World of Aluvia 2 (7 page)

“Good evening, little sister. It’s good to see you.” Micah paused, furrowing his brow for a moment. He inhaled deeply, and his expression cleared. Then he bowed to Phoebe, as he often did in greeting.

Sierra rolled her eyes at his courtly manners, as usual. Micah stood near the door. The four of them were crowded in the little room, but no one complained.

Sierra commanded, “Okay, now tell us. Clearly. Donovan came for you?”

“Him and some other man I didn’t know. While I was at the water.” Her hands twisted in her old quilt made by their mother years ago. The loose threads looked like lace. “I went down to finish a conversation with Tristan and Mina, but they weren’t there.”

Phoebe went on to explain how the men trapped her and why she ran into the water.

“You’re sure it was Donovan? And that they were supposed to take
you
?” Sierra asked, biting her lip, exchanging a glance with Micah.

“I’d never forget that face.”

Sierra sat down and looped an arm around Phoebe. “Go on, then.”

“I knew Tristan and Mina were coming, so I swam out far into the sea, hoping the men wouldn’t come after me.”

“You’re lucky the merfolk came in time,” Micah said, solemnly. Phoebe considered mentioning the reason the merfolk had been meeting her, the discussion about the skeleton, but then Corbin interrupted.

“What’s that mark on your ankle?”

Everyone stared. Huge reddened fingerprints marred the pale skin on her right leg. Phoebe hadn’t noticed the mark until now. She hastily covered her bare legs and feet with a blanket, but it was too late.

“And what. Is. That?” Sierra chewed out the words.

Phoebe sighed. She was going to have to tell them after all. This wasn’t going to be pleasant.

hoebe told them the truth about the sea creature that grabbed her. She didn’t tell them of the terror she’d felt, but she described the creature in detail.

“Wait, wait,” Corbin gasped, waving his hands to stop Phoebe. “A
water wraith
?”

“A what?” Sierra stood, hands on her hips, ready for a fight.

Corbin gulped, staring at Phoebe. “It had… red eyes and sharp teeth?”

Sierra’s eyes popped, and her gaze pinned Phoebe to the wall. “Yes, Phoebe, do tell. Did this thing have red eyes and
sharp teeth
, when you were under the water
where you weren’t supposed to be
?”

Phoebe flinched, but she spit out, “What, you’d rather Donovan caught me?”

Sierra took a deep breath as if about to argue, but Micah hushed her with a finger against her lips. She complied with his silent request when she’d never listen to anyone else like that. He winked at Phoebe.

Corbin said, “The water wraiths are an old myth. I’ve only read about them in a few rare scrolls from countless years ago. The old tales say they are the servants of a giant, ancient sea creature called Baleros, and both preyed on the merfolk, stealing their magic.”

Phoebe stifled a gasp at hearing that unusual name mentioned again.

“So, if one servant of a powerful, awful sea beast is awake again, doesn’t that mean more wraiths could be around? Aren’t the merfolk in terrible danger? Maybe even from this beast itself?” Phoebe asked.

She thought of the skeleton, of its crushed skull, of the faint image of the stirring shadow she sensed as the wraith had held her. Dread was an icy pit in her stomach. Maybe the horrifying shadow creature she saw when she was dying had been a warning, a vision of the thing that destroyed that poor merman. Maybe the elders were wrong, and Tristan’s mother was right.

The others exchanged glances, but Sierra just said, “We don’t know that for sure yet. Let’s talk about that in a moment. First, though, what happened after this thing, whatever it was, grabbed you?”

Phoebe took a deep breath and continued. She briefly touched on the strange shadow she had seen as she lost consciousness, which distressed the others, but by the time she finished explaining what happened with the blue light, everyone’s jaws reached the floor.

Sierra, for once, seemed at a loss for words.

Micah asked a question no one else had yet. “You said there was a
blue
light, when the water wraith held you, and then it let go?”

Phoebe nodded. “The light was bright blue, like sapphires. It pulsed once and was gone. I thought Tristan had done it, but he said he saw nothing near me when he arrived.”

Micah was silent, though Phoebe noticed Sierra eyeing him with suspicion. They were keeping secrets! That was most definitely a keeping-things-from-Phoebe-again face.

“What do you know that you’re not telling me?” Phoebe demanded. She stood up on the pallet, feeling the need to be taller and more grown up than sprawling on her bed. “Why didn’t anyone tell me there’d been new threats against us?”

Here the other three had the grace to look abashed. “I didn’t want you to worry, Phoeb’,” Sierra whispered. “I know I shouldn’t keep things from you, and I really am sorry, but you were so frail after we got you back and you still, well, you still get upset sometimes. You know how you get?”

Phoebe hung her head. She’d tried to keep the worst of the panic from Sierra but apparently had failed.

“You don’t see your old friends. You don’t go anywhere except to the ocean. What if I had told you my worries and made your… episodes… worse?”

Sierra’s eyes watered, and Phoebe teared up in response. For once, she wished she wasn’t so quick to cry with others. She wanted to impassively stare down at her sister, but impassive was never a word anyone would use to describe Phoebe Quinn.

“You’ve been really depressed, Phoebe,” Corbin added, patting her hand. His kindness made tears press harder against her eyelids.

“I’m sorry,” Sierra said, “I am, but I’m supposed to protect you, got it?” She hugged Phoebe like she’d never let go.

Part of Phoebe wanted to stay wrapped in those arms forever. Sierra had protected her from their father before he died. Since their mother had died birthing Phoebe, Sierra had taken the place of mother and father both.

But the other part of Phoebe, a newer part, knew those protective arms were an illusion. Something had changed inside her. Clearly, no one could keep her safe forever. And in the meantime, her dear friends were in danger.

“We’ve got to help them!” Phoebe said. “I’ve got to at least warn them! They won’t know a water wraith has risen again, if that’s what I saw. They had no idea what it was when I described it. Tristan dismissed it as a rare strange creature accidentally floundering from the depths. What if the evil sea beast is back, too? What if that was the dark shadow I sensed before I fainted?”

“That’s a giant leap to make. We don’t even know that what you saw is definitely this wraith thing.” Sierra’s jaw was clenched.

Corbin looked at the floor.

“You know.” Phoebe’s voice was soft. “You know, and you don’t want to admit it.”

“That’s not true,” Sierra snapped.

“But you won’t let me go warn them tonight, will you?”

“Tomorrow is soon enough. I’ll go myself, but they won’t be expecting anyone tonight. You don’t need to go back to the sea at all. You’re at risk there!”

Phoebe groaned with frustration. “Sierra! These are
my
friends. And tomorrow, they could be dead, attacked by the wraith or maybe even the sea beast itself.”

“Or maybe Tristan was right. It could be nothing.”

“Then why won’t you let me go?”

“Because I love you too much to lose you again.”

Silence. Not even Micah broke the heavy tension.

This wasn’t working. Knowing her sister’s deep need for justice, Phoebe tried a new tack.

“When the merfolk were set free, where was repayment for the ship hulls they had fixed? For the fish they had caught during their slavery? They got nothing, except a promise that the oceans beyond the shore would be theirs alone to care for. But now more humans are violating the treaty, not even bothering to try to work with the merfolk. Just taking what they want. Some humans are even deep-sea fishing again. I was told a little seawee died in their nets, and we saw a boat today sneaking around past the coastline. It’s so wrong! And Tristan saved my life, Sierra. Without him, we’d never have even gotten away from Bentwood’s. You know that. I owe him my
life
! Twice. He saved me again today. Don’t you even care?”

“First of all, we did help his people. We arranged for the treaty, even though the merfolk elders didn’t even want to work with us. And of course I’m thankful for him for today, yes, but if you go to them, you’ll be in great danger, trust me. I don’t believe his actions are worth the possible sacrifice of your own life.”

Phoebe did.

When she was taken to Bentwood’s, Sierra had come to take her sister back, but to reach the dungeon, Sierra needed help. Tristan was the one who brought her across the waters. He was the one who brought them both back to shore. Phoebe would never forget that.

She’d spent long hours with the twins underwater during those first days and weeks after her rescue, letting the beauty of the sea wash away the anguish of the dungeon. During her captivity, the air had been thick with the stench of sweat and blood and death, but the ocean held the healing scents of rich minerals and tangy green growing plants. Even the whiff of decay along the ocean floor held the seeds of life inside it.

In the dungeon, the helpless sobs of the other new recruits slid into her brain like earworms as she tried to sleep and failed. But in the ocean, her ears were filled with the laughter of her friends and the powerful roar of the surf that boomed along the coast even below the water’s surface.

Nothing could ever replace what the merfolk had done for her. She owed them her sanity, if not her very life.

Sierra wrapped her arms around her sister, and buried her face in Phoebe’s hair. Phoebe’s heart melted.

Voice subdued, Sierra said, “I don’t get why you go down there, anyway. Why do you love the ocean so much? It smells like dead fish and is full of slimy seaweed.”

Phoebe shrugged, pretending annoyance she no longer really felt. “Why do you like the forest so much? It’s full of noisy screeching birds, biting insects, and it covers up the sky with all the jabby tree limbs.”

Micah and Corbin laughed.

Leaning back to look at Phoebe, Sierra finally relaxed enough to smile. Phoebe felt the tension run out of her sister’s arms like water. Maybe they’d get through this okay.

Sierra thought for a moment. “I guess I like the smells, the freedom, the beauty. It just feels… right when I’m there.”

“It’s the same for me and the sea. I don’t know… it just feels peaceful there. And now it’s in danger. Don’t you see?”

“No, I don’t see,” Sierra muttered. “I don’t see why you have to risk your life for what could be nothing. I won’t allow it!”

Sierra was asking Phoebe to abandon her closest friends. She struggled out of Sierra’s arms.

“The merfolk
are
in danger!” Phoebe insisted. At her sister’s continued silence, frustration pushed aside caution. There was one way to prove her point. She’d have to tell them about the skeleton. So much for keeping things from her sister. Her pathetic attempt at hiding the truth was like a giant rope coming completely unwoven, each strand blowing loose and open in the wind for all to see. Sierra would want to lock Phoebe in her room forever. But some things mattered more than her own happiness. The protection of the merfolk was one of them.