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“I’m so sorry, Merletta.” Sage’s quiet voice caught Merletta’s attention much more completely than the boys’ heated discussion. “About my mother. I…I never dreamed she was spying on you on someone’s orders.”
Merletta laid a hand over her friend’s. “I don’t blame you,” she assured her. “I don’t really even blame her that much. She was following orders from someone she had more reason to trust than she did me.” She grimaced. “I thought her kindness and hospitality were astonishingly generous.”
Sage shuddered. “I haven’t spoken to her since,” she said quietly. “Not even when I passed my test. I didn’t go home for my break. I…” She looked down quickly, her face coloring a little. “I stayed with Emil’s family.”
“Did you, now?” Merletta felt a flicker of glee, but Sage’s next words drowned it out.
“And Andre barely speaks to Indigo now.”
“I never wanted to destroy your relationships with your families,” Merletta protested, distressed.
Sage shook her head. “You’re not the one who destroyed anything,” she said. “Remember, we thought you were most likely dead. It wasn’t easy to forgive their part in that.”
Merletta bit her lip, troubled. She could only hope that her return might create an opportunity for her friends to be reconciled with their families. Probably not if Center guards executed her before the week was out, though.
“I’m telling you,” Emil’s deep, steady voice broke into their conversation. “The last thing they want is for Merletta to die now. They have to find a way to discredit her first, at the very least. Even if she genuinely did die of an accident, that army out there would storm the place.”
“Army?” Merletta repeated, startled. “What are you talking about?”
“He doesn’t mean an actual, trained army,” Andre clarified helpfully. “Just the hundreds of merpeople who are currently besieging the Center.”
“What?!” Merletta dropped her octopus tentacles, which drifted down into the basin before her.
“Yes, the crowd has only grown since you disappeared,” Sage said matter-of-factly. “They think the instructors took you off somewhere to kill you, and they’re ripe for murder. Come to think of it, someone will probably insist you show yourself to the crowd soon, so they know you haven’t been knocked off.”
Merletta just stared at her, still trying to wrap her head around the rapid escalation of…well, everything.
“But maybe you should sleep first,” Andre said, scanning her. “You sort of look like someone’s tried to murder you.”
Merletta gave a hollow laugh. “I feel a bit that way,” she acknowledged.
“You can come and sleep in my room,” Sage said firmly. “I have my own room now that I’m a record holder. We’ll all stand guard outside.”
The others nodded, and Merletta followed Sage blindly from the dining hall. She felt significantly better for the food in her system, but her mind still felt like it was caught in a maelstrom.
They’d barely made it three streets over when Sage came to a sudden stop, hissing.
“Get out of here, Ileana,” she said sharply. “You’re not getting near her.”
“Ileana?” Merletta looked up blearily, her eyes fixing on the other mermaid in bewilderment. “They sent you to kill me? That’s a surprise.”
“I’m not here to kill you,” Ileana snapped. Her tail was swishing back and forth in evident tension, and her jaw worked furiously. “I want in,” she said abruptly.
They all just stared at her.
She let out a grunt of frustration. “I know you all hate me, and I won’t pretend to have any love for any of you.” Her eyes narrowed on Merletta. “But to be perfectly honest, the fact that you’ve survived this long astounds me. I thought for sure you’d be shark bait after the first time you came back here. But that was almost two years ago, and not only are you still alive, but you’ve somehow mobilized an entire city to your defense. You’re obviously the best chance there is of succeeding in what I would have said was an impossible goal.”
Merletta blinked stupidly. “You want protection?”
“No, you blithering—” Ileana stopped herself, drawing in a long pull of water as she gathered her patience.
Merletta could practically see the other mermaid’s mind working, questioning her own sanity in expressing faith in such an imbecile.
“I want to help you bring the Center down,” Ileana said. “I don’t care about whatever your noble reasons are. If I was on the inside,” her voice turned to a growl, “like I should have been, I’d be fighting to protect the Center’s lies. I won’t deny it. But they turned their backs on me, even after I showed my loyalty. I want to see them pay.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Merletta said, still struggling to comprehend what Ileana was offering or asking.
“Just think about it,” the other mermaid snapped. With a swish of green fins, she turned, disappearing into the gloom.
