Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

LXVIII: Something Diplomatic

If someone told Mara she'd be squeezed in a sofa between Tai and Mimi in her granny's living room discussing a new peace treaty with one of the most dangerous beyond-fleshers in South America—and if they told her she herself would be the most dangerous person in the room—she would laugh her way to the psychiatric ward of a hospital, leave the person there, and never come back.

But she was, and a crowd of at least a hundred people gathered around them, perched on chairs, sitting on the floor, or watching from the kitchen, the corridor to the bedrooms, the open entrance door, the large open window....

"Could you pass me the milk, please?" Iara said.

Bernardo took the delicate milk jug on the coffee table and handed it to her with a tight smile. Iara's large claws, the ones she refused to retract, clinked on the porcelain. The momentary silence was broken only by the tick-tocking of a small clock on the wall, hung between two wooden engravings of large birds.

"So you're saying we have only two days to prepare our defenses?" Uah asked. While Iara had been enjoying her tea and the cachaça biscuits Granny offered, Uah and Teresa asked questions and offered suggestions about their plans. There was still one thing to be decided, though—would the freshwater mermaids help or not? Uah looked at Mara and asked, "And you're sure they have our father?"

Mara glanced at Bernardo. He nodded. Mara took a deep breath and licked her lips, considering her words.

"Well. I'm sure Jano's Sentinels took him from the undercroft," she said. "I'm sure I met him, and I'm sure he introduced himself as Çaíra-Uçu of the First Atoll. But I didn't see him with my own eyes after that."

"I did," Bernardo said. There was a small crease on his forehead—a silent question about Mara's distrust.

She ignored it. "But he's in danger no matter where he is—and so is my sister and all the other beyond-fleshers. All of them, not only the ones he plans to murder to defeat the mermaids."

Teresa's eyebrows were high on her forehead. "Well, I don't know about you two"—she looked at her siblings—"but there's no doubt to me that Mara talked with Father. He never ever gave his name to a non-mermaid before." She leaned closer to Iara and whispered, "He must've wanted us to trust her."

Uah hushed his sister and looked expectantly at Iara. She was the eldest after all. And the acting Queen.

There was silence in the living room for a heartbeat. Sentinels, mermaids, and other beyond-fleshers stood side by side, watching in silence. Taller and stronger, the freshwater mermaids stood together on the opposite side of the room, standing behind the sofa where the Royal siblings were sitting. The one thing that connected them all was a sort of quiet, warm electricity that only breathed into existence in moments like these.

Here, in the middle of nowhere, on the fringes of one of the smallest cities in Brazil, history was being made—and whatever path these leaders took, that choice would echo into eternity, changing the shape of whatever happened after that.

Iara leaned forward to place her empty cup of tea on the coffee table. The mug clinked against its saucer, but no other sound echoed from that action. Iara licked the remaining mate tea coating her lips and sighed. Tension built on Mara's shoulders, released in the form of a gentle squeeze when both Mimi and Tai held her hands.

"I heard enough," Iara said. She raised her chin and studied the faces around her. She must've seen something in the people gathering in the living room, for her lips curled into a smile. "The freshwater mermaids accept this temporary alliance." Iara glanced at Mara, a silent question in her eyes.