“We need to get down there,” Zani said, already searching for a way to descend. She opened the door to the balcony that the youthful version of Burnside had used and ran outside. Will followed.
“Here!” he shouted, pointing to a box that contained a rolled-up rope ladder. He threw the bundle over the side and the swinging ladder unfurled, tumbling down toward the rock below. “The stone?” he asked Zani.
She patted her bag. “I have it right here.”
They descended quickly; the ladder swayed in the sea breeze. Above them, the dirigible maintained its position, steadfastly anchored to the spot as if by an invisible line.
On the surface of the rock, the smell was horrible. It smelled like brimstone. Will coughed. Zani pulled her shirt up over her nose. They broke in a run toward Cosimo.
The mermaid was already by his side, the scales of her tail catching the light in prismatic bursts. Her face was a mask of grief and anger as she bent to cradle Cosimo’s head.
“You’ve come too late,” she accused. Her voice was as harsh as hard-breaking waves. Zani flinched. “He’s already been in the sun too long.”
Zani approached the Mer woman cautiously. “It isn’t too late. We have the stone.”
Cosimo’s eyes fluttered open for an instant when Zani spoke. The skin on his lips was blistered and cracking. It hurt her heart to see him like this. “Destroy it,” he croaked. “It’s the only way.”
Ondalune shook her head, tears falling onto Cosimo’s burned face. “No, my love. There is another way.” She looked up at Zani. “Hurry. Give me the stone now, please.”
The moon continued its crawl across the surface of the sun, the light growing stranger by the second. Squawking gulls fell silent. As if holding its breath, the sea grew calm and still.
Zani reached into her satchel and withdrew the bloodstone. As she pulled it out, the stone pulsed and flashed with an inner fire. Cosimo reached out a trembling hand, clawing at the air. For one terrifying moment, Zani feared he would snatch the stone from her and find a way to destroy it.
She stepped past him and placed the stone in Ondalune’s outstretched palm.
“Thank you,” the mermaid princess whispered. She pressed the stone briefly to her heart. “I remember you,” she said, then slipped back into the water.
“No!” Cosimo howled, trying to rise. “Don’t let her go! Ondalune!”
Much to Zani’s surprise, it was Will who dropped to his knees beside Cosimo. Gently, he kneeled next to the vampire, cradling his burnt body and helping him to sit upright on the edge of the rock where he could see into the water.
“We are all connected, brother,” Will said. “You need to trust her.” He shot a meaningful look at Zani. “Trust us.”
As the eclipse neared totality, colors became muted and surfaces more reflective. Everything took on the chiaroscuro qualities of a film noir movie. The world was suddenly sharply divided into its elemental qualities of light and dark.
Meters beneath the surface, the bloodstone clenched in Ondalune’s palm pulsed slowly and visibly. The sparks of red light shooting out of it were the only color in the tableau.
Finally, Ondalune surfaced again, shooting out of the water and pulling herself up onto the rock beside the burnt vampire. “Cosimo,” she commanded, “give me your hand now.”
He reached out, and she pressed the glowing amulet into his palm, closing his fingers around it. The red light leaked out between his fingers, thickening and coagulating until it became a liquid. It seeped between his fingers and dripped onto the rock in macabre rosettes. Everywhere the drops of blood landed, colorful sea anemones grew. They formed a carpet all along the water’s edge.
Cosimo shook with the effort of holding the stone aloft. Tears poured out from his eyes. Whether they came from joy or pain, Zani could not say. Possibly both.
Ondalune tore the stone free from its centuries-old setting and flung the chain back out to sea.
As the last drops of Cosimo’s blood dripped out of the stone, the last sliver of sun vanished behind the moon. Totality had begun. Ondalune slipped back into the water, pulling Cosimo with her. Zani could see their hands intertwined, both wrapped around the stone that was now glowing a brilliant blue. Ondalune embraced him tenderly and splashed water over his burns as she spoke words that sounded very much like a terrestrial witch’s spell to Zani.
Not fully of the land, nor fully of the sea
Tides of life that flow through me
Heal these wounds of fire and grief
Bind us now, by love’s eternal reef
Then, as the diamond ring of the returning sun flashed at the edge of the moon, she kissed him. The stone’s bright light enveloped them both. When she pulled away, Cosimo’s wounds were healed. She blew a cooling breeze across his body.
“You healed me once, Cosimo. Now it is my time to return the favor.”
