by Ruhi Jain
Hesitating at first, she followed the sound. As she rounded the corner towards the east, the voices became louder. They were coming from the training room. And they sounded familiar. Callum and Lukas.
They were at the corner of the training room, hidden from view, but their voices gave them away.
“Do you have any idea how weak —” that was Callum speaking, but Lukas cut him off.
“I know I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have done that but I wanted to give her something to smile about after everything she has had to go through.”
Brell realised who they were talking about.
“I saw her today Lukas! Her face was as white as a sheet! She is trying to make it seem okay but how will she —”
“You do know that both your voices are pretty loud, yeah?” Brell said, coming out of her spying place. “I could hear you all the way from inside Valery’s room.”
They both just stood there, staring at her with wide eyes. Lukas looked concerned but Callum was livid. Finally, it was Callum who broke the stretched silence.
“Sorry,” he muttered, moving away from Lukas. Both of them suddenly looked uncomfortable.
“What were you guys talking about?” she said questioningly, leaning against the wall behind her.
“It’s nothing really,” Lukas said, scanning her arm and her forehead.
“Don’t you lie to me. I heard you. It’s about me, isn’t it?” she said, leaning against the wall “Something about me being… weak.”
Callum sighed, exasperation pouring out in his words. “I was a bit irritated—”
“That’s an understatement,” Lukas said humourlessly.
Callum ignored him and continued, “Because Lukas took you to the Garden of Faith last night. First of all, it was dangerous to expose you like that. Second, you got injured. To add to that, the poison in the arrow has weakened you to such an extent that you fainted and cut your head. Now you are so weak that I’m worried you’ll not be able to face Zeldae on CreDay.” He lowered his voice towards the end even though no one else was in the training room.
“That was not Lukas’s fault. How would he have known that the guards would wake up?”
“But he endangered you! Because of him, your mission was almost jeopardised!”
Her eyes fell on Lukas’s guilty face. So he hadn’t told Callum yet.
“I need to tell you something,” Lukas said, after catching her eye. “Callum, the guards found a strand of Brell’s hair in the Garden and they… uh… they know that there was a human in there.”
Callum’s eyes narrowed dangerously and they swivelled from her to Lukas and back to her. She knew he would get upset.
“How long have both of you known?” he hissed. Before they could reply, he interjected, “If they get to know it is her… you !” He whipped towards Lukas. “This is your fault! I should never have involved you.”
“Callum!” she said sharply. “Have some control! Calm down and think rationally!”
He spun around to look at her. For a moment he just stood there, his shoulders heaving with agitation. Then he took a deep gulp of water and controlled himself.
“You have no idea,” he said softly, “What they do to humans here in Gelled. I don’t even want you to know.” Shaking his head slowly, he made his way past her. “I’m going to inform the Sacri about this.” He swam out of the rooms, not before giving Lukas a baleful look.
“What happens to humans?” she asked Lukas, preparing for the worst.
His dark eyes were troubled, like a moving black river. It seemed as if he didn’t want to tell her either. Then he spoke slowly, hesitantly, “They never leave. Zeldae tortures them to understand what they know about the Seas… and then kills them.”
“Oh.” She looked away. “Has there ever been a human in Gelled who wasn’t supposed to be here?”
“Once.”
“What happened?”
“A merman once visited a human woman. Merpeople who hunt humans – who have been on the lookout ever since Zeldae’s announcement of a reward in exchange for human life – followed him. They captured the woman. You can guess what happened next… she can get any human she wants from land for information through Salamandar but why doesn’t she? It’s because it’s not the information that matters to her; it’s the pain she inflicts on the human. She’s a sadist.”
Brell processed that. “At least they don’t know who I am. But what if they find out?”
“Yet,” he said grimly. “I’m so sorry, Brell. Callum’s right. I’m an idiot. I shouldn’t have taken you to the garden last night. It was thoughtless and selfish of me.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. “Lukas, I told you before; you didn’t know what would happen. Please don’t blame yourself.”
He looked down, thinking for a moment. She had never seen him looking so bothered. After a while, he said, “You are not supposed to be here, are you?”
“Hell,” she groaned. She hadn’t realised how much time had passed until now. The pink notebook in her hand seemed to be the only thing that separated her from Lukas. She hated it already. When she reached the other room, she was greeted with a sharp slap on the arm and a scolding.
“Where were you?” Valery huffed, snatching the notebook from here.
“I am sorry, Your Highness. I got a little lost,” she said, wondering if she could use her magic to smash the raspberry pudding into Valery’s face.
Chapter 30: Friendship
The days moved slower than she had anticipated. It was strange how when she detested an event that was going to take place, it would arrive very quickly. When she really wanted a thing to happen, it would take ages to arrive. October 3rd came up on her like a ghost; cold and scary. She hadn’t seen or heard of Timmy since that day when he had looked at her without even a flicker of recognition. And all the while she had this underlying feeling of tension, of being discovered that she was a human. She wondered why nothing had happened after they found her hair strand, and why no search was conducted.
She woke up at five, pulled on her green shirt and washed her face in the basin. She would save her brother today. That thought made her hurt and feel good at the same time, like Timmy had squeezed her heart with his tiny hands but was giving her a hug at the same time.
She didn’t feel as tired as before, but the traces of fatigue were still there. As soon as she got up, a heavy feeling settled over her.
She idly wondered about Aunt Lucy, Uncle Sam and Lisa and if they were thinking about her. Most likely, her aunt would have forgotten about her. Who would be doing the farm work and cleaning? She had been gone for around five months. It would be entertaining to see the farm layered with dust. She almost grinned but realised that she might be made to clean it if and when she got back.
The flimsy fabric of her shirt grazed against her skin and she paused to take in the sensation. Each movement seemed foreign and precious; she knew it was going to be the last time she felt that way. The way the water glided against her, the stretching of her lungs as she filled it with water. The rough yet smooth feel of her tail. It seemed strange, but she didn’t feel scared or afraid about what she was going to do, yet.
*
All the mermaids gathered at the Dining Hall. Every surface of the castle seemed to be more polished and clean than ever before. There was an underlying tension and excitement in the air that went around like the flu in the form of fidgeting. She noticed how no mermaid wore makeup — not even Amanda — and how each person’s hair was up in a sleek bun.
“Ladies,” Figgie paused dramatically. She wore a deep navy blue wrap around. “It is a big day. You will only have a half an hour break which will be at twelve o’clock. Your duties are as follows.” She handed out the regular seashells.
Brell’s eyes immediately skipped to the duty at two o’clock: Clean the area under the stage. Callum must have been very discreet to have changed the duty system without arousing Figgie’s suspicions.
As she
turned, she caught sight of Amanda frowning at her seashell.
“Amanda!” She waved and made her way to her. “Hey!”
“Hey you!” She smiled and suddenly laughed. Something silver shone in her mouth.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Brell stared at her. “You pierced your tongue?”
“Yeah!” Amanda stuck out her tongue and Brell’s eyed widened when she saw the tiny silver star that was embedded smack-dab in the middle of her pink tongue.
“Woah! That is daring. I doubt I’d ever have the courage to do something like that!”
Amanda shrugged, like it was no big deal. “I’m still getting used to it. Feels foreign.”
It suddenly struck her that this might be the last time she would get the opportunity to say goodbye to Amanda.
“Just um… wanted to say…” She took a breath. She wasn’t good at farewells. “I really value your friendship.”
“I’ve learnt that the most important relations worth cherishing are family and friends,” she replied with surprising tenderness, grasping Brell’s hand in her own. “So thank you.”
As Amanda turned, Brell took one last look at her black, glossy hair and swam away. This was probably the last time she would see her.
The good thing about finishing tasks was that it helped her forget about what she was about to do. If she put all her focus on the tasks themselves, it stopped her from thinking too much about the various possibilities and all that could go wrong. She tended to do that often.
She scrubbed, rubbed, dusted, cleaned, arranged, decorated, and worked all day long. Her duties were endless. She had to clean the outer portions of the castle, air the plants, deodorize the curtains in the Dining Hall, supervise the arrangement of the food tables in the large open space in front of the castle, scrub plates, help arrange flowers on the impossibly large stage and so much more.
Even though she didn’t feel as weak as before, there was a kind of stiffness in her muscles that just became worse and worse as the day progressed. Every hour or so, she would have to rest for a few minutes to regain her strength. At this rate, would she be able to save Timmy?
At noon all the mermaids took a break and went to the Dining Hall. Brell literally collapsed on the chair, and rested her head on her palms. Her breathing came out heavily. For a moment she wondered if this was what a bull felt right before it was about to charge.
Two slim arms wrapped themselves around her shoulder. Erene. Her short black hair was tied up in a bun at the top of her head and in her hand was a small button.
“You’ll actually do it?” Her eyes were big and round with childish innocence.
“I don’t plan to stick around here for one more day,” Brell said softly, patting Erene’s stick-thin arm. “I’ve had more than enough of this place,” she said jokingly.
“You look tired.”
“I am.”
“Let’s get some food,” Erene suggested, pulling her up and directing her towards the food line. Thankfully, today something different had been prepared. It wasn’t thin soup with barely anything to chew on; it was thick dulse seaweed bread with a small cup of whale milk. Brell didn’t even wait to get back to the table; the moment her finger closed around the cup, she glugged it all down, every single drop, relishing the feel of the cool liquid slide down her parched throat.
“Come on, greedy girl.” Erene rolled her eyes while Brell licked her lips with satisfaction and they went back to the table with their food.
Brell attacked her plate immediately, tearing off chunks of the bread with her teeth and gobbling them up in a nanosecond. When she was done, she licked her fingers like a cat and giggled.
Erene raised her eyebrow, “Are you feeling okay?”
“I think I’m getting pre-disaster madness,” She admitted. “It keeps me from thinking too much.”
Erene slowly ate her bread, keeping an eye on Brell as she giggled a little more.
“Tell me about the land.”
“What?” Her attention snapped.
“Tell me about where you come from. So I can, you know, imagine it when you’re gone.”
Brell hadn’t looked at it that way; Erene would actually miss her when she would be gone. Gathering Erene’s small hands in her own large ones, she made her a promise.
“Erene, I may go from Gelled but I’ll never be away from you.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is, no matter how far away I am from you, you will always be close to me. You’ll be right here.” She placed Erene’s hand over her heart. “I promise you, not a day will go by that I won’t miss you and pray for you. Meaken with find you too. And …” she leaned closer. “The prophecy says that I will be coming back here.”
“What prophecy?”
“Some prophecy,” she said quickly. “So don’t you worry. I’ll be back. And I promise you, Erene, when I come back, I will get you out of this place.” She grasped her hands. “I will.”
“I know you will. Even so, can you describe your place?” Erene asked innocently.
“Sure.” Brell ran a finger over the bread crumbs remaining on the plate.
“I live in a small village called Snowshill. There are very few people there, not more than 160. I stay with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. We own eight cows that graze in the nearby hills.” Her eyes unfocused. “It’s a very beautiful place. It has these gorgeous green trees that never seem to lose their colour except, of course, in winter, when they possess this fiery orange red hue. We have a stone well behind the house with cool, fresh drinking water and there is a small shed beside the house which has a trapdoor leading down to a secret room,” she whispered softly, closing her eyes. Memories of Snowshill flooded her mind. It was the place she had grown up in. Obviously she would have a liking for it. It was actually very pleasant if she removed her aunt from the picture.
“I found a piano there, in that room, and I’ve been teaching myself to play it ever since. There are lavender fields that turn bright purple in the right season, wisteria grows outside people’s homes, and the homes are built on such slopes that sometimes you might just feel they will topple. A little bit away from the village is this bunch of sweet chestnut trees. That is my favourite place in the world. Sometimes when I miss my parents, I go there and just sit there. The chestnut leaves are so gorgeous and delicate. The air smells like… pine.”
Erene sighed. “That sounds so lovely. Will you promise that you will come back?”
“I promise.”
“I want to give this to you.” Erene placed something in Brell’s hand. It was a small ochre yellow button with rings of black around the four holes. “It’s my lucky button. I bought it five years ago from Trinket Trolley and the same day all good things happened to me; I got to have extra soup, my duties got cut in half, Figgie went to Techon for a day… you get the idea. I polish it every morning with wax. I want you to have it. It will bring you luck.”
“That’s so sweet of you, Erene!”
Figgie began yelling, “Alright, break’s over. Move!”
Oh no. Not now. “Goodbye.” For some reason, she felt very protective of little Erene. Almost like she would feel for a little sister.
Erene looked up at her, and then hugged her tightly. Why did this feel like the last hug Brell would get from her?
“It’s okay,” Brell said soothingly, hugging her back. But she was reassuring herself.
Erene looked up at her. “I’m not worried about me; I’m worried about you.”
She left the hall and made her way to the castle doors. Technically, she had never been here before. The only time she had even come near the doors was when Lukas had entered the main gate while she snuck to the back. The castle doors on the inside were made of highly polished bronze and a fleur-de-lis pattern formed the hinges of the giant door. Small curved lines, like a woman’s hair, decorated the whole door from bottom till the top. The guards at the gate stiffened when she came near, and they crossed their swords.
�
�Are you authorised to leave?” they asked in unison.
Brell stared at them in exasperation.
“Are you serious? I need to help decorate the stage.”
“Sorry miss. But you cannot leave without authorisation,” the guard to the left said, but his voice was a little uncertain.
Remembering the seashell of tasks, she fumbled in her apron pocket and showed the shell to the guards. Tapping it to check its authenticity, they nodded and slowly withdrew their spears, pushing open the ornate gate. She swam past them, squinting against the bright sunlight that hit her like a lightning bolt. As her eyes adjusted, she gasped. The area between the main gates and the castle doors was positively massive. It was a huge circular garden with a pebbled pathway leading down the middle and on either sides of the pathway were numerous stone chairs covered in red. At the end of the garden was an enormous curved silver-white stage raised twelve metres into the air. It was so high that Brell was sure that it would be seen even outside the gates of the Castle, which was probably meant to be. Deep, blood red curtains were pulled back with thick, silver chords to reveal the interiors of the stage. A three foot tall frame was propped on the middle of the stage, with thick, fat ropes dangling from the two upper sides. The bottom of the frame also had two ropes.
It was wide, tall and rectangular, made of thick copper that was sculpted in a different manner on each side of the frame. The bottom of the frame hovered a foot above the surface of the stage and was carved to form the image of an electric eel. The two sides of the frame had leafy sea dragons. Both the sea dragons faced each other, their leafy bits radiating out from the frame. The upper curved part of the frame was bent to form the shape of a sting ray. The eye of the sting ray, the sea dragon and eel were made of black diamonds; small glittering eyes that seems to suck out all her energy, dangerous ones that witnessed countless human deaths over the past years. Was that a speck of blood she saw on the sea dragon? She couldn’t help shuddering.