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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.”
