Duncan wondered if Cara had gotten away from her captor.
They couldn’t find any blood trail when they exited the cave. Even with the help of another half dozen Brothers, there was no sign that she’d been taken anywhere.
If fish had already eaten the evidence—or if there just wasn’t any more—well, Duncan didn’t know.
It was like she’d vanished. It didn’t make any sense. There should have been blood…or lingering fish. Or something to signify that she’d been down there somewhere.
He knew she was alive, because while the meter was getting an increasingly orange color, it hadn’t started making that warning noise yet. Besides, if the meter was wrong, and the scream had already erupted, the sonic blast would have echoed off all caverns underwater.
She had to be somewhere. Yet Duncan couldn’t figure out where.
He’d tried at least a dozen times to find her with his telepathy with no results—at least, nothing concrete.
A couple of times he thought he felt her presence, but it was so brief he couldn’t track it long enough to figure out where it was coming from. Frustration raged through him. He was about ready to throw at least one of the princes in the nearest volcano if it would bring some sign of her.
He gritted his teeth. Thinking like that wasn’t going to find her.
He had to focus.
Work the problem.
Now he couldn’t feel her except for a fleeting second. So what did that mean? Well, if she was kept unconscious, he wouldn’t be able to feel her more than a moment.
So it made sense that was likely what kept them apart.
She was unconscious somewhere. Hopefully not too far away.
The entire merrow home was shaped like a planet with rings. The rings were rows of residences, merchants, and their industrial areas. The outermost ring, however, held their military, and just inside that sat the royal palace, where Keefe and Kealan had brought Duncan to get him some food.
Not that Duncan wanted to stop to eat, but he’d been getting lightheaded, and the two crown princes thought some time in air would help.
While Duncan didn’t want to take a break, his stomach couldn’t be ignored.
“Thanks for this,” Duncan said, waving his hand at the pressurized dining room.
Keefe shrugged. “You air breathers come around every once in a while.”
“Yeah, and we can be accommodating on occasion. When we feel like it.” Kealan sipped on his cup of tea. At least, that was what Duncan thought it was—tea. It had that coloring.
But he wasn’t going to ask questions. The food tasted pretty decent—reminded him of sushi, but not. They ate on plates and sat at a table, and could have been any humans dining around a table after a swim.
Duncan knew a merrow’s tail changed to legs on land, but he had no idea it changed so easily when exposed to air.
When the room still had water in it, Keefe had been resting in a chair carved from rock, his fin bobbing. When Kealan had hit the control to pressurize the room, Duncan had been gobsmacked at the transformation. Almost like a wave, as the air hit their fins, the fins separated and became legs.
While everything was damp, the pressurized room allowed the three of them to walk rather than swim. A technology the merrow had developed—not magic, Duncan noticed—made the pressurized room possible.
Interesting tech they have down here. Duncan appreciated the change. He’d even let his wings out to stretch—which his two companions thought was amazing.
The food had been delivered within moments of the room being pressurized. They discussed what to do when another merrow—a girl the two princes took a good five minutes to tease—before they got back to business.
“So what’s next?” Keefe asked.
Duncan swallowed his bite before answering. “I’ve been thinking about that. You mentioned another merrow before?”
“Norton, yeah,” Keefe said.
“Our cousin,” Kealan added.
Duncan blinked. “He’s your cousin?” Of course he was. Were they related to all the merrow down here?
“If anyone’s got a grudge against the royal family, he’d be the most likely suspect.” Keefe ran his hand over his hair.
“Oh he does,” Kealan said. “His mum is the one who tried to retake the throne a while back.”
“And you’re just now mentioning this?”
“What, we brought him up before,” Keefe said.
“But you didn’t mention that he had that kind of grudge,” Duncan spat.
“Norton’s a pissed off merrow, I grant you, but he wouldn’t actually kill anyone,” Kealan said.
“Yes, you’re assuming an awful lot.” Keefe added.
“What choice do I have? I can’t think of any other reason someone would take a banshee, unless to use her as a weapon.” The thought made him want to vomit the food he just ate.
“I know Norton’s an ass, but he’d never hurt anyone on purpose. He couldn’t,” Keefe said.
“Why not?” Duncan asked.
Both brothers glanced at each other. Then back at him. It was obvious they must be questioning their own family loyalty.
“You can’t assume he’s hurting Cara,” Keefe said. “Or going to hurt her.”
“I can’t assume anything else at this point. There’s no other reason to kidnap a banshee who’s about to scream than to use her as a weapon.” And Duncan had gone over the reasons for kidnapping a banshee—specifically Cara—for hours while they searched.
Duncan picked up his cup and finished his drink, the two brothers sitting there, silently, and both looking like impending doom was coming.
Unfortunately, Duncan knew exactly how they felt.
He glanced at the meter on his arm. Time was growing short.
“So how bad is it, when they explode?” Kealan asked, tugging at the patch of hair at the base of his head.
“It’s bad.”
“Are we talking human torpedo bad?” Kealan asked. “Or underwater mine bad?”
“Both probably. I’ve never actually seen a banshee explode, but from the records in the Realm, it’s really bad. Like leveling a city bad.”
Both merrow stared at him.
“I don’t know if it would level this place, but it sure would take out a lot of merrow and probably do a great deal of damage.” Duncan shifted in his stone chair.
Keefe shook his head. “I can’t… The why. Why would someone do this? I mean, Norton Lynch has a grudge—”
“What would Norton gain if, say, your whole family died?” Duncan asked. He hated asking this, but he had to.
Keefe shrugged. “He’d be crown prince right now, I think.” He glanced at Kealan. “That sound right?”
Kealan nodded. “Yeah, I think so. He’s the oldest.”
Duncan raised his eyebrow. “You all better beef up security around here.”
“It’s been done. Dad put out a security alert when the word came down that a banshee was missing,” Kealan replied. “As far as Norton’s concerned, no one’s even seen him around here recently. He’s not a resident. He splits his time topside, being a mixed breed.”
“Do you have a lot of mixed bred merrow?”
“Not that many, really. We don’t encourage cross-breeding.”
Duncan snorted. “You all don’t exactly encourage visitors of any kind.”
“We have our reasons. The mixing of the breeds is the biggest one,” Kealan said.
“Why is that a big deal?”
“Because there’s only so many of us. It’s not like there’s a colony of merrow in every ocean. This is it. If we want to continue as a race, we have to protect ourselves. After all, can you imagine what humans would do if they found us?”
“The same thing they’d do if they found out about me,” Duncan replied. For a second, his thoughts darted to the case he’d been pulled from—Ava’s situation with her charge. He hoped she was behaving herself.
He really doubted it, though. I’ll deal with that when I get back…
“And some—Norton Lynch being one—have been trying to convince other merrow to support the idea of opening up the walls and moving the entire merrow kingdom to human-friendly waters.” Keefe adjusted his position in his chair and scratched his leg.
“He’s what?” Duncan asked.
“Exactly,” Kealan said. “He thinks that humans should be aware of the mythical creatures in the world. That we can all coexist.”
“Probably because he’s a mixed breed and has to spend time topside. He’s even been known to walk among the humans over in England.”
The island migrated along the coasts of England and Scotland, shifting locations to avoid detection. Currently, it was near the northern coast of Scotland.
Suddenly the situation took a much deeper threat than just a kidnapped banshee. If this Norton fellow was set on revealing not only the merrow existence, but all mythical beings to the human world, it meant he was desperate.
Did that make him desperate enough to wipe out an entire family to put himself on the throne so he had the power to do what he wanted?
“And you think that’s not enough of a reason to suspect him?”
Keefe and Kealan did not look happy at that, but they seemed to be coming around.
“If he’s responsible for this…” Keefe muttered.
“He’ll pay for his crimes,” Kealan finished his brother’s words.
Duncan nodded. “I’m calling in some backup. We have to find him. Now.” Duncan pulled out his magically protected cell phone—which still worked, amazingly enough—and dialed the FID department. He quickly told his boss that he needed at least one extra FID to check the nearby areas of the UK, looking for a merrow-banshee crossbreed.
“He could be anywhere. Fact is, because he’s a mixed merrow, his underwater time is limited. Just like a banshee,” Keefe said when Duncan ended the call.
“What do you mean?” Duncan asked as he put the phone away.
“Well, you know—mixed breeds are weaker than full-blooded mythicals. Most of the time, they can’t stand the deep water pressure for long periods of time. At least, not without working on it.”
“And neither can Cara.” Duncan glanced at his meter on his arm again. “And she has how long?”
“I don’t think she can stay under more than, what, a day?” Keefe said to Kealan.
“Maybe two. No more than that, though. I know Norton’s been slowly building up his tolerance of the depths for the last few years.”
“Doesn’t he keep residence here?” Keefe asked.
Kealan nodded. “Over on the far side of the second ring, near the miners. I’m not sure where he keeps residence on Avalon, though. Maybe at his mother’s?”
“Tell me where, and I’ll send the coordinates to the FID,” Duncan said. “Someone needs to go check his residence here.”
Keefe gave him a general location, and Duncan texted the info to the FID headquarters while Kealan sent someone to check Norton’s home in the Merrow Kingdom.
Frustration began to boil in Duncan.
He should have been done with this by now, been able to whip up a tracking spell—after all, they had Cara’s bracelet and breathing device. It should have been nothing to find her.
Yet he couldn’t use his magic. He was stuck here, running around, hoping to find some clue, and all the while, the clock was ticking, and she was going to die if they couldn’t get her out of here to release the scream.
“We have to find Cara.” He slammed the table.
“Hey, we get it. Calm down. We’ll find her.”
“I can’t calm down. Don’t you get it? Not only will Cara’s scream cause untold amounts of damage to this kingdom if it’s not released properly, who knows what the death toll will be? Including hers. She’s tied to your kingdom. Yours. Which means, she’s here because someone is going to die. The longer we take to find her, the worse it will be.”
“But there’s no reason—the oceanographers haven’t sent out any warnings about coming shifts or storms.”
The food that had tasted so yummy before sank in his gut. “Then it’s murder that’s coming. And it will succeed.”
“We need to find proof that this is actually happening first,” Keefe said.
“Isn’t her presence here enough?” Duncan asked.
“We can’t find her. How do you know she’s not released her cry and is topside right now, enjoying a day in the sun and surf?” Keefe crossed his arms.
“This.” Duncan held up his arm, where the meter had been strapped to his forearm. “See, it’s orange now. Which means she’s getting close. She’s likely in a great deal of pain right now, having to hold it back.”
“What could make her hold it back?”
“Magic,” Duncan spat out. “The one thing you’re not supposed to use down here. But someone’s using it. I would bet my wings on it.”
“It can’t be done. You’ve seen what your magic tries to do down here. No one can be using it.”
“Or they’ve found some way around the magical blocks.” Duncan put his hand on his hip.
And felt his FID phone.
Wait.
“That’s it,” Duncan said. “This still works.” He held up the phone again. “Its magical properties were established outside of the kingdom. But I can’t create any magic down here to find Cara, because of the block.”
“Which means if someone created something magical outside and brought it in, they’d be able to use it under here…” Keefe said.
“Exactly,” Duncan said, grinning.
“Yeah, assuming that’s all true, then what does that do for us?” Kealan asked. “I mean, how do we track something magical if you can’t make a spell down here?”
“I can’t create a tracking spell down here, but I can create some magic and bring it back to do the work.”
“You think that’ll work?” Keefe asked.
“Only one way to tell.” Duncan waved his wand and felt the rush of magic hit him as he disappeared from the Merrow Kingdom.
In a blink, he was on the shores of Avalon, near where he’d entered the water before.
He yanked off his breather and took in a breath of crisp, clean air, and for a moment let the sunshine bathe him in its warmth.
Sunlight invigorated him. Warmed him to the core—he hadn’t realized how cold he’d been in the waters until the rays of light hit him in earnest.
But because Mother Nature was a bitch, a gust of wind slammed into him, chilling him again.
He stumbled and took a few steps around. “Okay, I gotta get on with this.” In his mind’s eye, he could see Cara. And he hoped she wasn’t suffering.
If his idea worked, he should be able to enchant something that belonged to Cara, and it would lead him straight to her when he went back down.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out her little red bracelet and held it up. It shimmered and shined in the sunlight, bright fire-engine red. He materialized his wand and waved the green sparkles over her bracelet.
“Find her. Find Cara.”
The little bracelet twitched in his hand, but before it could take off, he clenched it in his fist. He popped his breather back into his mouth and waved his wand to return him to the Merrow Kingdom.
At least that spell worked, Duncan mused as the magic wrapped around him. In a blink, he was back underwater, just outside the royal palace.
As soon as he appeared, three Brothers charged forward, all surrounding him with spears drawn.
“Wait, wait…” Duncan said, holding up a hand.
“Who are you?”
“Where are you from?” They jabbed at him with their spears.
“I’m Duncan Molar, with the FID. I’m here to find Cara, the missing banshee!”
His words must have given them pause, because one hesitated.
“I’ve been working with Keefe and Kealan,” Duncan said. Cara’s little bracelet jerked in his hand.
One of the merrow glanced at the others. “Wait,” he said.
“He’s fine,” came Kealan’s voice.
Keefe was right behind him. “That was fast.”
The two princes pushed between the other merrow, and the guards put down their spears. Keefe glanced at the guards and they began to back off.
“Did you get it made?” Kealan asked.
Duncan held up his hand and the bracelet twitched again. It had turned a muddy brown color, with his green magic enchanting it.
“So do it.”
“Find Cara,” Duncan said as he let go of the bracelet.
The little bracelet darted through the water, made it about five yards, and slammed into the outer wall of the Merrow Kingdom. From there, it sank to the sea floor, sparking and sputtering just like Duncan’s magic had earlier.
“That worked well,” Kealan said.
“Shut up,” Duncan said. He swam over to the wall and put his hand on it. “What’s on the other side here?”
“Nothing,” Keefe said. He grabbed Duncan’s arm, and they swam to the top of the wall and down the other side.
Duncan cursed when he saw the other side of the wall, because Keefe was absolutely right. There was nothing there.
Just the sea floor.
“Perfect,” Duncan thought. “That was a waste of magic.”
Kealan appeared behind him, the bracelet in his hand. “Here, you might need this. Rather, Cara will when we find her.”
Duncan’s shoulders slumped, what hope he had disappearing as he took the little red bracelet. He glanced at the meter on his arm.
Orange red.
Less than two hours.
“Do you really think we will?”
Neither brother said anything.