Chapter 8

Eight

"Imber!" The shout echoed through the water.

He was curled up on his small spiral of stones, worn soft and warm by the sea and his scales. He'd been dreaming about her. Alys. Because he was always dreaming about her.

Shaking the trailing fingers of the dream off, he sat up even as his gills flared around his neck and chest. He could smell it. The blood in the water that would soon draw predators to their home.

Blood? Why was there blood here?

Shooting out of his nest, he darted through the currents toward the smell. It didn't matter who was hurt or why they were calling for him, he had to go. His people needed him, and it didn't take even more than a second thought.

The sleep fell away from him and he saw a giant crowd in the center of their home. Men and women, all clustered around one of their own who laid bleeding on the central pattern. Coils of red plumed around the larger male who had been with the hunting party last night. There was a bright red blotch along his tail where something, or someone, had cut into it.

Not teeth. Not a round circular mark, as though he'd been bitten by a shark or any other creature that lived in their homeland. It almost looked raw and ragged around the edges.

He'd never seen a wound like that before.

His sister darted toward him, her tail moving so quickly that her child nearly bounced free from the net. "Brother. You are well?"

"I'm fine." He clasped her arms, forcing her to look at him when she would have rushed off again. "What is going on?"

"They were attacked. You were supposed to be with that hunting party, and when you didn't come back with them, I thought..." Her eyes were wild with panic, and he knew that she'd been afraid he wouldn't return.

"Virago, I wasn't supposed to be with that hunting party. They sent me in the opposite direction yesterday with the others." He squeezed her forearms a little too hard, letting his claws sink into her skin in pinpricks of pain to anchor her. "I came back last night. With the others. We were all fine."

Her gills flattened against her neck and chest. "I... They were attacked, Imber. They were just swimming through the same paths we always do and something came out of nowhere. It... It..."

The male laying on the sands coughed out, "It burned."

"Poison?" he asked, because that was the only thing he could think of that would burn them. Burning was an unnatural sensation underneath the sea. Perhaps they had some kind of poison that hurt like when he had touched a puffer fish once when he was a child.

One of the females lifted a few of the male's scales around the wound and shook her head. "No. Burned." She looked up at the rest of them, her voice haunted. "Like the last homeland we left, where the water boiled from the land trying to take back the sea."

He remembered that, although he had been but a child. Imber remembered the red hot liquid that moved so slowly, but steadily approached them. He remembered the sound of popping water and the boiling that had sent so many creatures dashing toward them. He remembered how hard it had been to breathe.

The male sat up slightly, his breathing labored as he panted out the words. "They are coming here," he said. "They are coming to take our home."

His sister grabbed onto his arm, and Imber thought he felt a little faint.

Who was coming here?

"The achromos," the male said again, before he laid back on the sands, so still they all leaned forward to be sure his gills still fluttered.

Virago tugged at him, even though Imber wanted to check on the male to make sure he was still alive. Their pod was big. He didn't know the man personally but he should at least check. He felt responsible for this. He should have known they were coming. Surely Alys would have told him. He would have known that there was an attack about to happen.

Again, Virago yanked him away from the others. This time, he didn't have any choice but to follow her. He let her tug him away until no one could hear them.

Then she spun around. "You have to ask her to help us."

"I don't know what she can do."

"She's a female! Surely she has enough power that she can tell them to stop, or at least to move, so our hunting grounds aren't compromised!" Virago shook her head. "Beg her, if you have to."

"She's so small." He looked at his hands, as though he held her in them. "You've seen her, Virago."

"Only from a distance."

"She is smaller than any of our kind. I find it hard to believe that she has any power at all." Otherwise, this was partially her fault.

She could have stopped it if she had any power. And she hadn't. Which meant that maybe she didn't see the use in his people, or in him. And that hurt. That thought blistered through his very soul until he couldn't think or breathe through it.

"Brother," Virago said, her voice creased with concern. "We have to do something. We're the only ones who know one of their kind. Surely that means something. The sea would not send her to you without reason."

He nodded, even if his heart felt torn in two. "I will ask."

"Go to her now."

"The others will wonder where I am."

"I will tell them you went to scout out what is happening. That you will return with some kind of information that can help us." Virago tugged him close and pressed their foreheads together. He even felt his niece press her little forehead to his side before he was released. "Find out something we can use, Imber."

And so he fled from his people to the grove where he hoped she would wait for him. He didn't know how long it would take for her to come to him. They didn't usually see each other this time of the day, or even this time of the week. It might take days where he sat on the sands, waiting for her to tell him she had nothing to do with this.

Except, by the time he made it to the grove, there was already a metal shell waiting for him. He had only a few moments to be shocked before the top flew open so quickly the sound echoed around him.

Imber heard the muffled sound of his own name, shouted as she struggled to swim closer to him. He'd thought he would be angry at her. That he'd want to yell and scream, or ask what had she done? What had her people done?

But the moment he saw her, with those billowing skirts like the most delicate jellyfish belled around her, he couldn't be angry. All he wanted to know was that she was safe.

He'd flicked his fluke before he even realized he was moving. Then he was racing toward her, speeding through the water so quickly he swore it didn't even touch him before he had her gathered up in his arms. Her twin tails wrapped around his waist, holding him just as tightly as he held her.

They coiled around each other, tangling as best they could until he couldn't tell where he started and where she began. He held her close, breathing in her familiar scent and the hope that came with it.

"Alys," he breathed into her neck.

"I'm so sorry," she whimpered. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I didn't know what they were going to do, or that they knew about your people. I would have done something, I promise."

"You know now?"

"I know everything." Her entire body quaked in his arms, wracked with emotions as she struggled to speak through them. "I confronted my father. He's the main designers, and I'm sure that means nothing to you at all. I didn't know where they were going to build the city or that they knew you existed. All I heard at first was that they were going through with the design no matter who it affected, but I didn't ever think it would come to this."

He tugged her away from him, confused at what she was saying. And also because he wanted to look at her. He wanted to see the tears in her eyes and know without a doubt that she was as plagued by this as he was. "Alys. You have to tell me everything."

So she did.

Without hesitation.

He watched her purge the words with growing horror and a realization that nothing he or she did could stop what was going to happen. Women had no power in her world, at least not like in his. She couldn't tell them to stop building their new home, just like he couldn't tell his people to move. She would do whatever she could do, but that was so very little.

Her people were going to destroy his. They were going to take over ancient lands that had been in his family for generations. They would start a war with his people that wouldn't stop for generations to come, if it ever did.

A sudden premonition hit him like he'd been swallowed by a whale. They wouldn't stop fighting until one side was dead. Undines or humans, as she called herself. One of them had to die for the other to live.

He gathered her up again, tucking her head underneath his chin and holding onto her for all that he could.

This wasn't right. They were going to be fine. He would figure it out, or they would figure it out together.

"I'm so sorry," she said at the end of her story, still breathing hard. It was difficult to hear her through the mask she wore over her mouth. He wished he could take it off. He wished she could live under the water with him, just as he always wanted her to do.

"It's not your fault," he said, rubbing his hand up and down her back. "Although, I'll admit, I was hopeful you would be able to stop this."

"I don't know what to do." She leaned back, a strange grating noise coming out of her before he realized it was the sound of her sniffing. It had changed with her tears. "I just know that my father is part of it, and so it feels like I've been part of it as well."

"You couldn't have known."

"I should have done something earlier. Told you earlier." She shook her head, then pulled the mouthpiece off. He tried to ignore the mucus that she wiped away and then gently took out of the mouth piece before placing it back on. "My father said to apologize for him, and that he can't stop what's coming. Then he said to tell you that you should run."

"I don't know what this means."

"Leave. You should leave before they hunt you down." Big, sad eyes stared up at him, and he wanted to fight the world for her. "I think he might be right, Imber. I don't think there's a way for you to fight back against my people. I think you might all die if you tried."

"Your people would really kill us?"

She nodded miserably. "The General is an evil man. He sees nothing other than a land to conquer, and even if he could recognize that your people have been here long before we wanted to take your home, he wouldn't care. He sees it as a challenge."

"Part of me wants to say we will rise to that challenge." Imber raked his claws through her hair, gently tugging on a snarl that had already formed. "My people are fighters. I am gentle with you, Alys, but I am not always so gentle."

"I figured." Though she smiled and still traced his shoulders with her fingertips, he could sense that she hesitated. "I have studied the ocean my entire life. I know evolution and the changes of species through the centuries. I know the science. Nothing is born with so many weapons on their body, without being able to use them or having a good reason to use them. You are built like a predator, Imber. Don't think I ever forget that."

He took her hand in his and slid it down his arm. He used his own hand to force her to linger on the sharp points down the backs of his arms, then drew her closer to make her feel the spines down his back. Baring his teeth, he took her hand and touched her thumb to the sharp points of his teeth.

Throughout it all, she held her breath. Barely breathing at all as she allowed him to make her touch every single dangerous part of him.

And when he was done, when he was certain she had been frightened enough, he leaned down to press his lips against the very sensitive side of her neck. "I am a predator, Alys, but I am yours. In this time, in the next, in all the lives to come. I am yours. You never have any reason to fear me."

Her arms came down around him, her single heart thundering against both of his, and he knew in that moment that she understood what he was saying. She was safe.

He would keep her safe.

"What are we going to do?" she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "We cannot stop them from building Alpha. I can't go back and tell my father that he needs to change something because he's not going to change. Our hands are tied. I cannot live with myself knowing that my people were the ones who cause yours so much pain. You don't deserve this. They don't deserve this."

"We will figure something out."

"It's your home, Imber." Her voice broke around the sadness and mourning that radiated throughout her entire body.

He could taste it in the water. Faint, because he realized her sadness tasted like the sea. Saltwater and a heavy brine that settled on his gills and dried into fractured pieces that dug into the sensitive membranes like sharp little claws.

Perhaps, even though he had always thought her weak, his Alys was stronger than he thought.

He drew back, pulling off her goggles so he could wipe away the tears. Usually she left these on in the water, saying her eyes needed the air. But when he went to put them back on her, she shook her head.

Alys let the goggles drop onto the sea floor. She took a deep breath, staring at him, and something settled between them. Some understanding that both of them had been fighting against, but they finally knew had to happen.

"Imber," she said, her voice strong and determined. "I want to help you. I want to help your people."

He nodded. Because, of course, this was the only way. "Don't go home this time," he said. "Stay with me."