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.None came forth to take his place, and the mer said this was treason.No mer could take his place; no mer has the gift, your gift.**Gift? You mean no mer can become a seamage?* Chaser gestured the affirmative and hung there, waiting.*And they want to use my child, my son, for this?**Yes, Seamage Flaxal.It is the only reason that makes sense.**But I saw Kelpie and Tailwalker with them! Did they also seek to resurrect this city using my son?**I do not know Kelpie’s mind on this, Seamage Flaxal, but Tailwalker was taken against his will.They have your son; he is alive, and they go to Akrotia.* He made a gesture of helplessness.*The rest is supposition.**Supposition?* she signed, her anger returning.*You don’t know? How do you know my son lives?**Our allies, the deep dwellers, helped me track the Seamage Flaxal’s Heir,* he signed, posturing submission again.*Trident Holder Broadtail consulted with them, asked their help.The dolphins and I followed his scent with their aid.They go to where Akrotia lies, where no mer goes, where no landwalker goes.There can be only one reason to take The Heir to Akrotia, Seamage Flaxal.*She stared at him for a moment, her mind whirling with questions which she knew he could not, or would not answer.There was one question, however, that she could ask: *Why do you sign this to me, Chaser? Why would the mer tell me this?**The mer know your anger, Seamage Flaxal,* he signed, his colors shifting submissively.*If you blamed all mer for the loss of son, you would destroy us.*Cynthia smiled with sudden realization; this sounded more like mer logic, mer reasoning.*So you told me it was not your fault to save your lives.Is that right?**Yes, that is right, Seamage Flaxal.We submit to you.We do not want you to hate us.**And what of your attack on the landwalker ships, Chaser.Should I not blame you for that as well?**That was the will of The Voice, Seamage Flaxal; we could not disobey it!* He swished his tail in discomfort, and signed, *Though it seems now that Eelback’s persuasion of the mer was to manipulate the decision of The Voice for his own ends.He wanted the attack to happen as you returned from the burning island, to lure you into acting against us, against The Voice.In his mind, this justified his attack on you, though not the taking of your heir.*Cynthia staggered a step back, glaring at Chaser in shock.“They manipulated me,” she said, turning to Feldrin.“One of the mer manipulated all the others into deciding to attack the warships, to provoke me.It was all just a ploy! All he wanted was our son, Feldrin!”“But why?” the Morrgrey asked, still glaring at the mer.“Why take our son?”“They, not all of them, but some of them, want to use our son to bring some kind of a dead city back to life.I’m not sure what he’s talking about, something built by the mer and land — er, I mean humans, a long time ago.”“Bring a city back to life? What the bloody…”“Not humans,” another voice interrupted.Both of them turned, and Cynthia was astonished to see Ghelfan step from the crowd and nod.“Elves built the city with the mer, Cynthia.The legend of Akrotia is rarely spoken of by my elvish ancestors.It happened eons ago, before humans even came to this land.The city was built by magic, enchanted to become a living thing, at the cost of a life.At the cost of the life of a seamage.”“And now this mer intends to use our son to bring the thing back to life?” Feldrin glared, his features darkening with his anger.“I don’t believe it! Why him? Why us?”“Odea’s gifts are not bestowed upon the mer,” Ghelfan explained.He looked slightly uncomfortable.“The agreements between the mer and the elves became strained as the population of Akrotia grew.The mer insisted that the city be expanded to accommodate even more of them, and the elves refused.The city became overcrowded with mer and they became unreasonable, aggressive, violent.Disease burned through their population, killing thousands, and the seamage who was bound to Akrotia became ill.When he died, Akrotia died.The elves would not sacrifice another to prolong agreements that they deemed unwise to begin with, and abandoned Akrotia.The mer have never forgiven us for this.”“But it hasn’t happened yet,” Feldrin said, his hand flexing on the hilt of his sword
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