Not having the patience to wait for the healer, Syryn went back to her to enquire about what was to be done about his condition.

"Ah Syryn, just the man I wanted to speak to."

The healer was binding a merman's arm when the mage was ushered in by an apprentice.

"If you're busy, I could return later," Syryn told her.

The healer patted the merman on his shoulder. "Tell your wife I sent my regards." She looked back up at Syryn and gestured to the seat that was being vacated.

"Syryn, I have good news and bad news."

The mage shrugged at her. The enormity of the revelations that were made to him by the oracle made everything else pale in comparison. Good news, bad news, they were all the same to him.

"Bad news first? The healer asked him." She was a sympathetic mermaid with a kind face and it made her suitable for her profession as a healer.

"Sure."

"The king doesn't want to send you to the surface world." The mermaid gave him a look filled with pity. "I'm sorry, Syryn."

The mage wasn't surprised. "And what's the good news?"

"We're making plans to bring down a human healer."

Syryn snorted. "You mean to kidnap a human healer."

"And to be released immediately after he finds out what is wrong with you."

"And if he doesn't know what's wrong with me?" It wasn't so easy to find a competent healer to kidnap unless he was sailing the ocean and his location was known to the mermen. If the mers wanted a healer soon, they would only find a mediocre one. That's what Syryn assumed.

"Then we'll just find another one."

"While I languish from my sickness," Syryn forlornly replied. "It's ironic that I'm here to be Silisia's saviour but I am treated like a second class citizen. Even the mers get better health care than their supposed saviour."

The healer appeared guilty. "Syryn, it's the King's decision. If I could, I would send you to the surface."

Nodding at her, Syryn decided he had to make a break for it faster than he had anticipated to.

"Alright, I'll wait for news of a human then."

______

Syryn waited for Drevin at the door of the mer's room. The prince was away, meeting a delegation of mermen from another smaller kingdom.

"The prince has royal duties that may take all night, honoured guest. Consider meeting him tomorrow."

The mage was having the same thoughts. Luckily, the mer prince arrived right then. Drevin was wearing a crown and it made him appear very princely.

"Syryn? What are you doing here so late in the night?" He asked the mage. The mer prince looked pleased to see him if the smile on his face was any indication of his feelings.

"I wanted to ask you something," Syryn replied. "Can we talk inside your room?" It was a stupid question. Where else would they talk if not in the room?

Once inside, Drevin guided Syryn to his clamshell bed where they sat side by side. The mer prince looked at him expectantly.

"You are troubled by something," he said to Syryn. "What is it?"

Syryn hated taking advantage of the merman's friendship and the good feelings between them. But he had to do this.

"Drevin," he said to the mer in a subdued tone. "I'm sick and I might be dying."

"What? Since when? Is it the illness you had to self isolate for?"

The mer turned his silvery eyes to Syryn, gloomy from the mage's news about his health.

"Yeah, that one. The healer doesn't know what's wrong with me but I feel myself getting weaker day by day. Drevin, I don't want to die," Syryn's voice got quieter as he said the last part.

"You need a human healer," the mer prince said in an equally quiet voice. "Are they not letting you go to the surface?"

"No," the mage said. He bowed his head to look at the marbled floor that lay a few inches below his feet.

Drevin was quiet. He hated being in the centre of a tug of war between loyalty to the kingdom and his concern for Syryn's well being.

"Do they plan to bring a human healer?" Drevin asked him.

"Yes, but I doubt they'll find a good one anytime soon." Syryn unbuttoned the silk shirt that hung loosely over his smaller frame. He pulled his arm out of a sleeve and showed it to Drevin.

"These things under my skin won't go away."

Drevin's eyes were glued to the black spots. His eyes travelled the full length of pale skin spotted by black all across the outer arm. After examining it, he looked back up at Syryn.

"I'll help you escape," he solemnly told the mage.

This was what Syryn had been waiting for.

"Will you leave with me?"

The mer prince smiled with a resigned sort of sadness in his eyes. "I can't."

"You can. You just have to come with me, Drevin. Just make the decision, hold my hand, and we leave the water. Together."

The thirst to leave the ocean shined in the mer's eyes. Drevin wanted to leave with Syryn. But this was his home. If he left, there would be no forgiveness or returning to Silisia.

"It's worth it," Syryn said to him almost as if reading his mind.

Drevin shook his head, eyes locked with Syryn's violet ones.

"I can't abandon home and my mother. And what about the prophecy, Syryn? Will you turn to help Silisia?"

"Yes," he lied. Syryn couldn't agree with a hundred per cent surety that he would help the mers when he wasn't even sure of how he could help.

Syryn could not guess whether or not Drevin believed him. The mer was willing to help him. It was all that mattered for the moment.

___

The very next day, the mage came to know that the king had pronounced judgement upon the mers who had 'killed' Grifan, and they were to be executed. The mage hadn't forgotten about them despite his own troubles.

He didn't feel sorry for them. Syryn was glad they were going to die because his secret would die with them.

Had they been innocent mers, the mage wouldn't have felt so little for their deaths.

___

2 days later, Syryn was intimated by the prince that he was ready. They met up early morning before the others were awake. His guard, Vaiu, had been relieved by another who carried out night duty. Syryn wasn't familiar with the night guard and it lessened his guilt for what they were going to do.

Having the help of the prince made escaping an easy task for Syryn. Drevin and the guard escorted Syryn back to the clamshell bed where the mage had supposedly lost an important item.

When they arrived at the location, the guard was put to sleep with a jab from a harpoon loaded with a drug that Drevin had procured. They picked this area because it was just far enough to evade mer patrols that watched the waters for adventurous mermen who were looking to go to the surface.

The human and mer looked at each other, worry etched in their eyes. Drevin turned his head to look at the canyon where a group of guards had appeared. Fortunately, he saw them before they spotted him and Syryn. The mer prince and the mage swam behind a tall rock formation.

"Where and why did they come here?" Syryn asked the prince.

Drevin shook his head, equally surprised by their arrival. "I dont know. I didn't tell anyone about you leaving so I can't understand why they would suddenly show up. Maybe they're here for some other reason."

But the five-member group of guards found Vaiu who was still out in the open. Alarmed at finding him, the leader of the guards barked out an order and they began fanning out to search for Syryn.

"They'll find us eventually."

Drevin agreed with the assessment. It was only a matter of time. If they came out from behind the rock, they would be exposed. If they swam upwards, they would be exposed.

Syryn looked behind him to the bed of clams releasing bubbles in the water.

"Do you have another loaded harpoon on you?" He asked the mer.

Drevin held out a small fang. "I have one more. Why?"

Syryn gingerly took it from the mer's palm and struck just as fast as he had taken it. The pointed tip was introduced to Drevin's palm where it released its contents into his bloodstream.

"It's better this way," he told the mer who was already going under. "Tell them I drugged the both of you."

Syryn left Drevin by the rock and approached the nearest clam.

"Sage, make this clam open. I need to hide somewhere," he whispered.

Syryn's badly thought out idea was to try and attempt to hide inside the clam. He wasn't even half convinced that it would work.