Page 55 of A Kingdom Restored

“I told you,” Merletta said impatiently. “Indigo is working with us now. She reported to me about—”

“Just because you caught her following you, doesn’t mean you can trust her with your secrets,” Andre cut her off.

Merletta scowled at him, in no mood for his well-intentioned stubbornness. “You’re as bad as Sage. No, you’re worse. Indigo isn’t an experienced record holder a whole generation above us, like Sage’s mother. She’s a sixteen-year-old trainee who did what she was told by someone senior. And she’s been wrestling with what she did ever since the moment she understood what you thought of her actions. Don’t lecture me on trust. I hardly know her—you’re the one who should be telling me whether I can trust her. But you can’t do that if you refuse to talk to her, and hear her side of the story.”

Andre looked a little stunned at these harsh words, but before he could speak, something over Merletta’s shoulder caught his eyes, and he tensed.

Merletta swirled around, a shimmer of silver glinting in her vision. She had no difficulty recognizing the two mermen whose entrance had brought an instant check to the motion of the training yard. What underhanded attack were the Record Master’s guards going to try this time?

But, once again, the workings of the Center surprised her.

“Trainee Merletta.”

It was the blue-tailed, blue-eyed merman who spoke, his eyes hard and unyielding. Merletta remembered how he’d seemed offended when she accused the Record Master to his face.

“You are under arrest.”

“Not so underhanded,” Merletta murmured, her mind moving rapidly as she tried to catch up with the new direction of the conflict.

“What for?” demanded Andre, shifting protectively in front of Merletta. She floated out from behind him, appreciating the gesture, but in no way intending to hide.

“For consorting with humans and revealing the secrets of our kind to a dragon colony, thus endangering the very existence of our civilization.”

For a moment, the silence which met this pronouncement was absolute. Merletta opened her mouth, but no words came. What was there to say? For once, the accusation was entirely truthful. It was a crime to which she herself had confessed.

She nodded slowly, drawing herself up in the water. “I’ll come quietly,” she said. “Where are you taking me?”

“It’s not for you to ask the questions,” the guard said tersely.

“Merletta!” Andre hissed, as Merletta shifted forward. “Aren’t you even going to try? You know they won’t fight fair.”

Merletta met his gaze, her own emotions amazingly calm. “This isn’t something I can flee from, Andre.” She glanced behind her, at the row of open-mouthed first years bobbing beside a resigned-looking Agner, and the collection of guards spread across the training area. “Speak to Indigo,” she told Andre urgently. “And find Emil and Sage. Ask Indigo to tell you all what she just told me. I’ll try to find news of Tish, but someone might need to warn the others that—”

There was no time for more, confused though Andre clearly was. The silver-tailed guard had moved forward, seizing Merletta’s arm in a painfully tight grip, and she broke off.

“Where are you taking her?” Andre demanded combatively.

Merletta gave him the slightest shake of her head, silently imploring him not to land himself in hot water as well. The guard began to drag Merletta away, but Andre latched on to her other arm, whispering frantically to her.

“Don’t lose your head, Merletta! They have no proof against you but your own word!”

Merletta had no chance to answer. The guard’s grip was tighter than ever as he tugged her through the water, out of the training yard. Merletta relaxed slightly when she realized they were heading for the central spire. That was where she’d been hoping to go anyway.

It was amazing how little fear she felt. Such an open approach wasn’t nearly as unsettling as the Center’s usual tactics. Maybe they’d lock her up wherever they were holding Tish—that would be a relief.

The journey to the central spire attracted an absurd amount of attention considering how short the distance was. In spite of the circumstances, Merletta felt faintly flattered by how newsworthy she seemed to be—word spread so rapidly that by the time she was led through the central spire’s main doorway, the area was lined with onlookers.

Of course, it was nothing like the eager Tilssted mob who had preserved her from the Center’s sly intentions more than once. This crowd was exclusively made up of merpeople from the Center, more likely than most to follow the line they’d been fed. But still, at least she wasn’t being disposed of out of sight down some dark back alley.

The guards swam her across the large open lobby of the central spire, and as they reached the far side, Merletta caught sight of a simple holding cell, the entrance covered with crisscrossing whale bones.

To her dismay, there was no sign of Tish, or any other prisoner.

“Wait!” she said, starting to struggle for the first time. “Wait, you can’t just throw me in there with no explanation!”

“You’re under arrest,” one of the guards said impassively. “What more explanation do you expect?”

“On what evidence are you accusing me?” Merletta asked, stalling for time as she searched the water on all sides. There was no way they’d held Tish here at any stage. It was too open and visible. There must be other holding cells, tucked away somewhere.

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