“Morgan, you don’t even know this boy,” he began.
“I’ve dreamed about him. I fell in love with him in my dreams.”
“Those are dreams, Morgan, nothing else.”
“You know better than that.” Mom appeared behind Tammer and put her hand on his shoulder. “I heard everything. It’s too late to start insisting that Morgan not be with this young man. They’ve already begun cording.”
Tammer’s head dropped and he seemed to give in.
“Mom, what’s going to happen to him?” I felt like I was going to cry again. Great. I’d just met the love of my life and something was going to take him away from me.
“Honey, it’s what happens to every merperson who takes action against his own kind. Being that Thayde took action against one of his own family, he’ll be punished severely.”
“Punished?”
“We call it The Judgment. He’ll be tortured.”
“What?” I was incredulous. “But Akin attacked me!”
“I know, love. But those are the rules.”
“But what happens to Akin? Isn’t he punished?”
“His punishment will be up to his father.”
“What?” I yelled again. “That’s not fair! Thayde was protecting me! If anything, he should be rewarded!”
“Not for rescuing a Halfling.” Tammer’s voice was flat.
So that was it. Because I wasn’t full mermaid, the laws didn’t apply.
“Are you kidding me?” I said.
“No, I wish I were.”
“All of this is ridiculous,” Mom said. “I don’t know why they consider you a Halfling. You can do everything a full mermaid can and you have powers, too. She glanced sideways at Tammer who shook his head slightly, giving her an icy stare. “If we didn’t know better, I’d say you were full mermaid.”
An awkward smile played about his face when his look returned to me. "It's not possible, Morgan," he tried to comfort me. "But this doesn't matter, Elan. Everyone knows she's a Halfling. The Dartmoth’s are prejudiced against Halflings. You know the history they have with my family. And you know what Limus is afraid of - that’s why we were told not to bring her here.”
I felt like I was in a cloud. This couldn’t be happening.
“Then we need to report this to the police,” Mom said.
“Are you insane?” Tammer’s voice rose. “Do you have any idea what would happen to us?”
“Look at what’s happened to Morgandy! Akin needs more than a slap on the wrist. He went against his father’s wishes.”
“Did he?”
Mom looked uncomfortable.
“It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. Limus didn’t do a whole heck of a lot to take care of it then. That practically gave Akin the go ahead!”
Mom sat down heavily next to Tammer. “There has to be something we can do.”
Tammer nodded, deep in thought. “There is. We’ll have to deal with it ourselves.”
“You can’t!” Mom said sharply. “Remember what happened the last time you dealt with the Dartmoth’s?” Her hand touched his side and instinctively, he pulled away.
“They’re the ones who hurt you?” I couldn’t believe how interweaved all of this was becoming.
“Yes,” Mom began slowly, watching Tammer’s reaction. “Ramus – the leader of the Dartmoth clan - and Tammer’s father, Olin, were best friends. Tammer was practically one of Ramus’s sons. Limus and Tammer weren’t the best of friends, but they grew up together. When Tammer fell in love with me, Ramus was livid because my lineage was not pure. There are a few Halflings within my line and some humans. He threatened Tammer that should he decide to take me as his wife, Tammer was no longer welcome in this area and if we ever brought our firstborn here, we’d be sorry.”
She paused, watching Tammer grow angrier. “Olin tried reasoning with him, but Ramus held fast. They stopped being friends. Then, one day, Tammer and I were helping Olin and Tammer’s two brother’s salvage in an area the Dartmoth’s had claimed was theirs. You can’t officially claim any area of the sea, but they were already beginning to disobey the law and make their own rules. We ran into Ramus, Limus, and Limus’s brother, Reyes. After a lot of harsh words I won’t repeat, it escalated until it came down to fighting. It all happened so fast.”
Her voice broke and she swallowed hard.
“Limus had a special spear gun with him. While they were fighting, he saw a chance to shoot Tammer in the back and he took the shot. Olin saw what he was going to do and managed to stop him, but it came at a terrible price. He blocked the shot with his body, saving Tammer. Tammer’s two brothers tried to save Olin, but they too were killed.”