Anyway, the visual then switched to images of the rest of Aegira, the circles of golden structures looping gracefully around The Eye. It looked as tranquil and perfect as the first time I saw it, over twenty years ago, although the voice-over was telling me the images were captured just an hour ago, immediately after the incident in The Eye. No hint of crimson chaos, just the dark safety of the ocean floor, lit by the warm glow of Aegira.
I drank it in, even though I’d seen the real thing just moments before, as we swam over.
Aegira the Beautiful.
The city looked like something that should grace the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The buildings were built with rolling grace and flourish, to mimic the waves, in honor of the billow maiden queens. There are few sharp angles. Even those buildings that soar so high they seem to strain towards the surface, like The Palace, are still rounded and feminine.
The voice was bringing home the point made by the footage.
“While the anomaly was significant within The Eye, none of the red substance infiltrated the city. Scientists undertook immediate testing and confirmed the taint was indeed blood, of unknown origin. However, they have categorically concluded that the event was simply an unhappy coincidence. It seems that a flock of dead sea creatures may have become sucked into the walls of The Eye, where they bled out. The blood entered The Eye through the recent tear.”
Martha Mermaid’s voice became a little sterner.
“Aegiran experts are of the view that both the rip and the death of the creatures was the result of ocean warming, attributable to lack of care taken by humans in recent centuries which has resulted in severe mismanagement of the delicate ecosystem of earth and sea.”
She let up a little and I could tell she was about to boss me around.
Mermaids are so predictable.
“Aegiran citizens and friends are asked to stay away from The Eye, which is officially off limits until further notice. The Queen sends her prayers and asks you to be of good cheer.”
My crapometer started to whine at me. How on earth could any scientist know all that with any certainty, so quickly? I glanced over at the Leigon child, who was napping fretfully on the soft weed of Carragheen’s floor. “You know, you guys could really use a little freedom of the press.”
Carragheen laughed darkly, but Rania looked confused again.
“A sectarian press assumes different interests. In Aegira, we are all one mind.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, and pulled her far out of Carragheen’s hearing range. “Really? You sure about that? Even The Triad? Even whoever took Imogen?”
Carragheen looked at me curiously. Surely he couldn’t have heard? He looked watchful. “Did you hear what the people were saying, as we passed over?”
“Yes,” Lecanora conceded. “Manos.”
“It’s probably just people getting spooked,” I assured her. “Don’t forget Aegir threw that veil of secrecy over Aegira, so no-one who wished it harm could find it. Not even Manos.”
“That assumes, of course,” Carragheen drawled. “That no-one shows him the way.”
Interesting idea. “You think he has help?”
“I don’t believe in fairy tales.” Carragheen’s dark eyes were still hooded. “In my experience there are enough bad things in real life.” He pulled up short in front of me, standing too close, making too much eye contact, and picked up my arm, where the plasticy ugliness of my angry red scar was like some crazy bracelet. He ran his fingers over it. “I guess you know that too.”
I snatched my arm away. Normally I don’t like to be touched there but for some reason when he did it, I liked it too much. His touch was like some kind of balm.
He looked into me. “Does it hurt?”
“You know, where I come from, you offer a girl a drink before starting the foreplay.”
Carragheen found a place deep inside my head to plant a single, illicit thought: If you think that’s foreplay, you’ve been dating the wrong fish.
I had to fight to ensure my face didn’t reveal the deep, hot burn the comment set off somewhere below my stomach. “Okay, so yeah, it hurts. But not as much as the nightmares.”
Oh God, I am so bad at small talk.
“What do your dreams tell you of this?” He swept his arms in a wide arc.
“Fishing for compliments?” I knew he was referring to Aegira, and all that was happening, but I went for flattery because I didn’t know what to say. “Great place.”