Lies Beneath

by Anne Greenwood Brown

  Hancock nodded, chewing. “The theory is that it’s part of an ancient copper mine.”

  “There are a lot of mysteries about the lake,” I said. Lily squeezed my knee under the table.

  “There’s hundreds of sunken ships, too,” Mrs. Hancock added.

  I nodded. “Total ship graveyard. I’ve seen a couple of those. Some are in shallow enough water you can see them from your boat. Maybe I could show you sometime, Mr. Hancock.”

  “I’d like—” Sophie started, but Mrs. Hancock interrupted her.

  “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you, Jason? Get out there for once.” She reached over and touched Hancock’s forearm.

  Sophie pushed her chair back quickly and stood up to clear her plate.

  Mrs. Hancock looked up at her younger daughter. “You all done, hon?”

  “I’m not hungry.” There was a strange expression on Sophie’s face. It reminded me of Pavati when she wasn’t getting her way. Sophie sulked into the kitchen, and Mrs. Hancock picked up the conversation.

  “Lily was telling me your family stays on your sailboat during the summer?”

  “That’s right. We keep things simple. It’s sort of like an extended camping trip.” I chewed a second bite of chicken slowly. The more I chewed, the bigger it seemed to get. Forks and knives scraped across plates while I reveled in the civility of the meal. Silverware, real cloth napkins … no sand in my food. I could get used to this.

  “Sophie?” Mrs. Hancock called into the kitchen. “Are you going to rejoin us?” Then she turned back to me. “Six of you on one boat. I can’t imagine living like that for much longer than a weekend. But I understand why your mother does it. It’s hard to be separated from your family for even a short period. I don’t know what we’d do if we weren’t together.”

  “Not that you have to worry about that with a house this small,” said Lily.

  “You know what I mean,” Mrs. Hancock said. “Calder, I’m sure you can understand. Your family must be close if you’re able to live in such tight quarters. Take away one member … I just can’t imagine the toll that would take on a family.”

  I dropped my fork, and it clattered onto my plate. I gripped the edge of the table. Mrs. Hancock’s gentle voice, the memory of my mother, the way Lily looked at her father, “the toll that would take on a family,” Pavati’s warning … Pavati was right even before there was anything to be right about. I couldn’t love Lily and kill Hancock, because I couldn’t kill Hancock without destroying Lily.

  I had to get out of here. I had to get out fast. My world was tumbling like pebbles over a dam.

  “Excuse me,” I said. Heat rushed into my face, and I bolted for the door.

  32

  CONFESSIONS

  “Calder, are you okay?” Lily asked, following me away from the table.

  “I’m sorry. I’m not feeling well.”

  Mrs. Hancock said, “Oh dear, I hope it’s not the chicken.”

  Lily’s bare feet followed closely behind me on the pine plank floor. “What’s wrong?” she asked as the screen door slammed behind her. I was already over the porch steps and halfway to the car. Lily grabbed my shoulder as she caught up, and I could feel the electricity spinning out of me and into her palm. It must have been painful, but she didn’t let go.

  “I’ve got to get out of here,” I said.

  “What?”

  “My sisters, Lily. I can’t be here. I can’t do this. This is so completely messed up.”

  “What are you talking about? What do your sisters have to do with anything?” She slapped her hand across her mouth. “They know? They know I know?”

  “No, no. That’s not it.”

  “Then what?”

  “If that were all it was, I’d take you and we’d run. We’d go to the Abacos. We’d get a little beach house on one of the cays. You could write poetry … I could protect you.”

  “Would that make everything better? If it would, we should go.”

  “No! You don’t understand. Even if I took you away, it wouldn’t change anything. They’ll still kill him.”

  “Kill him? Who’s ‘him’?”

  I was pacing, my fingers clenched in my hair, pulling at the roots. My teeth ground together as I wrestled with the dueling loyalties. “Do you think any of this is an accident?” I asked. “A family of merpeople shows up on the doorstep of a family who’s heard of a monster in the lake. More than heard of, tangled with.”

  “There are no monsters in the lake.” Her voice was flat.

  “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but you are seriously misguided.”

  “Calder, it’s not your fault what happened to my grandfather.”

  “Of course it’s not. Don’t you see? My only regret in regard to your grandfather”—the last word spit from between my teeth—“is that he died before we had the chance to kill him ourselves.”

  Lily’s brow furrowed. “What are you saying?”

  I recounted the whole story, ending with my mother’s last strangled breath; with each word, the blood drained from Lily’s face.

  “He promised to sacrifice your father.”

  “But Dad was a baby!”

  “Age is irrelevant. And to a mermaid, a promise is a sacred thing.”

  “You were going to kill a baby?”

  “Technically, my mother was, but that’s beside the point. He promised his son in exchange for his life. It was a promise. They had a contract. Merpeople never break their promises. We expect the same in return. And your grandfather’s broken promise killed my mother.”

  “He didn’t know that.”

  “He caused that.”

  “So now what? What can I do to save my dad?”

  “You? Nothing. I want you as far away from this situation as possible.” I tried to wrap my arms around her, but she slapped at me and stepped back.

  “And what exactly is this situation?” Her eyes practically glowed with fury.

  “Lily, my sisters want to kill your father. They asked me to get close to you so I could get close to him. They want me to get him out on the lake so they can claim what is rightfully theirs.”

  “You got close to me on your sisters’ orders?”

  “What? Yes. At first. You’re focusing on all the wrong things.”

  Lily’s chin trembled. Her bottom lids filled with tears.

  “But it’s not like that now.” I put my hands on her shoulders and she threw them off. The air snapped between us.

  “You were in there talking about a boat trip with my dad.”

  “I know, I know. But I can’t do it. Don’t you see?”

  “Get out of here, Calder. Stay away from me, stay away from my family. And keep your sisters far away, too.” She turned to run back to the house, but I spun her around and shook her by the shoulders.

  “It’s not that simple, Lily. They will get to him. Now that they’ve found him, they will trail him forever.”

  “I can protect him.” She ripped my hands off her. “Get out of here. And don’t come back.”

  Before I could open my mouth to protest, a child’s scream reverberated off the lake and ricocheted through the trees.

  33

  COLLISION

  The screen door flew open and Hancock was on the porch, his face expressing more panic than his words ever could. “Lily, is Sophie with you?”

  “No.”

  “Help! Daddy!”

  We all turned toward the lake and tried to locate the sound. Mrs. Hancock appeared behind her husband, her face ashen, helpless in the confines of her chair. Rather than run for the lake, Hancock stood motionless, his knees locked and his hands trembling.

  “Jason,” Mrs. Hancock cried, pushing him from behind. “This is not the time for your irrational phobias!”

  With trepidation, Hancock staggered for the shore and pushed the aluminum fishing boat onto the water.

  “Oh, God, no,” Lily said under her breath. Her eyes locked on mine, her expression fierce. “Sta
y out of the water. Stay away from him.”

  Hancock pulled the cord on the outboard motor several times before he was able to get it to start; then he was flying out onto the lake.

  I raced down the driveway, cutting into the woods, tearing my new clothes off as I ran. Tree branches slapped against my face and chest and thighs, cutting me, smearing me with pine sap. When I hit the edge of the land, I pushed off without stopping to visualize. I transformed midair. Far faster than Pavati ever had.

  Perhaps it was because Pavati was in my thoughts, but as I hit the water, I could hear her voice. Pavati was trilling with excitement. She was at least a mile away, and Maris and Tallulah were farther still, but they were closing quickly and listening intently to Pavati’s report.

  The little girl had come outside, Pavati said. She was pouting because no one had been paying attention to her. She’d wanted to sit by me at dinner. Pavati had been watching from the channel. She called to her, asked her to come out on the lake. I could see it all through Pavati’s mind’s eye: Sophie pulling a kayak off the grass. Pavati promising her some fun.

  Then I heard the echo of Pavati’s memory as the kayak capsized. Sophie was clinging to the overturned craft and now—finally!—Jason Hancock was in the water. His boat was slow. The neglected motor sputtered as it ran out of gas. He picked up the oars and started rowing. “Hurry!” cried Pavati. “This is our moment.”

  From under the water, I could hear Sophie’s screams as she clung to the kayak.

  Maris ripped through the water, Tallulah a silver streak behind her.

  My mind tried to calculate the distance and their rate of speed, but there was something about having Hancock so close, and on the water, that pulled at my heart, too.

  I shook my head to clear the ingrained urge for justice. I had greater desires. I had to stop my sisters.

  Adrenaline pushed me faster than normal. But Maris was fast, too. And then there was something else. A new smell on the water. Lily in a second kayak. My heart leapt as Lily’s face flashed in my thoughts.

  “No!” screamed Tallulah. She twitched her tail and changed course.

  “Why?” I called out to her. “Tallulah, leave Lily alone.”

  Hancock reached Sophie within seconds—just fifty yards from shore. He pulled her into his boat and tied the kayak to the defective motor. Maris was closing in, but I beat her to Hancock. I put one hand on the back of his boat and shoved it with more strength than I expected. The unexpected momentum threw Hancock and Sophie onto the floor of the boat.

  A few seconds later their boat scraped across the sand as it hit the shore. Maris’s curses and Pavati’s fury muffled the sound.

  Tallulah was quiet. I panicked when I realized I couldn’t sense where she was.

  I was forced to surface, not even caring who was watching. I didn’t need to look to know that Hancock was still near. The sun hadn’t set, and if he wanted to know about the monster in the lake, he was getting a better show than we could have ever rehearsed.

  Lily was twenty yards to my south. She’d stopped paddling when she realized her dad and sister were safe. Now she looked disoriented, like she was finding herself somewhere she’d never planned to be. She turned her head, searching for someone or something. I might have felt better if she didn’t know what she was looking for. I imagined her searching for ripples, backs arching, and tails splashing against the water.

  “You told her!” Tallulah was screaming at me. “She knows. I can tell.”

  “Leave her alone, Tallulah. She’s mine.”

  “We’ve lost the element of surprise, Calder. You’ve ruined everything. And now you, you …”—her voice broke on a sob—“love her. How could you do this to me?”

  “You? What do you have to do with this? Back off, Lu. Now!”

  “No. I can’t let you.”

  We collided just ten feet from Lily’s kayak. The force of the impact sent us both sailing out of the water, entwined like a wild vine, before crashing back down. The water churned and the kayak rocked violently. My arm wrapped around Tallulah’s neck, and I dragged her down to the bottom. My hand covered her mouth, and she sank her teeth into my fingers. I didn’t stand a chance once Maris got there. Even Pavati would be impossible to fight off.

  I dragged Tallulah across the rocks on the lake bottom, scraping her soft belly until there was blood in the water. She bit down hard on my arm. I put my tail against her back and heaved. The force did two things: it sent her deeper into the lake, and it propelled me closer to Lily.

  When I surfaced, Lily screamed and scooped ineffectively at the water with her hands. I deserved her terror. I could only imagine what she expected me to do.

  “Lily, it’s me.”

  She still batted at the water.

  “You’re fine. Your family’s fine. I’m not going to hurt you.” I pushed her kayak into the weeds until the bow dug into the sand and my tail scraped along the rocks. “Please get inside, Lily. They won’t touch you. Not tonight.”

  “Or Dad?” she panted. Her face was as pale as the moon.

  “Or your dad. I won’t let them.”

  “What about you?” she asked.

  I looked nervously out on the now-stilled water. “Lily. If you don’t see me first thing in the morning, you need to get your family out of here.”

  34

  SHUNNED

  As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t stay out on the lake all night. I would have to go back to Basswood and face my sisters. It was almost an exercise in redundancy. I’d played the whole confrontation out in my head several times before I ever reached the island. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what they were going to say. There’d be no reasoning with them. I’d barely been able to reason it out for myself. I would be lucky to get through it without being maimed. Tallulah presented the only wild card in any of this.

  Under any other circumstances, I could count on her defending me. But I didn’t understand her reaction to Lily. Sure, we never intended to make our true selves known to her, but for all Tallulah knew, the mission was all but accomplished. Why she’d pulled away from the pursuit of Jason Hancock and gone after Lily … I just didn’t understand. Was it possible she was no longer interested in revenge? If that was the case, she would defend my decision.

  I came at the island from a different angle. I could see their campfire burning, and someone was throwing stones out into the lake. My survival depended on a showing of contrition. A straight-on approach wouldn’t signal an apology. I reached the island’s northern point and followed the shoreline south, stopping one hundred feet north of where they sat. I stood up with my arms stretched out to them, palms up. I didn’t say anything, but waited for them to notice me.

  Tallulah turned first, and I could see she’d been crying. She nudged Maris. Maris and Pavati turned and looked at me. No one said anything. I couldn’t tell if they were still deliberating or if they’d already reached a verdict.

  Maris put her arm around Tallulah, and Tallulah laid her head on Maris’s shoulder. They all turned back to the fire. There was no expression to read on their faces. The silence was worse than I’d anticipated.

  I swam closer, my arms still laid out across the surface of the water. Maris hissed at me, spitting vitriol. I stopped.

  “Maris,” I said. “Let me explain.”

  “You’ve done enough tonight. We have nothing more to say to you.”

  I stuttered, realizing what she meant. “Y-you’re shunning me? That’s what it’s come to? You won’t even hear me out?”

  “I can’t imagine what you could possibly have to say, Calder. You have no idea how disappointed I am, how disappointed we all are. It’s one thing to leave us for so long each year, to be so direct in telling us how little you care for us. It’s quite another to betray us, to betray our mother. Do you think I enjoy being such a harpy? Do you think I come by this naturally? My only hope is that the end of Hancock will be my salvation from this hell. But you have chosen him over me. And you have
chosen his daughter over your own sister.”

  I was about to ask what she meant when Tallulah looked up at me with wide, watery eyes, heartbreak etched across her face. I knew the look. A twisted horror snaked through me. Tallulah’s aversion to Lily, her sudden and unprovoked attack …

  “You’re my sister,” I said, still disbelieving. “It’s vile!”

  Pavati smirked and stoked the fire, shooting a sideways glance at Tallulah.

  Another sob caught in Tallulah’s throat, and Maris was on her feet. The closer she came to the water, the quicker I backed up. She stopped just as the edge of the water crossed her toes. “Stay out of our way, Calder.” She bared her teeth and snarled. “Don’t think I won’t kill you if it comes to that.”

  I dove backward, arching my back, disappearing into the dark water.

  An hour later I was still swimming. If I’d paid attention to the rocks, the sand, the sunken timbers, I would have known I was five miles north of Cornucopia. I could navigate this lake without ever looking for above-water landmarks. But the truth was, I didn’t care where I was.

  A school of coho salmon chased alewives around the underwater rock where I sat. I buried my face in my hands and dove to a depth they wouldn’t go. But the silence at ten fathoms had its own snares; I was left with my own thoughts.

  My stomach twisted unbearably with the knowledge of Tallulah’s feelings for me. Not that it was real love. The closest approximation to love for a mermaid was obsession. If I was being honest, I’d always known Tallulah felt more for me than she should have. But Tallulah’s affection was the only gentleness I’d known since my mother’s death. What was I supposed to do with this information now? There was no way I would sleep tonight. I needed someone to talk to. Someone with good advice …

  I followed the Madeline Island shoreline south and picked up the high-pitched vibration of the Ashland paper factory. Its tenor told me when it was time to cut through the pass between Long Island and Chequamegon Point. I bore southeast to Little Girl’s Point, then north into the lake, along the Wisconsin-Michigan line, for the wreck of the J.P. Brodie.