“So I can see,” said Merletta, impressed.
“There were two others in our patrol, though,” August pressed. “They weren’t with us when we were taken from the triple kingdoms. Do you know what happened to them?”
Merletta lowered her head. “I’m afraid they’re dead,” she said softly. “Your wife told me herself that she saw their bodies lowered into their tombs.”
“You’ve seen my wife?” August demanded. “Is she all right?”
Merletta nodded. “I think so. She seemed…a little empty, somehow. But she’s not hurt, or in danger.” She squirmed inwardly. At least, she wasn’t until I told her my secrets and brought her into danger.
August hid his face in his hands for a moment, drawing in deep pulls of water. “She’s alive,” he muttered to himself. “It’s more than I dared count on.” He raised his head again, determination in his eyes. “Since you’re clearly a Center trainee, rather than the random thief we were led to believe, perhaps you can explain all this mess to us. What did we stumble on at that place? With the human?”
Merletta’s voice was grim. “Something big enough to kill for, apparently. The short version is that everything we’ve been taught is a lie. Humans are real—but I guess you know that part—and they’re as intelligent as we are. The open ocean also isn’t nearly as dangerous as we’ve been told. I mean, there are dangerous creatures out here, that can pick you off if you wander around on your own, like the test has forced me to do.”
She paused. “Now I think about it, both the practice test and the real test have led me to the lairs of especially dangerous creatures.” It was true. She’d never been attacked by an octopus, or grappled with a giant squid, in her illicit wanderings. “I suppose part of the point of the test is to reinforce the lie we’ve been fed.”
Shaking her head, she returned to the topic at hand. “Anyway, I guess you’ve figured out what the ocean is really like, if you’ve been living out here all this time. It certainly has its dangers, but it’s not so hostile that it would be impossible for a group of armed and prepared merpeople to successfully live out here. The Center is definitely behind the deception, although I don’t know how far it goes. I don’t fully understand the reasons someone wants to keep us inside the barrier.”
Merletta frowned. “What else? Land is close by, and it’s not dangerous, either. And…”
She hesitated. She still hadn’t told anyone in the triple kingdoms the most astounding secret of all, the truth about drying out. Should she trust these guards with it?
“Look,” she said abruptly. “I’m sorry you were dragged into it. That was never my intention, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that at least some of you survived. But if I’m going to change the way things are, I need to be inside the Center. And for that, I need to pass this test. I need to retrieve the stolen item, which I think is those spears.” She frowned, her gaze passing between the guards, all of whom were now armed. “Wait a minute. Three spears for three guards. Did you put them there?”
August nodded. “Like I said, we decided to intervene. We’d ascertained that the center of the maelstrom was your target, and we planned to grab you when you reached it. We went there first, and left our own clues.”
“Well, that’s very clever and all,” said Merletta, a little impatiently, “but it won’t help me pass the test.”
“You were never going to pass the test,” said August brutally.
Merletta couldn’t help being a little stung. “I thought I was doing well.”
August shook his head. “I’m not commenting on your ability. You’ve already said it—whoever’s scales we’ve all scratched the wrong way is willing to kill for their secrets. Two guards were waiting for you just beyond the maelstrom. You wouldn’t have made it back to the triple kingdoms.”
Merletta stared at the merman, her mouth slightly open. He was speaking in such a matter-of-fact voice that it was hard to comprehend he was referring to her planned murder.
“How do you know they weren’t there to escort me back?” she challenged.
One of the other guards snorted, but August didn’t laugh. “They were masked,” he explained calmly.
“Maybe they were part of the test,” Merletta tried weakly. “In my practice test, I had to fight a series of masked guards to…” But she trailed off, remembering Freja’s words. This test wasn’t focused on combat. She was supposed to be alone out here.
“They weren’t part of the test,” said August flatly.
Merletta frowned at him. “You keep saying ‘were’. What happened to them?”
He shrugged. “They’ll live, though it’s more than they deserve. We incapacitated them, and we did it without them seeing us, thankfully. So I don’t think they’ll come looking once they wake.”
One of the other guards drifted up behind August, nodding. “It helped that we had the advantage of surprise this time.”
“This time?” Merletta repeated.
August’s voice had lost its matter-of-factness now. He looked grim in the low light of the strangely slanted wooden room.
“We’ve met them before. They may have been masked, but I recognized their tails. They’re the ones who tried to kill us the first time. Center guards, we think.”
Merletta’s mouth was hanging fully open now. The mermen who had been responsible for secretly killing the compromised guards had been waiting, masked, for her to emerge from her test? August was right—there was only one conclusion to draw.
“You saved my life,” she said fervently. “Thank you.”