Snatched from the jaws of oblivion by a soft embrace, I drift in a place of quiet stillness and peace. I have little sense of time, or of where I end and where the sea begins. I am the currents and the tides, the measureless deeps, the vast blue wilderness, and the ruffled waves above. An immensity fills me, and I inhabit my body as the ocean inhabits me; a universe in a drop of water, and a drop of water in the sea.

At last, awareness returns and I come back to myself enough to register the sensation of water moving against my skin, and of the gentle squeeze of the serpentine coils that cradle me. Slowly, as if the knowledge is percolating through a filter, or falling like gentle rain, I remember who I am and understand it is the nagi, Shanti, who holds me, and that she has saved me from the deep.

Opening my eyes, I see that we float freely in clear blue sun-lanced water surrounded by schools of little fish. Usually, such fish would be frightened of something as large and predatory-looking as a giant snake, but Shanti exudes an aura of peace, and many creatures are drawn to her presence.

A giant ray glides overhead, momentarily casting us in shadow, and a group of turtles circle us, watching with bright, curious eyes. A tiger shark swims past in tranquility, and a cloud of jellies dance beneath us in a gently pulsating ring.

It is not I, but you, to whom they are drawn, Shanti says, reading my mind and speaking inside my head simultaneously. The sea calls to its own.

Roused to full awareness by the sound of her voice, I wince in pain. My head throbs, and as the sense of peace and stillness fades, fear and urgency return.

"Martin..." I stir weakly and cough. A thin trail of blood swirls in the water, and sparkles dance before my eyes. Shanti's hold on me tightens, keeping me in place.

Be still a while yet, my friend, she says, her enormous jewel-scaled head weaving back and forth hypnotically before my eyes. You sank to a great depth, and I could not reach you before some damage had been done. A minute longer, and I would have been too late. The sea will heal you, but you must give it time.

"I don't... have time," I gasp. Pain lances my chest, but my head feels clearer by the second, and a little of my strength returns. "Please. I have to get to Martin and find my mother's statue before it's too late."

Shanti blinks bright black eyes at me and bows her head. Her coils loosen, and I float free. As I do, I see that I've changed a little.

My tail fin is longer than I remember, the scales a bright, iridescent blue, and my hair is longer as well. Webbing stretches between my fingers, and scales like natural arm-guards cover my skin to the elbow. Lifting my hands to the sides of my head, I feel that my ears have become pointed and fanlike, enhancing my ability to hear, and overall my entire body feels larger and more powerful than before.

"What happened to me?"

You embraced the sea, Shanti says. You gave yourself up, and she gave back to you the full potential of your power. It is the only reason, aside from myself, that you are alive.

I contemplate the implications of this for a moment. My father wasn't able to leave the sea once he'd accepted the gift of his mer-form. Whether or not I shall remains to be seen. What matters now is finding Martin and getting him to safety.

"I'm alive," I say. "That's enough, and I have you to thank for it. How did you know we needed your help anyway?"

The wolf-boy. The one who walks in dreams. He said that he saw his father in distress, imprisoned in some dark place. Fortunately, his uncles knew better than to dismiss his words as the mere nightmare imaginings of a child, and summoned me. I attempted to locate Martin first, but he was unreachable within the protective barrier. Next, I tried to find you, and emerged from my portal just in time to see you vanish below, swallowed by the eternal shadow of the deep.

"Where are we now?" I ask, attempting to get my bearings. Nothing surrounds us but the blue of the open sea.

A safe distance from Thassos, Shanti says. I retreated here to give you time to heal.

"Can you take us back?"

Yes; though I cannot accompany you within the barrier unless you wish for me to break it.

I consider. "Send me to Martin," I say. "As close to him as you can get outside the palace. We'll go from there."

She nods her gigantic head and closes her eyes, then blinks them open again in a snaky expression of surprise.

He is no longer within the barrier. He is outside of it.

"That's impossible. That would mean he's..."

In the open sea. We must hurry.

She uncoils the length of her body and begins to swim in a slow circle just below me, like a living ouroboros, her head overlapping her tail. The center of the circle shimmers like a mirror reflecting the sunlight from above. Then it turns smooth as glass, and the portal opens.

Go now, Shanti says. I will be right behind you.

Turning tail over head, I swim straight down and through the circle. I feel a change in pressure and water temperature, but it is not so drastic as the first time I traveled via magic nagi door, and it isn't painful.

I blink, and find myself floating above the kelp forest beyond the palace walls, the expanse of algae waving like a plain of grass in the gentle currents. Above me, the disk of the light shines like the moon, and then shatters like a reflection on still water disturbed by a tossed stone as Shanti's serpentine head emerges from its center, followed by the length of her body.

She swims down and draws alongside me, her head level with mine.

"Where is he?" I ask, scanning the open expanse. "This can't be right."

This is as close as—

A horrific shriek interrupts her, and I spin and glimpse figures in the distance. The sound of a Mer war cry is as terrifying as it is unforgettable, and I recognize Anemone's voice. Without hesitation, I whip my tail and accelerate towards the sound.

Several of the figures break off and flee before Anemone's cry, while two disappear into the kelp forest as if in pursuit of something I can't see.

Of the figures that remain, I recognize one by her flaming red hair and one by her golden helm: Anemone and Natalis.

They lock in battle, but despite her fearsome voice, Anemone is no warrior, and Natalis quickly gains the upper hand — or, more precisely, a chokehold.

As Anemone goes limp, I release my own Voice in a shout of fury that makes the sea ring, and Natalis drops our sister and turns with a look of shock that would be comical in other circumstances.

She recovers herself with admiral swiftness, however, and her look of shock is replaced by one of startling hate.

"It's the traitor!" she screams, pointing at me and drawing the attention of her guards. "He's escaped somehow! Kill him!"

Her quartet of guards turn on me, but the looks of shock then terror on their faces can't be accounted for my own appearance; Shanti, I understand, has appeared at my back.

The guards scatter and flee. Natalis alone holds her position, for which I must give her respect. She may have murdered our father, condemned our mother to a stony imprisonment, and tried to kill me, but she is nothing if not fearless.

"You have friends in high places, I see," she says, as Shanti slowly circles the two of us. "I have underestimated you, brother."

"Where is Martin?"

She smirks triumphantly. "If you have to ask, then you already know. He is dead."

"No." I shake my head at her. "You're lying. You—"

I break off as a light bursts from below us, the ground shattering and exploding upwards in a sphere as if a bomb had gone off underwater.

The sea trembles. Shanti coils about me protectively, and even Natalis retreats.

Something rises from beneath, amid a cloud of shimmering bubbles, glorious and terrifying, beautiful and sublime.

The Queen of the Sea, awakened at last.

Her face is lovely, her hair interwoven with streaks of green, purple, and blue, and her form is beguiling perfection. In her arms, she holds another, whose motionless body makes my heart stall with dread.

My mother, and the man I love more than my own life.

I start to swim towards her; Natalis lifts her spear; Shanti's coils constrict.

Then my mother looks up and fixes me with a stare like green fire.

"Stop."

The word drops from her lips, and time itself seems to freeze.