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I find the group waiting for me on the beach. As I approach, Mizu takes the bag from me and shoves some more clothes into it before strapping it onto his own back.
“You know where we’re heading?” I ask.
Kristle nods, already moving toward the deeper water. Tensions are high, and no one speaks as we swim.
Hours later, we arrive at the spot the locator spell indicated to find it empty.
“All right. Fan out,” I command. “Each person swims ten minutes in that direction and comes back if they don’t find the boat. If you don’t come back, we will assume you found it and will follow you.”
It doesn’t take long for us to spread out enough that we are all swimming in opposite directions. I wait a few extra minutes, but everyone except Summer returns.
“It looks like we are going this way,” I tell everyone, swimming in the direction Summer went, hoping and praying that she didn’t just get sidetracked. I don’t know her or the other Seasons, but I needed people to help and wanted to bring some people Narissa’s pod would recognize.
I see glittering through the water to the right and make a sharp turn, gliding through the water toward it. I slow down as I approach the forms coming into focus before us, but Kristle speeds by me, wrapping her arms around a man with pale blue hair.
By the way Mizu is hanging back, completely unconcerned about his mate in the arms of another man, I’m going to assume that is her father.
When Spring and Autumn rush toward the other men, it’s confirmed.
“You should not have come,” Kristle’s father tells her.
“We have help now,” she responds. He turns, finally seeing the three of us watching their interaction. He completely dismisses me, turning instead to his daughter for direction.
“What’s the plan?”
Instead of answering, Kristle turns to me, dipping her head in submission. It’s clear this move shocks her father as much as it shocks me.
I follow her lead and swim closer.
“I need to know the details of what’s going on.”
“And you are?” he sneers.
“Pearl. I am the pod mother of your daughter’s mate,” I snap back.
“Mate?” he asks, and Kristle leaves his side, swimming closer to me and tucking herself into Mizu’s side.
“This is Mizu,” she says, beaming as she looks up at him. “I met my mate.”
“Well, then. I’m Taron.” His aggressive tone disappears. Instead, there is something akin to pride in his voice as he dips his chin in my direction. “Above, there is a massive wooden boat containing at least one hundred well-armed humans. They are holding my nephew Sky hostage.”
I glance up at the silhouette of a massive boat.
“Where do they dock?”
He shakes his head.
“They’ve docked a few times, but never at the same place twice. By some stroke of luck, the goddess has allowed them to be at sea for the past month straight.”
“She has let them sail here that long? Have they been fishing? Diving?”
Taron shakes his head.
“How do they get food?”
“Smaller supply ships come and drop off supplies once a week.” Another man with pale green hair adds this piece of information.
We spend the next week watching, waiting, and gathering as much information as we can. Just like Taron said, there is an army of well-armed soldiers on the boat. They wear uniforms, but they look more like mercenaries than military.
