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Merletta glanced behind her, back to the southeast. “We’re a long way from the triple kingdoms,” she said, unable to help herself.
Freja just nodded, her expression solemn. She probably thought Merletta was nervous to be so far from the protection of the barrier. And if Merletta was honest, she was, a little. But she was also thinking of Heath’s kingdom of land-dwellers. They lived to the west. Just how far toward Heath’s home had Merletta come? And what had happened to Heath’s brother? Had he made it in time?
But she couldn’t afford to get distracted. She looked back at Freja, expecting to be told it was time to begin. But the older mermaid hesitated.
“You were supervised during your practice test,” she said quietly. “I think you know that. You fought guards as part of the exercise, and they were never far away.”
Merletta nodded cautiously.
“This isn’t a practice,” Freja went on. “The focus isn’t combat in a controlled environment. It’s survival in the open ocean, and that takes strength of mind as much as strength of body. You’re on your own this time. Be careful.”
Merletta thought she read real concern in the guard’s eyes, and she nodded again. She hadn’t needed the reminder, but she still appreciated it, not least because it encouraged her to hope that she’d been right about Freja in the first place.
Freja gave her a meaningful nod, and Merletta swam forward. A quick glance behind showed her that the older mermaid had turned, and was swimming swiftly back in the direction they’d come.
Merletta swung back around, looking for the beginning of the so-called trail. She hadn’t been surprised by the vagueness of the instructions this time, after her experience in the practice test. But she was nervous about her ability to pick up a trail. The only reliable trail Merletta knew of was to follow blood through water, and she hoped fervently that she wouldn’t be in that situation today. She moved slowly northwest, not wanting to miss whatever subtle sign might be there.
Floating near the ocean floor, the light was dim. It was no barrier for her sharp eyes, and she scanned the sandy bed and clumps of rock carefully. Something caught her eye and, frowning, she dove down to examine it. A large rock protruded from the sand on a slant. It was big enough for her whole body to lie across. Its surface was flat and smooth, except for a series of deep grooves that didn’t look quite natural. It was as though something enormous had slashed its claws repeatedly over the rock’s surface.
The thought sent a shiver down Merletta’s spine, and for a moment she wondered if she should put some distance between herself and the spot. But another look around showed her that it was the only thing in the area that looked remotely like a trail. Squaring her shoulders, she followed the direction of the scores, which were pointing roughly northwest.
Her decision to follow her instinct was rewarded when, a short way along, she came across a similar rock, this one also marked with many scratches. Merletta paused again, peeling off and relocating a sea star so she could examine the grooves. Now she looked more closely, they didn’t look like claw marks. They didn’t have a predictable pattern that suggested a set of claws had made them. It was more like one sharp instrument had scored the rock over and over. She continued in the direction they seemed to point, and found more, this time on a vertical shelf that wasn’t flat at all. She wouldn’t even have noticed the grooves along it if she hadn’t known now what to look for.
As she squinted at them, she realized the lines weren’t identical. Some looked sharp and deep, others more gentle, as though they’d been eroded by the water over time. Merletta thought back over her instructions.
Follow the trail. She seemed to be on the right track for that. But what was next? Leave my mark.
She ran a finger along the grooves on the vertical shelf, and all at once she understood. She pulled her spear off her back and laid its tip in the scratch. Yes, this was surely what had made the indents. And her next instruction now made sense.
With a sense of elation, both at solving the riddle and at joining the tradition of those who had come before, she laid her spear tip against the rock and slashed as hard as she could. It took her a few attempts to make a score deep enough to satisfy her. She drew back, beaming at her work. Her own mark was indistinguishable from the others, of course. But it was satisfying, exhilarating even, to know that not only was she following all the trainees who’d preceded her, but she was doing her part to help guide those who would come after. When Andre took his second year test, he would be following her trail.
Now that she understood, Merletta followed the trail with more confidence. She noted that the number of scratches increased as she went, and she felt smug at the realization that she had figured out what she was supposed to do earlier than many.
The landscape varied as she went, and she noticed she was moving steadily deeper. It wasn’t enough to make her uncomfortable, but she could feel the pressure in her head. The trainees’ trail continued to lead her northwest, weaving through natural coral gardens, among rock sculptures, and over expanses of flat sand. Once, she was forced to swim through a forest of tall, waving seaweed. It was too large to go around, and she couldn’t tell in which direction the trail would come out. She hated the feeling of the weeds brushing against her skin as she swam blindly in the darkness. It reminded her of the soft touch of a jellyfish. The eerie feeling wasn’t helped by the appearance of a territorial eel whose body was longer than hers. At least she’d already found and added her mark to the rock sculpture in the middle of the forest.
The markings told her she needed to turn further westward, so she didn’t resist when the eel chased her out of the weeds in that general direction. She shuddered as she emerged into open water again, relieved the creature showed no sign of following her. So far, the real test had involved significantly fewer dangerous sea creatures than the practice test. She didn’t even feel afraid. Freja’s words, about her being on her own, had made her heart lighter rather than heavier. The Center might talk of the dangerous animals to be found outside the barrier, but as far as Merletta was concerned, merpeople were by far the biggest threat to be found in the ocean.
Merletta kept her eyes open for any sign of her next challenge—retrieve the stolen item—but she didn’t really expect to see anything while the trail was still going. Presumably it led to whatever she was supposed to retrieve.
The ocean floor was slanting ever downward, and Merletta’s head was beginning to ache. She was grateful for all the acclimatization training she’d done, sure she would be struggling without it. Even so, the pressure was starting to wear on her. Taking note of a distinctive patch of luminescent coral that sat next to the latest mark on the trail, she decided to give herself a break. She swam straight upward, breathing more freely as the water became shallower. She kept going, further and further, until she could see the sky above her.
When her head finally broke the surface, she was surprised to see how brightly the sun was shining. She must have been deep for the water to remain so dark, even on such a sunny day. Closing her eyes, she turned her face to the warmth. It was sheer delight, to let the sun kiss her cold skin, to be out in the middle of the ocean, far from the triple kingdoms, far from anything she knew, basking in the fresh air and endless sky.
She felt the ripple of movement in the water, and thrust her head back under, suddenly wary. But she didn’t need to be. A cry of delight broke from her at the sight of a small pod of dolphins coming toward her. Like Merletta, they apparently wanted to enjoy the sunshine. They broke the surface all around her, and she hastened back up to join them.
The dolphins didn’t seem troubled by her presence, some of them buffeting her in a friendly way as she wove in and out between their sleek gray bodies. Copying them, she propelled herself upward with enough force to get her whole body momentarily out of the water. She laughed to herself at the image of changing to human form, then instantly back again when she landed with an enormous splash. But of course, she didn’t really emerge for long enough to change form.
It was bliss, joining the dance of these beautiful creatures, letting her senses drink in the vast expanse of ocean both above and below her. She felt a stab of pity for the poor merpeople back in the triple kingdoms, kept prisoner behind their barrier by the fear they had been taught from infancy.
After a few minutes, she decided—regretfully—that she’d given herself enough of a break. It had been worth five minutes of her allotted time to alleviate the pressure headache, but the middle of her test was no time to get carried away. Before she could act on the thought, however, she felt the shift in the mood of her companions. She didn’t need the dolphins’ response as warning, though. Her instincts alerted her to the danger as surely as theirs did. She dropped further below the water line, pulling her spear from her back and gripping it tightly as she looked around her.
The sight of several large black and white shapes hurtling toward the pod sent Merletta’s heart leaping into her throat. She knew what they were, of course, but she’d never seen one up this close.
She barely had time to hope that the name killer whale was another of the Center’s tactics for promoting fear, when the whales sped at the pod. The nearest one closed in on a dolphin and opened its mouth wide. A single row of smooth white teeth was revealed, looking somehow small in its giant mouth.
The dolphins scattered, Merletta along with them. Undeterred by its failure to catch its initial target, the first whale set its sights on Merletta. Perhaps it was wondering what type of fish she might be. It had probably never seen a merperson before, she realized. An instance of how she’d undervalued the barrier.
But there was no time to think of such things. The whale was fast. Even swimming more quickly than she’d ever done before—her sides aching, and her spear clutched desperately in one hand—Merletta couldn’t outpace it. With little chance of killing the whale, and no interest in trying, she knew her life depended on being quick enough to escape. None of the dolphins were in sight anymore, all having fled, pursued by the other whales. She was alone with the giant predator. She could feel the vibrations of the whale’s movements through the water, and she had almost despaired of escaping when she spied a rocky crag below.
