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Swim Page 18

by M. E. Rhines


  Calypso sniffled, then wiped her nose with the back of her arm. “I’m doomed to a lifetime of confinement because of past deeded? Angelique, you know I can’t accept that. I’ll find a way out of here.”

  “You aren’t doomed to anything. Your fate has been sealed up until now, yes, but you have the power to change it. There’s goodness inside you somewhere, I know it.” Even if I didn’t believe my own statement with my whole heart, perhaps speaking it would make it true.

  “What a foolish thing to say.”

  “Not at all. You know how I know there’s a spark of hope for you? Because I found mine. Remember, dear Mother, I was your protégé for a reason. I dribbled evil and deceit from every part of me. But look at me now. I’m good, Mother. It took me a while to realize it, and even longer for others to accept it, but I’ve changed. And so can you.”

  “Impossible. You’re asking a shark to morph into a cuttlefish.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe I’m only asking a queen to humble herself a bit. To put herself in the tail tracks of the mermaids she treated like krill and ask herself what she would do if put in that situation. Would you stand for it, Mother?”

  She looked away from me, ignoring the question but noting, “You called me a queen.”

  “That’s what you are. A queen. Nobody in the ocean or on land can take that away from you. Right now, however, Myrtle is the ruler who will best serve this kingdom, and you must have faith in her and her abilities.”

  “How is she faring against the tyrant, anyway?” Mother inclined her chin toward the window.

  “I haven’t seen King Odom yet. He must be waiting for his army to clear the way for him first.”

  Calypso sat up straight, her wide eyes darting across the room. “You must leave. Get to my secret chamber beneath the throne and lock yourself in. Don’t come out, Angelique, not until—”

  “I’m not leaving you, Mother. If his army does force their way into the palace, I will protect to you ‘til death.”

  “Don’t be stupid, merling, don’t you see? The army isn’t coming after me. King Odom has declared war on Atargatis, and his soldiers are nothing more than a set of pawns used for distraction. While Myrtle is preoccupied tending to the insignificant pests he sends over first, he’ll come for me himself.”

  “You’re being paranoid,” I claimed. “I’ve met King Odom. He’s a coward who hides behind his subjects and their daggers.”

  Mother’s eyes moved past me, her nostrils flaring as a shadow cast from the window filled the room.

  “As I said before…” The booming, masculine voice wafted through the water, sending my heart into a frenzy of erratic beats. “You’re just as insolent as your mother.”

  I pivoted my tail and spun around, bending over to pick up the spear I dropped when I came in. King Odom crashed through the window, bursting into the surrounding brick until it crumbled. A whirlwind of salt-and-pepper hair reached me first, flying into my face and blinding me. Thrusting my weapon forward sightlessly, I tilted forward as he ripped it from my grip. Large, calloused hands seized my arms and threw me to the ground.

  “Leave her be,” Mother ordered, a hint of maternal desperation apparent in her voice.

  King Odom laughed, and I could only imagine the mirthful smile he sported at my expense—as if he’d just conquered the entire world by disabling me. His knee dug into my spine, shooting pain through every nerve in my body, but I resisted the urge to scream. This bloodthirsty tyrant would get no such satisfaction from me.

  “Odom,” Calypso shouted when he pushed against me harder, “this is between the two of us. Leave my daughter out of it.”

  “Wrong, witch. Your daughter involved herself in this dispute when she trespassed in my kingdom to beg for mercy on your account.”

  “Angelique is just a merling. She doesn’t—”

  “Scratch that! This mermaid set herself in my crosshairs the day she refused to allow my messenger to make off with your head.” A sharp blade stuck in my back, just barely piercing the flesh. King Odom sank his fingers into my brown curls and yanked my head back, wrenching my neck so I faced my mother directly. “Tell me, Princess. Is Mommy worth all this?”

  “Yes,” I announced without hesitation. “Go ahead and kill me, you spiteful scoundrel, because that’s the only way you’ll get to her.”

  A soft groan of excitement left his mouth at the challenge before he hauled me upright. I pulled at his clutches, struggling to break free, when the blade bit into my neck. A trickle of blood seeped from my jugular, the burn providing an escape from the deranged mess of a man in front of me.

  “All right then,” he said, his eyes filling with a spark at the sight of red leaking into the water. Bloodlust lifted his cheeks into a wide grin. “Oh, how I shall enjoy this.”

  “Stop,” Mother begged, and I couldn’t help but move my gaze to her.

  Humble and distressed, the face she wore was unlike any I had ever witnessed on her. As much as it wrenched at my heart, I couldn’t help but relish in it. To know she was capable of such sadness, of feeling anything so deep for any creature other than herself, reignited a spark of hope for me.

  Mother could change, I realized with conviction. She could evolve and learn to love. Knowing the image of the mother I’d always known deep down could exist would be my final sight filled me with a peace I’d never thought imaginable.

  “It’s okay, Mother,” I lied softly, seeking to ease her pain. “Everything will be okay.”

  A hardness returned to her features, and determination gleamed in her black eyes. Her hand lifted to her wrist again, and she tugged hard at the bracelet. In one swift motion, she managed to rip the trinket from her skin, a red, bumpy rash left in its place. The magical band didn’t fight her this time, somehow channeling the dire need of its assent.

  Without missing a beat, Mother conjured a ball of fire in her palm. King Odom went stiff for a moment before pulling me in between them as a shield. In that instant, a part of me feared she would revert to her old ways. That she would burn me along with him just to satisfy her need for revenge. Instead, Mother lowered a trembling hand, the effort it took to control the urge clear.

  “I’ll ask one more time” she warned. “Let my daughter go.”

  King Odom looked to me, then back at my mother before shaking his head, unsteady and unsure of his own decision. “Not a chance,” he rebutted. “Not until you put that thing back on your wrist.”

  With a wave of her hand, Mother’s magic unlocked the cell door and slid it open. A flick of her fractured tail freed her from the prison, and she approached us with an eerie calm that rattled even me. Odom pressed the blade against my neck harder, an unspoken warning of what was to come if Calypso didn’t stop advancing.

  She didn’t.

  A blackness clouded my mind as he shoved the dagger deep into my throat. Blood gushed from the wound, and my hand flew to the gaping slice just as Mother threw the king against the wall with an invisible force. With his support gone, I tumbled to the floor, woozy from blood loss.

  My consciousness came and went. Visions of the massacre in front of me focused and blurred again and again. Clouds of blood filled the room, the redness fogging over the scene. Somehow, through my haze, I managed to realize it wasn’t just my blood I drowned in.

  Mother tore the king to pieces. Dismembering his humanoid body chunk by chunk without ever once laying a finger on him. Black magic at its darkest played out before me in snippets and snapshots.

  King Odom’s screams for mercy were my lullaby, and the last sound I heard before drifting off into a deep, cold sleep.

  “Myrtle, come quick.” Lennox’s voice played on my awareness, the sound rousing me from my achy slumber. “I think she’s waking up.”

  I blinked fast, opening my eyes to the fuzzy face of the Fin-man I loved. Black circles outlined his juniper irises. Thick red bushes of eyebrows furrowed as he watched me, intent for some sign I was present and coherent. The tiny bit of sunlight
that made its way to the seafloor encompassed him, seeming to set his internal glow aflame.

  My appendages felt heavy and resistant. Testing my fingers, I curled them into fists, then struggled to flip the fork of my tail. When I was certain I could manage, I lifted my hand to graze Lennox’s cheek. He smiled brightly, leaning in to kiss me. His breath barely breezed across my lips before Myrtle brushed him aside.

  “Yes, yes. Give her room to breathe,” she complained before fawning over me herself. “There she is. Welcome back to the world of the living, my dear Angelique.”

  Jewel’s shrill sobs grated on my still-delicate senses. “Oh, thank Poseidon!” From the farthest edge of my sight, I caught a glimpse of her snuggling into Ainsley’s chest for comfort. When I was feeling better, there would be some questions about that.

  I licked my lips and cleared my throat, trying out my voice. A raw hoarseness irritated the back of my mouth, but I asked anyway, “Welcome… back?”

  “I wasn’t sure you’d make it,” Myrtle admitted with a frown. “Your injuries were quite extensive.”

  “Bah, I didn’t doubt it for a second.” I looked over her shoulder to get a better looked at Ainsley, who seemed much too content holding the blue-haired mermaid. “Angelique is too stubborn to let anybody else have the last word.”

  Regarding him with a gentle smile, I shook my head. “It’s good to see you too, Ainsley. You look well. As do you, Jewel. And comfortable, at that.”

  Her pale cheeks flushed at the remark, but Ainsley just shrugged and pulled Jewel closer.

  “We won.” Lennox beamed, shifting from side to side. Myrtle waved him over, and he rushed to sit next to me on the bedrock. “Can you believe it?”

  “Of course we did,” I answered. “We fought for a noble cause. All is as it should be.”

  “Still…” Myrtle frowned, peeling a blood-soaked bandage off my neck. “That brute stuck you right in the gills with his dagger. It wasn’t easy to reconstruct. You’ve been lingering somewhere between the dead and living for almost a week now. A little bit of medical know how and a lot of magic saved you.”

  My mind raced back, tossing around images I couldn’t quite make sense of. Stains of dreams co-existed with what must’ve been memories, until it came back to me piece by piece in horrifying detail. King Odom attacked the kingdom, then came for my mother.

  I gasped, leaping forward. “My mother!”

  Myrtle pressed on my shoulders, insisting I lay back. “You need to rest, dear, not jump around like a beached whale.”

  “Where is she? She got out of her cell. I think she… I think Mother killed King Odom.”

  “She did,” Lennox confirmed. “It wasn’t pretty, either. Your mother is one mermaid I’d never want to cross, that’s for sure.”

  “She disappeared, didn’t she?” A shadow of resentment nibbled at my heart, but I banished it at once. The mermaid had saved my life. Of course she’d take the opportunity to flee. I’d see her again, I had little doubt. The former queen would be back to at least attempt to regain her throne.

  Myrtle blotted my wound with a clean cloth. “On the contrary.”

  I paused, waiting for her to elaborate. When she offered no further information, even tightening her lips to keep an explanation prisoner, I prodded, “Well, don’t just stare at me. What happened? Whatever it is, I can handle it.”

  “Your mother is in her cell, exactly where she should be. When Lennox found you, she had already shown herself back in.”

  “Re-locked it and everything,” Lennox added.

  Looking around, I expected a snicker from Ainsley. He was the one with the least amount of self-control, the one most likely to crack under the pressure. Instead of laughing at some inside joke, he watched me, stoic but curious for a reaction.

  “That’s not funny,” I warned. “Don’t joke about this, Aunt Myrtle.”

  “I wouldn’t dare.”

  “My mother doesn’t submit to anyone. I can’t imagine her ever surrendering.”

  Myrtle shrugged. “You can go see for yourself, if you’d like. Calypso won’t speak to me, so I can’t explain it. But she did as I have told you.”

  Lennox held out his hand, an unspoken offer to escort me to my mother’s cell. I slipped my fingers into his rough palm, noticing a few more slivers of cuts and fresh wounds. Just a few more scars for this battle-bound hero. Safety and comfort awaited me in his arms, and I took a moment to soak it in before heading toward the palace.

  “Don’t over-excite yourself,” Myrtle warned with pointed look. “If she starts any nonsense, you need to leave it be. We’ve only just gotten you back, my dearest niece. None of us care to lose you to a self-inflicted overextension.”

  I nodded, then sucked in a shaky breath. “I won’t let her get under my skin, I promise.”

  Lennox and I swam hand in hand until we reached the palace. The door to the prison creaked open, the sound like a warning to flee.

  “Go on.” Lennox pushed me forward just a bit. “She’s been pretty nice, actually.”

  I arched at brow at him. “Nice? I thought she wasn’t speaking?”

  “Not to Myrtle. I don’t think she’ll ever forgive her for taking her throne.”

  “But she spoke to you?” When he nodded, my eyes went wide. My stomach flipped at the prospective conversation that could’ve gone on between them.

  I tilted close to him and whispered, “You could’ve just explained everything to me. Why make me come here and face her?”

  “Believe me, Angelique, this is a conversation you need to have.”

  “You’re letting a draft in,” Mother called from inside her cell. “Either get your tail in here or shut the door.”

  As I swam closer, Lennox closed the door behind me, remaining outside. “The window provides a breeze as well, I’m sure,” I countered to break the ice.

  Mother rested against the wall, her black beady eyes watching me close. “Yes, but at the least the wind carried in from out there doesn’t stink of Fin-man.”

  “Lennox doesn’t stink. He annoys the crabs out of me sometimes, but he doesn’t smell.”

  “We’ll have to disagree,” she said with a soft smile.

  A moment of tense silence passed before I finally worked up the courage to say, “You’re still here. I thought you’d take off as soon as you got the chance.”

  “There’s nothing any better waiting for me out there. You saw for yourself with that two-footed Lennox. He told me you came across all sorts of devious creatures in the open ocean.”

  “True,” I admitted with a curt nod, then pointed at the bracelet returned to her wrist. “But that doesn’t explain why you put that back on.”

  Calypso pursed her lips, then swam forward to meet me. “That boy out there, he’s—”

  “Why do you insist on turning the conversation to Lennox?”

  “Because he loves you,” she stated simply. “And not the way a merman once loved me. He sat here for days waiting for me to talk. The annoying little parasite wouldn’t leave until I told him everything that happened. Then, they told me all that went on out there. How he defied his entire kingdom to be with you and see you home safely. That, my daughter, is a special kind of romance. One that doesn’t come around every century, believe me.”

  My throat tightened as my mouth twitched into an involuntary smile. “I know how special it is. He’s saved me more than once, and I’ve returned the favor. We look out for each other. It’s our way.”

  “Hold on to that. I didn’t believe such love existed until I looked into that Fin-man’s eyes. Don’t let him go.”

  “Never. I’ll stay by his side always. Now, if you’ll kindly stop avoiding the question, why have you stayed behind and become a prisoner once more?”

  She averted her gaze, moving her line of sight to the floor. “I couldn’t get to Odom quick enough, and I thought for sure he’d killed you. When I realized you were still breathing, I signaled to Myrtle with my telepathy to come find yo
u. She, in turn, sent Lennox up here.”

  “You could’ve fled, spared yourself a lifetime of confinement. Or worse. Myrtle was vulnerable in her preoccupied state. The Calypso I know would’ve taken that moment to attack.”

  “I needed to know you were all right,” she admitted, spitting the words out as if they burned her tongue. “I don’t know how to heal, Angelique. My magic doesn’t work that way. Blackness and hate, that’s the type of sorcery I’ve mastered. Your injures were far past our natural abilities to regenerate and self-heal, and I needed Myrtle to save you.”

  Stunned, I stumbled, tripping on every little bubble that contacted my tail. Mother’s revelation meant the ocean to me. She loved me, even if she couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud. I squared my shoulders, determination set on them, and swam to the door to fling it open.

  Lennox jumped, surprised by the sudden commotion. “What’s wrong?” he asked, concern etched in the lines on his face.

  “Mother’s soul needs to be cleansed.”

  “What?” He and Mother ask question in unison.

  “We need to rid her conscience of all her misdeeds. Reset her moral compass, as it were. If we can manage it, she can live out a normal life in freedom. I can have my mother back.”

  “Merling…” Mother laughed. “There’s no magic strong enough in all the seas to wash my soul of its sins.”

  I lifted a defiant chin in challenge. “I believe there is. Mami Watta claimed to have such a power.”

  Lennox groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. “Angelique, we’ve been over this. That sea witch was lying to you. Luring you into her collection of lost souls, that’s all.”

  “What do you think?” I asked Mother as I spun around to face her.

  She screwed up her face and stuck out her tongue. “As much as I hate to admit it, if any creature in the ocean is capable of such a feat, it would be her. Mami Watta is dangerous, but she’s also one of the most gifted sorcerers I’ve ever encountered. Unlike me, she has dabbled in the light arts as well as black magic.”

 

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