A New Ally
Using your last ounce of air, you bubble, "I can carry you to the rotunda." Alright, it's a mouthful, but you say it quickly. Most of the merpeople seem not to hear you, but one mermaid seems to get the point. She knows her way around the maze, but she can't get to the rotunda without legs. It's a hastily-constructed underwater bargain, but it just might work. She grabs your free hand and starts swimming rapidly.
Clutching the key with all your strength, you're led through tunnel after tunnel. There's no way you could have worked this out alone. The other merpeople, meanwhile, seem to have gotten wise to your scheme, and they're chasing after the pair of you. Cries of "Cheaters, Cheaters!" echo through the halls, but you figure that if negotiating with the merfolk was illegal, The Voice would have stopped it by now. Although The Voice isn't stopping the merpeople who are trying to stop you, either, so maybe he's neutral this time.
The mermaid stops in front of an apparent dead-end. The other merpeople have blocked what appears to be your only exit and they're closing in. At the last moment (alright, second to last), your new friend opens a secret passage that leads right back to the pool at the end of the hallway.
You're beginning to get light-headed, and you aren't quite sure which way is up any more, but you somehow manage to hoist yourself, your friend, and the all-important key over the pool wall.
"Run!" the mermaid wheezes. Run? You want to pass out. But you realize that you don't really have a choice. She saved your neck underwater, but now she needs you. Scooping up the mermaid and key, you stagger toward the rotunda. The hallway that seemed long before your near-death experience is now interminable, but at least the other merpeople aren't chasing you. Instead, the entire mansion seems to be against you. The floor and walls are shaking, making you lose your balance repeatedly (actually, maybe that's just an after-effect of almost drowning).
At long last, you emerge from the hallway into the rotunda. You sprint for the compass rose, but just before your foot touches it, the mermaid grabs the key and throws it against the Western Door. It bounces off and clangs to the marble floor. Then you and the mermaid tumble onto the compass rose, just as you pass out. Of course, you know you won't be out for long, because the compass rose will undo all the damage you sustained momentarily.
Written by Zodiac on 01 June 2008