away into a sound somewhere between a hiss and a drone. “Chantressssssssssssss . . .”
Fins and tails flapped, and I felt a wave of affection wafting toward me.
“I—I thought you hated Chantresses,” I said.
“Pressina does,” Odo replied. “And those who follow her. But most of us do not.”
“But we walled you in.”
“You walled Pressina in,” Odo said. “And we know why. Most of us don’t blame you.”
A murmur came from some of the other creatures. The wave of affection diminished, and grief floated toward me. Was this why they’d caged me?
“But of course the magic you Chantresses worked on the wall had terrible consequences for us,” Odo said.
“I—I don’t understand,” I said.
“When you walled Pressina in, she turned on us,” Odo said. “She wanted revenge, she wanted power—and we were the only ones within reach. Oh, she made alliances, of course. She couldn’t have risen in any other way, and there were always creatures who admired her cunning. But most of us hated her. We were always free and easy here in the Depths, but she’d seen the human world, and she wanted to set herself up as an empress. Many have died opposing her. Many of us”—Odo nodded at the other creatures—“have dedicated our existence to overthrowing her.”
So there really was a civil war here. I’d thought that was just another one of Melisande’s lies.
“Since the day she was born, she has tried to use us to feed her own appetites,” a sea horse said in a voice like a dirge. “And once the Chantresses sealed us off she was insatiable. She drained most of us of what magic we had left. But it wasn’t enough to destroy the wall. Nothing was, until your mother sang it down.”
“But you must know all about that already,” Odo said.
“I know something about it. Melisande said Pressina took my mother prisoner, but for a long while Pressina couldn’t make her sing—”
“That’s right,” said Odo. “Pressina caged her, just as she caged you. But of course she couldn’t touch her, not while Viviane had her stone.”
“Why?”
Odo’s eye enlarged to three times its previous size. “You mean you don’t know?”
“No.” My hand went to my stone.
The creatures scuttled back. “Don’t tell her,” one of them cried out.
“Tell me what?” I asked.
“I must,” Odo said to the others. “We cannot have her help unless I do.”
The creatures pulled back even farther.
Odo turned to me. “Chantress stones are made of a substance that repels our own magic.” A tentacle waved, forestalling my next question. “No, no. Don’t ask me what it is. No one here knows. But as long as you keep it around your neck, our magic can’t destroy you, or even gravely harm you. We can cage you, we can set guards around you, but we can’t do serious damage to your body or mind.”
“I’m not sure mine works properly, then,” I said, fingering the edges of my stone. “I’ve been burned by Pressina’s fire.”
“Burned? Chantress, a human would be incinerated by the bolts she hurls. On you, they don’t even leave a scar.”
Oh.
“And that’s not all.” Odo pulled well back from my latticework cage. “Your stone can destroy us.”
“Destroy you?”
“Yes.”
If they thought that, no wonder they’d caged me. “But when you grabbed me, you weren’t hurt.”
“Only because I was careful not to touch your stone.”
“How could you tell, in the dark?”
“It wasn’t so dark for me, Chantress. Your eyes are not like mine. And it was worth the risk.”
I looked out at Odo, and at the multitude of sea creatures ringed around us. “And now you’re keeping me in this cage because you’re worried that I might kill you?”
“Err . . . yes,” Odo said. “We’d much prefer it if you killed Pressina.”
“I should think so.” I tucked the stone far down inside my bodice and eyed them all through the latticework holes. “Look, it’s safe to let me out now. We’re on the same side. And I’ll keep the stone well away from you, I promise.”
The sea creatures murmured uneasily.
“If we’re going to accomplish anything, we have to trust her,” Odo said to them. “She is our ally, not our enemy—and she cannot help us if she is caged.”
A sighing sound of acceptance came from some of the creatures, but others continued to show signs of agitation.
“You can hide from her if you feel the need to,” Odo said patiently.
Here and there, creatures scuttled for safety, holing up in cracks and fissures or leaving the cave entirely. Most, however, held their ground.