Emily Windsnap and the Monster From the Deep (4 page)

Shona turned to me. “This is Althea. She’s going to show us around the island.”

“Great,” I said with a tight smile as a pang of jealousy hit me. How could I compete with a full-time, real mermaid with stars on her tail and gold seaweed in her hair? I was going to end up without a best friend again.

“We’re picking up Marina first,” Althea said.

“That’s Althea’s best friend,” Shona added, laughing as she swam ahead with Marina. I think she was trying to put my mind at rest. So why didn’t it work?

“Stay close to the coast here,” Althea warned as we set off, doubling the fear that was already
starting to gnaw at my insides. “There’s quite a current around the northern end of the island.”

As if I needed to be told that! I couldn’t speak. My mouth was so dry it felt like it had sand in it.

Althea pointed to the hill behind us. “That’s where a couple of the human families live,” she said, pointing up at the white buildings I’d seen the day before. “They take care of gardens for the whole island.”

For a moment I wished I’d gone up to meet them yesterday after all. If I had, maybe I’d be looking around at everything with wide innocent eyes like Shona was doing now, instead of waiting for something awful to happen. But then, if I had, Althea and Marina might not be interested in me. They wouldn’t want a human hanging around with them. And surely Shona wouldn’t either. No, it was the mermaids I wanted to be with. I was one of them now, and that’s how it was going to stay.

I linked Shona’s arm with mine and smiled at her. Swimming on, I made sure we stayed as close to the shore as possible.

We followed a low line of rocks that jutted into the ocean. “That’s Barracuda Point,” Althea said.

“Why’s it called that?” Shona asked.

“You’ll see,” she said with a smile. “Wait till we’re on the other side.”

We rounded the tip and swam on a little farther before Althea stopped. “Okay, look now.”

We turned and looked back.

“Sharks alive!” Shona gasped. I stared in silence. A low line of rocks twisted out from the shore, stretching out into a long thin body. At the tip, it narrowed into a sharp point, dented and creased along the middle, like a jawline filled with sharp teeth. Jagged rocks stood along the top like fins. Dark and menacing, it looked as though it could easily come to life with a snarling twist of its body. A cold shiver darted up my spine, prickling into my neck.

“It’s supposed to protect the island,” Althea said.

“What from?”

“Everything. There’s all sorts of bogey-mers lurking, you know.”

“Really?” I asked, shivering. “Like what?”

Althea laughed. “It’s just kids’ stories. Monsters and stuff.” Then she stopped smiling. “But there’s something to them, I think. I’ve never been able to quite put my fin on it, but I’ve always had a sense of something . . . something below the surface.”

“Me too! Have you ever been pulled out to sea?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

“What?”

“By — by the current,” I faltered.

“We avoid certain spots. We learn very quickly about that.”

“And what happens if you don’t?” I asked, holding my breath while I waited for her to answer.

Althea lowered her voice. “The bogey-mer will get you!” she said. Then she looked at my face and burst out laughing. “Come on, I’m only joking. It’s kids’ tales, like I said.” Then she turned suddenly, shaking her hair so it splashed onto the water, spreading golden droplets in an arc around her. “Come on. Let’s go and get Marina.”

She moved on. As we swam, Shona gave me an occasional sideways look. I smiled at her and tried to act casual, but my body felt stiff and clumsy as I pushed myself through the sea. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I just wasn’t as good at all this as they were. It didn’t come as naturally. I mean, up until a few months ago, I’d never even been in water! My cheeks flushed as I prayed Shona would never tell anyone that.

The water soon became warm and shallow and colorless as we skirted the island. No currents, nothing weird. Althea was right. We just had to avoid certain spots and everything would be fine. I began to relax. We came to a wide bay. As we swam into it, the water turned cool and deep. Twisted rock formations stood along the edges.

“Double Arch Bay,” Althea said.

Ahead of us, two giant arches were cut deep into the rocky shore. Althea ducked under to swim through one of them. Shona went next. Then I flicked myself down and slipped through.

We swam across a small reef. Neat clusters of plants and coral were dotted about, making it like a well-tended park. An elderly merman with shiny blue eyes and a thin gray tail swam across them, snipping at weeds with a knife made from razor shells.

“Hi, Theo,” Althea said.

He nodded at us. “Morning, girls.”

“Theo’s the gardener,” Althea explained as he swam off to tie some wilting pink plants into a bundle with seaweed.

There were archways everywhere. Some were tiny gaps in the rocks that I’d have missed if Althea hadn’t pointed them out, others wide jagged holes big enough for a whale to get through.

Eventually, we came to a shimmery purple rock with a neat round hole in the middle. “This is where Marina lives,” Althea said. She tapped a pink fish hovering at the entrance, a gold bell dangling from its tail. Immediately, it wriggled its body and a delicate sound chimed.

A mermaid swam toward us from inside. She had curly red hair and a long gold tail with a shiny
crescent moon painted on the end. “You must be Shona and Emily!” she said, her freckled face creasing into a smile. “Come in while I get my things.” She grabbed Althea’s hand and they went on ahead, along a narrow pathway lined with rough walls. It soon widened out into a wide living space divided up by trails of fern and kelp. An older mermaid bustled past us. She had red hair like Marina’s, only hers was longer and frizzy. Her tail was bright yellow and tapered into soft white tassels at the end.

“Don’t be out all day, Marina,” she said. “It’s jellied eel soufflé tonight and we’re eating early. I’ve got my synchro swim class at seven.” Then she smiled at Shona and me. “Hello, girls,” she added. “Welcome to Allpoints Island.”

Shona and I smiled back before following the others into a small space with a soft seaweed bed and drapes all around it. A huge pink sponge was squashed into one corner, a crystal mirror in another.

“My room,” Marina said.

I sat on the sponge. It squelched and bubbled under me. Shona laughed. “It’s swishy!”

Swishy
— that’s Shona’s word for
everything
she likes. “Squishy, more like,” I said as I tried to get up.

Althea swam toward the entrance. “Come on,” she said. “There’s loads to show you.”

Marina grabbed a patchwork bag made of leaves and reeds and followed Althea, with Shona close behind. I fumbled my way out of the sponge and caught up with them as they slithered through the arches and back out into the bay. We swam along stretches of rocky coastline, interspersed with coves of all shapes and sizes: some wide and sandy, others tiny winding channels you could almost miss.

Everywhere we looked, spots of sunlight bounced on the water, white foamy waves washed gently over rocks, and palm trees reached gently out from marshmallow sand. High on the island, some people called down to us from a woody hill. In the sea, merfolk smiled and greeted us as we passed them. A couple of young mer-children riding piggyback on a dolphin waved and shouted to us. We waved back. A group of mermen diving for food nodded at us on their way out to sea. A mermaid with long flowing hair streaming down her back smiled as she was pulled along by a swordfish on a leash.

It was all so different — and yet so familiar. I belonged here. The fear that had gripped me since yesterday floated further away with every new sight.

Swimming on, we approached a half-hidden
cave in the rocky shoreline. “There are loads of caves on the island, but we only use a couple of them,” Marina said. “School’s in one of them. The other’s only for really major events, like when Neptune comes. That’s the Grand Caves. We can show you the other one, though, Emerald Caves. You want to see your school?”

Did I? Just the thought of school washed the smile off my face. But surely this couldn’t be anything like Brightport Junior High. No one was going to make fun of me here or delight in making my life a misery. And it
was
a mermaid school! A mix of emotions and questions swirled around inside me as I followed Althea into the cave. It wouldn’t happen again, would it? It couldn’t; I’d make sure of it. I’d do everything I could to show the mermaids I was just like them.

We inched along a narrow tunnel. As it twisted and turned, it grew darker and darker. Soon we were swimming in pitch-blackness.

“Feel your way along the walls,” Marina called from somewhere ahead of me. I ran my fingers along the craggy layered sides as I edged down the tunnel.

Just as my eyes were getting used to the dark, the tunnel opened out and grew lighter. We came to a fork.

“Down here.” Marina pointed along a tunnel that shimmered with green light.

It led up into a deep pool inside the cave. Above us, the ceiling stretched high and jagged. Stalactites hung all around us: enormous pillars reaching almost to the water, tiny spindles spiking down like darts. Rocks glimmered and shone purple and blue and red. Next to the pool, smooth boulders were dotted about on the gravelly ground like an abandoned game of giants’ marbles.

A long scroll hung from the ceiling, pictures of underwater life drawn all over it, a pile of different-colored reeds underneath.

A young mermaid was cleaning some hairbrushes lined up on a rocky ledge that jutted across the water. She smiled at us as we gazed around.

“Swishy!” Shona said, swimming over to the hairbrushes. “You have Beauty and Deportment?”

Beauty and Deportment. Shona had told me all about that. I’d be studying it with her soon. And Diving and Dance, and all the other mermaid subjects. No more long division!

“Of course,” Marina smiled. “It’s my favorite subject.”

“Mine, too,” Shona breathed.

Althea looked at me. “I prefer Shipwreck Studies.”

I tried to think of something to say, to join in the conversation. But it was all so new and alien to me. They’d all been studying these subjects for years. What if I was no good at them?

“Althea likes going out on Geography Reef Trips,” Marina said with a laugh. “Anything to get out of doing her tides tables.”

“It’s beautiful,” Shona whispered as we took it all in. “Much better than my old school.”

“And about a million light years away from mine,” I added, trying not to think too hard about Brightport Junior High.

“There are two classes,” Althea explained. “This one’s for the older kids. There’s another one for the babies.”

“Two classes?” Shona asked. “Is that all?”

“There’s only about thirty families here altogether,” Marina said. “Mostly mer-families and a few human ones.”

“Do they mix?” I asked. I realized I was holding my breath while I waited for the reply.

“Yes, of course,” Althea said as she started swimming back out of the cave. “But they’re kind of separate, too.” She blushed. “If you get what I mean.” She glanced quickly at my tail. I got what she meant. I was the only one. Still the odd one out.

The old fears resurfaced, hitting me like a
punch in my stomach. I couldn’t keep them away any longer. I’d
never
find a place where I could fit in.

“But everyone gets along really well,” Marina said quickly, swimming across to touch my arm. “And we’re all really pleased you’ve joined us. The island’s organizing a party for you next week, once you’ve settled in.”

“We haven’t had any new families here for ages,” Althea added. “Come on, let’s show you the rest of the island.”

They were organizing a party, just for us? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe things would work out, after all.

We continued around the coast, Althea and Marina pointing out sights all along the way: a hole in the ground that spouted orange flames in the summer, little channels leading to a maze of caves and caverns where some of the merfolk ran craft stalls. I made a mental note to tell Dad about that. At least it could be something for us to talk about. He’d learned to make jewelry while he was in prison. Maybe he could get one of the stalls.