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“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 beangry 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.”
