She rests her hand on the bandage around her arm, thumbing the
unfamiliarity of it. “What is it?”
I grab the parchment drawings from the kitchen and rest them on
her lap. “This is-”
“The Star of the Sea.”
“Come again?” I say.
“It’s the symbol, right here. This star? It’s the symbol of an
ancient oracle. She was called the Star of the Sea because she was so
beautiful. Her magics made mortals believe she was a goddess. Though
there was no way she could be. Her power made her lose her mind, stuck
between her sight, the future, past, and present.”
“Crazy oracles,” I say. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
I catch Kurt’s scowl when I say this.
“But Tristan.” Kai goes to get a better look at the maps on the
wall. “How did you come by these parchments? They’re not supposed to
leave the Hall of Records.”
I tell her about Gregorious. The manic look in his eyes. The way
he changed after drinking the water. The way I did, for a little bit.
I roll my shoulder and remind myself that I’m clearly no longer
impervious.
“He’s dead?” She sits back down, clutching her heart. “He was
friends with my father. I remember the last time he came to visit us.
They argued and my father sent me away to collect items from a
shipwreck for study.”
I can practically feel her mind racing. She gets up and traces a
hand over my crappy drawings of the oracles. “You didn’t say you found
another oracle. The nautilus maid?”
“Nothing to say. She didn’t have a piece of the trident.” I say it
so quickly that I can hear the guilt in my voice. But I agreed to kill
her, or die myself.
“I don’t understand,” Kai says. “What makes you think I can help?”
I read the prophecy aloud.
“When known is the last son of kings,
Only the sea will remain.
The sky will shatter
And the king will rip the earth once more.
Beneath, the heart of the sea awakens.
When Death sets fire to Eternity,
The daughter of the sea weeps darkness,
In darkness we will remain.”
I study her face as I say it. She’s more wonder-struck than
frightened. Then a tiny smile plays on her lips, and I know she’s
thinking what I’m thinking. “Can I ask what your theory is?”
Theory? I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t have theories. I have
accidental enlightenments.
“Greg was in possession of powerfully healing water.” I pace back
and forth in front of my parents, Gwen, Kai, and Kurt. “I drink it and
for a little while, I heal like I’m in one of those fast-forward
sessions on the Discovery Channel. This makes Shelly suggest I’ve
already been to Eternity.
“Now I know it has to be a place because her sister Chrysilla, the
nautilus maid, said that’s where she belongs . But oh no, my mom and
Sir Doubts-alot over here think I’m wrong because it doesn’t fit in
their old mer-textbooks.” Then I add, “Sorry, Mom.”
At once, they start talking over each other.
Mom’s all, “It’s not that I doubt you-”
Kurt’s all, “I decided to go forth with your plan, did I not? It
was my idea to search for Violet-”
Kai’s all, “Really, you went to Violet first?”
Gwen’s all, “Just because Tristan figured something out, finally,
I believe Kurtomathetis to be jealous.”
I lean back. “Me too.”
Dad, the only sane person among us, holds his hand up. “I have to
say, as the only original human biped here, I’m completely shocked at
how incredibly close-minded you all sound.”
They start to argue again, but I take out my scepter. It glows in
my hand, and a thin whistle settles over the room, like it’s the sound
of the light inside the scepter. It’s enough to make them quiet and
listen to my dad.
“You’re merpeople ,” he says. “By all laws of nature, you don’t
exist in this reality. Yet here you are, fighting for your futures.”
“My dad’s right. Kai, is there a physical place called Eternity?”
The shift in Kai’s posture is drastic. When she’s around the
princesses, she’s like a crab digging herself back into the sand. Now,
she’s beautiful and confident.
“Yes,” she says. I cross my arms attentively, but it’s to fight
the urge to wag my finger in front of Kurt’s face. “In fact, all the
protective charms that come from the king have been bathed in water
from the Springs of Aurora, or Eternity.”
“My grandfather gave Layla a necklace. She was poisoned by merrows
and it saved her.”
“But the necklace was the symbol of the king’s family,” Kurt says.
“ Spirula spirula . That’s what grants protection.”
“Haven’t you been listening?” Kai counters. “It’s a symbol,
Kurtomathetis. Which, as there is no king, no longer matters.”
Kurt gets huffy. “We’ve always been told it is the protection of
the king.”
Kai leans forward, a deep red blush creeping over her face. “What
you haven’t been told is what it was blessed with .”
“Why would it be kept from us?” he shouts.
“Tristan, where is your dagger?” Kai turns around to me like a
whip.
“I don’t think violence-”
“Get it, please!” And the pleading look in her eyes reminds me
that she’s trying to prove a point. So I unsheathe Triton’s dagger.
She takes a marker and draws the Spirula coil on a piece of paper. She
gives it to Kurt to hold.
“There. Tristan, stab him.”
“What?” Kurt takes a step back.
“Go ahead,” Gwen says. “Take a stab at Kurtomathetis.”
Kurt’s mouth is hanging open, maybe partly because he’s wondering
if I actually would. “Very well, Lady Kai. You’ve proved your point.”
Kai smiles victoriously. “This is a symbol. The king is power. And
his symbol has power, but it needs something else. Water from the
Springs of Aurora.”
Kurt raises his hands. “Don’t stab me, but if this place is real,
wouldn’t we all be drinking from it, Lady Kai?”
“Don’t forget,” Gwen says. “We were immortal once.”
“So the Springs of Aurora and Eternity are the same place?” I ask.
Kai’s smile is wicked but brilliant, as if she knows all the
secrets we aren’t privy to. “One and the same. It was said that the
water from the springs was the source of our immortality. It was the
original home of the Sea People. Its waters have the most regenerative
properties on Earth.”
Kurt shakes his head. “No, we were immortal because Poseidon made
it so. Then he took the gift away and left us in the human world with
nothing but the ability to age slowly and live for hundreds of years.”
“That’s one of many theories of where we come from,” my mom says.
I raise my hand like I’m in class. “I thought we came from Triton
and those Greek dudes.”
Kai nods thoughtfully. “Yes and no.”
“What do you mean no?” Kurt’s hands are flailing in the air. “Our
origin is irrefutable.”
Now it’s Kai’s turn to laugh. “You may be the king’s most prized
warrior, but I’ve got half the Hall of Records memorized. Our kind
wasn’t born to age this way at first. We had a short lifespan, like
humans. Then Triton wanted immortality. The gods denied him, but he
was Poseidon’s favorite child. Cutting open his wrists, Poseidon bled
and from his blood formed the Springs of Aurora for Triton and his
kind to live in.”
“Gross,” I say.
Kurt makes to speak again, but Kai cuts him off and keeps talking.
“The Sea People lived there, deep, deep down in the earth, away from
the rest of the world. Until we got a visitor. One of the winged fey.
He had magics we didn’t. After all, we were only half fish. And so