Everblue

by Brenda Pandos

  She got up and perched herself on the arm of the chair Azor sat in. She demonstrated the gadget with one hand and wrapped her other hand around his shoulder. “See? There’s no fuss.”

  Azor tightened his eyes for a fraction of a second as each picture flashed on the screen. “Yes, I see what you mean.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “Still, Alaster is right. The camera should be returned. Colin?”

  Tatiana held out the contraption with a coquettish smile. Colin took the camera and threw it into the box, unconcerned with damaging the device. Azor, unaware, gazed headily into Tatiana’s eyes.

  I gasped. “So there’s no damaging pictures?”

  Alaster coughed and grabbed his son by the arm. “Come, Colin. We have a gate to guard and rumors to squelch.”

  They left through the porthole before I could raise a larger stink.

  Azor snapped out of Tatiana’s bewitching stare and looked angrily at me. “Yes, the pictures seem to have discounted Colin’s claim you were seen as a merman by humans, but your unauthorized exit must be discussed. You better hope they don’t find any other evidence against you.”

  “Wait. Let me get this straight. I leave unauthorized through an unguarded gate, and I alone get in trouble?”

  “You didn’t have permission to leave, Finley. As far as your uncle’s post is concerned, that’s my business.”

  “I was getting rocks!” I yelled. “Because it’s my job to make the elder mers happy. I only left for a minute!”

  Azor turned and scowled. “You just can’t leave and get rocks.”

  “This is utterly ridiculous!” I pounded my fist on the chair, breaking off a piece.

  Tatiana batted her eyelashes at Azor. “Aren’t you overreacting?”

  “No, Tatiana. Finley has broken the law,” he said plainly, then turned to me. “Be prepared to answer when the Council asks what you were doing. How you managed to create a wake while retrieving rocks is beyond me, but a solid explanation might reduce the time of your punishment.”

  Unlikely. “You’d better stop rumors here in Natatoria too. Once it gets around the gate’s unguarded, other mers might stop by for a visit,” I said with a sneer.

  Azor glared. “Don’t test me, Finley. The other mers respect our rules and you need to be reminded why we don’t break them.” Azor motioned for me to get to my feet. “We must go.”

  Mom kept eyeing me with worry. “When can I visit my son?”

  “Mag—excuse me—Mrs. Helton, not until after the trial next week.”

  The withering glance of my torn mother ate at the lining of my stomach. How could I have been so careless? Colin tricked me into revealing what happened and I fell for it—hook, line, and sinker. By blaming me, Alaster completely avoided a reprimand. Without Dad’s help to smooth matters behind the scenes, I doubted I’d get a fair trial. I could kiss Tahoe goodbye for my future now.

  Azor made me go behind the curtain and phase first.

  “Sorry,” Tatiana said, once she exited the porthole behind us. She and Mom floated, clinging to one another, in the current under the eve of the porch. “What were you doing out there anyway?”

  “Nothing,” —besides promising myself to the girl of my dreams, risking the family’s livelihood and putting everyone in jeopardy— “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Better not have been nothing. I just flirted with Azor. Ugh.”

  I withheld a nervous laugh. “Something personal. I’ll tell you later.”

  “Oh-kay,” she said disparagingly.

  If we had more time, she might have pulled out the truth. “Take care of Mom. Who knows how this will turn out.”

  “It’ll be fine. I’m going to see you before the trial somehow.”

  Our eyes met. “Don’t you dare do anything rash.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Finley, let’s go,” Azor said, noticing I’d stalled.

  Azor and I crossed the bluff and the girls disappeared out of view, leaving me with my guilt. I had no idea what the punishment would be for leaving without permission. If Alaster or Colin testified, it would be my word against theirs, considering they’ve no proof. Maybe I could mention the fact they weren’t monitoring the gate. There was no way I was going to take the fall for everything.

  As we swam closer, I noticed a few changes to his grandiose living quarters—more gilded surfaces and additional spires. The magnificent coral garden stood out, rumored to be directly from Fiji to accent his statue of a bare-chested mermaid—a custom he wanted reinstated.

  A new room protruded off to the side, which he bragged he had built specifically for his hunting trophies. But in the back, behind a barnacle-encrusted stone fence loomed the ravenous creatures no one ever wanted to contend with—great white sharks.

  From the Pacific Ocean, the sharks swam in and out of the Pacific gate as they pleased, only allowed in one small corner of Natatoria and blocked by floor-to-ceiling rock spires so they couldn’t have a feasting frenzy on the mers. The windows of the jail cells off the back of his house were within this gated area.

  No one had ever escaped and lived to tell about it. I was trapped until Azor let me out.

  30

  ASH

  My eyelids slowly opened, registering my surroundings. The clock on the wall said it was only one in the afternoon, but it felt later. Mom and a male’s voice spoke outside the doorway, probably Dr. Peet. From the anxiety in her pitch, I figured my condition had worsened. I turned up the volume of the TV with the remote and flipped through the lowly thirteen channels. My choices were Bonanza, soap operas, Let’s Make A Deal, or daytime reality TV.

  Before I’d fallen asleep from the pain meds thirty minutes ago, the nurse said my white blood cell count was higher than they liked and they wanted to monitor me for infection. I wasn’t sure if that meant here, or at home.

  My dream fluttered back into my mind. A huge hourglass protruded out in the middle of our dining room table. Within the sand, bits and pieces of blue wood were showing through. Only I knew what was underneath. I struggled to move the gigantic thing out of sight of my inquisitive family—without success. Once more grains fell away, The Sea Star would show everyone what I’d done today.

  My attention jerked to an interruption on the TV; warning of unusual activity in Emerald Bay.

  “. . . mysterious waves over six-feet tall accosted the shore shortly after eleven thirty this morning, damaging small boats in the harbor. Seismologists say there wasn’t any activity on the fault line, leaving them baffled as to how the occurrence happened. Locals blame Tessie for the disturbance, others the full moon. Officials are asking, until further notice, for extreme care to be taken near the water until divers can determine the cause.”

  I wanted to laugh until I heard, “In other news, a local high school girl was swept out into the bay after a rogue wave hit the beach . . .”

  I dropped the remote.

  “I saw the whole thing,” a guy in a dirty shirt said, his missing tooth creating a lisp. “The girl got washed into the lake by this crazy wave over there and then some guy jumped in and saved her.”

  Did someone else have an accident besides me? I wasn’t close enough to shore to have someone dive in and save me. All I remembered was the bright light underwater. My lips prickled again at the memory.

  The camera cut to the lake and panned across the water, Fannette Island in the background. A pit formed in my stomach as I anticipated seeing the empty blue boat bobbing along. Then the Ranger came into view, the same one from earlier.

  He cleared his throat and looked down. “I didn’t rescue anyone, ma’am. I found her in my station, bundled up and almost frozen to death. I did what any citizen would have done and called nine-one-one.”

  His words hacked through the fluff lining my brain. This story was about me. I started to break out in a sweat as the woman continued to ask him probing questions about my injuries and if I’d said anything. He didn’t have much to say. The others sh
e interviewed blamed the waves and, surprisingly, not my stupidity. Did no one truly see me fall? What about the jet boat riders?

  “Ashlyn!” Dad said breathlessly, as if he’d run all the way here.

  His voice made me jump. I pawed at the covers to find the remote, shutting off the TV. He walked briskly over and hugged me hard.

  “Thank God you’re alright. I got here as soon as I could.” He kissed the top of my head and held me, letting out a sigh. “If anything ever happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  “I’m okay, Dad. Really.”

  He didn’t move, just kept his arms around me. His sniffle set guilt careening through my body. Why did I do something so stupid? We stayed that way for several minutes. I finally melted into his shoulder.

  He composed himself and stood by my bed, still wearing his fire-station T-shirt. “You worried us. How are you feeling?”

  “Okay, I guess.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes. My chest clenched watching him suffer, the “what ifs” playing horror films within his eyes. “I didn’t mean to get anyone upset.”

  “Just—” He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed—torture running wicked grooves across his forehead and eyes. He sighed again, sounding tired, defeated. “We need you to be more careful. Mom said you weren’t feeling well, so you didn’t go to church today. What were you doing down by the water?”

  I worked to catch my breath as the truth smoldered on my tongue. I wanted to come clean, but knew their reaction would be fierce once they realized what I’d done. Could the consequences be punishment enough? My injury grounded me from swimming for a few weeks and the scar would forever mark my thigh. “I—I needed some fresh air.”

  “How did you fall in?”

  I nervously chuckled. “A wave, I think.”

  The timing of the huge waves couldn’t have worked more perfectly to my advantage. But as far as I could remember, other than the ones from a jet boat that knocked my oar into the water, nothing unusual happened.

  Dad didn’t appreciate my jocularity and frowned. “You don’t remember where you were or how you ended up in the lake?”

  “No.” I held my breath, the treacherous sand falling faster and faster.

  He shook his head. “Hmmm.”

  My mind slowly whirled, thick with pain meds, searching for an alibi to his next set of questions. What if someone saw me? Or worse, what if my rescuer comes clean? Maybe I could stage a break-in to make it look like someone stole the boat.

  Mom came from around the curtain and interrupted my thoughts. She slid her hand into his and kissed Dad. “Good, I’m glad you’re here.”

  I faked a smile. In private, they’d compare notes of what happened and bust that hourglass wide open. Should I just come clean and take the heat?

  “They’re keeping her tonight,” Mom said, as if I wasn’t in the room. “There’s an infection somewhere. And her quad muscle is injured pretty badly so she’ll need to stay off her feet. She’s not allowed to swim for several months either. Then there’s physical therapy, too.”

  “What?” I’d figured weeks, but not months. That would be the rest of senior year. I slouched back in the pillows and turned my face towards the window as the tears welled up in my eyes. A knock at the door cut the dreary silence.

  “Come in,” Mom said softly.

  Callahan walked in with a beautiful bouquet of gerbera daisies and yellow lilies. “Sorry to interrupt.” He nervously held out the arrangement, his gaze darting between my parents and me. “I heard about what happened and wanted to bring you these.”

  I wiped away the tears and tried to smile, taking the flowers from him. “They’re so lovely. Thank you.” I put them to my nose, inhaled the sweet fragrance, and swooned. No one had ever brought me flowers before.

  Realizing his arrival was poorly timed, he looked at me with questioning eyes, then shifted his weight from side to side, as if preparing to bolt out the door. “Sorry. I should have called first.”

  “Sit, son,” Dad said and motioned to the chair next to me. “We were just leaving.”

  Mom blinked as Dad pulled her towards the door, her eyes filled with frustration. Now that the initial grief and shock had worn off, I’d have to answer to why I’d lied and left the house. “We’ll talk later.”

  Once they shut the door, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding. “Parents. They won’t stop smothering me. I’ve insisted I’m fine.”

  Callahan looked concerned. “What happened?”

  Gazing at his curious expression made me realize I’d be retelling this story for a very long time. Maybe missing some school might not be a bad thing after all. The rumor mill could drum up the tale just fine in my absence. And really, my brief story didn’t make sense with all its incongruous edges.

  “Other than falling into the lake, I’m not sure. Someone must have saved me, I guess. All I remember is waking up here.”

  “Weird.” Callahan squished his eyebrows together in a cute, confused way. “Did a wave knock you in?”

  “I don’t quite remember—”

  Technically this wasn't a lie; a wave did knock me in. Just not from shore. I ached to confess to ease my battered conscience.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay. When I found out, I freaked.”

  I played with my fingernails. He did care after all, proving my breakup theory wrong. But now I was more confused. His comment should have made my heart soar like a bird, but surprisingly it didn’t. My gaga feelings had evaporated; I no longer saw him as the most adorable boy in school that tripped up my tongue and made me blush.

  He took my hand, startling me. “So, when do you get out of here?”

  “Tomorrow, I think.”

  He traced my knuckles with his thumb, giving me goose bumps across my arms. “If I’d been there, I would have jumped in and tried to save you. Even though you’re a better swimmer than me.”

  His confession made me grin. “Then we both would have drowned. It’s pretty cold,” I said and laughed under my breath. “Now I know what the victims of the Titanic felt like.”

  He stopped massaging my hand, and stared.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I think the drugs are messing with my head.”

  He shook his head. “I’m just glad someone saved you.”

  My lips pulled up at the corners, but not because of his concern. “So am I.”

  I had a good guess who saved me and he wasn’t of this world. Only an angel could have braved the freezing water and delivered me to safety right under the Ranger’s nose.

  My lips tingled again.

  31

  FIN

  The lifeless eyes of the curious sharks moseyed past the window, spelling my doom. As I sat in my cell on an uncomfortable rock, I kicked myself again for allowing Colin to trick me into confessing. If I’d only pretended I didn’t know a thing, they’d be the ones rotting in jail, not me. My life was in King Phaleon’s hands now.

  Dad, the best negotiator I knew, wouldn’t have allowed Azor to hold me, especially since I wasn’t a danger to other mers. House arrest would have been more fitting than these dingy closet-sized quarters, void of a functional bed or chair. A caged animal in a zoo.

  Azor had locked me inside and said, “Be ready to tell the truth when I come for you.” Who knew how long that would take? The light never changed, as if it were night 24/7.

  I tried my best to piece together a good defense. But all I could think about was Ashlyn. The sweet taste of her lips, the softness of her skin, the delicate shape of her body—all of it haunting me. My parents had warned me at a young age, once your soul entwines with another, it’s all over until you can be together and make your commitment official to the public. I see why they insisted I wait. My soul, lit with a burning passion, wanted nothing but for me to figure out a way to be with her forever.

  The decision became easy. I’d run away. Living in the water at night as a merman would be far easier than trying to survive the elements on land as a human, l
acking money and a place to stay. And mer to human conversion was dangerous to do alone anyway.

  Of course, I’d need to tell Ash something creative about why we couldn’t be together at night and why I didn’t live next door anymore. Then we had the mark of the promising to contend with—the matching symbol of our bond etched on our ring fingers like a tattoo. I studied the skin, noticing mine was already starting to show. Would Ash notice as hers filled in on her finger too?

  She’d need to learn the truth, and I had to do it in a way that didn’t scare her like the last time. When she saw us by accident a few summers ago, she screamed bloody murder—her voice permanently etched in my mind. I’d been forced to mind-wipe her back then, but now I didn’t have that option.

  And if the time to convert became necessary, careful consideration would be taken first. I’d never ask her to change for me. Getting married and living on land as undercover mers for the time being, like my parents did, might be the best.

  I groaned and took another deep breath of salt water. For my latest meal, one of Azor’s goons gave me a live sunfish in a cage and conveniently forgot the utensils. Was I supposed to tear the poor thing apart with my teeth? A deep fiery red, the fish darted around inside, looking for an exit. Identifying with his fate, I let him go. I didn’t have much of an appetite anyway.

  “Be careful, Freddy,” I called out, watching him swim through the bars into the shark infested waters, headed towards freedom. He looked back for a moment as if to say “thank you” and slipped out of sight. I wished he could deliver a message.

  Tell her I love her and we’ll be together soon.

  I returned to my lowly spot on the floor and recreated the triangular peg board game with the fifteen golf tees, using shells as my placeholders to pass the time. Every once in a while, a crab would skitter by and try to hide under my tail. I’d shoo the nasty thing away. After a few days of this, I’d go stark raving mad.

  Tatch said she’d visit so I stared at the outer stone door through the bars, hoping she’d enter. If somehow she could flirt again and gain access, I’d be forever in her debt. I doubted Azor would ever allow it. Solitary confinement was part of my punishment.