“Then what do you want with us.” The king’s eyes flickered up at Ben and the strain in his face was back.
“I want nothing with you.” Aella touched his arm and he relaxed a little. “Then take us back.” Ben’s heart was really drilling into his ribs now.
Every muscle in his body was tense.
“I can not.” The mer spat in his soft island tongue, which also had an African sound to it. “The demons who attacked you will scour the waters until you are found. You are not allowed here.”
“Then why did you bring us?” I choked out, tears streaming like rivers down my cheeks.
“You are surface creature. You are not permitted in our city. But I rescued you. Either that or let them kill you. Which would you have chosen?”
I held my breath, “did you save anyone else?”
“The nishant never leave any breathing. They attack the beast, for the goods to trade. Your life was at risk and I so happened to have fallen into your…graces.” He said this proudly as if he had done us a favor. He had, though it was hard to see that at the moment.
“If you are king, then why can’t you control your people? Take us home!” Ben retorted. The mer’s eyes grew wide and burned a brown close to black. His fists were balled tight, and his next action was so swift…it was alarming, it was a blur. He jumped into the air and landed lightly in front of Ben and I—we stuttered backward and I felt a sharp edge of stone slice the skin at my back. I sucked in the pain.
Hanan’s hair fell over his face, his brow pressed down over his nose like a rabid dog. His eyes grew even darker and he bared his teeth, his face only inches from Ben’s. “You insult my compassion? I could tear you to pieces and feed you to the greats.” He growled.
My stomach sunk, to the pits, I whispered: “Please…” staring down at the stone floor. I caught a glimpse of his feet, and they were webbed, like duck feet but brown flesh. No toes, just bone, and a spread out layer of flesh. “We don’t want any trouble. We’d just like to go home.” With a shaky hand I slowly reached out and touched his stomach. His skin was cold, but not exactly freezing. “We appreciate you saving us.” His abs contracted and he stepped back. When I looked up, his back was already turned—his broad shoulders and back muscles flexed as he, walked away. Before he left the stone cave he stopped.
“If you need anything, Aella will help. It will be a time before it is safe enough for you to surface.” And then he was gone.
I looked up at Ben he was staring at Aella. What was next? How would we even eat? A roll of shivers shot down my back in fear and chill. My teeth began to chatter and the muscles in my back were so tense it hurt. My clothes were soaked and I needed to get out of them, but I had nothing else to wear and I was sure these mer people didn’t have a clue a dryer on hand.
Ben turned to me, “do you have your suit on under your clothes?”
“Yes,” my teeth chattered on the one word. Ben pulled the shirt from over my head.
“We have a heating quarter.” Aella said softly. She looked unsure, maybe because we still seemed a little frightened of her.
“Heat?” Ben asked.
“Yes, I will take you, if you do not fear me?” She waited looking from Ben to me. My knees locked and my body shuddered and jerked violently. Maybe they didn’t want to hurt us, maybe they were nice.
“Ple…please take us.” I grabbed Ben’s hand. He was warm compared to the icicle I had become, so I clung to him.
He stared at me with that questioning gaze and I nodded and so we trailed behind Aella. The shuffle of our feet echoed as we walked, trickles of water pushed through cracks in the stone and splashed like a leaky faucet against the floor.
We traveled down a dimly lit hall. The lighting above was low and let off a dingy yellow light, and with the water trickling in the background, the whole setting gave me the creeps. To make it all worse, the sound of dragging began to echo as we traveled further into the tunnel that gradually became darker.
“They won’t hurt you. They only live in dark places.” Aella said.
“They who?” Ben asked.
“The eyes.” She knelt and picked something up. “I will show you.”
We made it to the edge of the way where the light was brighter and she turned to show us what rested in her hand. It was the most grotesque creature. A black crab like crustacean with no claws, only three legs, two in the front one in the back. The worst part was that it had no head, but was filled with tiny eyes that moved in all directions. I pushed my head into Ben’s side and curled my toes. I wished she had never said anything. I decided that I would keep my shoes on at all times, because this was only getting worse.
Aella let the eye crawl up her arm, to her shoulder, and as soon as we left the dark hall, the eye jumped from her shoulder to the floor and scurried back into the tunnel.
My feet were damn near frozen when we reached the next room. As we entered a thick blanket of warmth swept over my face, it felt like heaven and I shivered even more as my body tried to adjust to the sudden temperature change. It was a big room, with a high reaching ceiling. The room was steaming and humid, the haze rose up to the high ceiling, to the clouded crystals and evaporated, making the crystals visible. Water trailed down the walls in streams onto the floor, flowing into the three pools of water, that were the sizes of jacuzzis. Bubbles fizzled, softly through the water…making low sizzling noises, the smell of salt was heavy in the air, and stung my eyes.
“Tahirah sits on a rock of heat, it keeps the water warm, sometimes even too hot…you may sit here—the water is good for your wound, rest here and when you are done, I will mend it again.”
“Uh…okay.” Ben responded.
“If you are hungry, I will prepare a meal now.” Finally untangling myself from Ben’s arm, I walked over to one of the pools. The water was clear. I could see the gray rock at the bottom of the shallow pool. I was relieved to find that there were no little creatures or fish swimming around so I kneeled down to test the temperature of the water—it was hot against my cold skin. Maybe a temperature below hot. I was so cold I was ready to throw myself in and boil if I had to. I removed my fanny pack, shorts and shoes, then lowered myself into the water. My body was like cracking ice. Sharp pains pierced my body as the heat abruptly warmed me up—I shivered violently. Steam rose around me, like thin white clouds. The water came up to my chest, bubbling all around, I lay back onto the slope in the pool that made a perfect resting place, and relaxed as much as I could. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sprinkles of water that drizzled onto my face.
Ben lowered himself next to me, “this is interesting.” He said grabbing my hand and I squeezed it, grateful that he was here with me.
“Interesting and strange. I still don’t believe anything they’ve said to us. What is a mer? Maybe they have been trapped down here, and made all this up in their minds—did you see his crown? How can he be a king? This isn’t a castle and apparently it is only the two of them.”
“They’re mermaids, well in our world they’re mermaids without the fish tail.” He shook his head releasing a long sigh. “I should be waking up from a dream right about now.” He fell silent for a short moment. “We have to get out of here. If we could find a way out… I have to find a way out. We can’t stay here. I wish I knew the time.” He glanced back. “What do you think they’ll feed us?”
“I don’t know. But that other room had fish hanging and a cage filled with crabs and seaweed…this is just…mermaids? Do you really believe that? I just want to know if my family is okay. If we are as deep under as they say, how will we make it home? I can only hold my breath for a minute and a half.”
“We made it all the way down here. I figure we have two options. Die down here, or die trying to make it out of here. I’d rather die trying to make it out.” Both those options scared me. I didn’t want to die at all. If I had to choose, I guess I’d rather die trying to get home.
“Well they seem harmless for the most part…But what abou
t the nishant?” The thought of those wild men were enough to keep me in this cave for life!
“Maybe we’ll get past them, or fight trying to. I’m not staying here Eva and I’m not leaving you here with them. So really, the choice is yours, do you want to stay here or get back to your family?” I thought about my mom, my dad, GG and my brother. My bed, Ben. My mind was overwhelmed with worries, thoughts… I had to get home.
“Home. But what if I have no one left. What if my family is…dead?” The thought alone made me sick to my stomach. God please don’t let them be dead.
“Well, we will have to see for ourselves.”
I moved closer to him to rest my head on his shoulder, trying to decide if these mer people were being honest. What reason would they want to keep us here, they had no reason to lie to us about the crazy men who were looking for us. Why were they looking for us? To kill us of course, we were invaders—not by choice—of their secret world. They wanted to finish the job. This wasn’t good. I wished Daddy were here, he would know what to do. I wish I could go back in time and…what? We would have still boarded the ship and we would still be in the same predicament we are in right now. Nothing would be different Eva. Nothing.
“Can we at least wait a while, until they think it’s safe for us to go home? I just don’t want to die. I want to make it back alive. We don’t know anything about these people, they live in this…water and I imagine they have the upper hand. They can breathe. We can’t breathe underwater. I don’t think it would take much for them to kill us. Did you see Hanan’s face? He isn’t afraid of us or you. Let’s just wait a little…please?” There was a long moment of silence. I looked up at his expressionless face.
“That’s the thing. We made it all the way down here…how? We can’t breathe underwater. How did we make it here?”
“I don’t know Ben. Let’s just wait.”
“Eva…okay. We’ll wait as long as I can stand it.”
I don’t know how long we sat there. By the time we got out of the water, my skin was wrinkled and I was so hot, I was sweating. I buckled my fanny pack around my waist and held on to my shorts.
Aella came in just as we were going to leave. “If you will follow me, I have food for you.” We followed her through a maze of narrow tunnels, “I sense your fear, there are no eyes here. They need to be near the water.”
The next tunnel Ben and I had to hunch over to walk through. There was barely any light to see. We shifted downward so I used the wall to guide me—it was a cold rough texture under my palm, but as we descended the walls became warm, even the floor under my feet. “I understand that we are not the same and that you need heat, this quarter is closest to the hot rock and so it is filled with heat. You will be resting here.”
“But we are the same.” I said, bitterly. “Well close to it.” I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that there were non-human humans living under water. How could this be true?
“We are not. I am mer, you are surface…Human.” Her voice was so calm and gentle, it only pissed me off.
“Whatever.”
“Eva. I’m sorry. Soon enough we will take you to the Surface Land. We only want you to be safe.”
“Why do you care?” I snapped. “Why didn’t you just leave us?”
“Would you rather be left to death? Is that your wish?” She seemed so serene and balanced. She was angelic. More civil and patient than me. Her golden eyes filled me with guilt, making me remorseful about my attitude. If GG were here she would have called me a bitch and told me to relax.
“No. I’m sorry. I just miss my family.”
“I understand. I’ve not seen my family in 100 years.”
“100 years? You’re over 100 years old?” I started to laugh but then stopped when I seen how serious she was.
“Yes.” Aella said. She walked on and we followed till we entered the next room. It was smaller than the last, about the size of a large walk-in closet. It was hot, with a hint of humidity. “I wasn’t sure what you favored, so I made some great, crustacean…I know that your kind eat this, I’ve seen them hunt the crustacean. She sat down in front of the food, it was set on a white plate, which I soon found out was half of a giant clam shell. She had four of the clam shells set out. One of them was filled with water. “If you need a drink, there is water.”
Benjamin dipped his finger into the bowl and then his mouth. “We can’t drink sea water.” He said.
“It doesn’t hydrate us.” I added.
“Hydrate?”
“It will kill us.” I said. “We can only go so long without water. Sea water won’t stay in our body. We will die if we don’t have fresh water.”
“Oh. Hmm…I will speak to Master about this. I think I know what to do.” She gave a thoughtful gaze at the bowl. “It is custom to eat with visitors, but if you wish me to leave I will…” Her accent softly clung to the words that left her mouth.
“It’s fine.” I said sitting down. My stomach growled reminding me that Ben and I slept through dinner.
I stared at the giant crab legs which were half the width of my arm and the cut up fish that was still pink. I wasn’t a fan of seafood, but I was starving and grabbed the first piece of shell fish I could. I snapped the leg in two with my hands and pulled out the white meat with my fingers. It was soft and I closed my eyes letting my tongue marinate in the salty goodness. I grabbed another and snapped the leg, then stopped when I seen that I was the only one eating. “What?” I asked with a full mouth.
“We bless the food before we eat.” Aella said. Ben dropped the pink meat back into the clam shell.
“Oh. I…uh…I’m sorry.” The crab leg clattered against the shell.
Aella sat Indian style with her eyes closed, her head resting back as if she were staring up into clouds, her arms spread out with her wrist laid on her knees. I saw her inhale a deep breath and then she whispered long and hard, “Adonai…” My skin was immediately flushed with goose bumps, a chill shot down my spine and if I weren’t so hungry, I could have sworn a thin and fine smoke filled the room and hovered above her head—my stomach growled just as I studied the hallucination.
Aella was still and silent, Ben and I watched and waited for her to pray and say something else, but she never did she remained, locked in her position. As we waited I listened hard to the sounds happening throughout the cave. Water dripped and trickled, scratching sounds of something being dragged along the stone. And when I listened hard enough I heard the churn and slosh of water…even the bubbling of water and then my growling stomach. I looked up at Ben and wondered if he was hearing everything that I was? But he was caught in Aella’s prayer or blessing. Which ended shortly in what seemed like five minutes.
She smiled and said: “We may eat.”
Ben picked up the pink meat and tore into it as if it was normal for him to eat raw fish. I went for my abandoned crab leg and dug the meat out with my pinky…I couldn’t get to the meat quick enough.
I glanced at Aella who smashed a crab claw with a rock, she then dipped the meat into the water, and placed it in her mouth. She did the same to the next piece of crab and then tore a piece of pink meat from the slice of fish lying on the plate. I watched her a little longer, or until she caught me staring.
“Uh, so you’ve been here for 100 years?”
She smiled and answered, “Yes.”
“But why? I thought…Hanan was king?”
“He is king.”
“This isn’t a kingdom.” Ben said speaking between chews. “This is a cave. And there are only two of you.”
“Yes, well he is king and will have his throne soon.”
“He will?” I asked.
“Yes, he will.” She smiled.
“Why isn’t he king now?” Ben asked. Aella stared at him for a moment before answering.
“Hanan is king. He was banished. Well he banished himself. He was going to be killed by Aarif and Minkah…his brothers.”
My eyes widened, “wh
y would they want to do that?” I’ve wanted to choke Warren, but never kill.
“Power. Tahirah was once the most powerful mer city of the sea and it was supposed to continue that way when Chike, their father died. But when Chike bequeathed Hanan king, Aarif became jealous. He didn’t want to aide Hanan, he wanted the crown. So he turned Minkah against Hanan and they both plotted against him. Neither of them wanted to rule at his side.”
“Rule at his side?”
“The three are known…were known as the Trinity. They were meant to rule the three oceans, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian forming the largest and most powerful reign. But after Chike’s death, their mother Halima fled—her loss was too great. If she would have stayed, Tahirah would still be a prosperous city and Hanan would be king. And the curse…” she gazed for a long moment into oblivion. “But she left them to rule alone, knowing that the three did not get along. Knowing that Aarif was envious of Hanan and Minkah…” She broke off, ending mid sentence a gaze of anger in her eyes. In a low tone I heard that dolphin like language being mumbled. “Minkah is a follower of Aarif—Minkah with false reason hates Hanan…”
“So they stole the throne from him?” Ben asked.
“No, Hanan left because he was given a dream by Adonai, He showed him his brothers’ deceit and the death they planned, so he fled and Aarif took the throne declaring Hanan dead.
“Who is Adonai? Yhe name rings a bell.” Ben asked.
“God of Tahirah.”
“God?” I asked. “Is he a mer too?”
“No…We have never seen Him, all we know is that He is God. Ruler of all the seas and waters.”
“Oh…” I shrugged and glanced down at her feet, I couldn’t help but stare.
“Do you not serve Adonai?”
“Uh…I…God…”
“Adonai, that means God, I remember that from my Theology class. It’s one of the names of God, meaning Lord, Master, Owner.”
“Yes,” Aella’s eyes literally lit up, she shook her head excitedly. “He is everywhere. In everything.” She moved her hands in all directions. “So you serve Adonai as we do?”
Deep Page 9