Izar slipped out of bed and fumbled through his satchel on the desk chair. He extracted the amber scroll from his gray tin, then slipped back under the blanket. Unrolling the scroll, he perused the single line scribbled on it: Find Tang Tarpon. He will guide you to the elixir. Below the line, at the bottom-right corner of the parchment, only the letter O remained in the name of the author; the rest of the name had been erased when Izar had held the parchment under the faucet at Ocean Dominion. Izar turned the note over and ran his thumb over the embossed P&P logo Tang had noticed in its top-left corner.
“When we were in Tang’s house,” Izar said, looking at Coralline, “he said that this logo is of a stationery shop called Printer & Parchment, located in Velvet Horn. I’d like to trace this note back to that stationery shop and locate this person whose name starts with the letter O. According to the map of Meristem in Venant’s living room, Velvet Horn is just a short distance away from here. It should be a swim of about an hour or so, I think.”
“But why do you want to trace the note?”
Because Izar wanted—rather, needed—to know: How had he come to possess the note? What was he even doing in the ocean? How could he transform automatically between human and merman? There was a chance he would find the answers to these questions by tracing the note to its source. But he could not find the words to explain any of this to Coralline. It was, more than anything else, a hunch.
“You can consider it a personal errand,” he said. “I’ll explain when I’m back. In the meantime, I’m sorry to ask this—I know you want to return home with the elixir as soon as possible for your brother—but would you give me just this morning to see if I can trace this note? Maybe you can prepare a remedy for Venant while I’m gone? I promise I’ll be back to you no later than noon. Then I’d like to accompany you to Urchin Grove.”
“What? Why?”
Izar had been hoping for enthusiasm, but he could understand her alarm—things were moving at lightning-speed between them. “Don’t worry, I won’t enter your home or meet your family,” he clarified. “I just want to see you home safe. After that, I’d like to return to land, tend to some unfinished business, then return to you as soon as possible in Urchin Grove.”
“What then?”
“Then I’d like to give us a chance. A real chance. I’d like to move to Urchin Grove to be with you.”
Coralline’s eyes widened, then blinked so rapidly that her eyelashes made Izar think of windshield wipers.
“We can discuss the details later, but may I accompany you to Urchin Grove before I leave for land?”
Coralline nodded slightly. Then she swiveled away from him, reached a hand into her satchel on the floor, and turned to face him again. The room was suddenly lit by the elixir, which she placed on the palm of his hand. He raised a quizzical eyebrow at her.
“Venant warned me that constables were here just yesterday, looking for me,” Coralline explained. “He told them he’s never seen me before, but he said they seemed dubious, because they had heard he’d been seen talking to me at the Ball. He thinks they may return this morning. In case they do, I’d like to ask you to carry the elixir with you. If they catch me, I’d like you to take the elixir to my brother. If they don’t, I’ll take the elixir from you when you return from Velvet Horn.”
Izar curled his fingers around the silver sphere; the light disappeared in his fist like a smothered flame. He buried the elixir in an under-compartment of his satchel, in order to hide its light.
Coralline whirled away from him and dug again through her satchel. When she turned to face him again, she handed him a pen and a notepad embossed with algae. “You can use these in case you need to write directions or anything else while tracing your elixir note,” she said.
Izar smiled at her, and she smiled back, but the smile did not reach her eyes.
“You said we’d leave for Urchin Grove when morning turned to afternoon,” Pavonis said through the window. “It’s afternoon now.”
“Yes,” Coralline agreed, from her perch on the windowsill, her gaze roving the waters for a sign of Izar’s indigo tail.
“I, too, don’t understand why we’re still here if you have the elixir, Coralline,” Altair grumbled. Rising from the seabed, he arrived at her elbow at the windowsill, his dorsal fin beating so fast that it was transparent. “You prepared a remedy for Venant, and he’s feeling better, yet we’re still here.”
“Yes,” Coralline said absentmindedly.
She’d had second thoughts about Izar when they’d lain together in bed. She should have told him she was engaged, but she hadn’t because she was planning to end her relationship with Ecklon immediately upon returning to Urchin Grove, given that he was betraying her. She would tell Izar about Ecklon later, when Izar returned to her from land, by which time Ecklon would be a part of her past, not her present. When Izar returned to her, she and he would begin a relationship built on a foundation of honesty.
“Where is the elixir?” Nacre asked, appearing over the top of the windowsill, her tentacles dangling downward above Coralline’s head.
“It’s with Izar.”
The three animals cried out in unison.
“The elixir is for Naiadum,” Coralline clarified, “but Izar is carrying it for now. Don’t worry: It was my idea. He’ll give the elixir back to me as soon as he gets back.”
“From where?” Pavonis demanded.
“A personal errand.”
“A personal errand . . .” Altair repeated sickly.
“You young fool!” Nacre screeched, her tentacles jerking wildly. “You lost the elixir just when you had it!”
“Izar won’t return,” Pavonis growled. “He’s probably on his way back to land as we speak, where he’ll soon begin prancing about on his ugly legs. I was right about him—we should never have trusted a human. And I was wrong about you, Coralline—I thought you were smarter than this.”
“You’re wrong, all of you!” Coralline cried. “You don’t know Izar like I do.” She glared at each of them in turn, then sprang off the windowsill to create distance from them.
“What’s that, there?” Nacre called, her tentacles waggling in the direction of the desk chair.
A flat, soft-edged rectangle lay on the floor next to the chair, Coralline saw. Picking it up, she turned it over. The face stamped upon it was Izar’s, but, with the aloof eyes, callous lips, and terse forehead, it was a face she hardly recognized. Ocean Dominion, stated the top of the card.
The directions Izar had scribbled on the notepad turned out to be accurate. Printer & Parchment, announced the placard outside the hole-in-the-wall shop. “I’m Chiton,” said an elderly merman from behind the counter in introduction, his face like a withered pear.
Izar caught his breath, placing his hand on the counter. It was not easy to navigate underwater, without any landmarks, a fact that led him to newly appreciate Coralline’s shark. After much meandering, after requesting directions of a merman he’d passed, Izar had finally managed to make it to Velvet Horn.
There was no sand-clock in Printer & Parchment, but it had taken him well over the hour he’d estimated to arrive here. He would have to rush in order to return to Coralline in time.
“Is this paper—parchment, rather—from your shop?” Izar asked hurriedly, unrolling the amber scroll and handing it to Chiton.
Chiton turned it over, thumbed the embossed logo, and nodded.