by JE Hunter
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Wake up.” Grandma’s voice was sharp as she ripped open the curtains. I groaned, rolling over under my covers, sheltering my eyes from the blinding light pouring through my windows. It couldn’t have been more than three hours since I’d spoken with Caesar on the dock.
“No excuses. You have a lot to learn today, and a lot of preparation to help me with. The mermaids and sea nymphs will need many potions to get through the year, and you'll be helping me make them. I'll see you downstairs in five minutes.” Grandma withdrew from my room, leaving my windows open, allowing a cool breeze to blow in from the ocean.
Why could I never find enough time to sleep in this world? Forcing myself out of bed, I made my way to the closet, pulling out some of the new clothes I'd bought in town. I chose a vibrant green, long sleeved shirt with an imprint of jungle trees on the bottom right and a pair of beige khaki pants that a sales woman had sworn would dry off a lot more quickly than blue jeans if they got wet. The pitch had sold me –hanging around Grandma was a very wet occupation.
My immediate thought when I walked into the kitchen was that Grandma had lost her mind. Instead of just making herself coffee and toast for breakfast, leaving me to fend for myself as per usual, she'd prepared a large breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast for both of us.
She was sitting at the table reading when I sat down. She nodded at the full plate made up for me. “Eat. You'll need your strength today—we have a lot of walking and swimming ahead of us.”
I poured myself a tall glass of orange juice, and then started in on the food. As I began to wake up, thoughts of Caesar filled my head. When I failed to fight off the memories, I realised I was in a lot more trouble than I wanted to be—especially if Colleen spoke the truth about the pirates. I liked Caesar. I was drawn to him. I couldn’t wait to see him at class tomorrow.
“Grandma?” I finished off my first piece of bacon, wiping my greasy fingers on the cloth napkin she’d placed beside my plate.
“What?” she asked without looking up.
“Do you like pirates?” I picked up a piece of toast and broke off the crust. “I mean, do you think they can be trusted? Because in every movie I've seen they're egotistical, sexist, drunk, hot-headed–”
“Nessa!” Grandma cut me off, turning away from her papers. “Life's not a movie. Pirates are no different than you or I. They have the ability to listen to the sea. They may have—in the past—taken advantage of their abilities to the misfortune of others, but the pirates that attend this school are people who want to make a difference—people that love the waters of this planet and have sworn to protect them. They’re people who deserve our respect.”
I sipped my juice, bouncing Grandma's words around my head. “Colleen doesn't like them much. She doesn't trust them either.”
Grandma put her papers down. She picked at a small piece of bacon on her plate. “I suppose I should have guessed you gleaned your current attitude from Colleen. She's a nice girl, but her views are very subjective. You know Colleen's father is missing.”
“Yes, she told me.”
Grandma nodded, her red hair securely braided behind her head. My hair, however, was trying to eat my eggs.
“What she may not have told you is that her father went missing while on a trip with a pirate—Caesar’s father to be precise. He was supposed to return safely two months ago. But neither Colleen's father nor Caesar’s have returned.”
“Oh.” I brushed my hair out of my eggs and reached for the raspberry jam, thinking over what Grandma had said. “But why didn’t they return? Isn’t it kind of… ironic…or something, that a pirate and a selkie disappeared at sea?”
“It is. But as they didn’t return, it’s impossible to know what happened. Keep that in mind before you listen to everything Colleen says about the pirates.” Grandma picked up her papers. “Let me know when you're finished with your breakfast, Nessa. I'd like to get an early start.”
I ate my breakfast as slowly as possible. I didn't finish eating it either—I wanted to stall heading out into the water with my crazy grandma for as long as possible, which didn't turn out to be very long.
“Where are we going?” I whined, hours later. I was exasperated with Grandma's lack of sharing. Before boating us over to the mainland for an epic hike, Grandma had led me through an hour of swimming followed by yoga and meditation. So far, she had told me nothing about why we were doing any of it.
“We're going to a special place. We need to pick up potion ingredients that can only be found here on the mainland. There's much more to being a sea-witch than just listening to the ocean. You possess great power Nessa, and once you learn to wield it you'll have a lot of work to do. The sooner you learn everything you need to know, the sooner you can help me with the workload. If you hadn't been such a late bloomer, you'd already be quite proficient at all this by now.”
If I'd had a choice, I'd never have bloomed at all. I’d be back in Surrey with Marnie, not hiking up a mountain after my much-too-in-shape grandma. She was ancient—I didn't even know how old she was—but she was pushing ahead of me like a personal trainer and I was exhausted.
I wiped the sweat from under the rim of my hat. “Isn't there somewhere closer to the shoreline where we could get what you need?”
“Maybe,” Grandma replied, “but this is the best place and I enjoy the walk.”
Grinding my teeth in frustration, I contemplated picking up a rock and throwing it at the back of her head, deciding against it only when I realized I may not be able to find my way back to the boat, which we'd left tethered to a stand of pine trees, without her.
“Are we almost there?” My breath laboured as we started up another steep incline.
“It's just around this bend.”
I kept my eyes on the almost non-existent path, watching for roots waiting to trip me. I was so focused on where I was stepping that I didn't notice the small, crystal clear, blue lake until we were right on top of it. “What is this place?”
“This lake has some of the purest water to be found. We'll take some of it back with us for use in spells and potions. Pure water is a key ingredient for mermaid's wine—the potion that transforms the merfolk tail to legs, allowing them to walk on land.” Grandma knelt on the ground, swinging her empty backpack from her shoulders. “Copy me.” Grandma leaned toward the edge of the water, mumbling under her breath. I tried to listen carefully to what she was saying, but I couldn't focus on all the mumbo jumbo. Instead, I took in the view. The lake was clear, calm, and aquamarine. It was the kind of lake I longed for during the hot days of summer. The kind of lake I wished my parents owned a cabin at. The kind of lake where I wished I'd got my first kiss—not some hidden corner in a run-down bowling alley.
“Nessa.” I turned my eyes back to the task. Grandma was standing, furious. “Did you hear a single word I said?”
“Um, yeah.” I grabbed my glass bottle and knelt at the edge of the water. “Majestic lake, I have... come... here today... to...”
“This is a not a joke Nessa. This is serious. Do I have to drown you again to prove it?”
“Oh come on, hiking for two hours to collect water from a mountain lake isn't magic; it's torture!” I stood, my legs aching.
“There's more to being a Neptunian than performing children's magic tricks. It's a guardianship—a responsibility. Your job.”
“I'm sorry if I'm having a hard time believing all this hocus-pocus. Maybe I'd be more prepared if you hadn't abandoned me in a non-magical world when I was a child. Maybe if you'd stuck around to prepare me for this, I'd be taking it a little more seriously!” I bit my lip, afraid I'd be swallowed up by the lake.
But no water came flying at my head. Grandma only growled, her face red and tight. “I'll do this one more time, Nessa. Please pay attention.” She knelt back down at the edge of the water, pulling another empty bottle from her bag. “I'll go slowly, since I know this is still new to you.”
Once she was finished, I knel
t down and repeated her words. “Majestic Lake, Royal Waters, I ask you now for a sacrifice: please give of your body to me, so that I may do the work of the Sea.” As I lowered my hands into the water, I felt a quiet tingle pierce my skin. It wasn’t painful, but it was kind of like the pain I got whenever my leg fell asleep. It felt almost as if the lake was taking something from me in return for what I took from it. That thought made me slightly uneasy.
“Good,” Grandma said, once I’d filled my two bottles satisfactorily. “Let's get going.” She slipped the straps of her backpack over her shoulders, heading back down the trail.
I yelled after her but she was already disappearing through the trees. “What? You mean we aren't going to rest first? What about lunch?” I stomped my foot, swinging my heavy backpack over my shoulders. “Will you please stop trying to kill me?” I yelled before running to catch up to her. Of course she wouldn't need a break; she was wonder-witch.
“What's this all for?” I demanded, trying to slow Grandma with words.
“What do you mean?” She picked up a gnarled, dead tree branch to use as a walking stick.
“What are sea-witches for? Where do they come from? Where do we come from?”
“We come from the sea. If you're a looking for a more in depth answer than that, I can't tell you. Sea-witches have been around since the birth of humanity. We're charged with protecting the waters of Earth. There are many tales of redheaded sea-witches, but there are no concrete answers.”
I stepped over a nasty tangle of tree roots. “Do you really believe that? Or do you believe that we're freaks who have some strange, unnatural powers to control water?” I didn’t voice the thought I’d expressed to Caesar last night: that this was exactly what I was afraid the ghost of my father thought of me.
Grandma sighed heavily. “I'm not a freak. Neither are you. With time you'll learn that protecting the ocean, and protecting Neptunians, is the greatest work you can do in your life. You have to understand, Nessa; this gift you have is incredibly powerful. You can alter the currents of the ocean. You can change its temperature. You can cause ocean life to flourish or to die. You can change tides, purify water, create massive storm systems. You can change the entire weather structure of the planet just by influencing the water on Earth.”
I moved closer to Grandma to make sure I'd heard her properly. “Wait, are you telling me that you're responsible for El Nino?”
“I'm telling you that I could be, though I would never jeopardize the Earth—or abuse my power—like that.”
I leaned briefly against a tree, catching my breath for two seconds before hurrying to catch up again. “And what about the hunters, are we responsible for protecting Neptunians from them too?” We hadn’t spoken of the hunter since I’d arrived home from town.
Thankfully, my words slowed Grandma down, if only infinitesimally. “Sea-witches can call on the waters to create currents and swells, disguises for islands that we would rather not have touched by those that would do us harm. We will stop at the boundary on the way back to our island. You will be able to feel the boundary trying to guide us away. Sea-witches are the only Neptunians that can create boundaries.” Grandma sped up again and said no more.
Thanks to gravity, the walk down the mountain was considerably faster than the hike up. An hour later we were back at the boat. I tossed my backpack onto the deck and climbed in after it. Grandma already had the currents bubbling, ready to push us home. It was strange riding with her, and a lot quieter than when Colleen and I went to Tofino. Because of her sea-witch powers, Grandma could just ask the sea to carry us back to the island. As soon as I was on board, she revved up the currents and the ocean pulled us away from shore.
Ten minutes later, I could barely see the mainland thanks to the misty grey clouds that were rolling in from the west. I slipped into the yellow slicker I'd worn on the way out. The air was thick with moisture, and I could feel that it was about to pour any minute.
Just when I was getting excited about arriving home and taking a nice long, hot, raspberry bubble bath, Grandma stopped the boat, leaving us floating aimlessly in the water. “This is the boundary.” She lifted the bench across from me, pulling out her own yellow slicker to wear. A gust of wind blew by, pulling out strands of red hair from her braid and making them fly in the wind; she looked wild.
I reached up to make sure my hat was still firmly on my head. “I don’t feel anything.”
Her eyebrows dropped and I shut my mouth. When I was quiet, she began again. “I set up this boundary the very day your grandfather and I bought this island. It's merely a line of very powerful current encircling our land. The boundary pushes away anyone who doesn't know about it, so that no matter how hard they try, they cannot find us.”
I frowned. “So how do we get to and from the island so easily? Colleen and I have been to Tofino tons since I got here and we've never had trouble.”
Grandma sat down beside me, gazing out at the sea, a haunted look crossing her face. “The boundary isn't to keep us in, it's to keep out the humans that would do us harm. You and Colleen can get to and from the islands because Colleen knows about the boundary. Without that knowledge, it would be very difficult to sense, even for a Neptunian. Her powers as a selkie allow her to speak to the currents—the ocean senses her bond to it and lets her pass when she asks. Boundaries are really meant to keep out humans, like the hunter.”
I looked where Grandma was looking but I saw nothing.
“Can you feel it yet?” she turned her eyes on me just as the rain started pouring down.
The fat raindrops thwacked my yellow slicker. All I felt was incredibly cold and wet, but I knew that wasn't what Grandma wanted to hear. “What should I be feeling?”
She reached over, clasping my hands in hers. She was as cold as ice; I had to force myself not to pull away. “Close your eyes. You should feel a pull. Only the pull is not in one direction, it's in many directions all at once.”
I closed my eyes. I could feel the boat rocking beneath us, swaying on the water; side-to-side and up and down. I ignored that feeling and searched for another. First I felt nausea, then, underneath the water, far below me yet all around, I felt it. It was like an elastic band stretched to its limit, full of tension and ready to snap.
“I feel it.” My voice was a whisper. I was afraid of ruining the moment, of splitting the connection I’d formed with the boundary.
“Good. Now communicate with it, tell it who you are, and it will let us pass.” Grandma let go of my hands. The cushion shifted beneath me as she stood. Her footsteps were soft as she made her way back to the captain's chair.
I spoke to the boundary. I'm a sea-witch, I live on the island you protect. Please let me go home. The tension, once thick and heavy, released.
Grandma called up the currents and drove us onward.