Merman Rising by M S Kaminsky

Author:M S Kaminsky [Kaminsky, M S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Pollinated Productions LLC
Published: 2020-04-03T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

DELPHIN

“Delphin! Delphin!” Someone called my name from a distance.

I swam through the Hall of Order. There was a dictate I needed to find but thousands wrote themselves before my eyes. Finally, I found the right location. Just as I read the dictate I needed, the voice called again, louder.

“Delphin!” My sister’s voice.

I struggled through sediment but couldn’t reach her. Pain wracked my body. My fingers, my head, my back, my fin. Everything felt bruised. Eventually, the pain woke me. Black stone surrounded me. I glanced at a jumble of bones in the corner. Everything that happened came swirling back. I was a prisoner, Ariella’s voice just a dream.

“Oh, my poor Delphin!” Ariella again.

I wrenched my head to the left, toward the bars of my cell. My sister swam there, hand reaching through the bars, tear bubbles exploding from her eyes. Her face lit up when she saw mine. She put her hand to her mouth. “Thank god, you’re alive.”

For a moment, seeing her face filled me with more hope than I’d felt in ages. Then I remembered the events that led me there.

“What are you doing here?” I bolted upright, and the world wavered and shifted around me. I almost threw up. “Krenil will find you!”

“Yes. I don’t care. I’ll marry him if it will get you out of this place.”

“No! Never. You can’t. He’s everything you said and worse.” My fin ached as I swam toward her. I reached out to take her hand and then jerked back. My fingers were purple and swollen. It hurt too much. She winced when she saw them.

I rested my head against the cold bars. “I had a dream. It reminded me of a dictate. I can take your place. That will solve everything.”

“Take my place? What do you mean?” Ariella kissed my purple fingers with soft lips

“It’s a statute. It permits any merrow to take the place of another in a sacrifice to the Tentacle Lord if they are family members. I’ll take your place. You won’t need to marry Krenil or stay in hiding—unless you want to. My crime won’t be relevant because I’ll be gone. This solves everything.”

“No! This is against my rules. I will not let you.” She folded her arms. I knew that stubborn expression well. Her face looked as rigid as one of the statues in the forbidden palace.

“Well, we have to figure out something!”

“Yes.” She took my chin in her hands. “Something to help us both.”

It felt like our minds melded as we spent the next moonits firing back-and-forth plans and schemes. Finally, we settled on a way forward. A way that would either save us or get us killed.

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