Page 87 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
“It is unsafe for me to travel with you. What is coming is… catastrophic.”
“I am not leaving you.” Something tugged at me, low and uneasy in my chest, as if this boy wasn’t just passing through our path, but had been drawn into it on purpose, for reasons I couldn’t begin to understand. My thoughts kept drifting back to his mother, the seer who could see fragments of the future, and whether this meeting had ever been out of her sight.
The young boy smiled fuller then. “My mother told stories of you often. Of the mer offered in blood who answered in war. My aunt lives down the way. I think I’ll take my chances with her instead.”
“What about Sam? It’s simple, but it feels right. Like something you could build a life around,” I asked the boy.
While we escaped, I kept Laziel updated on the events inside the prison, my voice strained and uneven as I tried to piece everything together on the move.The water still rumbled as we swam far away from the Abyssal Hold, bubbles and mortar drifting through the horizon even at the distance we put between ourselves and the prison.
The boy struggled to keep up, as if years of fatigue and lack of muscle use wore down his tiny body.
“It’s easily forgettable. He saved your life,” Laziel threw out, and I sighed.
“You’re right.” I thought further as the spent energy weighed us down. “What about Rick?”
“Is he sixty with a bad hip?” Laziel wasn’t helping much, but trying to give the mer child a suitable name helped the pain that seared through my fingers up through my shoulder.
“Torvryn,” the boy murmured under his breath.
I shot a glance back at him, the name itching at my brain, inching its way around the crevices of my mind.
“I like it,” I said.
“They won’t trail us beyond the Frenden Reef. Only half an hour away,” Laziel announced over his shoulder, leading us all back toward Zahara’s ship.
Torvryn’s aunt lived nearby, her cavernous home hidden along the reef on the edge of danger so close to the Abyssal Hold. I refused to set off toward the ship without knowing he was in safe hands. His breathing grew ragged, pushed by the limits of his small body and sharpened by the nerves creeping in.He shoved his hair back, using his other hand to straighten the collar of his shirt.
He deserved more.
I handed him a dagger, jewel-toned and glinting in the glowing light of the creatures around the reef.
“To keep you safe, Torvryn.”
He took it, fidgeting with it between his fingers and thumb.
We came to a halt before the reef where Torvryn’s aunt lived, the currents thinning and the water growing strangely quiet as if it was waiting for us.
Torvryn took a deep breath and advanced slowly. Laziel and I watched from a distance, close enough we could intervene, if necessary, yet far enough the reunion would allow privacy.
The boy turned and caught my worried gaze.
“When the time is right, I’ll find you,” he said, like it was already decided. “You’re never far from me—not really.”
I didn’t understand it, but I didn’t question it either. He’d already led me to the door of the creature, and I had a feeling this would be important in ways I couldn’t yet see.
He turned and cautiously crept forward to the reef. Fish scurried at his approach like an alarm set off.
A middle-aged mer woman burst from behind the seagrass curtain of her hiding place, stance sharpened for battle. Her face was worn and deeply lined, every wrinkle a quiet record of the life she had survived beneath the waves.
She froze when her gaze locked onto Torvryn. Fear came first, flickering across her expression, then confusion as her eyes searched his face more desperately. Her jaw slackened. I held my breath, begging the woman to respond in the manner the child needed.
A sob expelled his aunt’s lips, fragile, like she would break if it were let out completely. She visibly shook, inching toward the young mer in disbelief. Her arms wobbled as they extended, and Torvyn nearly tackled the mer lady as he embraced her back. Their bodies shook in tandem, cries racking them together.
Laziel and I turned to leave silently. I looked back, catching the smile that lit up Torvryn’s face, warmth seeping into my bones. We headed back to the crew, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of the young mer’s name. Like it was chosen on purpose.
Torvryn.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
