Despite his saturation, Heath’s heart lifted as the island came into sight. The feeling of passing through the magic barrier was comforting in its familiarity, although it had been months.
Within half an hour of leaving Valoria, they had entered an enormous rainstorm. The rain still pelted down with exhausting force, and Heath had long since resigned himself to being both wet and cold. The wind lashed at him mercilessly, testing his faith in the dragon’s ability to keep his grip on Heath’s shoulders. The fat drops of water dinged off Reka’s scales, the sound like a fingernail tapping glass.
The journey had been spent in silence, and Heath didn’t think the roar of the weather was to blame. It was still abundantly clear to him that something was troubling the dragon. But for the moment, all he could think of was their destination. After all these months, would Merletta be there? Or had she given up on him long ago? He could only hope she’d accept his explanation for so abruptly abandoning their rendezvous.
He looked down at the rapidly approaching island, the normally bright emerald looking dull through the driving rain, its edges uneven and changing as the waves crashed against every inch of the shoreline.
“What’s that?” he shouted, pointing down at the water below them.
Reka glanced, but didn’t respond, other than the shrug that passed over his body. Heath squinted down, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. It was hard to make anything out with the conditions what they were, but something was definitely moving in the water. Could it be a shark? The thought made him nervous. He was yet to see one of the dangerous beasts in person, and had hoped they wouldn’t come past the reef. Whatever he was seeing now was further out than the reef, but not by much.
As he squinted, he thought he caught a flash of scales through the rain, and his heart did a somersault. Was it Merletta?
“Never mind about going to the lagoon, actually,” he called to his friend. “Can you set me down on the beach?” His words were lost in the storm, but he knew that, with the superior hearing of his kind, Reka would have no difficulty catching them.
The dragon changed course, descending rapidly toward the island. Within moments, Heath’s feet hit the wet sand. He turned immediately, squinting through the water at whatever it was he had seen. It was even harder to make it out from here.
“Is it her?” he muttered.
“I believe I sensed the signature of Merletta’s magic as we passed over,” said the dragon, still seeming off. “If that’s what you’re asking.”
Heath’s heart lifted. “She must be on her way in. I’ll wait here.”
“As you wish,” Reka said, inclining his head. “I do not wish to speak with the mermaid. I will continue my interrupted search regarding my own kind.”
Heath looked at his friend in surprise. He wasn’t going to wait to even say hello to Merletta? There was something unnatural about the way he said “the mermaid”, as if he’d never met her before. Why was Reka acting so strange? But the dragon was already taking off, flying low over the island.
Heath dismissed the matter for the moment, turning his attention back to the water. He waded out into the shallows, surprised by how warm the water felt. Perhaps it was just that he was already wet all over, so there was no moment of adjustment. After a minute of waiting, he became confused. If that was her, why wasn’t she coming in closer?
He waded further, straining his superior eyes to try to make sense of what he was seeing. A tail emerged from the water, and his heart lifted as he recognized the familiar purple and gold of Merletta’s scales. But she was still out past the reef. He squinted, excitement and nerves passing through him as he saw another tail, and another. Merletta wasn’t alone—was he at last about to meet more merpeople?
But a moment later his anticipation turned to dismay. The rain slackened for the briefest of patches, and an angry shout reached his ears. Then something long and thin broke the surface of the water, falling back with a splash that couldn’t be heard above the rain. All at once he understood, his suspicion instantly becoming certainty, although there was little evidence for his eyes.
Merletta hadn’t brought other merpeople with her on purpose. She was under attack.
Heath didn’t stop to think about the fact that he would not only be outnumbered, but impossibly outmatched in the foreign environment of the water. He knew a moment of regret that he didn’t have his bow with him, but the merpeople were too far out for him to see them through the water, anyway. Ripping his boots from his feet, he dove forward, plunging headfirst into the world below the surface.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Merletta swam through the streets of Tilssted, her mind still on the conversation with Ibsen. She hadn’t seriously considered stopping and becoming a scribe, not even for a moment. But she was sobered by the reminder that danger lay ahead on her chosen path. Passing her first year test hadn’t removed it—if anything, it may have increased it.
With such thoughts on her mind, she was extra conscious of her surroundings, and the further she swam through Tilssted, the stronger grew the uncomfortable feeling of being followed. She sped up, ducking around a corner and hiding behind a familiar boulder, but no one emerged in her wake. She repeated the exercise multiple times without result, but the sensation lingered.
Uneasy, she tried to convince herself as she passed through the kelp farms that her nerves were just highly strung after all that had passed in the last week. She could hardly blame herself for jumping at currents.
She felt the moment she passed the barrier around the triple kingdoms, and her heart lifted slightly. A stretch of freedom was exactly what she needed to clear her head. She hovered at the edge of the kelp forest to check for patrols, but there was no one to be seen. She moved forward with confident strokes, her focus on the surface some distance above, where the evidence of a serious storm could still be seen.
She had been swimming over a canyon for a couple of minutes when she once again felt that sensation. She whirled around, expecting a shark or some other predator, but the fins she saw disappearing behind a ridge of the canyon definitely belonged to a mermaid. Merletta sucked in a mouthful of water sharply. After all these years, she’d finally been caught out. She’d been lucky to last so long, really.
“Who’s there?” she called boldly. If the other merperson was hiding from her, they’d obviously seen her. There was no point playing dumb.
There was a moment’s silence, and then a figure emerged, unpleasantly familiar, right down to the smirk.
“Ileana,” said Merletta darkly, gripping her spear more tightly. “I should have known.” No doubt the other mermaid was incensed by the belated success of Merletta’s complaint against Ileana’s ally.
“Yes,” Ileana sneered. “You should have. I did know that you were up to something.” She gestured to Merletta’s satchel. “Even before I saw the proof.”
“There’s no need to be sour, Ileana,” said Merletta provocatively. “We can’t all pass, or the program would lose its reputation for being elite.”