The Glimmering Sea

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Two guards brought in a basket of sea snails. They weren't Delfina's favorite, but she said she took what they offered during her captivity. Armida ate them to continue building strength. Her recovery from the encounter with the jellyfish was not over; she felt powerful but knew she had not returned fully to her previous health. At least they didn't need to eat in the dark because lumes had been provided with their dinner.

Armida unwove a reed from the basket and hid the slim stalk at the back of the small cave that was their prison cell.

Delfina tilted her head. ≈What are you doing?≈

≈How we may free ourselves is not yet clear. I am collecting things that may prove helpful. It would be best if you did the same.≈

≈But I don't know what I should look for.≈

≈Nor do I, but weapons or tools or bindings are what I have in mind. If we hope to get away, you must learn to take advantage of opportunities.≈

≈You are still angry? I love Paolo and I worry for him too. Have you no sympathy for me and what I've been through?≈

≈And what of you for me? Have you asked what Marea has given up at such a time of crisis?≈ Armida pulled back her hair and traced the ragged red line from her temple to her lip. ≈Have you asked about this?≈

Delfina's eyes widened and her hands flew to her face. ≈A maidkiller sting?≈

Hardening herself against the memory, Armida nodded but otherwise denied herself a physical reaction.

≈Oh, Armida, you have always been the strong one, the one who refused to yield to any torments. When we were merpups, you ignored any scrapes and bruising, and I tore home to my mother because she would rock me in her arms and feed me sweet kelp. You always bore witness to the truth when I hid from it.≈

≈Is that how you saw me?≈

≈We all did.≈

It wasn't a tidal wave. More like a ripple as her awareness of herself—her very identity—rocked and sought to steady as if a re-alignment of opposing forces was taking place. Maybe she hadn't been manipulated by tradition. Maybe she had been born to question the status quo. Born to bring change. Is that what Torquato and her father had hinted at?

What change can I bring?

Armida shut down her persistent questions. She had no time for self-examination now. ≈How much of the area have you explored?≈

≈What do you mean? It's empty in here. It's a prison.≈

≈Every inch may hold promise. Use the other lume before the light fades.≈

Armida swam to a dark recess and thrust her arm inside, touching every surface. She pulled out her empty hand. Delfina, with more caution, held a light to a narrow ledge.

≈Look!≈ Delfina handed a marble square to Armida, who traced the roughly scratched surface with her fingers—a heart around a name: Rinaldo. And on the reverse: Oriana.

The presence of the stone didn't make sense. It wasn't possible. But it was no coincidence that two etched stones with both names existed. Perhaps Rinaldo's mother, Oriana, been stolen by the Thalassans as Delfina had.

It might explain everything.

✧✧✧

In the morning, Armida turned the etched square over and over, looking up as if answers to her questions were somewhere in the morning darkness. ≈Oriana was here.≈

≈Is it possible?≈ Delfina pulled her eyebrows together with doubt.

Armida had spent the night churning over alternatives. Each possibility faded faster than baby squid ink. A puff of murkiness and then gone, leaving Armida in the same place she'd begun. Oriana had been in this cave long enough to carve a message. Long enough to want to carve it. To need to. She closed her eyes. ≈I don't know anything anymore.≈