Ice Kingdom Page 8

  Lysi tried to smooth her hair. I took her cue and did the same to the poufy mats that had once been braids.

  Dione led us into a cavern beneath the ship. Unfortunately, this was not a private grotto where we would be able to rest. Several merpeople were gathered around a stone slab acting as a table. They looked up when we entered.

  They were all from the South, with tails of sundry colours and gems glinting across their bodies. Nearest to us were three young mermen who must have been my and Lysi’s age, lean and muscular, not yet scarred by battle. On the far side floated a mermaid whose hair was white-blonde. Next to her was a merman with waist-length dreadlocks and a ring in his nose.

  Lysi crossed her arms across her stomach, as though trying to hide how grimy and chapped her skin had become during the trek.

  “This is the mermaid I spoke of,” said Dione. “She has information on the serpent.”

  Lysi and I exchanged a glance. This abruptness surprised me. I knew the Reinas would want information about it, but I’d thought we would have a bit of time to learn their plan first. Suddenly apprehensive, I wondered how much we should tell them. All that time Lysi and I had spent alone and we hadn’t once discussed what we would say, or what we shouldn’t.

  “Girls,” said one of the young mermen, darting over. “Welcome to the Maru.”

  He made to sling an arm across my shoulders, but the second one elbowed him out of the way and wedged himself between Lysi and me. “I’m Creon, sworn avenger of the crown and everything gorgeous within her kingdom, so, of course, this includes—”

  “Enough,” said Dione, throwing out an arm before the third one could move.

  The young mermen bowed and returned to the table. Lysi and I followed, leaving behind the soft glow of daylight to join them.

  “When we crossed paths, I did not know the serpent was acting under Adaro,” said Dione. “Not until later did we learn of his movement along the coast.”

  “You know where he is, then,” I said.

  Dione cast an appraising glance over me. “We know where he has been but not where he will go next. He has been moving along the coast at random, pushing humans from the shore.”

  She motioned to the table’s surface where a world map had been chiselled into the stone. Everyone stopped staring at us and returned their focus to it. Gems of various colours were hammered along the west coast of North America. Rubies, emeralds, and amethysts marked several places along the coast, from the Aleutian Islands, to Eriana Kwai and British Columbia, down to Washington and Oregon. Attack sites.

  “Can you follow him?” I said.

  “He moves too quickly. He will be gone by the time we arrive at the site of his last attack.”

  I leaned closer to study the map, searching for a pattern. His attacks seemed to happen at random, if the colours were meant to indicate anything.

  The cavern was silent except for the burble against the stone walls. I glanced up. Dione and the others were looking expectantly at Lysi. Lysi shifted uncomfortably.

  “How did the serpent come to pursue you, Lysithea?” said Dione. “What did Eriana Kwai have to do with it?”

  Suspicion rose in me at Dione’s abrupt questions. So this was why the Reinas invited us here. Or rather, why they invited Lysi here. We were worth as much as the information we could provide.

  The same could be said for all of you, I thought, scanning the room.

  The prolonged silence broke Lysi. “Um. The serpent’s been around since the beginning of time and is part of several human legends. I don’t really …”

  She looked to me for help—or maybe to confirm that we should share the story.

  “I can tell it.” I kept my voice low, though everyone would hear in such close quarters.

  Lysi nodded, and then addressed the cavern. “Meela knows more than anyone. She was the one who uncovered the legend on Eriana Kwai.”

  It was my turn to flush as every gaze in the room fell onto me.

  I wouldn’t share every detail on the Host of Eriana with these strangers, but I would need to spill some information if I wanted their help getting to Adaro. Maybe if I showed I trusted them enough to tell them my people’s legend, they would trust me enough to listen to my ideas.

  “The leviathan is the most powerful creature ever to exist and the only of its kind,” I said. “So of course Adaro wanted it. That’s why he’s been obsessed with Eriana Kwai. Sisiutl, the two-headed serpent, was laid to rest on our island.”

  I paused, trying to quickly think of a plan. What was I supposed to tell them? I had no information that would help them destroy the serpent—and the information I did have about how control was passed by blood was not going to be shared today. Or ever.

  “The serpent spent millennia destroying villages and any ship it came upon. The mortal Eriana was the only one who could control it. The Aanil Uusha—that’s our god of death—he bound Eriana’s soul with the serpent’s so it could always be controlled. That’s why Adaro calls the serpent the Host of Eriana. Eriana’s soul can be freed from its host if the serpent is killed. But that’s the problem.”

  “Does it have a weak spot?” said Dione.

  “Not that we know of. It’s indestructible.”

  “We can go for the eyes,” said the first young merman, thrusting an invisible sword upwards.

  “If you get that close to her face, you won’t live long enough to do anything,” I said.

  “I’d be willing to do it,” said Creon, puffing out his chest. “A sacrifice to save the crown and the gorgeousness—”

  “It would be a pretty pointless sacrifice!” I said.

  Dione raised a hand, and we fell silent. “Meela, you said our island. Our god of death.”

  “I’m from Eriana Kwai. I’m a former human.”

  “You are no longer human. Why do you still include yourself among them?”

  “Eriana is my blood,” I said. “The history, the gods, they’re still a part of me.”

  Lysi looked between Dione and me, her apprehension so thick I wondered if she was about to jump to my defense.

  But Dione nodded. “So the serpent can destroy anything but cannot be destroyed. What else do you know?”

  She spoke in casual tones as though we were discussing weather patterns instead of an apocalyptic creature.

  “I only learned about the serpent in the last month—I mean tidecycle. The legend was hidden for centuries.”

  “How did Adaro gain control?”

  There it was. If I told them Adaro had killed Dani, I’d be revealing that the only way to control the serpent was to vanquish its present master. If I lied, would Dione feel it the same way I’d felt that mermaid’s dishonesty at the raft last night?

  I chose my words carefully.

  “As a descendant of Eriana, I was able to awaken the serpent with my blood. The rest of the legend was hidden from me, and I didn’t know she would fall under someone else’s control after I awoke her. The legend said the one to bear Eriana’s mark would become her master.”

  I let the implication hang, not looking at Lysi.

  “Adaro is bound to the serpent through your blood sacrifice, then,” said Dione. “Did the sacrifice take you from your human form? Is that why you are now a mermaid?”

  I nodded.

  Dione considered, absently tracing a hand over the table.

  I was startled by a deep voice when the merman with dreadlocks spoke. “If the blood sacrifice did not die, but became a mermaid, perhaps this tie between the king and the serpent is not as strong as it ought to be.”

  Lysi twisted her mouth. “He was able to send it after me easily. Plus, he’s ransacking the entire coast with it. I don’t think there’s a weakness here.”

  “If serpent and master are bound by blood,” said Dione, “what happens to the serpent if its master is killed?”

  My heart jumped, but the reaction was covered by Creon, who said, “It might break f
ree from all control and go on a rampage, or avenge its master.”

  “Or,” said Dione, “it might also die.”

  There was a pause. I had to take control of this conversation before they got any closer to the truth. How could I get their help while guaranteeing the serpent would end up in my hands, and not Dione’s, or someone else’s? My stomach churned. This group had no reason to let such an inexperienced mermaid carry out the deed. I had to convince them I was their only option.

  “The problem,” said Lysi, picking up the silence, “is that Adaro isn’t easy to kill. We tried using iron, we tried blowing him up. That’s why we need your help—”

  Dione raised a hand, silencing Lysi. “Our priority is not to kill Adaro.”

  The words hung like a thick fog. Not kill? Had I heard her correctly?

  “What?” I said.

  “Sorry, but what do you mean?” said Lysi.

  “Para la reina,” said Creon, as though this explained everything.

  “Everything we do is for the queen,” said Dione, voice rising. “We are trying to find her, to free her from Adaro’s imprisonment, to return her to her throne. She is the rightful ruler of the Pacific, not Adaro. Stopping him will come only after we have found the queen.”

  I dropped my gaze to the engraved table, taking in all of the attack sites. Another gemstone would surely be added in the next day or two. What were Lysi and I doing here if their goal wasn’t to kill Adaro? I didn’t care about finding Queen Evagore—not when Adaro was in the middle of destroying every coastal city he could get to.

  “But I saw a group of you try and kill him at the mine!” said Lysi.

  “We have learned since then,” said the white-blonde mermaid.

  “Learned what?”

  “That he cannot be killed so easily.”

  “We lost lives in another failed attempt after the mine,” said Dreadlocks. “Assassinating him will be even more difficult now that he has the serpent.”

  I glowered at them. “If you aren’t going to use the information I give you to kill Adaro, then what do you need it for?”

  Those around the table shifted. Dione raised an eyebrow.

  “We can explain better if we know what your plan is,” said Lysi with a warning glance at me.

  Dione inclined her head. “The full plan is in strict confidence. Not even everyone at Kori Maru knows it. It is a question of security.”

  “You can at least tell us what the others know,” I said.

  “You are asking me to entrust two strangers with our war plans that have been under development for several tidecycles.”

  I crossed my arms. “I’m entrusting you with a legend that’s been a part of my people for millennia.”

  Dione glanced between Lysi and me, brow furrowed. Everyone around the table became still.

  For a long moment, Dione considered us. Then she said carefully, “We need to track the serpent and understand its power. Adaro needs to be at least a day away from Utopia before we act.”

  “So you’re storming the city,” I said.

  She swept a long-fingered hand down the coast of North America. “As Adaro focuses on destroying human settlements, he is leaving Utopia without its king. A government is in place, of course, led by Nemertes. But this can be breached. So, yes, we plan to destroy the government and find our queen.”

  “I don’t understand why you’re going for the government,” I said. “This is Adaro you’re talking about, which means any government is just a symbol with no real power.”

  “It is the link between the king and his civilians.”

  “But if you’re going to spend effort and resources to overthrow something, you should focus on the top of the chain.”

  “Mee—” said Lysi.

  “The top of the chain is not a wise place to try and break,” said Dione. “Consider one that binds an anchor to a ship. If you decide to attack at the top, you must sink the entire ship. If you attack the bottom, you must destroy the anchor. But to attack the middle? You simply cut the chain.”

  “That doesn’t even—what will cutting the chain accomplish when the ultimate goal is to sink the ship?”

  “I think I understand,” said Lysi. “You’re disrupting Adaro’s rule over Utopia. By forcing yourself in the middle, you’re giving yourself power over both the king and the civilians.”

  Dione nodded. “We are going to find Queen Evagore and place her on the throne in Utopia.”

  I looked down at the table, to the gap between the Canadian coast and the groove marking Utopia. It gave me small comfort to know that storming the Utopian government would lure Adaro there. That, at least, would save me the effort of trying to find him myself.

  “What’ll you do when he comes back with the serpent?” I said.

  The window of time would be short. Adaro would return the second he found out, and with the serpent, he would move quickly.

  “By then, we will have our queen and all of Utopia behind us. If, as you say, we cannot destroy the serpent—”

  “We’ll fight!” said Creon, pumping a fist.

  The others around the table murmured their agreement.

  I restrained from rolling my eyes. “You can’t fight the leviathan.”

  Creon let his hand fall. They all stared at me.

  “Use your army to attack, but our target should be Adaro,” I said. “Don’t worry about the Utopian government until the king is dead.”

  “Mee,” said Lysi again, but I didn’t care that I was being argumentative. This wasn’t the time for politeness.

  Dione narrowed her eyes.

  “Besides,” I continued, “what makes you so sure Utopians will fight Adaro with you? What if they’re too scared to go against him? What if they even support him and see your attempt as treason?”

  “This is not for you to question,” said Dione, temper flaring.

  “But—”

  “Mee, stop it,” said Lysi.

  Dione once again raised a hand, commanding silence, then said more calmly, “We do intend to stop Adaro, but the majority voted on saving the queen as our first priority.”

  A majority vote? Interesting. Maybe she was trying to convince me that many of them supported this plan—but a majority meant there was also a minority. Others did not agree. But how many? Could I rally them?

  “How will the coup work, then?” said Lysi with a sideways glance at me.

  “I have told you enough,” said Dione. “As I said, no one has the full details. It is the only way we can assure that, if someone is captured or leaks information, they will not be able to reveal everything.”

  “We modelled this strategy after Adaro himself,” said Dreadlocks. “Those who have worked under his government tell us he makes sure no one knows everything about him—not even his closest allies.”

  I didn’t like it, but what could I do? They’d told us the basics, as I’d told them the basics of the leviathan. And, like me, they’d withheld information—maybe even lied.

  My insides twisted with frustration. Here we had a whole army ready for action, and I could do nothing. Every moment I spent here, powerless, people were dying at the hands of Adaro and the serpent.

  I didn’t want to destroy the chain or the anchor. I wanted to sink the ship. Lysi and I would need to have a serious conversation later.

  “You can trust that once we have lured Adaro to Utopia, we intend to kill him,” said Dione. “But we need your help for this. How can we destroy that serpent?”

  Lysi and I looked at each other. How was I supposed to convince them to help me be the one to kill Adaro, without revealing why?

  The silence stretched a beat too long. Dione opened her mouth—and a lie came to me in a flash. I blurted it out before she could speak.

  “The legend says only a descendant of Eriana can defeat the serpent. To do this, he or she must kill the serpent’s master.”

  They all gaped at me, includin
g Lysi. I exhaled into the words, trying as hard as I could to believe this was true.

  I need to do it. I am the only option.

  “And you, as you said, are a descendant,” said Dione, her stare so intense it seemed to burn my skin.

  I nodded once. The glopping of water against stone grew louder in the silence.

  “So you, personally, wish to be the one to kill him,” said Dione.

  My heart skipped a beat, but I said steadily, “It has to be me. It’s in the legend.”

  Did she know I was lying? I cursed my inability to control my reactions. Lysi was so much better at hiding jolts of emotion than me.

  “The Eriana Kwai mermaid is how we defeat him, then,” said the white-blonde mermaid. “She is written in the legend.”

  Everyone looked to Dione with a mixture of hopefulness and uncertainty, but she merely continued to stare at me as if analyzing my every pore.

  “You have a personal vendetta against him?” she said.

  I was trying to come up with a way to make it sound like the white-blonde mermaid was onto something when everyone turned to the cavern exit. Something was happening outside.

  “They’re back,” said Dreadlocks.

  Murmurs broke out around the room. Dione held her gaze on me a moment longer, then turned away.

  “Then let’s not keep our comrades waiting.”

  Everyone pushed away from the table.

  Noticing our confused faces, the blonde addressed Lysi and me. “There’s an acoustic channel nearby. It moves between Utopia and the northern military line. We take shifts monitoring it.”

  We followed everyone out of the grotto to join the flocking crowd.

  “What’s an acoustic channel?” I whispered to Lysi.

  “It’s a current that sound travels down better than anywhere else. There are only a few, and the kingdom reserves them for long-distance messages.”

  “How long?”

  “The best ones carry sound past the equator. Sometimes you can hear a blue whale from the other side of the ocean.”

  I gaped, adding yet another item to my list of reasons why the ocean was so mesmerising.

  Lysi hummed thoughtfully. “This is probably why they picked Kori Maru. Adaro wouldn’t suspect anyone of eavesdropping on the channel way up here.”