by Ruhi Jain
“How’s your hand?” she asked, hiding her own.
Erene held it up, smiling. “Better.”
“So, when are we leaving?”
“Now.” Figgie stood at the end of the room. “Girls, get up! I want to get this over with as soon as possible.”
There was a loud sound of scraping of chairs and chattering as the mermaids formed two long lines. Figgie led them through the servants’ quarters and opened the door that Brell had first used to enter the castle.
As she stepped out she let a bit of her feel free. Finally she was out of the castle walls… but she knew it wasn’t forever. The guard with the cheek scar at the gate, whom she had met before, nodded at Figgie who smiled back.
Wait. Figgie smiled. That somehow transformed her ugly face to something a bit more pleasant. Did she like the guard? She wondered about the possibilities of Figgie actually feeling something for someone.
She led them through the narrow alley and then through some twisted lanes.
Callum broke into her thoughts. “Brell where are you?”
“All the mermaids are going to Haiken Lane to buy stuff. Why do you ask?”
“Will you be serving at dinner tonight?”
“Yeah.” She wasn’t in the mood to talk.
“Well, just be careful. Be as inconspicuous as possible and try to avoid looking or seeing Zeldae at all times.”
“Hmm.”
Brell’s attention got diverted by the colourful signs she saw. Figgie had led them to a rather wide lane with shops lined across both the sides, each shop with colourful, bright signs and exciting things displayed at the windows. One shop was named ‘Candy Crazy’ and jars of sweets were lined along the window shelves through the glass. Brell could see inside the shop; working trains and animal figurines made from chocolate, candy canes the length of her arm, peppermint chewable bracelets and such enticing things, that her mouth watered.
“Okay Brell?”
“Huh?”
“Focus.”
“Yes, yes. Careful about what? Zeldae doesn’t know me. She doesn’t know I even exist!”
“Listen to me. A mermaid’s reaction to something is different than a human’s reaction to the same thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“A mermaid’s reaction time, their survival instincts, are much better than a human’s. Suppose a dagger is flying towards you. A mermaid would, in a fraction of a second, dodge the dagger. A human would not. It may be just a second or two before you move but Zeldae will recognize the small time difference and recognize a human. You need to be careful that you don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself, or make any royalty notice you.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing all this time!”
“Really? I’ve heard that you were asked to bring kohl for Zeldae and also that you were in the beauty parlour when she was there too.”
“It isn’t my fault that I became a light green shirt and had to do the job! Wait… did you have anything to do with me becoming a light green shirt?
“No. Did you do any extra work when you first came?”
She shook her head and then realised Callum couldn’t see it. “No. Actually… yes. I wanted to find Timmy and I began by cleaning the rooms in the west side of the castle. Do you think Figgie misunderstood that for me wanting to do extra work?”
“Yes, definitely. Miss Nigella has always appreciated hard workers.”
“There was this one door on the fifth floor of the west side of the castle. When I was cleaning, I realised the door was locked. Today, I went there and opened the door with my magic. He was staying there Callum! Timmy! I found his clothes and his cap there too! Do you know where they have him now?”
“Brell.” He whispered quietly in her head. “If I knew, I would have told you where he was, wouldn’t I? He is safe. The room you saw is a temporary one, I guess. If he had been there, there would have been guards left, right and centre. I have heard they keep the child in the temporary room until they are sure he or she is calm enough to begin the procedures.”
“Procedures?” a prickle of fear touched her. Her heart stilled for an excruciatingly painful moment.
“They have steps to ensure the child is healthy, active, and his heart is perfect.”
“Like what?”
“The child has a fixed routine of sleeping, eating, and exercising. But these activities are done only in a room, sometimes called the —”
“The Cage.”
Brell finished for him, taking in a deep breath to calm herself.
“I overheard Zeldae talking to Salamandar and she told him to call Thomas Red back from his vacation to strengthen the Cage because Timmy had tried to escape once. But Callum, if Zeldae has magic, why would she need Mr. Red to strengthen it?”
“Zeldae believes in saving her magic for CreDay. Sir Thomas is very old, but he is also a very powerful merman. Another reason is that if Timothy saw her before the ceremony, he would be too scared to cooperate with the people responsible for keeping him fit.”
Brell clasped her hands together so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Figgie stopped moving, and Brell looked around her. They were right at the heart of Haiken Lane, and all the mermaids were chattering away. Someone squeezed Brell’s arm and she turned towards the person.
Hazel raised an eyebrow. “Are you fine? You look as white as a ghost.”
She realised how weird she must have looked, all silent. “Yeah… I mean yes, I’m alright. Just thinking about what it would feel like to be free.”
Suddenly, Brell noticed something odd. Far off, just at the edge of the marketplace was… nothing. Instead of the seabed, all she saw was a shimmering silver wall.
“Hazel, what is that?”.
“Haven’t you ever seen it before?”
She shook her head. “I have almost been living under a rock.”
“It’s a spell put by The Great Queen so that the servants can’t leave the marketplace and run off. No one else can enter either. This place is a usually an ordinary marketplace, but for one day a month they block it off and we get to shop.”
“All right ladies! You have exactly twenty minutes to shop. I want you back by seven-thirty. Move!”
The whole crowd of mermaids scattered; each went in a particular direction as if they knew exactly what they wanted and Brell was left behind. Hazel had been swept away by the crowd and Brell found herself outside a shop called ‘Rosa’s Cuppa’, a piater shop.
“Brell!”
“Sorry, I forgot you.” Brell entered the shop in a daze and the bronze bell hung above the door jingled as she pushed it open. The walls of the shop were carved out of stone and bright, colourful wild flowers were placed on the ledges jutting out. The air was toasty warm. The eddies of water caressing her arms and legs automatically relaxed her. Tables with stools were scattered here and there with mermaids and mermen pooling around. Seeing many couples holding hands, she realised this was the go to date destination.
“Brell, I know you’re distracted but you have to get to Timmy before Sir Red comes back. You won’t be able to get him out of the Cage after that because it will be too strong then. But you might be able to talk to him.”
“What if Figgie catches me? I don’t want things to go like last time.”
“Last time?”
Brell smacked her forehead. “It was nothing, really.”
“You’re a horrible liar, Brellitine Grever.”
She signed. “Forget it.”
“Tell me.” He wasn’t about to give up; as obstinate as a mule.
“I’m not going to tell you.”
“Well, if it is what I think it is, it will heal. The Dreign in your blood has healing properties.”
She remembered when her tail had been cut by the Noralian Thorolis and the cut had healed the next morning. Wasn’t that because of the healing balm Lukas gave her? She projected the question to Callum.
Silence. Aargh! When he did
n’t want to answer something, he just ignored her!
Wrapping her fingers around the steaming hot cup of pyro-piater, Brell let the heat seep into her with gratitude as she viewed all the couples. Piater tasted quite like coffee and she realised that it was mixed with whale milk. A number of couples were enjoying pyro-piater… a flaming cup of piater which was topped up with an oxygen generating mixture that was lit when the cup was being served. It was a cold flame which gave a crazy yin-yang sensation along with the hot beverage.
She had taken up a stool at the corner of the small piater shop, wanting to stay away from all the lovebirds, and had placed an order for pyro-piater which had cost her a whole Dolt. A fat, jolly old lady had gotten her the cup. Her curly grey hair was tied up in a bun and she wore a baby pink apron with ‘Rosa’ written on it in curly letters.
“Thank you,” Brell said. “Do you own this shop, Miss Rosa?”
The old lady smiled. “Call me Aunt Rosa. Everyone does. Yes, I own this shop. Do you have someone coming to accompany you?” she winked at her.
Brell looked at the empty stool beside her before realizing what she meant. “No, I’ve come alone.” She said in a rush.
Aunt Rosa patted her head with the tenderness of a loving grandmother. “Poor girl, they must make you work very hard in the castle. What’s your name?”
“Susan.” Brell took a sip of the piater and sighed in contentment as the heat relaxed all her tensed muscles and the pyro flame gave her lips a tingling sensation.
“This pyro-piater is really amazing.”
“Thank you dear. I have added a little essence of hijiki to give it an extra punch. I’ll tell you what, Susan. I’ll throw in a butter wakame crunch for you. Take it as a gift from Aunt Rosa.” The old lady bustled away, leaving Brell alone.
There are good, kind people in this world, she thought. Not everyone was so bad. Humanity was not dead. Aunt Rosa appeared again, carrying a tray with a cream-coloured butter wakame crunch.
“Thank you, again.” She gratefully took it. Hot, delectable pyro-piater and a scrumptious wakame crunch was something she would never have gotten at the castle.
“That’s all right Susan. You need to become healthy, you’re a growing child.”
Brell smiled and Aunt Rosa went away to cater to the other customers’ needs.
Need to become healthy? Wasn’t she already? Stretching her arms out in front of her, she examined them. They had become slimmer than before; where her skin was soft before, there were now toned muscles. Sighing, she gobbled up the butter wakame and drank up the piater in one go, revelling in the warmth that it imparted to her.
“Just pin where you’re from dear!” Aunt Rosa called out to her, pointing towards the back of the café.
She swum to the back of the cafe and gasped quietly. Plastered across the whole back wall was a huge map of all the Seven Seas. Gelled was at the centre, a huge expanse of blue with Meethe written in bold letters at its northern tip. Small pathways and roads cut through Gelled, uniting at its very centre which was the Gelled Centre. She saw the word ‘fiddle’ in many places; Atkinson fiddle, Newsharbour fiddle, Mayani fiddle… fiddle must be another word for city.
Surrounding Gelled in clockwise direction were Wroc, Satis, Nowbi, Corfer, Techon and Detron. The Seven Seas. Small little pins with multi-coloured knobs were stuck into the map, indicating the places from which merpeople came. The map had an ancient feel about it; it was yellowing at the edges and had a crumbly texture but the pins, the little splashes of colour all over the map, were fresh.
A merman swam up to the map, picked up a yellow pin lying in a small brown wooden box and stuck it into a lane in Nowbi. He winked at her and swam away.
Where should she pin? Definitely not Meethe; there was no pin there at all, she couldn’t pin Aiken Avenue… her gaze drifted to Satis. It had smaller, narrower lanes and seemed to be more congested, more populated. There was a wide path running down its middle, branching off into small side lanes. Their names were interesting; Rosemarket, Abbeywell, Kritidhruv, Anchansh, Rohuhi, Partik, Greenbell, Bremothy— wait, Bremothy? She rolled the strangely familiar word in her mouth, wondering what the captivating factor about it was. Her mouth fell open slightly. The word was a combination of Brell and Timothy.
Chapter 23: Uneasy
That was too much of a coincidence. Brell and Timothy gives…Bremothy. Huh. And then she knew exactly where to stick her pin. She reached for the red pin and pressed it into the lane called ‘Bremothy’. She had left a small mark of her own.
As she swam out of the place, she caught sight of the menu board, propped against the entrance. The actual cost for a cup of pyro-piater was four Dolts, but it had been scratched out with chalk and replaced by one Dolt. Similarly, every item on the menu was discounted. She realised it was this way for almost all the shops. The merpeople here seemed to have a really soft spot for the servants in the castle.
She glided down Haiken Lane, wondering about the restricted freedom she had. A rather peculiar shop caught her eye. It was the farthest one down the street, nearest to the silver barrier. As she came closer, she realised what it was. A sunken human ship. A rather big sunken ship. Half of it lay inside the silver barrier. The figurehead of a woman with long hair stood out in the front. A black flag with a skull and two crossed bones proudly adorned the flag mast. A pirate ship. Tattered sails rippled with the waves, algae grew on the rusted metal of the ship and when she entered the shop through the crumbling door she suppressed an awed gasp. Every inch of the shop was covered with bits of paper. Each and every nook and cranny, the walls, the ceiling, was covered with bits of paper. The only things spared were the tables and chairs. She realised it was a restaurant, not a shop. Around ten merpeople were seated, eating away.
“Welcome to Sandranova,” a merman who she hadn’t noticed before said. He was dressed casually in a white top. She noticed that the silver barrier continued inside the restaurant, dividing it into two.”
“What is all this?” She waved her hand around at the papers.
“This restaurant has been around for almost seventy years. In the first few months of its inauguration, one merman stuck a paper on the wall raving about the food. The custom has continued. Our visitors write anything they want on pieces of papers and pin them to the walls. Not a single piece of paper has been removed for seventy years — not even the first one.” He swam away. “If you want to place your order, I’ll be right back.”
She drifted to the side, running her fingers over the papers. The ones on top were white and stiff. Below them, she saw yellowing paper and if she pushed back many she could see really brownish crumbling paper. They had all sorts of content. Some praised the food in the restaurant, some wrote the date they visited Gelled, and some talked about how they found the love of their life on the ship. She even saw a few pictures that people had stuck of themselves. This small restaurant was a box of memories. How unique!
First restaurant I had food in Gelled, 10/7/1996 Yum! She shifted her gaze to the one next to it. Kara and I met here. We always come here once a month.
She peered at one on the floor.
Remember, you are beautiful. Remember, hope is always there. Remember, you always have a choice. I hope you, dear stranger, remember that you are unique. And your life is valuable. Take this from a person struggling with life.
She smiled at the thought and straightened up, happy with the lucky coincidence that brought her here to read it. She turned to leave, waving at the merman as she passed.
Emerging into Haiken Lane again, she caught up with Aanya, who was swimming past her in a hurry.
“Wait up! Where are you going?”
“To Bezonkers.” Aanya stopped in front of a colourful shop with ‘Bezonkers’ displayed in neon colours and disappeared into it a second later. When Brell entered it she swam into someone’s armpit. The shop was full of jostling, pushing, shouting, laughing and fighting merpeople. She tried to keep up with Aanya, but then lost her in th
e crowd.
After being scraped by a bit too many elbows and shoved by what seemed like a million merpeople, she finally managed to break free from the crowd and the chaos. She squeezed herself in one corner and surveyed the huge shop, wondering what made the people in it so excited. Behind her was a full length, slightly scratched mirror.
Peeking at her reflection, she realised just how much she had changed. Her hair had become longer and wavier and she had become leaner and slightly muscular from all the work she had done. She was gazing at her bracelet when she noticed a familiar face looking at her in the mirror.
“Lukas!” She spun around.
“Susan! I’m so glad to see you.” He smiled and she felt a smile automatically play across her face.
“What are you doing here? Don’t you have a dinner to attend?” She tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. She caught him gazing at her doing that. When his eyes met hers, he quickly replied.
“Now, how would you know that?”
“Because I’m supposed to be serving you.”
Lukas grinned. “Getting good at the job, huh?”
Brell realised how cramped up in the corner they were. “Let’s go outside.”
He nodded, grabbed her hand, and together they wove out of the crowd and into the lane. The place where his fingers touched her hand tingled with fire.
“What does Bezonkers have that makes people go crazy?” Brell asked.
“Food, toys, candy, snacks, jewellery, lamps and trinkets. It’s the one shop that sells everything at all costs. You can find earrings for cheap at one Dolt all the way to expensive ones for two Shiiks.”
“Know-it-all.” Brell poked. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Ah, yes. Actually, I already went for the meeting part of it. The messengers have to report by five and our meeting is done by six because the Royal Family meets from six to seven. The dinner is at eight-thirty, so I came here.”
“What do you talk about in meetings?”
“I’m not supposed to disclose that.” He winked at her. She noticed that he smelt of the sea, sweat and a hint of musk. It was unsettlingly alluring.