The Glimmering Sea

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

To avoid arousing concern, Rinaldo and Armida removed themselves from the Scuola. Her words had bruised Rinaldo and his expression had darkened, but she needed to speak freely. "I have traveled to Thalassa and back in the time you've been gone. I have news of Marea. It is not good."

"I know of the desperation, the mermen, and that the sea is poisoned."

"But who brought you word of these things?"

Rinaldo eased her toward a step. "The mermen themselves."

Armida stumbled. Rinaldo caught her, thus averting an untoward plunge into the canal. In that instant, she remembered his kiss. In the next, she made herself forget. "What have you discovered? Are they alive?"

"I should tell you everything." Rinaldo stopped. "And yet I want to protect you. To protect your heart. Or maybe it is my own heart I have been protecting."

"Faced with all that has happened and all that could happen, we must choose knowledge over heart. Where are they? What have they told you?"

"What I have learned mere days ago is from scant observations, from the incautious words of the Terran workers, and a few bits from our mermen directly. The Terrans live on a small, isolated island and are well-paid to keep their silence. Threats of violence are held over them if they dare reveal anything. Most of the mermen have survived. They are imprisoned in their Terran form."

Armida sat on a step. The weight was heavy. Here was why she had come to Venice—to learn of their fate. Her mind felt separate from her body, as if she was required to harness every ounce of her being to prepare for a nameless challenge. She noticed the jumble of daily Venetian life around her. Laundry hung from the windows to dry. The odd conical chimneys. The variety of cultures visible in the people passing. It would be easy to flee and wander the ocean alone forever. Someday, maybe soon, she would. But not today. "Who imprisons them? Your employer, Rusconi? Is he the one I seek?"

"No, they live, if the conditions can be called living, at Stavlakis' grimy hole in the dark recesses of his print shop. I witnessed them taken in shifts in the morning and returned in the evening. They leave in Terran form and travel in crates underwater, meaning they must morph each time. The physical and mental tolls are unmistakable."

"But why? Why does he punish them? What keeps him from displaying them as entertainment? I have witnessed how Terrans love anything they deem odd. As long as they can control it. What they can't control, they kill."

Rinaldo shook his head and sat next to Armida. "I have not been able to get close enough to uncover his purpose. Stavlakis is building toward something. He is always agitated. I believe he forces the mermen to help with the evil he cultivates." He covered his face with his hands.

Armida freed Rinaldo's hands and stared into his eyes. "We shall assume it concerns Marea. We cannot risk a mistaken alternative and be wrong. Right now, you and I may be Marea's ultimate hope."

"How have we come to this? How shall we face the extermination of our species and perhaps untold others? You had news for me? And then I have more details to report to you."

Armida's words solidified; she could not speak. She was soon to hurt Rinaldo deeply. She was only the messenger but would wound him nonetheless. She wished for another way, a way that wouldn't hurt him.

If there were a way. But there wasn't.

"It is news of your mother. I found evidence of her in Thalassa and also here, in Venice. I have spent time with her."

"She's alive, then." Rinaldo was unreadable. "Where?" Rinaldo's expression was frozen into a likeness of someone who hid everything from the world.

The connection Armida had with Rinaldo had ebbed and flowed but never broken. Until now. A gulf had opened, a breadth that might never be crossed. Her body ached with Rinaldo's pain and the agony of the forces separating them. She begged the Antichi to let him not suffer. She pressed her fingers against the marble token in her pocket, undecided whether to give it to Rinaldo.

Rinaldo was rigid next to her. "Tell me."

"She is doing well. Financially, at least. Her home is Ca' d'Argento. The elegance reflects her."

"And the gondolier? The music sheets? Hers? And is she a client of Stavlakis?"

"Yes, but I cannot believe she has awareness of the mermen's imprisonment. I have heard she is fond of Stavlakis, although I have never seen him. She runs a musical salon."

"A salon? I suppose that is how you met Terisio. I cannot think any more of your life here."

Armida scowled, weary of their meaningless jealousy. "My life here is temporary. Do not disturb yourself on my account. I will share anything new I learn about your mother, if you wish."

"We must be certain. If my mother is involved, when we have succeeded, and the battle is over, I shall never speak of her again. Because what I must tell you next is the worst to be imagined, yet is real." Rinaldo turned his back to Armida and tilted his head to the sky.

"What is it? What tortures you so?"

A heavy sigh convulsed Rinaldo, and he shook his head as if he could not believe his words. "You need to know. I find it hard to say the words and see your eyes as I tell you...you cannot imagine...they confine him at the back canal entrance. In a cage in the water." Rinaldo choked on his words and wept. "The news of my mother concerns me little when Stavlakis has Paolo."

Rinaldo held Armida while she shook and sobbed as if life itself would seep from her trembling body. She was torn between thankfulness to the core of her being to hear Paolo was alive and absolute horror at his suffering. That, in this moment, at this very second, she could not protect him, snapped her spirit in a way she couldn't explain. Not once in the struggle to comprehend how to reverse the conditions Marea faced did Armida suppose Paolo would be drawn into the evil so directly.

"Armida, you must believe he is made of the same strong stuff, with the same capacity to survive and prevail, as you. You must believe it. We will save him. I promise you."

"You cannot promise such a thing. You can try but you cannot offer guarantees."

They stood viewing the canal, seagulls floating above their heads, life inching past them. Time passed with no meaning. Their exchanged glances were like tears falling into the water. Their misery could not be separated one from the other.

"I must return or Vittore will have questions." Armida didn't move toward the Scuola.

"Let me walk with you. You should not be alone; however, I also must return to Rusconi, or I will need another means of paying for food. Stay with Vittore today. Distract yourself. I need you alive to wage battle with me."

As they stood at the front door, Vittore called out. "Armida, I need your help. These assistants of mine are here and they are useless."

Rinaldo released Armida's hand. "See? We men are helpless without our Armida."

They shared twisted smiles and Armida said, "We will talk soon, I hope. When each of us has more to share."

Armida considered what Rinaldo had said as he left and sank to the steps at the threshold. He was right. A battle was to be waged. Paolo deserved that much. She would not give in to the forces she had not yet fully identified.

Are we to be powerless against greed and selfishness?

The marble token was unimportant. Rinaldo and she were both broken, and Paolo, sweet Paolo, what of him? How long had it been since he had presented her with the necklace she still wore? No, she would not remember. No, it was not so very long ago. No. Not sweet Paolo.

She would destroy those who had hurt him. Even at the cost of her own life. Even at the cost of Rinaldo's.

Her rage washed over her and inundated all she had ever known and believed.