I awoke to the sound of unfamiliar voices in the kitchen, and lay there for a moment, listening. I could only recognise Mama, Papa, and Elaila.

A sharp pain in my hands came to my attention, which was relieved when I unclenched my fists. I looked at my palms and saw deep, bloody trenches.

Aching all over, I rolled out of bed and put on my bathrobe. Smudges of dirt and blood covered my sheets, and I tried to wipe them off without success. I pulled my quilt up, hoping Mama wouldn’t notice. I wondered how hard it would be to use the washing machine. I’d have to stuff my sheets in next time Mama was out.

Voices still mumbled in the kitchen. I opened the door and padded down the hall to eavesdrop. The smell of freshly cooked rice met my nose, and I supposed Mama had served it for breakfast since that was all we had. Or maybe it was already lunch.

“How long are we going to keep this up?” said Mama. “Until the last of our men have been slain and we doom the Kwai to extinction?”

I leaned against the wall, listening.

“The Massacres are doing nothing to help us,” said Elaila. “They aren’t worth our losses.”

“What do you suggest?” said a man whose voice I didn’t recognise. “We let the demons take over the ocean and eat all our fish? We leave future generations to die?”

“We get off this island!”

“How?” said the man. “The demons will swarm the boat carrying our women and children. Besides, this is the most dangerous infestation the Pacific Ocean has ever seen. We need to eradicate the demons before they spread along the whole North American coast.”

“Maybe if the problem spreads,” said Elaila, her voice heated, “we’ll finally get some outside help.”

“If you want to abandon our island, go! I’m sure you can find a Canadian helicopter to come get you. But Eriana Kwai is my home, and I won’t give it up to the demons.”

I crouched and risked poking my head around the corner so I could see them with one eye.

Around the kitchen table sat Mama, Papa, Elaila, two men with their backs to me who I couldn’t recognise, and the training master for the Massacres. I knew the training master by his scalp, which Nilus said he kept bald because a mermaid once swiped the hair and skin clean off the left side. I thought he’d probably told the truth, because the man’s ear looked mangled, like the mermaid had almost taken that too.

“Relax, please, everybody,” said the training master, his voice calm. “We have a new system in place.”

“The next guaranteed plan, I’m sure?” said Elaila, still sounding angry.

“We are teaching our men to fight blindfolded. This way, they won’t be tempted by the demons’ beauty.”

In the seconds of silence that followed, what I could see of Mama’s expression became livid.

“So,” she said, sitting up taller, “you’re going to send them out with a blindfold and an iron machete and tell them good luck?”

“Our current training program has been preparing them for five years. They live and breathe combat. These warriors are invincible.”

Papa spoke up. “This won’t work.”

The table fell silent, and the training master considered him seriously. Papa continued.

“Everything about the demons is alluring, not just their appearance. Their sound, their smell—even a blind sailor is at risk.”

“True,” said the training master, “but sight is the dominant source of the allure.”

“Won’t work,” said Papa.

“What do you recommend we do, then?” said Elaila.

Papa’s eyes dropped to the table, where his knuckles had been rapping a quick rhythm like they usually did when he thought hard about something.

One of the other men—the only one who hadn’t made a sound yet—spoke up before Papa could say anything more. “Send women.”

His voice was so low, a few seconds of silence passed before anyone seemed to process what he’d said.

Women? I thought. What women?

The training master raised his eyebrows. Mama’s face turned frantically between the man and the training master.

“We can’t turn our maidens into warriors,” she said, sounding breathless.

“Why not?” said the man. “We can train them to fight just as we do with our boys. The demons won’t tempt them, and the advantage is ours with our more developed weapons.”

“That’s absurd,” said Papa. “We can’t send young girls on a mission like this. It’d destroy them, physically and mentally. Have you forgotten what it’s like out there?”

“Kasai,” said the training master. “Girls are just as capable on the battlefield. You have a bias because of your daughter, but if you look at—”

Papa’s chair screeched against the floor as he jumped to his feet. “Bias? I’m not the only one with a daughter at this table!”

I automatically clenched my fists when Papa’s anger flared, and pain shot through my palms. Mama stood and placed a hand on his shoulder, shushing him.

The training master stood, too. “Let’s calm down, everybody. Sit down.”

Papa sat down stiffly, and Mama and the training master followed.

“The suggestion is a valid one,” said the training master. He paused, staring at each face in turn. “I think this could be our solution.”

“A little girl is not the way to get rid of the demons,” said Papa.

“We’ll first try the method we’ve been focusing on,” said the training master. “Battling sightless. If our sailors don’t return . . .” He dropped his eyes, rubbing his scalp. “Well, then we know it’s time for a different approach.”

Mama spoke up. “Who is going to volunteer their daughters? Tell me that. Who will—”

“The choice is not that of the child’s parents. We’ll select the strongest for training at age thirteen, like we do the boys. By the time they’re eighteen, they’ll be expert warriors.”

“And you’re prepared to lose your own daughter,” said Elaila, in a tone more accusing than questioning.

“Adette is only six,” said the training master. “I’d wager our girls will eradicate the demons by the time she’s old enough to enter training. If not, Adette will go as a duty to her people. If we’ve trained them properly, I won’t be losing her.”

“Dani will go, too.”

It was the man who’d made the suggestion. I studied him closely—a thick man with no neck, and hands made for working with oysters. The side of his face I could see when he turned to the training master was hard as stone, and his cold eyes looked permanently narrowed in scrutiny.

So this was Dani’s papa. I’d heard about him a few times from my own papa, how he used to be in charge of all the fishing boats, but now worked at the woodshop, and how he always bossed others around even though he had no authority, and how Papa would’ve fired him for being so defiant if he didn’t need him for heavy lifting.

“See?” said the training master, clasping his hands. “Already we have cooperation from parents. How old is your daughter? Ten? By the time the bill is passed she’ll be the perfect age to start training. She and her friends—Meela and the rest of them—will train together and become skilled warriors.”

The shock of hearing my name nearly made me fall forwards out of my hiding place. I pulled back and stared at the wall, seized by terror. I wasn’t allowed near the beach my whole life because of mermaids . . . and now my people were talking about sending me out on a flimsy ship in the mermaid-infested waters?

No. Mama and Papa would never send me into training. My brother could do it because he was tough and strong. I could never be a killer.

I unfroze my spine and leaned around the corner. Papa had stood again.

“I won’t have this,” he said. “This is my house! I have seniority on this committee! I won’t let us make such an extreme—”

“Eriana Kwai values our warriors above all,” said the training master, even louder. “Becoming a warrior grants the individual and his family eternal honour.”

“I know what—”

“That said, Kasai, we will let the whole committee decide if we want to privilege our women with the same honour. Tonight we’ll make the proposal. This decision is not solely yours to make.”

Papa’s chest swelled, but he only shook his head and mumbled, “They won’t agree. This won’t pass. You’ll see.”

Mama’s face looked as I felt—like someone had hit her on top of the head.

Elaila looked sickened. “We’re talking about sending girls like me! I’m eighteen! I could never . . . I mean, just the thought of having to shoot one of those crossbows . . .”

“Dani will be ready for warrior training by the time she’s thirteen. I will personally make sure of it,” said Dani’s papa.

In the stiff silence that followed, I hid behind the corner again. This couldn’t happen. Eriana Kwai would never train girls like me to be warriors. It was barbaric.

I heard chairs push back, and I hurried to my room on tiptoe.

Was the island becoming desperate? Would our attempts at controlling the sea demons really come to this?

Footsteps crunched away from the house, but the door didn’t close yet.

Dani’s papa’s voice, low and growling, carried down the hall. “Think of this as a lesson. Maybe once your daughter faces a few sea rats, she’ll see the real dangers of the ocean. She’ll stop thinking—”

“If you value lessons so highly,” said Papa, “I can teach you one now about meddling in my family’s business.”

Of all the times Papa had been angry with me, his voice had never sounded that cold and severe.

“You can’t deny it’ll show her why you insist she stays away from the beach.”

“Get out of my house, Mujihi!”

The door slammed.

I did understand the dangers! I wanted to shout it down the hall at that awful man. More than ever, I understood how dangerous mermaids were. I shook my arms to try and loosen my aching muscles, pacing the length of my bedroom.

Mama’s panicked whisper carried down the hall.

“She might not get drafted, Kasai.”

“Of course she’ll be drafted!” said Papa. “She’s tall and healthy. She’s got fire in her. She’s everything they’re looking for in a warrior.”

“But the other girls . . .”

“I’ve seen the other girls her age. If anyone’s not going to get chosen, it’ll be that scrawny friend of hers with the buckteeth.”

There was a moment of total silence.

“What should we do?” whispered Mama.

“We hope it doesn’t come to this. And if it does, we won’t be cowards. We’ll send our daughter proudly so she can honour her people.”

Mama fell quiet. I thought she might have been crying.

“Maybe Mujihi’s right,” said Papa, his voice so low I could barely hear it. “Maybe this really is the only way.”

Mama still said nothing. Seconds ticked by, and I leaned against my door, realising how hard I was breathing.

The island couldn’t agree to training girls as warriors. How long had we been training boys to fight? Twenty years? Sending boys was based on tradition. Nobody would agree to change that now—would they? But these last few years had failed miserably, leaving the island worse off than ever. Maybe the rest of the island would think it time for drastic measures.

Something caught my eye in my dresser mirror.

I lunged towards it, yanking my bathrobe away from my neck.

Black. Long, narrow, finger-sized strips of black on all sides of my neck. If my purpled knees and heels of my hands weren’t enough, the bruises where the mermaid had tried to strangle me jumped out like I’d smeared my skin with a Ravendust bush.

“No,” I whispered, poking at the tender spots.

I dove for my closet and threw my clothes around, hunting for anything that would come up to my chin. I landed on a wrinkled, faded turtleneck and a zip-up sweater. Would Mama be suspicious if I wore these old clothes again? Maybe not. She had worse things to worry about.

I zipped my sweater all the way up and studied myself in the mirror. This would have to do. I’d have to wear the same two shirts until the marks faded—and my bruises usually lasted almost two weeks.

My face looked drained in the mirror. I sat on the bed and buried my face in my hands, breathing deeply. They wanted me to fight more mermaids, just like the one who’d done this to me . . . and Nilus had already gone out to fight full-grown mermaids and his battle had ended less fortunately than mine. I couldn’t think about it. Trying to get rid of one mermaid was bad enough. Getting rid of all of them seemed impossible.

My insides quivered, but I had no more tears left to cry.

It wouldn’t come to this. The boys would come back from the Massacre alive. The mermaids would leave us alone, and our need for Massacres would disappear, and I wouldn’t have to face more of those awful monsters.