What the Tide Brings

Chapter 35 - Amaya - Tumultous

The echo of thunder rocked the small boathouse, vibrating the windows. The storm was close, and getting closer. Arlen had been gone fifteen minutes, now. He'd left the moment Peleg returned to inform him that their reinforcements had arrived. It had taken far less time than Amaya anticipated. She thought she'd have some time to convince Calder that Kaelin was telling the truth. But everything had escalated quickly after their scout, who'd kept clear of island, out in the depths of the ocean, came to inform Arlen that Strom hadn't gone to ground, as they'd thought. The hulking merman had been killed; a fact felt by every Southern Clan member within a hundred miles, and all those within a hundred miles of them. His loss would ripple throughout the oceans, traveling to every mer in their clan.

The young scout, Bruinen, who could not have been more than three hundred years old, had been left behind to watch Amaya, since Arlen didn't trust Calder to be objective anymore. He was tall, more so on the lanky side, with straggly dark hair that hung limply to his chin. His grey eyes had remained fixed on Amaya from the moment Arlen left.

Amaya turned away from him, seeking out her brother. He was standing at the edge of the platform, gazing down at the choppy water, his arms crossed over his chest, his mouth set into a pensive line. "How can you remain so obtuse with all that is happening?" she asked. "Can you not see that Kaelin was right? Or are you just too stubborn to admit you made a mistake?"

Calder turned his pale blue eyes to glare at her. "I am here to do father's bidding, not to follow every one of Kaelin's flights of fancy."

If the chains that bound her didn't prohibit it, Amaya would have crashed a wave against him. "You are a fool, Cal."

He huffed, but one corner of his mouth turned up. "Kaelin said that to me."

"Well, Kaelin was always smarter than the both of us."

Calder surprised her by actually laughing. "She was the bravest of us as well." Calder's eyes grew distant as he got lost in a memory.

Amaya wondered what he was thinking about. After that comment it could be any number of things: the day the three of them accidentally stumbled into the feeding grounds of a group of hammerheads; or the incident with the killer whale; and there was also the time Kaelin fin slapped a leopard seal in the face for chasing Calder, after he'd scared away a penguin the seal was trying to catch. Those were just off the top of her head. Or he could be referring to the many times Kaelin stood up to their father, who hated her frequent walkings. "Why won't you believe her?" Amaya asked.

"If I believe her," His voice had grown soft and his face sad. "If I even entertained the idea that Moab and Arlen had the Thrall and were planning to use it, it would mean a war. One that our people may never recover from."

Bruinen cleared his throat. "I do not think that Arlen would appreciate you speaking about any of this."

Calder dropped his arms to his side and slowly walked over to stand face to face with the skinny, young merman. Calder was not large like most of the Southern Clan mermen, and he was not even as tall as Bruinen, but when he leveled that fierce glare at someone challenging him, they always backed down. He got that from their father. "I do not believe that I asked for your opinion."

"Cal," Amaya said, to get his attention. "Closing your eyes to the truth does not make it any less true."

It took a long moment before he finally turned to look at her. "I know. It was only wishful thinking on my part. And, now, I know what must be done."

Calder's arm shot out to grab Bruinen by the throat. He slowly turned his head to face the young man. "How many soldiers does Arlen have in his company?" Calder slammed the boy against the wall harder. "Where are they going?"

Bruinen defiantly glowered at Calder. "I would not tell you, even under threat of torture. I would never betray my clan."

Calder eyes turned so dark, they'd gone almost black. "I have no intentions of threatening you." His skin went paler as a frosty fog rolled off his hand. Lines of ice stretched across Bruinen's neck, growing and crisscrossing like a lattice of veins on top of his tan skin. Calder lifted him off the ground until his legs were dangling. He was shivering all over, and his teeth chattered so loudly Amaya thought he might break them.

"Tell me!" Calder demanded. Suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped nearly twenty degrees.

"Cal," Amaya shouted. She struggled against her chains, but there was no way out unless she was unbound.

Bruinen's whole body began to convulse. He was going into shock from the cold.

"Calder! Stop! You are killing him." That was something that he couldn't come back from. Killing another mer was immediate death, no matter the circumstances, except in times of war.

But this was not a war. Not yet, at least.

"He cannot answer if he is dead, Calder." Amaya looked around for some way to stop him. Her eyes stopped on the water. She may not be able to use her magic or get out of the chains, but she could still maneuver her chair.

She sighed and hoped this would work. She shimmied the chair toward the edge of the platform. When she got her feet to the edge, she was able to more easily pull herself forward. With one final thrust the chair lunged off the edge. Amaya screamed as she fell into the roiling saltwater below.

She sank to the murky bottom, trying not to let out her breath. In human form, she couldn't stay submerged for long—longer than a human, but not as long as she was used to. She just had to hope that her brother would care more about her wellbeing than getting information out of the obstinate adolescent.

A flash of light in the water caught her eye. Her plan had worked, Calder had come to her rescue. He got to work unwrapping the chains. He was quick about it, but each twist in the overlapping links had to be undone in the order that they'd been set. It was a difficult task, made all the worse by the time constraint of her needing to breathe.

Finally, Calder released the last of the links, setting her free. He swept her up in his arms and carried her up to the surface where she could finally breathe again. She sucked in deep shuddering gulps of air, hugging him tight, to make sure she didn't slip under. Her limbs were weak from being restrained for so many hours.

"Are you alright?" Calder asked.

Amaya nodded. "I will be fine."

A flickering light in the corner of her eye made her turn to see the wall of the boathouse engulfed in flames. One of the oil lamps was shattered on the floor and the fire was quickly consuming the building.

Bruinen rushed forward and leapt off the edge of the platform, arcing through the air above them. He dove into the water and changed back into his true form.

"You have to stop him. Before he warns Arlen."

"No," Calder said. "Arlen is already going after Kaelin. Bruinen is of little consequence now. We need to find our sister."

Amaya smiled, letting the change take her over. She ripped the shorts away with her clawed fingers and tore her shirt off easily. Her skin glowed as her legs fused and her scales grew back. Her nose shrunk and the gills on her neck opened.

When the transformation was complete, she looked at her brother and nodded. "Let us go, then."