Ice Crypt (Mermaids of Eriana Kwai Book 2) (36 page)

Latching onto my depth perception proved hard. I stared into the blackness for a moment.

It was a passageway, wide enough to fit a schoolbus. The end disappeared into nothingness. Those distant flecks of light were beams coming through holes in the earth above. Roots jutted from the ground overhead like tentacles.

I treaded towards it and bumped into solid land. A ledge separated the pool from firm, clay ground. I hoisted myself onto it.

Now that I had time to consider, I was sure I’d made the right choice in continuing to swim. By the time Annith would stop trying to move the stone, reach the surface, call the others, and wait for them to swim down …

They were probably still swimming back towards the stone door. I wondered if I should wait for Annith to get through. Would she even try, after seeing me vanish?

My teeth chattered violently. I wrung the excess water from my clothes.

I had to hurry. My friends might be panicking, thinking I’d drowned.

I set off towards the beams of light, holding the bone dagger in front of me.

The cave floor was like ice on the soles of my feet. My footsteps echoed off the smooth cavern walls. My breath came in quick, panicked bursts.

I stopped beneath the first beam of light and looked up. Roots and stones closed part of the hole, the rest of which was grey sky and the dark mass of a tree. I must have been beneath the forest, somewhere behind the school.

At my feet, a pile of dirt, leaves, and a small shoe had fallen through the hole.

A hollow sound met my ears, like a low wind pushing through the tunnel.

I continued along. The ground sloped downwards, further plunging me into darkness. The air grew colder. My breath misted in front of me, a wisp of life in the still, hollow pit. My sweater became crusty, hardening to ice. Overhead, I caught the occasional glint of light—probably a reflection off an icicle.

Even as the cave deepened, the narrow beams of light illuminated the passage just enough for me to see—and to stop me panicking from claustrophobia. I kept telling myself the outside world was not so far away.

More than ever, I was grateful for my friends. If something happened to me and I didn’t turn up, they were still in that outside world. They knew where I was.

The thought seemed to warm me.

Or was the air becoming warmer?

The low, hollow sound grew louder. A warm breeze did seem to be running through the passage. It smelled faintly of the ocean.

The warmth, no matter how subtle, felt blissful.

Then the cave turned at a sharp angle, and I stopped.

What lay in front of me turned my legs to jelly.

Protruding from the darkness was something black, solid, reptilian. It was the largest head I had ever seen.

The top came level with my face, so the eye would have stared directly at me if not hidden beneath the thick, black eyelid.

Sleek scales rippled over the skull and disappeared into the darkness, giving the impression of curving upwards into a mane of horns.

The nostrils flared at the end of a square snout. I could have fit my head inside one.

Another warm gust of wind caused strands of my hair to flutter.

Only it wasn’t the wind. It was the leviathan. And she was breathing, softly.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Coho’s Dilemma

I thrashed against the rope around my wrists and tail, trying to wiggle free. The rope strained, but refused to snap. Ephyra had wrapped it too many times.

“Let me go!”

Coho and Ephyra ignored me. Ephyra coiled the trailing rope around her hand.

“You’re both traitors! You were supposed to—how could you—they’re dead, Coho!”

Our allies had been killed, and Meela was about to be.

Adaro was wrong. Meela had to be alive. She would never sacrifice herself. Not when she’d fought so hard to stay alive during the battle. Not when she must know that her death would destroy everyone who loved her.

“I have to go,” I muttered, working my wrists.

Coho seemed about to speak, but Ephyra held up a hand.

“I need you to give me names,” she said, gentler in the absence of the king.

I gritted my teeth, tugging at my wrists and tail. Ephyra jerked the end of the rope, forcing me to look at her.

“I do not wish to torture you,” she said, “but His Majesty will expect information upon his return. I can bargain for your life if you cooperate.”

I snarled. “I have nothing to tell you. Coho should know that.”

Coho avoided my eyes.

“It’s true,” he said. “Everyone who was in on the plan has been killed. Except …”

He glanced to where Adaro had disappeared on Spio’s trail.

For some reason, this infuriated me.

“He’ll get away,” I said.

Spio was fast. He was smaller, slimmer, and with a head start he would outstrip Adaro’s bulk.

I gave another hard pull. The rope wouldn’t budge. I hissed in frustration.

“Look, I’m not happy you were caught,” said Coho.

“Right,” I said. “I’m sure that’s why you punched me.”

“You tried to bite my wife in the face.”

“She was tying me up!”

“I had to,” said Ephyra. “His Majesty would have us killed if he thought we were allied.”

“He was outnumbered! We could have …”

I shook my head, as though to dislodge the fear clouding my thoughts. It was done. It didn’t matter, now. I had to get to Meela and stop her before she became a sacrifice.

Panic overcame me.

“She can’t be dead yet,” I said. “No, no, no …”

Ephyra glanced to Coho, plainly wondering if I’d lost my mind. The iron hook dangled in her fist.

“What if we tell the king we tried to stop her,” said Coho, “but she stole the iron and forced us to let her go?”

Ephyra grimaced. “You know he won’t believe that. Look at her.”

The rope had wrapped around my neck, chest, waist, and tail, threatening to drown me. I went limp, exhausted from the struggle.

“I need air,” I said weakly.

They pulled me to the surface. I was too angry to feel humiliated that they had to help me breach.

I inhaled several times, long and slow. The oxygen cleared my thoughts a little.

How had the iron failed? Was Adaro immune? I’d never heard of such a thing.

Coho and Ephyra released me. I sank again.

“None of you knew,” I said. “Adaro can’t be killed with iron.”

“He has never mentioned it, nor have I ever seen him attacked with it,” said Ephyra. “I never had reason to believe otherwise.”

When neither of them said anything more, I went back to working on the rope.

“Lysi,” said Ephyra. “Can I call you Lysi?”

“Whatever.”

“Lysi, you must understand our position. If we let you go, we will be tried for treason. It is a risk to our entire family. To our children.”

I glanced to Ephyra’s stomach. It hardly protruded, but when I focused, I could feel the presence of another life inside.

In my panic, I had forgotten.

I blinked back the sudden tears threatening behind my eyes.

“But the Eriana girl will die,” said Coho. “So will Lysi, as soon as the king comes back.”

“And Adaro will have the Host of Eriana,” I said, barely a whisper. “He’ll be unstoppable.”

Coho turned to his wife. I sensed his genuine fear.

“We can go into hiding. We can join a bigger rebellion—escape to the Atlantic.”

Ephyra said nothing. She placed a hand on her stomach.

“We need to pick a side, now,” said Coho.

Ephyra shook her head. “Your thoughts are clouded because of—”

“Eriana Kwai?” said Coho with a flare of anger. “Yeah, maybe they are. I’m sick of his attacks.”

“Those will end. It is up to this one Eriana girl, now.”

“They won’t end!” said Coho. “Once he has that weapon he’s after, his attacks will only grow more powerful, more deadly.”

Ephyra said nothing.

“What does Lysi have to do with this Eriana girl, anyway?” said Coho.

“She wants Lysi alive. His Majesty is going to trade Lysi for the Host.”

Coho spun to face me. I caught a quickening in his pulse.

“The girl I love,” I said. “The one I told you about. She’s from Eriana Kwai.”

He stared at me for so long, he seemed to have frozen in place.

I flipped over, trying to untangle myself. I felt like a dolphin caught in a fishing net.

“Please,” I said. “I need to stop Meela from doing this.”

Coho’s hands flew to his hair. He backed away, mumbling something inaudible.

I gritted my teeth, drawing blood beneath the layers of rope in my struggle.

Ephyra was staring at Coho. After a moment of his continued mumbling, I stopped struggling and stared, too.

“Coho isn’t my real name,” he said abruptly, voice broken. “It’s a nickname the guys gave me because coho salmon was all I would eat for the first two years I was a merman.”

I didn’t understand why he was telling me this. I caught heartache in his aura, like a physical pain.

That familiarity grazed my skin, stronger than ever in his vibrations, expression, and mannerisms.

“I was a warrior, once,” he said.

“For the Massacre,” I whispered. “From Eriana Kwai.”

His face crumpled, like someone had run him through with an iron spear.

“Adaro doesn’t know that.”

“You let your family believe you were dead,” I said. “All this time, they’ve grieved for you.”

“You don’t understand. It was for love. I love Ephyra with all my heart. I could never be with her if I’d stayed human.”

“So you abandoned your family? You let them mourn you all these years?”

My voice cracked. This was wrong. This was mermaid allure stealing him away from his family. Was it even true love?

“I had a little sister,” he said. “She’s who I miss most. Even more than my parents.”

My pulse raced. I couldn’t believe what he was telling me.

“You still love your family?” I said.

“Of course. I think of them every day.”

“Then why haven’t you tried to contact them? Why haven’t you let them know you’re alive?”

“They’d never accept me like this—or even recognise me.”

“I think they would love you the way you are.”

He shook his head. We held each other’s gaze for a long time.

“What’s your real name?” I demanded.

I thought I knew, but I had to hear it.

He didn’t look at Ephyra or me, as though ashamed of his past as a human.

“Nilus.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sleeping Spirit

I stood anchored to the cold ground, unable to move, staring at the enormous head not five steps away.

I didn’t know how much time passed. It might have been several minutes.

With each of those long, slow breaths, wisps of my damp hair fluttered. The gentle rhythm gave every indication that it had been moving this way, unchanged, for thousands of years.

The ocean smell was more powerful than ever—a primeval mix of animal, must, and brine.

I took a single, heavy step closer. It was several seconds before I could move my other foot.

I drew close enough to the reptilian head to see cracks between the impenetrable scales.

There was supposed to be a second head at its other end. I leaned into the darkness, trying to trace my eyes along the body. The cavern was too black beyond the leviathan’s snout.

Judging by the flare at the back of the skull, its head must have been armoured with horns. How long and how many, I could not tell. I wondered what kind of armour it had along its body.

Her
body. I reminded myself that this enormous beast was the embodiment of Eriana—not an
it
, but a
she
.

The thought of the spirit of Eriana, of a goddess bound with the serpent’s body, made the sight less fearsome. In fact, she was strangely beautiful as she slept.

I wanted to touch her—a ridiculous urge, but I was this close now.

I extended a trembling hand, hovering beside the square snout, where I imagined a dagger-sharp fang was hiding.

No wonder you ruled the seas,
I thought.

As gently as I could, I placed my hand over the scales, barely touching, as though giving myself the option to change my mind.