The Blue Divide

Chapter 10

Eko floated in a void filled only by Nerine's mindmusic. It pined for him from somewhere far away, but he couldn't reach it.

As he drifted, he tried to remember what happened. He recalled the humans, the ship, and the terrible storm; the land washing up under him, tearing his skin.

The bond led Nerine to him. Her look of horror when she saw what had become of him would be imprinted on his mind forever. She had gone to find the Nyxus, leaving Eko shivering with pain and cold on the rocky shore while he waited for her father's judgment.

The Nyxus came in the dead of night while the storm still raged. His chin was lifted away from Eko, his mouth twisted. "You are an abomination," he said. "You can never return to Atlys now."

Nerine cried out, but her father held her back.

"Leave him, Nerine," he said. "He will only die. Few merrowmen can survive the

transformation."

"Don't listen to him," said Nerine to Eko's mind alone. "I will not let you die." She broke away from her father and stroked his hair.

"Is there a way to go back?" he asked her. He grabbed her shoulder, not wanting to let her go.

She looked very sad. "I will never stop looking until I find one. I chose you as my husband Ekrios, and I swear to Poseidon I will have you."

He reached for her again, but he was too weak, and her father pulled her away.

The Nyxus leaned so close that Eko could smell his salty breath. He grasped Eko's neck, fingernails digging into the skin. "If you ever cared for my daughter you won't reveal to the humans what you really are. If you so much as mention the name of Atlys, I will kill you, even if it means crawling out of the ocean myself. If the humans found out, they would use you to find our city and destroy it. They would take the Heart of Poseidon, and leave the rest of us to the sharks. Don't harbor the illusion that you can hide either. I can always find one of my own."

Eko gritted his teeth. He would prove his loyalty to Atlys. To Nerine. He was about to say so when darkness started to creep in. "Don't leave me, Nerine!" he had cried, fighting against oblivion. "Please don't leave me." Then there was nothing.

He remembered the sun burning his soft new human skin. It was still burning it somehow but he was no longer lying beneath it. How he longed for the cold dark sea.

Strange illuminator orbs stabbed his eyes whenever he opened them. Sometimes there were people bending over him. They all spoke through their mouths in the strange language of the humans, a language he could only understand by tapping into their minds and seeing the pictures projected there that connected to the words. They wanted to know who he was, how he was feeling; but he didn't answer. They made his skin crawl.

He dreamed of leaping from where he was lying, attached to strange cords and boxes that made unfamiliar noises, but he couldn't move. His body was so heavy; his chest hollow and frail. The Nyxus was right, he thought. I will die. I am ready to die. If only it would happen quickly. Living was becoming unbearable.

Painful coughs ripped his lungs to shreds and tore at his throat until it was raw and enflamed. The humans were doing this. He had survived the transformation, but now they were killing him piece by piece.

Sometimes the girl was there, bending over him. Her mindmusic pulled him into awareness, but it came from her throat. When he looked into her brown eyes, he saw that they were gentle and concerned, but she wasn't to be trusted. None of them were.