Chimes from a Deeper Sea
Page 2
I stared at him. Teeth glinted, faint in the unearthly pallor. How I could have thought him handsome...
"This is why I didn't want you to know." He sounded tired now. I wanted to care, but in truth I just wanted to get away from him. Far away. Back to my mother's house, where I'd be safe.
"Does it hurt?" That wasn't what I'd meant to ask. But curiosity sparked within me. "When you change."
"No. It feels good."
I watched the waves roll across the shore, patient, enduring. Listened to them whisper about the hidden secrets of the deep.
"I used to watch you," Perin said quietly. "Up on that rock. Hoping you'd fall."
And I had seen him, I realised. Over and over, while he circled under the surface of the waves. I knew I'd recognised that gliding movement, ever since he first came ashore. "You'd have killed me."
"Probably. Maybe just tasted you, to find out." He grinned at me, a shark's grin, the bright flash of teeth in the moonlight. And I wasn't afraid any more.
"Find out what?"
"If all flesh tastes the same."
"Does it?"
"I don't know. Usually I just catch fish."
My hand sought his. "Show me."
We waded into the water together. It pulled at me, sucked on my legs and licked up across my thighs. Drew me in, and down, until my body dissolved and the core of my being emerged.
Because this had always been my nature, also.
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To become a shark is to join with the water, slide in and be at one with it, until there is no separation and no self. There is only the Is, and It is infinite.
We journey out into the dark, and it is chill and deep and hard: it pushes in from all around, relentless. Then brightens, warm and shallow, slither over sand. Light above, floating brilliant and round.
And I see them. Hinu and Tuni, friends. Beloved. They are there, on my rock, watching the water. Watching me.
I circle. Wait for them to come. To join me here, in the shallows, before we set out to sea. To play, or hunt, or drift aimlessly through the vastness that stretches out all around us.
They do not come. Maybe next time. I turn and dive and explore far into the abyss.
Perin is with me. Close by, always. We chase each other through the depths, coil and whirl and drift in lazy loops through growing light and warmth.
Then smell and taste familiar water, reach a small cove. Emerge, dripping, smiling at each other in the fierce sunshine of afternoon.
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"Would you believe me if I'd told you?" Perin asked.
I lay with my head on his chest, and his arms around me. Safe and comfortable, filled with a strange jubilance. As after an orgasm, but different. Greater. That can only let us touch the Infinite; in my own true shape I could swim there.
"I don't think I would have known how."
Because there are no words there. Those are human things, an effort to fill the void around us. Without knowing it, we long to seek the silence of deep waters below the world.
"Do you still want to leave?" Perin held me tighter. "Say no. Please."
I laughed. Nothing could frighten me any more, because I knew my own true self and I had lived it. "No. I want to stay."
He kissed my forehead. I closed my eyes and let my mind tumble into dark waters.
"Did you always know?" Perin asked. "That you were different."
I hadn't. And yet...
"I'm not different," I told him. "I'm me." Because I was, and always had been, no matter what my shape.
But I'd always looked for a mate elsewhere. That much was true.
"There are few of us," Perin said. "We meet sometimes, in the water. It's...different, there in the sea."
"Different how?"
"You'll find out."
"When?" I trailed my fingers down his chest.
Perin laughed, and cuddled me. "We've caused a great deal of mirth already by vanishing into the privacy of the jungle for much of the day. I've heard your men were rather pushing for an expedition. Just to make sure you were well, of course."
I snorted. "To peek, more likely. I know their tricks."
"There's nothing to peek at in the dark."
"No." But I'd seen with other senses, deep under the sea. Felt the tremble of life all around me, distant yet connected, vast beyond measure and yet comprehensible, in a way that the human world was not.
"When?" I asked again, and thought of journeying alone through that trackless space, utterly free.
"Soon," Perin promised.
We swam again that evening. And the next one, too.
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About the Author:
M P Ericson lives on the edge of a moor in Yorkshire, with an assortment of spiders and mice. Visit her author page for news about her work.
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Also by this author:
IN THE HALLS OF ARUNDHATI
M P ERICSON
The jewel case snapped open. Stars slept dim on a bed of night.
Nisha peered at them, curious. She had never seen a faded star before.
"Arundhati left us spares, of course." Manjusha eased one black-gloved hand into the box and picked out a star. She dropped it into the silvery pouch and held that out to Nisha, who hesitated. "Go on," Manjusha instructed. "Put it around your neck."
Nisha complied. The thin silver thread rested smooth against the back of her neck, and the weight on her chest was nothing at all.
You wouldn't think a star with the power to create a world could weigh so little.
Manjusha gave another star to Dipti, who took it with confidence. Dipti never doubted herself. That was why she always won.
"Two stars," Manjusha said. "Two divers. Bring back both, or don't come back at all."
Nisha is an ice-diver, who must visit the frozen halls of Arundhati and bring back the magic that sustains her own garden country. But deep under the ice, she loses her way - and risks her life to save that of her closest friend. Fantasy short story.
Available now from your preferred retailer.
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Also by this author:
THE SEA DRAGON KING'S DAUGHTER
M P ERICSON
"Kameko!"
Something stirred under the waves in a deep-green sway of seaweed. Kameko emerged from the water beside the boat.
"I have kept my word," she said. "I have sent you rich catches and fair weather. Your nets have never been empty, and your boat has never been harmed. What more do you want?"
"You."
Kameko smiled sadly, and said:
"I cannot come with you. I would die on land."
"Then I will go with you. The Sea Dragon King has power over sea and air. He can let me live under water, if he wishes."
"If you come with me, you can never return."
Urashima thought of his elderly parents, alone in the solitude of their house. Then he looked into Kameko's eyes and said:
"So be it."
Urashima is a dutiful son who respects the wishes of his parents. But when he nets a strange and beautiful woman from the sea, passion wins out over duty. A short story retelling of the classic Japanese fairy tale of Urashima Taro and the Turtle.
Available now from your preferred retailer.
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