Autumn Mermaid (Mermaid Series Book 4)

by Dan Glover

  "Come with us, Mr. Kirk. We can't leave you here again. Luciana is waiting at home for you."

  Though Nate was by order of both age and reputation the one in charge, Niall spoke first. He had promised his sister he would return Kirk's body to her and still had hopes of doing so, even if it was now alive rather than dead.

  He watched as Kirk raised the bottle of Glenlivet scotch to his mouth. It gurgled as he drank down a large dollop and then another. When he handed the bottle back to Niall it was half empty.

  "It's been a long time since I tasted anything that good. Thank you."

  "You're welcome, Mr. Kirk. Will you come away with us now?"

  "It's no use, Niall. The events set in motion have taken on a life of their own. Even if I die, and even if Micah dies, nothing will change. These tiny machines will seek out and destroy every bit of life on this planet and replace it with metal. Though you don’t realize it, even now you're being overrun with them. Soon whatever semblance of control you thought you had in life will become meaningless."

  "You may think so, Mr. Kirk, but even now your nanobots are succumbing to the touch of the people of the Lake. They cannot abide with us. You know that."

  "As we speak, Mr. Nate, your wives that you abandoned in Toulon are dying terrible deaths. I see can it all through the help of my little friends. Amanda and Ginger were left there all alone. It's your fault more than anyone else. Don't you feel even a fly speck of remorse?"

  Niall watched the blood drain from his grandfather's face as his body tensed as if readying for either a fight or a flight. The big man trembled like winter had descended into his bones.

  "He's lying, Grandfather Nate. How can he know what's happening an ocean away?"

  "Oh... you're a fine one to speak, Niall. Have you thought at all about the sister you left behind? Luciana has gone mad waiting for your return. I visit her every night to comfort her and assure her that we'll be together again soon. We will become as one again."

  "I thought you loved Luciana, Mr. Kirk. Why would you want her to become like you?"

  "I do love Luciana, Mr. Nate. I love her far more than you ever loved anyone. Remember how you left Lady Lily behind to come to Toulon? And then after you seduced Ginger and Amanda you left them too. It is your fault that I'm here. You even left me behind. Is there anyone that you haven't betrayed?"

  "Don't listen to him, Grandfather Nate. Whatever is talking isn't the Kirk we know."

  Niall was having his doubts about their whole endeavor, however. The liquor didn’t seem to be taking effect the way they hoped. He wondered if it might take more time and after taking a fiery gulp absently handed the bottle back to Kirk.

  "What is this place, Mr. Kirk? Did you build it?"

  "Not in the sense you mean, Niall. I thought it and it came to be. When you become one with the metal you'll understand. I'm sure you're feeling the first premonitions of power even now, aren’t you."

  "The only thing I feel is the need to get out of here, Mr. Kirk. This place scares me."

  "As well it should, Niall. You're standing in front of the gates to hell. Once these doors open a swarm will be unleashed the likes of which this world has never seen. They're inside now multiplying by the second, becoming better with each new generation."

  "Listen to yourself, Mr. Kirk. You sound like Micah."

  As they talked, Niall couldn’t help but notice Chester working his way around the side of the obelisk where Kirk didn’t seem to be aware of his presence. He absently wondered what the big cat intended though he suspected it was the same thing that he and Grandfather Nate hoped to achieve... the death of Kirk.

  Movement out of the corner of his eye caught Niall's attention. Something was moving toward them like a straight streak of lightning. Kirk must have noticed both the tiger and the approaching object about the same time as Niall did but rather than being concerned, he smiled.

  "So this is an ambush, is it? It's too late for all that, my friends. Get ready to meet my little friends."

  Kirk evaporated into a mist as the obelisk dissolved behind him. The air turned black. Niall couldn’t breath. It felt as if he had inhaled granite and it set up in his lungs. When he tried to move, he was plastered in place, held down by some invisible force impinging upon every molecule in his body.

  His eyes had turned to steel and would no longer see. A thousand points of pain erupted inside his head like he had stuck it into a vat of boiling oil and it was frying him from the inside out. He wanted to look at Grandfather Nate but only darkness met his gaze.

  A scream sounded and halted just as suddenly. He thought at first the sound issued forth from his own throat until he realized it was a sort of disembodied screech that reminded him of the time they slaughtered rabbits raised for their food value. His father Maon had begun to show him how to kill the creatures with a single blow to the head with a hammer but one of them was only knocked unconscious and began screaming when it woke half skinned.

  He had never liked the taste of rabbit after that.

  He was being drawn into a dark spot that started as a mere point but quickly expanded to fill his entire being. He couldn’t see it so much as he felt it... the gnawing hunger that was consuming him, making his body its own. Though he fought back it soon became apparent that his was a losing battle. He could feel himself go.

  Something popped inside him and he could see again. Kirk was gone. Niall didn’t know if Chester had ripped him apart with one swipe of his massive paw or if the man had left on his own. At the same time the obelisk behind them had evaporated. The big cat now stood over the place where Kirk had been as if mourning what he was forced into doing.

  Grandfather Nate stood close by apparently as uncomprehending of the unfolding events as he was. The flash Niall had seen just before being inundated with nanobots had to be an anti-gravity craft like theirs—nothing else in this world could fly so fast—but who had been flying it? And where did it go?

  Niall could breathe again though his lungs hurt as if he had inhaled tepid water deep into them and spasmodically coughed it up until his throat was raw and sore.

  "It had to be Ena."

  Nate spoke the words as if forcing himself to enunciate something horrible. Niall knew instinctively that his grandfather was right. His mother and her prescience undoubtedly led her here. But what had become of her?

  "Did she crash, Grandfather Nate?"

  "I'm not sure, Niall. I think she flew directly into the obelisk. If the warp field was still energized, the collision probably created a momentary singularity, or a black hole. We've been experimenting with that process in order to fly to the stars. The wormholes we create are unstable, however. The probes we sent into them never responded back to us.

  "Pete thought it was because the wormhole breached not only space but time. Our probes probably made it to where they were meant to go but in a different time... perhaps far in the future or back in the distant past. Either way, we'd be incapable of communicating with them."

  "But where would my mother go?"

  Niall felt a slow panic begin to creep up his back. He had done his best to alienate his mother but he loved her desperately. Surely if she was sucked into the singularity, Grandfather Nate could find where she went and rescue her.

  "That's a question that we haven't been able to answer, Niall. I'm sorry. I'm fairly certain she is alive, however, and if the anti-gravity craft is still functional, she may be able to make her way back to us. It just depends on where she ended up."

  A thought began to form in Niall's mind. Wherever his mother went, the nanobots followed. If they survived too, they might well overwhelm her. He felt a momentary impulse to grab his grandfather and force the man into telling him where his mother had gone. The man seemed to sense Niall's anger and answered in halting sentences as if unsure himself.

  "Pete and I managed to close the entanglement we created between earth and a moon circling a gas giant that orbits Bernard's Star, Niall. That is where I think Lily e
nded up although exactly when is the great unknown.

  "If Ena was inside the anti-gravity craft, she may still be here on earth though perhaps not in our time. According to our calculations, anyone coming into contact with a singularity now could be thrown either forward or backward in time... maybe a few minutes, maybe decades.

  "The other possibility we could not discount is someone being projected into the future. If that occurred, well... I just don't know enough to make a judgment call on that."

  "What about Kirk?"

  Chapter 49—Isle of Skye—

  He hadn’t meant to frighten the girl.

  Arriving at the Isle of Skye on a cold drizzly dawn, Kāne had made his way to a decrepit villa that had once been the center of laughter and light. Now, its peaked roof was sagging from neglect and the walls were showing the beginning signs of collapse as the foundation crumbled beneath them.

  Not certain if he should approach Luciana right away he had stood on a hillside that overlooked the valley where she lived. He remembered being there centuries ago and how alive the place had seemed. Now, it looked like something long dead rotting in the damp ruin creeping up from the ground.

  She had changed so much he hardly knew her but he told himself it was his own memory loss affliction that plagued his life and loves. Still, the gaunt-cheeked woman who emerged from the vile villa reminded Kāne more of an old woman than the young girl who he was looking for.

  He wondered if Daughter had sent him to the wrong place. This misbegotten creature couldn’t be Luciana. It shocked him so that he continued staring at her long after he realized she had seen him standing on the hill and the fright that blossomed around her like a bonfire lighting the dormant aura that once burned so bright.

  When she turned to flee back into the safety of her sallow sanctuary he had been tempted to call out but she was too far away to hear him. Instead, he settled down to wait. He knew her curiosity had been aroused. It wouldn’t be long before she made another appearance if nothing else than to satisfy herself that she had really seen what she thought she saw.

  The surrounding forests were full of wild beasts but their presence didn’t trouble Kāne. He had long ago learned to extend what he thought of as his shield, an electrically charged field that seemed to emanate from a place just below his belly button. Any unwanted animal seemed to be deterred by not only his impressive appearance but by the invisible aura he emitted.

  The nights were cold here and he had never cared for the damp. Though he slept without fear several times during the night he found himself wakened by shrieks in the dark. Early the next morning he left his perch on the hillside and crept closer to the villa in an effort to perhaps contact the girl should she show herself again.

  He was hungry and thirsty too. He wondered if perhaps he should simply walk into the house and ask to be fed. Surely the girl would recognize him if indeed it was really Luciana.

  "Feed me please."

  He said the word automatically though no one was there to hear them. Even though a gray day was breaking it was still cold and he shivered while impatiently shifting from one foot to the other feeling the moisture of the countryside leak into his bones. About the time he was going to give up and try his luck at capturing some wild animal to sear over an open flame the door opened and Luciana appeared.

  This time being nearer to her Kāne saw she was the indeed same girl he had met long ago, not so much as a memory but as a deep knowing of one who shared his blood. She seemed aghast at seeing him there for just an instant but then a memory seemed to wash over her as well.

  "Oh... you are my Grandfather Kāne. What are you doing here?"

  Her voice was lyrical like Daughter's and as it washed over him memories sprouted like brightly colored spring flowers in a long desolate garden. He knew he should explain his purpose here but the long ages alone made his voice shy around others even though he often spoke to himself.

  "Are you hungry, Grandfather?"

  Nodding his head rather than speaking he followed her into the villa. It was colder inside than out. Most of the window panes were broken and the rooms were filled with debris blown in by the wind. The corners were all filled with thick carpets of leaves and a variety of small mammals had apparently set up housekeeping right alongside the girl as a passel of possums wading out of a darkened room adjoining the kitchen to which Luciana paid no attention.

  "I have eggs."

  He shrugged his shoulders.

  "Was that you I saw on the hill last night?"

  He nodded while watching as she cracked eggs one by one into a filthy fry pan before setting it on top of a wood burning stove that seemed to emit no heat.

  "Why are you here, Grandfather?"

  "Ena asked me to come."

  She walked out of the room. At first, he thought he might have angered her but in a few seconds she returned with a handful of kindling which she stuffed into the stove before bending over it and blowing into it to ignite a flame that must have still smoldered deep inside the ashes.

  "She should mind her own business. I told her I'll never leave here until Kirk returns."

  "Kirk is dead, Luciana."

  He didn’t understand how he knew but he'd never been as certain of anything in his life.

  "I know that, Grandfather. He's been dead for centuries. But he'll still come for me."

  The girl had gone insane. He wondered why Daughter had sent him here. It was a fool's errand. If Luciana genuinely believed a dead man would come for her, she was beyond any help he could offer.

  "How long has your mother been gone from here, sweet Luciana?"

  She shrugged her shoulders in the same way he was in the habit of doing. The girl had doubtlessly stopped counting the years the same way he had. His question had been pointless and he knew it even before he asked but at the same time he didn’t know what else to say.

  "She said she was tired of the cold and the damp. My father comes around from time to time but I don’t think he's been here for the last hundred years or so. Maybe he's dead too."

  He realized Luciana had not only his mannerisms but the same outlook on life and love that he held. Kāne didn’t remember his own father nor could he recall grieving over the man's death. Being as intimately connected to the world as he was meant that any great loss was balanced by the gains of new insights into the nature of the reality he inhabited.

  Luciana set a bowl of scrambled eggs in front of him and opening a bottle of wine poured him a cup before sitting down across from him.

  "Are you not hungry, darling Luciana?"

  "I never eat in the morning."

  From the looks of her, Kāne had his doubts whether she ate in the evening either. She watched as he fingered great globs of egg into his mouth and washed it down with copious amounts of wine. When he finished his cup she was quick to refill it and when the bottle was empty she got up and hurried to bring another one to the table.

  The eggs were too salty for his taste but he had been so hungry he ate them anyway. He had forgotten that Luciana was fond of the salt water rather than the fresh waters of the Lake. Apparently her taste for salt ran to food as well.

  "If I kill a chicken will you cook him for me this evening, darling Luciana?"

  He had notices large flocks of birds meandering around the estate as he surveyed the area. They were obviously wild yet showed no fear of him when he walked up to the villa.

  "Kill whatever you want and I'll cook it, grandfather."

  He felt the girl's pain radiating out like heat from a fire. He almost envied it. Never had he felt such unmitigated grief over anyone or anything. Then again, if he had, he wasn’t at all sure he'd remember. Being a male of his species had its own special advantages. He could walk away from a romance and feel nothing the next day.

  "This is your son. His name is Catan. Do you remember him at all?"

  Ginger had approached him late one night while he sat alone on the beach in Toulon staring out at the calm Mediterranean
waters. He didn’t know her until she told him that they had once been man and wife... that they had a child together. He had felt the same kind of grief pouring off Ginger as he did now sitting with Luciana.

  A tall man stood beside Ginger. He had her features but his eyes were like looking into a mirror... black as the night, as if his pupils were greatly enlarged. Catan had smiled and stepped forward as if to embrace him but something made Kāne pull away... a feeling of not belonging, perhaps, or of the possibility of becoming ensnared within the comfort of family once again when he had his freedom.

  A kind of hurt radiated across Catan's face as he drew back, his arms still raised. He had looked at his mother as if expecting some sort of explanation but Ginger only shook her head in the sad kind of way that he had trouble forgetting.

  Kāne wondered what kind of father he could have been to Catan. Instead of reveling in the isolated and lonely places of the world, perhaps he might have stayed at Orchardton Hall with Ginger and watched as their boy grew to manhood.

  Looking into Luciana's eyes—his eyes—he sensed an unwanted burden of memories come rushing back at him. Was it the girl who was projecting her energies onto him? He was so used to being the powerful one that others shied away from that he had forgotten there were certain women of his species that were as capable of overpowering everyone within their presence.

  "What are you doing to me, sweet Luciana?"

  "I don’t know what you mean, grandfather. Do you wish for me to leave you alone?"

  He did, but at the same time he'd rather that she stayed. Being used to feeling empty, to be filled with inrushing memories of times long passed was a novelty he had never before experienced.

  The girl Ginger kept intruding into his mind. It was more than the short time they spent together. He felt as if she was attempting to reach out to him somehow. He had heard somehow that Catan had gone to live east of Toulon after Nate left. The thought of Nate brought a shudder of guilt to Kāne knowing that he had treated the man who saved him unfairly by bedding his wife.