World of Aluvia 2 (13 page)

The maid crossed her arms and simply said, “You should rest while you can. You’re only human, and it’s been a long day for you.”

That was a very unsatisfactory answer. Phoebe wanted to argue, but she was so exhausted that she actually drifted off to sleep sitting up, lulled by the soft currents. When she jerked awake―who knew how long it had been?―she found nothing had changed. They were still waiting for Tristan to return.

“Okay. I’ve rested. Now please tell me what’s going on,” Phoebe begged. “Your village looks, well, a little rundown. And everyone looks almost ill. It worries me.”

Mina sighed. Her next words were reluctant, barely audible. “Things have been difficult the last few years.”

Phoebe gaped at her. “What? What does ‘difficult’ mean?”

“As magic has increased, old magical sea creatures, unseen for years, have been reappearing out of the midnight and twilight realms. Dangerous creatures. We thought they were just myths, but they must have come out of some type of magical hibernation.”

“Well, that makes Liam’s story even more believable!”

“The elders are slow to accept change, Phoebe, even when the facts are undeniable. It’s one thing to fight off some sea dragons. It took the elders
years
to finally accept those were real. But it’s quite another to discuss our most ancient of enemies, especially when our own powers have remained low as they ever have. The old ones had powers that let them build magical barriers around their city and fight off large predators when foraging. They could live without fear. Now we have neither the magic nor the skill. We don’t know why. It’s become rather… dangerous for us to gather our food and trade goods, so we’ve been doing with less, especially as humans keep fishing in our waters.”

“Dangerous! That’s an understatement! You’ve never said anything about hard times!”

“We weren’t supposed to.” The sentence was simple, but it confused Phoebe. Mina fidgeted with a bracelet, avoiding Phoebe’s gaze.

Realization dawned. “So you were keeping things from me?” Hurt bloomed in Phoebe’s chest. “Lying to me?”

She had told Mina and Tristan more than anyone about the traumatic time with Bentwood’s people. She had shared her heart with her two friends. Her bottom lip quivered, but she bit it before it showed. Ice flowed through her veins. Her most trusted friends had been treating her as a weak child, just as Sierra did.

Mina darted over, her glow dimming and fluctuating wildly. “No! No, it wasn’t like that! It didn’t involve humans, and your sister told us―”

Her words cut off suddenly, her eyes widening.

“
Sierra
said something to you? As in, Sierra, my big sister?” Phoebe gritted her teeth so hard she was surprised sparks didn’t fly even under the water.

“Well, she was worried about you,” Mina said, twisting her hands together. “And then she was so angry when we took you deeper into the sea, like we might break you. When she learned that we were having problems with sea dragons and so on, she asked us to sort-of-not-mention-it-to-you.” The words came out in a rush.

“She
asked
you to not tell me? What, did she ask you nicely?”

“Maybe more like told us.” Mina dipped her head. “She said if we told you, you’d worry more and make yourself sick, and she’d forbid you coming to us at all.”

Yes, that was more like Sierra. She didn’t ask. She told. She pushed. She
demanded.

Mina
should
be ashamed. Mina should have told Phoebe anyway. And Sierra should be ashamed, too, though she wouldn’t be. This was even worse than not telling Phoebe she had some unknown kind of magic.

She scowled, spinning a bit in her haste to rise. She had always said she would do anything for her mer-friends, and here they’d been suffering, and she’d not known. Because her
big sister
didn’t think she could handle it.

Fury swept through her, colder than the cave waters. Her spine stiffened. Something shifted inside her, something deep down without a name. It stirred, like a wave growing, crashing powerfully against her heart. She was done with being treated like a child.

“Well. Sierra’s not here, and I am. Tell me now.” Her voice vibrated with a new strength. The trembling thing in Phoebe’s chest solidified, settling there like a firebird sinking into its nest, ready to scorch anyone who offended.

Mina’s face crumpled, and Phoebe’s anger softened a little. She took her friend’s hands. “Please. Mina. I need to know what’s happening. I love you.”

Mina sniffed. “Tristan will kill me.”

“I’ll kill him, and we’ll be even.” Phoebe’s voice was grim.

“The sea dragons are staying in the deeper waters for now, but they are interfering with our gathering and fishing. We’re afraid they’ll start invading our village. The elders really did say that the merfolk you found must have died by accident a long time ago, but now they’re reconsidering. And more merfolk have gone missing. Just gone out to collect food or supplies and never come back. We don’t think it’s humans taking them, either.”

Phoebe blinked at the flood of information. “How many are missing?”

“Enough that the little ones have been forbidden to leave the village as of this morning. The rest of us can’t venture into the twilight realm at all. The midnight realm is completely forbidden, and has been for years beyond counting. As you know, humans have been intruding in our waters, stealing from our dwindling supplies of deep sea fish. And now you’ve said you’ve seen a water wraith, and with that skeleton found, with those marks on it, like the stories of Baleros―Phoebe, they might make us all migrate to the other side of the sea. I imagine that’s what they’re discussing right now.”

The bottom dropped out of Phoebe’s stomach.

“No,” she whispered.

Lose her best friends? Tristan?

Mina shook her head miserably. “I wanted to tell you. I know Tristan did, too. He’d never hurt you on purpose; you don’t know how much he risked to help you in the first place. In our culture, you simply don’t make decisions without the elders. And you certainly don’t risk war with the humans by helping one of their prisoners escape. Bentwood had some of our people locked up in a pen under his fortress; Tristan risked the deaths of those merfolk by aiding you.”

“We’ve got to convince the elders the wraith is real, and the beast might be rising. They have to fight!” The answer was clear to Phoebe.

Mina gave a soft laugh, one devoid of humor.

Then Tristan’s voice cut through the cave.

he elders would never be that reasonable.” Tristan’s voice was rough. Phoebe couldn’t see him in the dark cave, but just the sound of him sent adrenaline sparking through her. His tail fin moved so slowly that he simply drifted into view, rather than swam.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Phoebe cried, swimming over to her friend. He had no glow left shimmering from his skin at all. She couldn’t stay angry, not at him.

“I made a sacred promise to your sister. It was the only way she’d permit us to keep seeing you. I’m sorry to have kept our troubles from you, Phoebe. More than you know.” He sagged to the cave floor.

Mina cried in dismay, grasping her brother by the shoulders. “What did they do?”

“They asked many questions in their fury and made ugly accusations. Especially Elder Seamus.” He paused and raised an eyebrow. “He used to wrestle sharks, you know.”

“I feel sorry for the sharks. Well, what do we do now?” Phoebe asked.

“The elders want to speak to you, but they won’t do it in the village. They worry that a land walker isn’t to be trusted and want to question you in a way that they will know you’re telling the truth.” He rubbed the back of his neck and gave a deep sigh.

They thought she was lying? Phoebe’s heart sank like a battered ship. She’d told them everything she knew, hadn’t she? Didn’t spare a single detail. Telling them should have been enough to goad them into action. She’d even showed them the huge handprint on her leg. And they still weren’t doing anything. She’d done her best and failed.

But what if the water wraith came at Tristan and Mina? Or someone from their family? She’d have to keep trying to convince them, even if they looked at her like she was a sea slug. And if she proved she was right, maybe then they’d stop being furious at Tristan for bringing her.

Then a thought occurred to her. “Don’t they believe Liam? He’s a merfolk.”

“Unfortunately, Liam isn’t known for his truth-telling. His father drank jellyfish liquor too often, wandering off and telling crazy stories. Though it’s unfair, they think of the boy as untrustworthy too.”

Mina scowled. “Liam would never lie about something like this. He’s a good pup. He tells tales just like all seawees do at times, but it’s obvious when he’s doing it. He was petrified today.”

Phoebe couldn’t help agreeing. The shrill terror in his voice had rung with sincerity.

“They don’t want to believe wraiths are real at all, Phoebe, much less that you’ve seen one. They’ll cling to any possibility that allows them to stay buried in the sand like a sea frog, even if it means calling you and Liam liars. If we must fight against these wraiths, our whole culture would be forced to change. If Baleros
has
risen, which even I find hard to believe, don’t expect the merfolk to react well,” he warned.

She could understand that. The merfolk’s response was much like the way she usually reacted, compared to Nell or Sierra. Phoebe had never wanted to fight. Until now.

“Okay, what do the elders want me to do to prove myself?” she replied.

“They wish to take you to an old place,” he answered. His gaze swept over to Mina as he said, “We’re going to the ancient city. To Lyr.”

Mina gasped, hand rising to her throat.

“I don’t understand. Why does Mina look like that?” Phoebe said

They didn’t respond for a long moment. “Tristan? Mina? Talk to me!”

Tristan explained. “Lyr is a mystical place for our people, the original home of the merfolk, in the deepest part of the twilight realm. Our time there was one of prosperity for us, until Baleros and his wraiths supposedly destroyed our civilization. With little magic left, our people moved to the shallows and soon became slaves to humans.”

Phoebe looked out of the cave opening. Tristan and Mina joined her, the three of them looking out at the merfolk’s village. The crowd below seethed, screeching and hollering. The elders swam off, waving at them imperiously to follow. Time to go.

Phoebe turned quickly to Tristan. “But what about Baleros? What happened to him?”

“No one knows. The beast faded into myth, though it has remained forbidden for most merfolk to return to the ancient city, except on two occasions.”

“And what are those?” Phoebe asked, hoping to better understand their culture.

“One is the coming-of-age ceremony when we receive our tattoos from the sea and dedicate ourselves to its service. They take us to the sacred temple, the same one where you will go.”

The elders were already distant specks. Mina tugged on Phoebe’s hand. They had to leave, but she had to know. “And the second time?”

“After our death. Last rites are performed at the sacred temple, where our bodies are returned to the sea.”