Of Poseidon 02: Of Triton (21 page)

It looks like Galen is thinking the same thing. “Then you wouldn’t have been hurt,” he says stubbornly. “Grom was making headway. It would have turned out fine.”

“You can’t be sure of that. And Toraf wasn’t taking the chance.”

“I’m sure he’s told you some noble story. But he brought you to the Arena. He risked your life, Emma. And look what happened.”

“I did what I thought was right,” Toraf says from the threshold of the living room. Rayna stands behind him, indifference sheathing the nervousness I know she’s probably feeling at bringing him here. Over Toraf’s shoulder I see another Syrena, older and taller and lankier. I’ve never met him before, but I think I know who he is.

Too bad there isn’t time for introductions.

Galen’s abrupt stand sends his chair crashing to the floor behind him. He half-leaps, half-slides across the table, sending pots and pans and barely touched breakfasts everywhere. Within a second, he has Toraf by the neck, pinning him against the wall.

“Galen, no!” Rayna screams, beating against his back.

“Get away, Rayna,” he grounds out.

Toraf takes advantage of the distraction by punching Galen in the mouth. Galen releases him, but recovers quickly, burying his fist in Toraf’s gut.

Toraf swings.

Galen dances away.

Everyone at the table falls back to the wall, giving them a wide berth and the dining room as their boxing ring. Even Rayna resigns herself to the wall beside me.

“They just have to fight it out,” she says, sighing.

“Until what?” I say. “Not to the death or anything stupid like that. Right?” The Syrena as a species tend to live a peaceful way of life. I can’t imagine they would have a provision in their law that stipulates it’s okay to fight to the death.

Except, Galen isn’t concerned with the laws anymore.

Thankfully, Rayna shakes her head. “Until they’re too tired to hate each other. I hate when they do this.” She appears burdened with years of experiencing this.

But I can already see from the way they fight and struggle that they don’t hate each other. They are not trying to kill each other. They are both hurt inside, and want to translate that into physical blows. This brawl is a conversation. An understanding. And hopefully, a healing.

“Getting tired already, minnow?” Toraf taunts as he wraps strong arms around Galen’s neck in a choke hold.

Galen promptly flips him forward and onto his back. Toraf bounces once with the force. “You must have been drinking salt water,” Galen returns, “to have delusions like that.”

Toraf kicks Galen’s legs out from under him, and the scuffle is taken to the floor. Just when I wonder how long this can really go on, the older Syrena steps into the dining room and confirms his identity with the authority in his voice. “That’s enough. Get up.”

Toraf scrambles to his feet and steps away from Galen, who reluctantly complies. “Yes, Highness. Sorry, Highness,” Toraf says, breathless. There is not a small amount of shame on Toraf’s face.

In fact, even Galen looks conscience stricken. “Apologies, King Antonis,” he says quickly. “I didn’t see you there.”

King Antonis. Mom’s dad. My grandfather.
Holy!

Antonis lifts his chin, satisfied. “I didn’t think so.”

Mom steps over the dish debris and embraces her dad. “Thank you for interrupting. It was getting a tad boring. It was obvious no one would win.”

Mom is such a dude sometimes
. Grom winks at Galen, who shrugs.

“What brings you inland, Father?” Mom asks. “Besides the entertainment, of course.”

“I’ve brought news,” he says. “Toraf was kind enough to escort me here.”

“What news?” Galen and Grom ask at the same time.

That Galen is interested in any kind of news from the Syrena world is a good sign. He’s not as ready to give up on them as he thinks.

Antonis motions toward the living room. That’s when I realize he’s wearing a pair of Galen’s swim trunks—and they’re in danger of slinking to his ankles. “I assume these structures are made for sitting?”

We follow him and seat ourselves on the sectional. Rayna seats herself on Toraf’s lap. We all lean in toward my grandfather. It’s so weird to think of him in those terms.

“Much has happened,” Antonis begins. “The commotion caused by the Gifts of Triton and the Gift of Poseidon attracted some human attention.”

“Gifts?” Galen interjects. “You mean my sister’s Gift of Triton. The power in her voice.”

Ah. So her insane screaming fit
did
create the waves. It wasn’t just my imagination. But if
that
wasn’t my imagination, then Galen’s fin—

“It is rude to interrupt a king,” Antonis says sternly. Then his face softens. “It has come to our attention, young prince, that you, too, possess the Gift of Triton. We believe that since you are twins, the Gift was split between you. To our knowledge, this has never happened before.”

Galen shakes his head. “But I don’t—”

“It’s your speed, squid breath,” Rayna says, rolling her eyes. “Have you seen your fin lately?”

Galen mulls over this. “I’ve always been fast. It was never called ‘the Gift’ before. What’s the difference now?”

“You’ve never been
that
fast, minnow,” Toraf says. “You divided the water like a shaker divides land.”

“It was most impressive,” Antonis says. “As was my granddaughter.” He gives me a smile bursting with pride and approval. Apparently my grandfather is no longer prejudiced against Half-Breeds, if he ever was. I wonder if this is one of those defining moments in life where a relationship starts.

And I hope it is.

“And it all makes sense, of course,” Mom says.

Everyone nods knowingly. Which drives me mental. “What makes sense?” I decide they’re just going to have to make concessions for me; I didn’t have the luxury of growing up to Syrena fairy tales.

Grom is the first to answer. “It is thought that the Gifts only occur when there is a need. With everything going on, and the stress my brother and sister were under, the Gifts made an appearance. Rayna used it to save you. Then Galen used it to save you. The same way you used it to save them. The purpose of the Gifts is survival, after all.”

It feels like the world suddenly got bigger. Awareness of things greater than me and Galen and everyone in this room settles on me like a coating of insight dust.
The Gifts appear when needed
. The first time it appeared for me was when I was drowning in my grammy’s backyard pond. I used the Gift to talk to the catfish, who pushed me to the surface. It was life or death. Just like it was life or death back at the Arena.

“Does that … Does that answer your question?” Galen says softly.

I nod. The room is quiet, in a sort of collective reflection. Then Grom reminds us all why my grandfather is here.

“You said humans came?” Grom says.

Antonis nods grimly. “They’ve captured two Syrena. The humans are holding them on the inhabited island closest to the Arena.”

“Who did they take?” Grom asks.

“Jagen and a Triton Tracker, Musa. The council of Archives is requesting the help of the Gifts,” Antonis says solemnly. “They recognize now that they have been gravely mistaken to doubt the Royals.”

Galen scoffs. “It’s a little late, don’t you think? They were ready to throw us in the Ice Caverns two days ago.”

“Besides that, what can we do anyway?” Rayna says. “There are only three of us with Gifts. And our Gifts don’t work on land, remember? Humans have all sorts of stuff they could use on us.”

“That’s not true,” Grom says. “Remember the story of the generals? Triton sent the big waves
to
land. He destroyed humans with it, drowned them all on their own ground.”

“That was a long time ago,” Mom argues. “They were practically defenseless. Humans have much more advanced methods of protecting themselves now.”

“Not to mention, I’m not in a particular hurry to save Jagen,” Galen says. “I’d say he got exactly what he deserved.”

I’m thinking the same thing. I can’t help it. The guy stabbed me.

“It would be unfair to take that perspective, brother,” Grom tells him. “We are not doing it for Jagen. We are doing it for our kind.”

“We?” Rayna snaps. “What Gift do you have, Grom? Oh, that’s right. You and Nalia get to stay safely behind while me and Galen and Emma drown an entire island.”

Oh heck no
. “Um, I’m not killing anyone,” I say, raising my hand. “Not humans, not Syrena.”

“It’s a good thing your Gift isn’t deadly then, isn’t it?” Rayna sneers. “I have an idea. You can give the humans their last meal. That would be special, wouldn’t it?”

“How would
you
like to go without eating for a while?” I shoot back. I could use my Gift to send the fish away from her, or I could just bust all her teeth out. Maturity seems to be evaporating into the air. I wonder if her Gift includes pushing all my buttons in rapid-point-five seconds. But then, I know her animosity is really toward Grom, not me. All I’m doing is feeding her anxiety.

Galen tucks a tendril of my hair behind my ear. It’s enough to distract me and he knows it. I give him a sour look for interfering, but he grins. “You don’t have to kill anyone, angelfish. In fact, we need your help to
save
them.” He seems to be telling me something with his eyes, but I’m not picking up on it. I’d love to blame it on the pain meds.

“Doesn’t that kind of miss the point?” Rayna says.

“Of course not,” Galen says. “Our objective is to rescue our kind, not kill the humans. We can do that without destroying them.”

Everyone is all ears, but Galen is not ready to divulge his plan just yet. He stands. “Highness, tell the Archives we will meet with them to discuss our terms.”

“Terms?” Grom says. “This isn’t negotiable, Galen. They need us. It’s our duty as Royals.”

Galen shrugs. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s entirely negotiable. And we’re not Royals anymore, not until I hear it from their lips.” He turns to Antonis. “And tell them that in view of recent events, the council must come here, on land. There is no reason for us to doubt that this is a trap to recapture us.”

Antonis chuckles. I get the feeling that this is all an amusing game to him. But then, old people have earned the right to be amused by everything. And I’m pretty sure he’s the oldest person I know.

“Young Prince Galen, I am at your service.” With that, my grandfather leaves. I turn away as he begins to finagle the shorts from his skinny waist on his way down the beach.

20

GALEN STANDS
behind Rachel and Emma as they scroll down the screen of the laptop. “Toraf stuck his foot in the water. The Archive council will be here soon. Antonis is with them.” He’s met with silence, except for Rachel flipping the page of a notebook she has in front of her. Emma bites the end of a pencil as she watches Rachel scrawl on the page. Being ignored is not Galen’s favorite. “What are you doing?” he says.

Emma looks up. “Oh. Hey. We’re researching that island on the Internet. Might as well do some recon while we’re waiting, right?”

Brilliant. The Internet
. Galen keeps forgetting that he’s not without his resources, either. The humans have their technology, but Galen has it, too. Plus, he’s got something better. Rachel.

“The island is called Kanton,” Rachel says. “Do you want the good news, or the bad news first?”

“Bad news,” Galen says.

“Everyone who lives on the island is either government employees, or the family of government employees.”

“Which government?” Emma asks.

Galen taps her on the shoulder and motions for her to let him sit. Pulling her into his lap, he peers around her hair to the screen, trying to ignore her scent and failing miserably at it.

“Some country called Kiribati,” Rachel says. “Never heard of it.”

“Me, either,” Emma says.

“What’s the good news?” Galen says.

“The good news is that there are only about a dozen people living there. Not a whole lot of technology going on here like we thought. Their job is to keep the surrounding waters protected from commercial fishing. But”—Galen hates it when she says “but”—“there
is
a functioning airport on the north side. They could have already flown your friends out of there.”

“Is there any way to find out if they did?” Galen says.

Rachel shrugs. “I think it’s safe to assume that if the discovery of mermaids—sorry,
Syrena
—isn’t all over the news by now, then probably they’re still there. If your friends are smart, they’ll stay in human form.”

“Why would they keep a big discovery like that under wraps?” Emma says, frowning. “It would be the biggest scientific finding in centuries. Maybe ever.”

“Like I said.” Rachel takes a sip of her wine. “Maybe they haven’t shown them what they are. Maybe they think they just rescued some dumb humans from drowning or something. That would be the best-case scenario.” She snorts. “Maybe they got arrested for commercial fishing.”

“Can you give us an advantage at all?” Emma asks Rachel. “Like, shut down their communications or something? Work your Rachel magic?”

Rachel shakes her head. “I can’t find much about this island as it is. I’m not sure what kind of communications they have, but I’m guessing satellite phones or something. What I can do though, is create a distraction at the closest airport to them, which is…” Her fingers move deftly over the keys. “Puka Puka Airport in the Cook Islands. If I make landing conditions unsafe there or screw around with their flight schedule, and say, the next five closest airports around them, they won’t be able to export your friends until we’ve had a chance to get to them. Better make the first attempt count though.”

Emma nods. “We will. And did you get the life jackets we talked about?”

“Life jackets?” Galen says. He doesn’t like Emma and Rachel making plans together. Not because he thinks they’re being devious, but because he doesn’t like feeling left out. Not to mention that when Emma is making plans without him, they’re usually reckless. The only reason she’d keep a secret from him is if she was doing something he didn’t approve of, or didn’t want him to interfere with. After all, her motto is “Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”