forcing me along behind them. I pried my wrists, subtly trying to pull my arms apart with all my strength. The rope groaned, but didn’t snap. If I could stretch it loose, maybe I could pull free, grab one of those clubs and—

“Don’t,” said Katus. “I’ll tie you to a rock and leave you there. The king won’t know the difference.”

I glared at him, but said nothing, knowing he could very well do that if he wanted to.

So I followed, trailing at the end of the rope. We left the city behind and crossed the empty wilderness.

Several times, I promised to swim without fuss if they let me go. To my frustration, they were smart enough to distrust me.

After our first breach, I discreetly tried to work my arms through the rope again. But it was bound too tightly and, before long, my arms were chafed in the effort.

Then we reached open water, and I had to stop struggling to keep up. We swam at high speed the whole way, breaching every few strokes.

I hated the open water. In every direction was nothing, nothing, and nothing. Ripples and sound carried for leagues, so a ghostly symphony played against my senses the whole way: the long, low moan of a grey whale, the clicks of a pod, a groaning tanker, and a blend of vibrations I couldn’t identify. They might have been schools of tuna, giant squids, or humans, for all I knew.

At one point, we passed close to a pair of orcas. We gave them a wide berth because they were the transient kind—dead silent and mean, with a taste for big bait like seals.

Few things could kill merpeople. The only way a human had done it was by using iron. Merpeople had also managed to kill each other for millennia. Being chopped to pieces in the jaws of a whale or shark also did the trick.

That was the only time I was thankful to be with Katus and Ladon. The whales noticed us, slowed down, seemed to think about giving chase. But there were three of us, and those mermen might have had scum for brains, but they were too brawny to be whale food.

The encounter wouldn’t have gone so well if I’d been alone. Though I could outswim a whale, the pods had clever hunting tactics, and they surrounded and killed mermaids more often than anyone cared to admit.

Finally, the floor grew shallower, and sand became rock. The water tasted sweeter in the presence of coral, anemones, and fish. Pulses grazed my skin from a nearby octopus. The city would be close, now.

I tried to relax the knot between my shoulder blades. Our trip through the open left me as twitchy as a guppy.

The guys stopped and I bumped into Katus. Ladon smacked me away with his spear.

I peered between them. A guard floated upright, a stone mace wrapped in his webbed fingers. More treaded on either side, stationed out of sight but close enough to feel. We’d arrived at some kind of border.

I glanced around, feeling my surroundings. Guards to either side. Shallow, rocky bottom. Empty ocean behind and in front.

How was I supposed to get back home if I had to cross a military line?

Ladon pulled out a roll of rawhide.

“Royal guardians on a transport order,” he said, puffing himself up.

Could I risk the empty ocean alone? Maybe not, but if I didn’t flee now, I might not be able to once we crossed this border. I tensed, preparing to jerk away from Katus’ grip. If I could catch them by surprise, disappear into the distance, maybe I’d find something sharp to slice—

A sharp blow on the back of my head made a rainbow of lights pop in my eyes.

“I swear,” said Katus, “I’ll knock you out and drag you.”

I snarled at him, the back of my skull throbbing.

The guard grunted. He slapped the roll of rawhide back into Ladon’s chest without bothering to read it. I wondered if he could even read.

His eyes raked over me like I was a sub-par dinner delivery.

“This is a girl.”

I wanted to comment on his superior observational skills, but I held my tongue.

“She’s to serve below surface now,” said Ladon.

The guard scowled at me.

I would have been wary, too, seeing a mermaid stationed so far from humans. What could I have possibly done?

I flashed the guard a wicked grin, letting my eyes bleed red.