Ice Crypt (Mermaids of Eriana Kwai Book 2) (30 page)

Adette lifted one shoulder. “Things get around.”

I frowned. One of the girls from my Massacre must have shared the knowledge. I hoped it had been for First Aid purposes. Either way, now all the trainees knew a pinch of Ravendust could knock a person out for hours.

“I want you to take him to a doctor, all right?” I said. “I’m going to check in on you. No more knocking him out. That’ll only make him sick.”

She nodded.

Together, we cleaned up the piles of clothes and garbage, washed dishes, and swept the floor. By then, Adette seemed less distraught—though she looked ready to collapse. My own body felt slow and heavy.

“Do you want me to stay the night?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine. I’ll go to bed and Papa will be awake in a few hours.”

I hugged her, smoothing her hair away from her tired face.

“Call my house if you ever need anything. You know my mother would be happy to make you dinner, right?”

“Thanks, Meela.”

It was well past midnight when I left.

As I stepped into the night, reality rippled through me with a violent shiver. The Massacre departure was mere hours away.

How many others were still awake? Were Tanuu, Annith, and Blacktail in their warm beds, sleeping soundly, resigned to the fate of those girls?

The bone dagger sat heavy in my jeans. A hunting symbol.

Even knowing this, I was no closer to finding the crypt. I was alone, one of thousands of civilians who would watch helplessly as the warriors departed tomorrow.

Time had run out. Had I really thought I could stop the Massacre—a tradition that had been ongoing since my father was a kid? It was ingrained in our society. Why had I deluded myself into thinking I could single-handedly change that?

Hunched against the cold breeze, I began the long walk home.

My time as a Massacre warrior was up. Now I was supposed to sit back and watch—and root for those girls to slay every last demon.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Harpoon of Death and Teeth and Stuff

“Let me get this straight,” said Pontus. “We’re going to lure an entire shoal of sharks into the target’s path—”

“Yep.”

“—surround him—”

“Yep.”

“—then impale him with iron?”

“If the sharks don’t kill him first.”

Spio wrapped his bag with rope. He’d stuffed it full. With what, I didn’t know. But it smelled like death.

We were back at the Moonless City military base. Commander Strymon and his officers had taken a day to regroup, planning to move south again that afternoon. Spio, Nobeard, Pontus, and I had ducked inside the weapons cave, masked by a calculated eruption of panic outside. Junior had yet to arrive.

“You never explained how we’re getting the sharks,” said Nobeard.

“Lysi and I will do it,” said Spio.

Bubbles flew out of my mouth. “We will?”

“Yes.”

I stared.

He turned to the group. “We have experience in this area.”

I supposed it was true.

He told them about the time we managed to separate a baby orca from its pod. I drifted to the cave entrance to check for eavesdroppers and signs of Junior.

Chaos roiled as the loose great white snapped at anything made of meat. The decoy worked better than expected. The shark had not been fed breakfast yet, and Spio had gotten carried away by “accidentally” spilling dead fish everywhere after we set her free.

I smirked as Strymon shouted at the trainers to hurry up and tame it.

Meeting hadn’t been possible since we got back, with Strymon and his officers tailing us like suckerfish. This meant Spio had been unable to tell us the full extent of his plan.

It would have been ideal to spend time plotting the attack, but that wasn’t an option. A group from the Moonless City had come to deliver weapons at dawn, and we overheard them tell Strymon that Adaro left for his trip back to Utopia.

We had to act before he got too far ahead.

I twirled my weapon in my fists—a longblade of wood, slate, and whalebone. It was no Iron Hook of Doom, but at least it was easier to swing. Plus, it would float if I dropped it.

Spio’s two remaining iron weapons, his own hook and the trident, were now in Strymon’s sleeping quarters. One of Strymon’s first actions as commander had been to confiscate them.

Across the military base, the shark knocked over a pile of supplies. Broken ropes dangled from her jaw. Bodies darted through the tumult, weapons and ropes flying between streams of bubbles. The dolphins cackled, spinning in their enclosure.

Satisfied everyone was still occupied, I sank back into the darkness.

“… taught it to roll over on command,” said Spio. “It was awesome. But then the mom found us.”

“There was also the time you lured that salmon shark to school,” I said, before he could get to the part where we had to swim for our lives and ended up trapped under a reef.

Pontus and Nobeard studied us. I got the impression they were trying to decide whether to take us seriously.

“How do you plan to find a shoal of sharks?” said Pontus.

Spio lifted his bag in answer.

When Pontus still projected confusion, I said, “We’ll feel for signs of a feeding frenzy. Then we’ll lure them away from it with … whatever dead things Spio has in that bag.”

“It could be days until we find a frenzy close enough!” said Pontus.

“With a wide enough range, we’ll find one,” I said. “We’ll keep an eye for gulls above the surface. That’ll give us a league in all directions, no matter what else we sense on the current.”

Nobeard hummed thoughtfully. “Didn’t consider the birds. Sharp idea, mates.”

“Of course it is,” I said. “Spio and I thought of it.”

Spio raised a hand, which I met with an enthusiastic high-five.

“So keep your eyes and feelers awake,” said Spio.

He pulled his bag over his chest and gripped his weapon, a spear of serrated stone. I glimpsed a deep gash on the inside of his arm. I hadn’t noticed it before, and hoped it wasn’t iron-made from the explosion.

I glanced back, wishing Junior would hurry.

The finality of the plan wrapped thickly around us. Last time, we had left on an order from the commander. This time, we were officially committing desertion.

At this point, I was ready for it. I couldn’t serve under Adaro’s rule any longer—especially not with Strymon as commander.

Outside was still complete bedlam. What was keeping Junior? My nerves tightened. We couldn’t miss our chance. The shark would only be a diversion for so long. Plus, we couldn’t let Adaro get too far north—

I slapped my forehead. “The military line!”

For a moment, the guys stared at me in confusion. Then Pontus emitted a wave of distress.

“We’re going north,” he said. “The border.”

Spio and Nobeard caught on.

“We can fight them,” said Spio.

“We can go around,” said Nobeard.

“No,” said Pontus. “They would slay us if we fought, and going around would add a day to the journey and make us lose the target.”

“We could sneak across,” said Spio. “We’ll find a group of travellers—”

The cave darkened. A presence had appeared at the entrance, dimming the outside light and blocking the current.

Junior. He raised his arms in triumph. Spio’s iron hook and trident were clenched in his fists.

“Ha!” I said.

“Nice job, little bro,” said Pontus.

Junior glanced back. “They’ve got ropes over the great white.”

Requiring no encouragement, we bolted for the exit. I snatched a sheet of rawhide off a work surface before ducking outside; I had a plan for the military line.

We rose, sticking to the ridge like crabs. The rocks did little to hide us.

“Pull hard!” someone shouted across the way.

We didn’t stop to discuss a route. If there was a lull in the commotion, anyone would be able to feel our movement.

We scrambled from the water. The rocks grazed the surface on this side, causing violent waves. Any soldier who might have been lounging would do so on the other side, where it was calm. I hoped no one would look over and see us.

The spray crashed over me, noisy and disorienting. I held my breath against it. Each swell pushed my body in a different direction. I locked my fingers and the hilt of my blade around whatever I could find, dragging myself forwards. I recalled Spio saying something about being “a jelly in a propeller” up here. He hadn’t been wrong.

My ears rang as I plunged back into the water. The guys dropped beside me in an explosion of bubbles.

We spun to face the ridge, weapons up, waiting to see if anyone had followed.

The world was silent. The current pushed at us from the northeast, steady and calm.

“Let’s go,” said Pontus.

We swam hard, following the plankton to the strongest current we could find.

After some time, Pontus said, “I’m concerned about our numbers. Even with Coho, there weren’t many of us.”

“Mate, we’ll have about a million sharks on our side,” said Nobeard.

“Sharks don’t pick sides,” said Pontus.

He did have a point. Controlling the shoal would take effort, and even if that went smoothly, we’d be five against the ten soldiers Adaro had taken.

“The Moonless City had a rebel group,” I said.

“Yes,” said Pontus, “but they’re dead.”

“There might be more.”

“How do we find out?”

No one answered.

I thought back to the group at the mine. That one mermaid had swum by me and whispered something. What was it?

“
Para la reina
,” I said.

The guys stared at me like I’d grown legs.

“I saw a mermaid before the explosion happened at the mine. She was one of the rebels. She said those words.”

“What does it mean?” said Pontus.

“I don’t know. I think it was a code. She was seeing if we were in on the plan. When I didn’t respond, she disappeared.”

We shared a moment of unease. Did we have time to find help? Would the risk be worth it? Even if there were other merpeople who wanted Adaro dead, most of them would see treason as a crime worthy of its punishment.

“I say we go back to the Moonless City and start yelling those words,” said Spio. “See who comes forwards.”

I didn’t need to threaten him out of that plan. The guys knew as well as I did that we didn’t have time to look for help. We had to keep going or the king would get too far ahead.

After a long silence, Nobeard said, “I want to make sure something’s known. Last time, if it all went belly up—and it did—we were hidden. This time is different. Once we attack him, his whole crew will see us. We’re open mutineers.”

Though I knew this already, a knot twisted in my stomach. Best case, we would still have to deal with those loyal to Adaro after his death. Worst case, we’d be executed for treason.

I thought of Meela, and how much she had suffered because of this war. I thought of my brother stationed on the other side of the world. I thought of all the soldiers in the army, and all the merpeople who had been killed—both fighting for Adaro’s crusade, and for opposing him.

“It’s worth the risk,” I said.

“Agreed,” said Junior.

The other guys gave no signs of fear.

“Onwards, then,” said Nobeard.

“What’s the rest of the plan, Spio?” said Pontus. “What happens once you and Lysi get control of the sharks?”

“I think
control
is a loosely defined—” I began, then Spio jabbed me in the ribs.

“Allow me to explain,” said Spio with an air of professionalism. “Lysi and I will chase the sharks towards the target. We’ll drive them through his group like a harpoon, same as Medusa’s army did to us. We won’t have enough merman-power to make the sharks circle the target like they did, but that doesn’t matter, because—”

“Can you drive the sharks in so you at least isolate him?” said Junior.

“If we can peel him away, we’ll try,” said Spio. “But I’m guessing he’ll be protected in the middle. The best we can do is split the group in half.”

“Also, have you ever tried to steer a shark?” I said.

Junior considered. “Fair enough.”

“Anyway,” said Spio. “While Lysi and I drive our shark harpoon in there, the rest of you will be in position to attack. Get your iron through the target as soon as possible. Don’t worry about anyone else. We’re after one body. As soon as he’s dead, we turn tails to the current like a whale after mating season.”

He paused, and then added, “Hope none of you is afraid of sharks.”

“This sounds like a Spio plan if I ever heard one,” said Nobeard.

Spio and I exchanged a grin.

I envisioned the plan—Spio and I pushing the sharks with our weapons, the other guys diving in to attack the scattering guard. I was confident in Spio’s and my ability to guide the sharks, and in the sharks’ ability to tear the limbs off Adaro’s guards, but I couldn’t help noticing how many things would need to go perfectly.

“I guess this time, we’ll all go home once it’s done,” said Junior. “No commander to notify.”

A grim moment passed between us.

“Word of this will get out soon enough,” said Pontus. “We’ll worry about the anarchy once it happens.”