Changelings

by Anne McCaffrey

  MUREL KNEW HER brother was in trouble right after Ke-ola hit the water. Sky felt it too. The sea otters have gone. Your river seal brother is alone.

  Usually the twins communicated directly with each other, but Ronan wasn’t doing that. Still, Murel felt from the tight constriction of her chest, the heaviness of her limbs, and the stuffiness in her nose that these sensations were Ronan’s, not hers.

  She found Mum talking to Marmie and tugged at her arm. “Mum, you need to cover for me. I have to change and go to Ronan. He’s become separated from the otters and he’s not well.”

  “Not well how?” Mum asked.

  Quickly, impatiently, Murel described what she was feeling. Marmie whirled around and began gathering items and thrusting them at her.

  “Even seals aren’t safe in the sea at times like these, dear,” Marmie told her. “You will need a respirator, a hard hat, probably a line to help you haul your brother to safety, and, oh yes, a homing beacon. And really, you should wear protective clothing and carry a knife as well.”

  “I don’t know how to break this to you, Marmie, but seals don’t have pockets or anything to carry that stuff with, and the little packet my suit fits in won’t hold it all. Just cover for me so the others don’t see and I’ll change now.”

  “No,” Mum said. “You will take these things or I will take them and dive with you.”

  “Mum, you’d slow me down. Ro’s in trouble.”

  “And if you go without taking the proper precautions you will be too.”

  Finally everyone was satisfied—except Sky, who wanted to go too but still didn’t think river otters could swim in salt water. Murel put on the protective gear, with straps for the knife, rope, and hat. Then she cut the arms and legs out of the clothing to make room for her flippers, which would need the room once she was in the water. She dove in and made her change under the yacht. The hard hat was slippery on her seal’s head and ended by sort of dangling around her neck.

  “We’ll be right behind you,” Mum called through the earpiece that was the other item they insisted she wear. They’d wanted her to wear a voice mike too, but she pointed out that they probably wouldn’t understand her until she was back somewhere where she could speak without barking. The earpiece would probably float out of her ear once she started swimming.

  Okay, Ronan, where are you and what kind of a jam are you in? she asked, but received no reply. So she struck out toward the lava beds where the otters and her brother were last seen. She called and called but although she continued to get the sensation that he was in deep trouble, he didn’t respond.

  Ronan, Ronan Born for Water Maddock-Shongili, where in the water are you? she cried in exasperation.

  Come and see for yourself, sis, he replied. You’re not going to believe this!

  What do you see? Keep in contact. I’m on my way and Mum and Marmie and the yacht are following. I’ve a locator beacon so we’ll find you.

  It’s some kind of an underwater city, Mur. Not too far from the main volcano cone.

  Is it a ruin, you think? Maybe from way back before Petaybee needed terraforming.

  It’s a pretty lively-looking ruin. There are lights and things moving around.

  She swam as quickly as she could, undulating toward where she felt him to be. The moving things could just be sea creatures swimming through it, but the lights? Bioluminescence, do you suppose? Petaybee exhibited that kind of thing in many places, inside the caves, sometimes along the inner banks of the river, but it hadn’t ever gone so far as to light up buildings, not that she knew of. Usually you had to use at least a candle or a lantern or something.

  No, no, you’ll just have to see.

  Don’t go in yet unless you have to. Wait for me.

  Suddenly the entire ocean gave a violent shudder and she was buffeted back and forth by the swell before she could proceed onward with any speed. On the surface, rocks rained into the water, which told her she was getting closer to the cone. Below her the water was warm, sometimes uncomfortably so. She knew the vents spewed acid, and could only hope it was diluted enough by the water that she wouldn’t suffer burns to her exposed flippers and face. She was very glad now to have all the silly equipment Mum and Marmie had insisted on loading onto her.

  The respirator especially was coming in handy now when she surfaced, even though it didn’t fit a seal’s snout very well. Mum forgot her seal daughter didn’t have hands to adjust the darn thing.

  Funny, with all the smoke it looked like the weather was stormy, but really, back on the boat the sky had been blue where you could see it beyond the smoke.

  She dived again and swam on, calling and calling. Behind her she heard the engine of the Melusine. She surfaced and looked back. Mum, Marmie, and some of the other people aboard the yacht stood on deck wearing hard hats, protective coats, and respirators. There were human divers on board too, and they were prepared to help, but Murel had asked that they stay aboard the boat until she located Ronan. No sense in muddying the waters any more than they were already muddied, and besides, it would be impossible to keep their secret from all those divers.

  ALTHOUGH RONAN LOOKED up to the tops of the towers of the city stretching out before him, the city’s base was beneath the place where he stood, sunken into a wide volcanic caldera that glowed cherry red all around the edge of the city.

  How could people live there? Well, maybe they didn’t. There were lights and shadows, flickering and movement, but he couldn’t identify what was causing the movement. After staring at it for a while, he wasn’t even convinced it was real. It could be a hologram, he decided, although why anyone would project one in an isolated undersea spot near a volcano was beyond him.

  Then he realized the lights were changing colors—that a progression of colors beginning with white turned to yellow, lime, emerald, teal, aqua, brilliant blue, purple, red, orange, and back to yellow. From the bottom of the towers to the top and back down again, from the spires closest to him to those farthest away, the lights ran their rainbows.

  Fascinated, he swam forward, thinking to explore the streets that surely ran between the towers, but instead of swimming straight ahead, he found himself swimming to the surface, there to be assaulted by more rock showers. Lightning bounded through the smoke in front of him. Taking as much air as he dared, he dived again, but although he thought he was swimming into the city, he reached the ocean floor pretty much where he had been before.

  He surfaced and dived many more times, each time drawing shallower breaths and growing more light-headed. He should turn back, he thought, try to meet Murel, but he didn’t want to lose sight of the city for fear that he wouldn’t find it again. He half thought it was an illusion. Each time he went up for air, he tried to dive at a different angle, but always he was off to one side of the city. Perhaps it was farther than it looked, though he could feel the heat from the glowing crater beneath it.

  It wasn’t just that the city had a hypnotic effect on him, he thought. No, he could break away from that if he wanted. It was just that if this were a real place, it was the best hope that Da was still alive and well. Unless, of course, whoever ran the city was evil or something.

  Ronan? Ro? Where are you? Murel’s mind-voice was very close to him now.

  Here, he said, but even to his own mind his thought was not projecting very well. I’m here, by the city.

  By the—what are you on about anyway? Have you been eating funny seaweed?

  He didn’t answer. He felt her glide up next to him. More distantly there was a rumbling. He thought it was the volcano again but then felt the churning of the water and heard echoes of other human thoughts.

  Oh. I see, Murel said, her body hanging lengthwise in the water beside him as she looked into the city. She looked very funny, wearing a hat on the back of her head and neck and something weird and mechanical over her nose. She also had on some kind of clothing, not becoming to a seal. Though it was comical, he didn’t feel like laughing. He just stared at her for
a moment then back at the city. That’s incredible. I bet Da is in there somewhere. Have you tried calling to him?

  Uh, not yet, Ronan replied, feeling incredibly stupid. I was—was waiting for you.

  Let’s get some air, then we’ll try, she said, but she had begun to sound less direct and certain and more as if she too had been mesmerized by the city and its lights.

  This time when they surfaced, he was aware of the yacht, a slightly darker shape through the smoke, with figures moving purposefully about there.

  River seals! River seals! Sky called to them. Have you found the deep sea otters? Have they seen your father?

  No, but Ronan has found something else very strange, Murel said. She was about to suggest that they return to the yacht to tell their mother about the city when there was a splash that sounded more like otter than rock, and presently the sleek brown head of Sky peered at them out of the smoke.

  I thought river otters didn’t swim in salt water.

  Normally we don’t but this was just a short swim, just a little ways and besides, if there are deep sea otters here, maybe they only speak to otters. Maybe they don’t know that river seals don’t eat otters.

  What we’ve found isn’t exactly deep sea otters, Murel told him. Come.

  The three of them dived back down to the city, which was still there.

  It’s almost like it’s not real, Ronan said. I tried over and over again to swim into it but I couldn’t.

  BUT SKY WAS not interested in the city as much as he was in contacting its inhabitants. Standing on the ocean floor on his hind paws, he moved the top of his body to the right and then to the left, then back again, inspecting the entire thing. Finally he sent out his message, Deep sea otters, deep sea otters, it is your cousin Sky the River Otter who is also a sky otter, calling you. Our cousins the sea otters say that you live here. This otter has braved the salt water, which is not the element of river otters, to find you. Please answer. Your cousins have a problem and seek your help.

  From within the city came the first thought any of them had sensed. Do you think deep sea otters are so easily tricked, little cousin? We know you brought that boat full of scientists to study us. We know there are seals out there with you.

  Hah! That is so. But the boat is full of rescue people and family members, not science people looking for you. The seals are only partly seals. Partly they are two-legged children. Their father, also only partly a seal, is missing and was last seen swimming your way. Did you see him? Do you know what became of him?

  Maybe. The thought was cautious. We don’t want boats and seals around our den, though. Those seals, especially the one, have been here staring into our den for a long time.

  Murel said, It’s a pretty exotic-looking den, deep sea otters. We were just wondering how it got there and if our father might have found shelter there.

  If he did, if deep sea otters helped him, then his children wouldn’t tell the scientists about our den?

  If you don’t want us to, we won’t, Murel said. Nobody wants to hurt you or molest you, and we won’t let anybody study you if you don’t want to be studied. We just want our father.

  You will tell no one else about us? No two-legged people?

  No one, she said.

  Not even Mum, Ronan promised.

  River Otter, you believe these seals? the alleged deep sea otter asked.

  These are the seals that save the lives of otters. They do not lie. They do not tattle. But they will keep searching until they find their father, and so will the big boat. There are other men too. Men who can enter the water and swim like otters.

  Deep sea otters are very shy, the thought came to them, but to Murel, it sounded more sly than shy. No men must come and find our den.

  They won’t come if we don’t tell them to, Murel replied. But we need to find our father. He is a very important man to this world and none of us will rest until we know where he is and how he is. If we don’t find him, she warned, there will be more men and women here than any deep sea otter has ever seen before. It was a safe threat. Since no people had ever seen deep sea otters that she knew of, it stood to reason that deep sea otters had never seen all that many people either.

  Above them, through the murky water, she saw two new shadows—a large human-shaped one and a round one, which she recognized as being turtle-shaped. One of our friends is seeking us now, she said. You know what?

  She received an image of otter ears pricking forward as if to say “What?”

  I think you know where our father is. I think you found him and took care of him in your secret den and he is still alive. That would be very good for deep sea otters, you know. It would make my brother and me and the sky otter here and even all the men who don’t know about you owe you big-time.

  She got the impression of confused inter-otter chittering. We would be your friends and wish you well and maybe do something for you sometime.

  You must keep us a secret, the thought returned clearly. If you do this, we may be able to help you with what you seek.

  Great. She looked up and saw the Honu and more of Ke-ola than she had before—hands and upper torso gaining shape. Oh look! One of the divers is coming now! What do you say? Shall we keep him away? He’ll go away if we say so.

  Yes. He must not find our den, the spokes-otter replied quickly, though again she felt there had been some excited consultation before he spoke.

  Okay then. We’re all going to surface for air now and to keep our friend up there from finding you. You otters think it over.

  She conveyed this, and the three of them lofted themselves toward the surface. It was none too soon, as the ocean floor rolled and fiery liquid belched beneath the city/den. Strangely, the eruption didn’t seem to hurt or move the odd collection of lighted towers in any way, but it splashed upward. Had they delayed another moment, they would have been burned.

  The three of them rose straight up underneath Ke-ola and the Honu, nudging Ke-ola back up into what could now only loosely be called fresh air.

  “Ronan and Murel! River Otter! The Honu felt that you were in danger. We came to help you. We must go back to the boat. The Honu and I would be fine but the boat could sink from the falling rock. It’s very hot, you know.”

  They couldn’t answer him. The waves swelled like angry cats and attacked them, driving them apart and spinning them around with the force of the tormented water.

  Hah! River otters are not meant for salt! River otter fur is full of dirty ashen stuff that stinks and stings. Sky was fretting, but neither Murel nor Ronan could see the otter or each other because of the water and the steaming ash.

  Only the Honu bobbed on top of the waves, sliding down them and riding back up.

  But more than anything they were actually experiencing was the pressurized sensation that something ominous was building very near them, something about to explode.

  Why is Petaybee so furious with us? Murel couldn’t help but wonder.

  Not furious. Spawning, the Honu told her.

  Well, as soon as the planet’s between contractions we should dive one more—

  At that moment something bobbed up beneath her, bumping her underside. Murel rolled off it and down and saw another seal. Da! she cried. But the other seal did not answer her. It bounced helplessly with the waves, not moving a flipper to help itself.

  Then suddenly the ocean seemed to fly apart as a torrent of water plummeted from high up in the sky, smashing into her body with more force than a speeding snocle.

  CHAPTER 22

  THIS CAN’T BE happening. It’s too weird and too unfair. Murel sent the message to all and sundry as a wave slammed her under, the force of it almost driving her back to the ocean’s shallow bottom. She choked on dirty ashen water and tried not to breathe until she fought her way to the surface again. Wherever that was!

  The whole world rumbled and roared louder than a giant snocle. Clumps of burning rock pelted her and she kept dodging scalding steam. Da? Ronan? Otter? Sky? Honu
? she called silently.

  “Murel! Ronan!” Mum’s voice called out to them somewhere very near.

  Murel heard the thought as much as the words and struggled toward her mother’s voice.

  Here you go, little seal, came another thought, and she felt herself snatched clean out of the water and handed up, so that she tumbled onto a hard, knobby surface.

  Almost immediately something huge and heavy was dumped on top of her. She tried to roll sideways but there was very little room. Before she could pull herself entirely clear, something else was dumped on top of the other thing. The things wiggled and breathed, and, of course, when her vision cleared, she saw that they weren’t things at all. It was Ronan and Da. Mum and Johnny sat at the bow and the stern of a lifeboat with the three of them in the middle. Nobody was rowing, and Murel feared they’d be swamped. But as she dragged herself out from under her relatives, she saw that there were lines attached to the lifeboat tied to the Melusine. The boat was being towed back toward the yacht by all hands on deck, fighting the swamping waves and the swell.

  Something else, small and wriggling, flopped into the boat. “Hah!” Sky said, his favorite otter expression mingling indignation and relief in the same puff of breath. “Hah!”

  Finally one more object landed in the boat, clattering on the side. I could have made it myself, foolish boy, the sacred Honu said. I was swimming before you were an egg.

  “Ke-ola, get in!” Mum cried. “You’re exhausted.”

  “No room!” he bellowed back up at her. “Sink . . . you. Hang . . . onto . . . hull.”

  A huge wave slid the lifeboat back to the yacht, smashing into it and dumping everyone back into the raging sea. The crewmen were tossed backward, to sprawl on the deck, and the ropes went flying. The lifeboat, its hull splintered, sank beneath them as they scrambled for safety.