The Glimmering Sea

CHAPTER THREE

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For years, no one had cared whether Armida floated in the Summit alone or listened to Laurenza working her way through the third volume of The Delivered or the twelfth volume of The Provided, the Marean Books of the Antichi. Armida had believed Laurenza's words offered fundamental certainty about the place of merfolk in the ocean. She'd been a perfect pup, never doubted, never doubting.

Until now.

Armida entered the quiet current beyond the Watcher Station to escape the weight of Marean demands. The water here flowed warmer and duller than usual, like la Laguna. A caution for those who attended.

She searched for the dolphin pod near Marea. Armida had been teased she was part dolphin because she registered their clicks and whistles, discerning their meaning without words when others did not. The dolphins she named Nudger and Warbler had become friends.

As she tracked the seafloor ridges without spotting them, Armida explored further southeast than she had ever been. Further than she was permitted. The coral and sponges were the same as those at home. The croakers, hiding as usual, were loud, but hearing their small pulses against her soundbones reassured her.

Armida paused.

There was a shift in the ocean, a tension. Not the smooth, silky tremor of Nudger sneaking up to scare her with a teasing poke. The water itself seemed agitated.

Tiny darters shot past her.

The sands shifted as eels and flounder and sole sought cover. The spiny weever fish remained still, already hidden except for the beady eyes seeking their dinner.

Then came silence, heavy with a presence.

≈It is me. Armida.≈

Emptiness replied.

In the distance, the water was gray, stirred by the winds perhaps, by a storm maybe.

Armida's scales lost their opalescence. She drifted to the seafloor and curled her tail around a coral arm, careful to avoid injury.

And she waited.

The dimlight of the sun disappeared as a shadowy form drifted above. The languid movement conflicted with the massive presence. Tales from the Antichi recounted the stories of whales, creatures whose size kept them from entering la Laguna from the Adriatico. Armida had only imagined what one was like.

The whale's white fins alone were over twice Armida's size. The pale belly with its grooves contrasted with the gray sides. A plaintive sound pulled at her heart as the whale loomed over her. When he swung his knobby head toward her, Armida froze in fright, unable to decide if he might be a predator.

Eyes filled with suffering met hers. Armida wished for communication. No words, though a subtle probing tingled her mindpath. Awareness of his pain coursed through her.

The whale rolled toward Armida and she held out her hand, hoping the whale knew she presented no threat. A fisher's net had caught on the whale's jaw and fin. Each time the fin flexed, the net dug deeper into the corner of the whale's mouth. Blood seeped into the water.

Armida flashed to the seabed. She had no time to hesitate. Though yet unseen, sludgesharks would be on them soon. Armida had watched a shark attack Warbler and her calf. When the pair tired, the shark separated the calf from the mother. The attack was sudden and brutal. Warbler's frantic whistles and clicks were not enough. Armed with a spear and knife, Armida's father had not arrived in time. Armida had spent weeks grieving with Warbler and her pod.

Here, blind with panic, Armida found nothing to use as a weapon. She darted into a crevasse between rocks burdened with barnacles. Her scales were dull with fear; she blended into her surroundings.

In the distance, black flecks appeared. Though their name came from their habit of sifting the seabed for food, Armida knew sludgesharks would strike a larger, weakened target without hesitation.

She returned to examine the net. The whale's eyes weren't wild with terror as Armida had expected. Instead, they held calmness and acceptance. The probing in her mindpath no longer registered pain. Without words, the whale urged Armida to leave, to save herself.

≈I am Armida and I am not leaving you, brave one.≈

The wordless probing insisted.

The sharks, with their dead eyes, slowed and circled. The first broke away and tacked toward the whale in a jagged line, ever nearer.

Armida's hands went to her face as if to deny the inevitable assault. Her fingers slid down and a clam shell strung on her necklace sliced her thumb. Blood droplets trickled up from the wound. She darted to the whale's side.

She broke the shell from the thread and tore at the netting. One line shredded, then another. Her determined slicing was still not enough to free the net. Afraid to stop to check the sharks' progress, Armida remained focused on her efforts.

The churnwater moved closer and Armida knew the sharks were almost upon them. Their persistent movements hit Armida's soundbones with a terrible drumbeat.

The whale probed with renewed intensity.

Armida was resolute. ≈Not yet. Not when I have but one rope to cut. Whatever happens, we share the same fate.≈

The net dropped away.

The whale swept Armida up with a fin, depositing her on his back. With a haunting whalesong, he shot to the surface with Armida sliding and then clutching his tail. The whale breached and tossed Armida through the air, away from the sharks.

Swimming back to the whale, Armida had time to take in his beauty. ≈Are you lost, my friend?≈

≈I know where I am but also, I am lost.≈

Armida blazed with the shock of the whale's words in her mindpath. She could not fathom that it had opened to another species. ≈You have words! How? And what does your riddle mean?≈

≈Perhaps someday I will explain, but not today. Thank you, Armida. I owe you my life. I am ever in your debt. I shall remember your silver moonlight hair and the radiance of your scales that are blue not quite blue and green not quite green. May your seas never grow warmer.≈ He blinked as he turned his head, allowing his right eye and then the left to meet hers. ≈But hear my name, Céad-rugadh an Liath Crógaa.≈

The accent was unfamiliar to Armida.

≈You may call me Liath.≈

With a slap of his tail, he was gone.