Tidal Whispers (9 page)

Her stomach growled, and Miki cringed.

Harmon’s eyebrows furrowed. “Your trap,” he said. “It’s sitting on the bottom. Hold this for me.” He sealed the pearl in her grasp. “I’ll be back for you.” He froze. “For it.” His expressions didn’t settle well around that either and he grunted. “I’ll return shortly with your catch.”

Miki nodded. When she tasted her lips again, a tingly warmth poured through her body. She grinned at the idea of him returning for it or her.

• • •

Harmon didn’t fight the smile spreading on his face. As he swam hard for the sea floor, his heart raced, with excitement, though, not exertion. He’d found the pearl, and his mother would be pleased and at ease.

There’s something more, Harmon thought. I told Miki myself, our scales only part for our mate. So why did my body react so strongly to her at first sight? A human! Harmon considered the legend of the pearl. Could it be? Could it be possible? My match in this life is not even a Mer. How would it work? It doesn’t matter, a little part of him whispered. Your belief in love will make it happen.

A familiar shadow on the seafloor jolted Harmon out of his reverie, a flame of anger igniting in his gut. Harmon released one ping and outlined his brother, Creeb.

Creeb glanced up from his half-eaten lobster, a quick smile of recognition twisted to alarm. Harmon’s lip curled at the way his brother’s body braced for impact.

He’s taken mother’s family heirloom, and now he’s taken Miki’s meal? Harmon thought.

Outraged, he swam full force and tackled his brother. He drove Creeb into the soft silt and pinned him down. Hands around his throat, he coaxed the last chewed bit of lobster meat from Creeb’s mouth.

Creeb choked, spat, and raised the ruined half of crustacean. He smiled when Harmon’s grip eased a bit.

“You only had to ask if you wanted some,” he said.

Harmon recognized his brother’s carefree attempt to quiet the turbulent waters. He released Creeb, smirking as his gills riffled, shooting sand puffs out of either side of his throat.

“What are you doing here?” Harmon kept Creeb within snatching distance.

“After you took the answer you needed from me, you fled so fast you didn’t give me a chance to continue. That’s you, the soldier. Quick to attack, judge and defend. Slow to accept explanations or love.” Creeb massaged his throat. He pointed to the fading sting marks on Harmon’s arm. “You’ve scuffled with someone.”

Harmon flexed and winced slightly at the pain. “Prosb’o is going to need two new guards.” He grinned at the astonishment in his younger brother’s face. “After you gave me his name, I wasn’t in the mood to listen to your excuses or stories of potential gambling glory.” Harmon’s voice quieted. “How could you, brother? How could you treat what’s been ours for generations so carelessly?”

“It’s a gem, Harmon. You were away at war. We were low on funds. Mother put too much weight in the legends of our grandparents and theirs before them.” Creeb sighed and shrugged. “It’s a valuable gem that I knew would bring me great luck, and having it as my collateral ensured my success. I was returning with my winnings to buy it back,” Creeb said. “I was trying to take care of our family while you were away. Things were tough in your absence. I was doing what I knew best. You’ve never had any faith in me, brother.”

“You’ve never given me reason to,” Harmon murmured.

Creeb wrapped his hand around Harmon’s forearm and waited. When Harmon’s webbed fingers clasped Creeb’s, he said, “You never gave me the chance to express my gratitude, that you made it home safe, brother. And I’m sorry I offered your medal as partial collateral.” Creeb grinned sheepishly, releasing his brother and pulling Harmon’s Honor and Bravery decoration from his winning’s pouch.

“You returned to Prosb’o’s?” Harmon checked the front and back of his award before handing it back to Creeb.

“I did. I went to the trench, but his Mers said you charged in, caused a scene and fled. Now Prosb’o himself is hunting for you. He has a special favoring for pearls. One might say they are his weakness, if a Mer such as Prosb’o suffers from vulnerability. So, brother. Where is it? Where is the Pearl of Pau’maa?”

Harmon paused, thinking of Miki. “What did you mean? When you said I was slow to love?”

Creeb’s head tilted with curiosity.

“Harmon,” he started, “yours is a mind of strategy, and you cannot accept any female who does not hold the same high values as a soldier. The honor and integrity you embody, the need to always do right no matter the cost. Love is that, but it is also about being impulsive. When have you ever pursued anything without having every flip of the fin planned out?”

Harmon considered his brothers words and thought back to his pursuit of the pearl. He had no plan. He’d followed blindly. Harmon conjured Miki’s face in his mind, remembering the fury in her voice at the thought of her people suffering, the bravery she displayed fighting an eel twice her length and girth—in the water. His heart squeezed hard with wanting.

• • •

Miki had watched Harmon swim until the deep dark waters swallowed his tail fin. She waited, staring, silently counting the beats. The sun’s warmth dried the strands of hair near her face, and she sighed with longing when Harmon far surpassed the time she could remain submerged. To pass the time, she turned her attention to the rows of buoys.

What was happening on the Inito side of the island?

Hating to leave the spot where Harmon said he’d return, she reluctantly moved away, treading water forward but glancing back, checking for his white-blonde hair to rise through the surface. He said he would come back, and Miki found herself wanting to see him, craving that jolt of desire she experienced when his soft lips touched her fingertips.

It’s been so long since I’ve felt a gentle touch, she thought.

Holding the pearl hampered her swimming, so she laid back and floated towards the closest buoy. With the pearl in her hand, and the sun on her face, she closed her eyes and let herself dream of what it would be like to swim with Harmon, hand in hand, never needing to rise for air, to gaze at him and have him look back at her with smiling eyes.

Her head tapped wood, and she turned over, grabbing the large, floating bulb with her free hand. She braced her feet against the dangling rope to support herself, the gentle slapping of water against the buoys pushed at her body from all sides. Miki fingered the weaving on the rope, recognizing Taigo’s skill.

It appears Taigo has been tying knots from sunrise to moonrise, Miki thought, trying to count the wide scatter of man-made domes bobbing in the ocean. What’s at the end of this rope length? She stuck her face underwater, straining to see, but the rope stretched too far.

The only way to know is to dive, she thought.

Clutching the pearl, Miki steadied her breathing, readying for one more plunge.

She submerged, handling the rope, using it to pull herself down. The struggle to greet the deep concerned her, but the desire to know what was tethered on the end of the line pushed her on. She reached the halfway point, and her eyes widened, seeing Taigo’s skill applied to its most proficient array of knots and joinings.

He had worked the cord to form a pocketed net for a tall row of oysters. Miki had never seen mollusks hung like a string of fish before. Island pearling took great skill to work the shells on the ocean floor. Miki considered the number of divers needed to gather and hang the oysters before her.

All of them, she thought, all of the divers who died. She was as sure of that as she was certain of the salt on her lips. The Inito’s would have some explaining to do to the elders, Miki thought.

She checked her surroundings, hoping to catch a glimpse of Harmon swimming for her. The bright waters bled too quickly to dark. The painful need for air urged her up, and she used the rope to ease her ascent.

If there were ever a time to breathe underwater, Miki thought, panicking as she watched the dark shadow of an island boat gliding overhead, it would be now. The timing was horribly perfect. The boat’s relentless pace, her steady ascent. Miki knew how the Inito’s handled trespassers.

The buoys were clearly branded with the Inito’s family crest. The ropes were Taigo’s distinctive design. She’d emerge right at their bow.

Miki surfaced and gulped air. Water pulled her hair down in long streams, curtaining her eyes. A hand palmed her head before she could sweep away the black hanks, and when that hand plucked her out of the ocean, she yelped in pain.

Roughly dumped into the boat, her knees clattered against hard wood. She twisted around and flopped her hair back.

“Taigo.” She glared at the bow.

Taigo shook his head, his wavy black hair swishing over his tanned face. His hair settled, parting, allowing one dark eye to peek through. “You shouldn’t be here, Miki.”

“These shouldn’t be here.” Miki’s arm flung toward the bobbing rows of buoys.

“What’s in your hand?” He struck out like a snake, seizing her wrist.

Miki strained to keep Harmon’s pearl in her grasp, but Taigo’s calloused fingers pried it free. He held it up to the sun.

Miki squinted as if Taigo pinched the sun itself.

“Whoa,” Tabor, Taigo’s brother, murmured.

“Where’d you get this?” Taigo grabbed Miki by her injured shoulder. She yelped, and he rubbed lighter with his thumb. “I’ve never seen a wound like that, what happened?”

Miki refused to answer. Breaking eye contact with Taigo, she barely contained a gasp at the way her healing skin shimmered in the sun. Like Harmon’s. Like a merman. Thinking of him, she bit her lip, sending silent prayers to the gods for his safety from Taigo’s ruthlessness.

Miki stared at Taigo, his round face, his healthy body. She planted her bony elbows on her knobbed knees and let her anger erupt.

“What’s going on, Taigo? Why are you and your family holding all the oysters hostage?”

“Stupid girl. We’re not holding them hostage,” Taigo said. “We’re claiming them as Inito property. We plan to farm them.”

“Farm them?”

“Yes, Miki. Farm them. We’ll crack the shell, claim the pearl and command the animal to grow another by pushing a new grain of sand into its gullet. Planting a seed, as we would crops. The ocean provides the food, and the sun provides the warmth.”

“That’s not right,” Miki said. “We’ve always let nature dictate which oysters would bear gems and which would be for consumption. These captured oysters belong to the entire village, not the Inito family.”

“Not any more. My father has plans.”

“Taigo! What’s wrong with you? Stop telling her everything,” Tabor said. “She’ll go to the elders!”

“No,” Taigo said, his hard eyes on Miki. “She won’t be telling anyone.”

“How can you be so sure?” Tabor asked.

“Because, she broke elder law by entering the ocean, and now the gods are displeased.” Taigo smiled, but his eyes burned with menace. “Tragedy is going to befall the island. Lower the chimes and summon our helper. My once beloved Miki is going to have a diving accident.”

• • •

“What?” Harmon asked, annoyed at his younger brother for interrupting his inner thoughts.

“I asked you where the Pearl of Pau’maa is.” Creeb said.

“It’s safe,” Harmon said.

“You don’t have it, do you?”

“No, but I trust the person who has it.”

Creeb snorted. “I’ve never heard you say those words before.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know where to begin, Harmon. Besides our mother, I’ve never known you to trust anyone but yourself. No other Mer. No one. Certainly not a
person.
”

“It led me to a girl,” Harmon said.

“What?” Creeb cupped a hand around his ear.

“The pearl. I went to claim it from Prosb’o, but it … ” Harmon paused, thinking how incredulous the day’s events seemed. They reminded him of his mother’s story about finding his father. He exhaled. “The pearl jumped free from Prosb’o’s grasp and led me across the ocean to a girl. Miki,” he said her name aloud and smiled at the sound of it.

“Are you well, brother? Perhaps Prosb’o’s guards gave you too much of a jolt.” Creeb stared hard into Harmon’s eyes.

“I am well, brother.” I am in love, he thought, rubbing his cheek where Miki’s foot had struck him.

Creeb opened his mouth but gasped instead. Harmon tensed as another Mer’s body displaced the water around them.

“Get down.” Harmon shoved him face first into the sand and burrowed down into the seafloor next to Creeb, waiting and watching Prosb’o swim by with predatory grace.

• • •

“Where did you get this, Miki?” Taigo asked while they waited.

“Is it real?” Tabor asked.

“Oh, yes,” Taigo said. “It’s very real.”

“Who is this helper of yours?” Miki asked, searching for answers from her once betrothed. She ran through the possibilities, aware of everyone he knew on the island.

“You’ll see,” Tabor snickered.

“Answer me, Miki.” Taigo grabbed her bicep and squeezed. “Where did you find this?”

“On the bottom of the ocean.” She jutted out her chin.

Taigo’s silence frightened her more than his yelling. Miki braced herself for his anger.

“Don’t play coy with me, girl,” he said.

“I’m telling you the truth, Taigo. I found it on the bottom.”

“You’ll take me to the oyster that created this,” Taigo said.

“No, I won’t.” Miki folded her arms across her chest. “I told you. I found it on the bottom, in the sand, on the village side of the island. You can’t claim it, Taigo. It’s not yours.” Miki thought of Harmon. The kindness and concern in his eyes, the way his voice dropped to a reverent whisper when he spoke of the pearl. She wouldn’t let Taigo take the pearl. It was important to Harmon, so it was important to her.

Her fingers wandered to her shoulder, tracing the spread of fine scales that had formed from her wound, the one Harmon tended. Her skin was changing right under her touch, the flesh-toned pattern multiplying and crawling across her collar bone, reaching for her throat. Her heart started pounding so hard in her chest, Miki glanced up at the pearl in Taigo’s hand. It glowed bright like when she found it.