Page 100 of Echoes of the Tide

“This is where Fortis had his son bring your sister,” Maketes said. “I thought, perhaps, you would like to see her now.”

One half of her soul screamed “Yes!” and the other half wasn’t so sure. What if Laura was disappointed to see her? The ‘what ifs’ could swallow her whole if she let them.

He had taught her to be brave, though. Maketes had always believed she was braver than she’d ever been, and she wanted to prove him right.

So she peeled her face off his side and looked around them. They were in a much calmer sea now. The water above their head was so close she could almost touch it. The sun shone brightlywith a blue sky that was so vivid it turned the water around them into a sapphire pool.

Another pod was in front of them. Or what remained of one. This one looked mobile. It had clearly once been intended to send out into the depths of the water, perhaps to anchor itself somewhere as a home. But it had gotten stuck on this shoal. Half of the pod was out of the water, half of it in the water. Tipped onto its side like this, she could only imagine half of it was even useable.

But somewhere in that wreckage was her sister. Somewhere, Laura waited for her.

Squeezing his shoulders, she asked, “Can you come with me?”

“Your sister has not reacted well to my kind, apparently.” Maketes held her out away from him, the breathing tentacle loose between them. “I think it would be best to not scare her any more than she already has been. And there’s... other surprises, as well.”

“Other surprises?”

He shrugged. “Fortis and his son work in mysterious ways. The depthstriders see more than any of us.”

“That’s not an answer to my question.”

The soft smile on his face was the only response she would get, apparently. “It’s not a bad surprise, Ace. Just go inside and see your sister. You’ll feel better.”

She wasn’t so sure about that, but if her only option was to go inside and face the music, then... well, she supposed she had to do just that.

Sighing, she detached from the breathing tentacle and nodded. She could do this. It wasn’t the end of the world, even if her sister didn’t want to see her. She had faced a shark, rode a whale, weathered storms above the sea, and even fought againstTau. She’d survived cannibals! She could survive her own sister’s disdain, if that’s what it came to.

There was a small opening in the bottom of the pod, likely what had once been a moon pool. She slipped through that opening and pulled herself into the pod.

The interior was eerily similar to the one Mira and Anya lived in. Even with the podium in the back, now at a severe angle, where a bed had once been. Now the mattress had slid off the frame and a broken pot with dirt smeared across the floor was beside it.

The first thing she noticed, however, was the sound of voices. Not just one voice. Not just her sister talking to herself, but a man’s voice. Listening intently, she realized there were at least two men and then... another woman? Not her sister.

“Hello?” she called out. “Anyone home?”

The voices stopped, and then a man stuck his head through the opening to the next room. He had tousled brown hair, a mousy face, and freckles dusted across his nose. Glasses perched in front of his eyes, very similar to her own, although his magnified his eyes considerably.

“Hello?” he replied, although it sounded more like a question. “Who are you?”

“Ace.”

“We weren’t expecting any... humans.”

“Well, the undine thought maybe you’d been terrified enough for one day.” Standing on the slanted floor, she shook herself free from water and reached out a hand. “Nice to meet you. I’ll be honest, I thought I was only going to see my sister in here.”

“Your sister?” His mouth dropped open before he took a step back from her. “Are you... Are you Laura’s sister?”

Oh shit. “Yes.”

“The criminal?”

There it was. Sighing, she rolled her gaze up to the ceiling before sighing. “Yes, the criminal.”

The sound he made was a cross between a squeak and a gasp before he darted out of sight. So that’s how this was going to go. Somehow, Fortis and his son had brought a whole gaggle of humans to this place, and that was going to make all of this harder for her. The bastards.

She froze at the sound of running. Was she going to have to jump back into the water? Were they going to attack her?

But all she saw was the faint blur of a familiar form and an amazon running toward her. Without hesitation, Laura flung herself into Ace’s arms. They both staggered backward until Ace’s back hit the wall and still, her sister hugged her so hard she couldn’t breathe. Ace had a moment of stunned shock. Was her sister really hugging her? Was this actually Laura?

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