Six hours earlier…
After making certain Zeriva was on her way home to Ghaleri territory, Coyrifan headed for his own home, swimming at a slow, restful pace. As long as he made it to the ring of Howliths by nightfall, he’d be there waiting when the hunters returned, ready to sneak along the sea floor under cover of the thick forest of kelp that blanketed the wastes.
After over an hour of peaceful travel through calm blue waters, he was nearly there when a Mivusan patrol suddenly appeared, swimming over a sandy ridge in the distance. Outside of the ring of Howliths.
“Coyrifan!” The six males quickly swam to meet him, their leader taking hold of his shoulder in greeting as soon as he was near enough. “What are you doing out here alone?”
“Alas, I was separated from Father’s hunting party,” he said, returning the gesture. His solo escapades happened often enough that nobody would bother to question it. What Coy was questioning was why, and how the patrol was out in the open water just then. He said as much, and the patrol leader laughed.
“Haven’t you heard the news? Your party left off the hunt and is searching local caves for a manling girl. The chief himself gave the order for patrols to keep watch about the ring while the Howlers are asleep. Exciting, isn’t it?”
After many years of practice, Coyrifan easily controlled his expression, but his heart felt as if it had gone completely still. “Is that so? I’d better go and catch up with them, then,” he said, his voice deceptively light. “I’ve never had the chance to hunt a manling before.”
“Hold, Coy,” the merling said, the grip on his shoulder tightening. “The chief left the Howlers sleeping because of you. As you were missing, he bid us keep a lookout for you and make sure you came to no harm. You’ll patrol with us, for now.”
Many minutes passed before Coyrifan was able to slip away from the patrol, using a massive school of fish that swept across their path as cover to duck down into a thick patch of weeds. As he’d hoped, the other merlings followed after the fast-moving cloud of silvery bodies, believing Coy had broken away among them. Once they were gone, he made all speed for his secret cave, his thoughts swimming faster than he was. If Erin was found, all of his plans and efforts would come to naught. Imyra would be stranded inland, and only Chief Ferrifan knew what awful fate might await the manling girl.
The flooded cavern was dark and quiet when he came up and climbed onto the ledge. Uncertain if it was safe to call out, he hurried to dry enough to take his legs and go to Erin’s secret room. The lantern was lit when the entrance came into view at the end of a dark tunnel, and Coy shifted into a faster pace. Surely, that meant she was all right.
His hopeful smile vanished when he stepped into the room and found it occupied by a large man. It was his friend Vasadax, wearing his legs.
“Vas—!” He all but choked the name out. “How did you find these tunnels?”
“It was Zeriva. She found our hunting party and led us to the entrance.” Vasadax’s expression was apologetic, his brows furrowing at the sight of Coyrifan’s face falling. “When we split up to search the tunnels, I followed your marking system right away so the rest didn’t learn about it. I had no choice but to fetch the girl, since Zeriva told us she was here. I am sorry.”
His creased face lit by flickering lantern light, Vasadax clearly didn’t understand why Coy suddenly seemed to shrink during his speech, the slender merling tightly wrapping his arms around his own chest as if he were suddenly chilled to the bone. He couldn’t have known that this was so much more than the loss of a pet manling. What had been merely a sad duty for him was, effectively, a death sentence for Coyrifan.
“You need to come home, Coy,” he tried again. “The patrols are already active, and Ferrifan will order them to search you out once he reaches the Howlers. We’ve tried to change his mind, but he won’t reawaken them until they’ve brought you back. We’ll be landlocked fish if anyone decides to take advantage of that.”
It was enough to bring Coyrifan back from his spiral, staring at his friend in disbelief. Since when had Ferrifan become so reckless?
Vasadax laid a large, steadying hand on Coy’s shoulder. “Apologies, but I must leave. I told them I would stay behind a while to watch for you, but my agreed-upon vigil is almost over.”
As soon as he left, Coyrifan collapsed to his knees, then fell forward onto his hands. All he wanted was to call out to Imyra, to hold her in his mind and in his arms and rest in her joyous, effervescent love. Instead, he closed himself off from her, so she could not hear his silent keening.
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Some time later, Coyrifan heard footsteps coming down the tunnel, but did not care. He remained limply bent over the stone floor until whoever it was entered the room, then ran over and yanked him upright. He was face to face with Leslyn, the smallest of Erin’s manling friends. His presence in that secret place was impossible, but the merling couldn’t even find the strength to feel any surprise.
“Coyrifan? What is the matter? Where’s Erin?”
He was able to meet the manling’s sharp-eyed gaze for only a moment before he was overwhelmed by shame and let his head fall again. “She’s gone. I failed. It’s over.”
“No, that can’t be the end of it,” a harsher voice said. It was Kaleit, another of the manlings who had been with Erin on Koben’s small vessel. “Not after we came all this way.”
The merling looked up at the angry manling, strangely serene in his response. “I can’t get the Queen’s moonstone back for your prince. I can’t get Erin back. It’s over.”
“Come now, Coyrifan,” Leslyn said, much more gently than his companion. “There must be a way.”
“There is no way.” He stared at Kaleit, who was still glaring at him. “Her moonstone was the key to everything. Now it is in the chief's hands.”
“The necklace?”
Coyrifan nodded, feeling so weak that the only reason he was still upright was because Leslyn still held his shoulders. He wished the manling would release him, so he could return to mourning for Imyra… and for Erin.
“Wait,” that same manling said, giving Coy a slight shake to regain his failing attention. “That necklace was absolutely sacred to Erin. She wouldn’t have let anyone take it, if she had a choice. Maybe she managed to hide it before she was taken. Come on, Coyrifan. Let’s look for it.”
When Leslyn and Kaleit bodily lifted him to his feet, Coy had little choice but to continue on. Once he joined the two manlings and began to search, a twinge of hope pricked him like a shaft of sunlight breaking through the clouds and shining down into warm shallows.
Kaleit was right. It couldn’t be over. Not when he and Leslyn had somehow found their way to a place so secret that only three living beings had known of its existence. Not only that, but Coyrifan still had not completed the noble task given to him when he first looked upon Erin’s sleeping form. Whatever it was, he felt certain it was still reserved for him, and him alone. No matter what happened, he made a silent vow that he would carry on until it was done.
He was standing tall once more when the three males converged again, their search an utter failure.
“Nothing,” Kaleit said. “And there’s nothing we manlings can do, not against an entire tribe of merlings.”
“We’ve got to try, at least.” Earnestly, Leslyn looked to Coyrifan. “Can we help somehow?”
The merling nodded, a slight smile making its way across his face. “You can help by taking the news to your prince, and by keeping watch on Imyra. If I need to meet with Koben at the southern shore, I will ask her to signal decisively by spitting her needle at one of the barrels by the pond. Rest assured, I will do whatever I can for Erin.”
After a shared look of determination, the three men departed the caves, the two manlings to return to their home and Coyrifan to return to his.
A patrol was near enough to the formerly secret place that it was no trouble for Coy to flag them down and thereby procure an escort for himself. As he’d been the target of the search, his escort absorbed multiple patrols and grew until dozens of merlings swam together, their combined strength against the ocean’s currents increasing the entire party’s speed. Thus, they quickly brought Coyrifan straight to his father, just as he wanted.
They met Chief Ferrifan just outside the family home, where Coyrifan boldly swam up to him in view of all those who’d accompanied him on the journey back. The chief’s broad shadow fell over the merling youth long before they were face to face.
“I give myself for the manling female,” Coyrifan said before the chief could speak.
Ferrifan’s yellow eyes were cold as he looked upon his son. After a few moments, they trailed up at the sound of murmuring to take in the sight of the many men who were gathered ‘round, watching with surprise at Coyrifan’s abrupt offer. An odd smile spread across the chief’s mouth. “I was tempted to keep the girl, but I decided not to bother once I discovered she’d already been claimed.” Looking up at his men, he gestured grandly, making it clear to Coyrifan that he was putting on a show for them. “Since you’ve already taken the fun out of it by Calling her yourself, I’ll return her to her people instead, so you can enjoy knowing she’ll just pine away to nothing.”
Oh, there was laughter at that, but it was a practiced laughter. The men knew how to put on a show just as well as their chief did.
The threat was of little bother to Coyrifan, though he was certain to react with appropriate horror for his father’s benefit. Erin had never been Called, neither by himself, nor any other merling. Whatever strange power it was whose own call had brought them together, its claim was protecting her even now.
“Fydiro, Vasadax, get the manling and leave her off shore near Nilvar. She can find her own way back from there.”
Coyrifan allowed himself a breath of relief, then steeled himself again to face whatever would come next.
He did not expect his father to put a massive arm around his slender shoulders and sweep him nearer to the beaded curtain that covered the entrance to their family dwelling. “I hear you’ve been doing many things of late, my son,” Ferrifan said privately, his voice eerily sanguine. “Such as dealing with manlings.”
Quite suddenly, Coyrifan sensed danger in the chief’s tone. His tail flick came an instant too late, the thick muscles of Ferrifan’s arm tightening about him until breathing became difficult.
“I do not see how a manling female is worthy compensation for the theft of your heartbeast,” his father hissed in his ear. “I will see to it that your youthful misjudgment is corrected in due time. But first, I have something for you.”
Just as quickly as he’d been crushed in the chief’s grasp, Coyrifan was released. He sucked in a gasping breath as Ferrifan violently flung the beaded curtain aside and vanished inside the dwelling. He was back before Coy had even taken a second, a diminutive figure utterly dwarfed at his side and a pale arm clasped in his massive fist.
Lips spread wide in a broad, sharp-toothed grin, Ferrifan shoved Zeriva into Coyrifan’s arms.