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“The ocean which you claim is so safe?”
Ibsen’s sneering face appeared alongside the head guard, full of vicious satisfaction. How long he’d waited for this moment!
With an effort, Merletta tuned him out as well.
“Where is she?” she repeated in increasing desperation.
“I already told you,” the guard said coldly.
Merletta met his eyes for a long moment, then turned to her friends.
“If there’s any chance I’m not too late…” she whispered.
“Go.” Andre’s voice was as hard as stone, his back turned pointedly on his cousin. “We’ll delay them in any way we can.”
Sage’s face was devoid of all color, but she nodded her agreement. For a moment Merletta held her friend’s eyes, fully aware this might be the last time she ever saw Sage. But there was no time for sentiment.
Ignoring the guard completely, she plunged forward, working her tail powerfully as she fled across the drop off. There were guards everywhere, and she expected to be seized, but no one laid a hand on her.
“Do not pursue her.” The senior guard’s voice rang out over the crowded drop off. “If you cross out of the safety of the barrier at this hour, your chances of survival are almost nonexistent.”
Merletta didn’t check her pace, even as she suddenly understood why none of the guards were publicly arresting her. She realized that she’d just given them an excellent explanation for her imminent death, one which would cast no blame on them. She had to admit they’d been clever in finding a way to avoid turning her into a martyr. As far as the triple kingdoms were concerned, she’d been publicly accused of a crime which would cast uncertainty on all her previous words, then had fled arrest to perish in the ocean with her accomplice.
There could be no doubt whatsoever that guards would follow at a distance, to finish the job properly once there were no witnesses.
But even knowing all that, Merletta didn’t hesitate as she raced out into Skulssted and turned toward Tilssted. She was playing into their hands and swimming into their trap, but she didn’t see what other choice she had. Not with Tish’s life on the line.
Please, please still be alive, she begged her friend silently.
As she swam through the darkening streets, she cursed her own idiocy. She’d told herself she was ready to face whatever consequences were directed at her, even if they killed her. Emil had tried to warn her that it wouldn’t be anything so blatant, but she’d still failed to grasp the subtlety of the Center’s attacks. She’d been so sure her friends were safe from repercussions due their positions of privilege and influence. She should have realized that her enemies—their hands tied from targeting her openly—would take aim at her only friend who had nothing and no one to protect her.
Merletta could tell she was being followed, no doubt by the anticipated guards, but she was skilled at evasive swimming. By the time she reached Tilssted, she knew she’d put some distance between herself and her pursuers. It made little difference—they knew exactly where she was going—but it might buy her a precious few minutes.
Disregarding polite conventions, she swam straight up the side of the shellsmith tower, sticking her head through the small window on Tish’s floor. A group of apprentices were eating dinner together, and Merletta’s eyes latched eagerly on to the bossy mermaid who’d made her shells.
“Where’s Tish?” she cried.
Everyone jumped, their eyes flying in shock to the window.
“Merletta?” The apprentice looked astonished. Muttering ran throughout the room, indicating to Merletta that they’d all heard the allegations against her.
“Where is she?” Merletta demanded.
“She was taken away by some Center guards only a short while ago,” the girl said. “They accused her of stealing something, and took her away for questioning.”
“Tish has never stolen anything in her life,” Merletta cried, an edge of desperation to her voice. “And they didn’t take her away to question her—they took her away to murder her! They want to be rid of me, so they’ve concocted a bunch of lies to implicate Tish so that I—never mind the details! Where exactly did they go?”
Most of the mermaids around the table were staring at her with mouths open, but Tish’s friend sprang into action.
“I watched them leave through the window. Come on!”
After a minute which felt like an eternity, she emerged at the bottom of the building, swimming straight toward the boundary. Merletta streaked after her, her heart in her throat as she watched the nearest kelp farm appear up ahead.
“They went through right there,” the apprentice said, pointing to a passageway through the undulating fronds of kelp.
“Thank you.” Merletta darted forward, not pausing to look back at her guide, spurred on by fear and the desperate hope that she wasn’t too late.
The guards on her tail would have no trouble tracking her this far, but maybe she could get Tish away somewhere safe first.
