Chapter 6

Deep in his bones, Rory knew something was terribly wrong; his stomach clenched and his throat tightened. Oysters didn't just putrefy; roe didn't just die altogether; and he had never, in all his years ever seen anything like the coughing sickness that had affected the elderly merman. Even the silence of the River Folk was disconcerting at best. He knew the River Folk were a bit odd; everyone knew that any merperson who preferred the low salinity, shallow banks, and narrow spaces of the river instead of the deep, wide ocean was a bit peculiar. Even their proximity to the humans was extraordinarily risky for merpeople. But the ocean-dwellers accepted their quirky cousins and their unusual customs, for they were willing to go where no other merperson ever dreamed of going. But to have received no news, no communication whatsoever from any of them?

Rory swam faster. He spotted the clump of rocks that looked like a manatee which signaled the beginning of the River Folk territory. He felt the strange shift in salinity in the water; fresh water always made him feel slightly dizzy and light, as if he had suddenly lost half his body weight. Yet the water did not have its characteristic fresh scent, like the air above the waves. There was a heavy, acrid taste at the back of his tongue, He shook his head and his tail to rid himself of the feeling and pressed onward.

But a new fear creeped into his heart. He heard nothing but the flow of water. But he did not hear the laughter of merchildren, the cracking of oysters for meals, the arguing of how to build the best rock shelter...nothing. Not even the whisper of fish or mammals.

Where is everyone? Where are the herders, the bead-makers, the healers? Where?!

Rory raced from shelter to shelter. Inside each, he found the trappings of existence, of River Folk who had surely lived here, but no one was to be found. Rory looked closer in one of the dwellings and found that certain items had been taken: foodstuffs and star-trackers; everything for a long journey.

Seeing this village abandoned shook Rory's core. It was worse than seeing a spectral haunt; seeing a once-bright and vibrant community empty was haunting. A deep despair wound tightly around his heart. He swam slowly from dwelling to dwelling, but each was the same as the last: nothing and no one.

Rory laid down to rest on a river-smooth boulder. It wasn't simply the absence of merpeople or fish that made this place seem so very wrong; it was the smell of it, the taste of the water. It was tangy, metallic, and repulsive. That nothing swam here was almost unbelievable, but the river water was ever-so-faintly, completely horrendous to process through his gills.

The panic threatened to rise again, but he told himself to take one simple (agonizing) breath. All of the sickness and pain and seemed overwhelming; he could not solve this on his own. He was a prince, but only that: just one merman. He could not save his people by himself. But he could not rouse himself at the moment. He could only wear the heavy absence of the River Folk like a blanket of seaweed around him.

Suddenly, he heard a clattering close by. He sat up and hovered until he could locate it. There!

A lone merman was exiting one of the coves.

"Hallo! Cousin!" Rory exclaimed.

The merman turned as Rory swam quickly over to him.

"Prince Rory," the merman acknowledged.

"Cousin, what has happened here? Where is everyone?"

The merman scanned the emptiness, as if he could summon everyone back.

"We left. Too many were sick or dead from the black mud the humans dump into our river waters. So we took only what was necessary to travel south, to warmer waters, to the Reefs of a Thousand Colors. We left to wait out this invasion; we left our memories and our belongings in the hope that we will return someday, but... I don't think we ever will."

The merman wound a coral necklace around his hands. "I came back for this. I gave it to my beholden on the day we united, and it is the only thing I hold sacred. I cannot leave it for hope, because the humans have poisoned hope."

Rory's head spun. "What? Black mud? Where does it come from?"

"It is an evil spring that spews forth a vile substance. It is attached to an enormous structure, the likes of which I have never seen, even for humans. It sits nearly on the banks of the river, and the humans open the spring every evening at sundown."

The faint stirrings of anger quickened Rory's heart. "Will you show me where it is, this spring?"

The merman shook his head. "No, my prince. The water is too filthy, and the black mud burns to touch. I would not go near it for all the pearls in the ocean. But if you want to see it yourself, simply keep swimming upstream, until you reach the water lilies and foxtails. Then you will see the vile spring yourself."

Rory reached out his tail to the merman. "Thank you, sir, for telling me where thishorrible thing is. I commend you for coming back. Keep your family safe, and send word by the Oarfish if and when you can, to let the Royal Family know the state of the River Folk."

The merman reached out his tail and wrapped it formally around Rory's and bowed his head, in the custom of acknowledging a prince. "Thank you, kind prince, for understanding. I hope that you see with your own eyes what destruction the humans have wrought."

"I have seen enough already. Go, and may Neptune speed your way."

The merman nodded and swam off into the distance.