Flux

in the distance, and now it was disappearing from view entirely as they continued south. The gull was flapping lazily above them.
    Miner jumped slightly when there was an especially loud splash alongside the boat. A head covered in pale green hair appeared briefly and something heavy was tossed onto the bottom of the craft, rattling against the wood. There was a flash of a sharp-toothed smile and then the mermaid was gone.
    Miner poked experimentally at the object. It was tin and circular with a flat top and bottom; the top had an abstract design stamped into it. It was about a foot and a half in diameter and it looked like a perfectly ordinary container, only wet. “What is it?”
    “It’s from a ship’s larder. I expect a lot of ships lost cargo after yesterday’s…events…and some ships must have been destroyed entirely.” Ennek looked grim over that thought, then sighed. “I just asked for some food, something humans might eat. Open it and see what’s inside.”
    Miner had a little difficulty prying the lid open because it was quite tight. Inside he found rounds of hardtack as well as dried meat of some kind—beef, he thought—wrapped in thin muslin. It wasn’t exactly a gourmet repast but it was food, and considerably better than the garbage he’d been eating in the enclosure.
    Ennek desalinated another potful of water and they dipped the biscuits into it, making them a little easier to chew. Miner ate very slowly, occasionally having a nibble of the jerky as well. Ennek ate too, holding the food with one hand while he moved the tiller with the other. “I wish I could get you some strawberries. Or cherries. I wonder if they have them here?”
    Miner smiled at him. “Another time. Right now it’s good just to have something in my stomach.”
    “I never got you any books or drawing things in Donghe.”
    “We were a little busy.”
    “Yeah, I suppose so.”
    “But you kept hold of my bag. How? And how did you get free?” Miner realized he sounded a little plaintive, but he’d been wondering about Ennek’s fate for many days now and he wanted answers.
    “You want my story from the beginning?”
    “Please!”
    Ennek nodded and swallowed a mouthful of hardtack. “All right. After we were out on the veranda with the king, I woke up in this tiny cell, with a horrible headache and no sign of you. I called and screamed, but nobody answered. I figured at least it was a good thing they hadn’t killed me at once. But gods, Mine, I had no idea if you were alive still, or where you were…. I would have dug myself out of that cell with my bare hands, if I could have.”
    Miner nodded. “I didn’t know if you were alive either.”
    “I tried to use my magic, but there was no water anywhere near, nothing to call on for power. I just had to sit and wait. They fed me now and then, and there was this little barred window way up high where I could see the sky, but that was all. And then eventually they fetched me at knifepoint, and the King and some of his advisors asked me loads of questions about where I was from and what I could do and what Akilina wanted. That king was such a fool! I think he considered wizards capable of little more than parlor tricks. He hadn’t any idea how much power we can wield. His advisors kept telling him to take care, but he wouldn’t listen. He was an arrogant man and stubborn.”
    The seagull that had been tracking them dipped down closer as if to listen to their conversation. It looked as if it might be considering actually landing on the boat, but Ennek threw a biscuit at it. It squawked but then fished the hardtack out of the water before rising back into the sky.
    Ennek continued his tale. “The king didn’t fear me, but he fancied…taming me, I suppose. Keeping me about to entertain, as a sort of court jester. I was just waiting for some chance to escape and find you. And then it rained and I called to the rainwater and asked it to search you out. I don’t know what I’d have done if you were indoors. Gods, you’ve no idea how relieved I was to learn you were still alive, and nearby.”
    “Oh, I think I’ve a rather good idea, actually. And I remember that rain. It was soothing. Almost as if I could hear your voice in it.”
    “Where were you? I know it was close, but—”
    “I was in that pen we’d passed, the one with the metal fences.”
    Ennek swore in several languages. “On display like…like—”
    “Leave it be, En,” Miner said