Brellitine Grever and The Sea of Gelled (The Brell Trilogy Book 1)

by Ruhi Jain

“I’m not going to fight with you Natalie.”

  Natalie advanced towards her but she didn’t flinch. “You’ll fight if I say you fight.”

  “Why are you always so angry?” she wondered aloud. The storage cupboard had only one exit, which Natalie was blocking. “Anger is bad for your health, you know.”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You and Stiny have the whole room to yourselves, so why are you still after me?”

  “You didn’t deserve to become a light green shirt. You’ve just come here new and I’ve been here for years. And Figgie is all caught up in your charm. I deserve to get your post.”

  “I didn’t choose this alright? And I’m sorry that you didn’t get this. I really am. But what’s the use of taking out your anger on me? How will it help? It won’t!”

  “You— you …” Natalie’s face contorted in frustration, like she was trying to find words to say. In that moment, she honestly felt sorry for her; the bully who only knew to bully people.

  “Natalie.” Brell placed her hand on her heaving broad shoulders. “It won’t help if you get this angry. I know that you… can be very hard working and determined if you want to. You just have to show your potential to Figgie and I’m sure she’ll promote you.’

  Natalie shrugged her shoulders and Brell pulled her hands away.

  “Getting mad at me won’t make you a light green shirt. Only you can do that.”

  *

  When training finished, Brell headed towards Valery’s room. She may have thought Callum’s room was too big for him, but then she saw Valery’s room. It was at least double the size of Callum’s room and covered in gregar. There was an impossibly huge king sized bed and a thick, cosy, baby pink fur blanket with dainty floral designs imprinted on the feather soft pillows.

  Lined up against the wall opposite the bed were more than fifteen rosewood cupboards with glass covers so she could see through them and into the cupboard. Each one of them had different contents.

  One cupboard was stuffed with all the types and colours of dresses she could imagine. The others with shimmering shawls, shirts, skirts, hair accessories, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, nail polish, perfumes… each of these had a separate cupboard just to themselves.

  Rolling her eyes at the outrageous demands of the princess, she went to the very back of the room where Valery was lying on a lilac fur sofa while five mermaids were getting her ready for the Royal Dinner that night.

  The mermaid who was painting her nails blood red glanced at Brell and said, “Your Highness, the cleaning mermaid has come.”

  Without even glancing at Brell, she said, “Start cleaning from the back. Don’t touch my bed.”

  In her mind, Brell stuck her tongue out at her. She started cleaning the area behind the sofa, struggling to work around an oversized fluffy blue teddy bear that was twice her height. From her position, she could hear Valery’s conversation with the mermaids. It was actually more like a monologue.

  “Going for this dinner is going to be such a bore. I don’t even want to go for it! But Queen Maude insisted and of course I couldn’t say no to her! She picked out the dress. When can I see it?”

  The mermaid, who was weaving her lustrous golden hair into a waterfall braid, responded, “Your Highness, the Queen said she will be sending it after we finish preparing you.”

  “I don’t expect it will be particularly pretty. She doesn’t have a good sense of fashion because she didn’t like the gorgeous gown I want to wear to Sarah’s birthday. But who cares what she thinks? I’m going to wear it anyway and when I marry Callum, I’ll be a Queen!”

  Brell squeezed the light blue gel on the mass of green which had formed in a remote corner. Immediately the algae melted and she swiped it off with a cloth, leaving behind shining white marble. As she smoothed the cleaner over it, she heard a familiar voice.

  “Would you like the shimmer in a light dusting or heavy one, Your Highness?” Aanya asked politely.

  “A light dusting on my arms and a heavy dusting on my tail.”

  A small rustling turned everyone’s attention to the merman who had just entered the room, followed by three mermaids who carried a glass mannequin with a dress on it.

  The merman was a bit shorter than Brell and had a protruding round belly the size of a baby whale. A curly moustache rested in the middle of a jovial face with twinkling black eyes and the dark navy blue felt suit he wore with pride clearly showed that he wasn’t just an ordinary servant. His bald head shone as he made his way to Valery, touching the remaining few strands of his hair.

  “Ah! Travis!” Valery seemed delighted. “Can I see the dress?”

  “But of course Madam!” He had an accent that was not from Gelled. He moved his round body to reveal a stunning dress made out of red satin.

  “I’m so glad Queen Maude didn’t design it! How much time, girls?”

  Aanya buffed Valery’s arms one last time with a light shimmer. “All done, Your Highness.” Valery got up and Travis slipped the dress off the mannequin, handing it over to her. She disappeared into a bathroom leaving the six girls and the merman in the room.

  Brell whispered, “Is he Travis Co’olner, the Royal Family’s dress designer?”

  Aanya nodded, packing up the beauty equipment .

  “Erene wanted to wear a dress designed by him.” Brell remembered.

  The door of the bathroom clicked open and Valery came out, twirling in the red dress Travis had designed. It wasn’t exactly a dress but it still looked gorgeous. Travis’s design was certainly unique: a backless red halter neck top clung to her body and exposed her pale, luminous shoulders. It had two layers of red netting flowing down from the hip, revealing her golden cream tail behind the shimmering net.

  “It’s beautiful Travis!”

  “Thank you, Your Highness.” He bowed.

  “I can’t wait to show Callum! When does it start?”

  The mermaid who was doing her face makeup answered. “At six o’clock, Your Highness. The meeting will go on till seven and then Dinner will be served at eight-thirty.”

  Valery smiled coyly, as if a mischievous thought had suddenly popped into her mind and said, “Girls, get out. Travis, you too. You there,” she beckoned to Brell. “Call Callum. He’s in his room, I think.”

  She gladly left the cleaning job and went to Callum’s room to call him but she found it empty.

  Calling out to him from her Dreign, she found that he was blocking her. Strange. She tried again and this time Callum answered, a bit irritated.

  “Make it quick. I’m busy.”

  “Where are you? Valery is calling you to her room.”

  “I told you, I’m busy. Tell her I can’t come, and that I’m… in a meeting.”

  She knew his voice well enough to realise he was lying.

  “Tell me the truth, Callum. Where are you?”

  “Just tell her I’m in a meeting!”

  “Are you with the Rebels?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “I think it is!”

  “Brell! Do you …” he cut off suddenly and blocked her. Gritting her teeth in frustration towards his secrecy, she knocked on Valery’s door and waited for a response.

  “Callum?” Valery’s voice sounded positively delighted.

  “I’m afraid not, your Majesty. He’s busy in a meeting. I went to his room and no one was there. A passing by mermaid informed me about his whereabouts.”

  “A meeting?” Valery slumped down onto the couch. “But he promised! You may go.”

  She went off, wondering where he was. Certainly not in a meeting for sure.

  She stopped swimming when she realised she was outside R-2. What was she doing here? Her chores…

  “You’re in R-2?”

  Brell turned to find Aanya.

  “Aanya!”

  “Susan, I didn’t know you got my room!”

  “Me neither!”

  Brell didn’t notice how tall Aa
nya was until now; she was at least three inches taller than her with a lean, sporty figure and silky dirty blonde hair still pulled back in a ponytail.

  “Come on; let me introduce you to the rest.” She pulled her into the room. Someone with familiar auburn hair was standing with her back to Brell.

  “Hazel!”

  “Susan!”

  Brell smiled, feeling extremely glad that the two people in the room were friendly. Maybe the sea wasn’t so bad. Warm chatter filled the room.

  “Hey, do you know when we will be going to the market?”

  “It’s always from 6-6.30. I’ve saved up two Tours. You?”

  Brell started when she realised the question was directed towards her. “You know I’ve just come this month. A Dolt is all I have.”

  “Wait. You came this month? Then how are you a light green shirt?”

  She shrugged. “No idea.”

  Hazel dug through some of her stuff. “Figgie was the one who introduced the salary and thirty minutes a month shopping thing. Before her, we didn’t have salaries. It was just work with no incentive. She noticed that the quality of work wasn’t up to the mark and now she has this system.”

  Aanya snapped, her voice laced with irritation. “How are you always so optimistic? Thirty minutes of free time in a month definitely should not be compensated by such a small salary. We are paid peanuts. Our salary for the whole of the month is just enough to buy a basic hairbrush and there is like a pile of gold lying in the Treasury “

  The door opened and a petite mermaid came in, her long curly chestnut hair flying behind her. She had a blemish free face, large black eyes that were enhanced with waterproof mascara. She swam oozing with ego.

  “New fish in our room?” The girl sneered. “Not good.” She fingered the perfect brown ringlets of her hair. “You can stay here as long as you don’t cause trouble.”

  “Hi June,” sighed Hazel. “How is Derek?”

  “Why do you care?” She shot back, making her way to a neat bed and pulling out a hairbrush with soft bristles.

  “I was just being polite,” Hazel muttered as she watched June run the brush through her brown locks.

  “That’s June Talope,” Aanya said, not bothering to whisper. “You will never meet someone as egoistic as her.”

  “Thanks for the compliment,” June called over her shoulder, crawling into her bed. “But the truth is, sweetie, that you’re just jealous of me. Admit it.”

  Aanya snorted, now lowering her voice. “June has a boyfriend and she shoves that up everyone’s nose.”

  “Who’s Derek?”

  “Her boyfriend.” Hazel sighed. “He’s just as arrogant.”

  Brell paused for a moment. “I know this question seems silly, but you know I’m new here. Where do all the mermen work? I haven’t see one at all since I’ve come here.”

  Anya pulled her out of the room and Hazel followed. “You live under a rock, don’t you? The mermen don’t do the types of jobs we do. They work on building the Castle, the sheds, the training arena, and stuff like that.”

  “Where do they stay?”

  “In dormitories.”

  “Yeah, that’s obvious. But where?”

  “In a separate building a bit away from the castle. They work every day as well because the Kingdom is so huge and repairs are endless. Plus, they are constructing a whole new castle only for Her Majesty, the Great Queen Zeldae. It’s seven miles from here and is rumoured to be five times the size of this castle. You know that Zeldae already has a majority of this castle although she shares it with the Royal Family, don’t you?”

  She wondered if Timmy was also made to work. She wanted to ask Hazel and Aanya about it but they might suspect something. She decided to risk it.

  “Hey Hazel?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Do they make the kid work?”

  “Which kid?”

  “You know… the one Zeldae needs to survive.”

  Hazel immediately hushed her. “Don’t talk so openly, Susan!”

  Aanya eyed her. “They don’t actually. The kid – number seventeen - is kept in quite nice conditions. They feed him nutritious food and make him exercise to keep fit because, you know, the heart has to be healthy.”

  Number seventeen. They had numbered him like a sheep for slaughter. Brell’s stomach rolled as she forced herself not to think too much about the last word.

  Hazel poked her. “How do you know so much?”

  “I’ve been here for four years and I’ve watched four innocent children die. Don’t think that I didn’t want to know how the last months of their lives were spent.” Aanya said quietly.

  “Wait, where are we going?” They had been leading her further and further away from R-2.

  “Don’t you want to chat with the others? They’re all in the Hall.”

  “The mermaids?”

  “Yeah… all us helpers! Today is the one day in the month all our chores synchronize to give a break for a while.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why? Aanya asked.

  “Um, Erene… my friend. She asked me to meet her for something,” She lied. “Tell you what, after I’m done, I’ll join you guys.”

  “Just be in the Hall by seven, with your money.” Hazel poked her as she left.

  “Sure. Bye!” Brell hurried away to Erene’s dormitory, though she wanted to go the exact opposite way. The moment Aanya and Hazel were out of sight, she dashed past the hall and moved stealthily to the west side of the castle.

  At that time of the day it was deserted. Even the water current didn’t disturb her as she made her way up to the fifth floor.

  He could be behind the door. She first checked the whole floor to make sure no one was there. She had carried the cleaning equipment with her just in case someone saw her. Then she knelt in front of the lock and placed her palm over it, closing her eyes and calling on the magic inside her. It hadn’t worked before. She had lost control of it. But now she couldn’t risk it.

  She could feel the magic reaching out and she willed it to enter the lock. It almost felt as if she was feeling the insides of the lock. She could feel the metal parts in it and identified the shape of the key that was needed to open the lock. Then she hesitated.

  How would she form the key?

  She followed Lily’s instruction, the ones that she had given her to try and see if her tail magic would work. She pictured the key clearly in her mind and imagined it inside the lock, forming from water and solidifying into metal. Immediately she felt a huge drain of her power, her vision darkened for a few seconds and she felt a hollow ringing in her head. A cool object brushed against her hand. It was the handle of a brass key which was inserted in the lock. It worked!

  Trembling all over from exhaustion and excitement, she touched the key again, just to make sure it was real.

  “Timmy?” she called out softly. She knocked lightly on the door and then pressed her ear against it to hear any noise. Not one sound.

  Twisting the key in its lock, she realised it would take a lot of force to open it. Using the palm of her hand to push it, she heard a soft click and the door swung open.

  Chapter 22: Break

  The small room she was in was dark; it was hard to make out the shape of anything. After a few minutes her eyes adjusted to her dim surroundings.

  Ebony flooring spread across the length of the room and in one corner were shelves with a small pile of clothes. A tiny bed with a crumpled pillow and hurriedly folded sheet was pushed up against the shelves.

  Closing the door behind her and locking herself in with the key lest someone try to open it and realise it was unlocked, she slowly made her way to the shelves and pulled out the clothes lying in it. Fingering the old, worn out light blue nightshirt, she choked back a sob. It was Timmy’s… the same one he always wore at night… the same one he was wearing when he was taken away. She went to the tiny bed and picked up the pillow, smoothing out its creases as she imagined his head rolling on it wi
th restless sleep. It was clear that he hadn’t slept here last night because the smell in the room was musty, as if it hadn’t been opened in a while. But he had been here.

  A small object on the floor, partially hidden by the bed, caught her attention. Even before she bent down to pick it up, she knew it was her father’s cap; the same one Timmy had with him when he was taken, the one she had seen in the fortune teller’s orb.

  Now, unable to hold back her sobs, she pressed the well-worn blue denim against her cheek and let her tears fall onto it. She had thought that on finding the cap, she would find Timmy too, but now all she had was the cap and no Timmy. A terrible emptiness settled into the bottom of her heart. The worst feeling in the world is knowing that you are all alone.

  Sounds outside the room snapped her into attention. Rolling her father’s cap into a ball, she stuffed it into her apron, grabbed the cleaning equipment and skipped across the room and stood near the door, her heart racing.

  “The royal guests will be staying in these guest rooms. Make sure they are all up to standard and check the other room.” Figgie’s loud voice boomed.

  Brell tensed as someone turned the knob of the room, suddenly glad that she had locked the door.

  “It’s secure ma’am.” A soft, feminine voice answered.

  “Good. How’s the kid?” There was a trace of concern in her voice.

  “The Great Queen has ordered Sir Red to strengthen the Cage.”

  “Okay. We will be leaving in thirty minutes. Make sure all the servants are there. And April, I don’t want someone left out like last time.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  They stopped talking. Brell had held her breath all this while and now she exhaled slowly. She waited for another ten minutes before she slowly unlocked the door and cracked it open a bit. Seeing no one, she hurried out, locked the door and raced to her room.

  Stashing her father’s cap in the drawer and removing the Dolt she had left from her salary, she redid her dishevelled hair and made it neater. Then she paused, took a deep breath and went to the hall.

  It was buzzing with activity and shiny flashes of metal as everyone showed each other the money they had saved. She quietly slipped next to Erene.