Blood of a Mermaid (19 page)

A magical storm large enough to crash a plane would not go unnoticed by the local authorities, of both the undersea and dryland varieties. In addition to the Daeira clan, Lord Magistrate Andreaopolous himself would no doubt send investigators to the area, seeking the cause of such an outburst. The humans would also send their own search and rescue team, looking for the crash site and any survivors.

Zan needed to find the boy and be long gone before any of them arrived on the scene.

Thwarting the drylander rescue team was easy enough. As the storm was magick in nature, no radio transmissions would have penetrated the clouds. The humans back at the airfield would have a hard time figuring out exactly what had transpired, or where the plane went down once it bumped off its intended course. Zan charged the air around the crash zone itself with enough electricity to jam any beacons or signals that the downed airplane might be transmitting. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever, but certainly long enough to find Shea and take him away.

Strangely, when he reached the actual site he found little evidence near the water’s surface. He’d seen – and caused – plane crashes in the past, and expected to find pieces of fuselage and luggage scattered across a wide swath of open water. Here, there were few pieces of floating debris.

He’d seen the plane fall from the sky, watched as he’d directed a bolt of lightning straight into the side, creating a giant hole and thwarting any suggestion of recovery. It should have crashed nose first against the water’s surface, breaking into a million little pieces. But he saw none of that. And no evidence of drylanders, either living or dead.

Where is the boy?
“Could the plane have already sunk, trapping Shea within along with the rest?” he wondered out loud, deciding it best to look more closely. It mattered not if the boy was alive or dead. Either way, he needed to bring him to Demyan.

With grim determination, he plunged deeper into the waters as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting the ocean back into its original shades of blue.

* * *

“The sun’s going down, Shea. We need to start a fire or something.” Chip nudged Shea’s shoulder trying to get his attention. “Are you listening to me? We’re all pretty wet, and people are getting cold.”

Shea stood on the shore, scanning the horizon. Now that the storm clouds had lifted, he could see across the water for several miles. Not a ship – or mermaid – in sight. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Or both, for that matter.
Why isn’t a rescue team out there searching for crash survivors? Shouldn’t they be here by now?

“Why don’t you start gathering some wood?” Shea tore his eyes from the setting sun and looked at Chip. He’d been surprised earlier by how Chip had stepped up to the challenge of helping the other passengers. Now he found himself surprised again by Chip’s initiative. Big changes of attitude for a teen who professed to hate the world. “I’ll go tell Gramma and your mom what we’re doing.” Chip nodded and gave Shea’s shoulder another friendly punch before turning and heading into the trees.

Helping the injured people out of the boat and up to the tree line had been a larger task than Shea had anticipated. Those who weren’t injured from the crash had been severely weakened by seasickness, after being thrashed around by the waves. He, Martha, and Chip were the only ones seemingly unaffected. He understood why he and his grandmother hadn’t been rendered ill, but Chip?

“Cast iron stomach, dude,” the other boy had said, smacking his belly when Shea asked. “From years of eating New York City takeout of every type and stripe. Nothing makes me vomit.”

Which turned out to be a very good thing, since both Howard and Hailey were still unconscious. Where Hailey was easy to move, it had taken both boys to wrestle Howard out of the raft and up the beach, while his wife whined at them the entire time.

“Be careful with him! Should his head be dangling like that? Oh, Howard, why don’t you just wake up, you big lump of blubber! I can’t believe you are this lazy!” Despite her words, Shea could see the concern in her face. She was worried. And so was he.

As Shea approached his grandmother now, he could see Hailey was still out cold. “Why hasn’t she woken up yet?” Shea kept his voice low as he watched Martha wrap the thin emergency blanket around Hailey’s inert form. The compartments on the life raft had been equipped with a number of useful items, like the twenty packets of mylar blankets and several boxes of the type of energy bars that hikers carried for emergencies. For some strange reason, the boat’s built-in transmitter beacon wouldn’t turn on. One of the flight attendants was attempting to fix it while the other tended the injured pilot and passengers.

“Head injuries can be tricky things,” Martha said, smiling as Hailey’s mother returned to her side. “Are you feeling better, Gloria? Better out than in, I always say.”

The woman let out a rueful laugh. “I guess you’re right, but I don’t understand what’s gotten into me. I’ve never been seasick before in my life!”

“The waves were pretty big out there,” Shea ventured. “And the crash in itself was sort of jolting.”

“Well, all I can say is thank goodness those pilots were able to land the plane as well as they did,” Gloria said as she sat on the ground next to Hailey. She began stroking her daughter’s head and humming to herself, her attention immediately absorbed by her injured child.

Martha tugged Shea’s arm and indicated they should walk away and give Gloria some time alone. When they were out of earshot, she said, “What was it you were coming to tell me?”

It took Shea a minute to remember. “Oh, yeah, Chip wants to start a campfire.”

“Good idea,” Martha said with a nod. “Keep everyone warm and help the search and rescue team locate us. I saw safety matches in the first aid kit. Maybe it should be more of a bonfire.”

“If we can gather enough wood,” Shea agreed. “I’ll see if anyone else is feeling well enough to help. Gramma, what’s wrong with Hailey?”

Martha pressed her lips into a tight line before answering. “I think your friend may have suffered some sort of trauma to the brain, like a concussion or maybe even a stroke. We need to find medical help for her as soon as possible.”

“Shouldn’t there be a rescue team looking for the airplane soon?” Shea glanced again toward the empty horizon. “Too bad there aren’t any cell towers nearby. No one can seem to get a signal on their phones to call for help.”

“It’s a fair bet that the sorcerers who caused the crash are also causing the electrical interference with the cell phones and the emergency transmitter,” Martha pointed out. “They would want time to inspect the wreckage before the humans started to show up, but a magical outburst of that magnitude is sure to draw other attention as well.”

“Other attention?”

Martha frowned. “Weren’t you going to help Chip build a fire?”

“Oh, right!” He turned and jogged up the beach to catch up with Chip. As he glanced back, he saw his grandmother still staring at the horizon.

* * *

Nothing. Zan had searched the sunken wreckage and there was no sign of Shea or that drylander girl. In fact, only three human bodies remained within what was left of the aircraft.
Where is everyone else?

He knew he was running out of time. After a quick search along the bottom, Zan concluded that the passengers must have escaped. Again, the drylander whelp had ruined his plans somehow. As he swam for the surface, Zan tried to recall what he remembered of the surrounding seas.

This part of the Mediterranean was littered with small islands and rocky outcroppings, some with names and some without. He’d spent years of his youth in this area when he attended the University of Atlantis, so he knew there were plenty of places for the drylanders to make landfall. He thought the storm had blown the plane off course enough to keep it away from its intended destination, which was under the jurisdiction of the Lord Magistrate of Atlantis. The waters where the plane had gone down were on the border of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, just in between Daeira and Atlantis territories. Zan hoped by blurring the lines of jurisdiction he had bought himself enough time to find and capture Shea.

But where to start looking?

As he broke the surface, he decided on a circular sweep of the surrounding area, working his way outward. The passengers didn’t go down with the plane, and they didn’t just disappear into thin air. They had to be somewhere.

Zan needed to find out where.

The warm blaze of the fire would have been cheerful under different circumstances. With the rising moon overhead and the sounds of waves rolling onto the shore mixing with the crackle from the fire, it was an idyllic setting.

As it was, though, most of the people seated near the glowing flames wished they were somewhere else. Anywhere else, for that matter.

“I don’t get it,” Chip said to Shea as the pair added another large log to the blaze. “Why haven’t there been any search teams or rescue helicopters buzzing around? Someone should’ve missed us by now – a whole plane disappeared!”

Shea rubbed his hands along his jeans and looked toward the waterline. His grandmother stood at the edge of where the sea and sand met, watching. “I don’t know, Chip. Maybe the plane went so far off course that they’re looking for us in an entirely different part of the Mediterranean.”

“That would seriously suck.” Chip lowered his voice. “Hailey needs help soon, dude. It’s pretty bad that she’s still unconscious.”

“It’s not good,” Shea agreed. He patted his friend’s arm. “Someone will find us. Have faith.” But as Shea turned away from the fire to join Martha by the water, he wished he could believe his own words. Despite his reassurances to Chip, he was very worried.

“Hey, Gramma,” he said as he drew near. “Any sign of…anyone?”

Martha shook her head, letting out an exasperated sounding sigh. “I don’t know how the Athens air traffic controllers could’ve lost the plane so completely. You’d think the technology would be better than that these days.”

“What about passing ships? Or fishermen?”

“Maybe in the morning.” Martha turned away from the water to face Shea. “Did you and Chip find anything while you were gathering firewood?”

“Yeah, we found out it’s a pretty small island,” Shea answered. “I’m surprised there are even as many trees as there are. Most of the wood for the fire is old driftwood from the beach on the north side.”

“I don’t want you wandering off in the dark,” Martha warned him. “You’re safer if you stick close to the group.”

Shea looked at the sick and injured people surrounding the campfire. “But is it safer for the rest of them if I stay?” He paused and then looked back at her. “And what about Kae? The letter said I was to meet at the Piraeus docks by sunset or she would be harmed.”

“What letter?” Martha’s steely eyes stared straight into his, and Shea realized he hadn’t told her about the strange encounter at the Athens airport. Quietly, he filled her in about the bracelet and threatening letter he’d received. His grandmother nodded slowly as she listened.

When he finished, she said, “So this wasn’t about you and I going to Atlantis to testify.”

He shook his head. “The king thought that’s why Kae was kidnapped. To prevent her from testifying. But I think it’s more likely Demyan planned from the start to use her as bait.” He paused, as the wheels turned in his mind. Why did they want to capture Shea so badly? Merely as revenge for spoiling Demyan’s earlier plot?

Bait. They want to use me for bait, too. Bigger bait for bigger fish.

“What is it, Shea?” Martha put her arm around his shoulder. “Kae will be okay. They wouldn’t dare harm her if they think they have a chance to…”

“This isn’t about her, or even about capturing me. They want to
use
me
as bait to get to King Koios and Mom,” Shea said. Martha’s arm dropped to her side as she stared at him in stunned silence. “Demyan must have a new scheme in the works.”

Martha finally found her voice. “Could he be that deluded? How could he hope to take over the Atlantic Ocean, or recapture the Southern Ocean? The Aequoreans and Adluos are all too familiar with his bloody ways.”

“It’s fair to say he’s more than deluded, Gramma. That guy is positively deranged. He’s holding my girlfriend as a hostage. And now he crashed an entire plane of people trying to get to me.”

She hugged him tight. “It’s not your fault, boy-o.
He
is the one at fault.”

He tried to shrug her off but she refused to let him go. Finally he let out a sigh and relaxed. “I’m not looking to assign blame, Gramma. But we need to get help for these people, and we need to save Kae.”

“Absolutely. But I still think you need to stick with the group until morning. You should be safe on dry land for the evening. Better to travel in the light, when you can clearly see what’s coming at you.” She smiled as she took a step back from him. “Besides, who knows what the morning may bring? The Daeira may solve your sorcerer problem for you. I can’t imagine they’re too happy right now at the thought of someone wielding magick within the borders of their territory.”

* * *

Zan visited three deserted islands with nothing to show for his efforts. No sign of life, human or otherwise, amidst those rocky shores. As his search spiraled northward, he wondered how far the passengers could have swum? Certainly not very far, considering almost all of them had weak human legs instead of tails. Could the aircraft have been equipped with a boat of some kind for emergencies? He considered it unlikely that drylanders would have such foresight, since they didn’t possess the same levels of intelligence as merfolk.

He skimmed along the surface, searching through the darkness for the next sign of land. An orange glow in the distance caught his eye and he plunged deep to swim in that direction. Surfacing closer, he confirmed his suspicions. The glow was from a fire on the beach. There were definitely humans on the island up ahead.

Now he needed to confirm whether the drylander he was looking for was among them. But how? Did he dare go ashore and search? Did he have any other choice?