Page 72 of A Kingdom Threatened (The Vazula Chronicles 3)

“Oh, I know I’m not qualified yet,” Merletta assured her innocently. “I wasn’t trying to comment on the official procedure of the educators. Just on my own experience.”

She glanced at the eager crowd, many of whom were bobbing excitedly in the water. Merletta bit back a grin. She knew her people. Many of them were desperately curious about the topic under discussion. But all of them loved a good spectacle.

“What have you seen outside the barrier?” someone yelled, as if in confirmation of her thoughts.

“Lots of things,” Merletta said, her eyes passing over the crowd. She gave a theatrical grimace. “I was a bit of a troublemaker at the charity home, I’m afraid. I didn’t like being told what to do by a bunch of uptight old crustaceans, you know?”

There were general titters. Merletta’s roving eyes passed Freja. The older mermaid’s face was taut with disapproval, and Merletta looked on quickly.

“I also didn’t like feeling trapped,” Merletta added. “Told that there was nothing for me to expect from life but hard work and misery within the small and restrictive bubble I was born in.”

The laughter had turned back to muttering, and Merletta saw nods on all sides. She was speaking straight to their hearts now—they understood perfectly the restless frustration that had made her defiant her whole childhood.

“So I used to sneak away a lot,” Merletta went on. “I used to leave the triple kingdoms actually, and sneak through the barrier.”

Many pairs of wide eyes rested on her, and the educator in charge once again asserted himself.

“Hearing about your misdemeanors will serve no one,” he snapped. “You will stop this charade and return to the Center at once to answer to your instructors for this outrageous display.”

“So, just to be clear,” Merletta asked calmly, “your position is that we can learn from records written by unknown ancestors and kept hidden in the Center, but we can’t learn from the actual current experience of others around us?”

The merman’s jaw worked, and he seemed unable to immediately find something to say. Merletta took full advantage of his hesitation.

“I spent a lot of time outside the barrier growing up,” she went on. “A lot. And I agree that there are dangers out there. I had some very lucky escapes early on.”

“Well, there you have it.” The educator tried, a bit lamely, to cut her off.

Merletta ignored him. “But by the time I was a teenager, it wasn’t luck. It was experience. I learned to navigate the dangers, and I didn’t take stupid risks. If I’d had anyone to help me, I certainly wouldn’t have gone alone. But I didn’t have the option of a group for safety.”

“This. Is. Inappropriate.” The educator looked to his fellows, but no one seemed to know what to do.

“I saw so many beautiful things out there,” Merletta said wistfully. “So many gentle sea creatures. I was surprised the open ocean wasn’t more dangerous, given what I’d always been told.”

“If you’d listened to what you’d been told, you would have been safer,” one of the educators snapped. “And everyone else will be safer if they listen to experienced, trained educators rather than an uneducated orphan who has no more sense than to publicly confess to her crimes.”

“Crimes?” Merletta repeated, as if surprised. “I don’t believe I’ve confessed to any crimes, have I? Sneaking off was against the charity home’s rules, of course, but I’m not under their control anymore, so they can’t punish me, surely. As for leaving the barrier…” She arranged her face into a look of confused innocence. “That’s not a crime, is it? I thought the patrols were to keep anything dangerous out, not to keep us in.”

The educator swelled with anger. “The guards are preventing everyone from flooding across the barrier to keep them safe. It is for their own good!”

“You didn’t answer her question!”

The cry came from the crowd, and was taken up by many voices.

“You didn’t,” Merletta pointed out. “As such a highly qualified, trained educator, it’s your role to know the law, isn’t it? Is it against the law to go outside the barrier?”

The educator was silent, and Merletta saw a hint of something other than anger lancing across his face.

Fear.

“It is not,” said the female educator calmly. “But that doesn’t mean it’s safe or wise.”

“If it’s not illegal, why are armed guards preventing us leaving?” someone yelled.

“Probably because they’re worried you’ll rush out without preparation, instead of in organized groups, with proper protections,” Merletta responded. “But surely we’re all smarter than that, aren’t we?”

As she spoke, she saw the two main educators holding a whispered conference with a Center guard.

The mermaid swam forward. “This public meeting is finished,” she announced firmly. “All Center employees and trainees are to return to the Center.” Her gaze passed over the crowd. “With the exception of the guards, who will of course continue their patrols.”