Heart of The Trident

Twelve ~ Cade

“Why didn’t you tell me about her before?” Nia asks me as we walk among the rubble of the orphanage where she says she grew up in.

It’s already nearly midnight, yet here we are under the moonlight. I did ask Nia to wait but she would hear nothing of it.

Are mermaids supposed to be this stubborn?

“Sorry,” I tell her, shining the flashlight on shards of broken glass as I tiptoe across them. “That was when you went missing and all I wanted was to find you. And then when I did, you and I had that argument and it just slipped from my memory, I guess.”

“Aren’t doctors supposed to have good memory?” She jumps gracefully over a block of the broken wall.

For someone who’s supposed to have a tail, Nia sure can move well on those long legs.

“Since when do you know a lot about doctors?”

“I know that you have a lot of books at your apartment,” she says. “Haven’t you read them all?”

“I have,” I admit. “And yes, I do remember what’s in them.”

She glances at me. “Yet you couldn’t remember to tell me that you saw someone like me here at the ruins of this orphanage? Don’t you realize how important that piece of information was?”

“I said sorry, okay?” I take a huge step over a pile of rubble. “Besides, I wasn’t sure she was real.”

“Then she is like me.”

“I still don’t know if she’s real. She appeared and disappeared so quickly I thought I must have imagined her.”

“Then you better keep your eyes peeled.”

“I am look…” I jump back as a rat scurries in front of me.

What the…?

Nia chuckles. “You were saying?”

I frown and shine the flashlight on her face.

“Hey!” She puts an arm over her eyes.

“How is it that you can see so well in the dark anyway?” I ask her as I lower the flashlight. “I never knew mermaids had night vision.”

“How else would we be able to see underwear? Sunlight doesn’t reach there, you know.”

Well, that makes perfect sense.

“Seriously, Dr. Lennox, I thought you were smart.”

I pout. “I used to be but you must have scrambled my brain.”

She sticks her tongue out playfully.

I turn serious. “You said that female Xyraeans need sunlight to make magic. Does that mean males can’t perform magic?”

Nia shakes her head. “But they can talk to sea creatures.”

“Oh, like Aquaman.”

She turns to me with creased eyebrows. “Who’s Aquaman?”

“A superhero,” I tell her. “Supposedly, he’s the King of Atlantis.”

“Atlantis?” Her eyebrows go up.

“You know it?”

She nods. “The ancient city. According to legend, it was destroyed along with the Trident.”

“The Trident?”

“The most ancient and most powerful magical weapon in the entire ocean,” Nia explains. “Many legends surround it but the most common belief is that it is a piece of the sea god himself, his heart. It is said he created the first Xyraean, Axela, and fell in love with her so he gave her the Trident as a gift. It then gave her magic, which she shared with her daughters who shared it to theirs and so on. They left the city and spread out all over the ocean. The sons thought it was unfair that only their sisters had magic so the sea god then gave them the gift to be able to commune with the creatures of the sea. Many were satisfied with this but a few were not and they sought to take the trident from Axela. They killed her and in his rage, the sea god destroyed Atlantis and the Trident and like it, was never seen again. Some say he is dead.”

I make a disapproving sound with my tongue. “That’s tragic.”

“The Trident also used to be the ‘sun’ under the sea and so no one needed to leave the ocean. After it became destroyed, females retained the magic in their blood but they had to live on the surface under the sun for twenty-two years in order for the magic to be unleashed.”

“I see.” I touch my chin. “So no one knows where the Trident is or Atlantis is.”

Nia shakes her head.

I sigh. “And here I thought mermaids would know where it was. As it turns out, it’s as much a myth to you as it is to us.”

“Yet, you know its king,” Nia points out.

I shake my head. “Like I said, Aquaman is a superhero. He’s not real.”

“Says who?”

“Someone made him up,” I explain.

“But he could still be real.”

I shrug. There’s no point in arguing otherwise. I know firsthand how blurred the lines of reality and fantasy can be.

Suddenly, I’m reminded of the feather Eustus gave me which I put in my backpack. I take it out now, wondering if I can use it to find whoever it is Nia and I are looking for. It worked for Nia. Surely, it can work for someone else.

With a frown, I realize I don’t know the woman’s name, though. I didn’t even get to see her face. All I caught a glimpse of was her brown cloak and fiery hair.

And without a name, I don’t think the feather will work.

“What’s that?” Nia asks suddenly.

“Oh, nothing.” I put in back in my backpack. “Just one of Maggie’s toys that somehow made its way into my bag.”

“Oh.”

I know I said no secrets and no lies but Nia and I have got a lot to deal with as things are. I will tell her the truth about me soon. Eventually. When the right opportunity comes.

Just then, I hear the sound of something snapping beneath a foot. I shine my flashlight around, my senses alert as my heart pounds.

I know it could be that woman Nia and I are trying to find but it could also be someone else, someone else who was sent to kill Nia.

I clench my fist. I may have turned my back on who I am and refused to learn the ways of my kind but I do know one spell intended as a measure of self-defense and as much as I loathe the thought, I won’t hesitate to use it to protect Nia.

Then again, judging by the state of those men at the harbor, I’d say she doesn’t need protecting.

For a moment, neither of us move and everything around us is still and silent in the shadows. Then the moon peeks through the clouds and one of its beams shines on a glimmer of red hair.

“There!” I rush towards her at the same time Nia does.

As before, the figure moves swiftly, slipping in and out of the shadows. I’m beginning to think she’s going to get away when suddenly, Nia stops and whispers something into the air.

Just like that, the cloaked woman stops running. She falls to her knees and then collapses on the ground.

Nia and I run to her. Instinctively, I check her pulse. It’s there.

“Is she alright?” Nia asks.

I nod. “Maybe she just…”

Just then, the woman opens her eyes.

Nia gasps.

The woman may look older than Nia but she has the same blue eyes. That can’t be a coincidence.

“She is like me,” Nia pronounces as she picks up the woman’s arm, a trickle of blue blood oozing from a small cut across the skin.

“You have blue blood?” I ask her.

“Didn’t I tell you that?”

“No.”

Nia turns to the woman. “I’m sorry I hurt you. You’re a Xyraean, aren’t you? I’m Nia. What is your name?”

The woman just looks at her with wide eyes.

“Please talk to me. I’m sorry I hurt you but I didn’t mean to. I just need to ask you some questions. I promise it won’t happen again.”

Still nothing.

“Maybe she can’t speak,” I suggest as I stand up and step back. “Maybe that spell you used took away her speech.”

“No.” Nia shakes her head. “It’s only supposed to drain the strength from the limbs.”

“Then maybe she can’t hear.”

Nia grabs the woman’s shoulders. “You can hear me, right? Please nod if you can hear me.”

But the woman doesn’t nod. She simply glances at me, keeping her lips pursed.

“Please,” Nia begs. Her voice croaks.

Finally, the woman nods. She moves her hands as well, trying to make gestures.

Ah. Now, I understand why she wasn’t answering.

“She’s mute, Nia.”

--

“How can she be mute?” Nia asks when we’re back at the apartment, our fiery-haired guest – or is it prisoner? – safely stashed in the guest room where Nia used to stay.

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “But something tells me the cause isn’t medical. Maybe she’s traumatized.”

“Or maybe she just doesn’t want to talk.” Nia sighs and sits on the couch. “I just can’t believe that I finally met another Xyraean here on land, the first I’ve met since the day I was supposed to have drowned, and yet, she won’t talk to me.”

“Shh.” I sit beside her and grab her hand. “Maybe she just got startled.”

“I told you I can’t control my powers.”

“Or maybe you just have to earn her trust first. We did say there might be some crazy stuff happening under the sea.”

Nia says nothing, her lips still in a frown.

I squeeze her hand. “She’ll come around, I’m sure. In the meantime, why don’t you rest? It’s been a long day.”

“But she’s in the guest room,” Nia reminds me.

“You can sleep in my room,” I offer. “I’ll sleep here on the couch.”

“Or we can both sleep in your room,” she suggests, looking into my eyes.

At that, my breath catches and something in my boxers quivers in anticipation. I calm myself down, though, telling myself we’re both in need of sleep and that’s all we’re going to get.

I stand up and offer her my hand. “Come on.”

--

A few hours later, I wake up as I hear Nia panting beside me. I find her awake as well, sitting up on the bed with her face pale and her fingers clutching her pendant.

I grab her trembling shoulders. “Nia?”

She lifts her head to look at me, her eyes pools of sorrow and fear.

I pull her into my arms. “Shh. It’s just a nightmare.”

“But it feels more than that,” she speaks against my shoulder. “It’s almost as if someone sent me that dream, like it was a message. No, a plea.”

“What did you see exactly?”

She pulls away, her eyebrows furrowed. “It was under the ocean. The women are fighting some monstrous sea creatures and they’re losing. Some of them are hiding in caves. The others are swimming away. One of them got…”

Nia lifts her hand to her mouth.

“It’s alright, Nia.” I squeeze her shoulder.

“No, it’s not alright, Cade.” Nia shakes her head. “They need me. My family needs me. My people need me. I have to help them. I’m their only hope. One of them said so. She was speaking to me as if she was standing right in front of me.”

“But if that dream is real then it is dangerous…”

“I have to help them, Cade!”

“Shh.” I pull her back into my arms.

She resists, getting off the bed.

“I wanted to get in touch with them and now that I have, I just can’t sit here and do nothing.”

“You can’t go under the sea, remember?” I remind her.

“Well, I have to find a way!” she raises her voice. “And if my fellow Xyraean won’t help me, then I’ll have to find someone else who will.”

Someone else. And I know exactly who.

I don’t want to ask my father for help but I can’t stand watching Nia so distressed and helpless, either. It’s not like I don’t understand how she feels. In fact, it’s exactly how I felt as I sat by my mother’s bedside after the accident. I could see her slipping away before my eyes and I wanted to save her but I could do nothing.

I couldn’t do anything to help my mother then but I can do something to help Nia now.

If I can help her, I should.

I will.

I get off the bed and put my arms around her. “Shh. It will be alright. I’ll help you.”

“You will?” I hear the surprise in her voice.

I nod as I pull away. “Do you remember the man who came here to my apartment?”

“You mean your father?”

I scratch the back of my neck. “He’s actually a mage so he might know something.”