Gates of Eden: Starter Library

by Theophilus Monroe

  "No judgment, mom," Merlin said.

  I smiled. "Yeah, thanks. Because you're not real."

  Merlin cocked his head. "Whoever said I'm not real? Even if I'm the product of your mind, your mind and the kelp, it doesn't make me fake. I might not be who I appear to be. But I assure you, whatever I am, is quite real."

  I sighed. "Why do I see you?"

  "Why do you think I appeared to you like this?" Merlin asked.

  "You mean, as an adult?"

  Merlin nodded.

  I shrugged. "I don't know. None of this makes sense."

  "But it does," Merlin said. "Knowing who I was meant to become, you went to every length, you exhibited incredible bravery and strength, to ensure that I was healed of the dragon's curse. But even I was not healed completely."

  I cocked my head. "You weren't?"

  "You removed the dragon's curse. But not the dragon's magic. It is why I will eventually become a gatekeeper. It was the dragons, was it not, who were the original gatekeepers and guardians of worlds?"

  I pressed my lips together. I'd only ever met two human gatekeepers: Merlin and Elijah's twin sister, Lily. And Lily had once shifted into a dragon's form, too. I'd seen it, myself. "Does this mean I'm going to be a gatekeeper, too?"

  "The wyrms are not unlike dragons. Their essence is the same. But it is not the gate between Annwn and earth that they govern."

  "But between earth and the void?" I asked.

  Merlin nodded. "And you can speak to them."

  "I know," I said. "I did once before."

  "And you can tame them. You can use the wyrm to close the portal from the void. But you won't be able to keep it closed unless you can also stop the one who opened it, to begin with."

  "And what is it that he hopes to do?" I asked.

  Merlin shrugged. "I only know what you know, mother. That is something you'll have to discover. But you are the only one who can stop him. If you allow King Conand to destroy the wyrm..."

  I looked back at the image of my son, my eyes wide. "Then there will be no way to close the void..."

  "Exactly," Merlin said with a quick nod of his head.

  "But these urges, this instinct left behind by the dragon... if I go to the surface."

  Merlin cocked his head. "What you see as a liability may, in fact, be exactly what you need."

  Merlin slapped me in the face.

  I winced.

  Then I opened my eyes.

  It was Tahlia.

  "Joni? Are you in there?"

  I rattled my head back and forth. "Sorry, I was seeing things..."

  Tahlia grinned. "I suppose I should have warned you. This stuff can be pretty intense the first time."

  I scratched my head. "Yeah, it was... intense...

  Tahlia smiled wide and waved her hand at Agwe, who swam up beside me.

  "Told you it would work," Tahlia said.

  Agwe grinned. "So you saw what you needed, Joni?"

  "Wait," I said. "You two planned this?"

  Agwe pulled me aside into a crevice in the wall. Tahlia followed close behind. Agwe grabbed some kind of hide he'd hidden in the spot and threw it over Tahlia's head. "Tahlia is more than some kelp-peddling flirt."

  Agwe released the hide. It shrunk around Tahlia's body until her whole frame twisted into a long ribbon-shaped creature resembling an eel.

  I rubbed my eyes. "This kelp is crazy... I could swear I saw Tahlia change into an eel."

  Agwe laughed. "That wasn't a hallucination. Tahlia isn't a Fomorian. Not exactly..."

  "Holy shit," I said. "She's the wyrm's baby! She's the one the mother is looking for!"

  Agwe shook his head as he chuckled. "Good guess, but no. Like you, she's only half Fomorian. She's also part selkie."

  "What's a selkie?" I asked.

  "They typically appear as seals. When they shed their hides, they take a human shape. By redressing themselves in their hides, they can resume seal form."

  "But seals are mammals. They couldn't breathe underwater."

  Agwe nodded. "In Tahlia's case, since her mother was a Fomorian mermaid and her father was a selkie, her shifting works differently. Rather than shifting between the shape of a seal and human, she can shift between that of an eel and a mermaid."

  "But can't all Fomorians shapeshift?" I asked.

  Agwe nodded. "They can, but it is a strenuous process. It involves a great deal of magic. For Tahlia, shifting between her two forms isn't magical. It's biological, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. She just does it more quickly. And she can alternate back and forth."

  "So she isn't magical?" I asked.

  "I didn't say that," Agwe said. "Her abilities are unique."

  "You could say that again," I said.

  Agwe looked at me curiously. "Tell me, what exactly did you see?"

  "I saw my son..."

  "As he is now?" Agwe asked.

  I shook my head. "In the future... his future. He was older. But I'm pretty sure it was all in my mind."

  Agwe grinned widely. "It wasn't all in your mind."

  "You mean, I was actually talking to Merlin?" I asked.

  Agwe nodded. "That's what Tahlia does. She's not just a shifter. She's something of an empath, I suppose. She knows what's on your mind. With the aid of kelp, she can help you draw out your deepest feelings, your truths."

  I bit my lip. "In that case, I saw what I needed to see."

  "So you'll do it. You'll go to the surface to find the bokor responsible?"

  "No, what I saw... I've decided to stay here. To remain in Fomoria."

  Agwe cocked his head as Tahlia slithered around him, looking back at him and tilting her head as if she were his reflection in a mirror.

  I laughed and snorted at the same time. "I'm sorry. I'm screwing with you. You should have seen your face!"

  Agwe scratched his head. "So you will help?"

  I smiled wide. "Yes, I'll do it."

  9

  THE DRUG-INDUCED REVELATION from my grown-up baby boy was both comforting and rattling. Sure, I supposed it was mostly a product of my mind. But then again, the grown-up Merlin was a powerful sorcerer. It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that he'd found some way to take advantage of my altered state of consciousness to make the connection. I wanted to believe that's what happened. It seemed so real—not at all like the Burt Reynolds hallucination. This was different.

  Maybe I'd never know for sure. But my son had traversed the fabrics of space and time to find me before. He could do so again.

  Probably not anytime soon. Not so long as I was still in this world... not so long as my baby was, too.

  But someday.

  For some reason, Someday, the Maria Carey song echoed in my mind as I had the thought. Oooh, Oooh Somedaayyee.

  I sighed. It was going to take a while to get that one out of my head.

  Tahlia resumed her mermaid form once we returned to Cleo's apartment.

  I don't know if "apartment" is the right word. Cleo didn't have to pay rent or anything. But so far as I knew, no one in Fomoria had their own house. They all had these rooms, something like studio apartments, almost like caves inside the spires. Some of them had their own entrances and exits. More like most apartment complexes, others shared an entrance or exit to the outside with the various homes branched off the multiple corridors.

  I wasn't sure if these cave-homes were naturally occurring or somehow hewn out of the spires by magic. They appeared natural, but, at the same time, they were laid out in a fairly sensible way, which suggested that they'd been made with intention.

  Agwe took Tahlia's eel pelt, draping it over his arm, as Cleo joined them in a conversation. They were all in league together. Some kind of underground conspiracy, working without the king's knowledge, to help discover the greater threat.

  Treasonous? Not exactly. Though, I presume if they were to get caught defying the king by smuggling me out of Fomoria, they'd likely be de-finned. Well, all except for Agwe, who was sem
i-divine and not, technically, subject to the king but by choice.

  How in the world was I going to leave Fomoria without getting caught?

  Agwe and Cleo already had a plan. Sort of.

  Fomoria had several energy-detecting beacons deployed throughout the gulf. Giant crystals that could sense any kind of energy. Magic. Electricity. Whatever. It let the Fomorians know if other magical creatures were approaching or, just as threatening, a submarine or some different human vessel type was in the vicinity. As Agwe explained, unmanned submarines or research vessels sometimes ventured into the surrounding waters. With enough warning, the Fomorians could use the magical firmament to cloak the city.

  The problem? So long as I maintained my mermaid form, a certain amount of magic was retained in my frame. Enough that if I were to leave the city, the beacons would detect it. It was how Agwe knew, for instance, I'd encountered a wyrm before. It's why he came, along with Titus and another merman, to escort me back to Fomoria safely.

  The only way to make myself undetectable to the beacons was to release my mermaid form.

  But that presented more daunting challenges. The same magic that sustained my tail was also what allowed me to breathe underwater. Swimming to the surface with legs, not a tail, was going to be challenging enough. But without the ability to breathe underwater? Impossible.

  Agwe, Cleo, and Tahlia were busy brainstorming ways to pull it off—every idea seemed a stretch.

  One option was to create a bubble with enough oxygen in it that would last me until it reached the surface. They could generate the bubble with magic. They'd wrap the magic bubble with whale skin then dispel the magic. It created a little chamber I could breathe in. That's what they did for my baby, for instance, after he was healed and resumed his human form. Getting him down there, while he was still a dragon, was another matter entirely. Thankfully, though, dragons can go quite a while longer than humans without breathing. We made it to Fomoria, barely, before they brought him in and put him in an air bubble.

  There was only one problem with the idea. In the bubble, I'd have no way to steer myself to shore. I'd float to the surface then have to swim several miles to reach the beach. I'm in pretty good shape and a decent swimmer, all things considered, even with my human legs. But miles? I'd likely drown, exhausted, without ever getting close to land.

  Another idea was they could fire me through some kind of non-magical projectile, like a torpedo, to the surface. But they'd have to build something like that, which would take time. Not to mention, some kind of non-magical energy would still be necessary. Sure, it might appear like any other human vessel on the Fomorian radar. Still, the fact that the signal would originate in Fomoria would be undoubtedly suspicious.

  Tahlia looked at me. "Why don't we ask Joni what she thinks might work?"

  Agwe shook his head. "No offense to Joni intended. But she doesn't know how the beacons work, much less how to avoid their detection."

  "What if I keep my tail?" I asked, nodding in appreciation at Tahlia. I did have an idea. "If I'm close to something else, something filled with a lot of magic, would that magic cloak my signature enough the king couldn't detect me?"

  Agwe scratched his head. "Theoretically, yes. But I can't think of anything so powerful we'd ever sent to the surface, much less to the coast, that wouldn't arouse suspicion."

  I shrugged. "What about a wyrm?"

  "You can't be serious," Agwe said. "There's no way..."

  "I can talk to her," I said. "I did before. She knows I want to help. All we have to do is convince her to take me to shore."

  "It could work," Cleo said. "But it's risky. Do we know if these creatures can be tamed?"

  "We don't," Tahlia added. "But if it is, imagine the possibilities."

  "The wyrms aren't here to kill us. If they wanted, they'd have done it already. They are desperate. At least the mother I talked to was. She is looking for her baby. And if she thinks I can help..."

  "But how can you be certain? The wyrms are reptilian. They don't think coherently or logically. They operate on instinct." Cleo asked.

  "And what instinct is more powerful than a mother's desire to protect her young?" I asked. "Look, we're already taking a bunch of risks. Any of us could be caught by the king and punished."

  "Executed, most likely," Tahlia said. "But it's a risk I'm accustomed to."

  I raised my eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

  Tahlia shrugged. "I'm here without the king's approval."

  "So that's why you shifted into your eel form when we left the club?"

  Tahlia nodded, then hooked her hand in Agwe's arm. "I was all alone before he found me. Agwe gave me a home."

  I shook my head. "But how do you live like that? Always knowing that at any moment you might be deported if discovered?"

  Tahlia shrugged. "It's difficult. But what other choice do I have? Agwe and Cleo are like family. I can't imagine being alone again."

  "As you've seen, in her mermaid form Tahlia looks different than the rest of us. Her skin is darker. So long as we're in a club, a place mostly dark where half the folks are high on kelp, she can get away with being herself. But she has to be careful going out in public."

  "That's horrible," I said. "Why couldn't the king give her permission to stay here? She isn't all that different than everyone else."

  Tahlia and Agwe exchanged glances. "If there was any chance of success, we'd try. The politic here is not altogether accepting of outsiders."

  I furrowed my brow. "But they allowed me to come and stay here."

  "Not without controversy," Agwe said. "But the king surmised that because you came to help your baby, turning you down might be unpopular."

  "And because he thinks I'm a threat if I'm not under his thumb?" I asked, interrupting Agwe's explanation.

  Agwe nodded. "There's that, too."

  I sighed. "Such a bigot."

  "It isn't just the king," Tahlia said. "It's a part of the culture here. The merfolk are mostly good. But they fear change. Outsiders represent change. A threat to culture, to values, and in their mind, to their safety."

  I rolled my eyes. "How are you a threat to their safety?"

  "I'm not," Tahlia said. "But all it takes are a few stories, a few examples of how relationships with outsiders went south, to maintain public opinion in favor of the current policy."

  "How many times have the Fomorians interacted with outsiders, anyway?" I asked.

  "From time to time," Agwe said, "there have been occasions when our people encountered humans. Most of the time, it goes well. The humans treat them well. They are curious, even fascinated by the Fomorians. It's why humans have stories or legends regarding merfolk. But such has not always been the case. Some have hunted Fomorians. Others attack simply because they view anything they don't understand as a threat."

  "So now, as a result, the merfolk are mostly confined to the city?" I asked.

  Agwe nodded. "It has become a necessity. Both because of the unpredictability of humans, but on account of new technologies that make it more likely that human vessels might find us if we are not careful."

  I sighed. "So the king basically wants me to choose sides. If I'm going to stay here, he wants me to renounce anything from my human life?"

  Agwe nodded. "There is that. But what he told you is also true. He fears that, on account of your humanity, that you cannot be trusted. And he fears, on account of the dragon's essence that taints your soul, that you might empathize too much with the wyrm."

  I bit my lip. I wanted to defend myself. But my entire plan for making it to the surface undetected hinged on something that effectively proved the king's point—I did empathize with the wyrm. I understood them—at least the one I'd met before. But it was the only plan that any of us had considered so far that was even marginally feasible. "I wouldn't suggest using the wyrm to mask my presence on the way to the surface if I wasn't confident it would work."

  Agwe raised one eyebrow. "And you're going to tell the wyrm that
you can get her baby back?"

  "I'm not going to lie to her. I'm going to tell her that I'm trying to find the one who pulled her and the rest of them out of the void. I'm going to tell her that I'm going to do everything I can to try and help her find her baby. And if we do that, if we can help her... the wyrm won't be a threat anymore."

  Agwe and Cleo both looked to Tahlia, who nodded in approval.

  Agwe turned to me. "Very well. Tahlia will be going with you."

  "Why?" I asked. "I mean, no offense Tahlia. But doesn't that make things more challenging?"

  "Tahlia and I have a connection," Agwe said.

  "Like a psychic connection?" I asked.

  Agwe nodded. "She possesses my aspect. A gift of my essence that links us together. It will allow us to communicate if necessary."

  "However, I won't be able to maintain this form on earth," Tahlia said. "It's hard to move around with a tail. As an eel, you'll be able to carry me with you."

  I turned to Agwe. "We can't use magic to give her legs?"

  Agwe scratched his head. "Possible. But inconvenient."

  "I'd have to learn how to walk," Tahlia said. "And in eel form, I can survive outside of the water for about two days, give or take. A little longer if you give me sensual salt water baths."

  "Sensual baths?" I asked, cocking my head.

  Tahlia grinned widely. "Take that however you like."

  10

  WHILE MAGICAL SIGNATURES could be detected around Fomoria—or near any of the crystal beacons in the gulf—there wasn't any way to precisely determine the source. A strong pulse of electricity might be a ship or a submarine. More minor magical signatures might identify a mermaid or another magically-attuned creature. A more significant magical signature was probably a wyrm.

  According to Agwe, while we'd only encountered three of them, their numbers were likely to grow. The last he'd checked those were the only ones detected from the void. But more could be on the way. The fact the mother wyrm had told me "all" of them were here was too imprecise to count on. First, was she even telling the truth? Was she speaking of all wyrm-kind or all her family? Maybe she was delusional. Or, perhaps, others had come and fled to other parts of the ocean outside the beacons' reach. Not to mention, what if they laid eggs? How quickly could they reproduce? We didn't know.