seems fitting that it would fall into our family again.”
Layla moves closer and leans against my chest. The look I get from
Gwen brings a memory flash of her trying to kiss me. Even when her
lips hovered, it didn’t feel right. Cold. So cold compared to Layla.
My heart is running laps, and Layla is looking up at me, pressing her
hands right over it. She whispers, “Relax.”
“Where was she?” Thalia asks. “The oracle.”
This time it’s Adaro’s turn to shine. “She was in plain sight. In
the tunnels beneath the Glass Castle.”
Somewhere in my memory of the crash course Mer History 101, I
remember them mentioning the Glass Castle.
“For the foot-fins, I’ll clarify,” Sarabell says to me. “It’s the
most wondrous of our homes. Our home beneath the sea. Far lovelier
than Toliss. Our most prized kin live there-the keepers of our
histories, our musicians who train for court, even our guard and the
bigger armory.
“When the Glass Castle was destroyed in the first war with the fey
thousands of years ago, its destruction was devastating. But we pulled
through. We always do. Kurtomathetis and Thalia’s parents helped
rebuilt it the second time.”
“Hold up,” I say. “This thing was destroyed twice?”
The mermaids and merdudes nod sadly. Thalia says, “We were forced
deeper and deeper by our enemies. The first time by the land fey. The
second time during our civil war .” She says “civil war” like it’s
made of glass itself. I wonder where Adaro’s family stood in all of
this.
“If you would,” Sarabell says. “Now it stands stronger as a
fortress instead, the Glass Castle, more beautiful than ever. Am I not
correct, Kurtomathetis? You would come over to our wing and play. So
little you were, always in a corner with your scrolls and tablets, the
odd one of your bunch.”
Kurt’s jaw tightens. I don’t like the way she says this. Some of
the girls trade glares. What did I miss? Might as well be at the
school cafeteria.
“Maybe one day, you’ll visit.” Adaro tells me. As much as I’m
trying to not like him, to put him on my shit list for being a natural
rival, I can’t. He’s kind of a cool guy. He’s kind of like me.
“How did you find her?” I ask.
He looks up to the drifting clouds playing hide-and-seek with the
sun. “She came to me in a dream…I couldn’t see her face but she
whispered my name. It echoed in the halls of the castle. My father
told me I was mad. He swears on augurs, but they led us nowhere, and
after the third night of the same dream, I knew to trust myself. I
swam beneath the castle, where the last circle of dragons is said to
be kept. Only, it was empty. The dragons were gone, replaced by a ring
of blue combat fire. As if the oracle wanted me-”
“Dragons,” I repeat. “The sea dragons were gone?”
“It is what he said,” Sarabell snips.
Behind her, Gwen shakes her head from side to side. She presses
the top of her finger to her coral lips.
“Sorry,” I go, “bad ear.”
“The fire was a mirage. So I swam through the tunnel, so deep I
thought my insides would burst. That’s when they came. They were
shadows at first, slithering around my arms and my tail until they
were solid black vines. We use those for prisoners.”
Thinking of the black vines that bind Arion to the ship, I say, “I
know.”
“The vines pulled me in different directions. It was the most
painful moment of my life. All I could think of was my limbs ripping
right off clean.”
“How did you fight it?” Kurt asks for me. He can tell I don’t want
to sound eager. In a way, I don’t want to know. Could I have done it?
Could I have found that oracle without my friends? The only one who
comes to me in my dreams is Nieve. No oracles, and I can’t help but
wonder.
“I didn’t. It released me. I could barely stay afloat. There was a
deep grumble and the ground moved. It took all my strength to swim
into the tunnel. The ground kept moving. Not until the wall closed
behind me did I realize I was inside a giant eel. I was too big and it
was choking on me. With the little strength I had left, I picked up my
sword and cut myself out.
“There she was before me, the oracle. What happened then, I will
not say.” He holds the Staff of Eternity in a powerful fist. The
symbols etched all along the shaft are the same ones along the hilt of
my scepter. “This is what matters now.”
“And now you’re here.”
“I know it’s too soon for celebrations,” Adaro says. “The trident
head is-”
“ Adaro! ” Sarabell yells between gritted teeth.
He holds his hand up to her and she’s instantly quiet. “If I am to
be on Tristan’s land-”
“Technically,” Layla says, “some of it belongs to the State of New
York.”
Adaro offers her a tray of pink wiggly stuff. “I like you. I wish
the rest of court were as funny as you!”
She reaches for the cube of jellyfish brain and knocks over a
drink onto one of the princesses beside her. I pick up the glass and
use my own T-shirt to dab at the princess’s dress by way of apology.
Besides, it’s too hot to wear a T-shirt. The makeshift court shoots
Layla dirty looks, like if I weren’t here, they’d drag her into the
surf and drown her. I sit up a little straighter, wrapping my arm
around over her shoulder, because no one looks at Layla like that.
Then Adaro gets stone faced, eyes shifting from side to side. I
see a spark of fear, and I know his journey has been just as rocky as
mine.
“Come,” I say, taking him by the arm, away from Sarabell’s prying
eyes.
“Cousin,” she says, reaching out for his hand, and he pulls out,
but Gwen makes her sit back down.
“Oh, leave them to their champion talk,” Gwen says. “Tell me, has
anyone heard of the others?”
Note: Thank Gwen later.
Adaro and I walk down to the shoreline. This late in June, the
water is still cold. It wraps around our ankles in frothy white
bubbles, washing away the smallest trace of scales on our ankles.
“Is it true?” He squints and blocks the sun from his eyes. I’m
trying to picture him as the sort of guy who’d set fire to Greg’s
home, but I just can’t.
“You have to be a tiny bit more specific.”
“There have been whispers that the silver witch has escaped her
prison.” He leans in closer, voice hushed. “That she’s alive?”
I bend down to scoop up some water and splash it on my face. The
mention of Nieve makes my entire body hot. “Yes, Nieve is out there.”
It’s a physical reaction for him too. He’s shaking out his legs
like he’s cramping up. “My father always said King Karanos should’ve
killed her when he had the chance. Sarabell says this shore was
attacked by full-grown merrows. That’s partly why I came.”
“What’s the other part?”
He looks back to the laughing girls. Gwen is telling some story
and they’re all enraptured by her-the way her face shifts from
emotions, the fluid movements of her delicate hands. Even Layla joins
in. There’s something twitchy and nervous about Adaro. It’s not the
booze and it’s not his fear of Nieve and merrows. He twirls the staff
with expert fingers.
“I think we’re better in numbers,” he says. “We’re competitors,
you and I, not enemies. Elias hasn’t surfaced since you two-and Dylan
is way up north.”
“Brendan is south. Our ships passed each other, but he’s safe.”
“Good, good. My men are on my ship, ready if another such attack
happens.”
“Adaro,” I say slowly, testing the waters of our camaraderie.