Where the Jellyfish Went ( done! :)

A scene from the Winterborn ( [link] ) sequel.

Salo finding out what happened to all the jellyfish, and a rather gleeful Iruhi.


The thing about sea wyrms Salo remembered most was their predilection for jellyfish.

He’d always known they would come. From the first day Matron had given him to Mirin and Aristophe to bring to Nyara, his dame’s words had been etched in the back of his mind. The healer's tower was fully surrounded by a lovely little moat and a system of underwater tunnels – Aristophe had laughed, he remembered that. Mirin had simply looked quietly at his cousin and nodded, once. There were things drylanders simply did not understand.

Still, a decade later the warning had almost slipped by him. He’d been walking by the outer wall when he heard a splash; not loud, and not echoed. Something in the waters, then, but what would dare swim with a whole colony of jellyfish? Salo had taken Anita there on quiet evenings, delighting in their colours and their shapes. She had found them creepy but to him they were a link of home, and a first line of defense. Naturally, he hadn’t elaborated on the last part.

There were no colours in the water now. No luminescence. There was no movement except for a slow rippling through the moat.

Salo’s eyes moved sharply to the tower. Soon the evening meal would start, with all the healers congregating in the dining hall. Patients slept in their rooms, secure in the care of the guild, and Anita told stories to the child in her womb about his father, Quinne.

Magic rippled, and Salo clamped a hand to his mouth.

He could give the alarm. The Council’s men –might- make it in time to avoid most of the carnage, to chase off the intruder. But if they did not? The healers were not meant to be warriors, and many would fall. Or if the tower collapsed?

Anita would kill him for this.

Salo made his way down the steps, and crouched by the water.

“Iruhi.” He murmured, unhappy as the breeze caught on his dark hair. Ill winds. “ I know you are here. You need not involve others; I will not resist.”

Another faint ripple – then more, as the wyrm's elegant neck emerged sinuously from the water, gold eyes focused on the young man. Salo took a step back, nearly stumbling on his healer’s robes as courage faltered. Iruhi had grown considerably in the past ten years.