Chapter Nineteen
Nineteen
We cut to shore in stunned strokes. The other mermen, who had been floating in the distance, were drawn to the commotion. With our last drops of strength, we pulled ourselves onto the rocks. I could taste Lirius’s blood on my lips. Seaweed and metal. Red like ours. I turned to my side and threw up.
Galehaut had gashes on his legs and a wound on his head to match mine.
“Did you… is he…”
“I killed him,” I panted.
“You… saved… me.”
The mermen were shouting at one another in a language we couldn’t understand. When they lifted Lirius’s body to the surface, I saw the damage I’d inflicted, the lacerations and deep punctures. His blood painted the waves.
One of the mermen swam to the rocks. We scrambled back.
“You stabbed him.”
“He was drowning Galehaut!” I yelled, still in shock. “I had no choice.”
“You should have let your friend die. The retribution you’ll face will be far worse.” The merman’s voice was soft, chilling. “Lirius needs help.”
“He is alive?” asked Galehaut, who was covered in bleeding scratches and bite marks.
“Get Viviana,” the merman ordered. “She will know what to do.”
“Viviana is not here,” I said.
“Glitonea then. We don’t have much time.”
Glitonea tended to Lirius as she did Elinor—with a stoic, doting efficiency. She stanched the blood and administered an elixir, occluded the wounds with a purple salve. Sprawled on the rocks, Lirius appeared less human, more fish-like. His emerald scales were turning gray.
“My wounds are too grave,” Lirius said to her. “Even for you.”
She squeezed his hand and looked to the horizon.
“How quickly can your merrow get to Corbenic?”
“Corbenic?” he asked. “Why?”
“It’s the only way.”
“How? Even us water dwellers know it’s gone, the gra—”
“I’m not talking about that.” Glitonea was waving the other mermen over now, a plan materializing. “If Viviana were here, we could get there faster. But with your merfolk pulling a boat…”
“Such labor is beneath us.”
“There is no other way. We must work together.”
Lirius let out a strained breath. “To Corbenic, an hour,” he said, clutching his stomach.
She stood and brushed a crease in her dress. “I’ll prepare the sails.”
“What is happening?” I asked.
Glitonea glared. “I said I had no interest in teaching you. Yet your violence has forced my hand.” She was right up next to me.
Eyes like daggers. “There is one person who possesses an ointment to heal these wounds. He resides on Corbenic. You will go there immediately. The mermen can pull you there. Once you give them the ointment, you will sail back on your own. They can swim home faster without you. And I am in no rush for you to return to our shores.”
The hatred in her voice struck like a knife. I had brought chaos and shame to her island. I had disrupted the peaceful existence of the sisterhood.
Lirius’s tail flapped pathetically against the rocks. He looked blanched, shriveled, his breath shallow. He’d taken a risk by agreeing to teach us, and look what happened. His fear and hatred of man had been justified. I had imposed upon him the ultimate indignity.
“Where on Corbenic will we find the ointment?” I asked.
Glitonea knelt down by Lirius. The mermen were dousing him with shells of salt water. Through gritted teeth she answered.
“Ask for the Fisher King.”
The mermen pulled our boat through thick fog. We sat on the thwart, nails digging into the grain, hypnotized by the green undulations of tails.
I’d heard stories of Corbenic, a once-great island now laid to waste.
Its castle, situated on the shore, seemed to shift and waver on the horizon, occasionally disappearing from sight altogether.
Some who visited did not return. Others went searching, only to find an empty hillside.
There were rumors of a mysterious ceremony, of ancient relics with powers to rejuvenate.
Corbenic was supposedly barren, the town in shambles.
Its ruling family was scattered across the realm.
Through sheets of mist I saw the sudden fringes of a cove.
Yellow cliffs surrounded a bowl of calmer water.
Out of nowhere, the sky went darker and the mermen slowed.
Two stone lions, big as mountains, rested on plinths jutting into the cove.
We passed between them into a sea cave with internal stairs to the castle.
“Be swift,” one of the mermen warned us. “Lirius does not have much time.”