Ice Kingdom Page 5

  I frowned, and then decided to attribute her lack of concern over Deiopea’s death to adrenaline. Maybe it was all too much for her to consider at the moment.

  “It ends in Maru, so it’s a Japanese ship,” I said.

  “The Bering Sea?”

  “That’s what I’m thinking.”

  We fell silent, catching our breath with every breach.

  Everything we’d left behind nagged at me—all those prisoners, those poor humans, Deiopea. Her entire family had been killed and her city occupied by Adaro’s army. No one was safe—southern merpeople, former humans, anyone who might oppose Adaro. Plus, the conditions of the labour camp and what they were working towards were all worse than I’d thought. How many were dying down there each day? How long did we have until they succeeded? How much coastline would such a tsunami destroy?

  That idea smouldering in the back of my mind glowed once more.

  I stopped. “Wait.”

  Meela spun around, panicked. “Are they—?”

  “No, no. Sorry. I—” I cast my senses behind us anyway to make sure we were still alone. “I was thinking, Mee. Even with the Reinas’ help, we can’t stop this.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The way they’re rounding everyone up. The labour camp. All the guards, and the black marlins—and you didn’t see the way he uses other animals in battle. Adaro’s army won’t go down easy.”

  “Okay,” said Meela slowly. “But our only option is to try.”

  Her green eyes popped against the orange glow of the rising sun. It peeked over the horizon, brightening the flat, peaceful surface. I wanted to rest, to find a raft or an island and curl up there with her. But we had to keep moving.

  I swam onwards, Meela keeping pace.

  “Killing him is only part of the battle,” I said. “What about his armies? We need to consider the bigger wars—the one between the kingdoms, and the one against humans.”

  “Isn’t that why we’re going to the Reinas?”

  I shook my head. Deiopea had said the entire Moonless City hadn’t been able to resist Adaro’s army. How would a small group of rebels be able to overthrow him? We needed more help than that.

  “There’s another option,” I said. “Someone who might be powerful enough to stop all of this.”

  “Tell me you have a leviathan hidden somewhere.”

  “No.”

  My brain worked over what Deiopea had said about the serpent. Rivals the power of the original Medusa. She had been talking about the Medusa of millennia past—but what about her descendant? What about the Medusa reigning over the Atlantic?

  “We need Queen Medusa,” I said.

  Meela glanced sidelong at me. “If she has snakes for hair and a glare that turns you to stone, sure. If not, I don’t see how she can help us.”

  I shook my head. “Adaro might have the serpent, but Medusa has the oldest regime in history and a kingdom a thousand times the size of Utopia.”

  “You think her army can rival Adaro’s?”

  “We can wait and find out with the rest of the world, when Adaro invades the Atlantic—or we can find out sooner. We can go to the Atlantic. We can get Medusa’s help before Adaro becomes unstoppable.”

  Meela gaped. “You want us to go to the other side of the world?”

  “We need her help. She’s managed to keep peace in the Atlantic for her entire reign.”

  My tone became bolder. According to my parents, Medusa was fair, wise, and generous. She could save the Pacific.

  “Lysi, you’re being ridiculous. Why would Medusa, an actual queen, agree to talk to two average mermaids from the Pacific?”

  “Because you’re not average. You’re Metlaa Gaela from Eriana Kwai, a former human and one who knows more about the leviathan than anybody. She’ll want to hear it.”

  Meela frowned. “If she cares about peace so much, why hasn’t she done anything yet to stop Adaro?”

  I hesitated. I’d wondered the same thing. But we couldn’t judge the queen’s decision until we knew more.

  “Maybe she doesn’t know the extent of what’s happening,” I said.

  “You don’t think someone would have told her?”

  “Adaro’s army is guarding the border between here and the Atlantic. It’s not easy to get past.”

  “And you want us to try,” said Meela flatly.

  “Mee, she’s the most powerful queen in the oceans. Maybe ever. My parents said she speaks nine human languages and is said to have the wisdom of all her ancestors behind her throne. Plus, since her rule she’s started mining the seafloor for diamonds and silver and has established a trading system with humans—”

  Meela blew a bubble of exasperation. “It’s already taking us forever to track the Reinas halfway across the Pacific! Now you’re saying we need to take a trip to the other side of the world. We’re wasting time.”

  “This’ll all help us in the end!”

  “After how long? It’ll take ages to get to the Atlantic.”

  “Half a tidecycle, I think.”

  “Tidecycle? I don’t even know what—”

  “It’s the time it takes the tides and the moon—”

  “Whatever. That’s beside the point.”

  I scowled. “Just trying to help you out.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, softening. “But Lysi, we have one merman to find, and he’s somewhere on this side of the earth. We finally have a lead with this Kori Maru thing, and we need to go after it.”

  “You don’t think we’ll have a better chance of stopping Adaro’s armies with Medusa’s help?”

  “Our focus isn’t on who has the bigger army,” said Meela. “We need to get to Adaro, not start a massive war between the Atlantic and the Pacific.”

  “But Mee, even after we kill Adaro, we’ve still got all his armies and government and—”

  “No. My answer’s no.”

  She swam ahead, leaving me to catch up.

  We didn’t speak for a long time. Meela’s aura had closed on itself, like she was too absorbed in her own mind to pay attention to anything outside it. Fixating on getting Adaro again, no doubt. I wanted to grab her and tell her to calm down, because we were doing the best we could.

  I let the subject drop, but I wasn’t going to give up. Killing Adaro was one thing, but we needed the most powerful force in the seas if we wanted to end the war. And we had to stop it as soon as possible—for all those prisoners, for humans, for Deiopea, and just as much, for Meela’s sanity.

  CHAPTER FIVE - Meela

  Wrecks of the Bering Sea

  The more I tried to stop thinking about it, the more my mind replayed the scene. My ears still rang with the shouting crowd, clashing weapons, and splintering boat, which seemed to grow louder as time passed. The smell of blood and iron lingered in my nose. I saw the swinging keel, the red clouds in the water.

  It was the Massacre all over again, except this time I was on the other side of the surface. Somehow, I’d thought the merpeople would be reluctant to attack. Had I expected everyone to be like Lysi? Instead, they’d moved in to kill those humans without hesitation. They even seemed to enjoy it.

  “You’re all … prickly,” said Lysi, bringing me out of the memory.

  “Thinking about the boat,” I mumbled.

  I could feel her looking at me. I kept staring ahead. Swimming in silence through the open ocean, its emptiness felt absolute. We’d stopped to gorge on a school of fish, but since then, there was no sign that anything besides the two of us existed.

  “They were doing what they’ve been taught,” said Lysi.

  “Weren’t you taught to do that, too?”

  “Yes, but I have you.”

  “So? What if you hadn’t met me? Would you be into killing and, and—?” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

  “Mee, our kind has spent years hearing how humans are worthless, and how we own the wa
ter and humans have no right to be here.”

  “And they believe it?”

  “Adaro promised to unite the seas under one crown. He’s doing that by uniting everyone with a common enemy.”

  It was working. Hate and fear were powerful enough to build a kingdom on. Thinking about Adaro’s strategy made my pulse race with anger. He had trained an entire generation of merpeople to believe humans needed to be extinguished.

  Desperation cinched my chest, pulling me northwards as if by a rope. The sooner we found Adaro, the sooner we could end all of this.

  Lysi made a sound as though she were about to say more. I glanced at her, but she closed her mouth.

  “What?” I said.

  She shook her head.

  “Lysi.”

  She cast me a sideways glance. “Well, is it any different from how you were raised?”

  I looked away, taking a minute to squash the surge of outrage. My face grew hot. She was right. Everyone on Eriana Kwai believed mermaids were an invasive species that needed to be pushed back to the Atlantic. The whole purpose of the Massacres was to force them away from our home.

  War was not one-sided. For centuries, humans had been overfishing anything edible, capturing and tagging anything intelligent, and killing everything else. We had made it easy for merpeople to treat us as the enemy.

  “They teach us that feeding on humans is no worse than fish,” Lysi said gently. “Both are made of meat. Both are a relative.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. The idea was beyond argument.

  Lysi took my hand. “He doesn’t understand the most important part of existence. The mind, the soul, everything that makes us feel.”

  Her touch calmed me, and I squeezed her fingers. I had to remember that Adaro’s concept of the relationship between humans and merpeople was that we were all just part of the food chain. But I knew love, and I had those in my life who returned it. That we were made of flesh and bone was the smallest part of what it meant to be alive.

  “Do you think anyone else feels the same?” I said.

  “I think lots do. They’re just afraid to say it.”

  We pressed on through the bluish murk, the world vacant on all sides.

  Some time later, ripples told me something big was swimming towards us. I stopped. We hadn’t encountered anything other than fish since leaving Deiopea and the captives.

  “Lysi?”

  She felt it out for about two seconds before saying, “It’s fine.”

  I hesitated, and then hurried to catch up. “You sure? It feels huge.”

  “She’s a basking shark.”

  “Shark?!”

  Lysi chuckled. “I promise it’s fine.”

  I took her word for it, but stuck close beside her.

  Sure enough, when the thing materialised from the blue, I let out a small scream. Its mouth was open wide enough to swallow both of us whole, the white and grey insides resembling a cavernous ribcage.

  Lysi grabbed me before I could jet away. “They eat krill and plankton, Mee. Look. No teeth.”

  We watched it drift past us and continue down the current, mouth gaping as if letting out a long and silent scream.

  Teeth or not, the last time I’d seen the inside of a mouth that big was when the leviathan tried to eat us. The memory didn’t ease my nerves.

  “How are you supposed to tell if something’s going to attack you or not?” I said, crossing my arms.

  “It’ll take practice. Try and feel her energy.”

  I concentrated, but felt only the vague aura of an animal and ripples as it coasted by. How could Lysi even tell it was female? Would I ever be able to read auras as well as her?

  As the sun sank, we pushed harder, agreeing it would be better to find the Reinas than to stop and spend the night alone. My body was ready to crumple with exhaustion. The only thing keeping me moving was the will to survive.

  As we reached the Aleutian Islands, Lysi said with enthusiasm I could tell was forced, “The Bering Sea is just over the trench.”

  Each time we breached and I saw those billowing volcanoes, a familiar, grim feeling closed over me. It was a hollow sadness, like the Aanil Uusha was hovering overhead, waiting to claim someone. I’d felt the god of Death every day on the Massacre, as I stood on the deck of the Bloodhound staring at those islands.

  I found refuge each time we submerged. It was as though the underwater world pushed new life into me. I thought of the green ribbons I’d hung in my bedroom as a kid and wondered, not for the first time, if I’d always been destined to be a mermaid. I was in love with the sea.

  I kept my feelers out for signs of the Reinas as we wove between the landmasses, determined to find something other than a basking shark before sundown.

  Running aground must have been common near the Aleutian Islands, because we found two shipwrecks within an hour of each other. The first was a small battleship of sorts, resembling a block of concrete and definitely uninhabited. The second was more industrial and eerie, with the crumbling appearance of having been smashed against the seafloor. Its hull was shattered, the deck cracked. I could see the life preservers still fastened aboard. Plant life and barnacles covered the ship to such extent that it blended into the landscape, and I couldn’t find a name painted on the side. Judging by the undisturbed wildlife, though, I guessed the ship had never been inhabited by merpeople.

  One thing we did find was an excess of sharks—and not the basking kind. Lysi assured me the sharks wouldn’t bother us as long as they didn’t smell blood. Still, they had powerful, predatory auras, and I couldn’t help feeling nervous as we passed by.

  Continuing through the cascade of volcanoes, we glided silently over a dark trench, the depths of which might have plunged to the centre of the earth, for all I knew.

  We passed another ship—this one half submerged and leaning against the shore of a small island. The waves crashed into it, sending sprays high over the rusted frame.

  As the sun touched the horizon, we came upon a fourth wreck. It was wooden, a more traditional structure with two masts and a bowsprit.

  “This isn’t it,” said Lysi. “I’m sure we’re looking for a trawler.”

  I swam low over the deck, scanning the webs of ropes and splintered masts. The mainmast had crumbled sideways so it leaned against the foremast. This was a brig—slightly different from the Bloodhound in its rigging, but the skeleton was similar enough to send a shiver through me. On the Massacre, our loyal ship had barely survived long enough to bring us home. The thought of dying in a shipwreck in the iciest part of the ocean still haunted me.

  My skin prickled, stinging faintly.

  “What is that?” I said, rubbing a hand over my arm.

  I turned to find Lysi a few reluctant lengths behind.

  “Iron. The wood’s probably laced with it.”

  I had a terrible, constricted feeling in my chest. Had this been one of our own Massacre ships? What if the crew had been killed, and this ship had been left to float away until it hit the islands and sank?

  I scanned the side for a name, but found nothing.

  A soft hand wrapped around my arm. “Come on. Don’t swim so close.”

  “I want to poke around a bit.”

  “No,” said Lysi firmly.

  “Aren’t you curious?”

  “Mee, there’s iron everywhere.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  She pulled hard, forcing me to look at her. “All it takes is an accidental brush across your skin and you’re burned forever.”

  I shut my mouth, ashamed for being so tactless. Of course Lysi knew what it felt like to be burned by iron. The enormous scar across her waist was there because of me. I looked away.

  “Let’s keep moving north,” she said.

  I followed, keeping close to her tail. Lysi was right. Poking around here would be needlessly reckless.

  “Should we follow the curve of the is
lands?” I said. “Won’t there be more shipwrecks closer to land?”

  “Yes, but I’m sure Kori Maru is further north.”

  We left the Aleutian Islands behind. The Bering Sea was cold and wild, the waves overhead more violent than anything I’d experienced. I was glad for the safety of travelling far below the surface.

  Having not slept the night before, we grew sluggish. My concentration waned and every part of me felt heavy. The sky darkened to a deep navy blue. It must have been at least midnight.

  “There’s a wreck over there,” said Lysi, “but it’s wooden. Feel the texture on the current?”

  “Sure,” I said, too tired to bother. “Where’d you learn about all these wrecks, anyway?”

  “It was part of our geography and navigation lessons. You have to learn these things if you want to find your way around. But it isn’t proving very helpful, apparently.”

  “It’s okay. I learned a lot of things in elementary school that I can’t remember. Long division. Outer space. The British Empire.”

  “Why do humans need to learn about outer space if they don’t need to keep track of tides?”

  “Huh?”

  “The cycles of the moon.”

  “Oh,” I said. “No, we learned more about planets and stuff.”

  “What do planets affect?”

  “Um. Nothing.”

  Lysi cast me a sidelong glance.

  I laughed. “We don’t learn about that stuff because it affects everyday life. It’s more for the sake of, just, knowledge. Understanding the universe.”

  “Did learning about the planets help you understand the universe?”

  I considered, thinking about our place on this blue dot hurtling through space among all those other planets and stars. I thought about how small we were in the middle of a war, and how small the war was in the context of space.

  Then I looked at Lysi swimming beside me, and I decided that as long as she was there, I didn’t care how miniscule we all were.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I guess it did.”

  We passed beneath a raft of wood and plastic. Strands of seaweed and ropes dangled several lengths deep. Small fish darted in and out, plucking off algae and burrowing inside.