Today's Reading
Theseus slipped toward a tangle of red growing in the shade of a rocky outcropping. A good find. She twisted and started to follow, her gaze catching on a fist-sized shell. Her heart beat a double rhythm. Coral be drowned if that oyster held a pearl. She released more air and curled downward, kicking toward the rough, dark prize.
She tried to wiggle the shell free. No good. Her hand slipped and a thin stream of pink swirled from one of her fingertips followed by a stinging burn. She took up the hammer once more and attacked the shell, jarring it free. The protest in her lungs turned insistent.
Tucking the oyster and hammer in the mesh bag alongside the coral, Demi arced upward. She glanced toward Theseus.
Bubbles from her own startled exhale clouded her vision but not the image of her brother, locked in a struggle with a thrashing moray eel. Longer than Theseus was tall, the moray's mottled brown-gray skin flashed in the light as it writhed, jerking her brother with it.
Let it go, Theseus.
And then she saw he couldn't.
The moray's ugly jaws were locked on her brother's wrist.
Blood swirled in the water around them. Her chest burned as she started for Theseus, black spots dotting the edges of her vision. She'd been down too long.
Demi straightened and made for the surface, panic and prayers jumbling in her mind. Theseus was sure to follow. Surface at the first sign of trouble. That was Pater's rule, pounded into their ears since childhood. She tilted her head back, spitting saltwater and sucking in a lungful of air as she emerged. Calm sea breezes ruffled the turquoise water, the sun shining white in a cloudless sky. Perfection masking the terror below.
She turned in a circle, scanning for her brother's dark head above the waves. They'd hunted eels before while they dove. Dragged them out of the depths and wrestled them into the boat. Why did Theseus not surface now? Perhaps he couldn't.
Demi drew another breath and ducked under, working the tiny stone knife from her bag as she kicked downward. The roar of thrashing bodies deafened her ears.
Morays were not normally aggressive, but they wouldn't back down from a fight if they wanted one. She'd heard of another diver who'd been bitten on the ankle and the moray wouldn't—or couldn't—release him until after he'd killed it. A fight with a moray was often a fight to the death. But whose? A burst of fear and anger drove her forward. She'd lost too much already. Her parents, her sister, her future husband. A pang shot through her chest.
She would not lose her only brother too. Scrambling for her knife, she swung hard, striking toward the eel's slithering spine. The animal recoiled but didn't relinquish its grip on Theseus's arm. She slashed at it, but the jerking and thrashing made accuracy impossible. The flick of a dark tail struck her shoulder. She reached for it. Missed.
Pater's voice echoed in her ears again. Surface at the first sign of trouble. Your life is worth more than all the coral or pearls. Maybe to Pater. Not to Mersad.
Theseus beat at the bulging head as the eel writhed. Frustration mounted. Why wasn't he—her gaze lowered, and then she saw it. Her brother's foot caught in the coral.
Demi curled downward, fingers shaking and fumbling as she exchanged the stone knife for her coral hammer. Theseus jerked his foot, but it stuck fast, blood swirling in the water. She cracked the hammer against the coral, scattering a slow spray of shards. Free. She pivoted toward him, pointing upward.
Her hand drooped.
Theseus's arms and legs splayed, limp. Eyes open, face slack. He drifted away from her, the eel clamped to his wrist and curling beside him like a thick oily ribbon in the water.
Fear struck like a knife to her heart.
Not Theseus too, God. Grant me strength.
Ignoring the moray, she tucked an arm around Theseus's chest and kicked, propelling them upward, dragging the struggling eel behind. Her prayers and strokes grew stronger with the streaming light, blocked only slightly by the dark shadow of the boat. The rope ladder dangled over the side, frayed ends waving in the water. God be praised they'd remembered to leave it out this time.
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