The Sea of Change

by Tina Engel

  Brett asked, “How do we even know if this is the algae that you need. It looks the same as what Sara had when fixing the concoction for you.”

  He picked it up, and smelling it, commented, “Yes, it smells the same to.”

  “I’m going to go talk to Adam about this, so don’t eat it yet. Put it in the bathroom sink with some water for now. Adam should know something about this water fey. We’ll go talk to Trevor also.”

  Brett got up and left the room. He added before he closed the door, “Emilee, please don’t leave the room, and Rose, you stay here too. By the way, where’s Lily?”

  I realized then that I hadn’t even thought about her. I looked to Rose and she just shrugged her shoulders.

  I replied, “Lily had gone down to the crew’s quarters just before I went up to look for Rose. She isn’t here yet?”

  “That cat is going to be locked in this room from now on when I find her. You two stay here. I’ll talk to Adam and Trevor and then find that blasted cat.” Brett said, as he shut the door with a bang.

  Chapter seven

  The things you fear the most,

  May not be what you should fear.

  Rose and I just sat there for a few minutes looking at the algae, before taking it into the bathroom to soak in the sink. I was feeling tired and wasn’t sure if it was from the long day, bad dreams, negative energy from Jordan Davis, needing to nourish my body with the fey necessities, or all of the above. I just knew that I was exhausted all of a sudden.

  “Princess, you’re not looking very well. Are you feeling alright?” Rose asked.

  I informed her that I was just tired and maybe needed to lay down for a bit. I really wanted to go find Lily though, before I rested, and tried to talk Rose into going down below deck with me to find her, before she got into trouble.

  Rose argued profusely, wanting me to rest because she thought I looked so bad, but I won in the end. Well, I was going no matter what, even though I told Brett I would stay put. I guess Rose didn’t want to be there alone when Brett came back and found me gone, if I wasn’t back yet. She figured it would be the less of the two evils, coming with me to keep me out of trouble, or she liked the idea just a little, of being defiant with Brett.

  Rose reminded me to put my human veil back on, and I hadn’t realized that I had taken it off. I was a bit concerned by this. I tried to look human again but it wasn’t happening. Rose got a very nervous look on her face when she realized that I couldn’t make it happen.

  I looked at Rose, and said, “Well I must be more tired than I thought. I can’t seem to put it back on, and I don’t even remember removing my human veil.”

  Just then, Rose’s look changed some, to relief mixed with worry. “You did it Princess, you look human again, but I really think you should remove it and go lay down for a bit until Brett comes back.”

  I smiled at Rose to try to relieve some of her worries, and said as energetically as I could, “Rose I feel fine. Let’s go down below and find that mischievous cat, and then I will go lay down.”

  We headed out the door and down the steps to the bottom level. We were quiet and cautious; moving slowly, and listening intently, to make sure no one was around. I didn’t want anyone asking us questions as to why we were down there. Okay, it was Jordan Davis I didn’t want to run into.

  We looked in the crew’s bunk room first, but there was no one there, not even Lily. As we left the room, we stood just outside the other door that we assumed was locked. We looked at each other as I reached for the door knob, and turning it, it opened.

  “Princess, I really don’t think we should be going in there. The captain told us not to, remember?” Rose said, with a fearful look on her face.

  “Rose you can stay out here and keep guard. Why would this door be unlocked unless Lily went in? I’m just going to go in and take a quick look around.” I said.

  “Oh no, you’re not going in without me! I won’t have Brett angry with me any more than he already is going to be. What would he say if you got into trouble in there and I was out here doing nothing? Oh no, I will be right with you, getting into trouble!”

  I looked at her with a humorous smile as she said this. “Okay, let’s get into trouble together.” I replied.

  “I didn’t mean it that way, Princess!” Rose continued in a flustered manner. “I just meant….”

  “I know what you meant, Rose.” I said, as I interrupted her comment. I was giggling a bit at how funny she looked, as I opened the door and headed inside, quietly.

  I ran my hand along the wall just next to the door, looking for a light switch. My diamond was glowing a medium orange color, which I knew meant slight danger, but my curiosity got the better of me. It let off just enough light for me to see the switch on the wall; I reached up to flip it on, but Rose put her hand on mine, just then, to stop me.

  Rose shut the door and whispered, “I think we shouldn’t touch anything and definitely not turn on any lights, at this time. We don’t know what or who might be in here.”

  She was correct, of course, so we turned to face the center of the room. It was a room filled with crates and barrels, as far as I could see. My diamond only let off so much light, so we could see just a little ways in front of us.

  Rose grabbed hold of my arm as I inched my way deeper into the room. She was so close to me that our feet got tangled and we both almost went down. I suggested that she lighten her grip and give me a little bit of breathing room. Rose gave me a sheepish grin and did as I asked.

  I heard no unusual noises in the room, no movement of any kind. I could hear the water breaking against the outside of the boat. There were creaks and groans from the inside, as the boat moved up and down and side to side, as it was moving through the water. I was sure that was all I was hearing.

  As we continued to walk, the room seemed to grow in length. I figured that my imagination was just getting the best of me. I was nervous, and things seem to take longer in this state. Although we were moving forward, it seemed like we were not getting any closer to the end of the room.

  Rose seemed to be getting more agitated as we proceeded forward. I stopped walking and turned to look at her. My diamond was glowing a darker orange now, meaning that danger was closer. The color made the room seem eerie and almost menacing. This color made Rose look just plain sick. I assumed it was the color of the glowing diamond that gave her this sick green color. I hoped so anyway.

  “Rose, are you all right?” I asked. “You don’t look very well.”

  Rose looked up at me and said, in a frantic voice, “Let’s just get out of here. It doesn’t feel right. There is something down here and I don’t want to find out what it is. Lily isn’t here. She would have come to you by now, I‘m sure.”

  Well I knew that if Lily wanted to stay hidden, she would, and Rose was acting really strange.

  “You can stay here, I’m going on. This room seems to be getting longer. Don’t you feel it? We seem to be staying in the center of the room.” I said.

  I started to walk forward again and Rose took my arm, to stop me.

  “Princess, please, let’s just go back to the door. This isn’t worth the danger. Look at your diamond glowing. It’s red now and I’m afraid for your safety, and mine!” Rose said in a whisper, and she was right, my diamond was glowing red now.

  I removed her hand from my arm and more forcefully told Rose that I had to keep going. Something was pushing me forward. Was I scared? (Well, YES!) I turned, took a few more steps forward, and then was suddenly stopped by something. It was like I had just walked into a wall. I could see in front of me, the room continued on, filled with crates and barrels, but as I put my hands out in front of me, there was something stopping me. I turned my head to look at Rose and I was sure that she was a darker shade of green now.

  Rose grabbed my arm, and pulling me, said, “Princess, we must leave now!!

  “No Rose! Something is behind this wall and I’m going to find out what it is!” I said, in a
confident voice.

  I wasn’t feeling confident at all. I wanted to run from this room and off this boat, but being out in the middle of the lake, there was no place to run. I was stuck here, so needed to find out just what the danger was.

  Rose let out a weak whimper as I shut my eyes and put both hands up and out in front of me, until they rested on the wall that was stopping us from continuing. I released my human veil and focused on the force field. I wanted to go through it. Then my hands did just that. Suddenly there was nothing in front of me. I opened my eyes and the end of the room was in sight. The invisible wall was gone. Rose let out a rather loud gasp and then put her hands to her mouth to shush herself.

  There, in front of us, was the mother of all spiders, Queen Widow. She was surrounded by her web that covered the entire back of the room. There were other small spiders in the web and I heard Rose say in a whisper, “Tiny?”

  I turned and looked at Rose in an accusing way, and she said in a very shocked and shaky voice, “I didn’t know they were here. I swear, I had nothing to do with this!”

  Just then I heard a voice and I turned around to face Queen Widow. It was the queen who was talking. She said, “Rose had nothing to do with my being here. She’s innocent.”

  At that point one of the smaller spiders (if you could call them small) dropped down from the web and started to come towards us. I took a few steps back (NO, I don’t like spiders) but Rose went forward. I reached out and took her arm a bit rougher than I intended, and she told me that it was okay. It was Tiny coming over to see her.

  Queen Widow continued, “Don’t worry, Princess Emilee, I won’t hurt you. You’re safe. Please come over and sit and I will explain why I’m here.”

  I watched as Rose bent down and picked up Tiny. I shivered just a bit at this sight. Then all the other smaller spiders went up to the ceiling, as if they knew I was not comfortable with them.

  “Come sit, Princess, please. My little ones won’t hurt you.”

  Rose walked over, and moving some of the webs away, she sat down on a crate. She looked at me and patted a crate next to her, wanting me to come sit down too. “It’s okay Princess.” Rose said, “She won’t hurt you.”

  I didn’t know quite what to do. I didn’t know how I was feeling; angry, confused, fearful or relieved that I now knew where Queen Widow was. Probably a little bit of all these emotions. I was, however, feeling betrayed because I couldn’t believe that Rose hadn’t had some part in these spiders being here. She was missing, a little bit ago, when I went to look for her. She had told me she was up on deck, but I didn’t see her there. Was she really sitting on top of the control room?

  “Please Princess,” Queen Widow said, “come sit down.”

  I did as she asked, sat down next to Rose, but kept looking at the spiders up on the ceiling. The Queen, seeing this, made a little shrieking noise and all the spiders, except for Tiny, went into a hole, in the corner of the ceiling, I hadn’t seen earlier.

  “Is that better Princess Emilee?” She asked.

  I nodded in response, not smiling or giving any kind of accepting emotion. I was not happy, and wasn’t going to pretend that I was. Rose was sitting there, very tense. I was sure that she felt my feelings of betrayal and was hurt, but I wasn’t going to worry about that, right then.

  I looked at the Queen and she started to change her shape. She had been a large Black Widow spider the size of a double wide refrigerator, but now she looked like a human, in body shape. She was standing and was very tall, with a medium build. She did, however, still have spider characteristics. She was shiny black all over with a red, hour glass shape on her stomach area. Her eyes were interesting. She had two of them that were shaped like mine, tilted up at the outer corners. The more I looked at them though, I could see that each eye actually was four eyes, so close together that they looked like one. As I looked at her, I realized that she was actually quite pretty, in an interesting way.

  “So, do you feel more comfortable with me in my true fey form, Princess? I hope so. Not many see me this way. It would ruin my reputation for being a dangerous and evil spider. You would be seeing me in my true form eventually, so why not now.” Queen Widow said, with a slight smile on her face.

  I didn’t know what to say. I looked from Rose to the queen, to the corner where all the smaller spiders went and then back to Queen Widow. I shivered a little but didn’t say a word. I didn’t know quite what to say.

  Then I heard a voice say, “Cat got your tongue?” and looking over to my right where the voice came from, was Lily coming up from behind a crate as she turned into her fey form. She walked around the crate and sat down.

  Rose looked at Lily with a disgusted look on her face, and the queen chuckled at this.

  “Very humorous and clever.” Queen Widow said.

  “Oh, so now you show yourself!” I said, curtly, to Lily. “So now that I have you all here, what is going on? Are you all working together? Rose and Lily, what kind of plot have you been cooking up?”

  Rose and Lily looked at each other, disgusted, and at the same time, said, “I am not working with her.”

  The Queen laughed at this and shook her head saying, “Looks like we still have a ways to go, in getting these two to work together.”

  I was so confused, and said, “Ok, I don’t understand what is going on. Will someone please fill me in?”

  Just then, a voice came from behind me. “Yes, Princess, I guess it’s time for you to know what’s happening.” I looked to see Captain Adam and Brett standing just where the invisible wall had been.

  I felt the connection between Brett and me then, and wondered why I hadn’t felt it as he was entering the room. I could always feel that he was close. I wondered if I was just too preoccupied with all of this, to notice him.

  Adam said, “This wasn’t the time for you to meet Widow, but I guess with your curiosity as strong as it is and you seeing more and more of the fey’s world around you, now is as good a time as ever.”

  I looked to Brett and he shrugged his shoulders saying, “They don’t tell me everything either. I didn’t know about the Queen being here until Adam got the warning that someone was down here snooping. We figured it was you when I couldn’t find either of you in your room. Can’t you just once do as you’re told?”

  Brett wasn’t angry but more amused. I think he liked the curious and slightly defiant, me. Brett came over, pulled a barrel next to me and sat down. The vibration between us was very strong. I was glad he was here, even though I felt irritated.

  Adam said, as he turned to face where the invisible field had been, “We don’t need anyone else seeing this.” He waved his hand in front of him, and I assumed the field was back up. Adam walked over and sat down across from me.

  I turned my body to face Brett, and looking quite annoyed, I’m sure, said, “You promised no more secrets! How can I trust any of you anymore?”

  Brett replied in a very calm, quiet voice, “Emilee, I was told we would be meeting another who would be joining us soon, but I had no idea that it was that Spider.”

  At that remark, Queen Widow said, “That Spider?!” She was a bit miffed at this comment.

  Brett held up his hands as if to stop a confrontation from happening, and replied, “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I apologize if I offended you. I didn’t know if you were friend or foe until Adam explained just a bit. I would, however, like to know what is going on, as much as Emilee would.”

  Adam spoke up then, “John and Queen Anahita came to me days before you arrived on the boat. They asked if I would transport you to New York, where you would continue your journey. Queen Anahita then talked with me after John left, and asked if I had a safe place on the boat for another passenger. She didn’t, however, tell me who it was, just that this passenger didn’t need tending to, just a quiet safe place to travel inconspicuously.

  I told her, I could make the storage room down below, safe for another traveler. Queen Anahita brought Que
en Widow here in the early morning hours before you arrived. I was told to keep the door locked and let no one in. I am the only one with a key.”

  Adam looked at Lily as he made this last remark. “And how did you get in?” He asked.

  Lily just smiled, that sly mischievous smile, and said, “I don’t believe there should be secrets amongst all of you. I did what I must.”

  At that, she turned back into a cat, laid down on the crate and started to clean herself.

  “Well I guess we won’t get anything else from her!” Brett commented, and Widow let out a humorous chuckle.

  Queen Widow said, then, “Princess Emilee, you don’t need to be frightened. I am here to help. I was with Stephan only to keep an eye on him, or eight to be exact.” She laughed again. “This is all I will say for now. More will be revealed when the time is right. There is danger, somewhere close, but it is not from me or my babies. I need you all to leave now before our location is revealed to those who want to take revenge on me, for betraying Stephan. And Princess, please keep this cat in her cage. She causes more problems than we need right now.”

  Lily didn’t like this much and started to jump down, but just as Lily leaped from the crate, Widow let out a web that lassoed her, and retracted the web back to her, placing Lily in her lap. We all were a bit startled by this, but not as much as Lily. She actually gave up the attitude and looked at me with frightened eyes.

  “So are you going to behave, Lily?” I asked, feeling a bit intimidated myself.

  Just then a crash came from the room on the other side of the invisible field. Adam put a finger to his mouth and shushed us. We all sat there, quietly listening.

  Then a very gruff voice said, “Adam are you here?” It was Jordan Davis. He was in the room.

  Adam got up again, with his finger to his lips for us to be quiet. He went over to the invisible wall and walked through it. I was sure he dropped it, walked through it and raised it back up, because as he walked, he disappeared.