Marina Snaptail's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

Marina kept her promise for three days. She led visitors east, told the old stories at the coral arch, and did not swim near the chapel. The badge on her chest felt heavier each morning. She had bought quiet, but quiet did not prove her worth. Then, on the fourth morning, Sister Liera Jura came to find her at the arch, hands folded tight. "Something has arrived," the nun said softly. "Inside the chapel. A package. It came through a door I did not know we had." Marina felt her tail go still. Sister Liera looked toward the red spires. "It was not the western door. It was another one. Please come. I do not know what to do with it." Marina followed her inside. The chapel was cool and dim. Sister Liera led her past the altar, behind a curtain of pale kelp, to a low stone wall Marina had passed a dozen times. The nun pressed two scales beside a carving of a fish. The wall slid back one hand's width. Behind it sat a chest of sea glass and polished coral, small bubbles drifting up from its seams. Marina stared. A hidden door. Not the one Nerilith guarded. A different one. "It came at first light," Sister Liera whispered. "From the surface. There is a mark on the lid I do not know." Marina bent close. The mark was a simple ring of three waves. She had seen it once, on a crate at the market. Kaelon Tidewave had a ledger of surface marks. He traded with the dry world more than anyone. If she brought him the mark, he could name the sender. Marina's mind moved fast. This was the chance her badge needed. A guide who could explain a surface package to the Guardian was a guide worth keeping. But she had promised to stay away from the western door, not this one. The agreement was narrow. She had room here, if she was careful. "Sister," she said, "leave the chest closed. Tell no one. I will bring back a name by evening." She swam to the market and found Kaelon behind his stall. She drew the three waves in the sand. His grin faded. "That is a scholar's mark," he said. "Surface folk who study drowned places. They send gifts before they send themselves. Whoever opened your side of that door invited them." Marina's chest went cold. Someone in Bubblantis had a standing arrangement with the surface, through a door only they knew. Someone had answered a letter she had never seen. She swam back to the chapel before dusk. Sister Liera waited by the kelp curtain, and beside her, arms folded, tail dark against the pale stone, stood Nerilith Vaeles. Nerilith's eyes fixed on Marina. "You found the other door," she said, soft and careful. "Then we must talk about the first one after all."