Lost Voices (16 page)

130 i LOST VOICES

“I can’t tell them apart,” Kayley said. “One of the black girls. I think the one with more green in her tail? First she like tackled Luce, and then she just went and punched her in the face!

Look, Cat. You can totally see it! Luce’s cheek is really swollen.

That
bitch
. . .”

“Whichever one is responsible, then,” Catarina announced.

“The rest can stay if they feel like it. But the one that broke the timahk has to leave.” Her voice was rasping and utterly cold.

Luce couldn’t believe how hypocritical Catarina was being.

“No one hit me,” Luce said. But there was still the bruise on her face; she had to explain it somehow. “Not on purpose, anyway. We were just playing and Jenna she’s not used to her tail yet, and she smacked me by accident.” Kayley was shocked. “You’re
lying!
Luce, how can you lie about that? I was watching the whole time, and she hit you on purpose. Hard. And it wasn’t with her tail either, so don’t try to say that it was.”

“You were pretty far away from us, Kayley,” Luce told her softly. She felt bad about lying, but she couldn’t stand the thought of the new mermaids lost out in the middle of the sea, exhausted and hungry. They would be such easy prey for orcas or sharks; they might drift on and on until they lost their strength and drowned, or they might try to leave the water. Wasn’t every girl there lost enough as it was? “I know you
think
you saw her hit me, but it’s really not true. You just couldn’t see what was happening that well.”

Catarina was looking from Luce to Kayley and back, trying to decide which of them to believe. Meanwhile the new mermaids were starting to recover from their shock.

i 131

“If we’re not wanted here,” Jenna said calmly, “we’ll all leave right now.”

“You
are
wanted here!” Luce shot back, and she was surprised by how fierce her voice sounded. Almost as if she thought she was the queen. She glanced at Catarina and tried to keep the intensity out of her tone. “You’re wanted here; it’s just that there’s been a misunderstanding. There’s a rule that no mermaid can ever hurt another,” and here Luce desperately hoped that Jenna would swallow her pride and play along, “and Kayley’s made a mistake. She thinks you broke the rule and hit me deliberately.”

Jenna and Dana looked at each other, both of them understanding at once.

“ Luce,” Catarina hissed. She was using her quietest, dead-liest voice. “ Luce, do you realize how much is at stake here? If even one mermaid who’s broken the timahk stays with us, the whole
tribe
is dishonored.” Luce looked straight into Catarina’s level gray eyes, wondering how Catarina could be so shameless when she’d broken the timahk herself, and loving her anyway.

Even her hypocrisy had something ferocious in it; it was like a beautiful scar. “It’s not something you can ever lie about. Not even to protect your best friend.” They stared at each other.

Catarina’s eyes shone with their stony, moon- colored light.

“You know I love you, Luce. You’re like my little sister. But if it came to that if I saw you break the timahk I’d drive you out myself.”

Luce knew it was true, but she didn’t care. She’d lie a thousand times to protect Catarina if she had to, and she’d lie to protect Jenna, too.

132 i LOST VOICES

“I do understand, Cat.” Luce’s voice was still passionate, but it was much more controlled now. “Jenna slapped me, but it was an accident. She didn’t dishonor us.”

The new mermaids were stunned, but at least no one con-tradicted her. Luce’s heart was pounding. She’d done something tremendously reckless, but she also knew she’d had to.

* * *

When Luce had first changed it hadn’t been easy, but she soon realized that adjusting was much harder for some people than it was for her. Some of the new mermaids were overjoyed, glad to be free finally of the paranoid woman who’d made their lives hell, and who almost killed all of them. But others were in shock, weeping uncontrollably and staring around at the cave in dismay. Luce hadn’t missed human things like televisions and stuffed animals at all, but some of the new girls were horribly upset to realize that they’d be spending the rest of their lives in the cold sea, living on seaweed and mussels and sleeping on a pebble beach.

Without even talking about it Luce and Dana became a kind of team; Dana soothed the crying girls, stroking their hair and promising that everything would be okay, and Luce answered questions and explained how it had been for her since her own change. Luce could hardly believe that she’d been human less than a week ago. It felt like she’d been in the water for years.

Jenna was still sulky and glared over at Dana and Luce sometimes, but she seemed to understand that they’d been lucky to find shelter. Jenna was keeping quiet, and though Luce hadn’t known her long, she already realized that it was out of character.

i 133

When no one was near them Dana leaned close and whispered in Luce’s ear. “Thanks. You really stuck your neck out for us, right?”

“I had to,” Luce whispered back. “I wasn’t kidding; it’s not safe out there. I couldn’t take the chance that something bad would happen to all of you.”

Dana smiled and twisted one of her long black braids. Her tail flicked up: caramel brown, like her sister’s, except that the shimmer on her scales was ruby and copper colored rather than green- gold. “Jenna will come around,” she said. “You’ll see. It always takes her a while to like new people, but once she likes you she’s a really great friend.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud scream. One of the new mermaids, a twelve- year- old named Violet, who was especially upset at not being human anymore, had found a dark, out- of- the- way corner and then hauled herself onto the beach.

Now her tail was drying, and she was writhing horribly from the pain, thrashing farther back from the water in her agony.

Luce and Dana had to squeeze through a stunned circle of mermaids who were watching Violet shriek and flail at the stones.

Luce saw the problem at once. Violet was far enough up the beach that it would be impossible to reach her without her rescuers leaving the water themselves. The pain would be too shocking for the new mermaids, but she and Catarina . . .

“Cat!” Luce called, looking wildly around for the blaze of fiery hair. She couldn’t see her anywhere.

“She left the cave,” Miriam said. “She said it was too noisy in here, with all these metaskazas. I think she’s still kind of mad about you sticking up for them so hard. I don’t know if she to-134 i LOST VOICES

tally believed you.” Luce looked at Violet, who was going into convulsions, her tail sending showers of pebbles into the air.

They clearly didn’t have much time.

“ Miriam,” Luce said, “I know it’ll really hurt, but . . .” Miriam understood at once, and without another word she and Luce threw themselves up onto the beach.

It was terribly hard to move now that she was out of the water. The stones dug into her stomach as she elbowed her way awkwardly along. Her tail, which was so strong and graceful in the water, became a horrible burden as soon as she was on land.

It dragged heavily behind her and wriggled uncontrollably, as if it had its own independent ideas about what Luce should do, and leaving the water absolutely wasn’t one of them. Luce could see that Miriam was having trouble, too, and meanwhile Violet kept throwing herself around. Every time another convulsion took hold of Violet she seemed to end up a few inches farther back and each of those inches was like miles to Luce. Cold wind blew across her back, across her exposed tail.

Then the pain started in earnest. Luce felt like she was swimming through fire but swimming so slowly that everything except the pain just kept getting farther away from her. Violet couldn’t even scream anymore. Now she was panting loudly, her hands reaching out in wild spasms.

Luce gave a final desperate heave and grasped Violet by the wrist. She looked around for Miriam. Her friend wasn’t there, and Luce’s tail started to shake and beat at the stones. She couldn’t stop it, and then she heard herself screaming.

“ Luce!” The voice was blurry and strange. “ Luce! You have to roll! Roll back to the water!”

i 135

All Luce could understand was the pain, though. Roll?

The word didn’t make any sense. She was lost in a sea of icy flames.

“ Luce! Let go of her! You have to save yourself. Now roll!” Somehow Luce understood this time, and she rolled down the beach with all her strength. But she didn’t let go of Violet, jerking her arm as she went, and Violet’s body lurched in a confused mess until she was lying halfway across Luce’s middle.

“Just one more time! We’ve almost got you!” Luce let out a long, trembling gasp and threw her tail in a heavy arc toward the sea. The momentum flipped her body over and over, and then dozens of hands seized her and Violet and the salt water lapped across her burning scales.

Catarina grasped Luce’s face hard in both hands and stared at her. Luce was still swaying from the pain, barely in control of her movements. But oh, the water, the cool, smooth living sea!

Then, to her amazement, Catarina burst into frantic tears and threw her arms around Luce’s neck.

“Jen?” Luce barely heard Dana’s voice. “Don’t you dare give that girl a hard time ever again. Why wasn’t it one of us out there saving Violet? She’s our responsibility.” Miriam couldn’t stop crying either.

“ Luce?” Miriam whispered. “ Luce, I’m so sorry; it just hurt so
much
. I tried but I couldn’t keep going.” Luce tried to smile at her, then gave up and buried her face in Catarina’s hair.

“You know you’re a lot more trouble than you’re worth.” Samantha was sniping at the new mermaids. “All I can say is you’d better have some awesome singers to make up for all the problems you’re causing.”

136 i LOST VOICES

Dimly Luce was afraid there would be another fight. But nobody besides Samantha seemed to be in the mood for an argument.

* * *

By evening all the drama was over. None of the new mermaids felt like complaining now that they’d seen Violet come so close to dying, and even Kayley seemed to be getting past her anger at Luce. Some of the girls who had been most upset at changing were starting to discover just how much fun swimming was now, too. It was a beautiful spring evening; the air was fresh and soft, and the sky was a dome of pure gold. The water in front of the beach where they ate was full of laughing, splashing figures.

Jenna was practicing her leaps. It was amazing how high she could go. And after a while two baby seals appeared and started playing with them, shyly at first but then coming closer. The younger metaskazas were overjoyed, stroking the seals’ sleek fur and spinning in circles with them. For some reason watching them play only made Luce sad; it reminded her of something, but she didn’t know what at first. Then the image came into focus: she was a tiny girl, spinning with a dark- haired woman on a lawn . . .

Luce grasped for a way to distract herself and realized there was something that she didn’t understand. She and Dana were sitting on the sofa- shaped rock twenty yards from shore.

“Dana?” Luce said. “So when you all changed, you were still in Henton, right?”

“We were in that group home with crazy Beebee Merkle,” Dana agreed. “She tried to murder us.” Luce was bewildered by this. Henton, after all, was a good distance inland.

i 137

“So when I changed,” Luce said, “I was on a cliff high over the sea. I still don’t know how I survived, but somehow I fell over the edge without it killing me.” Dana looked at her curiously.

“But, I mean, the sea was right there. That part is easy to understand. But I can’t see how all of you made it to the water.”

“Oh, boy, that’s the
weirdest
part!” Dana agreed. “I’m afraid to try to tell you, even. You’ll think we’re a bunch of loop-de-loops.”

“I won’t think anything bad,” Luce promised. “I just don’t get it, and I’m trying to figure everything out. I’m still new, too, even if they don’t call me metaskaza anymore.”
Not since I helped
sink that ship,
Luce thought, but she didn’t say it. Dana was so nice that Luce was worried she’d react badly when she learned about that part of being a mermaid.

“Okay,” Dana said a little edgily. “Okay, you’re not going to believe this. But it was like we all turned into puddles, except we were still alive. I mean, we could still think and everything.” Luce’s eyes went wide. She remembered how strange she’d felt when her own transformation started. It
had
felt like turning into liquid there on the grass. And maybe that could explain why the fall off the cliff didn’t kill her. “So okay, you really won’t think this is nuts? The whole place was surrounded by fire, and there were these bars on the windows. We couldn’t get out.” She gave Luce another doubtful look, but then she went ahead and said it. “We escaped through the drains.”

“Through the drains?”
Luce was amazed. “Like, you stayed in one piece even though you were liquid, and you were able to squish down that much?”

“I mean, I guess so,” Dana said. Now she was smiling; it was kind of funny, actually. “We definitely watched each other go 138 i LOST VOICES

down the drains, though. In these watery blobs. And then it was really dark and, like, we were moving super, super fast. For a really long time, too. And the next thing I knew I was bobbing around in the sea, and Rachel was grabbing my arm. I realized if we all linked arms we’d be safer, and we could help each other float with our heads above water.” Dana gave an odd, rueful smile. “I was, like, surprised and impressed that we could all float so well. And I knew my legs felt wrong, but I didn’t want to look. I told myself I was just numb from how cold the water was.”

Luce grinned. “I didn’t believe it at first either.” Dana was curious about this. “So how did you find out?” Luce suddenly felt embarrassed. She didn’t want Dana to hear the story of how she’d sunk that first boat by accident, and her stomach turned over as she realized that someone would definitely tell Dana the whole thing sooner or later.