“Well—her.” Jessie gazed around at the tribe for support then pivoted her eyes slowly to fix on Luce. “She’s the problem. Queen Luce. Okay, Sedna, even if . . . Singing or not, she’s still been fraternizing with humans. You know what the timahk says! We can’t just let her get away with that. Not even . . . You know how much I want to get back at Anais, but—

“There’s the timahk, all right,” Sedna pronounced definitely. “But there’s also common sense! God, Jessie, we’re talking about the girl’s dad here.” Luce found herself liking Sedna more by the second. She looked anxiously back at her father, but he was sprawled unconscious with his head crooked awkwardly sideways, the edge of a board digging into his cheek.

“Queen Sedna? Thank you so much . . . for understanding. I need to go make sure he’s okay.” Sedna and Jessie were busy glaring at each other, tails flicking, and Luce skimmed away from them. In a moment her hands were in her father’s hair, gripping his arms, and she was shaking him. At least he was breathing, even if he wheezed like some kind of broken toy. “Please. Dad, please. Don’t you dare . . .” lose your mind, Luce thought, but she was too afraid to say it. “You need to live! You need to be okay, and happy, and . . .” grow up for me. Since I can’t.

A sliver of cinnamon eyes gleamed at her. “Lucette. What kind of world is this?”

Luce beamed in relief. “The same kind it was ten minutes ago. You just fainted.” If only that’s all it is, Luce thought.

“It’s not the same! It’s new, always new. Every second. Like waking up on some kind of hard diamond planet.”

He was delirious, Luce decided. She stroked his matted hair and murmured to him, even as she wondered at what he had said. Always new?

Nausicaa certainly didn’t think so. But even Nausicaa wasn’t right all the time.

“Let’s get you to shore,” Luce whispered. “We’re almost there. You’ll be safe . . .” She forced herself to start swimming. Her tail was a snarl of pain, and her shoulders screamed as the ropes snapped taut again, but they would reach land in only a few minutes.

“Come back and talk to us when you’re done with that, okay?” Sedna called after her.

Luce looked around and smiled, and the glow on Sedna’s face told Luce that Sedna understood how utterly grateful she was. From the limp way Jessie held herself Luce thought she was starting to back down. Sedna would handle the situation fine, Luce felt sure. She was a real queen.