Page 96 of Oceansong
One of the two remaining mermen struck at the dying diver’s Heliox tank with a thick lance, puncturing a hole in it.
Stefan raised his speargun, one that Angie had jammed, and attempted to fire at the merman. His trigger stuck while the merman stabbed the other diver again with the lance before letting them fall, still flailing, to the depths, where they would bleed out. If they didn’t suffocate to death first.
Angie’s head pounded. She knew she should help, but paralysis seized her. Two more divers, likely from the one of the other groups, approached behind them and one fired a spear, ending the merman, and before the last merman struck, he fired a well-aimed shot while the merman rushed for them, trident out.
Another merman came into view, at first a disembodied head and shoulders, before a maroon tail came into view. Stefan raised shaking arms, aiming his speargun at his heart.
If he’d taken one of the jammed spearguns, the merman could kill him. If it wasn’t, he would kill the merman. Angie didn’t know which was the worse option.
The merman stopped in front of Angie, eyes flashing in recognition.
Cyrus. He darted side to side, up and down, preventing Stefan from getting a clean shot, but he did not strike at them.
Angie had to act fast. With stiff, quivering hands, she reached into her pockets and dropped the weights from her buoyancy vest. Used her respirator to inflate the vest by a breath, enough for her to start floating upward, slow and safe.
She held one palm upward and placed her other fist over it with her thumb pointing up. Then she moved both hands upward, signaling an emergency and to end the dive. Stefan nodded and lowered his speargun, lettingCyrus get away. He grabbed her D ring, and she grabbed his, and together, they kicked their way upward.
Stefan removed his rebreather as soon as they were back on the boat. “Are you alright? What happened down there?”
“She good?” The captain eyed her.
“There’s something wrong with my BCD’s valve.” She went still, letting relief sink in that Cyrus escaped.
And yet, she couldn’t stop the guilt that crept into her mind, staring at her feet and focusing on her knees. If she hadn’t compromised the spearguns, perhaps the divers that held them would have had a chance to defend themselves.
Fuck, it was her fault that the divers died because their spearguns were jammed. If only they had stopped to inspect them, like they should have. The extras from Stefan and Ken wouldn’t have been enough on their own to arm all the divers.
“Okay, good. Thought I was going to have to take you to the hospital, and then explain to your dad why I let you get hurt.” Stefan took a seat. “I’ll stay with you until the others get back.” He swallowed hard. “Whoever’s left.”
A pain emerged in the back of Angie’s throat, and she removed her Heliox tank and set it in the corner with Stefan’s. The captain set to work on pushing them against the side of the boat and standing them flush against each other.
Minutes later, three haggard-appearing divers climbed aboard with them. Two dragged a large net onto the deck, and then climbed back down the boat ladder. The next two nets required the strength of all three people to bring it aboard.
In the first net, a mermaid struggled, curled into a ball in the net that was too snug for her. Another net held a merman, his tail the same tangerine shade as the mermaid’s, and Angie’s eyelids grew stiff at the sight. Lifemates.
While Stefan and the three divers talked of the other two they lost, Angie craned her neck to see what was in the third net.
She wished she hadn’t looked.
A maroon tail peeked through the gaps in the second net and Cyrus lay still, his chest rising and falling with each weak breath. Angie stared, one hand covering her mouth as she struggled to hold back dry heaves. Her eyes teared up, and her chest tightened.
The boat lurched forward and took off. Cyrus’ eyes fluttered open and hands slapped on the floor. He made eye contact with Stefan and the twodivers who caught him, and last, with her. His eyes were haunted, lips parted as if he was going to say something, but never did.
Angie couldn’t take her eyes off him, her hands clasped together in praying position, praying to her ancestors, to Buddha, to whatever other deities dwelled around them that he would survive this ordeal.
At the same time, her muscles tightened with dread, and hopelessness immobilized her.
More bodies awaited them when they got back to the coast. Angie wasn’t ready to see the strangled and speared bodies, some left a fair distance from the shoreline, begging the question of how the mer had gotten so far inland. Behind her, the divers dragged the nets to the beach with the mermaid and Cyrus inside.
Stefan walked ahead of her, and Angie’s feet weighed a ton. She dragged behind him. It tormented her, and she replayed the scene over and over in her head. Letting Cyrus escape. Seeing his captured body dragged onto the boat, the fear in his weary, rugged face when their gazes locked.
Now, Nick and his crew would take him and do with him what they would. Would they realize he was a prince? The thought sickened her to her core, and she put her hands on her knees, breaths heavy and labored.
A raucous voice snapped her out of it. “Angie, is that you? Oh, thank God you survived!” Ken staggered toward her, appearing breathless, his bright umber eyes wide with fear. “I heard the screams earlier, came down to investigate. Saw them all, dead or dying.” He screwed his eyes shut and opened them again. “Nick is coming too. He’s bringing some others with him.”
“H-how did they end up so far from the beach? Did the mer come ashore?”
“Yes, but not in the way you think. They climbed the rocks, the pillars under whatever’s left of the gangway. Brought them even closer.” Ken shuddered, wrapping his arms around himself.
