Brellitine Grever and The Sea of Gelled

by Ruhi Jain

  A few yards from them was a couple who had just put in their lock in the little available space they found. The mermaid wrapped her arms across the man’s torso in happiness.

  “Where do they put the keys?” she asked. There was no river to throw it into.

  “It’s at the end. We’ll see it.” He grinned. “Which sea are you from? Obviously not from Gelled because if you were, you’d know about this.”

  She froze mentally, although physically they were still moving forward. “Uh… you could say I’ve been living under a rock.” She said, evading a direct answer.

  When they finally did manage to get out of the tunnel which was filled with couples kissing and hugging, she relaxed. The huge rock gave way to a deep trench where the water turned dark blue in colour. She saw a couple drop a key into the trench and it slowly floated down. They swam away and then it was just the two of them by the edge.

  “No one goes down there but that’s where the keys go. People believe that it leads to the centre of the Earth, but I think that’s just wacky thinking.”

  She laughed. “Want to find out?”

  “Nah. You go ahead and try.” He bumped her shoulder playfully with his.

  “I won’t unless you come with me.”

  “Okay then.” He said, suddenly serious. “You dive, I dive.”

  She grew quiet, trying to figure out if he was joking or not.

  “Let’s just… go on.” Quickly, she swam ahead, her face burning pink.

  He followed with a grin.

  Chapter 13: The Fortune Teller

  “There it is!” she exclaimed, pointing her finger to a shining neon green sign ‘Bubbly Blues’ that glimmered in the dark waters. The boulder looked completely ordinary, except when a merman pushed open the door and swam out; she saw a room stuffed with merpeople drinking, dancing and hooting to music which was created by a piano of seashells being tapped by pebbles. The sound was so loud that it made the water inside vibrate.

  “It’s a bar.” She thought out loud. “Lukas, I have to go for a few minutes. Are you leaving, or are you going to wait?”

  “I’ll wait.” Lukas decided with certainty. “Where are you going?”

  She paused for a split second. “At the back, to meet a friend.” She threw him a quick smile and moved to the back of the boulder. There were no lights and it was pitch black. She could hear her own breathing while she felt her way around.

  Her hands folded around something soft and velvety. For one frightening moment, her heart missed a beat as she thought Noralian Thorolis. But it turned out to be a cloth. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw a small tent like structure, with a light peeping through from the inside. She folded the flap of the tent and entered into a dimly-lit area.

  The insides of the tent were dull red and decorated with various gold, silver and bone ornaments. The atmosphere in there was dense, suffocating and heavily scented with cheap perfume. It made her skin crawl. In the centre was a perfectly round wooden table that was on an ancient, woven golden carpet. In front of the table a merman was standing with his back to Brell. An old woman’s garbled voice rung out.

  “Clear ou’ clear ou’!” the hoarse voice crackled, “me nex’ cus’omers come in!”

  The merman shouted rather irritably; “Your fortunes are bogus, I tell you!” he shot past Brell, pushing her on the way out.

  The merman’s body had covered the hooded fortune teller’s figure on the other side of the table. Two dark gnarled and knuckled hands protruded out and on each of her bony fingers were gold rings with various dark stones on them. Her fingers were so painfully thin that the rings looked as if they would fall off if she moved her hand even a little bit. The woman had a hunched back that bent like a boomerang. Her dark boysenberry hood covered her face just enough to reveal a pointed, scarred chin.

  “Take your place, ma’am” the woman gestured to the other side of the table with one of her hideously twisted hands.

  Brell gulped, frightened of the old woman, but she took her place anyway.

  “Money please.” The woman opened her wrinkled palm. Brell took out the money pouch Lily had given her and opened it. For the first time, she saw what the merpeople’s money looked like: shells in three different colours of bronze, silver and gold.

  Taking a chance, she took out two of the bronze shells and placed them in the palm. The old woman rapped her fingers on the table.

  “Two more.”

  She automatically placed two more shells on the palm. The old woman brought the shells close to her face and held them against the flickering light of an ancient gold lamp. In a sudden swirl of clothes and the smell of rotting eggs, the shells disappeared.

  ‘Ma’am what do ye wanna see?” The old woman placed a glass orb in front of Brell, and placed her gnarled hands on it.

  “Eh?” the old woman prodded.

  Brell recollected the words she needed to say, “Arfein ed duo, give me what I need.” She whispered, observing the woman.

  The old lady froze. Her chin trembled slightly. Her hunched back became straight magically. Slowly, she raised her hands to her hood and pushed it back. She couldn’t hold back her shock.

  The woman in front of her looked no older than thirty, with dark brown skin without even a hint of a wrinkle except a small indentation in between her eyebrows and long black hair that was tied lower than the nape of her neck. Her eyes were rimmed with kohl but they looked so tired, as if she had seen the misfortunes of all the people in the sea and possibly, the land too.

  “Brellitine Grever.” The woman whispered, taking off her gold rings. She removed black gloves from her pocket and put them on, covering her gnarled fingers with them. She pulled off the fake chin she had, revealing a smooth, young one. “I have been waiting for you for a very long time,” she said, dropping the accent from a few moments ago.

  “How do you know my name?” Brell said, not sure what was going on.

  “That should be the least of your worries. Place your hands on the orb.” There was an orb in front of her with a dark mist coiled inside, just like a portal.

  Hesitantly, Brell placed her hands on the cool glass surface of the orb. Immediately, she felt the orb getting warmer and warmer.

  “Hey!” she exclaimed and withdrew her hand, but the woman grasped it tightly and placed it again on the hot orb.

  “Shhh.” She spoke a little softly now and began muttering words that didn’t belong to the English language. “Ergre suo la clame fe mouve.”

  The orb glowed green and then turned back to normal in just a second. The woman released Brell’s hand.

  “Look into it.” The woman spoke urgently, and her voice sounded incredulous.

  Brell had absolutely no idea as to what had just happened. But she brought her face close to the orb and peered into it. Then she gasped quietly.

  Through the glass orb, she saw a faded blue leather cap - her father’s. The very same cap Timmy had grasped in his hand the last time Brell saw him. It was lying innocently on an ebony floor, as if it had been thrown away carelessly. She had by now squashed her face into the glass and kept telling herself that it couldn’t be the same cap!

  Suddenly the picture vanished and she leaned away, her face pallid. She drew in a shaky breath.

  “H— How did the cap appear in there?” She mumbled, too shaken up.

  The fortune teller was silent, and when she spoke again Brell could swear she sensed fear. “Your brother kept the cap with him in the room in which he is locked. You must search for a room with ebony flooring. The cap will most certainly be in it and hopefully, your brother.”

  The old woman slid something to Brell from across the table. She looked at the cracked plate with biscuit cakes and moss pudding in it and was surprised.

  “Eat up,” the woman said, her eyes turning soft for a minute. “You won’t be getting food till you get the job.”

  The fortune teller knew what Brell was going to do. She realised that she had not had
a morsel of food since she had left the inn. She nibbled on the biscuit cake, and then stuffed it into her mouth a second later. Even though it tasted a bit stale, it was as good as jellyfrish to her. Before she even knew what was happening she had finished both the cake and the pudding.

  The woman handed Brell a white slip and turned so that her back was to her.

  “Your identity.”

  The paper had her photo, a fake name, fake address and date of birth. Next to her name was a red dot. The birth date was true, but the name and the address were fake.

  NAME: SUSAN MORRIS

  ADDRESS: 2932887, THE 34TH, SEAHUB LANE, MORTEN AREA, GELLED RESIDENT.

  D.O.B: 2 January, 1989

  “How did you —?”

  “It’s my job to know everything.” It sounded as if she was very pleased with herself. Her tone then turned serious. “Don’t lose it. You’ll have to show it to the guards and Thomas. The red dot means you are seeking a job in the castle and have got a meeting with Thomas. “

  “Okay.”

  The woman was silent for a minute. Suddenly, she whirled around and faced Brell, eyeing her up and down. “Do you ever wonder about the colours of the sea?”

  “Excuse me?”

  The woman slowly swam towards the entrance of the tent. “I have been on land, Brellitine. Once. I stayed for a very long time, always near the sea. I noticed something. On a sunny day, the sea would turn silver like the ornaments hanging from the walls of this tent. On a stormy day the sea would turn grey like the sadness that pierces a mother when she loses her baby. On a calm, breezy day it is light blue in colour, like the dress worn by a lady when she meets her lover. On an exceptionally cold day when the heavens shiver, the water freezes over like the heart of a man betrayed by the one he trusts.”

  She turned around, her eyes dancing with excitement. “Why is that? I think it shows that the heavens and the sea are connected by emotions so strong that they mimic each other.”

  Brell resisted the urge to tell her that it was reflection that caused that, not emotional connection. “Maybe.”

  The fortune teller came nearer to her. “Something tells me you are going to be connected to the heavens. Just think, the skies and the ocean are vast; land is but a narrow strip. Humans on land, mermaids in water… and what is up in the skies?”

  Brell watched as the excitement in her eyes slowly died away. She went back to her position behind the table.

  “You must leave. Someone else is coming.” In just a few seconds she had replaced the fake chin, the hood, removed the black gloves and put on the rings again.

  Brell nodded. “Thank you.”

  Just then a mermaid entered the tent and the now old woman growled at Brell, “Clear ou’ me nex’ customers comin’,” just like she had said to the merman before.

  She got up and went past the mermaid, back into the darkness, realizing that she didn’t know the fortune teller’s name. The image of her father’s cap kept coming back to her mind like a fly that wouldn’t let her be.

  She felt something dry on her cheek. Touching it gently she realised it was air. Was she crying… air? She quickly rubbed them away before she came out to the front of Bubbly Blues. Lukas was not there. Had he gone inside?

  She decided to wait near the entrance of Bubbly Blues.

  “Did you meet your friend?” A voice whispered in her ear. She almost shrieked and spun around. Lukas had just stepped towards her from the darkness.

  “How do you do that?” she said, agitated. “Just like Cal —”she stopped.

  “Just like whom?”

  “Calandra, my friend.” She said hastily.

  He smirked, looking pleased to have scared her. Boys. “I’m trained to camouflage myself, remember? “

  She nodded absently, realizing that she couldn’t afford to make any more mistakes.

  “So, let’s go,” he said, tightening his brown pouch that hung from his waist. She noticed an official looking seal on the flap and realised that must be how the royal messages are transported.

  She was about to agree but she realised that she was completely and utterly exhausted from travelling the whole day. The pressure, anxiety and fear of what she was about to do crashed down heavily upon her. “You know, I think I’m going to find an inn or some place to sleep for the night. I’m exhausted. But I don’t want to delay you, so you go ahead.”

  “I’m a bit tired too. How about I meet you here before dawn tomorrow? I think it makes sense for you to reach Castle Meethe before breakfast.”

  “That sounds good.” she replied, and drifted over to the nearest inn.

  *

  When Brell awoke in the morning, she found herself in a mess. Her hair looked like a bird’s nest and her eyes were swollen. The long gash on her tail had miraculously healed through the night, leaving behind a thin scar that was barely visible. Must be the medicine Lukas had given her.

  She combed her hair using her fingers, brushed her teeth with the disposable toothbrush on the sink, washed her face and tidied up the best she could.

  When she swam down to the spot they had decided to meet at, she found Lukas waiting. She smiled. “Sorry, I’m late.”

  “Oh, I’ve been here just five minutes.”

  When they rounded the corner, she gasped. Even from kilometres away, she could see Zeldae’s castle as clearly as she could see mermaids. They had entered the inn the night before, and it was too dark to see anything then. But now, with the early dawn light filtering through the water, it was impossible to not see the castle.

  It was a total antithesis of what Brell imagined it would be. She had visualized it to be grey and dull, possibly with crumbling walls and an ominous entrance.

  But the actual castle rose majestically from the sand, made of white marble. It shone like a pearl, and there was a huge white, ornate gate that barricaded the way to its main doorway. There were four pillars to the left and to the right of the castle, framing the fort like entrance. The castle was divided into two parts and a huge dome rose from somewhere in the middle.

  “You’re staring at it as if you have never seen it before.” Lukas’s words broke her from her trance. She didn’t realise that she was already moving towards it.

  “I just haven’t been this close to it before.” She breathed, and then laughed nervously. “You know, it looks different.”

  As they moved forward, she realised that the castle was way further than the distance she assumed. Its gigantic size made it appear closer than it was.

  “Here.” Lukas handed a warm green bundle to her.

  “What is it?” She broke the seal of the packet. A soft, star-shaped, yellow thing flopped onto her hand.

  “Breakfast. I didn’t know if you had any. Usually the inns here don’t provide any.”

  She poked gently. It was warm and squishy. She gasped in horror. “Is it… a starfish?”

  Before she could figure out what was happening, he burst into peals of laughter. It was that kind of laughter which made the one hearing it want to laugh, but she could find nothing humorous in wanting to eat a starfish for breakfast.

  “A starfish?” He snorted “Seriously? I should have known! When Callum told me about you, I knew something was fishy! Starfish!” He repeated, and laughed again.

  She was about to defend herself when she stopped and her eyes widened. “What did you just say? Callum told you about me?”

  He stopped laughing abruptly. “Forget I said that,” he said and his eyes turned cold and hard. It was strange because minutes ago they were soft and warm.

  Brell’s eyes locked with his black ones. An icy feeling washed over her. What was she going to say again? Something about…Callum? No…that thought seemed too far away.

  “No.” she gasped, and tried to push the cold sensation away. She glared at him. “What did Callum tell you about me?” her eyes accusingly searched his.

  He glared back at her. “Forget I said that.” His voice had an edge of desperation in it this ti
me.

  The feeling of chill ran down Brell’s spine again. The words she wanted to say suddenly disappeared, as if they had just flown away. She was left feeling confused.

  “I …” Brell tried to focus. “Lukas!” she snapped out of her trance. “Tell me!”

  He staggered backwards, and he looked startled.

  “How did you fight it?” he whispered, apparently shocked.

  “Fight what?” Brell was getting irritated. She grabbed his arm and looked straight into his eyes. “Tell me what Callum told you about me!”

  “It’s not working!” He muttered. Then his eyes shifted to her hand that was wrapped around his forearm.

  “Sorry.” She released his arm.

  He looked at her with wide eyes for a second before shaking his head and clearing his throat. “Well, don’t get mad at me, okay?” he said. “I… well, I didn’t ‘accidently’, meet you. I was …” he hesitated. “Following you.”

  Brell’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “You were following me,” she said in a flat voice, thinking about using her crystals if need be.

  “Let me explain.” He said hurriedly. “Callum is going to get so pissed off. Well, when I came back from Nowbi — I had to deliver a message there — Callum called for me. When I reached his room, he gave me specific orders. He told me that no one should know about it, not even his parents, and because we were such good friends I didn’t question him. I was to follow a girl with black hair, purple tail and a crystal bracelet on her wrist. Her name would be Susan Morris. You. My duty was to follow you without you knowing and make sure you would reach the Great Queen Zeldae’s Castle safely. I wasn’t supposed to communicate with you but when you were attacked by the Noralian Thorolis, I had to intervene. And then I decided that maybe it would be better if we went together. That’s all, I swear.”

  He exhaled. She was stunned, appalled and pleased at the same time. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that she had just happened to meet someone who knew Callum. Did he know about the rebel group?