Ice Crypt (Mermaids of Eriana Kwai Book 2) Read online

A merman poked out of the water beside us.

  “What’s this? Secret meeting?” he said.

  “No,” I said, at the same time as Spio said, “Yes.”

  Spio turned to me. “He’s referring to our secret plan. Code Murder.”

  I rubbed my hands down my face.

  “And by murder,” said Spio, “I mean—”

  “All right!”

  He flashed a grin. “Lysi, this is Pontus. He’s in on it.”

  “I’m more than in on it,” said Pontus. “I basically initiated this whole thing.”

  Spio raised his hands. “Let’s not start giving credit. But if we were to, we all know this was my idea.”

  The raft rippled as Pontus hoisted himself up.

  A merman with a wispy brown beard and a scar blinding his left eye surfaced next.

  “Ahoy!” he said.

  “This one thinks he’s a pirate,” said Spio.

  “Except I lost my eyepatch again,” said the merman.

  I couldn’t tell if he was being serious.

  “We call him Nobeard,” said Spio. “Because he doesn’t have enough scruff to earn him the name Blackbeard.”

  The merman gave off some disgruntlement at this. I guessed he’d tried to avoid the nickname without success.

  Then the hugest merman of all of them emerged, with arms the size of baby dolphins. I couldn’t understand why everyone greeted him as ‘Junior’, until he introduced himself as Pontus’ younger brother.

  The next merman who surfaced brought me a small sense of relief.

  Coho scanned the group, lingering on me. I gave him a small wave. He returned an uncertain nod. I dropped my hand, wishing I hadn’t bothered.

  “Guys, meet our new member: Lysi,” said Pontus.

  They all stared. I counted six of us gathered on the junk raft. Waves lapped against rubber and plastic, the only sound besides the low, indistinct murmur from the army.

  “Thought we agreed not to recruit,” said Nobeard.

  “We did,” said Pontus, “but Spio opened his fat mouth, and now she knows too much.”

  I dropped my gaze to the slimy net at my tail.

  “Spio told us all about you, Lysi,” said Junior.

  Uh oh.

  “None of the bad stuff,” said Spio. “I didn’t say anything about our time at summer school—”

  “Thanks, Spio,” I said.

  “The commander is skipping this one,” said Pontus, “so I’ll get started.”

  I shot Spio a questioning look.

  “The commander is our ally,” said Pontus, catching my surprise. “He’s a key component of the plan. But he attends select meetings so as not to draw suspicion. I’ll follow up with him one-on-one.”

  I nodded.

  “I’ll go over our rules, Lysi,” said Pontus, in a tone that dared me to break any of them. “First, at risk of being overheard, we meet above surface, and only above. Second, in case we are overheard, we don’t refer to our target by name. Third, we do not discuss our plans outside meetings. Fourth, we aren’t even friendly with each other outside meetings, except for Junior and me. You and Spio can keep doing your thing, too. But that’s it. No one needs reason to believe we’re meeting at all, never mind what we’re meeting about. All right?”

  “Got it.”

  “Now, the plan. You are probably aware the target has some kind of guard on him at all times. No matter how skilled the assassin, it will be impossible to just swim up and kill him. The hit needs to come from afar, and it needs to be guaranteed lethal.”

  “Iron?” I said.

  “More or less.”

  “I wanted to make a big-ass Iron Hook of Doom,” said Spio. “With an anchor from a cruise ship, you know? We’d squash the guy like a jelly.”

  “Your ideas never cease to amaze me, Spio,” I said.

  “Wait until you hear about this plan. He’s gonna end up like a pile of sand.”

  “What?”

  “We’re blowing him up—”

  “The idea,” said Pontus, “is to detonate a moored mine located a league west of the Moonless City. The explosion will kill the target instantly, whether from the force of the blast or from the iron shrapnel itself.”

  The auras around me were calm, determined. They had discussed this enough that the idea no longer scared them.

  An approaching flock of gulls chattered obnoxiously, wings glinting in the moonlight. I imagined the water beneath them erupting in a sudden explosion from a mine. It would be effective, all right.

  “Everything’s set and we’re waiting to hear when the target will next visit the Moonless City,” said Pontus, speaking to the group, now. “It could be sooner than we anticipated. The commander is sending a message tonight on a nearby acoustic channel to report the hammerhead attack. With luck, the target will come this way immediately, along with the chief administrator, secretary, adjutant general, director of foreign relations, and probably a few bodyguards.”

  “We’re killing all of them?” I said.

  I sensed a strong air of indifference.

  “The director of foreign relations also deals with human relations,” said Spio. “She’s the reason my brother-in-law got chucked in prison.”

  “Prison?”

  “Former human. He didn’t pass the screening.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “All right. So we’re blowing up a few of them.”

  Spio gave a fist pump.

  “How are we going to make sure he passes the mine on the way to the city?” I said.

  “My wife is taking care of that,” said Coho. “She’s minister of communications.”

  Pontus nodded. “Ephyra will say she received information that there’s an Atlantic army waiting to ambush them on the main current. She’ll advise him to take an alternate route that happens to run past the explosive.”

  “Sounds believable, given what just happened,” I said.

  “As for us,” said Pontus, “the commander’s going to send us to the Moonless City as a private detachment on the same day.”

  I straightened. Finally, my chance. I’d be returning north under official orders.

  “We have our hiding positions worked out, Lysi,” said Pontus. “We’ll be far out of the way when the explosion happens. Once the target is dead, half of us will come back here to tell the commander it’s done. He’ll bring the troops home. The other half of us will take off to Utopia and seize power until the commander arrives. We’re instating him temporary king until we have a proper election.”

  “We took a vote and decided we liked democracy,” said Spio.

  I imagined being at the front of the movement in Utopia when Adaro’s rule blew to pieces. The prospect excited me.

  Even more, being in Utopia would mean an easier escape to Eriana Kwai. I would be able to tell Meela she could stop searching for the Host. And I had to do that as soon as possible. If I knew Meela, she would be risking her life trying to find it.

  I picked at the soggy fishing net beneath my tail. Meela didn’t deserve this. I had to get back to her and make sure she was safe.

  “Who goes to Utopia when it’s done, and who comes back here?” I said.

  “You’ll be coming back here to notify the commander,” said Pontus. “Along with me and Junior. That way, the numbers are even.”

  His tone was final. My heart sank.

  The others must have felt it, because Nobeard said, “Love, we all want to go back to Utopia.”

  I considered whether I’d be able to bolt, anyway. I didn’t owe these guys anything. We had a job to do, and after that, I had my own agenda.

  Still, could I bring myself to abandon them?

  “Lysi can take my place,” said Spio. “I’ll come back here.”

  “No,” I said. “I don’t want you to—”

  “It’s fine, Lysi.”

  “But—”

  “I’m not giving you a choice.”

  I felt him out. He was serious. A true friend, he wanted me to go
to Utopia in his stead.

  “Thanks,” I whispered.

  “That’s the plan, then,” said Pontus. “We’ll know more when the commander gets back with news from home.”

  I nodded.

  “Let’s raise a toast,” said Nobeard.

  “Excuse me?” I said.

  “Nobeard brought rum,” said Spio.

  I smiled. Of course he did.

  With a flourish, Nobeard produced a partially drained glass bottle.

  “Just take it easy, Spio,” I said, thinking of the time he drank a whole bottle of something he found in a shipwreck and puked for two days.

  He waved a hand. “It’s healthy to flush out the system with toxic waste once in awhile.”

  “Where’d you get it?” I said.

  “My dad’s a former landlubber,” said Nobeard.

  I sensed a trend.

  “Do all of you have some kind of connection with humans?”

  “Clever,” said Pontus. He took a gulp.

  “Some of us more directly than others,” said Coho. “But the new laws don’t bode well for any of us.”

  He seemed open to the topic, so I indulged my curiosity. “When did you become a merman?”

  “Years ago,” said Coho.

  The guys let out a collective groan.

  “What?” I said.

  “Gather ‘round, lassies,” said Nobeard, “for the most romantic tale in all of—ouch!”

  Coho punched him in the shoulder.

  “All right, all right,” said Nobeard. “Enlighten her.”

  “Did she lure you?” I said.

  “She didn’t have to,” said Coho. “I knew right away that she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”

  “Well, obviously—” I began, but Spio jabbed me in the ribs.

  I’d wanted to say that wasn’t how it worked. Of course he thought she was irresistible at first sight. That was the mermaid allure.

  I’d always wondered about the feelings of a lured man. Did Coho truly love Ephyra, or did the allure always pull him towards her? Did it matter, if he was happy?

  “Ephyra and her girls were supposed to kill me and my crew,” said Coho. “I was the last survivor, and the other mermaids were waiting for Ephyra to finish me off so they could go home. But she didn’t. We locked eyes … and she couldn’t bring herself to kill me. She changed me into a merman instead.”

  “She kissed you?”

  “How else would she do it?” said Spio.

  “Just clarifying.”

  The rum made its way to me. I took a small gulp, forcing myself not to project disgust.

  “She didn’t care what the other girls thought,” said Coho. “She did it right there in front of them. I went with her into the sea, and we’ve been together ever since. We have five kids. She’s due for our sixth in a few months.”

  “I didn’t know you were having another guppy!” Junior raised the bottle of rum. “Congrats, bud.”

  The other guys clapped Coho on the back, congratulating him.

  “That’s what’s important,” said Junior. “Family. When this is all over, I’m going to settle down and have a few little ones.”

  “I think you need a girlfriend, first,” said Spio.

  The guys burst out laughing.

  Junior scowled. “Not like any of you cods have girls back home!”

  “I’m working on it,” said Nobeard with a roguish wink.

  “What about you, Lysi?” said Coho. “You’re not fooling anyone with this guy.”

  He jabbed a thumb towards Spio.

  “Because I’m so far out of her depth, I know,” said Spio.

  “Anyone back home?” said Coho.

  I poked at a plastic bottle beside me.

  “Um, yes,” I said. “Sort of. Before I got taken away from … from everything.”

  “Sounds tragic,” said Spio. “Tell us about this guy.”

  I narrowed my eyes, trying to decide whether he was being thick or playing with me. His mouth twisted at the corners.

  “She’s a girl,” I said to the group.

  The guys erupted in a chorus of “whoa!” and “right on!”

  “How’d you meet?” said Pontus.

  I hesitated. Then I realised I had no reason to. These guys would be the last to judge me for having feelings for a human.

  They must have sensed the truth by my silence.

  Nobeard made a triumphant sound. “Ship or shore?”

  “Ship. I mean, shore, at first … the ship came later.”

  “Besides having legs, what does she look like?” said Coho, handing me the rum.

  “Um, she’s got green eyes, and dark hair, and …”

  And soft, warm skin that smells as sweet as the forest.

  I blushed and took a large gulp of rum.

  “You haven’t turned her yet?” said Junior. “Why not?”

  “Oh,” I said. “I don’t want that to be my decision.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I like her the way she is.”

  The guys fell silent. Then Nobeard said, “You’re not like other mermaids, are you?”

  They chuckled.

  “She’s a rebel,” said Pontus, “like us.”

  He clapped me on the back. I couldn’t help smiling.

  “Oh, a party!” said a voice. “Or, perhaps, am I interrupting an important meeting?”

  We whirled to see Strymon floating beside our island of junk. He wore that benign smile, but his mood prickled beneath my skin.

  I hadn’t heard him surface. How long had he been there?

  The ensuing plop must have been someone dropping the bottle of rum into the ocean. The human indulgence would surely be forbidden.

  “Good evening, Officer,” said Pontus, suddenly professional.

  Strymon scanned the raft—our guilty auras. I tried to breathe into a mood more passive and relaxed.

  “Is there a reason I am finding you so far from the others?”

  “Sir, the raft was noisy and crowded,” said Pontus. “A few of us gathered over here to try and get a proper—”

  “You are aware that you have been ordered to stay together.”

  “Yes, Officer,” said Junior. “We thought this was a sufficiently short distance.”

  Strymon studied us for so long that the aloofness around me waned. His expression turned to stone.

  “You are far enough that you cannot be seen, heard, or felt from the raft. Why, I wonder, would you want that?”

  Pontus shifted. “We didn’t mean—”

  “You will return immediately.”

  We answered with a chorus of ‘yes, sir’s.

  Before anyone reached the water, Strymon said, “I expected better from a veteran of Eriana Kwai.”

  I turned to him.

  “I believe the rest of the army would, too. It is logical, then, that you serve a punishment for your disobedience.”

  I opened and closed my mouth.

  “Everyone will need a good meal after that journey. You will gather food in time for daybreak.”

  “For the entire army?” I squeaked.

  Where was I supposed to find that much food? Around us in every direction, the horizon was black and empty. Beneath the surface would be no different. I’d have to weed the raft and dig out any edible fish using it as a haven.

  “Come on, dude,” said Spio. “There isn’t even a reef around here to—”

  “And you,” said Strymon, “can spend dawn assisting the trainers in delousing the great white. Does anyone else care to volunteer their service?”

  The other guys stayed quiet.

  “If I find any of you wandering again, I will report your actions.”

  Strymon submerged. Waves lapped against the plastic and rubber.

  “And that’s why we don’t meet much,” Pontus mumbled.

  I turned for a last look at the floating pile of garbage, our short-lived haven.

  I couldn’t help feeling like Str
ymon held a grudge against me, in particular.

  Of course he does, I thought. He knows you’re here because you did something to disobey the king.

  My first encounter with him couldn’t have helped matters.

  I leaned into Spio and whispered, “It doesn’t matter if he reports us to the commander, does it?”

  “He’s got other channels of communication,” whispered Coho on my other side. “It’s not the commander we should be worried about.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Eriana’s Bargain

  We set out for the Enticer early the next day—a Sunday. The trainees had the day off, and Dani and her father were scheduled to gloat to Rik about their training program for at least an hour. That would, theoretically, give us plenty of time to search the area.

  Tanuu brought his fire iron, claiming it saved his life and he wasn’t about to put it out to pasture yet.

  We stopped in the clearing where the ship waited, ancient and crumbling as always. The training area hadn’t changed in years—apart from the blackened remains of the fire pit Annith had tripped over.

  “Let’s look around a bit,” I said.

  I ignored the nagging doubt that we wouldn’t find anything. The area had been so overused throughout the years that the dirt had been trampled into near clay. Even ferns and grass didn’t grow. The ship’s deck sagged in the middle, the railing chipped and battered. Anything worth discovering would have been discovered long ago.

  Or maybe it was just that no one had been searching in the right place.

  Under a blanket of low clouds and towering cedars, a chill settled in the woods. A raven cackled at us from the edge of the clearing. I glanced sideways at it, feeling watched. Ravens were too smart, infamous for learning pesky behaviours like stealing.

  We started around the outskirts of the ship, pushing leaves and twigs out of the way to check for anything strange where the hull met the dirt. The ship seemed to have sailed right through the earth before settling in its place.

  Turning up nothing, we split up. I stomped on the dirt around the clearing, listening for hollowness that might indicate a trapdoor. Tanuu knocked on the surrounding trees. Annith crawled around the deck on all fours. Blacktail stood on the ship’s railing and surveyed the ground from above.

  Tanuu glanced up at Blacktail, laughing. “Do the leaves on the ground spell the location of the Host?”