CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Lysi
Northern Detachment
I opened my eyes to a blue-white haze. It brought to mind the blind eye I’d once seen on a dolphin.
Oh, no. Had I gone blind?
I turned my head and pain stabbed my spine. I groaned weakly.
Beside me, the haze gave way to clear water. So the blindness was just a glacier in front of my face. I would have been relieved, if not for the pain.
I tried to raise a hand to touch the glacier and found I couldn’t. My arms were pinned across my stomach.
How had I ended up like this? I tried to remember what I’d been doing. My brain felt murky, slow to react to what was surely an unusual—maybe dangerous—situation.
Something hard pressed into me on all sides. Pain throbbed in my shoulder blades. I couldn’t feel my tail at all.
I was pinned between two chunks of ice. They’d been thrust against each other, with me in the middle.
I had a fleeting surge of gratitude that these chunks weren’t big enough to crush me to death. Then the gratitude vanished, because I couldn’t tell if they were big enough to have paralyzed me.
But how …?
The breaking glacier came back to me. An icy feeling plunged into my gut. Where was Meela?
I opened my mouth to call to her. A sharp pain stabbed my lungs, and no sound came. I watched the bubble leave my mouth and float downwards.
I frowned. Downwards?
My heart jumped. I was pinned upside down.
I cast my senses and felt only ice. The sliver of open water beside me revealed nothing. I tried to wiggle and a jolt of pain shot down my spine. I moaned. Was it broken?
Doing my best to ignore the stabs of pain all over, I kept wiggling, trying to free myself. I was not going to drown here. I’d been through too much to die pinned helplessly between two pieces of ice.
A long time passed before I could make any progress. My chest and stomach felt less constricted, and I was able to move my arms enough to uncross them. My exertion must have created enough body heat to melt the ice.
But I still couldn’t feel my tail.
What would happen if I was paralyzed? How far could I get using my hands?
No, I told myself. Don’t think like that. You’re fine.
I pressed my hands against the ice, trying to push it away. Nothing moved.
You won’t be swimming at all if you don’t get to the surface soon, said a voice in my head.
I let out a whimper of frustration.
“Well, well,” said a merman beside me. “You’ve gotten yourself into a situation, haven’t you?”
My lips prickled as my teeth lengthened. I hissed defensively before I could stop myself.
“Easy,” said the merman. He was upside down—or rather, right side up.
His eyes raked over the ice, over my trapped body, and settled on my face. He was fit, youthful, all sharp angles and overworked muscles.
More mermen drifted shortly behind him. I couldn’t count how many.
“I’m Thetis,” he said. “We’re part of King Adaro’s northern detachment.”
Any panic I should have felt at being discovered by Adaro’s army was nowhere to be found. I needed to get out of here, and they could help me. The pain in my lungs told me I should have breached a long time ago.
“Want to help me out?” My voice was weak, as though the ice had squeezed the substance out of it.
“Of course.” Thetis turned and shouted, “When I give the word, push.”
A flurry of activity picked up as countless mermen positioned themselves around me.
“Ready?” shouted Thetis. “Go!”
The ice groaned and vibrated, sending pain down my body. I helped push, probably to minimal effect.
The pressure eased. A slow wave tickled my skin. The icebergs were moving apart.
I tumbled out without warning, flipping over. Pain shot through my tail as blood flowed back into it. It felt numb, swollen. But it had feeling, which meant I wasn’t paralyzed.
I let myself float suspended, too exhausted to move. Air would come in a moment. I needed the shooting pains to ease off my tail before I tried to do anything.
“Thank you,” I croaked.
“Of course,” said Thetis.
Everyone was staring, dead quiet. Taking in the size of the army, my immediate danger dawned on me. I had to get away from these guys before they recognised me.
“I should keep going,” I said.
I made to swim to the surface to catch a long-overdue breath. My tail barely functioned. I flushed at how laboured my swimming was.
A hand closed over my arm.
“Ouch!”
Despite my cry of pain at his firm grip, Thetis didn’t let go.
“Wait a moment,” he said, voice low.
My skin prickled. I didn’t like the sneer curling his lips.
“Let go of me.”
“No,” he said calmly. “I never said you could leave, Lysithea.”