Undertow (31 page)

“Because they are untouchables?”

“No, because they are mass murderers,” he says. “They are the great terror that destroyed the empire. I'll tell you more when there aren't so many ears.”

The prime descends the steps to wild applause. He charges into the circle, and the Alpha, including Terrance, pound their chests three times, raise their fists into the air, and let out a bark. A moment later Fathom enters, and the crowd salutes again. His face is bloody and recently wounded. I wonder if he got that fighting off a challenge or if that's a gift from his dear old dad for falling in love with a bottom feeder. It hurts to see him again. Why didn't he come to me? I deserve a chance to explain why I lied to him.

“Bow your heads,” Terrance whispers.

Bex and I do as we are told, and the high minister speaks.

“The warriors of the ten clans gather today to judge the life of one of our own. I apologize for speaking to you in the human language, but the accuser's family does not know our glorious dialect, so today's proceedings will be spoken for their ears, as is their right.”

The crowd boos.

The old woman is not intimidated by their anger. “At this time, as the high minister, it is my right and duty to demand praise and respect for the Great Abyss, the giver and taker of all life, the beginning and the end of the sea, and mouth that feeds the world. Show your gratitude for its many blessings.”

Everyone thumps their chest again, raises their hands, and barks. The noise rises into the sky, terrorizing a small flock of seagulls.

“I call on each of you to witness the defense of one accused of a most heinous offense to the First Men. Bring her forth,” she shouts.

Terrance turns to me. “Don't sit quietly and watch. Fight, shout, do your best to prove your mother's points. This isn't like an American court of law. Boldness is respected by these people, so storm right into that circle and get in their faces. The more of a spectacle you make, the better your mother's chances.”

“We need a little of the wild thing,” Bex says, taking my hand and squeezing.

“I also have a message for you from Arcade. She says to be prepared.”

“For what? Is she going to kill me?” I cry.

“You'll see.”

A short, stocky Sirena with long brown hair enters the circle to rousing cheers. His neck and hands are alight with blue and gray scales. He wears a robe made of bleached white shells.

“That's the high accuser. He's making the case against your mother,” Terrance explains. “I have to go.”

“You can't leave us here,” I cry.

“I have to, Lyric. Do what I told you. I pray the tide turns in your favor.”

He spins around and disappears into the throng.

“Where are you going?” I shout, but he doesn't come back.

“Lyric! There she is!” Bex cries.

I turn and see my mother being dragged into the circle by two Selkie guards. They toss her to the ground like she's garbage and then spit on her. They've dressed her in her own suit of armor and she looks exhausted, but she gets to her feet and stands tall. Bex and I rush to her side, and she wraps herself around me, kissing us both.

“Have you heard anything about your father?” she asks.

“They arrested him,” I explain. “They've taken him to the camp.”

“You'll have to find him, Lyric. You can't let them hurt him.”

“
We'll
find him, Mom,” I correct her.

“Be brave,” she pleads with me. “Alpha children shed no tears. If you are weak, it will be used against me. They'll say I am soft and human.”

The high minister calls for the crowd's attention. “It is my honor and duty to invite the high accuser to present his truths.”

“Thank you, most blessed high minister,” the Sirena says. He turns to the crowd, flashing a smile to the prime and the council. Then he turns to us, and his smile turns to a sad little frown. “All look upon this Daughter of Sirena, who has taken the human name of Summer Walker but is known to us as—”

What comes out is moaning and clicking, almost like dolphin song. It's my mother's real name.

“She stands accused of treason. She turned her back on her own people and chose a life with the humans, in direct violation of the wishes of her prime.”

“A life I was ordered to make, high accuser!” my mother shouts. I'm startled by her fierce words.

“Indeed?” he says. “You were told to build a bond with humans that would be stronger than your responsibility to your mission? I was there when these tasks were given to you. I don't recall anyone telling you that you were allowed to choose humans over your own people.”

The crowd barks in agreement.

“Perhaps the mission was a bit naive, high accuser!”

The crowd roars and the prime barks something angry and, I'm guessing, offensive. His words spur the crowd on, and they rage at my mother until the high accuser calls for their silence.

“Our prime is naive? How insolent you've become here in the air. But who can blame you? Twenty years walking on legs and living like a human has softened you. Perhaps the lure of a roof over your head was too enticing.”

My eyes find Fathom. He stands at his father's side. I can't stand to look at him. He could stop this. He's a prince! But no, he's going to punish my dishonesty by letting my mother face this horror. Right now I wish I could challenge him myself.

“We were not told that we'd be here for twenty years, high accuser,” my mother says. “We were not told that we would be abandoned.”

“Abandoned?”

“Yes, abandoned! Not a word from any of you for decades. Not a message to tell us what the next step of this glorious plan was, or even the purpose of our sacrifice. Now I have learned that we were spies, sent to prepare for an invasion that the prime has bungled.”

All eyes turn to the prime. Even from here I can see his face is red.

“So we did what we were told. We started families and made friends. Do you really think that the influences of this world would not seep into us? Do you think
you
could have withstood it?”

“I am not on trial, Sirena.”

“Yes, you are. All of you are!” my mother shouts.

The crowd grows silent.

“For twenty years we honored the prime's wishes, and what good did it do? Look how you treat us now. We are like jellyfish underfoot. How many of you have cast your eyes at the ground rather than look at me—or Terrance? I hear you call his son half-breed trash. Is that the honor that we have earned for surrendering everything we loved? Is that Alpha appreciation?”

The high accuser breaks into a titter, and the crowd joins him. “Appreciation? You are a subject. You do as you're told. Unless, of course, you are somehow more special than the rest of us.”

The crowd boos my mother, and the high accuser smiles.

“She was going to join you!” I shout.

The crowd goes quiet as I step into the circle.

“She was on that beach the day you came. I was there. I made her leave.”

“You made her leave?” the high accuser says with exaggerated disbelief. I hate how he turns words into jokes.

“I dragged her away,” I say.

“Is that how it happened, Summer Walker?”

My mother shakes her head.

“I can't lie. I can't defend myself against dishonor by acting dishonorably. I left the beach because I chose to stay with my husband and child. I have a loyalty to my people, high accuser, but I built a family during the time I was here, a family that I was instructed to create by the prime, and they needed me as well. My daughter is Alpha. To walk away from her—would that not be a betrayal to my people as well?”

“You chose a half-breed—”

My mother leaps forward, clearing the thirty or so feet between her and the high accuser. When she lands, she snatches the man by the neck and knocks him to the sand.

“My daughter is no half-breed, Son of Sirena. Your words may charm this crowd, but your insults will not go unanswered. I challenge you right now,” my mother cries. “Watch me tear that clever tongue out of your mouth!”

T
he crowd roars its approval and stomps its feet.

“The accused cannot challenge the representatives of the court. It is law,” the high accuser chokes, and scampers back.

My mother allows him to stand.

“When this fiasco of a trial is over, it is law that I can challenge you, and for your insult I will spill your blood into the Great Abyss!” my mother cries.

The crowd roars. They want to see it. Even members of the council are cheering.

“An interesting play, Summer Walker. Entice the crowd and the council with a fight and perhaps they will find you innocent just to see the battle. I think they're all smarter than that,” the high accuser retorts.

“End this trial now!” the prime grunts. “This has gone on long enough.”

“I agree!” his wife hisses.

“Long enough?” I shout. “So this is the justice my mother told me about? Let's rush through it before anyone's opinion can change? Well, before you judge her, you should know she walked away from the beach for me but she refused to leave her people. There were countless times that we could have run and never looked back, but she stayed because she hoped she could help you.”

“She should have run!” Minerva shouts. I look to her face and see the blood lust in her eyes. What a horrible creature, a bottle of poison wrapped in sparkly paper. Unfortunately, the crowd agrees with her. They pound on their chests and shout at us in their severe language. Bex cringes, and I suddenly realize how terrifying this must be for her. Unfortunately, we can't walk away.

“Let us end this,” the prime cries.

“I am not done!” I shout. The crowd is muzzled. Not a word is spoken and not a breath is taken. I won't have their attention long, and judging by the look on the prime's face I might not be alive much longer, but Terrance told me to be a pain. I used to be really good at it back when I was a wild thing.

“I have a question,” I continue. “There were twenty Sirena sent here. One died, two didn't show up to the beach. That leaves seventeen members of your nation who followed the rules. They did as they were told. They started families, and when the Alpha arrived, they abandoned those families to return to your nation. Where are they? Can anyone point them out? High accuser, do you see them in the crowd?”

“They were captured by your government!” he snaps.

“Well, there must be a plan to rescue them, correct? You wouldn't let them be tortured and experimented on, would you? So, when are you going after them?”

Everyone's eyes are on the prime.

“Unless you aren't going to rescue them. That would be convenient for you,” I snap. “With them out of sight, you don't have to feel bad about how the prime has failed.”

And then I cross the sand and stare right into his face. “Or am I wrong, Your Majesty, and there is a plan to rescue them?”

The prime burns holes into me with his eyes.

“Please, let us know when we will see the others.”

He's not angry. He's not amused. He simply doesn't care.

“That's what I thought,” I say. “You're going to let them suffer because they remind you of what a complete loser you are. And look at your poor son, Fathom. Look at the scars all over his body from fighting your battles. Where are your scars, old man?”

The prime's blades pop out of his arms, and he leaps at me. I fall back, onto the sand, knowing that soon I will feel the cuts and the blood and the pain.

“NO!” the high minister shouts. “The accused has not been sentenced!”

The crowd boos, but the prime crawls off of me. “I'll get you soon enough,” he whispers, then returns to his seat.

“End this now, high accuser,” the priestess cries.

The high accuser nods. “Summer Walker, how do you excuse your treachery?”

“I have no excuse. I love my people, but I would do the same thing again in the exact same way if I had the choice,” she says as she helps me stand.

“You are unrepentant?”

My mother smiles at me. “I am. When the choice is between my family and this prime, it is an easy one to make.”

Fathom's father snarls.

“Then it is my duty to proclaim to the council, our prime, and all those assembled that this woman is a criminal and a traitor to the Alpha. It is my opinion that she deserves punishment, and I lay that duty upon the council now.”

The high minister nods. “Then what says the council?”

Nor stands and looks at my mother. “Daughter of Sirena, I knew your mother. I was there the day she and the rest of your family died. I know that she taught you right from wrong, and I know you admit your crime. Your sentence is as clear as the sky, but sometimes life presents a problem that neither right nor wrong can answer. In this, you and I are alike. You are guilty of making the wrong decision in the eyes of the prime, but I believe it was well intentioned. I proclaim you innocent.”

The audience grumbles, but there are no angry outbursts like before.

“That's good, right?” I whisper to my mother.

“What say the rest of you?” Nor calls out to the council.

Minerva snarls. “There is nothing to contemplate. She is guilty, and anyone who says otherwise turns his back on us as well.”

Each council member takes his or her turn, saying “Guilty” one by one.

Nor shakes his head in disgust, and my stomach seizes. I fight down the sick but cannot hold back my panic. I cry out in disbelief at this monstrous injustice.

“She never had a chance,” Bex says, stunned.

“You have heard the council. What have you decided, my prime?” the high minister says.

“I give her death. May the Great Abyss take her in his loving arms,” he says, then unleashes a string of high-pitched giggles.