From The Deep

by From the Deep (anthology) [lit]

  She pulled away and pushed the sweaty hair off her forehead. “Why, simply run into the sea and become a fish,” she said and waved her hand.

  He rubbed at his face. “If I’m wrong about you I’ll never be able to come back,” he said.

  “Wait,” she said as he turned away. If he was mad, then maybe he couldn’t swim and he’d drown.

  He didn’t wait. He started jogging across the beach, tossing off the last remnants of clothing as he went. At the edge of the waves he turned, gloriously naked and limned in the white light that reflected off the sea.

  “Wait,” she screamed, terror taking her by the throat as she ran towards him.

  Before she could reach him, he took two leaping strides and dove into an approaching wave.

  “Jonah!” She moved into the waves as they broke around her knees. Beyond the crests she saw his arms wave to her. His shiny pate glowed in the sun. She watched him dive then saw a dolphin sized fish’s tail, gleaming with blue-green scales, flip out of the water then splash down. Before he dove, she was certain she’d heard him say he’d be back. Almost certain.

  “Jonah?” she whispered and sat down where the waves met the sand.

  The ocean moved. She heard the melodic singing of the dolphins.

  He had left her. He’d transformed into a merman and left her alone. She sat there until the tide turned, then crept up to the coals of the fire and wept.

  * * * *

  Running away from her and into the sea was the hardest thing Jonah had ever had to do. Especially when he realized that before he returned to her he had to find out the truth about her grandmother, Ellyra. He shouted to her over the waves but the desperation on her face almost had him turning back. But without a sure answer, he couldn’t go to her again, not yet.

  He found the dolphins in their accustomed place and set them to watch Marianne. Sebast was there, too. He set up an unholy shout when he saw Jonah.

  “You have come to help me. I waited in case you changed your mind. Now we can take vengeance together.” Sebast’s eyes glowed hot with the urgency of his emotion.

  Jonah shook his head. “I must find the truth of a mermaid named Ellyra. Do you know of her?”

  “The only mermaid I have business with is Mestaline,” Sebast said.

  Jonah considered his options. The Mer witch, Egrine, knew everything that happened in his father’s realm though she lived in seclusion in a private dwelling behind his father’s palace. Only the sea king or his heir had access to her wisdom. It was said that her magic was older than Poseidon’s. She could tell him about Ellyra and about Marianne’s choices. Perhaps she could help Sebast, too.

  Time grew shorter with each passing hour. The moon would be full again soon and he hated to leave Marianne alone and deserted. He made up his mind.

  “Come on,” he said to Sebast.

  “Where to?”

  “Egrine will have the answers to both of our questions.”

  “Your father would not let me ask of her, I had to come to my own conclusions about Mestaline and the murder of my father.”

  “I am heir to the throne, she will see me,” Jonah said. He swam away hoping that Sebast would follow. He did.

  Together they swam through the layers of water passing schools of smaller fish and the bulk that made up larger fishes. Though they swam faster than dolphins it took them two days of constant travel to reach the court of the sea king. News of their arrival preceded them. They found an armed escort, led by a red-haired mermaid, waiting for them in front of the portcullis of the castle.

  It was Mestaline and from the way she waved the sharp trident in her hands, she wasn’t happy to see them.

  Chapter Ten

  “Put down your weapon, Mestaline,” Jonah said as he swam up to the small group.

  She changed her grip but did not release the trident. “Have you come back to claim your inheritance and mate with me, or are you here to accuse me?”

  “Someone sent a rogue wave that caused damage and hardship. Someone who hid behind strong magic,” Jonah said. “But that’s not why I’m here.”

  Her features relaxed and she nodded to her escort. “Leave us.” To Jonah, “Then you have come to claim a consort. It will be me, of course.”

  “Move aside, Mestaline. I have business with the Mer witch and time is running out.”

  “Wait, you must choose a consort.” She moved to intercept him.

  If he didn’t distract her he’d never get to talk to Egrine. “Not today. Sebast is investigating the wave. You will speak with him.”

  “Why?” She folded her arms across her chest.

  Jonah’s patience ended. “I do not need to explain myself to you, maid,” he roared. “Move aside.” Without waiting for her to move, he swam around her and into the castle.

  He heard the rumble of Sebast’s baritone and Mestaline’s answering speech but did not wait to understand the content of their conversation. Knowing their animosity towards each other, it was no doubt unpleasant.

  Myriad hallways branched away from the main hall much like a coral reef branched within itself. And no wonder, the palace was created of living coral. Jonah paused at the hall that would take him to his parent’s quarters. He decided to speak with them after he consulted with the Mer witch. If his father knew of his plans he might try to stop Jonah and Jonah had no time for further detours.

  Further into the depths of the palace then out a back entrance Jonah swam. He passed other mermen and mermaids along the way, but only nodded to them without stopping to speak. Everything would have to wait until he discovered the truth about Marianne.

  His heart beat rapidly in his chest as he approached the small cave-like structure hidden behind a huge oyster shell. The Mer witch’s dwelling glowed with the mother of pearl of which it was built. It glowed with the magic of the seer, too. The strength of it pulsed through the water around the house. It thrummed through Jonah like the tide pulling him closer. By the time he reached the opening he couldn’t have turned back if he’d wanted to. The magic was a living thing, he could not resist it.

  He put a hand to the side of the entry to steady himself. The smooth wall was warm and pink.

  “Come in, young prince,” a mellow, welcoming voice floated to him.

  Whether he wanted to or not, Jonah was compelled to enter. Prince or not, he’d never been in the Mer witch’s quarters before. Even the king needed an invitation. Indeed, Jonah hadn’t really thought about how he would get an audience with her if she didn’t invite him in. He just knew he’d have to find a way. But that was no longer a problem. Now he wondered if he’d be able to leave when he wanted to. The magic was so strong that he felt like he was swimming in it.

  The inside of the cave was spacious but simply furnished with colorful creatures of the deep. The movement and textures of the fishes and plants made for an ever changing movement within. He had a hard time concentrating.

  The melodious voice called to him again. “Join me,” it commanded. Jonah felt his body propelled towards the back of the room.

  Fluorescing plants lit this part of the room with a lavender light. Who it illuminated made Jonah gasp. The mermaid that reclined on a bench of silver was as tiny as a doll that human children played with. Tiny, but exquisitely featured. Her hair shone golden even in the odd light and her face was pixyish with a mouth curved into a smile and blue eyes that twinkled. Blue eyes, not the green of every merman and mermaid he had ever known. Power radiated from her in waves that distorted the water like the speech of whales.

  There was no doubt that the power emanated from this creature.

  “I’ve waited long for your visit,” she said. The water trembled around her in warm ripples that caressed Jonah’s skin.

  He couldn’t speak. If this mermaid knew all and heard all, then she already knew why he was here.

  She laughed and rose from the couch with a dainty flip of her emerald green tail. Her movement released him from whatever force had held him still.
<
br />   “Ask your question, Prince, even though I already know it. Ask anyway,” she said. A tiny frown marred her perfect face.

  “Is Marianne … you know of whom I speak?”

  She nodded.

  “Was the mermaid, Ellyra, her grandmother?”

  “Yes, ‘tis ever a sad tale when a mermaid falls in love with a human.” She caressed a lustrous black pearl that lay in a bowl of sand.

  “I’ve always been told that mer-people and humans could not have a child together, yet Ellyra bore a son who is Marianne’s father.”

  “And she paid a heavy price for it.” Egrine moved both hands over the sphere again. “In order to fulfill the desire to bear his child, she paid in the magic of her immortality.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Magic has a price. You pay in pain every time you transform into a human. She paid a price for both herself and her child so that they could both have children with humans.”

  “With what did she pay?”

  “Look.” She gestured to the pearl.

  Jonah swam closer and stared at the surface of the pearl. A glow started from within. He saw a beautiful human woman with a face much like Marianne’s. She was weeping and stumbling across a beach. When she reached the waves, she dove in and became the mermaid again. He understood that this was Ellyra.

  “Marianne told me that she disappeared in the ocean after her mate died. So she returned here?”

  Yes, but look again, Prince.”

  Jonah stared into the pearl again. This time he saw Ellyra swimming. With each stroke she aged. By the time he saw her approach the gates to his father’s palace, she had withered. Her hair had turned silver, her gleaming green tail had become a dull, thin stump. Her arms had lost their strength. The only thing still recognizable about her was the beauty of her sad face.

  “She died?” Jonah asked, amazed. Mer-people were close to immortal. Even ancient ones kept their vigor and strength. He’d never seen one age as Ellyra had, the way a human would.

  The Mer witch nodded. “Her price for love was her life. She agreed to it, she wanted it, and in the end that’s what she got. A handful of human years followed by a death none of our people had ever chosen.”

  Mer-lore spoke of mermaids and mermen who had taken human lovers, but none had paid such a price. The lust with which mer-folk lived, with few exceptions, made the kind of devotion and sacrifice that Ellyra had exhibited nearly unknown. How could this be explained?

  “By love,” Egrine answered his unspoken question. “What have you learned of this human emotion during your time above the waves?”

  Jonah rubbed a hand over his head. “It’s the most perplexing of emotions, causing the humans to enact great acts of both sacrifice and betrayal.”

  She nodded. “Ellyra found a way not only to understand it, but to experience it.”

  “But the price….” Jonah waved a hand at the glistening dark surface of the pearl.

  “Yes, the price.”

  A shadow passed overhead. Through an opening Jonah saw a giant squid swim by. Time was passing. He opened his mouth to speak, but the Mer witch pre-empted him.

  “There is a choice you must make, Jonah. You are heir to this kingdom and your time on the surface of this world is almost over.”

  “The choice is not mine to make,” he said. “If Marianne is part mermaid, then does she not have her own magic? Has she not the ability to become one of us and join me here?”

  The Mer witch stared at him, her face clouding with concentration. “Why would you have her do that?”

  “Because I would have her for my consort.”

  She flipped her tail. “You have any number of willing maids already. Mestaline is your father’s choice. Again, I ask you, Jonah, Prince of the Sea, why Marianne?”

  Heat broke the surface of his body and warmed the sea around him as he considered her question. He didn’t know how to answer her. He just knew that years of immortality without Marianne stretched like a void before him.

  Egrine stared at him, her sapphire eyes glowing as if she could see his thoughts and his heart. At once she nodded then swam back to her pearl. After a caress or two, faint shapes began to take form within it. She gasped and swam back, her hand to her chest. Her hair floated like agitated eels around her head.

  Jonah put out a hand to help her then yanked it away as he felt an electrical charge zap through him. “What was that?”

  “The unexpected,” she murmured. “A new experience for me.” She turned to face him, composed one more. “The choice remains yours, Prince.”

  “No, Marianne may choose of her own free will.”

  “Yes, she may, but the babe within her is unable to choose.”

  “The babe?”

  * * * *

  Marianne stumbled through the next several days hardly aware of her surroundings. She couldn’t get over the fact that Jonah had left her. After a while she wondered if he had ever been with her at all. Perhaps she’d made it all up in her head; perhaps the shipwreck had made her mad, caused her to lose her mind.

  When hunger clawed at her belly she made an effort to pull mussels at low tide. She heard the dolphins laughing and playing beyond the breakers and even went so far as to cast off her clothing to swim, but was unable to enjoy the water.

  It might have something to do with Jonah’s incredible revelation that he was a merman and he thought her grandmother had been a mermaid. It was more than incredible, it was patently unbelievable.

  All she had of him were the remnants of his clothes. She kept them as a reminder that she hadn’t dreamed him up. They’d been lovers and she held those memories close.

  As she gazed up at the stars on the third night without him she wondered if she’d really seen him change into a creature with a tail or had it been something else. She was certain he’d yelled something to her before he’d disappeared. In fact, she preferred to think that he had turned into a merman and swum away. That was better than imagining him dead, drowned and lying on the sea floor, or worse, to find his bloated body washed up by the tide.

  Yes, much better to think of him as a mythical creature that lived in the sea.

  She considered the webbing between her fingers and toes. It was something that she’d always had and had shared with her father, not anything unusual. When attending parties before she was wed and after in the society of Nantucket she’d often worn gloves, a social convention, so that her fingers, and never her toes, had rarely been scrutinized.

  A deep welling up of sadness filled her yet again. It had come and gone less frequently today than the past two days, but Marianne ached with the grief of missing Jonah. She had never been so alone, deserted, bereft.

  She left the fire glowing and meandered in the light of the waxing moon to the water’s edge. The sea was flat calm tonight. She heard the distant flap of something slapping at the water. Her heart pounded heavy in her chest. Could it be Jonah returning?

  The cackle of a dolphin’s voice reached her. It almost made sense to her. She strained to understand it but let it go, just as she let go the hope that Jonah would come back. If he was truly a merman then surely he had returned to his place in the sea. And if he wasn’t, then he wouldn’t be returning anywhere.

  That left her with few options. In the morning she’d find more wood and build a huge fire, a smoky mess by day and a glowing bonfire by night. With any luck she’d attract some kind of sailing vessel that would pick her up. With even more luck, it would be on the way to the Caribbean.

  “Find a ship to send to me,” she shouted out loud, startled at the sound of her own voice.

  A dolphin seemed to answer with a chirping clatter. She saw the silhouette of it rising up against the starlit sea before slapping down and leaving nothing more than ever expanding rings in its wake.

  “I’ll believe in anything if that dolphin actually does send a ship here,” she said. Then she thought she’d better stop talking to herself. When she did get rescued th
ey would think her a mad curiosity.

  Fanciful dreams of an underwater kingdom flitted through her sleep. She woke with what was becoming a recognized pang of despair. Today she threw off the depression and moved with a purpose. Slipping a pair of bark footwear onto her feet she spent hours in the forest finding every downed bit of burnable wood, brush, and leaves and hauling it to her tiny camp. She scoured the beach for driftwood. She allowed herself only positive thoughts as she washed in the spring and dug roots to eat.

  As the sun sank, sending a hopeful glow across the horizon, she built up the fire until the flames reached into the sky three times taller than she. The power and heat of the bonfire scared her a little, then she thought the hell with it and threw more wood in. She had nothing to lose.

  She spent the night stoking the fire. In the morning she let it burn down then started putting greenery on it to make a dark smoke. By the end of the day her eyes were smarting and soot covered her from head to toe. She made one more trek into the forest for wood to last through the night.

  As she dropped the final armload and sank to the ground a movement on the horizon caught her eyes. She stared then ran towards the water. Holding a hand over her eyes against the glare she squinted.

  A sail, the outline of a ship, and coming towards her with laughter and leaping playfulness, a dolphin swam against the tide leading the ship to her.

  Chapter Eleven

  The captain’s wife tut-tutted in a motherly way as she helped Marianne bathe and found a spare dress for her to wear. The folds of heavy cloth weighed her down after the days of only her shift or nothing at all. Captain Jamison listened to her story kindly and wrote it all down in the ship’s log.

  “Have you had any word of Poseidon’s crew, captain? It would be cruel if Captain McAdams and I were the only survivors,” Marianne asked, remembering the first mate and crew with the fondness of sympathetic memory.

  “Aye, we picked up several men who were hanging onto barrels and spars. Let me see.” He flipped a page back in his log. “Yes, a seven-day ago. It was remarkable, their surviving such a wave as they spoke of. We took them to Charleston, supplied for this trip, and then it was as if the dolphin was leading us to you.”