Suddenly Dorian was scrambling to his knees, throwing himself behind a snarl of roots and jumbled shards of rock. Luce gaped after him, confused. He wasn’t completely hidden, just huddled back in a gloomy corner, but he was obviously trying to get out of sight as best he could.

“Luce!” Violet screamed behind her, and Luce swung around in shock. Violet’s sleek brown hair was streaming, her gray-green eyes bright and wild with some combination of exhilaration and terror. “Oh, God, Luce, she tried to kill us! I guess she heard the way we were practicing singing and got worried, because she actually pulled the air hose away! But I . . . but we . . . we’d gotten good enough at moving the water, and we managed to sing so that we shoved the bolt up just in time! Dana! Dana, she’s here! I found her!”

Luce was so overwhelmed that she could barely understand what Violet was saying to her, but one thing seemed clear. The she who’d tried to kill Violet could only have been Anais.

And Violet was so beside herself that she hadn’t spotted Dorian yet. But that couldn’t last. “Let’s go talk somewhere else,” Luce hazarded. If she could just coax Violet out of this shallow cave, around the bend of the cliffs, then she could come back for Dorian later.

“We’ve got to get away now, Luce! When Anais finds out we’ve escaped . . . we’re swimming south before they start searching for us, and you have to be our queen now! You can’t say no anymore!” Even in her bewilderment, Luce couldn’t help but notice how different Violet suddenly seemed. The shy, cringing little mermaid who never even made a suggestion was actually ordering Luce around. “And, Luce, I can move the water by singing! Just like you! I’m not as good yet, but I will be! But you’ll always be my queen because I learned it from you!”

Luce had Violet’s hand, and she was gently tugging her farther out. They were just moving beyond the jags that enclosed the cave and into the rough, high waves of the open sea. The darkness was speckled white with fine eddies of snow, and Dorian was behind them. As long as he stayed quiet Luce might be able to stop the other mermaids from discovering him.

Dana’s luminous brown face burst out of the water, blocking their way. Her hair was loose and matted and, Luce saw, she looked utterly drained. However giddy Violet might be, she and Dana had clearly been through a terrible ordeal. Dana glared at Luce as the three of them pitched in the darkness. Through the black glass waves Luce could see that Dana actually had her hands on her hips.