All The Mermaids In The Sea

by Robert W Cabell

  “I won’t, Grandfather.” Hermes smiled trustingly.

  Then there was a flare of light, and Hermes saw the Hag sprawled in her monstrous bloated form, with her cadaverous face and hanging sacks of greenish-grey, slimy skin. He began to scream.

  He screamed in terror for his life, just as Vasili had when he’d first encountered the Hag as a boy. But Vasili held the boy fast.

  “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “Look at her and obey her. She will take care of you.”

  But Hermes continued to scream.

  Vasili tried to calm his grandson. “Don’t scream!” he said, grabbing hold of the boy. “She will grant your every wish! She will give you power!”

  But Hermes kept on screaming, kept on struggling, until his poor, young heart finally exploded in his chest. He collapsed to the floor of the cavern, dead, in his grandfather’s arms.

  “Hermes!” Vasili shook the boy. “Hermes, wake up! Hermes!”

  “Stop sniveling and leave the boy alone!” the Hag snapped. “He is dead and shall serve no purpose, except perhaps for a tasty meal.” She chuckled hideously.

  “No! You cannot have my grandson. I will take him home.”

  “Silence!” she bellowed at him. “He is my flesh and blood too, and I shall do as I like with him. Now get out, and bring me another! And if that one dies, you’ll bring another. And you’ll keep bringing them until you bring me your successor!”

  “I will never come to this cave again!” he swore to her.

  “Then you will never leave it,” she hissed, and hundreds of hungry, black corylians came pouring out from the walls.

  Papal Providence

  Pearl and Helmi had changed into their human form and were bundled up arm in arm on a couch with Holger, sipping hot chocolate and gazing out the window, back at the Panama Canal. The ship wasn’t moving, which worried Pearl a little bit because she thought they should instantly get as far away from this place as possible.

  “Valdemar, shouldn’t we be underway by now?” Helmi asked as she smiled happily at her granddaughter and snuggled closer to her.

  “We have to wait for the rest of our party,” said Holger smiling confidently. “Besides, right now, this yacht is about the safest place on the planet for both of you.”

  “Why, Doctor Thorson?” Pearl questioned.

  “Because this ship is now the official international floating embassy of the Kingdom of Aegir and the Duchy of Egeskov, and the President of the United States, the King of Denmark, and the Holy Pope of Rome have officially recognized the kingdom. As a matter of fact, it’s a rather old kingdom, created by King Valdemar the first—or me!” He laughed. “But that’s another story!”

  Holger smiled at Pearl as he continued, “In AD 1188 King Valdemar I, and His Holy Reverence Pope Clement III, made a treaty changing the dual kingdoms of the Duchy of Egeskov, and the underwater geographic territories of the Mid Atlantic Ridge, into the autonomous capital of the Kingdom of Aegir. You are now both official heads of state—your grandmother as the Queen of Aegir, and you, as the Duchess of Egeskov. Therefore, your personal safety is an international concern. I will be the Regent Duke of Egeskov until you turn twenty-one, Pearl.”

  Holger took a moment to smile at Helmi and kiss her hand before adding, “It appears I am also the Consort King of Aegir. That makes the three of us pretty impressive VIPs.” He laughed.

  “Who are we waiting for?” Pearl asked.

  “Your parents, Ivan and Lina.”

  “My mother and father?” Pearl squealed with delight, and she didn’t care if it was un-princess-like or not. “I can’t wait to see them! I know they must have been going crazy with worry, and I’ve missed them so much.”

  “Also my son, your cousin Hal.” He smiled at Pearl. “And it’s time you started calling me Uncle Holger.”

  “But Valdemar …” Helmi began.

  He held up his hand and flashed a wink and a look that said, “I’ll handle everything, dear.” And that made her smile.

  “But how can you be my uncle, and why does she call you Valdemar?” Pearl looked confused.

  “She?” he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, making Pearl blush.

  “I mean, why does Grandmother call you Valdemar, Doctor Holger?”

  “Well, actually, Valdemar is my middle name. I was named after my ancestor King Valdemar I, who was the king of Denmark until AD 1189. He abdicated his throne to his eldest son, then disappeared. He returned to his true love, the Little Mermaid—your grandmother—in the sea, and they were married. They lived very happily together for nearly seven hundred years until the battle of Krakatau in 1893, when he was killed. That was over a hundred years ago, and somehow it seems … well, it seems he’s been reincarnated in me.”

  “But if that’s true, how can you be my uncle?”

  “Your father, Halder, was my brother, and the last Duke of Egeskov. He was my twin brother, in fact, but we weren’t identical thank goodness, because that would have been far too confusing, all things considered.” He laughed again and then squeezed Helmi’s hand.

  “So, the pictures of you and your brother in the marine biology books I read … those are pictures of my father?” Pearl’s eyes swelled with tears as she recalled the various pictures of them she’d seen in his books—books she had read what now seemed like a lifetime ago.

  “Yes.” He smiled at her. “That’s correct. I’m your uncle and your grandfather.”

  “But … but how can you be my grandfather too?” Pearl stammered.

  “I’ve had memories of being with your grandmother and living a past life with her since I was a small boy,” Holger continued softly. “Your father left me the Ring of Atlantis. Ever since I slipped it on my finger and joined Helmi in your rescue, I’ve had all of Valdemar’s memories. They go back before he became the king of Denmark, before he met your grandmother, and they include his entire life in the sea with her.

  “Somehow this all makes me your Uncle Holger and your Grandfather Valdemar, descendant of the king of Denmark, related to the king of Sweden, and one of the oldest members of the Order of the Knights Templar. Normally this would be too much for me to handle, but after everything else that has happened recently …” he shrugged, “it’s a piece of cake!”

  Pearl blinked and was about to protest. Then she paused to remember all the impossible things that had happened to her the past few days. She looked at Holger and then at her grandmother, and sighed. “After this whole thing is over and we’re home—wherever that’s going to be—I’m gonna need a lot of therapy to sort all this stuff out.”

  Holger tossed his head back and roared with laughter, and a few seconds later he hugged Pearl fiercely and kissed her forehead. “You and me both, Pearl,” he agreed, and they laughed together.

  Helmi just sat there for a moment looking confused. “Therapy?” she asked, and they both looked at her and then back at each other and started laughing all over again. Holger reached out and swept Helmi into a family hug fest as she shook her head, laughed, and hugged them back.

  “But won’t people still bother us about being mermaids?” Pearl asked solemnly after the laughter died down.

  “Well, once again, we have Mr. Bruun and the Knights Templar to thank for taking care of that. They have been very busy and very political these past few centuries. They were the ones that pulled the strings with the Vatican and the White House to instate our diplomatic status, and they’ve also managed to persuade, manipulate, or whenever necessary, blackmail things into shape.”

  “Disney has withdrawn its offer of a ten million dollar reward for the capture of the real ‘Little Mermaid’ and agreed to admit the entire episode was merely a clever public relations stunt for their latest sequel, ‘Little Mermaid 5—Alive and Living in Atlantis.’ The entire escapade should blow over in a few weeks and we can take that time to sail leisurely back to the Faeroe Islands.”

  “Your Highness and Your Grace, the last of our guests are now boarding,” a voice an
nounced over the cabin intercom.

  Holger flipped the intercom to answer, “Thank you, Captain Peterson. I’ll be right there. Let’s get underway as soon as they’re all aboard,” he added and then turned to Pearl. “I think we’d both better get up there and welcome them.” He winked, and then Pearl bolted for the door with a cry of delight, and Holger extended his arm to Helmi.

  “There are some people I’d be very proud to introduce to you, my love,” he said, smiling down at Helmi.

  “I hope they like me.” She nodded nervously.

  He kissed her forehead, smiled, and said, “Of course they will, Helmi.” And he led her up the stairs to the deck. “Everyone loves the Little Mermaid.”

  The City of Hope

  Amy and Randy Weiz looked around their house carefully to see that everything was in order. The kids were in the car, and everything was packed. Their plane was leaving in two hours, and they might never be coming back. The law offices of Bruun & Gottorp had all the papers necessary so if they decided not to return, as they suspected they would, the house would be sold and their possessions moved into storage.

  They had thought long and hard about making a “life change” that exceeded most people’s imaginations. The possibilities were almost limitless. They could have healthy lives for hundreds of years.

  Along with some of the greatest minds on the planet, they were to be part of a new race of humanoids. As such, they would have access to a beautiful world that before had been restricted to them. They would have no more financial concerns, and they would be able to choose one of several locations for a beautiful home. What’s more, they would be working with colleagues they had missed dearly over the past few years, and this decision would truly provide a safe environment for their children to grow up in, away from a world that was rapidly spinning out of control.

  It was a great gift in so many ways, and they were being given the chance to make a huge difference in the world. Holger was charging Amy and Randy with the responsibility of selecting and inviting the few hundred people on the planet who would be offered this amazing, life-changing gift. It was a chance to populate the realm of the oceans and bring both Poseidon’s and Halder’s dreams to fruition.

  Perhaps the most exciting part was, that in the next few hundred years, when there was a chance for the world to make changes for the better, they would still be there, still be involved in that change. So would their children, their grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

  “Maybe it’s the ‘mer’ instead of the ‘meek’ that will inherit the earth,” Amy had suggested at one point.

  At first, the idea of doing this seemed scary and insane to Amy and Randy. But the more they thought about it and looked at their children, happy and excited about the new life they were headed for, the more they realized they had really won the lottery.

  Pearl began to spend a lot of time in Oceanus with Helmi and Holger, because they wanted her to be included in all the plans they were making for the city and the-soon-to-be “mer-nation,” as Hal had had dubbed it. Five hundred merfolk wouldn’t be a big nation, but it would be a good start.

  On a quiet afternoon, Helmi shared her memory crystals with Pearl. Finally seeing images of her parents made her very sad that they were gone, but it was so wonderful to see how much they had loved each other and to hear them talk about how much they wanted her and planned to love her for the rest of their lives—which they did.

  Ivan and Lina decided they were too old to become merfolk. Instead, they moved into the Manor House so they could be near Pearl, and she saw them every weekend.

  Queen Helmi had liked Amy and Randy Weiz instantly, and said they reminded her of Miranda and Halder. Their children, Zack and Jessie, were Pearl’s new best friends.

  Pearl was no longer worried about being lonely or popular because she’d made so many new friends in the sea. That was one of the cool things about being a princess.

  The once-silent city of Oceanus increased its population every week as more and more transformed humans arrived to take residence there. Things were going really well.

  Soon they’d be able to send out small colonies to fill the nine sea palaces around the world, turning them into mercities. Each city was to be named for the princess the palace had originally been built for.

  That had been Pearl’s idea. She told Queen Helmi that the cities would be like a necklace of life, circling the world, with each jewel named for one of her great-aunts. She also intended to have a new ocean city built between Hawaii and Seattle that they could name for her mother.

  While Helmi and Pearl were off inspecting the palaces, Granduncle Holger had been supervising the transfer of Great-grandfather Poseidon, in all his stony splendor, from the summer palace off the coast of Denmark, to Oceanus, the capital city of the merfolk.

  A beautiful statue of Miranda and Halder had been carved and placed right next to where they planned to put Grandpa Poseidon. Only a few hundred of the people who had been selected by Amy and Randy had already transformed to begin the new race of merfolk. All of them would be in the city to celebrate and see the unveiling of the statues.

  There were so many things Pearl still needed to learn about being a mermaid, and so many places in the sea she wanted to explore. She knew that a fabulous new life was before her, and she was ready to take on the title of the newest Little Mermaid.

  Epilogue

  (Five Years Later)

  Pearl was stuck babysitting again. “There must be something about the Thorson men,” Pearl grumbled. Less than a year after her parents were married, she’d been born, and barely a year after her grandmother and her granduncle had found each other, their twins, Alexander and Alexandra, had been born.

  Helmi said there had never been twins born to a mermaid before, and Alexander was also the very first mermale, and had all the same powers as a mermaid, so things were changing. Now four Mirrors of Atargatis were blazing brightly, representing all the mermaids in the sea.

  The problem with merbabies is that they can get around by themselves as soon as they’re born, which means keeping track of them is never easy. And now that they were “toddlers,” Pearl had spent most of the day watching the little squirts dart around like two silly mackerels. She’d woven little water currents to keep “Alex” and Alexandra in one room and out of trouble and was finally able to put them down for a nap.

  It turned out, when Pearl had healed Sandy three years ago and created the new species of Angel White Manta Rays, that Echo, her official hairdresser, had become pregnant. That was the reason Echo had grown so plump and sleepy at the time. Her now-grown star-babies were humming lullabies to the mer-twins to help them fall asleep.

  Since her arrival in Oceanus, Pearl had taken every opportunity to view the memory crystals of her mother’s life, and they made her feel closer to her, as well as to her father. She’d begun dreaming about her mother shortly after she’d arrived in the city, and now she dreamed about her almost every night.

  Her mother’s voice sounded very far away in her dreams, and yet she felt so near. She kept trying to tell Pearl something … something she needed her to do… something about her father. It was all very unclear at the moment, and it was something Pearl couldn’t understand or share with anyone else yet.

  As she watched the twins struggle to stay awake, all of a sudden, Pearl felt a burst of love for her mother. She had a strong feeling she would find the answer—or at least a clue—to what it was her mother wanted, and when she did, she was determined to fulfill her mother’s desire. Her own dreams about being a mermaid had come true, so anything was possible.

  Pearl began to hum the lullaby she had heard her mother singing in one of the memory crystals. Her grandmother swam into the room and placed a net full of shells she’d collected on a stone table. Helmi flashed a grateful smile at Pearl for her babysitting efforts and sent a loving current across the grotto to gently rock the babies to sleep.

  “Thank you, Nana,” Pearl said with a g
iggle. “I can do the big stuff, but the dainty little tricks are much harder.”

  “All things come in good time.” Helmi laughed at her and brushed her fin affectionately with her tail.

  “One of the pearls of wisdom, as Mama Lina used to say,” Pearl added.

  “Pearls of Wisdom?” Helmi asked in a surprised tone. “When in the sea did she ever talk to them?”

  “Oh, Nana, you don’t talk to the pearls of wisdom.” Pearl giggled. “It’s just an old saying that adults repeat to little kids.”

  “On the contrary, Adara.” Helmi drew herself up in the water a little higher and looked down at Pearl with a tutorial dignity that always signaled one of those ‘royal lesson’ moments. “The Pearls of Wisdom are very real, and only someone of the royal line may speak to them.”

  “Are you pulling my tail, Nana?” Pearl gasped.

  “The Pearls of Wisdom are the collected knowledge of Mother Gaia,” Helmi said in a hushed tone. “They were the only things Poseidon ever consulted when he needed counsel. They are in the Grotto of Gaia, and it is death to anyone who is not of royal blood to enter it. So, your mortal mother could never have talked to them, I assure you.”

  “Death to go there? That sounds awfully scary for something as pretty as pearls, and not very nice if you want to share your wisdom with people,” Pearl sputtered.

  “Adara,” Helmi said as she floated back down gently beside her, “Mother Gaia is the most loving creature in the universe. In fact, she is the reason it came into being. But, some things are too powerful, even if they are good things, to be used by just anyone. The pearls not only contain wisdom, but all the information of the ages that has ever touched the sea since the dawn of time.”

  “What are they like?” Pearl asked. “Can we go there now?”

  “Oh, no, my dear. The journey itself is long and dangerous, even for us, because it is far from any of the Mirrors of Atargatis and deep in the bottom of the darkest trench of the Ocean. It is just above the seal of Tartarus, the lock that bars the very core of evil from entering the world above.”