Fathoms Below

Chapter 6: The UnKept Secret

 "Excuse me?" Adelaide folded her arms, unable to comprehend Seymour's words. "What do you mean we don't take him? That's the whole point. That's why I just took on a guard!"

"Adelaide, you have to trust me on this."

"No! No I don't have to trust you. All you've ever done is keep secrets from me. What's to trust? My whole life is a lie."

Seymour shot up to his feet. "Everything I've done has been to protect you."

"I don't feel very safe," Adelaide shot back.

A tense silence followed, and Seymour's shoulders slackened. "Pheron – his people – they're dangerous."

"No more dangerous than the UnKept."

Seymour bent back down, using the ropes to bind Ro. "In some ways yes, and in others no." He said nothing as he finished his work, resting on one knee, his elbow propped on his leg. "Do you know why I went to the water?"

"Obviously not." Adelaide stared at her feet, refusing to look at him, sensing his gaze on her.

"I wanted to know how to help you." At Adelaide's scoff he continued. "Seriously, Ads. I knew how devastated you were when you saw what happened to the lake. You've been having nightmares – I've seen you thrashing about in your sleep. I wanted to know how to make it go away."

Adelaide clenched her jaw, glaring at her mangled boots, wondering what it'd be like to have a single fin. "What'd you get out of it?"

"What?"

"What'd you get out of it? This deal with Pheron? You said you'd held up your end, and he needed to hold up his." She looked him straight in the eye, seeing the fear there. "Tell me." Deep down, part of her knew. Seymour dropped his gaze.

"My freedom."

"Freedom from what?" she snapped. She took his silence to only mean one thing. From me. Adelaide sucked in a breath, tears stinging her eyes. She wouldn't give him the pleasure of seeing her cry. "You go to sleep. I'll keep first watch."

Seymour eyed her warily. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"I'm not just going to walk off with him," she said, throwing her arms up. "It's not like I'm strong enough to carry him. Not poor, defenseless, useless, life-wasting Adelaide." Seymour opened his mouth but she held up a hand. "Don't. I don't want to hear it."

For once he listened, lying down to get some sleep.

#

The sun was halfway barely in the sky when Ro came to, groaning as he brought his bound hands to his face.

"What-what happened?"

"I overpowered you with my wit and now you're my prisoner," Adelaide said in a dry tone, staring at the wall of the lean-to they were using as a shelter.

Ro wiggled, attempting to break free from his bindings. Finding Seymour's work too secure, he glared up at her. "Why are you doing this to me? What do you gain?"

"I gain the knowledge of who and what I am."

"You want me to talk?" Ro seemed genuinely surprised. "Fine. What do you want to know – if you'll let me go we can go back to the compound and –"

"Ah, ah, ah. There's no way I'm going back there." Adelaide chucked a small rock at him, hitting him in the arm. "Just so I can be on the menu."

"Menu?" Ro reared back in disgust. "I'd never eat you."

"You eat everyone else."

"People, yes. We don't have a choice. We have to survive."

"You are people, in case you hadn't noticed," Adelaide said, bile rising in her throat. "I don't want to talk about it. You'll make me sick."

Ro frowned up at her. "I'm not people. I'm a merman."

Adelaide swiveled around to face him, mouth dropping open. "What?"

Eyebrows arching, Ro nodded. "I thought – I assumed that's why you came back."

"I came back just to get you, so you'd talk to Pheron. You weren't reasonable so we took you out by force." She gestured to Seymour and Ro twisted on his back to look over.

"Oh him. Yeah I remember him. Now see, I'd eat him – I'm surprised you haven't."

Adelaide recoiled, her stomach churning. "I'd never—that's disgusting!"

"You really don't know what you are?" Ro asked, staring up at her.

"I—I can't remember anything before the last six years."

"What do you eat, then, if not meat?" Ro attempted to wriggle into a sitting position, failed, and lay back in defeat. "Oh right—I bet you eat plants."

"Of course I do."

"Just like them." At her look of surprise, Ro rolled his eyes. "You really know nothing? They're herbivores—the saltwater Mer. We're carnivores. Freshwater Mer. When the livestock vanished, we didn't have a choice but to find a new food source. Humans are the only land meat left."

Adelaide gagged, shivering. "You could have eaten fish."

"We did, until we ran out. You've seen the lake." Ro's countenance grew despondent. "You've seen what they've left us with."

"They? They who?"

"Saltwaters." Ro sighed. "My people saw the writing on the wall, you know, long before that war – the last human war. The freshwater lakes were drying up, and we were running out of space. My ancestors moved to the shores, adapting to the saltwater, changing to find a new way of life."

"What happened?" Adelaide shifted to Ro's side, helping him up into a sitting position.

"The saltwaters. Nearly a century ago our people lived side by side in a very strained peace. We didn't compete for food—we ate fish, they ate the vegetation. Something happened. Our people turned on each other, starting a war." He paused, thinking. "It was after the great earthquake, and the sinking land."

"Why are your people now on land?"

"Some of my kind never left Tahoe. They remained, refusing to change their ways. When the war between us grew ugly, my ancestors fled the saltwater, returning to Tahoe and living off the land."

"You don't know what started the war?"

"The struggle for power? Dominance? Isn't that always the case?" Ro shrugged. "Either way, we've been using Tahoe as our only water source for a century. It was only a matter of time before we used it up, too."

"Maybe you could return to the ocean," Adelaide said.

Ro snorted. "Their kind are demons. They'd never—"

"Before today I thought you were a demon," she retorted, crossing her arms. "I meant what I said. Pheron wants to speak with you. He said he could end his war and mine by doing so. I think he wants to offer peace. You can all return to the water and humans can have safety here on land."

Ro squinted up at her, considering her. "You believe this."

"I do."

"Do you know what you are?"

"I'm a mermaid." It felt silly to say it—almost foolish—but Adelaide could still see her scales in her mind's eye.

Ro shook his head. "That isn't what I meant. You do know why Pheron would deign to speak to you?" Adelaide shook her head. "It's because you're one of him."

"You're speaking to me," she countered.

"You're also one of me."

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