The Glimmering Sea

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

This needed to stop, to reverse itself before there was utter chaos.

But chaos had already arrived.

Armida moved to escape Stavlakis' grasp but his reflexes were fast. He put his knife to her throat.

Rinaldo was shouting. "Stavlakis! I know what you have done. You are destroying the air and the water in your desire to be enriched by mining the ocean's precious metals. And I know what has happened with your slaves and the battle waged yesterday. You are defeated."

Stavlakis prepared to draw his knife across Armida's neck. She closed her eyes but opened them to see both Terisio and Rinaldo lunging at Stavlakis.

Stavlakis turned to defend himself. His leg became trapped in the gold brocade draping on the table. Off-balance, he attempted to divert responsibility. "I did these things at the behest of Oriana."

"Coward! You blame a woman when you are cornered?" Rinaldo struck Stavlakis' wrist, causing him to drop the knife. The three—Terisio, Rinaldo, and Stavlakis—scrambled for the blade.

Rinaldo stood, clutching the knife as Stavlakis choked Terisio. Rinaldo plunged the knife into Stavlakis' neck. Blood spurted in an arc that splattered Armida and Oriana, who both screamed.

When Stavlakis fell to his knees, Armida knew he was dead or would be by the time he hit the floor. Stavlakis' guards, who had been waiting downstairs at the portico, pounded into the room and were on Rinaldo and restrained him.

They dragged him out and down to the canal, where they chained his hands and feet. Oriana, Armida, and Terisio hurried behind them.

Oriana shook Rinaldo by his shoulders. "What have you done? If you had come to me, I could have explained everything. You are my son. Untold riches would have been yours."

"What have I done? I have stopped the man who was destroying your birthplace. What have you done?"

"Oh, Rinaldo. I never stopped loving you. But I could not return for you. My ability to transform was lost. I have been waiting these many years for you to find me. I left you with half a heart and hoped you would strive to solve the puzzle." She pulled half a marble heart from her pocket. Patched with the half Rinaldo carried with him, the message would read:

"Rinaldo, I will remember you.

Mum"

✧✧✧

Armida stood with Terisio on the bottom step as the scene unfolded. She'd never seen Rinaldo as angry, with the energy rising from him in waves. Though chained, his posture was threatening. He didn't seem to notice her existence.

In chaos, do not intervene too soon. Success will be a clear moment.

"Why did you choose a Terran over Torquato? And after him, a Thalassan? And none of them wanted me."

"I don't know who told you that. I chose no Terran. My reality was worse."

"Worse? How is that worse?"

"With a Terran there would be no hope of a return to the sea but with a Thalassan there was. We were both merfolk. Instead, all options were closed to us. A Thalassan had killed my grandfather in the war. I was considered a traitor and I had broken my bond with Torquato. So Marea refused us.

"Your father had a print shop newly established so he remained in Venice. We planned to bond in Thalassa but when their Custodian denied it, there were violent recriminations. We were exiled. There was no possibility for you to join us."

Oriana rolled the marble fragment in her hand. "We came back to Venice. I tolerated the Marean abductions because I hoped to find you. Each time I searched the faces. Each time looking for the face I would recognize as our son."

Armida pieced this together with what she had learned in Thalassa and saw the facts before Rinaldo did. She watched Rinaldo closely for the understanding to hit his face. It didn't arrive with speed; it arrived like a slow-rising tide.

"Stavlakis? Stavlakis was my father?" Rinaldo slumped into the arms of his guards. "Both my parents are traitors to the sea?"

Sobbing, Oriana said, "My mistake was I loved him too much. We were both hurt and furious at having no choice but to leave the sea. I left you in the care of Marea. Then the sea forgot who I was."

Rinaldo shook his head, incomprehension on his face.

Oriana stood next to Rinaldo as they overlooked the canal. "The merpup reminded me of you. Gemma, tell him how I intervened." Shaking as if from a seizure, her eyes wild, Oriana clung to Rinaldo tightly when no one spoke. "I will not let them imprison you for what you have done."

"I would call you mother and thank you, but you do not deserve the honor. You preferred the power a corrupt lover offered. I gave up Marea for you and now discover you are but a whore."

Seething at his comment, Oriana released Rinaldo. Before the guards claimed him, she shoved Rinaldo into the canal's depths behind Ca' d'Argento.

As he fell, still chained, he twisted to look back. "Armida, I never stopped loving you."

"Armida?" Oriana's eyes rolled wildly and she lunged for Armida. "You snake! Have you been spying the entire time? You have taken Rinaldo from me."

They grappled and they, too, plunged into the canal. Armida inhaled deeply as she hit the water and broke free from Oriana. She struggled to reach Rinaldo while delaying her morphing.

When she dove to his side, a glance made known he was gone. She breathed her last oxygen into his lungs anyhow. She could not forgive herself otherwise.

As Armida writhed, Oriana's attempts to rise from the bottom were futile. Her heavy silk gown and weighty jewels were as an anchor. In their thick, protective clothing, the guards had not tried to save her.

Armida completed her transformation and pulled Rinaldo to the portico where Terisio stood. He had already dispatched the guards. She removed Rinaldo's burdensome chains.

Looking down at her, Terisio said, "If possible, you are more beautiful as Armida. In my heart, I shall remember you always as Gemma. Take Rinaldo away from here, to the sea. I will deal with the guards. The determination will be a murder-suicide, and no one shall speak otherwise."

Without air to help her speak, Armida attempted her mindpath. ≈Thank you, Terisio. I never gave you the chance you deserved.≈

Terisio blinked and with a subtle shaking of his head, bent to Armida and kissed her. ≈Goodbye, Gemma.≈

Armida cradled Rinaldo's head and stroked his arm. She had her mermaid heart to protect her. She would not let it break. She would control it.

Rinaldo's body settled deeper into the canal. When the thrashing began, she darted to him, prepared to kill a sludgeshark or whatever had him. He would not end this way.

Or they both would.

✧✧✧

Torquato had no answer.

Isabetta scoured the Library of the Antichi for an explanation.

When she found it, she wondered how this fundamental force had been lost to time; it had not been entered into either the Provided or the Delivered.

For truly, no merfolk will ever be lost to Marea. It is with the last breath from the Terran form, blown into the watered lung of a dormant merman or mermaid, that gilled life shall be restored, and the heart shall be controlled again.

In the end, Oriana had saved her son. Without drowning and then receiving Armida's last breath, Rinaldo would not have found mer form again. Oriana herself could have morphed, but there were no other merfolk to offer her a last breath.

Armida had but one, and that one was always Rinaldo's destiny.