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Now it was Merletta’s turn to laugh. She cast her eyes over his figure, her features alight with humor. “You don’t look to me like you have much moisture to you.” She poked him in the ribs. “No, very solid.”
Heath rolled his eyes, although he couldn’t help grinning. “We don’t become liquid. But our bodies need water, for lots of things.” He shrugged. “I honestly have no idea how to explain it. But I think it will make sense if you experience it. Come on.”
He stood, offering her his hand, which she took without hesitation. Once she was on her feet, he started toward the trees, keeping his pace slow so she could match it. He watched her progress critically. She’d clearly been working on the skill. She was steadier on her feet than he’d first supposed, now that she wasn’t reeling in shock from his arrival.
“Where are we going?” Merletta asked curiously, as she navigated around a patch of rock in the sand.
“There’s a fresh stream not far into the jungle,” Heath said. “I’ve drunk from it myself. I’ll show you.”
“I’m not sure about this, Heath,” Merletta said warily, once they were looking down at the trickling water. “Any time I’ve swallowed water while my head was above the surface and my throat was open, it’s been horrible. It stings, and makes me feel like I’m suffocating.”
Heath smiled. “But that was salt water, wasn’t it? From the ocean? Humans can’t drink salt water. It has to be fresh, like this stream. It’s different, you’ll see.”
She still looked skeptical, but she copied him as he knelt beside the stream and showed her how to cup her hands. When Merletta managed to get the fresh water down her throat, her eyes opened in sudden surprise, and she rocked back on her heels.
“That’s so much better,” she breathed. Then, without warning, she pitched forward, sticking her whole torso into the stream and gulping down great mouthfuls of water. When she raised her head, flicking her now sodden braid over her shoulder, Heath was still staring at her.
“What?” she asked.
He choked back a laugh at her bemused expression. “Nothing.” Of course she wouldn’t have any hesitation about submerging any part of her body. Not only was water her natural environment, but she didn’t have elaborate clothes to worry about getting wet.
“I can’t believe all that time, I could’ve just drunk water instead of going back into the ocean,” said Merletta, shaking her head. “It would’ve been much simpler.” She glanced up at the jungle. “Of course, I had to go underwater to find food, anyway. I don’t know the first thing about finding human food for myself.”
“Neither do I, to be honest,” said Heath ruefully, following her gaze. “If I do end up stranded here, I’ll probably be starving within a day.”
Merletta laughed. “I’ll fend for you,” she promised. “I’ll go diving and bring you back some mussels or something.”
“So you’re rethinking your decision to return?” Heath asked suddenly, leaning forward. They were both still on their knees beside the stream. “You’re planning to stay on Vazula?”
Merletta looked surprised by the sudden intensity of his tone. “Of course I’m not rethinking my decision. I’ve come too far to give up on discovering what’s really happening.”
“I don’t like it,” Heath said, unable to stop himself from making one last attempt to dissuade her. “We both know those guards didn’t die from land sickness. You’re gambling your life on the hope that if you don’t openly defy them, the Center won’t see you as enough of a threat. Surely it would be easy for them to make you disappear like the guards did.”
A shudder went over Merletta. “I already told you, Heath. What happened to the guards is the main reason I can’t just swim away now. They died because of me.” Her eyes met his, their expression uncomfortably piercing. “Because of us. Because we met here, and created a link between our separate worlds. A link that someone clearly considers dangerous.”
“Dangerous enough to kill for,” Heath agreed grimly. “Merletta, sharing their fate won’t achieve anything.”
Merletta sighed, her expression pained. “I’m hoping it won’t come to that,” she said. “But I have to go back Heath, you know I do. I can’t just let it go, pretend the lies are true, and the guards died from their own foolishness, or some human attack.” She looked over at him quickly. “I’m not saying I’ll abandon you, of course. If you need food, I’ll gladly find it for you. But surely you aren’t staying here?” She frowned. “You still haven’t explained how you got here, if Reka isn’t with you.”
For a moment, Heath was tempted to tell her that he was staying, and needed her to stick around to fend for him, just to keep her from returning to her tenuous position in the underwater kingdom. But there were a lot of reasons why that was a stupid idea.
“I came on a ship,” he said again. “It’s a large vehicle made of wood, which floats on the water, and it can cover great—”
“I’ve heard of ships,” Merletta cut him off. “We’ve been learning about them in classes. Apparently,” she rolled her eyes, “humans are traditionally jealous of merpeople’s mastery of the deep ocean, so they used to make these ships and ride across the surface of the water in poor imitation of us.”
Heath snorted. “We’re not jealous. Truth be told, most humans are too afraid of the deep ocean to want to venture far from land. And not without reason.”
“To be fair, we’re also taught that humans are afraid of water,” Merletta said matter-of-factly. “Ibsen claims that if humans become fully submerged, they die, just as mermaids supposedly die when fully out of the water.”
She cast a calculating look at Heath, and he laughed.
“You’ve seen me fully submerged lots of times, remember? It’s not like drying out. I don’t grow a tail.”
“Shame,” said Merletta, her lips twitching. “You’d make a great merman.”
Heath shook his head with a smile, unable to picture it. He was fascinated by Merletta’s world—how could he not be? But he couldn’t say he’d ever felt any desire to have his lower body replaced with a scaly fish tail.
“So where is this ship?” Merletta asked, looking out to sea. “Surely you can’t have come all the way from your kingdom in that?” She gestured at the rowboat.
