FLOOD

Underwater Chase

“Thank you.”  Carefully, I wrapped my hands around Rykin’s fin, the way that the king had showed us. “I’ll see you again,” I said firmly, and surprised myself by really meaning that too. If I survived, I would come back to see him. There was no way I would stay, but if I managed to warn my people and prevent more tragedy, I would owe it mostly to King Aegir. A simple visit wasn’t too much to ask.

            Before I could say anything else, I felt the dolphin lurch forward under my hands. At first it was difficult to hold on, and I slid around a bit, feeling the water rush past my face, feeling my hands slip on the rubbery fin. Hurriedly, I adjusted my grip to get a firmer hold. From beside me I heard a muffled grunt, and glanced over to see Eli clinging to his dolphin for dear life. It was a strange way to travel, clinging to the dolphins, legs trailing out behind us in the water, we looked ridiculous. But it was fast.

            Both dolphins were swimming up, and when I worked up the nerve to glance behind me, I saw the shipwreck castle was already growing smaller and smaller, the lights a dull gleam around it. After a few minutes the entire town faded away into the darkness of the bottom, swallowed up by the depths.

            Or rather, we were swimming for the surface.

            My heart felt lighter at the thought. We would be back on land soon. I longed to feel solid ground under my feet, to walk instead of being towed anywhere. To feel fresh air on my skin. Perhaps I had control over water, perhaps the king was even right in that it called to me, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be totally immersed in it all the time. Jotun weren’t supposed to live that way, and certainly humans weren’t made for it either.

            Speaking of humans…

            Eli was staring straight up, his eyes fixed on the water far above us. He was staring at the surface and he hadn’t once looked back at the shipwreck town as it had shrank away nothing. Something told me that he was even more eager to get out than I was. Probably he’d been concerned about being a mermaid snack this entire time. My stomach twisted with a pang of guilt. I’d mostly ignored him since we arrived here. Of course, it was hard to talk to him when he had that mask on, but still, I’d been concentrating so hard on getting the king to help us that I hadn’t really checked to make sure he was okay.

            It was because I was staring at Eli that I saw it, a flicker of shadow in the depths below him, movement. Something was rising up out of the depths.

            I tightened my grip on Rykin’s fin. It could be that King Aegir had forgotten something, and he was sending someone up after us, but somehow I didn’t think that was the case.

            The shadows turned into figures, two figures, swimming fast up out of the deep water, one just behind the other. Voices reached my ears, well…my mind really. Mermaids.

            “Get back here, fool! Do you know what the king will do if he find you—”

            “Are you my keeper, sister? Swim back down and leave me be.”

            I recognized the first voice. Cassa, the copper-haired mermaid who had towed me down when we’d first arrived. And obviously she was with her sister.

            There was a small, cold knot forming in my chest. This wasn’t good, every instinct was screaming at me to run or fight. They were coming to do something…or at least, Cassa’s sister was. What was her name? Tilla, her sister had said.

            “Eli,” I hissed, hoping my voice was loud enough. “I think we have company.”

            He tore his gaze away from the surface of the water long enough to stare down at the water below him, and when Eli caught sight of the twin shadows he went pale.