Chapters (34)
Luce clung to the shore, greenish lights flashing in her eyes as the blood drained from her head. All her joyful fantasies of peace with the humans suddenly weighed on her in a new way, steely and threatening. “They can’t go back!”
“Who else is going to put up with them?” Sedna asked flippantly.
“No—Sedna—no, this is horrible. I know Anais deserves it, but the rest of them . . . Rachel, Kayley . . .”
Sedna stared at her, utterly bewildered. “Um, Luce? Want to make sense?”
“It’s not safe for them to go back there. I think—no, I’m sure—the human police up there know about us—
“The humans what?”
Luce gazed back at her numbly. “They know, Sedna. At least a few of them do. We’re not a total secret anymore.”
“You’d better take that back!” Sedna shrieked. Her tail was writhing in midair, ready to strike, and Luce jerked away from her. “You’d better—You can’t be right!”
“I saw them plant a camera. Divers. They stuck it to a wall underwater, hidden, right next to the beach where we ate,” Luce insisted. “Sedna, don’t bring your mermaids up there!”
“Humans lose cameras all the time!”
“Sedna, please!” Luce yelled. “That camera wasn’t lost. It was planted on purpose. Do you think I’m telling you this so you won’t go punish Anais? After she tried to kill me and my closest friends?”
“You might be,” Sedna murmured, but Luce could tell she didn’t believe it. Her black eyes flicked fearfully around the placid silver waves.
“Maybe I am wrong,” Luce groaned. She tried to feel convinced. “Maybe I’m crazy, and everything is just the same as it’s always been. But Sedna, if I’m right about this . . .”
Luce watched Sedna’s face twisting and suddenly knew that, no matter how much Sedna wanted justice, she wasn’t about to lead her followers into so much potential danger.
“Queen Luce?”
Luce couldn’t answer at first. Instead she watched Sedna fighting to compose herself. Everything was too painful, too out of control. Even if Luce raced desperately to her old tribe and warned them again to get out, they’d be more likely to murder her than to listen to her. But even so . . .“I should hurry back there, Sedna. I should try to do something.”
Before it’s too late, Luce thought. Before something so terrible happens that we can’t ever fix it.
Sedna exhaled, hard, and looked straight into her eyes. “Goodbye, then, Luce. I really hope we’ll see you . . .” She trailed off abruptly.
But Sedna didn’t need to say the last word out loud for Luce to know what it was.
Alive.