“The return current will begin about two hours after your expected arrival time,” he tells me.
“That should be long enough,” I say. “Either she’ll see reason by then, or she’ll have kicked us out.”
Daddy nods. “Be careful, daughter. And good luck.”
“Thanks,” I say, giving him a quick hug before swimming back to join my group. “We’ll need it.”
We leave the palace, swimming east, where we run into the enhanced current. Usually Daddy’s current boost is at the fast end of normal for the given waters, but I doubt the Gulf Stream has ever flowed this quickly before. I give Peri a look that says, “Here goes nothing,” and we move into the fast-flowing water. Tellin and the school of guards swim in after us.
Staying streamlined, the flow speeds us north, through the kingdom of Trigonum, into Nephropida and then Rosmarus. Every mile brings us into cooler and cooler temperatures. Even though it’s practically summer, the water around us is freezing cold. Everyone in our group uses mer powers to warm the sea around us so we are traveling in a bubble of lukewarm water.
Finally, as the current takes us through the Strait of Belle Isle, we emerge in the southernmost tip of Glacialis.
The water up here is different. Not just colder, although it definitely is that, but it feels different. It looks different. Crisper blues and denser liquid. And whether because of its geography or the melting ice caps Dumontia claims are desalinating their waters, the salt content is far lower than in Thalassinia.
“The palace is just on the other side of that ice wall,” Peri says.
She has really done her research.
I nod and follow her direction, swimming toward the vertical sheet of ice and then around it. On the other side I see a palace that looks like something out of a fairy tale.
The entire structure is pure white, so white the glacial blues of the world around it reflect off its surfaces. I count at least a dozen spires, sharp angular things thrusting up toward the surface like icy stalagmites.
“It looks completely out of sync with the environment,” I say. “Aren’t they worried about discovery?”
“Not up here,” Peri says. “Not too many humans diving in these frigid waters.”
“Besides,” Tellin adds, “their shape is not so unusual.”
I follow the direction he’s pointing and see a similar-looking formation a few hundred yards away. Only that one looks completely natural and organic.
“Oh, wow,” I say as we approach the main entrance.
A pair of merfolk swim by, one a mermaid with a tail the color of glaciers. Pale icy aqua with touches of pale turquoise and sky blue. Her hair is such a pale blond, it looks almost as white as the icy palace.
The other, a merman, has a tail that is dark brown, almost black. Matching dark-brown hair flows long past his shoulders, and with a brown fur jacket on, he could easily pass for a seal or a walrus if he had to.
I never really thought about it, but I suppose over time merpeople naturally evolved to match the colors and textures of the world around them. My lime-green-and-gold scales fit in perfectly with the brightly colored fish and sea life in my kingdom’s ecosystem. Up here, blending in with the ice or masquerading as an arctic mammal would definitely be an advantage.
To enter the palace, we swim through what feels like a curtain of ice cubes. Shards of ice hang down in strings, and the Glacialine guards pull them aside to let us in.
“I shall tell the queen of your arrival,” one of her guards says.
He leaves, and the remaining guard—a mermaid not much older than me with gray-and-white hair—stares openly at us. Her pale-gray gaze sweeps over my brightly colored tailfin and then Tellin’s. And then those of Peri and the guards.
“They’re . . . beautiful,” she says, the warmth of her breath clouding in the icy water.
“Thank you,” I say, blushing. I gesture at her tailfin, varying shades of gray from dark steel to nearly silver. “I think your scales are beautiful, too.”
“Princess Waterlily, how nice of you to visit.”
I look up at the sound of Dumontia’s voice. She floats into the room like the queen that she is, pale silver hair floating behind her like a floe of ice. Two attendants, a pair I recognize from the council meeting, flank her. Her posture—rigid spine, hands relaxed at her sides, and chin elevated—tells me everything I need to know about her. She is powerful, she knows it, and she wants me to know it too.
Well, I’m not scared. Not anymore.
“This is not a social call, your highness,” I say, bowing slightly and hoping that the sign of deference will put her in a more agreeable mood.
“No, I thought not,” she says. “Come to make another plea for help for the poor dying kingdom?”
The false pity in her voice is intended to taunt Tellin, and it works.
He starts forward, and I throw out an arm to stop him. I nod at two of my guards, who swim to his side and, each taking one arm, pull him back next to Peri.
Yes, her snide comment was uncalled for, but his emotional reaction is just what she wants. It won’t make this go any easier.
She reminds me of Brody’s ex-girlfriend, Courtney. When I was crushing on Brody, she used to say mean, terrible things about me. And I just let her. Now that Doe is with Brody, Courtney tried her tactics again. Only Doe stood up to her, and Courtney backed down.
I hope that works with Dumontia.
“No, I haven’t,” I say, straightening my spine and trying to float a little higher. I could use the advantage. “I’m here to—” I debate using the word “tell,” but I think she’ll react badly. “Ask you to stop the acts of sabotage you have planned against humans.”