by Tricia Barr
The mermaid moved her hands through the water, allowing Phoenyx to see that the fingers were webbed and finished with dangerous black talons. The sight of them reminded her that this creature, beautiful as she was, was also very deadly.
Suddenly, the mermaid locked eyes with Sebastian and let out a high pitched shriek, exposing a mouth full of fangs behind her sapphire-colored rose petal lips.
Phoenyx gasped. Sebastian must have let down the illusion and revealed himself!
The mermaid lunged toward him, claws arched, fanged mouth open in a hiss, and Phoenyx was certain it would tear him to shreds before she could get close enough to intervene. But the creature came to a flat stop as if running smack into a glass wall. In desperation, it made to turn around in an attempt to flee, but its arms were pushed awkwardly against its body by an invisible force and its tail went straight. The creature was completely immobilized, and Phoenyx knew that Sebastian was imprisoning it with the water around it.
The mermaid writhed helplessly, and then its black eyes widened in panic as it took in Phoenyx and the other two divers. The mermaid let out the most musical, heartbreaking cry, like the coo of a wounded dolphin. The sound compelled Phoenyx to go to the mermaid’s aid, but she retracted her errant hand as she remembered that it just tried to attack Sebastian. This creature had a powerful hypnotic appeal, strong enough to rival even Phoenyx’s influence.
“Don’t be afraid,” Phoenyx heard Sebastian’s voice, not through her ear piece, but in her head! Confused, she twitched her head in his direction, then to Ayanna, who wore a similar baffled expression as her own, and then finally to Skylar, who nodded at her as if she had asked a question. Understanding dawned on her—Sebastian was speaking to the mermaid in its native frequency, and Skylar was translating it and broadcasting it into Phoenyx’s and Ayanna’s minds. Very complex diplomacy going on here, she thought.
“We’re not here to harm you,” Sebastian said to the mermaid. “We need your help.”
The mermaid completely abandoned her struggle and stared at him with consternation.
For the longest time, the mermaid was motionless, eying Sebastian as if he were as fantastic a sight to her as she was to them.
“What human trickery is this that you can speak to me?” the mermaid finally said.
“No trickery,” Sebastian replied. “This is no feat of human technology. I am Water in living form. I can manipulate the water to talk as you do. Water is an extension of me, that is how I am holding you captive now.”
The mermaid pondered this, studying him speculatively.
“How do I know you are what you claim?” the mermaid asked. “I have seen the gadgets that your kind wields. How do I know that the mask you wear doesn’t allow you to speak to me?”
Without hesitation, Sebastian removed his mask and goggles, then put up his hands in a gesture of exhibition.
“I don’t need the mask to speak to you,” he said. “Nor do I need it to breathe as my comrades do.”
The mermaid’s eyes moved slowly from one to the other of them, appraising them.
“More than two hundred years ago, I entrusted your people with a very rare stone for safe keeping,” Sebastian said. “I told them I would return for it one day. Today is that day. Do you know of this stone?”
The mermaid’s black eyes widened in surprise.
“We all know that story. It is a mermaid legend. There is no way a human could know of it unless…unless you really are who you say.” She was no longer regarding him with distrust, but with reverence, as if he were some sort of deity come to bless her.
“As further proof of who I am, this is the stone I seek,” Sebastian said, and he held out his hand, curling his fingers through the water as an image of the stone rippled to life above them. “Do you know where it is?”
The mermaid was mystified, staring in awe as the illusion dissipated.
“Yes, I know where it is,” the mermaid said. “I can take you to it. But just you. Your friends cannot come.”
Phoenyx instantly shook her head, ready to protest, but Sebastian beat her to it.
“Where I go, they go.” Sebastian kept a firm eye on the mermaid.
It was fascinating seeing the person Sebastian turned into in front of this creature. There was no trace of the jokester she had met only months ago. His seriousness and assertiveness made him seem so much more superior than the amiable fun-lover she had known him to be through all their lives together. This was a side of him she had only seen glimpses of, and not since they ruled in Egypt eons ago. It was an appealing quality, that he could take charge so aptly when he needed to. Her body reacted with arousal, and she felt the water around her warming in response.
“Very well,” the mermaid conceited. “But can you conceal them, as you concealed them from me moments ago? My people will not welcome humans into our domain.”
Sebastian nodded, and the mermaid blinked twice in Phoenyx’s direction before nodding herself.
“Follow me,” the mermaid said, and she turned around.
“Wait,” Sebastian said. “What do I call you?”
The mermaid stopped and look at him over her shoulder. “Daneli,” she replied, then serpentined downward through the gloomy waters below.
The four of them swam after her, Phoenyx floundering and struggling to keep up at the rear. She could almost feel the strain to catch her breath draining her oxygen tank, and the concern that it wouldn’t last her this trek into the mermaids’ lair flared in her chest. She pushed the thought out of her head, focusing all her energy into keeping pace with the others.
Daneli led them so deep into the sea that the darkness fully consumed them. Phoenyx couldn’t see her own hands in front of her, which were now linked like a chain to the other three, with Sebastian in the lead behind the mermaid. This must be why the mermaid’s eyes were completely black, the better to see in this nothingness.
The absolute lack of any light crushed on Phoenyx’s chest, although that could also be from the pressure of the water at this depth. Knowing how far she was from the surface, from air, from safety, was almost enough to paralyze Phoenyx with fear, but her own curiosity at seeing where the mermaid was taking them kept her moving forward. She tried to keep her mind on that curiosity and to void all the nagging negative facts that were becoming increasingly obvious.
After what seemed like an eternity of swimming, they came to a stop, and Phoenyx watched blindly, waiting for what might come next. She heard something—no, felt a sound—vibrating through the water, and then a pale blue glow broke through what appeared to be a crevice in front of them. The crevice grew wider and wider, the glow illuminating each of them and their immediate surroundings. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw that the crevice was not a crevice at all, but the mouth of a cave that was covered by a monstrously sized snail, the likes of which she never imagined existed. The mermaids must have tamed this oversized mollusk to guard the entrance to their home. That was only the first wonder.
After a few blinks, Phoenyx peered into the cave. The cave opened into a long tunnel, but it wasn’t a natural tunnel. The tunnel walls weren’t craggy or rocky, but perfectly smooth and perfectly circular all the way down. Every few yards, Phoenyx saw rings carved into the smooth tunnel walls that looked like woven stone. And the blue glow that illuminated everything emanated from some substance that was concentrated along the top of the tunnel like a sprawling algae.
Daneli turned to Sebastian. “No human has ever seen this place. I could be killed for bringing you here. Tell your friends not to call attention to themselves.” Then she proceeded into the tunnel, beckoning them to follow.
Phoenyx swam after, admiring the perfect smoothness of the walls, and wondering what this glowing blue goo was that hung over their heads. It was disorienting to be proceeding through a round tunnel, with no floor, ceiling, or walls dividing them. In the human world, all construction was so rigidly square. Human architecture all over the world was predominately govern
ed by flat surfaces and ninety-degree corners. To be in a structure that was governed by the circle made her feel a sense of vertigo, and she was no longer certain which way was up and which way was down.
As she watched the mermaid swimming through the tunnel in front of her, body parallel to the line of the tunnel, she understood the use of the circular design; without feet that kept one upright, there was no need for a flat surface to walk on, or flat walls to border you.
The tunnel ran for about a hundred yards and finally opened up in the middle of a massive cylindrical atrium of sorts. Above and below them were hundreds of round openings like the one they emerged from. The cylinder was adorned with the same woven rings that were inside of the tunnel, dividing each story of round entrances that led to who knows where, and each opening was finished with a woven ring as a sort of threshold. All the way at the top where the cylinder rounded into a vaulted ceiling, the stone was carved into a giant spiral seashell surrounded by smaller seashells. And in every crevice and impression in the stone was that glowing blue gook, beautifully highlighting this magnificent undersea world.
Here and there, a mermaid swam across the atrium from one entrance to another. They all had the same stunning blue scales as Daneli and the same raven black hair of different lengths.
“This place is amazing,” Phoenyx heard Ayanna’s soft voice through her ear piece. “I haven’t seen architecture like this anywhere in the world in all my years.”
“What is the glowing blue stuff all around us?” Sebastian asked the mermaid.
“Worms,” Daneli replied.
Taken aback by the mermaid’s answer, Phoenyx took a closer look at the blue substance on the wall nearest them, and sure enough she could see the outlines of little grubs, squirming over each other ever so slowly. It was gross and beautiful at the same time.
“Centuries ago, we discovered a species of plankton that caused whatever fed on it to glow,” Daneli explained. “We breed, harvest, and line the walls with it. The worms eat it and so they glow. We also allow our pets to eat it.”
As soon as she finished saying that, a swarm of glowing blue jellyfish undulated upward in front of them.
“Incredible,” Ayanna whispered.
“Come,” Daneli said. “The shrine is this way.”
Shrine? Phoenyx pondered as they followed Daneli downward through the atrium and across to another round portal.
As they swam, Phoenyx saw the mermaids that passed them stop and stare, the looks in their black eyes a mixture of curiosity and hostility. It made Phoenyx incredibly nervous. The fact that they could only see Sebastian was a hollow comfort. Phoenyx happened to glance at Skylar, and concern was plain on his face. He could hear what all the mermaids were thinking, and it apparently wasn’t good. Phoenyx swallowed hard and kept moving.
They swam through a few more tunnels and large gathering halls, all the while getting the attention of more mermaids. Phoenyx couldn’t believe the size of this place. It was a labyrinth of artfully carved and beautifully decorated passageways. Some of the mermaids that stopped to glare at Sebastian and Daneli wore necklaces of glowing blue seashells. Phoenyx marveled at them and realized that they must be made by snails that ate the special plankton. Remarkable that these shells would continue to glow even after the snails died.
They entered another long tunnel, which was dark at the other end, and Phoenyx wondered if Daneli was taking them out of the mermaid den through a rear entrance. When they reached the end, Phoenyx gasped in surprise at what she saw. The passage opened directly to the sea floor, but they weren’t outside of the mermaid den. Phoenyx suspected they were at the heart of it.
Beautifully molded and twisting coral formed an arched passageway attached to the end of the stone tunnel, and to her amazement, the coral glowed a bewildering faint purple. They followed the coral passage a few yards and it opened to a large dome structure made of the same coral. The sight almost took Phoenyx’s breath away. In the gaps between the coral branches were fitted pieces of different colored glass, some clear, some foggy, creating the most beautiful stained glass creation Phoenyx had ever seen. No cathedral in the human world could possibly compare. She wondered where they got the glass from, or if they had found some way to create it themselves underwater.
Behind the glass dome, the water was black and sprinkled with the glow of schools of luminescent jellyfish and other types of fish Phoenyx had never seen before. The darkness around them made this dome a focal point, and at the center of it stood one of the strangest and most beautiful statues she had ever laid eyes on. It was an aged man with a full beard and long hair, the locks curling and tangling into each other like tentacles, his head topped with a crown of perfectly assembled petite seashells. His upper body was bare, showing off a very muscular physique, and at his lower body where legs should be was a writhing, slithering mass of actual tentacles. They looked so real that Phoenyx could have sworn they were moving. The Poseidon-like figure stood inside a huge clam shell that displayed him like a throne. He had his arms folded with his hands meeting at the center of his chest, one cupped facing up and one cupped facing down. From within his cupped hands, the second piece of the stone winked at her.
Phoenyx sucked in a breath, fighting the urge to dive for it and wrestle it from the stone hands of this strange sea deity. In her peripheral vision, she saw the others inch closer to the statue as well. Skylar looked even more desperate than her to snatch the stone and make an escape. That desperation made her uneasy, and she had to wonder if it was just because being down this deep separated him so much from his element, or if his telepathy gave him foreboding knowledge of the creatures that surrounded them.
Daneli approached the statue and reached into the teaming throng of tentacles, and the statue began to move! The tentacles that had only appeared mobile before actually undulated, and the top arm rose, liberating the versicolor stone. Daneli stared at the stone for a long moment, then bowed her head deferentially to the deity and cautiously took the stone from his open hand. Then she turned and brought it toward them, looking down at it all the while.
“Might I ask who the statue is a depiction of?” Sebastian asked.
“He is our patron god, our protector, Resmotin,” Daneli replied. “It is believed that you are one of his living forms and that this stone is the heart of the sea. That you came to reclaim it means great prosperity for our people.”
“Then why smuggle me in here?”
“The distrust my people have for humans is too great. They would never believe you are Water. They would sooner sacrifice you to Resmotin than relinquish the stone to you, and I believe that would bring terrible retribution upon us.”
“Why do you trust me, if your people would not?” Sebastian asked.
She looked at him for a moment, and then back at the statue. “I am Resmotin’s Priestess, and I have faith.” With that, she closed her eyes respectfully and held the stone out to him with both hands in a gesture of offering.
Sebastian took the stone, and a wave of relief washed over Phoenyx, perhaps a bit prematurely.
“What are you doing?” a male voice demanded, and the five of them turned in the direction of the arched corral passageway.
A male mermaid floated in the entrance, his body poised in an authoritative stance, his face fixed in a menacing scowl. Phoenyx had not seen a male since they’d been here, and she had almost assumed that there were none. When one thinks of mermaids, one usually pictures a beautiful woman, but of course there would be men of their kind. He was every bit as exquisite as Daneli, but where her features were soft and rounded, his were sharp and rugged; he appeared the perfect warrior, arms and torso bulging with muscles. And where the fins on Daneli’s tail were wafting and silken, his were punctuated by sharp talons that protruded every few inches along either side of his tail.
“He is the human from the legend,” Daneli said with unwavering confidence. “He has returned for the stone, so I am giving it back to him.”
; “He is a liar! Giving him that stone will only bring destruction down upon us.”
“He is not a liar. He has shown me proof, and it is enough for Resmotin’s Priestess.”
“Whatever proof he’s shown you was a trick of human technology,” the male mermaid insisted. “You have seen what they can do with their machines. He deceives us even now. I can sense more than one human in here, somehow he has managed to make them invisible to us, but I can feel their presence in the water, hear their heartbeats echo.”
Phoenyx’s eyes widened to hear that the male mermaid knew they were there. The sensitivity of their senses was incredible. She felt suddenly naked, exposed, endangered.
“Show yourselves, cowards!” the male mermaid demanded, letting out an audible shriek, back arched and teeth bared.
Phoenyx turned to Sebastian, and he looked at each of them as he considered. Then he finally closed his eyes in defeat and shook his head slightly, and the male mermaid hissed in reaction to the illusion of their invisibility fading.
“Vile, disgusting humans!” the male mermaid sneered. “You will pay for your deceit!”
“You will not harm them,” Daneli said, putting herself in front of them.
“You are a fool, Daneli.” Then he threw his head up and let out a strange, melodic, whale-like coo.
“Run,” Skylar said breathlessly. “Now!” Without pause, Skylar grabbed Phoenyx’s and Ayanna’s hands and pulled them through the water past the battle-ready merman, and Daneli hurtled herself at the merman before he could intercept them. Their battle cries were hauntingly beautiful, echoing through the water as the four of them rushed to escape the coral shrine.