Water

Wave Thirty Two

The odour hit Leira before she sensed the vibration of them. She could smell their sweat and the sweet musky scent of their bodies. And then she felt them. Their beings. They weren’t as complex as the Mer and she could detect their singleminded desire to migrate, to follow the warmth to their homeland. She moved her head and looked in the direction the other Scouts were peering in. She still couldn’t see them, but she did as the other Mer and jostled her way into place.
         
The Scouts formed parallel lines on either side of the warm channel of water the seahorses would be following. A few of them had handfuls of seagrass clenched in their fingers, wilting in the heat of the current. Leira was relieved to see that Nerida had ended up next to her. She looked across the width of the channel and saw Tal and Hali in the line opposite them. Hali looked away and Leira followed her gaze.
         
A great rush of bubbles was sweeping toward them, with giant shadows behind them. She tried to look behind the shadows, searching for the seahorses. With a start, she realised the shadows were the seahorses. They were colossal, bigger than anything she could’ve imagined. She’d caught glimpses of them in the Herd consciousness earlier that morning, but that still hadn’t prepared her for the sheer size of them. They were bigger than most of the Mer gathered in wait for them. And the colours! Although they were still some distance away, Leira could see the seahorses were an array of colours; every colour conceivable. Some of them were marked with more than one shade, or had bands of colours shimmering down their bodies in rings. The first of them reached the lines of waiting Scouts, propelled there by the fast-moving current. Firth reached up to its horned head and deftly swung his tail across its back, wrapping it around the seahorse’s abdomen. His muscles flexed and retracted, but he effortlessly stayed on as the seahorse twisted and bucked. His face was a picture of sheer will and determination.
         
Leira didn’t have time to watch any more after that, as dozens more seahorses thundered down the current. She saw Mer further down the line leap at the seahorses – some of them managed to cling on, as Firth had done, but far more were thrown off, or simply missed completely. It would’ve been comical to watch if so much didn’t depend upon not failing, Leira thought. She watched as a Scout on Hali’s side of the line tried to grab at a creature’s snout, but it heaved its mouth away from their hand and broke through the line of Scouts. Hali darted after it and swiped its side gently with her tail. The frightened seahorse turned to look at its flank and Hali seized the opportunity to jump on it and wrap her tail around. She put her arms around its neck and focused on balancing.
         
Leira realised she’d drifted into the current and was in the path of several seahorses sweeping toward her. Panicking, she doubled back across the current, but one of the beasts knocked into her sending them both spinning. It forced the breath from her lungs. She felt its horned tail curl around her wrist, desperate to try and anchor itself. It was struggling to escape and she was being dragged along behind it, still following the relentless flow of the current. She could barely see as rows of blurred Mer faces rushed past her and knew she’d be carried away unless she acted fast. She tried to pull her arm away from the seahorse’s tail, but that only made it grasp her tightly. Desperate, Leira reached out her mind to the seahorse’s. She sensed panic and a rush of fear.
         
Tentatively, she projected thoughts of calm and tranquillity, not words, but soothing thoughts. The animal slowed, and Leira managed to coax it out of the fast-flowing current and into the cold water. She kept her focus and eased herself onto its back, her mind gently encouraging it as she did. She lightly coiled her tail around its abdomen and nestled in the small of its back.
         
Clinging to its neck, she turned it to face the direction they’d come from and directed it back to the lines of Scouts. She soon reached Hali, who was still riding her seahorse, and looked for Nerida and Tal. Both had managed to secure a seahorse, although Nerida looked somewhat wobbly on hers. 
       
Leira took a moment to regain her breath and look at her charge. Her seahorse was black, with glimmering specks of gold flecked across its hide. Its eyes were wide and dark, not seeming to settle to look at one place in particular. It had a row of ivory coloured horns protruding from its head and down its back. Its tail formed a tight coil. Hali’s seahorse was a deep sapphire colour, with light blue veins running across it. Tal’s was lilac and Nerida’s was a pale yellow. Hali and Tal drew their seahorses closer to Leira. Nerida attempted to follow them, but was having difficulties. She released her tail from around the seahorse for a split second to try to readjust her position, but this allowed the seahorse to rear up, foaming at the mouth.  
         
It bolted. Nerida tried to cling to it, but without her tail wrapped round it, the seahorse managed to dart away. Hali looked furious, but before she could react, Tal reached for Nerida’s wrist and pulled her up onto his seahorse.
(Come on!) He shouted his thought to her. (We’re wasting time!)
(No, Tal. I’ll slow you down.) Nerida tried to leave, but Tal gripped her tail and encouraged her to twine it around his. Somehow, they managed to stay on the seahorse.
(We go together,) he thought.
(Or not at all,) Nerida replied, her head tilted as she looked at him.
         
The four span and directed their seahorses toward the Nest. Hali’s shot forward and so did Tal’s. Leira’s turned its head and looked balefully down at her, unmoving.
(Dig your tail in, Leira!) Leira heard Hali project at her. Leira gently dug her tail into the seahorse’s side and gasped. She was flying.
         
Never before had Leira travelled at such speed and she revelled in the pure joy and freedom. Her hair streamed out behind her as she raced forward. She felt her mind merge with the seahorse’s, its fear subsiding as they sped along – it too was enjoying the pace. She darted in and out of other riders, leaving them spinning in her wake as she made for the Nest. She heard two seahorses collide behind her. She did not pause to look back, although she smelt blood.
         
She followed Hali and Tal to the Citadel gates, noting they were amongst the first of the Scouts who’d been able to tame and ride their seahorses all this way. The scene just outside the Nest was one of Scouts who had tumbled from their seahorses and of riderless animals making their way quickly back to the current, ready to continue their migration. She realised she was travelling far too quickly now and knew unless she slowed, she’d crash into the wall. She loosened her grip on her seahorse, but it continued to race toward the wall at breakneck speed. 
         
Impulsively, Leira touched its mind and soothed it until it slowed. She directed it toward the gates. Just as she went to pass through, she felt a rush of water. Glancing across, Leira saw a rider, unable to stop his beast, hurtle into the Nest’s wall. The seahorse crumpled, gave a shriek of distress, and drifted heavily down to the seabed. It twitched once, then was still. The rider, a young Mer with frightened eyes, had managed to leap off at the last moment. Several Healers rushed over to him and ushered him into the Citadel. Horrified, Leira held her seahorse at bay to let them pass.
         
Once through the gates, Leira drew her seahorse up and guided it closer to Hali, Tal, and Nerida.
(Did you see that?) Leira thought at them, shocked and upset.
(Yeah,) replied Tal dismissively. (One or two die every year. Happens all the time.) Nerida held out her hand to Leira and tried to calm her. Leira felt tears prickle in the corners of her eyelids. She changed the subject to prevent them from falling. She didn’t want to look weak in front of her team.
(Now what?) she thought impatiently.
(Now we find the orb,) Hali snapped back. (Kai usually hides it somewhere in the centre,) she continued vaguely. (He makes us race all the way through the Nest so we put on more of a display.)
(What, so it could be anywhere?) Leira thought back, aghast.
(Relax. We’ll find it. Let’s just head to the centre. It’s just like training – track and locate. Besides, it’s probably in the meadow.)
         
Hali gave Leira a meaningful look and Leira bowed her head. Hali was right; it would be so like Kai to hide the orb in the meadow. It was the last place she wanted to be after yesterday’s shame. The four of them dug their tails in to their seahorses and continued to navigate their way to the centre of the Citadel. By now, several other Scouts had made it back to the Nest. Leira found herself fighting for position to keep up with her team.
         
As they ventured further into the Nest, more and more Mer from other clans appeared, lining the streets to cheer the Scouts and watch the race. Leira focused her attention on following Hali, knowing Tal and Nerida were close by her side. Her seahorse, unused to the passageways of a Mer nest, kept taking the corners too wide. It scraped on a rocky cavern wall, scattering the Mer nearby. They laughed and jeered as they darted out of her way. Tal and Nerida’s seahorse pulled ahead of her; she was being too cautious. Hurtling along, Leira tried to catch up.
         
She sensed another Mer alongside her. She chanced a sideways look and saw a short Scout, leaning low over his seahorse. Copying his posture, Leira flattened herself against her seahorse, her face just inches from its back. They accelerated and she began to overtake. She saw Tal’s seahorse disappear into a narrow passageway. Worried, she glanced at the Mer riding alongside her. They wouldn’t both fit down there. Pressing herself lower still, Leira leaned forward and felt her seahorse strain beneath her. They edged ahead of the other Mer. Out of the corner of her eye, Leira could see him veering away from her. He was out of her eyeline. She breathed a quick sigh of relief.
         
The Mer’s seahorse slammed into her without warning. She struggled to stay upright, managing to wrap her arms back around her seahorse just in time. The Mer had knocked her off course; she was heading straight for a wall! With seconds to spare, Leira forced her seahorse to move sideways. Clinging to it with her arms, she unwrapped her tail and swiped it at the Mer. His seahorse took fright and bolted, just as Leira made it into the narrow street. Leira sped away before she could see what became of them. Looking back quickly, she glimpsed a riderless seahorse emerge timidly from a nearby cavern, poking its long nose through the entrance hole. Several Mer children swam to it, delighted, before it raced away, back up toward the current.
         
Hali steered her seahorse into a side street just before they were due to reach the meadow. Not many other Scouts had made it this far, with most of them crashing into rocks or skidding off their seahorses by now.
(We’re nearly there,) gasped Hali. (When we get to the meadow, we need to fan out in our diamond formation and sweep through the long grass.)
Tal and Nerida nodded their agreement, panting with exertion. Leira’s gaze was elsewhere, distracted. She’d seen movement on the wall closest to them, and watched as a small transparent shrimp scuttled along.
         
An idea occurred to her and she tried to dismiss it, shaking her head, but it stuck. Knowing the others were watching, Leira reached out her mind to the shrimp, carefully. Its thoughts were so small and fragile. They flowed into Leira quickly. She could only catch fragments of feelings.
(Please. Slow down, little one,) she thought soothingly. The shrimp continued to scurry across the wall, its legs moving hurriedly.
(Have you seen a Mer hiding an orb around here?) No reply. What had she expected? Sighing with frustration, Leira channelled her full concentration into overwhelming the shrimp’s mind without breaking it. Patches of memories came floating across to her: the shrimp nibbling at a floating crumb, the shrimp gnawing at the algae on a Healer’s tail, and then, the faded vision of Kai’s face shone into view – he was holding a small red orb in the palm of his hand.
(Him!) she thought to the shrimp. (Where is he?)
(BigMerredballwall,) came the frenzied reply. Leira tried to assemble the jumble of words into a sentence. Big Mer. Red ball. Wall. The orb was hidden in the Nest wall!
She released the shrimp and it floated away. Excited now, she turned to her teammates.
         
(We have to go back! It isn’t in the meadow, it’s in the wall. Everyone else is racing here to get it and it’s right back where we started!) Hali looked at Leira curiously, as though assessing her.
(What makes you think that?) Suspicion caused her thought to sound strained and Leira paused before replying. Using her Guardian training had caused them all trouble yesterday. If she admitted to using it today, she’d lose her team’s trust completely. But they had to win.
(It’s just a hunch,) she pleaded with Hali. (Come on, Hali. Tal, Nerida – you know I understand how Kai thinks. He hates me. He’s changed things up this year, to throw us off track. He wants us – me - to fail.)
         
Hali snorted, incredulous. (He wouldn’t do that to us. Now, if you’ve got nothing better to go on than a hunch…) she let her thought fade and stared at Leira. Leira started to turn her seahorse around, determined to get back to the wall, but Hali grabbed her injured hand. Leira whimpered in pain.
(It’s all of us, or none of us, Guardian. And we’re going to the meadow.) Hali dropped Leira’s hand and continued to stare at Leira, challenging her. Leira felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to rise and she curled her upper lip to reveal her teeth, meeting Hali’s challenge. She saw Tal give the slightest shake of his head, and it was enough to distract her, breaking her eye contact with Hali. The challenge was over; Leira had submitted. She had no choice but to reel after the others as they darted toward the meadow, joining the other Scouts who’d already reached it.
         
Leira copied the Scouts already on the meadow and, clinging to her seahorse with her tail, reached her hands down to scour the long seagrass. She wondered how long she’d have to keep up the act when she realised her seahorse had stopped moving. Instead of racing, it had come to a complete halt and was bending its elegant neck to snaffle its snout amongst the long twisty grass. She looked around and noticed most of the other Scouts were having the same problem. She stifled a chuckle at the odd scene and dug her tail back into her seahorse. It continued reluctantly across the meadow and Leira kept on batting at the grass, looking for the orb.
       
As more and more Scouts rushed onto the meadow, atop their seahorses, it soon became clear the orb was not hidden in the grass. Leira wanted to suggest slipping away, to check the wall, but she didn’t dare. Not so soon after narrowly escaping a challenge with Hali. She looked over at Hali, whose movements were becoming more and more frantic as she searched desperately for the orb. Tufts of seagrass floated around her as she tore blades out in her frustration. Leira was saved the trouble of trying to figure out their next move as ripples of news began to be projected through the crowds and across the meadows.
(-ound.)
(Found.)
(It’s been found!)
         
Leira sat up on her seahorse and scrunched her eyes so she could see across the meadow. Kai was perched on a pillar at the far end of the meadow, but even from this distance, Leira could see a smirk on his face as he made eye contact with her. Firth came bursting into view, moving with natural agility on his seahorse. His face shone with triumph and his eyes sparkled as he gazed at the crowds milling around him. He brought his seahorse expertly to a stop and thrust his arm into the air. High above his head, clutched inside his palm, was the small red orb.
         
Leira couldn’t bring herself to look at the others as she slid from her seahorse and watched it race up, back to join its own kind. But she couldn’t stop herself from receiving Nerida’s defeated projection, her beautiful voice tinged with sadness,
(We failed.)