Then Luce looked again and felt a cold flash of certainty. The ship edged by, hideous and monolithic, a floating mountain. Deep below the water its vast net sieved endless volumes of water, catching and entangling hundreds of animals. The net was hungry and undiscriminating, and any mermaid unlucky enough to be snared in it would surely drown.

Unless . . . It was barely possible, but if she swam faster than she ever had before, there might be time. Luce’s tail was already spiraling, whipping her through the gray-green water in a corolla of streaming bubbles, blurring her vision. She was going so fast that she had to slow momentarily to make sure she was heading in the right direction. The smallest mistake would surely result in that strange mermaid’s death.

Luce oriented herself, trying to stay calm. Then she lashed out her tail again, but she didn’t rush toward the ship. Instead she was headed north, and as she swam that distant voice whispered steadily through her mind, begging her to hurry.

Back to her old tribe’s cave.

∗ ∗ ∗

Fifteen minutes later Luce was streaking through the familiar tunnel, her lungs aching for air, dizzy and sore from the violent speed of her swimming. Even deep underwater she could hear a babble of voices; it sounded like the whole tribe was there. All Luce could do was hope that they wouldn’t put up a fight. “I don’t care what we have to do!” The voice was probably Jenna’s. “I don’t care if we swim for hours as long as we finally find a ship somewhere. I can’t stand not having anything to do all the time. If I can’t sing to someone soon, I don’t know, I’m going to go to a human town and get right up near them and get to work—”

“Just because you’re bored doesn’t mean you should act like an idiot,” Dana snapped back. Then Luce’s head broke through the water.

Samantha looked right at her and screamed. Dana stared, her expression both alarmed and hopeful. Mermaids dashed back and forth across the cave, obviously unsure what to do. Luce noticed the confusion of the cave, the piles of ripped clothing, the empty liquor bottles and broken jewelry. There was a complicated stink of stale perfume and spilled beer and mold. Anais’s obsession with collecting human objects had resulted in this awful trash heap crowding the cave. Maybe she could take advantage of the chaos here, Luce thought, and get what she needed before they decided to attack her.

“You get out of here right this second!” Anais was shrieking somewhere behind her. Luce ignored it.

“I need a knife, quick! There has to be one here somewhere . . .” Luce begged. She stared desperately around the piles of debris. Even if they left her alone, there was no time to search. That trawler must be far out to sea by now.