Page 58 of Whispers of the Starlit Sea
They all glared at him, not sure about trusting a human.
“I promise. He won’t hurt you.” She turned to Arick, and he nodded before heading to the tunnel.
“That’s all well and good, but how are we going to get out of here?”
“The tunnels are flooded, thanks to the full moon tide.” A few of them grumbled, but she ignored them. “You just need to climb out of the lagoon and make it through the gate.” She pointed to where Arick fought with a heavy iron gate that barred the entrance to the tunnel. It had stood open when she had been here the first time, and she hadn’t noticed it as she fled. Thomas had warned them of it and told Arick where the key was kept.
“It’s too far,” a mer — she recognized her as a Harvester, one of the mers responsible for gathering food beyond the grotto — protested.
“Come on, Sìne,” a Watcher challenged. “Surely you can make it that far.”
“I can — but Rian can’t.”
“We’ll all help each other,” Sorcha declared. “And once you’re back in the ocean, Maeve can heal you.”
“Can’t you heal us now?” the Watcher demanded.
She shook her head. “I can’t sing properly out of the water. But you must hurry.”
A clanging came from the gate. Arick waved, a rock in his hand, showing the gate stood open. She gave him a relieved smile.
“Quickly! Help each other.” The Watcher took charge, and soon mer were hauling themselves out of the lagoon and pulling themselves across the rocky ground to the flooded tunnel.
Sorcha turned her focus to the Harvester. “Who needs extra help?”
“Rian, but there are three who are chained up.” She hesitated. “I don’t know if Ewan will make it.”
“Ewan?” Her stomach twisted at his name. She raked her eyes across the dark water until a gleam of white at the edge of the lagoon caught her gaze. A sob rose in her throat, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to stop it.
The pale, sickly mer was so changed she hadn’t recognized him. Once again chained so far out of the water that he couldn’t submerge, her sister’s fiancé lay gasping for air against the slimy rocks.
“Arick!” She turned to him with a cry. He looked up immediately. She held up three fingers, then grasped each of her wrists in turn. He nodded and hurried over to the workspace where the humans had set up.
“Can you get Rian to safety?” she asked Sìne, the Harvester.
The mermaid hesitated, her gaze suspicious as she watched Arick. “I can.”
“Ciara is my sister,” Sorcha told her. “I will do everything I can to get Ewan back to her.”
“Sorcha? They said you’d died in the storm.”
A shiver rippled through her. Had her family given up on her?
“Surprise?” She didn’t know what else to say. Had her family so easily discarded her? Or was the lie about her spread to protect the merfolk? “We mustn’t waste any more time. You need to get going.”
Sìne looked among the waiting mer, then grasped the arm of an older merman who bobbed near the edge, pulling him to where Sorcha waited.
“Go on, dear,” he said. “I don’t mind waiting.”
“No need to wait.” Sorcha forced cheer into her voice. She understood why Sìne was concerned. She wished Arick were here to carry him, but the sailor was busy unchaining the first of the mer on the other side of the lagoon. With a deep breath, she leaned down. “Come on, it’s not far.”
With some effort, the two mer were out of the water. Sìne joined the squirming line headed for the gate. Sorcha lifted the merman under his arms and dragged him as best she could. “I’m sorry, sir. This is the only way.”
He grunted, doing his best to help.
The rocks were slick from the water the mer left behind, and she was just far enough from Arick that the magic made taking a deep breath difficult. Daggers pierced her feet with every step, but she didn’t let on. It was nothing compared to being imprisoned here.
Over the splashing and calls from the mer as they made their way through the gate, the lilting dirge rose again, taken up by those already in the tunnel. She shuddered. Why would they choose that song to sing on their way to freedom?
