Fish Out of Water

chapter Six

Waltzing and Wondering

Amid blonde Aegirans were creatures of all shapes and hues. Swimming, skimming, undulating. Alone, or with creatures of their own species, or with those of other clans.

It was the Siren Sense. And one thing I knew for sure, my own senses were screaming.

As we danced, the wolf held my hands in his and flicked me away from him effortlessly, like I was a child. I remembered the moves, and lolled and frolicked with the other women before sliding slowly back to him. He pushed me away again and again, and each time we came back together we drew closer than the last. Somehow the flashing colors of the creatures around us – the kaleidoscopic Rainbow Fish, the swirling silver Gynomarls, the almost-lewd purple deep sea squid – intensified the moment, lending it a technicolor edge that was nearly indecent.

His skin was warm, almost hot, where I touched it, and as he took my hands I swore I could almost hear the zap and feel the water vibrate around us.

The first time we came together, our bodies barely connected, the soft whirls of fabric on my dress just brushing his naked chest.

The next time my thighs whispered to his before he thrust me away again at the cue.

The third time he crushed me into his chest and I felt my breasts light up in response.

If we got any closer there was going to be a serious breach of etiquette.

Over the wolf’s shoulder, I could see the watching crowd, including Lecanora, a small frown creasing her brow. I saw Mom too, slightly apart and watching also, her eyes flashing joy and pride, and something else.

Something more worried.

“What are you?” His eyes were wide with surprise, like a man who’d taken a body blow and wasn’t used to it. The scratchy edge of his voice was even harsher, an edge of anger in it that I recognized. I’d known enough people who lived on the edge.

I shook my head like I didn’t understand the question, and he gripped my wrist hard in his big hand, and pulled me further back behind Gag-ai-lan serving area he had spirited us into. It was much darker back here, and I suddenly felt very conscious of our aloneness. And the fact that my Glock couldn’t hydroport. My insides were churning like I was perched precariously at the high point of a roller coaster, waiting for the drop.

His voice was louder this time, and he reached up to grasp my chin in his hand, examining my face like an interrogator demanding the truth. “I said, what are you?” The last three words were separated viciously, and slowed down even further, laced with threat.

“You must know,” I responded finally. “You must know who I am. Everyone here does. What I am. I’m… half.”

He laughed, his raspy chuckle stroking the inside of me in places that hadn’t been stroked for far too long. “No-one was ever half anything.”

I shook my head, ready to explain. But he hadn’t finished. “You misunderstand me, Rania.” The hand that had held my chin so roughly began to stroke it with long fingers. “I know who you are. Of course I do. That wasn’t what I was asking. And you know it.”

I shook my head dumbly, and he dropped his hand, shaking his head. “Whatever you are, I can tell you this. You are not half of anything.” My insides, which had turned to mush some time ago, began to quiver. My heart was thrumming so fast and so hard I expected to see the ripples it created in the water around us. He lifted a finger and traced my lips with it. They annoyed me by parting obsequiously. “You are very, very whole. Very complete.”

Something about his tone made me blush. Me, who hadn’t blushed in whore houses, crack dens or the unisex change rooms at the academy. His voice sounded like he really could see all of me. Like I was standing there as naked as he had been in my arms back in Missy’s dressing room. Like he could x-ray my insides to confirm my origins.

I wanted to tell him he didn’t know anything about me.

But instead I turned the tables on him. “More to the point, who are you?”

His eyes held my gaze. “I asked first,” he insisted.

I wasn’t going to get anywhere until I answered his question to his satisfaction. “Listen, it’s true, I am half. When I’m home, in Dirtwater, I’m very… human. I’m…”

He took my hand as I hesitated, and held it to his heart. Its low thump was like a wedding tattoo as he spoke. Commanded, really. “Tell me.”

“I’m… moved by human things. Axel Rose. Caramel corn. And…” My brain dissected and catalogued the things of home. The things I loved. “Brownies.”

He lifted my hand in his surprisingly warm one and held it to his cheek, which was smooth in the way of mermen. I felt a million miles from anywhere. At least, anywhere I’d ever wanted to be that wasn’t here.

“And what about the rest of you?”

“Huh?” It was too distracting feeling the pulse jump in his neck and the hard tangle of muscle in his jaw.

“What about the mermaid part? What moves her?”

The music.

I closed my eyes. It had been a long time since I’d thought for too long about Aegira. I was usually too busy meditating all thoughts of the place out of my head so I didn’t go mad. I opened my mouth to say it, to say “the music”, but I choked on the words and took the safe way out. “I can’t remember.”

He laughed again, the moment broken and his mood changed. I felt a swift flash of grief until he spoke again. “Okay, then. Looks like a little reminder is required.”

I was surprised by the saying. His way of speaking told me he’d been a watch-keeper, which surprised me too. Watch-keepers are intense, clever, often beautiful. But not with this wolfish grin, and some crazy, hard-but-fluid body that I kept remembering naked.

Down, girl. No sleeping with the fishes.

He grabbed my other hand, so that he was holding both, and danced his fingers down my arms, past wrists and elbows to rest on my waist. Then he slowly traced them up the inside of my arms again. I was heavy, molten and unable to move. It was like hypnosis by touch. He used the advantage to grasp my shoulders in those long, strong fingers and pull.

“Come.”

I didn’t move, but neither did I resist. “I don’t even know your name”.

His eyes flicked down and up again, quickly. “You will, soon enough. It’s better we go before you do.”

Looks that would have to do, for now. “Where are we going?”

He looked at me with a heady indigo smirk, parroting my words. “I can’t remember.”

An hour later we were at the surface.

The moon glittered becomingly on inky blue swell that was like soft glass as our faces broke the surface. He grinned at me like a child. “Remember how that feels?”

I couldn’t help but smile back. My limbs ached with exertion but my heart was zinging.

“I do now.”

“It gets better.”

“How?”

“Enough with the questions.” He held a still-warm finger to my lips before planting a strong hand either side of my waist and pirouetting me through the water like I was as dainty as a ballerina instead of a muscly deputy Sheriff from a place with no water.

I waited for him to say: No-one puts Baby in the corner.

But instead, he slowly turned me 180 degrees, and I saw where we were. Directly above the deepest place on earth. Further from land than most people have ever been. There was no distant glimpse of shore, no comforting horizon.

We were bobbing on a silver-blue blanket under the light of a zillion stars.

“Lie on your back.” Somehow he managed to say it without sounding creepy, or like an ob-gyn. He guided me gently but determinedly into a floating position as he spoke softly into my ear. “Can you see the stars?”

“Uh-huh.” I was a little worried I was sounding too syrupy, drugged by his touch and his voice and the soft lap of his breath at my ear. But I was too loose and warm to try harder.

He picked up a hand and trickled cold water onto my neck. “Can you feel the water, all around you?”

Feel it? I think I’m turning to water. “Yes.” This time I was clearer. Because as he guided me through the sights and sensations I could feel myself coming alive again. I could feel the ocean caressing my skin in a way I had barely registered seven miles down.

He leaned closer to my neck, that toffee-tobacco voice barely more than the lowest whisper but warm and insistent against the sensitive skin of my ear. It shot straight to the centre of me. “Can you feel my arm around you?”

Oh yeah baby. “Uh-huh.” Back to being inarticulate as the possessive weight of that arm sent dizzy kicks all around my insides. I tried to not imagine the hardness of the rest of him.

“What else can you feel?” His whisper was so low it was hardly audible but it didn’t matter. I was like a tuning fork, responding to his commands.

I relaxed in the pose, as far as I could with his arm burning a white-hot hole against my side and his voice and breath stroking fire into my brain and between my legs.

“I can feel… something.” I tried harder to concentrate. Ignore the hormones a moment and focus. There was a subtle shift in the body of water below me, slow and low at first, and then quickening. Something was coming. Something big.

The turbulence in the water became unbearable, but he used that vice-like grip to hold me in place, only releasing me as I felt the water fracture in pieces around me. At that precise moment he lifted me bodily above his head, like Swan Lake on the high seas.

Or maybe Dirty Dancing.

All around me, the water danced and writhed and it took several seconds for my drugged senses to register what I was seeing. “The Dance of the Dolphins,” I finally realized, laughing down into his face like a three year old child. “It’s tonight?”

“Yes.” He laughed as well. “Come on!” His face was lit up with something so pure I suddenly saw him as he must have looked as a child, the first time he had ever been here, had ever seen this ritual. The force of the image knocked the breath out of me.

He threw me forward into the water and I took off, swimming, dancing and cavorting with a hundred thousand dolphins of the deep sea. Their silver grey hides flashing in the moonlight like fairy dust on their night of nights. As I swam, they circled closer, touching me with quicksilver caresses, alighting briefly in my brain with dolphin grace.

Magic made flesh.

As he caught up to me with a few clever strokes, he reached for my hand, and it felt too good. I reminded myself that I still didn’t know his name, and decided that even though this may have been truly a Kodak moment I needed to ask it before I went cavorting off with him.

But he was too quick with a question of his own. “Now?”

I shook my head in confusion, so caught up with my own thoughts, and with the joy and magic of the moment that I didn’t understand what he was asking.

Indigo eyes framed by wet lashes bored into me. “Back at the wedding I asked you what moves the rest of you. The parts that aren’t human. So.” He grinned at me like a schoolboy. “Tell me. Now do you remember?”


Evening: The Wedding

Lecanora blinked in surprise when I appeared beside her.

“Lecanora, I’m sorry,” I mumbled. I suspected the Princess could tell I was kind of confused about exactly which bits I was sorry about, but I did know I’d been making my way over to her when the wolf had waylaid me. And I hadn’t meant to disappear for so long.

Lucky Gadulan weddings were extended affairs.

“Worry not.” Lecanora’s hands twisted prettily in front of her. “May we speak now?”

I was about to say hell yeah when Mom joined us, greeting Lecanora with her customary warm embrace. “Hello, sea-daughter,” she said with a wry smile, using the ancient, but seldom-used greeting for beloved friends. “Are you well, recovered from the events of yesterday?”

Lecanora smiled nervously, nodding, and skittering anxiously on the spot. Lunia placed one hand around her waist and another over her heart, stilling her. “There is nothing to be nervous about here.”

The Princess closed her eyes and seemed to visible settle before my eyes. “Lunia, I am sorry.” She motioned to where I’d been sensing before my disappearance, hours before.

I felt an upswell of outrage and was about to remind them both I was there too.

Lunia laughed her musical tinkle. “Don’t be. Daughters are supposed to do things their mothers would prefer they didn’t.” She looked warmly into Lecanora’s eyes with her trademark twinkle as she continued. “But, you know, mothers often do things they shouldn’t as well.”

Mom kind of melted away as Lecanora took my hand and led me to a quiet place, where sea grass day-beds formed a private enclave away from the hustle and pry of Gadulan eyes.

Finally, we were alone.

Lecanora wrapped me in her Olympian’s embrace. It felt like coming home and I found myself collapsing into her. You know, at home I’m happy to wrap my arms around victims of all kinds of horrible stuff, squeeze them and lend some human warmth. I don’t judge them as sobs wrack their bodies through every kind of hell. But I never, ever let myself go.

I can’t. Not when people need me to be strong.

Sometimes it’s hard being different, and I never had anyone to share the burden with. Except beautiful, quirky Lecanora, who I figured always felt a little like me.

An outsider, even on the inside.

“Where did you go, Rania, you’ve been gone hours?” Concern dug lines into her face.

Oh no, I couldn’t talk about him. Not yet.

Lecanora looked far away, and sadder than I’d ever seen her. I knew by the change in her face she wasn’t thinking about my escapade with the beautiful merman any longer. “And why have you stayed away from Aegira so long? All these years?”

“Oh Norsha,” I sighed into her hair, using my childhood name for her. “It’s so good to see you.” This is what I really wanted to talk about right now. I wanted to make things right between us. “It’s been so long.” I wanted to break my promise to myself and tell her, even though I’d never told anybody about the prediction. “I had to… I had to stay away.”

What could I say? “I wanted to come back. Lots of times. But… but I just couldn’t. And now everything’s gone mad.” I looked at her and felt the old hurt. I was a teenager again. “I don’t know what happened. What did I do wrong to make you go cold on me?”

Lecanora covered her mouth at my words, and lowered her face. “Oh Ransha, Ransha,” she started, stroking my hair in a universal gesture of comfort. Apart from Mom, she’s the only one who ever calls me that. “It wasn’t you. You didn’t do anything.”

I remembered it so well. Things had started to get a little cool between me and my BFF when some of the other, younger mermaids started referring to me as dirt-dweller. They weren’t trying to be cruel, they were just stating fact. Sometimes they wouldn’t even say it. I would just see it lying there in their mind, a label without value. Like they’d say food, music, fish. I was always strong, even for a mermaid, and at twelve or thirteen I hadn’t quite learned to control my hot Sicilian temper. And it hurt, the things they said. So I kinda kicked some mermaid ass. Which, in retrospect, was unfair. After all, we can’t help what we think. And let’s face it, if land people could read my thoughts I’d never be out of the hospital.

As I came back to myself, I saw that Lecanora was crying. It’s the most beautiful thing. Did I mention it? Mermaids cry silver tears. I always figured it was so you could see them underwater. Glistening. “It was so hard here. I was trying to do the right things. And Kraken...”

That a*shole. I shoulda known he’d have something to do with how distant Lecanora had been with me in the few years before I’d taken off. The guy’s been yanking her chain her whole life. Pull an orphaned girl out of the sea and make her a Princess and you think you own her.

I put my finger over her lips. “Don’t worry. You don’t need to tell me what he said. What he did.” I turned her face to mine and looked at her seriously, right in the eyes. “We’re good now, though. Right?”

She nodded, silver tears still streaming down her face. We rested like that a few moments, before she spoke again, and when she did, it was just like she was channeling my thoughts. “We’re different, Rania, you and I. I mean, different from them. You, of course. But me too. I know it inside. There’s something different about me too.”

I nodded. She’s right, I knew it. Always have.

“We must always stick together. From now on. We must always be… in the same pod.”

I laughed at the term, but felt sad inside that ‘always’ might only be a few weeks. “Well,” I smiled at her. “Let’s not get ideas above our station now…”

She laughed too. “I have no idea what that means. But I did see you talking to Rick. What was he saying?”

“Um…” Where to start? We needed to cover some ground before we leapt right into “find the hurting”. Luckily, she had moved on before she realized I hadn’t answered her. “And what did the girls want?” She motioned over to where Zali, Nidan and Tricoste were huddled, nervously conferring.

“The Throaty Three?”

Lecanora laughed again, that kooky trill that actually convinces some mermaids that she’s kind of ditzy, but is really just a sign her anxiety thing is going into overdrive. I was about to answer when we both became suddenly aware of the crowd slipping closer. I didn’t need to read their minds to know what they were thinking but I couldn’t resist a peek as they pressed closer, to see if I could catch any thoughts. But I only caught strays. One from a Sand Seeder who should know better, its pure, invisible energy picking up fine grains of the seabed and forming himself into a pinwheel with them, just for fun.

Hmmm, them again. It’s been a long time. Perhaps together they could stop him…

Another from Reiscalian child, staring at Lecanora and I, transfixed.

Mama says the Aegirans are our only hope. If they all perish, who will protect us?

Mental note to self. Stay out of heads. Times like these, eavesdroppers end up on Prozac.

I could see The Choirmaster, Zorax, push through the crowd towards us, and I was relieved. Along with the Triad, a handful of other positions make up the Aegiran leadership grouping. The Choirmaster is one, along with the Head Architect (sort of like Planning and Zoning back home) and The Healer (think Surgeon General).

I’d always liked Zorax. He reminded me a little of Santa Claus, twinkly eyes and red cheeks. And there was something else about him. He seemed almost as old as Imd, somehow.

Like he knew things, secrets.

“Zorax,” I smiled, touching his eyelids with my fingers.

“Rania,” he responded. “How is the girl of the golden voice?”

“Tired,” I said, trying not to think about dolphins. I remembered my manners. “But pleased, as ever, to be back in paradise.” Busy, you know. Visions, world saving. Yada yada.

He laughed, and I knew that he could tell my line was just that. “I can see that you and the Princess have a lot to talk about.” He nodded and made a sign of peace over Lecanora. “I won’t hold you. I trust the girls asked you to come by, lend us your expertise…” He was asking like it was good manners, but I was used to undercurrents, and I knew there was more. He was fishing, trying to find out what the Throaty Three were talking to me about.

What the hell was going on here?

I acted like I had no idea what he was talking about. “Actually,” I whispered conspiratorially, “They were after cop stories. You know how girls love gossip.”

Zorax laughed, and I was almost sure I imagined it, but I detected a quick shimmer of relief skate across his jolly face. He embraced me one last time before moving off, and Lecanora and I picked up again. I was pretty sure we couldn’t be overheard, but I zoomed in to a private place in her brain, a place I knew no random passing royal-watchers could access.

Okay. So. The Throaty Three? Well, they wanted to know about my work.

Lecanora’s heavenly face puckered a little in confusion. Your investigative work? Protecting people in Dirtwater?

I shrugged. Well, you make it sound kind of grand, but yeah, that. The cop thing.

She frowned. Did they say why they were asking?

Well, they started asking whether I knew about the soloist, Imogen.

Fast as an electric eel strike, Lecanora’s brain flashed a warning at me. Be careful, sister.

And then, even in telepathy, she was whispering, as if to underline the warning. They know? They discussed it with you? The disappearance?

Whoa. What was this? She knew too? Okay, Norsha. From the beginning please.

Lecanora’s face formed a thinking pose, trying to work out where to begin. She’s missing, Imogen. Imogen’s missing. Just did not appear for practice, six days ago. And no-one has seen her since. They tried to touch her. To locate her, you know. Her family, her friends. They sent their thoughts so far, beyond the reefs even. And nothing.

I felt nauseous at her words and I knew that Lecanora did too. Like fish in a school, everyone is connected to everyone else in Aegira, and they can always find each other. This was like looking down and suddenly finding your hand is missing.

I looked carefully at Lecanora. She had been lost too. No-one had ever claimed her.

Far as I knew, there had only been three occasions in the history of Aegira when people had become lost. The girl, the one I mentioned earlier. My mother’s aunt, who went missing as a child. Then Lecanora, adrift and belonging to no-one. And now Imogen.

Three mysteries. No answers.

Lecanora swam in a tight little circle on the spot. But, Rania. They shouldn’t know. The girls. The... Throaty Three. They shouldn’t know she’s missing. How do they know?

I was confused. What do you mean? She didn’t show up. For practice. Of course they know.

Lecanora made a soft, troubled sound into my overheated brain. They fixed it. They made it so no-one would notice. So no-one would… remember.

I stopped her pacing with my hand. What do you mean? Who fixed it? You’re not making sense, Norsha.

I watched while she forced herself to stop. The High Triad. I think they… decided the populace could not take the strain of knowing about Imogen’s disappearance. That it might be the spark that sets Aegira alight.

I couldn’t hold back my smile. Revolution? In Aegira?

But Lecanora wasn’t smiling. We are not as you remember us, Ransha. As the time of the prophecy has drawn nearer, the people have become frightened and distressed. There is no consensus about what will happen when Imd… when my mother re-joins her parents in the spirit world. Let alone what to do about what the prophecy says, about the end of the world.

My brain struggled to keep up. So…?

Lecanora resumed her frenzied swimming. So the Council initiated a cover-up. Supposedly to enable them to search for Imogen unhindered.

I was so not with the program, even after Lecanora’s careful explanation. I don’t get it. What, they just made everyone forget her?

She frowned prettily. No, not quite that. They did something to their thoughts. Scattered them a little so when they thought about Imogen, their minds wouldn’t hold on to the fact of her. I’m not sure how.

This was beyond weird. How the hell did the Triad confuse some of the most evolved brains on the planet? I could feel my heart, drumming and thumping against my ribs, and I thought again about the night before last. The pain, and the fear. The darkness of what I had seen coming to pass. I wondered if this was the destiny I was meant to disrupt. And whether if I did, I might get off the hook and see thirty. I had so little to go on. There was Rick, of course, and his damn cryptic message. Telling me I need to find those who are hurting. And those who can help as well. Who the hell were they? I could really use them right now.

I needed more from Lecanora. But how do they do it? The mind piracy thing.

She shrugged. I don’t know, really. I can only guess it must be Shar, some of his magic. I shouldn’t know about it. But I… overheard them discussing it.

I tried to mentally translate what she was telling me. You eavesdropped.

No. Lecanora skittered on the spot and I raised an eyebrow.

No. More firmly.

My eyebrow stayed firmly cocked.

Okay, yes. Yes, I eavesdropped.

Go, girl. I always knew she had it in her. No-one can be that straight.

She placed her hand on my shoulders as though to underline her words. I overheard The Triad talking to mother about Imogen’s disappearance. And about how they thought she should manage it. My mother, the Queen, she had wanted some space to try to work out what had happened to Imogen. To make a plan, to try to find her. She was fretting, fretting, every night. So worried about her. Worried for her. Like she was… her own daughter.

I was shocked. The Queen agreed to the mind stuff? Making people forget? Making people… misplace Imogen? I can’t believe she agreed. It’s outrageous. It’s disgusting.

Lecanora was quick to defend. I don’t think she knew about it before they did it. I heard them talking afterwards. But she didn’t explode like… like she should have. It doesn’t seem like her, does it? But she’s getting so old. She’s… not well. And then… I didn’t know how to help her. To help everyone.

Something in Lecanora’s face pulled me up. She was scared for her Mom. And I felt the gnarled hand of fear tighten its grip on my heart. Imd was indestructible. Like time. It was simply impossible that she could be afraid. Is she ok? Your Mom?

Lecanora shuddered. I think so. Most of the time she seems fine. But she gets so tired. She knows it’s almost her time to go. And she sees no answers to all these puzzles. She’s afraid for her people.

Fear, so much fear.

I can only think she agreed to the… mind thing… because she didn’t know how to stop the fear that’s infecting the whole community. It’s spreading, like a storm gathering. But I know she needs counsel. Better counsel than she’s getting right now.

I raised an eyebrow at her. Any ideas?

Lecanora shook her heady quickly, grey eyes casting downwards. Not me. But she has an idea. She wants to talk to your mother.

What? Mom? My mom?

Mom and the Queen had always been close. Imd sought her out when we visited. When I asked, Mom would just tell me that some things were between mothers. So I’d never pushed. Any idea what she thinks Mom can offer?

No. Lecanora looked puzzled, a pretty frown splitting her smooth face. No, I don’t know. But… my heart is whispering something to me.

I smiled, kind of charmed and kind of frustrated, remembering the circular way these people talk. I prompted her with my eyes.

My heart tells me mother wants Lunia because she’s thinking about connecting with the land-dwellers. She knows your mother is an administrator. On the land. And your Mom understands their politics. I think she wants to talk to her about how it might be approached.

Are you serious? This did not seem at all like a good idea to me. I mean, I lived among land people. And I loved them. But there are certain things they are just not to be trusted with. Money. The truth. Your heart. And definitely peace-loving underwater kingdoms out of whom a buck could be made. Then something else occurred to me. I bet that’s why the Triad were harassing Mom tonight, before. I saw them talking to her and they looked pretty cross.

Lecanora nodded. That sounds right. They would definitely not like my mother bringing someone else in. And they would be particularly angry at it being her. Someone who… I could tell she was choosing her words carefully. Someone who doesn’t live here most of the time.

A polite way to put it. They would be furious that a dirt-dweller was giving advice to the Queen of the Pure. I felt a dark, angry cancer well up in me. Those a*sholes. I’m gonna-

Lecanora put a steadying had on my arm, even though we were telepathing. Ransha, no. Look at me. I did as I was told, locking eyes with her beautiful blue-grey ones. They were serious and I knew I was about to be reprimanded. You and I need to work some of these things out. We will not do it if you are rushing about, headstrong and angry. You need to wait. You need to think. You need to be patient.

Patient? I don’t do patient. But I looked at her eyes again, heavy with sadness and at once hopeful and trusting. Okay, so maybe I could learn.

So I was working on patient when my antennae started to twitch.

My head snapped up and I was trying to sniff out whatever it was that was wrong. Because something was definitely wrong. I swept the scene. It all looked good, beautiful even. The crazy glittering diamonds, throwing gleeda light throughout the natural cathedral. Hundreds of creatures, laughing and sensing. Celebrating.

My eyes flicked to the jagged rip. For a wild moment, it almost seemed to pulse. I looked urgently at Lecanora. Can you tell me about what happened yesterday? The rip?

She shook her head. I can’t explain. It was something that’s never happened to me before. Somehow, I knew it was going to happen, seconds before. I don’t know how. I had just enough time to get the child before she was too far. But it was hard. Like holding back the tide.

Huh, holding back the tide. Like The Triad were trying to do. So Lecanora was changing too. Things were happening to her. Like they were to me. I thought about what Mom had said. Evolution. Another Awakening, to begin with the most remarkable.

And then another penny dropped. So how do Zida and co know about Imogen? If the mind thing was done to everyone?

Lecanora looked genuinely puzzled. I really do not know.

I resolved right there that we need to find out. I started to mentally list off tasks.

One. Question the girls some more.

Two. Track down Shower Boy again to find out why he was in Dirtwater and what he knew about my blonde watch-keeper. I still didn’t know his name, we didn’t do much talking on the surface, but it wouldn’t be hard to find out down here. There’s no such thing as under the radar in Aegira.

Three. Talk to Epaste, and maybe the other Triad members as well.

Norsha, is there anything else I need to know?

I watched Lecanora thinking carefully, sorting through the pieces of what she knew to assess whether she’d missed anything. Thorough, diligent. I don’t think so, Rania.

I tried again, going for casual but not sure how I was going to achieve it. Especially when my danger radar had started beeping like an alarm clock. I decided I was going to go scout out that rip. As soon as I had what I needed from Lecanora. Any buzz about the watch-keepers? I mean, they still out there, doing their thing?

She looked curious, even though I’d avoided saying “any get murdered recently?” Of course. They’re always there, Rania. You know that. Dozens on rotation at any time.

So she didn’t know about Blondie. And if she didn’t know, good chance no-one did.

But it’s strange you ask, because Imogen’s best friend is a watch-keeper. Cleedaline. They were inseparable. And one of the theories… before the Triad, was that Imogen had…

She trailed off, and I was confused. Had what?

Oh, it’s so silly. I don’t believe it for a moment. I knew Imogen and she was sensible.

One word that would never be on my tombstone.

Some people said Imogen and Cleedaline were lovers. And that Imogen might have taken her own life. Out of sadness. Missing Cleedaline after she left Aegira and went to the land.

Huh. I wasn’t buying, on a number of fronts. Firstly, I’ve mentioned Aegirans don’t go for the grand love story. So a suicide over an affair just does not ring true. Secondly, same-sex relationships are rare, ’cause the whole focus of unions is on the creation of young Aegirans.

But most of all, the real chill racing along my spine was because I knew now with this sickening certainty that Cleedaline was my Blondie. The girl with my name on her thigh. She’d come looking for me because somehow she knew that her friend had gone missing.

But why had she come to me? And how did she know Imogen was gone, if she was land-dwelling? Telepathy only reaches so far. That’s why Aegira sends heralds to the watch-keepers.

My heart shrivelled inside me. She’d been killed, coming to me. Coming to me for help. Someone knew. Someone was one step ahead of her. And that someone tried to kill me too.

But why? Maybe in case I knew that she had come?

Or maybe so no-one else could enlist my help?

Or some other reason I couldn’t work out for the life of me?

My head was spinning and I was about to head off to explore why my danger radar kept pinging when a deep voice with a gravelly edge interrupted.

“Hello, sisters,” it drawled like a well-mannered, roguish serpent, with that hint of an accent I couldn’t quite pin down. “You fled too quickly, Rania. May I join you both?”

And there he was again.

The guy I danced with. And danced with the dolphins with.

And held in my arms in Missy’s dressing room.

And swam away from at a million nautical miles an hour once the dolphins stopped dancing and I regained my sanity.

Lecanora was looking at him like he was the devil incarnate, but he didn’t seem to mind. He met both sets of eyes, mine and hers, like a guy used to vilification, and relaxed about it.

But it was my eyes he couldn’t let go of. Again.

He was holding onto them like he owned them, and I didn’t want to break the stare either. After a few seconds I realized neither of us had been speaking. Why did I feel, in every pore of my body, like I knew this guy? Even though I still didn’t know his name.

“So, lovely dance, Carragheen,” Lecanora started, clearing her throat.

Carragheen, Carragheen. The name was stirring some long-buried memory inside me. My poor brain, so overworked from the high drama of the last couple of days, was whirring and creaking into action. The name meant something to me.

“Rania, it seems you’ve already met Kraken’s son.”

Mother of Aegir, surely not.

I suddenly grabbed hold of the slippery edge of a memory. Carragheen. Son of Kraken and Shighsa. It pained me to admit it, but I could now see the resemblance to his overbearing father. The blonde hair so dark, almost red-gold. His smile with that carnivorous edge. More vampire than mermaid. He was like bad news you can’t help but want to read anyway.

This was some hot son-of-a-crazy-Priest.

Carragheen was looking like he wished Lecanora hadn’t mentioned his lineage.

“Ah, Lecanora,” he shook his head, dismissing her. “I am Shighsa’s son too.”

I was fascinated. Carragheen was trying to be polite but I could tell it was not his usual thing. He was holding my eyes like he was holding my hand. Intimate, private. Why was he here? He was out of place. A dark force among creatures of light. His discomfort crackled in front of us like an electrical storm at sea. He made Doug look as reliable as the boy next door.

I was surprised by both the tremor of guilt I feel at the thought of Doug, and by the fact that I suddenly couldn’t remember for the life of me why I had swum away from this guy so fast seven miles up. Because right now he might have looked badder than bad but he also looked good enough to eat.

“Princess, I understand I owe you a debt of gratitude. And I owe Rania some answers. I was wondering whether the two of you would both like to come by my pool later.”

I was about to fall all over myself to say hell yes and what debt? when Lecanora spoke first and saved me from breaking all the rules of acting too keen.

“Thank you, Carragheen, very kind. But we have some things to do.”

Before I could squeak a protest, something happened that made it all redundant.

The sacred place filled with blood.

At least, the water was suddenly a deep crimson. Like someone threw a switch to turn on some macabre night light. Within seconds, The Eye echoed with screams of scores of freaked-out members of the ocean tribes. And one word pressed into my head from all their brains.

Bloodtide.

I remembered Mom’s words, about how Manos made the sea run red with Aegir’s blood.

Before the seekers could give instructions, the stampede was on. Hundreds of bodies swimming, spinning, sliding, pirouetting. All upwards, to leave The Eye as quickly as possible.

The fear was infectious. To creatures of the deep, the sight of blood in the water is the universal call-sign of the predator. Like the smell of burning flesh to humans on the land.

But Carragheen’s face barely moved. He simply grabbed one hand of mine and one of Lecanora’s. Come. We must be far away from here.

We didn’t argue. As he pulled us behind him like we were feather-light and kicked up towards the mouth of The Eye, I realized he was seriously strong. And fast. We were passing everyone. So I was surprised when he suddenly dropped our hands and barked a command into our brains. Go. I’m right behind you.

Again, we did as he said, but I couldn’t resist a peek behind, and then I saw why he had stopped. A young Leigon, with the face a cherub but the body of a small elephant, had become separated from its parents, and was swimming pitifully in circles, barking small cries of distress. Carragheen wrapped his arms around its middle and pulled it with him, murmuring as he went.

He saw me watching. Swim, he commanded.