The Marked Ones (32 page)

Ivyanne nodded.

‘Will he be back in his room by now?’

‘I don’t know...I left him in the forest an hour ago.’

Forest? Tristan’s stomach tightened. ‘At your fort?’ He asked slowly.

Ivyanne nodded again. ‘And before you ask-
he found me. He...he he knew almost everything.’

Tristan’s eyebrows shot up, appalled. ‘Does Ardhi know about it?’

This time, she shook her head.

Tristan hoped he didn’t look as jealous as he felt. ‘What were you doing all of this time?’

‘Having a nervous breakdown in the bushes.’ Bane said, patting Ivyanne’s shoulders and giving him a warning look. ‘Take it easy man. She’s not a happy camper.’

‘Well....okay. Sorry.’ Tristan sighed, not loving the idea of Ivyanne and Lincoln in the forest together-but she’d left alone, so that was a good sign. ‘I hope he’s not back yet then. Ardhi’s probably staging an ambush. We’ve got to get there now, and beat Link back to his room.’

‘Okay...’ Ivyanne said softly. ‘Quickly then. I don’t think he can take much more of our kind before he snaps.’

The three of them jogged down the path, Tristan holding Ivyanne’s hand the whole way, Bane bringing up the rear. When they arrived at the managers cottage, similar to Tristan's, right down to the kitchenette, the lights were on, and the door was ajar.

‘Someone’s in there.’ Ivyanne stopped, pulling Tristan up. ‘Who should go in?’

‘Bane,’ Tristan said quickly, waving Bane forward. ‘He won’t know him-he’s more likely to hear him out.’

‘Sweet,’ Bane went ahead, but paused to glance back: ‘He doesn’t have a gun, does he? Spear? Electric toothbrush?’

‘Unlikely,’ Ivyanne said.

Bane nodded and went up to the door, sticking his head in, and looking around. After a minute, he entered.

Tristan turned to Ivyanne, looking her up and down carefully. ‘Lose your necklace?’

Ivyanne looked at Tristan, biting her lip. ‘And I thought Link was the observant one.’ She said softly, guilt written all over her beautiful face. ‘Tristan-’

‘We’ll talk about it later.’ Tristan let go of Ivyanne’s hand as Bane came back out, holding a leaf of paper in his hand. The idea that their princess had broken the biggest rule of all was shocking, even to him. He wanted to understand, and vowed that when she filled him in, he would try his hardest to-but if Lincoln was more precious to her then their secret was, Tristan didn’t like his chances of ever possessing her whole heart.

He knew almost everything. Her words repeated in his head, relaxing him slightly. He desperately hoped that was true. If she’d offered their legacy up eagerly, Tristan may as well track the guy down and give him his own life, because it would mean that Ivyanne actually loved Lincoln more than she loved her people.

‘There’s a note here,’ Bane held it out to Ivyanne. ‘From some chick named Adele, asking Link to give her a second chance.’

‘Lemme see that,’ Ivyanne snatched the piece of paper, her wide green eyes scanning it clearly. ‘Meet her on Needle Island?’ She scrunched up her face. ‘That’s crazy! She doesn’t know him at all if she thinks he’d go on a boat.’

Bane pulled something out of his pocket and held it under their noses. ‘This was on a chair too. Looks like the kind Ardhi’s mother makes-Leah has one.’

‘That’s Ivyanne’s!’ Tristan took it. ‘Babe, this means he’s been back already, right?’

Ivyanne’s mouth fell open, her eyes fixed to the paper. ‘Oh no!’ She thrust it at Tristan. ‘
Adele didn’t write this!’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Well for one, I’ve seen her handwriting on lunch dockets-it slopes backwards. Secondly.... look at the punctuation on the words ‘I’ve’ and ‘Can’t’. No apostrophes!’

Tristan blinked at her. ‘
So?’

Ivyanne took the paper back. ‘Adele’s an
English major in university, Tristan! This note was written by someone who probably didn’t get through high school!’

‘Ardhi!’ Tristan’s stomach dropped as the penny did. ‘What do we do?’

‘Guys?’ A feeble voice asked. He looked up to see Pintang stepping out of the darkness in front of her room to the left, still wearing the blue dress from dinner, biting her lip. The moonlight picked out silvery strands in her glossy hair. ‘Bane?! What are you doing here? What’s going on?’

‘Have you seen Ardhi?’ Bane demanded, not bothering with pleasantries.

Pintang shook her head. ‘No. But while I was helping Remi clean up the mess you jerks made in the restaurant, Caleb came in to report one of the hire boats missing.’ She scowled at Tristan. ‘I had a sinking feeling that my brother is involved somehow so I came to tell Ivyanne.’

Tristan turned to Ivyanne. ‘Link’s going to be looking for a way to Needle ...right? And if Ardhi left that note, and took a boat.…’ He cringed. ‘Did you warn Lincoln? About Ardhi?’

‘No! I didn’t want him living in fear!’ Ivyanne’s panic was instantaneous. ‘We have to find them!’

‘Why?’ Pintang stepped forward, looking perplexed. ‘What’s going on
now?’

‘We haven’t got time to explain!’ Ivyanne turned on her heel and began running back towards the hill leading to the esplanade. ‘Just come and we’ll tell you everything!’

Pintang sighed but kicked off her shoes and tossed them to the grass, pushing past Tristan with one final look of derision. ‘Fine. Guess my night can’t be ruined any more anyway!’

Tristan sighed and ran after them, hoping she was right, but knowing her hopes would fall to where his were when she learned the extent of Ardhi’s downward slide into insanity.

32.

Ardhi was just pulling his boat back up onto the sand when Lincoln jogged down the beach, his complexion sweaty and waxen, his eyes frantic with worry.

‘Adele?!’ he called out, bending his head against the wind and sprinting faster. ‘Wait!’

‘Who’s that?’ Ardhi tried to sound surprised, though he smiled inwardly, thinking that he’d timed this perfectly. To Lincoln, it would look like he was just leaving, instead of returning. Luckily he’d cut the engine offshore and waded the boat into the shallows.

‘Ardhi?’ Lincoln’s face fell. He came to a halt two feet away, panting. He looked around. ‘Have you seen my ex girlfriend Adele?’

‘Oh, hey. Link isn’t it?’ Ardhi tried for nonchalant. ‘Your ex..The blonde who was crying the other night?’

‘Yeah. She would have come down the beach recently.’

Ardhi dusted the sand off his hands. ‘I saw someone head out in one of the hire boats about fifteen minutes ago, but I couldn’t tell you who was in it.’ He glanced up at the starry sky. ‘It’s been a nice night for fishing, but the weather’s coming up. I hope that
wasn’t your girlfriend, because the ocean is no place for a chick by themselves in a storm.’

Lincoln looked around around nervously. ‘What are you doing out here then?’

Ardhi smiled. ‘I love fishing-and I’m not a chick. My sister had plans tonight so I figured I’d cast a line in off Needle.’

Lincoln’s expression was wary. ‘You can
use a boat?’

That seemed like an odd question. Ardhi shrugged. ‘Yeah..... why?’

‘I just, uh....’ he screwed up his face. ‘Never mind. Look my ex has lost her mind and left me a note saying she’s waiting on Needle for me. I don’t want to get back together, but I don’t want her doing something stupid on my behalf either.’ He looked at the dinghy doubtfully. ‘Man I hate boats, and I don’t know anything about running them. Will you give me a ride out? I’ll reimburse the cost of the hire boat and swing you a little extra if you do.’

‘Sure.’ Ardhi couldn’t believe how willingly Lincoln had swallowed the bait. He gave the boat a shove back into the water. And it was intriguing to learn that he was afraid of the water! ‘Is she the suicidal type?’

‘I didn’t think so. But she’s the attention-getting type.’ Lincoln muttered. He darted a look at Ardhi, who motioned for him to climb in. Lincoln loped one of his long legs over the side. Never had a man looked less graceful. ‘Thanks for doing this, by the way.’

‘Well I’m a bit of a mariner, and I’ve seen what happens when people who don’t know boats try and operate them. You could almost say I’m obligated to help.’

Lincoln snorted softly. ‘I suppose that’s true. I’ve got no business being in the ocean, for sure.’

Ardhi silently agreed as he shoved the boat again, then agilely leapt into it. ‘Besides, if steering you towards Adele is steering you away from Ivyanne, then I’m eager to help.’

As predicted, Lincoln’s head snapped up. ‘Excuse me?’

‘My sister told me, about your little crush. About why you
really dumped the blonde.’ Ardhi wriggled his eyebrows, enjoying Lincoln’s shock. He chuckled at Lincoln’s expression. ‘Naw man, can’t say I blame you for trying. I think Ivyanne is absolutely divine.’ He picked up the oar and stroked a few times, pushing off the sandy bottom below. ‘I could marry me a girl like that for sure. You know, if the queue wasn’t so damned long.’

Lincoln looked distinctly uncomfortable. He turned his face away, glancing out at the starry horizon ahead. ‘Yeah well...turns out I have even less business with
her than I do on the ocean, so if you want my place at the end of the queue, you’re welcome to it now.’

This piqued Ardhi’s interest. He dropped the oar to the floor of the boat. ‘Sounds like the words of a man who’s struck out.’

‘That they are.’ Lincoln’s hair blew in the breeze. ‘She’s chosen that Tristan prick, so I guess the check-out is closed.’

Like hell it is.
Ardhi didn’t know what had gone down between Ivyanne and Lincoln in the two weeks since she’d started working there-but obviously the boss had been making moves on the innocent princess from day one-and somehow-he’d made enough ground to have her bolt into the arms of the devil she knew. For that, Lincoln would pay, then Tristan-then Bane if he tried to interfere.

‘Yeah I was aware of that too. Guess we’re both a couple of losers, huh?’

‘Guess so.’ Lincoln seemed to relax, and Ardhi had to turn away as he pulled the cord on the outboard, which spluttered to life reluctantly. Lincoln was the easiest mark he’d ever met. Yet part of Ardhi respected the guy-that Adele chick had screwed him over with Loveridge, but here Lincoln was, rushing to her rescue regardless. That took character. It sort of reminded Ardhi of his own devotion to Ivyanne.

But Ivyanne was still
his, and it was time Ardhi made it clear to everyone trying to steal her from him, just how much it hurt to truly love her. He pulled on the throttle, and the boat began to speed away through the shallows.

‘Is this thing safe?’ Lincoln asked, raising his voice to be heard over the commotion.

Ardhi turned around and chuckled as he steered for Needle. ‘I hired it from your resort!’

Lincoln laughed, but still glanced around anxiously. ‘Right....Sorry. It’s been awhile since I was last on open water.’ Almost on cue, he shuddered.

Ardhi gunned the throttle. ‘Well don’t be. It’s a whole other world out there. Pretty spectacular.’

‘So people tell me,’ Lincoln said, not sounding convinced. ‘But it’s not a world
I belong in.’

Ardhi smiled, thinking that Lincoln had no idea.

⁓

Lincoln gritted his teeth as the boat smashed over the water, harder then he’d ever felt before. His fingers were aching from pressing into the steel rail, his backside on fire from the amount of times it got air only to slam back down again. He didn’t like being with Ardhi either. Every now and then, he would look back and shoot Lincoln a crooked smile, as though he was aware of Lincoln’s discomfort and was getting a kick out of it.

Lincoln didn’t know how to take him. Ivyanne claimed that he was her best friend, but hadn’t she mentioned that he’d fallen in love with her, ‘ruined everything’ and forced her to come to the mainland? And that he’d followed? If Ardhi had heard that Lincoln had the hots for her through his sister...then what did he think of Lincoln? And if he knew about her and Tristan, why was he acting like sunshine and passing his time fishing? Why would he linger at all?

Now that his initial panic over Adele was subsiding, Lincoln began to feel more uncomfortable, but tried to write it off as paranoia. Ardhi might be furious with Tristan and Ivyanne, but just hiding it well for the human’s sake-just like Lincoln was hiding his own discomfort at being alone with the striking Indonesian boy.

‘So!’ Ardhi eventually shouted into the wind. ‘Tell me what you think of Ivyanne’s chances with this Tristan guy? Reckon they’re in love?’

‘No.’ Lincoln spat out, almost vehemently.

Ardhi laughed. ‘Sounds like you like him as much as I do. So it must be true-did he shag your ex?’

Lincoln grit his teeth together. He didn’t want to talk about this with Ardhi. ‘Yes. He did.’

‘Ouch. Must smart losing two women to him. Especially Ivyanne. A girl like that could make a man lose his mind.’

Lincoln glanced back at Ardhi warily, wondering how literal the insanity was. Lincoln’s unease from being in the dinky boat was dissolving from being so close to such a sociopath who easily covered what must be his own feelings of rejection with levity. The mermaids were skilled liars. No wonder he’d been surrounded by so many and had never known! ‘Yeah, maybe...but there’s plenty of fish in the sea though, right?’

‘There’s a lot less then there used to be,’ Ardhi joked. ‘I’d know, trust me. A man needs to guard his net from poachers.’

The word
poachers had a hard edge to it, one that felt pointed to Lincoln. His gaze slithered to the side of the boat, coming to rest on a bright yellow oar, wondering if it would serve as a potential weapon in a pinch. Getting into the boat with Ardhi had been a mistake. A big one. ‘Are we almost there?’

‘Getting there,’ Ardhi flexed the throttle again. ‘Are you sure she said
Needle Island? It’s mostly all rock and a few trees-no beach to speak of. Can I see the note?’

‘Huh?’ Lincoln tore his gaze away from the oar, pushing the hair out of his eyes though the wind blew it straight across again. ‘No. I mean, I left it back at the resort.’

Ardhi glanced back at him, brows knitted. ‘What?’ he snapped.‘Where?’

Lincoln didn’t understand why this seemed to infuriate the other man. ‘Um, on the bed... where she left it.’

Ardhi cursed, suddenly looking behind him-eyes bypassing Lincoln, searching the sea between them and the shore. ‘Fuck!’ he exclaimed. ‘That’s just great!’

‘Chill out!’ Link exclaimed, shifting closer to the oar on reflex, wishing he could reach the anchor instead. ‘It wasn’t a map or anything. I mean, if you want directions-’

‘Yeah right!’ Ardhi said angrily, facing ahead again. ‘Oh well... better hurry it along then, huh? Before people start to worry about you.’

Lincoln’s insides turned to ice at that disturbing and confusing remark. But the alarm bells in his head
really started ringing when Ardhi suddenly began to sing in a loud, clear and hauntingly beautiful tenor:

‘Won’t you light my lonely way back home; The Sea is full of misery and woe; Oh woe betide those who say; They don’t need no light to light their way; They think they’re safe enough on their own; Drown in murky depths below-’

Lincoln’s reaction was panicked, instantly furious, as he remembered what Ivyanne had mentioned about singing, and his fear was accompanied by a light tingling sensation behind his eyes.

‘Shut up!’ he hollered, taking grip of the paddle, tensed and ready to act. ‘
Now!’

Ardhi whipped around, eyes narrowing into slits. ‘Excuse you?’

‘You heard me,’ Lincoln bared his teeth. ‘One more note and I swear I’ll-’

‘You’ll
what, loser?!’ Ardhi’s hand curled into fists, his stance strong, despite how swiftly the boat pulled up. ‘Just what is it about my singing that bothers you, huh?’ And then his eyes widened as an expression of disbelief distorted his previously handsome features. ‘What do you know? What has that bitch told you?!’ The question was half barked, half hissed, laced with so much anger that Lincoln physically reeled back as though struck.

But then the inertia of the boat through Lincoln forward. Through his panic, Lincoln knew he had one option-if he was fast enough and brave enough to do it. He had no choice. He was trapped with an insane merman in the middle of a massive bay-and now that Ardhi knew that Lincoln knew more than he ought to, Lincoln was as good as
dead.

‘Maybe you’re just out of
tune!’ he hollered, jumping to his feet, and wrenching the paddle free. Ardhi’s eyes went to it, but before he could react, Lincoln swung it at the other boy’s face. It hit with a sickening crunch, before sending Ardhi hurtling into the deeply dark water.

⁓

Tristan surveyed his destroyed television and dining table with dismay as Pintang and Bane debated the plausibility that mummy’s boy Ardhi had in fact, caused the destruction below deck.

‘I’m going to kill him!’ he announced. ‘This boat is only two weeks old!’

Above them, the engine roared to life. So swiftly did Ivyanne throw forward the throttle that Tristan had to grip the doorframe to keep from falling flat on his face in shattered LCD crystals.

‘He couldn’t have!’ Pintang insisted. ‘This is just so
unlike him!’

‘Unlike a guy who just trashed a restaurant right in front of you?!’ Tristan demanded.

‘Ardhi did it!’ Bane exclaimed. ‘I saw the whole thing Pintang. In fact, it’s kind of my fault. If I hadn’t recognised the boat-’ he cringed. ‘I tell you-boy went lolo.’

Tristan glared at him. ‘You owe me a new T. V when we get through this Bane.’

Bane cocked his head. ‘Big attitude for someone who tapped the virgin princess a few hours ago, don’t you think?’ He smirked. ‘If you’d kept it in your pants-’

‘Shut up Bane!’ Ivyanne called from above. ‘You too Tristan! If you guys start carrying on like royal pains in the ass, I’ll turf you
both off, got it? I haven’t guessed where your shirt is from yet Bane, but I don’t think it’ll matter once it’s underwater!’

Tristan looked at Bane questioningly.

Bane rolled his eyes and stage whispered: ‘She asked why I cared so much about getting her dirty, teary face all my new shirt earlier, and asked where I got it from anyway. I said: ‘Guess,’ and then she said she didn’t have a clue. And then we bumped into you before I could break it down for her.’

Tristan snorted. ‘Are you serious?’

‘As an earthquake,’ Bane smirked. ‘Once you domesticate her, bring her round so I can buy her a clue, okay? The girl is wearing thrift-shop flip-flops and a forty thousand dollar anklet. She’s been hidden from society for far too long.’

‘Deal.’

‘This is unbelievable! Even the gay one is all about Ivyanne!’ Pintang exploded, making a beeline back to the stairs leading above deck.