Kai stands closer to me. I put a hand on her shoulder but she doesn’t move.
“No wonder my ears won’t un-pop.”
“Get on with it,” Gwen urges.
Del draws a line with charcoal from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. “This pass right here is where you want to go. The Cross-Atlantic Channel should take you there. The caves are protected by the ancient magics. But as long as the trident is broken, the magic won’t hold.”
“And to think,” Gwen says darkly, “a young merman like you knows what the heralds of our kingdom do not.”
It sounds like a compliment to Del, but there’s acid to her tone. She shakes it off immediately and forcibly avoids eye contact.
“I can take us there,” Kai says.
“Kai—you’ve been through a lot,” I say. “I can’t thank you enough. But maybe you should take Del to Toliss.”
“No!” she barks. “My father led a long life. Don’t feel sorry for me. It is not the way of our kind. This was his secret to bear and I will make sure it is kept. I’m going with you.”
I squeeze her hand and nod. There aren’t enough words for me to thank her.
“When I was younger, my father used to take me to collect samples there. There are shipwrecks for miles down there. I knew it was sacred land. The king forbade traveling there.”
“What about me?” Del squeaks.
“Go to Toliss,” I say. “Tell no one but the king.” I look through my backpack for anything I can find. I have a sealed packet of gummy bears. “Give him this. He likes candy.”
Kai runs into the back room and returns wielding a short metal sword. “Take this.”
“What’s th-that for?” Del’s voice cracks. Man, I’m glad I hit puberty before becoming a merman.
I press my finger on the tip. It’s slightly dull, but it’ll do the trick. “Just in case anything tries to eat you, bro.”
“Yes, sir. Lord Sea. I mean, thank you, Lord Sea.”
I pat his back, trying to remember the fear that comes with driving a sword into something—anyone, no matter how terrible. We follow the cold stone path back to the channels and I tell him, “Just call me Tristan.”
Eels scatter as we race between boulders and down ridges with nothing to light the way except the Scepter of Earth. The graceful movement of Kai’s fins has become quick, flicking like a whip. Along the way, she cries out in a song. I can feel it snaking in and out of my heart, filling all the empty places. Longing, sadness—it’s all there sifting out of me into the water.
We swim hard and fast until I think my tail will fall off. Nearly an hour passes before we can locate the channel. It’s not like highways with big green signs ticking off miles.
No matter how hard I try, the current is so hard that my face might as well be the grill of my dad’s car catching lots of little sea bugs. The water gets warmer and bluer as we go along.
Kai is the first to pull out of the channel. This time, Gwen makes a face and holds on to her stomach like she’s seasick, which makes me laugh until I realize puking underwater is probably worse than on the surface.
The ground is speckled with geysers. When they blow, we’re surrounded by warm bubbles. Here there’s a shipwreck, the bones of the ship covered in coral and seaweed and shadow.
Kai hovers around a thick yellow patch of weeds. She parts the grass in half, then, unsatisfied, moves along to the next.
“What are you looking for?” My voice comes out in a clear vibration.
“The entrance.”
“What does it look like?”
“I’ll know when I see it.”
We sift through a soccer field of weeds and still there’s nothing but sand and rock and the hollow skeletons of shipwrecks. An entire fleet must’ve sunk here. Golden trinkets are strewn about, along with soggy rags and undisturbed human bones.
“Over here!” Gwen shouts.
Past the ships, away from the geysers where stiff green trees sway in a semi-circle, there is a speck of gold beneath the sand. The ground has been turned over and littered with gravel. The three of us dig with our hands until we uncover the round door. It’s solid gold with the image of the tree etched in it, like a manhole steaming in the middle of Times Square.
“Be careful,” I say. “They might still be down there.” I head down first with the light of my