Page 1 of Battle Fluke

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“Honour…”

Kyree’s heart clenched. Blood poured from Honour’s body as she floated toward the floor of the ocean from the surface. The large clanging metal machine disappeared, and it didn’t submerge back into the water looking for Honour.

Pushing her fluke down, Kyree propelled herself forward as swiftly as possible. She swam to Honour, wrapping her arms around Honour’s chest and immediately flipped them backward. She didn’t dare stop to see exactly what Honour’s wounds were.

Her longer fluke took them swiftly into the darker water. Kyree settled next to a mound of dense coral, pushing Honour into the deepest spot she could find. Flipping around, she stared up at the surface of the water, worry still eating its way into her soul as she waited for the monster to come back.

That fear had never left her. From the first time Honour had come to her people and begged them for help to now, Kyree had been saturated with fear. She breathed in deeply, the scent of blood rushing her nostrils. Turning back to Honour, she panicked anew.

The damage to her abdomen and chest was massive. It looked as though the giant claw monster had ripped half of her away. And the blood—Kyree stopped at that. If she didn’t get that under control, there were other predators they would have to worry about.

Swimming off, Kyree went in search of supplies. What she had in her small bag wasn’t going to be enough to help. It was barely enough, actually. She moved swiftly, always looking over her shoulder to see if she could still make out Honour in the distance. When she’d collected the right mosses and found a sharp rock and some thin seaweed, she made her way back.

The water surrounding Honour was tinged red with her blood. Kyree wasn’t sure Honour would even make it back to Reine, but she had no idea what to tell the king. She hadn’t seen what had happened, and the only one who had returned to the water was Honour.

Soulara and Autumn were gone.

Kyree said a prayer over the items she’d taken, begging for the spirits to allow them to be used to save Honour’s life. She didn’t want to end up like Kaelin, banished for eternity because of murder. Right now she was only exiled because she’d chosen to help the upper sounding mermaids. Wincing, Kyree re-centered her thoughts. Right now, she had to use what knowledge she had as a healer and save Honour.

She worked quickly, pressing the moss into Honour’s side and mopping up the blood, stanching the bleeding. The moss worked perfectly, the small spores clinging onto the wound and tightening the injuries so they wouldn’t bleed as much.

“One problem out of the way,” Kyree murmured to herself.

She started humming a lullaby, one that her second mother had always sung to her when she’d been sick or injured or scared as a child. It had brought her an immense amount of comfort, both the words and the tune. She continued to sing while sheworked, thinning the seaweed even more and using a sharpened needle-like rock to make rudimentary holes in Honour’s flesh to sew her skin together.

Her back ached, but she didn’t move as she continued to work. She must have sat there for hours, sewing Honour back together one stitch at a time. When she finished, she took more moss and covered the injury, saying a prayer of healing as she wrapped her tightly in wide flat seaweed that would help keep the moss in place for now.

Stretching out her aching muscles, Kyree looked around. The light had faded, and the water around them was darker, much darker. It was similar to Kyree’s home, where it was dark all the time. She reveled in this time of the day, but it seemed the mermaids from Reine didn’t. They preferred the light.

Biting her lip, Kyree sniffed the water, scenting any blood that was left around them. The coral wasn’t a great hiding place, but it had done its job while they were there. A few small fish swam by, and Kyree held out her hand for them to play with her fingers. Saying yet another prayer for safety, Kyree pulled Honour into her arms and cradled her against her chest.

She hadn’t woken yet.

And that scared Kyree more than anything.

Honour should have stirred by now, if she was going to make it. But her steady heartbeat, no matter how slow it was, gave Kyree some solace. Kyree swam deeper into the ocean. There had been no sign of the monster since the attack, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still looking for them. It had seemed hell-bent on taking Honour with it.

Why would it leave her alone now?

Biting her lip, Kyree swam. She didn’t want them to be found, and she certainly couldn’t make it back to Reine tonight, not carrying Honour, and not without some answers. Going theremight result in the same as if she’d brought Honour to her own people.

Exile.

Death.

Banishment.

She’d seen how it had turned out for Kaelin to do that, the struggle it had been for Kaelin’s family left behind. Kyree had left on good terms, exiled but for purpose. Her family wouldn’t be shamed for her leaving, but honored. She’d left for a cause.

Kaelin hadn’t.

And if Kyree ended up banished from Reine and her purpose never completed, then she would be shamed, and she would be exiled in the same manner that Kaelin had been. Dragging in a deep breath, she found a rock shelf and rested along the side of it.

Kyree wasn’t familiar with the territory here. She’d used Honour’s ability to know where they were at all times, trying to remember what everything looked like, but with the light bothering her eyes so much, it was difficult to remember what all the brightness looked like. It was much easier to see now that it was dark.

She was going to need food, and she was going to need more moss to change out the dressing on Honour’s wound when they settled somewhere safe for the night. Leaving Honour tucked into the side of the rock shelf, Kyree went out to forage again.

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