Winter's Mermaid (Mermaid Series Book 1)

by Dan Glover

  "Of this I have no doubt, my love. But what of our divination of the many things to come... will he be as forgiving?"

  "He loves both you and Lady Lauren as his mother... he must learn to see you as a lover instead. Is this what you mean?"

  "Perhaps... even now I am sure he feels the great stirring in his blood. As he grows toward the age of maturity his desires will increase even more. Confusion will cloud his judgment if we are not scrupulously meticulous in our teachings and in our encouragements."

  "You are in love with him too."

  "Does this bother you, my darling Natalia?"

  She was silent for a moment considering the import of their discussion. She knew Nate's purpose. She understood he was the answer to a burning question they all had: what was to become of the two species hovering upon the brink of annihilation?

  "No, never, my sweet Lily... I am happy for you both. Will we still have our time together?"

  "Need you ask such a question? We have all the time we need, lovely Natalia."

  "I think you should be the one to tell our Nate the identity of his father and why he has been born into this world. He loves you as more than a mother. I see it in his eyes when you are close to him. He must feel torn wanting you the way he does. Sooth his feelings, my sweet Lily... teach him about love."

  "Have I ever told you what a marvel you are, my Natalia?"

  "Oh... maybe once or twice..."

  "Well then, it is high time I show you again. Let us adjourn to someplace more private, my sweet love."

  As Lily took her hand to lead her upstairs to one of the many bedrooms Natalia felt a great burden lift from her spirit. Nate deserved to know the truth and yet she couldn't seem to find the words to convey that to him.

  Though Lily had never said outright that she and Nate would one day become lovers Natalia knew in her heart that it was predestined from the time of his conception. She desired only happiness for her son. That he found it in the arms of her lover, Lily, did not trouble her as much as it might if he took up with a girl like Lucy.

  Though it saddened her to hear of the deaths of Drummond and Lucy, she knew they brought calamity upon themselves by not following the strictures laid down by the Ladies: no one was to wander more than five kilometers from the castle unless accompanied by Lily or Lauren.

  During the last trip to Lake Baikal she overheard Lucy tempting Nate into going away with her. Natalia wondered if Nate would confer the same protection upon the People that the Ladies did but she had no way of confirming it without unnecessarily exposing him to danger in the process.

  "You knew Nate's father, didn’t you sweet Lily."

  "Yes, my love... I knew him for many years. He guarded my prison cell."

  "Was he a good man?"

  "He was a man... whether he was good or bad I cannot say."

  A pause insinuated itself into their lovemaking. Natalia sensed her lover was considering saying more about the relationship she once shared with the long-dead man who was Nate's father. She put a finger to Lily's lips.

  "Say no more, my love. It is of no consequence if he was a good man or not. Nate may be descended from the man but he is not the man."

  "I will tell Nate about him very soon, my darling Natalia, and answer any questions he may have. Now... where were we?"

  Chapter 21—Changes

  Natalia hadn’t felt so good in years.

  Something inside of her was repairing the damaged tissue, reversing the ravages of the disease that at one time threatened to kill her within months, perhaps weeks. Even her hair was growing back in.

  "I had cancer when we met, my wondrous Lily."

  "Tell me of this thing called cancer. Is it something dreadful?"

  "For humans it is a terrible disease that eats away our bodies from the inside."

  "Is it a disease that doctors can cure?"

  "Sometimes they can cure it, but not always. They couldn’t cure mine. Their treatments only made me sick. I finally told them: no more. Even then, they wanted to argue with me, to tell me that I was a fool to give up.

  "There comes a time when the struggle is too much, my sweet Lily. I endured their cruelty for as long as I could until I was ready to scream. It was then that I knew it would be better to die than continue down that path."

  "Those doctors and their medicine, they believe they are like the gods. But they only dabble around the edges. Those people who are after me are doctors too, or so they call themselves.

  "In reality, they are worse than criminals. They make promises that they cannot keep... they only do what they do to earn accolades from other doctors, as if that is what the world is all about.

  "At the same time, however, I cannot hate them. If I did, that would mean they have won. Instead, I feel nothing for them. If they were to die tomorrow I would not care one way or the other."

  "Why would these so-called doctors want to chase you, darling Lily? Don't they have better things to do... like healing people? If they put as much effort into finding a cure for cancer as they do following you, no one would have to die from that horrible disease."

  "They want to know my secret, my precious Natalia... the one I am sharing with you. Even when I offered to give it to them willingly they would rather take it by force. So I escaped. The train seemed safer than any other way to travel, so here I am. And what of you, my love, my life... why are you on this trip?"

  "I took this trip as a sort of last journey, my darling Lily. The cancer doctor told me I had only a short time to live... he had a mean look on his face when I told him I was done with him, as if he was disappointed he would not get to watch me die. Now, we dance and we make love and I feel renewed. What have you done to me?"

  "I love you, my sweet Natalia. That is all I have done. And this I will keep on doing until my dying breath."

  "I need not go to that horrible doctor to know I am better. I can breathe deeply again without pain. I eat and I do not vomit it all up as before. I feel as if I am a young girl of sixteen all over again. You really are what you say you are, my wondrous Lily."

  "Of course I am, sweet Natalia. I will always be honest with you, my love. You have only to ask me and I will tell you anything."

  Though she loved Lily her words reminded her of another person who promised absolute honesty. After a year and a half of battling the disease the ontology specialist was extremely forthright with her.

  "The cancer has metastasized, Natalia. At this point, our treatment should be seen as more palliative than curative."

  "What does that mean, doctor?"

  Natalia had traveled to Germany to a cancer facility that her friend Zoya recommended. Zoya had been in complete remission for five years now. But the treatment regimen wrecked havoc upon Natalia's health. She couldn’t eat. What she did manage to swallow came right back up. Her long red hair began falling out in bunches as she brushed it each morning.

  "It means we can treat the pain but the disease is too far advanced for any hope of a cure. I would advise you to put your affairs in order, Natalia."

  The doctor looked at her with such sympathy in his eyes that she hated him. More than anything she detested being pitied. She was a proud Gypsy woman who had taken the worst life threw at her and tossed it right back.

  "How much time may I expect, doctor?"

  It seemed a misnomer to even call the man that... he was an imposter who knew nothing. She had come to him with high hopes only to have her heart broken.

  "No one can say that with any certainty, Natalia. With continued treatment we may buy you another six months. They will be cruel months, however."

  "Will these continued treatments cure my cancer?"

  "No... as I said, we are past that point now, Natalia. I'm sorry."

  The doctor nodded his head affirmatively as he delivered the news, as if keeping a positive attitude even to the bitter end lent him some authority he lost by admitting his defeat.

  "These treatments will continue to make me sick. Is this
so, doctor?"

  The doctor continued to nod his head as if he was telling her how the cancer was cured and she would live to be an old woman who would dance at her great-great granddaughter's wedding. Only she had no children. Instead, she had cancer.

  "You're sick, Natalia. Continued treatment may add a few months to your life, but yes, the side effects will continue."

  "Thank you, doctor. I will go now."

  She remembered how it was winter... a chill wind blew across the frozen tundra of a parking lot as she walked to her car where she had barely enough strength to unlock the door, to climb behind the wheel, and to start the engine. Cranking the heater up to high she sat weeping, not for herself, but for this beautiful world she had to leave behind.

  She opened her purse. It was filled with dozens of bottles of prescription medications. One by one she opened them to dump the contents into the barren parking lot where the wind dispersed the multi-colored capsules. She debated over dumping the pain killers too finally deciding to keep them for the time being.

  The next day she bought a train pass to travel Europe. She made a number of phone calls, the first one to her employer in Moscow telling them that she would not be back. She called her cable and internet providers instructing them to disconnect her services. She called the utility companies to settle her accounts. She called her bank to have all her savings transferred to her checking account making it easier to access.

  As the debilitating cancer-fighting chemicals began to withdraw from her body she started to feel stronger but she knew it would not last. The doctor cautioned her on that. She rode the train to Vienna where the gondolas awaited. Gliding down the ancient canals Natalia made believe she had been transported back to the 17th century and how she was a maiden being brought to pleasure a king.

  In Italy she bathed at nude beaches, loving the feel of the sun on her shrunken cancer-ravaged breasts. The wine went down and stayed down so she drank more. The waiters in the street-side cafés brought her delicious pastry and egg concoctions that went well with the red wine they served in abundance even if they came back up within minutes.

  In Belgium she ate dainty bites of sweet buttery waffles and stayed a night in an ancient medieval castle on the Rhine right on the coast where it dumped its filth into the North Sea. She covered herself in warm fleece blankets on the cold nights yearning for soft flesh to huddle with. Over the border into the Netherlands Natalia walked along the dikes holding back the roiling frigid waters and softly contemplated hurtling herself into the raging sea.

  On the train ride to France the pain began. At first it was only twinge, something she hoped would pass... perhaps if she only took short gasps and avoided deep breaths... it grew more intense, however. Even though she downed half a dozen Percocets the hurt increased until it was all she could do not to scream out.

  Getting off in Rouen, Natalia went to the nearest pharmacy to have her heavy duty prescriptions refilled. The morphine was her last resort. She wondered what she would do if that didn’t tackle the pain but she soon discovered that she had no worries. After she downed three capsules and sipped at a small glass of white wine the hurt dulled and then ceased all together.

  Back on the train she passed the time by watching as people ingressed and egressed at each stop making up stories in her head as to where they were going and the lives they lived. The Frenchmen stank of garlic and body odor which was amazingly attractive to her but when they glanced at Natalia they quickly looked away as if frightened by the visage of death hovering about her.

  Natalia was immediately smitten when the tall blonde lady with smaragdine eyes sauntered onto the train in Paris... she didn’t walk so much as she strolled. Though she never before desired a woman, the pull for this creature overwhelmed her. It took all her willpower to keep from walking up and kissing her full on the mouth.

  Now, the movement of the train along with the warmth of Lily's naked body next to hers was lulling Natalia to sleep. Lily sang a song so softly that Natalia was not sure whether she was really hearing the lullaby or was dreaming of hearing it.

  Her breasts were filling out once more... even the scars from the awful invasive surgery had faded. Lily traced heart patterns on Natalia's collar bone, shoulders, and upper arms one by one with hungry fingers barely grazing her skin.

  "I want you again, my darling Natalia. Stay still and sleep while I play."

  Chapter 22—Among the Dead

  Death troubled him at times.

  Nate was a studious child who had few friends other than Lucy. For a curious youngster Orchardton Hall was a quiet place full of mystery and intrigue. He often explored its secrets all alone, each day learning of new and exciting places heretofore hidden from him.

  Now the castle was rife with sounds of laughter and of children playing and the smells of good food cooking over an open pit fireplace that dominated the kitchen. No one ever had to be alone though he still sometimes yearned to do so as he prowled about the dusty caverns far beneath the castle walking amid the stacked bones of those who once were part of the living earth much as he was now.

  He came there to softly caress the bones of his lost Lucy. It had been a year since she was interred within the catacombs, or rather her rapidly whitening skeleton, now piled alongside the thousands of others. Nate wondered what it must be like to die.

  The news of Lucy's death did not shock him as it should have, perhaps. It wasn’t long after their return from the Lake that she disappeared along with Drummond whom she took to spending time with after Nate rejected her advances. The last time they talked she was excited about leaving Orchardton Hall in search of a new life. Though he warned her not to, she went anyhow.

  It shocked Nate to see the two of them together that first time: Lucy and Drummond. He thought of a story he once read called Beauty and the Beast only this horror of a man was not a magnanimous creature reviled for no good reason. Drummond—a renowned bully who delighted in meting out specious lies to those fool enough to believe in him—was and if he lived always would have been a bane to the group.

  During sweet summer nights the People constructed camp fires close to the seaside where they danced in the sand and drank home-made wine. Nate approached Lucy after Drummond took his leave, drifting off with three of his equally sullen girlfriends, his own daughters. Nate didn’t want to think about what the four of them were up to as he approached Lucy who was sitting on a blanket spread over the sand, alone, tossing stray sticks into the crackling fire.

  "Hi Lucy... I don't much care to see you keeping company with Drummond."

  "Why, Nate... whatever do you mean?"

  Lucy looked at him sideways as she acted surprised at his concern but Nate knew it was an attempt at feigned deception. She rolled her eyes and giggled as she looked away from him when there was nothing funny about situation in which they found themselves embroiled. He knew better than to make too much of Lucy's new beau lest the Ladies heard a grumble of discontent. The firelight shined in her eyes in a way that Nate had a difficult time resisting.

  "I mean you can do better than Drummond. He's a lazy lout and a liar. I nearly beat him to death over you once, Lucy. Why on earth are you taking up with him now? You know how he's done girls like you dirty in the past. He'll just do it again."

  "You're just jealous, aren’t you, Nate? You envy him because Drummond is brave enough to do what you're scared of trying. He promised to take me away from all this. He's gathering his own tribe. His daughters are going with us too. We're going to make a life of our own far away from those meddling moldy old witches."

  Lucy's eyes shined like hot coals in the firelight but that was the only thing attractive about the girl. Her sullen attitude alienated her from most of the People. Even Nate questioned why they were still friends... or if in fact they were. Still, he tried to talk sense into her before it was too late.

  "You aren't thinking of leaving with that beast, are you Lucy?"

  "Drummond is twice the man you'll ever be,
Nate. At least he doesn’t run sniveling to the Ladies each time things don’t go his way. You're probably thinking of telling them about us leaving this very moment. Say you are and I might give you a kiss before I leave."

  "I would never do that, Lucy."

  "What, and not save me from the clutches of that brutish Drummond? Why Nate... I thought you cared about me."

  "You know how I feel about you. We can have a life here, Lucy. If you leave with that man and his daughters you'll all be dead inside of two days."

  "Says you... Drummond tells me that lots of people have left the group. He says there is a colony on the southern coast of Ireland and another in France."

  "You know better than that, Lucy. We've traveled through France just last year on the Migration. Did you see anyone there... anyone at all?"

  "No... but Drummond says that's because the Ladies take us on a route that doesn’t come close to any other inhabitants. They do that on purpose. Do you ever wonder why we must always go the same way each time we travel to Lake Baikal?"

  "Oh Lucy... don't you see how foolish that is?"

  "You'll see, Nate. One day I'll return and show you who the fool is."

  "Please don’t go, Lucy."

  Nate remembered how she shook the hair out of her eyes as she curled away from him rising from the blanket and stalking off into the night kicking up shivers of sand silver in the moonlight. He almost followed her but something stayed him. He wasn't sure what... fear of rejection, maybe? Now he wondered if he might have changed her mind if he did go after her.

  When five of the People turned up missing Lady Lauren led a search party setting out to locate them. Nate volunteered to go along. A dozen kilometers up the coast they came across the skeletons already picked clean by opportunistic turkey vultures always on the lookout for free a meal. The searchers identified the remains by the clothes and other accoutrements scattered about the encampment.

  Losing so many of the People at one time was a great blow, and though Drummond was not as well-liked as he might have been, the death of one of only two human males left on earth was counted a tragedy. There was talk among the group of searchers that the party of five was killed by wild animals but from the condition of the skeletons it seemed clear to Nate they all died of the Lake infection. Though lions and bears roamed the area there was no sign of a violent attack. It appeared all the victims died of disease before being consumed by vultures.