Brellitine Grever and The Sea of Gelled

by Ruhi Jain

  The wall opposite the windows was crammed with photos set in wooden frames; photos of King Jade and another woman. She had long, wavy, silvery blonde hair — like a mixture of Callum and Lenny’s hair together — that fell down her back. She was always laughing, her eyes full of joy. Her slender arms were elegantly wrapped around King Jade, who too was grinning. In these photos, King Jade looked content. The woman’s ears were slightly pointed at the tips, and she looked like a mischievous elf. Brell realised exactly who she was: Queen Sylvia. She could see Callum and Lenny in the queen’s features.

  All the pictures on the wall were either of Callum, Lenny, King Jade or Queen Sylvia. Not a single picture showed his stepmother, Queen Maude.

  “Ahem.” Someone cleared their throat behind her. Brell spun away from the wall of photos.

  “Hey,” she said. “Your Highness.”

  Callum didn’t look surprised to see her, and with his face as nonchalant as ever, he said, “There’s no one outside. You can call me Callum now.” He was wearing his royal clothes, a red and gold shirt.

  He swam up to the wall with his back to Brell and looked at the same picture she had been staring at. His voice was cold, but his face softened at the sight of his mother. “I have never understated the power in Zeldae’s magic. And if I ever did, it would be a mistake on my side. To control Gelled, she controlled my real parents. My dad Jade and my mom …” his voice turned gentle for the first time. “Sylvia.”

  “Zeldae had full command over their actions for the kingdom. Policies, rules, etc. were made according to her wishes. Otherwise, she left them alone. She never wanted them to have kids, but Lenny and I soon came along. When I was thirteen, Zeldae asked my parents to let her adopt us. She made it look as if it would benefit Gelled, but the truth was that she was — and still is — a bit afraid of us. Our young, free minds were a threat. Zeldae wanted to adopt us to control us but our parents refused. And then…” He trailed off, swallowing hard.

  “She used her magic to make them obey her. My parents used every single drop of their magic to fight her, my mother especially. For months and months on end, she poured out all her magic to fight Zeldae’s mental strength. You remember what I told you about using magic? That it drains energy? My mother’s eyes became sunken and dull, her skin turned ghostly pale, and she could barely move.” Brell’s eyes widened in horror as she watched Callum’s jaw clench.

  “On September 11th, two years ago, she died. Lenny was getting fittings done for a new dress and I was practicing archery. When we heard the news… we couldn’t believe it. My mother sacrificed herself so that we wouldn’t get adopted by Zeldae. My father… when my mother died, a part of him died too and he gave up on us. He stopped fighting Zeldae’s mind control.”

  His voice turned bitter. “The mind is such an interesting instrument. When my mother was alive, Zeldae’s only desire was to control us because there was someone who could go against her. But after my father gave up on us, she let it go. She knew if she wanted to, she could take us at any moment with our father’s ‘consent’. It was all a mind game.” He laughed bitterly. “A mind game that murdered my mother.”

  He finally looked at her. “Can you understand the anger I felt when Zeldae forced my father to marry Maude? Maude has done nothing since she’s come here! She spends all our money on expensive clothes, jewels, and other luxuries. She is not at all worthy of being called ‘Queen’, let alone ‘Mother’.”

  For the first time, she saw raw emotion ripple across his face, endless pain. Then he blinked, and his mask of calm appeared again.

  Before Brell could say anything, the door of his room burst open, and Valery swam in.

  “Cal!” she brushed past Brell as if she never existed. “You’ll never imagine what’s happened! Sarah Hscool invited us for her sweet sixteen in Corfer! We simply have to go!”

  Callum had composed himself in a split-second, and his calm prince act was back in place. “Of course we’ll go. How can we not?”

  Brell rushed out of the room. Gods of the Seas, Callum’s life story was terribly tragic. And that look of agony in his eyes was unbearable. No one should be so troubled. He was almost like a brother to her. Her heart reached out to him. The pain he was hiding… God only knew what lay under those perfectly composed, outer emotions of his.

  A whiff of jasmine startled her, reminding her that she had to partake in the flower arrangements in the Dining Hall. She followed a group of dark green shirts to the Dining Hall, each carrying a couple of bunches of flowers.

  The flowers with the jasmine scent were actually bright orange in colour. She gazed in wonder at the flowers that filled the room, so different from the flowers she was used to. Flamboyant shapes and sizes came with exotic, lingering scents. How they grew in the Seas, and how she could smell them in water were beyond her comprehension.

  A lady stood in the centre of the hall, wearing sunglasses. Brell squinted at her, then looked around the room. It wasn’t very bright in the castle and Brell realised it must be some fashionista thing. The woman wore a sleek white formal shirt and had a notepad in her hand, supervising the work.

  “Excuse me, I’m supposed to help in the flower arrangement.” Brell said, coming up to her. She noticed several mermaids in bright yellow shirts that were weaving and pinning flowers here and there. They must all be with the decorator.

  “Ah, yes. I’m the decorator hired to arrange this Hall. You will report to me. There are a bunch of flowers in the adjoining room. Bring all the violet ones in here and place them in the centre of the table. Oh, and,” she lowered her voice, “Since you are a light green shirt, please do keep an eye on your colleagues.”

  Brell picked up the flowers from the adjoining room and swam into the dining hall again. She saw a bunch of dark green shirts doing the same.

  Just then she spotted Natalie who was, rather purposefully and with a devilish smile, swimming across the hall in a path which lead up to a slim dark green shirt. A moment later they crashed and mud spilled all over the other mermaid’s top.

  “Hey!” Brell exclaimed, making her way to them. “Are you okay?” she asked the stunned mermaid. Natalie was smiling with glee.

  “Why did you do that? Get on with your work.” Then she paused, realizing what had just happened and the position she was in.

  Natalie grunted and advanced towards her. “Don’t you think for one second that —”

  “Look Natalie, I would hate for someone to write you up for not doing your duties.” Brell tapped a small black book Figgie had given her. “And especially not for injuring another mermaid. We both know it wasn’t an accident. You know the consequences. Double work.” She flashed her widest smile. “Oh wait, aren’t your duties already doubled up because of spilling the noodles at the Ball?”

  Natalie’s face now turned as purple as the flowers she was holding. She stormed towards the table, fuming like an angry bull.

  “Are you okay?” she asked the other mermaid.

  “I think so. Thank you. My name’s Annie.”

  “Susan.”

  “Natalie always does something to ruin my day. Yesterday she accidently poured soup on my tail.”

  “Maybe we can work together for today?”

  “That would be great.” She looked relieved. They spent the next half hour arranging the flowers in various positions so that it ‘highlighted the natural beauty of the Dining Hall’— words used by the decorator. It felt like Queen Caroline’s eyes were burning a hole into Brell’s back from her portrait on the wall. The flowers remained as brilliant as they were when they started, so she guessed the freshly picked flowers had some kind of enchantment which kept them from wilting. When they had finished their work, the Dining Hall looked stunning, adorned with bursts of colour here and there that perfectly complemented the colour scheme of the room. Bright scarlet, salmon, ochre, and white flowers hung from the curtains and the table, and some were even laid in patterns across the floor. Figgie came to check, gave her nod
of approval and swam away. Brell wiped her forehead as she checked her schedule for the next task.

  *

  Zeldae’s salon was nothing like Brell had ever seen. The surrounding water felt like being in a tropical paradise. The room was huge, with different areas sectioned off with bamboo walls. Gigantic water plants occupied the space between the bamboo walls, their leaves fanning out to provide an imperfect canopy. Each section was labelled with the beauty treatment it offered: clay/seaweed/oyster mask, body scrub, airing, oil massage, nail manicure, pedicure, hair bounce, skin tone, etc., etc. And she had to clean the doors to each treatment section; bamboo flaps that had to be sprayed with cleaner and polished up.

  She smeared the white cleaner on the bamboo and began rubbing the smooth poles up and down with a cloth. Wasn’t this almost like rubbing clean the wooden poles in the barn? She smiled as she remembered how Timmy used to clean the bottom, since he was shorter, and she would clean the top. The thought of Timmy was her only motivation to grit her teeth and do all this. She would find him for certain; the moment she finished all her work, she would go to the door on the fifth floor and open it. She was confident that she knew her magic enough to do so.

  Another mermaid was scrubbing the pine flooring, her sorrel brown hair pulled back in a sporty ponytail.

  “Hi,” Brell said. The girl turned towards her. She looked around nineteen. “What’s your name? I’m Susan.” Brell was longing for company and apparently, the girl felt the same. She smiled.

  “I’m Aanya.”

  After working together in silence for a bit, Brell asked, “How long have you been a light green shirt?”

  Aanya grinned. “For a year now. Even though I’m not ever going to become a white shirt, I’m happy that at least I’m not a dark green anymore.’

  “Yeah, it isn’t very pleasant.” Brell wrinkled her nose.

  Aanya looked at her with interest. “You look pretty young. How old are you?”

  “Seventeen.”

  “Woah! When did you become a green shirt?”

  “This morning actually.”

  They chatted aimlessly, and it was strangely pleasant how nice it felt to fit in. On land, everyone seemed uninterested in her. But here she had people who seemed to care about her, seemed to accept her. Here, she felt she had friends. Erene was one, and now maybe Aanya would be too.

  “How do you like being a light green so far?”

  Before she could answer, two dozen mermaids in pale yellow shirts burst into the salon, each one entering a compartment. She stumbled back as they pushed past her.

  “What’s happening?” she asked Aanya, who grabbed her arm.

  “We have to get out… now!” she dragged Brell to the back of the salon where the cleaning supplies were stored.

  “Ouch!” Brell complained as she bumped into a broomstick.

  “Shhh!” Aanya hushed her. “The Great Queen Zeldae is coming to get her beauty treatment for the dinner tonight. All these mermaids are the beauticians! How come you don’t know this?”

  Brell mumbled a reply. “I’m new here. Wait… she is getting a makeover just for a dinner!”

  “Not just dinner. Tonight the nobles from Wroc and all the royal messengers are coming to dine.”

  Brell stopped moving. All the royal messengers? That meant Lukas would be there too! A small flower of anticipation unfurled in her.

  Aanya squeezed her arm.

  They peered through a gap in the partition and saw Zeldae swim just a few yards away from their huddled figures, draped in nothing but a long black robe. Her black hair was pulled up in a tight bun, revealing her stone-cold white neck. She entered one compartment, the door shut and the two girls relaxed. The appearance and disappearance of Zeldae was so sudden that Brell didn’t have time to react. It occurred in just a second, but it left goose bumps on her arms.

  Aanya whispered. “Now we can continue cleaning, but the moment you finish get out of here. The Great Queen won’t come out here again until the end because each compartment is linked to one another.”

  Brell began cleaning very fast. Low profile! Zeldae couldn’t see her. What if she realised that Brell was a human, not a mermaid? Her fingers ached as she furiously cleaned and polished. No. Zeldae could never know about her until she took Timmy away from here.

  An hour flew by. She didn’t realise she was sweating until she pushed back her hair and felt her heated cheeks. A little way off Aanya was working with equal speed. Brell finished polishing up the last bamboo and as she got up, she crashed into one of the beauticians.

  “You.” The beauticians didn’t seem cross, but in a hurry. “I need kohl right now.”

  She didn’t see Brell’s open mouth and alarmed eyes as she bustled back into the compartment from which she had appeared.

  “What did she say to me?” she asked Aanya, who was gaping at her.

  “She must have mistaken you for the mermaid who gets all the beauty masks and stuff. Okay, swim fast. Go to the central heating room and get lamp black and olive oil.”

  “Where is the central heating room again?”

  “Next to room E-2 there’s a door that will take you underground.”

  Brell shot forward and in no time she was back at the servants’ quarters, which were deserted at this time of the day. When she opened the sturdy door, she paused at the alarming rise in temperature. The water was throbbing with heat that radiated out of the passageway and she reluctantly entered it.

  She immediately swam away from the furnace next to which she had landed. How could a furnace be in water? Watching it closely, she noticed a thin layer of air around the fire that rippled because of the heat. The air must be replaced continuously for the fire to survive and that would take some strong magic.

  “Can I help you?”

  Brell turned around. In front of her was a women about her height, but she looked like she was in her late twenties. Her straight, shiny black hair, which was cropped to her chin, was pulled back from her square face with a cherry red bandana. Her hands were smeared with grease and she was just wiping them with on an equally oily cloth. Her olive skin wasn’t in any better condition and she looked like she had just bathed in oil. Underneath all the grease, she was actually very pretty.

  “Well?” her sharp eyes were inquisitive.

  “The Great Queen Zeldae needs lamp black and olive oil for kohl.”

  The woman’s eyes widened, she squeaked, “Oh!” and swam to corner of the huge room.

  Brell’s eyes wandered around the furnace room. She was convinced it stretched below the whole castle. Millions of furnaces were linked together with huge metal tubes extending from them that disappeared into the ceiling; some ran a good distance along the length of the room before turning up. It was never ending, with tubes running in every possible direction. Small instruments whizzed and squeaked while the bigger ones rumbled away, filling the area with undying echoes. It was a wonder how that one woman operated this whole heating room.

  “Take this.” The woman thrust a small pot of lamp black and a cup with clear olive oil in it towards her. Brell had done this before with Aunt Lucy. She skilfully poured the oil into the pot little by little and folded it in till she was left with a black viscous liquid that glistened in the firelight.

  She thanked the woman and left. Aanya was worriedly pacing the water in the salon and on seeing Brell, she relaxed.

  “Go into the compartment, hand over the pot and don’t say anything!” she whispered in a low, urgent tone and ushered her towards the door. Brell shot a thankful glance at her before opening the door with her tail.

  Chapter 21: Too Close

  A soft yellow glow from numerous candles washed over the small, cosy room, dampening the shine of the bamboo walls. A glossy table arranged with various types of cosmetic items and flower petals was placed next to a white recliner. The mermaid Brell had collided with before was obscuring the view of Zeldae lying on the recliner, but Zeldae’s tail was visible. Her tail, which h
ad been hidden during the Ball by her black gown, lay exposed on the recliner.

  She hadn’t even given much thought to what Zeldae’s tail looked like. She had just assumed it would have a characteristic colour like all the other mermaids. She had never been more wrong.

  It was as transparent as glass and didn’t even have a single scale. The tail fins were transparent too. The colour of the white recliner could be seen through it. Five spikes protruded from both sides of her tail and she noticed that her fins were lined with sharpened metal, like a blade. Her tail was a weapon on its own.

  “There you are!” The mermaid whispered and grabbed the pot of kohl from Brell’s frozen hands. The mermaid had moved away from Zeldae and she could see her white creamy face tilted back on a roll of cloth. Completely devoid of any makeup, she still radiated dangerous beauty.

  “Get out!” hissed the mermaid, pushing her away and slamming the bamboo door on her face.

  “Are you okay?” Aanya asked.

  She was still trying to process Zeldae’s tail. When she didn’t reply, Aanya shook her so hard that her teeth rattled.

  “I’m okay! I’m okay!” Brell squirmed out of her grip. “I was just …”

  “… shocked to see the Great Queen up close?” Aanya finished.

  “Something like that.” Brell fell silent, wondering why Zeldae didn’t have any colour in her tail. And the spikes were worrisome.

  “Erm …” she fought back to the present. “Do you know where the light green shirt quarters are?” she asked Aanya.

  “They are in the same corridor as the dark green ones, except in our rooms only light green shirts are allowed.”