Son of a Mermaid (15 page)

“There’s no such thing as mermaids.” The words came out his mouth automatically even as his brain started to process the possibilities.

“I’m a mermaid,” Kae confessed, her voice soft. “Are you going to tell me I don’t exist?”

“No, but…”

“My parents are servants to the King. Your grandfather. That’s who they work for.”

“My mother’s a…mermaid princess?” This was too unbelievable. His fingers ran along the gill lines behind his ear again. He realized a boy suddenly growing gills was also firmly in the category of unbelievable events. “But what about my dad?”

“Only human,” Kae told him, shaking her head. “A drylander through and through, apparently. But it’s not uncommon for a mixed race child to favor the mother.”

“How could this be real?” Shea whispered, his eyes locked with Kae’s, his breath mingling with hers. He noticed again that her large green eyes were identical to his own. Was that a mermaid thing? He rubbed his hand harder against his gills, as if trying to rub them away and erase this whole fairytale.
It’s another strange dream. Wake up, Shea, wake up.

“Here, let me see.” She reached slowly toward Shea’s head. He flinched away from her touch. She stopped, hand in midair. “I’m not going to hurt you, Shea.”

Reluctantly, he moved his hand away from his ear and allowed her to brush back the hair. Kae nodded, then leaned her own head closer. She pushed her golden curls to one side, revealing matching slits behind her own right ear. “See? Me too,” she whispered. “It’s normal.”

“Normal?” Shea’s voice cracked, his words edged with sarcasm. “I’m not sure there’s anyone else on the planet who would call this normal.” Yet he couldn’t resist reaching out to her and gently running his fingers along the gills on her neck.

“You’d be surprised,” Kae said quietly. “There are mermaids in every ocean of the world.”

He looked down at the floor, considering her words. Considering the possibility that this was all real. That he was part sea creature, and his mother was a real live mermaid. That would explain his dreams. His mind whirled. Finally, he asked, “Tell me about my mother?”

“She arrived ten days ago with the royal entourage,” Kae said. “She’s always surrounded by guards, but I’m one of her attendants so I’ve been with her all week. This is her first visit to Nantucket Sound since you were born, and I’m not sure if she knows that you’re here. But the King knows. He asked my father to keep an eye on you.”

“Royal entourage? Arrived from where? Why are there guards?” Questions tumbled from Shea’s mouth even as his mind raced forward to the next big one. “Can you take me to meet her?”

Kae hesitated. “There are guards because of the War. I’m not sure it’s safe for you to be so close to Nantucket Sound right now, let alone meet the Princess.”

Shea frowned. “Not safe? You need to explain.”

So Kae told him about the takeover of the Southern Ocean kingdom, and the bloody War that had raged undersea for the last two years, pitting Adluos against Aequoreans. About the fragile peace treaty that included his mother marrying her young cousin, at the insistence of a certain ambitious Prince, who seemed to have his sites set on conquering the whole of the Atlantic Ocean.

“We can’t let him get away with that,” Shea said, outraged. “It sounds like this Demyan guy’s a big bully! My mom shouldn’t be forced to marry anyone, let alone her six-year-old cousin. That’s not right.”

“Prince Demyan may be a bully, but he has an army of soldiers to do his bidding,” Kae pointed out. “The Aequoreans are farmers, not fighters. The Princess is doing what she thinks is best for her clan.”

“There must be another way,” Shea said, running his fingers through his hair. “There’s always an alternative.” He looked at her. “You say part of the negotiated peace treaty is the wedding?”

“Yes, but the marriage won’t take place until the Winter Solstice,” Kae told him. “Today’s Solstice celebration is for the formal announcement of the peace treaty, and the announcement of the engagement. There hasn’t been a big Solstice gathering like this one in years so all the pageantry is moving along at a snail’s pace.”

“Then there’s still plenty of time to stop it,” Shea said. “Let’s go.”

Kae blinked. “Go? Go where?”

“To meet my mom.”

“But…”

“Kae,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We can’t let this Demyan guy win. There must be something we can do.” Her body shivered under his touch, and he remembered why they’d come upstairs in the first place. “Are you still cold?” he asked as he put his arm around her and hugged her against him. She felt warm against him, her body radiating heat like a bonfire. Her hair smelled of salt air and sunshine.

“I’m not cold,” she whispered as she shivered again. “Just scared.”

He cupped her cheek with his hand and tipped her face upward, looking down into her wide eyes. “Don’t be,” he whispered back, and kissed her lightly. Her lips were soft and tasted of salt and sweetness, like the saltwater taffy they sold in the center of town. He wound his fingers through her golden locks, her hair silky and fine to his touch like spun sunshine, as he locked his lips more firmly to hers. His heart hammered within his chest, the blood pounding in his ears drowning out the world around them, he felt as though he were tumbling through space…until a sharp bark brought him back to the present and he opened his eyes. Lucky was standing next to the bed, prodding Kae with his black muzzle.

Kae drew away suddenly, her cheeks flaming red once again. “Oh,” she said, jumping to her feet. “Oh, I’m so sorry!”

“Sorry?” Shea stood slowly, his brow knotting with confusion. “What is there to be sorry about?”

“I… I… Maybe we’d better get going. My father will know what to do to help your mother.” She turned abruptly and walked into the hallway. He felt like all the heat had left the room with her, his heart still beat with a rapid, steady sharpness
. Sorry? Why would she say that?

Lucky still stood next to Shea. He looked down at the dog and frowned. “Way to go, dog,” he muttered. “Rule number one? Never interrupt a first kiss.”

Lucky gave another sharp bark and wagged his tail.

“Stay here,” Shea commanded as he started to follow Kae. Lucky whined. “No, boy. You’ve done enough.” Shea shut the bedroom door behind him. He heard the dog jump against the door and start to bark, but ignored the sounds. Instead, he followed Kae down the stairs.

“I don’t know about this.” Shea stood at the edge of the dock, eyeing the rapidly flowing river. “The last time I went in the water, it didn’t work out so well.”

He’d left a note on the kitchen table for his grandmother, explaining he was going to a friend’s house for the afternoon and would stay there for dinner. He promised to be home after supper and didn’t go into the minor details, like his friend Kae being a mermaid and her home being underwater in the middle of Nantucket Sound.

Standing on the dock, contemplating what he was about to do, he wished he’d waited and talked to his grandmother about it first. Doubts swirled through his head. Maybe he shouldn’t be trying to swim off with a girl who claimed to be a mermaid and claimed to know his mother, who was also a mermaid.

Mermaids belonged in Disney movies, not in real life.

The craziest part of it all was Shea hadn’t doubted a single bit of the story, right down to the part where he too was a merman and could grow a tail at will.

“Don’t be a jellyfish,” Kae said, nudging him with her elbow, her touch sending a tingle up his arm. “This time swimming will be different, now that you know you can’t drown.”

“But I still don’t know
how
to swim,” he pointed out. “So I can breathe underwater, but I’ll still sink and rot at the bottom of the river.”

“Swimming will be easy once you transform,” she promised. “Much easier than riding a bicycle.”

He eyed her skeptically. “I guess I’ll have to trust you. But I’m nervous about this whole transforming thing. Are you sure it’s going to work?”

Kae nodded. “Absolutely. Since you already grew gills, you must have the merman genes. You just need the magic.” Her hand wrapped around the
transmutare
on her necklace. “You have your medallion, right?”

He took the black stone from his pocket. “But it doesn’t have a cord.” He looked around the dock, and spied a rope tied to one of the pilings. It dangled down into the water, attached to a floating crab trap. “Wait a sec! I’ve got an idea.”

He pulled the trap up onto the dock, and with a hard tug was able to snap the rope loose. Looping it through the
transmutare
, he tied the ends of the cord into a square knot and put it over his head. The stone hung from his neck similar to Kae’s. “Now I’m ready,” he said. “How do I work this thing?”

“First we need to jump into the water,” she said, smiling. “You might want to take your shirt off, too, since mermen don’t wear t-shirts.”

“What about my shorts?” He raised both eyebrows. “I’m not about to strip in front of you!”

Kae laughed. “The magic will take care of that. You’ll see.”

He shrugged and then lifted the shirt over his head. When he turned to hang it over the dock’s railing, Kae let out a loud gasp. “You have the Mark!”

He whirled to face her. “You mean my birthmark? Yeah, it’s always been there. Kinda weird, now that I know my mother’s a mermaid.”

“It means you’re an heir of Poseidon, the first King of the Oceans,” Kae said, blinking her eyes rapidly. She bowed her head and began to tremble. “Whatever you need of me, Sire. I am yours to command.”

Shea reached out with his right hand, touching her gently with one finger under the chin, lifting her head back up to meet his eyes. “Kae, I need you to be my friend, not some dumb royal subject.”

She nodded her head, but the look on her face was unreadable.

“Besides,” he continued, “You already knew my mom is a princess. What difference does a royal birthmark make?”

“It’s not merely a birthmark,” she explained. “Not every royal gets the Mark of Poseidon, only the ones whom the gods choose to lead their people.”

“So how many get chosen?” he asked. “One in five? Every other one?”

Kae shook her head. “In the Atlantic Ocean, your grandfather has the Mark, as does your mother. And now you.”

“Wow.” The reality of the situation began to slowly sink in. “What do you think it means?”

“It means you
are
the boy that the rumors talk about.”

“What rumors?”

“It’s been rumored since long before I was born that a drylander boy would rise up to end the bloodshed between the clans and unite the oceans in lasting peace.”

He laughed. “I don’t know anything about your clans or your wars. I just want to stop my mom from marrying someone she doesn’t love because some bully is making her do it.” He paused for a moment. “Why would marriage be part of a peace treaty to begin with?”

“The King said that the oceans need to be bound with blood.”

Shea frowned. “Sounds painful when you say it like that.”

Kae nodded again. “We should hurry now, Sire, and swim with the outgoing tide. It will make it easier for you.”

“Wait,” he urged. “First of all, call me Shea. Second, I need to understand something. Does this Prince guy know I really exist? Or does he think the rumors are wishful thinking?”

“I don’t know. I know my father believes in you. He always says all rumors have some truth to them.” She paused, inching slightly closer and taking his hand. “Others believe but would celebrate your death. I would rather you were safe. I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’m not running away to hide,” he said softly, staring back into her eyes. “And I don’t have to fight them to save my mother, just out think them.”

She inhaled sharply and took a step backward. “Okay then.”

He glanced at the surface of the river rushing past the dock out into the wide Atlantic, and took a deep breath. Clutching the
transmutare
hanging from his neck, he asked, “What now?”

“Jump,” Kae said and plunged into the flowing river. Her head soon popped up above the surface. “Come on, Shea. Jump.”

He closed his eyes, took a last deep breath of salty air, and jumped feet first into the water, the
transmutare
closed tightly within his fist, tingling in his palm. His breath blew out from his gills in a stream of bubbles, his body breathing the water without any conscious thought or effort.

Shea opened his eyes and realized he was again sinking toward the river bottom. This time, however, he had no fear. Only curiosity. He noticed all the details he’d been too panicked to see when Hailey had pulled him into the river the previous week. The way the sun filtered down through the water in a constantly moving stream of light fascinated him, the shadows dancing in the always-moving water.

He saw the dock pilings were covered by shiny black mussels clinging in clusters with tiny, almost see-through shrimp scuttling amongst them. Down among the rocks on the river’s bottom, green crabs of various sizes shuffled out of his way, claws snapping anxiously as Shea planted his feet solidly in their midst, feeling the muck ooze up in between his toes.

In a moment, Kae was by his side speaking to him. He was amazed to discover he could understand her words underwater as clearly as he had up on the dock moments before. “You need to rub your thumb in a slow circle around the outside of the stone,” Kae said, demonstrating the motion. “And repeat after me.
A pedibus usque ad caput mutatio.”

Shea’s eyes widened as he watched tiny bubbles appear out of nowhere and swirl upwards, starting down at Kae’s feet and circling faster and faster up her body until there were so many bubbles swirling around that her legs were impossible to see. The water churned into a tightly seething circle, until suddenly the bubbles all stopped their frenetic movements and dissipated, rising slowly past the rest of her body upwards to the water’s surface. The whole process had taken less than a minute.

Where there had been two legs before, there was now one bright green mermaid tail, its scales glittering in the dancing light that filtered down from the surface.

“Wow,” Shea marveled, feeling the seawater filling his mouth as he spoke. He panicked for a second before realizing he could push the water right back out again, as if it were air. A small part of him hadn’t really believed any of this could be possible, even as Kae was explaining it all to him. Now he knew it all to be true. He couldn’t deny the mermaid swimming right before his eyes.

“Your turn,” she said, smiling her encouragement as she flicked her tail from side to side. Her sparkling scales mesmerized Shea, and she blushed, putting her hands on her hips. “You’re staring, you know. Is my tail that awful?”

He tore his eyes from her tail, and looked up at her reddened cheeks. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” he said earnestly, looking at her blonde hair swirling around her heart-shaped face, her green eyes glittering as much as her tail. Kae’s cheeks turned an even darker shade of crimson under his gaze. “What are those magic words again?”

Kae moved her hand away from her own medallion. “Rub your thumb in a circle on your stone. Like that, good. Now say
a pedibus usque
…”

“
A pedibus usque
,” repeated Shea.

“
Ad caput mutatio
,” finished Kae.

He repeated the last part of the spell, and felt a hot tingling sensation zing through both legs, from a spot right behind his bellybutton down to the tips of his toes. He looked down at his legs, where tiny bubbles had begun to creep their way up, starting at the soles of his feet and swirling ever faster around his legs. He tried to wiggle his toes and was shocked to find he couldn’t move his legs at all.
I’m paralyzed!
He looked up at Kae with panic. “I can’t move! Something’s going wrong!”

With a swish of the tail she was right next to him, putting a comforting hand on his arm. “Paralysis is normal during transformation. Trust me.” Her wide green eyes held his steadily in her gaze. “Don’t be afraid.”

He stared back into her eyes, trying hard not to freak out, feeling the heat move further up his legs. Each moment seemed like forever as the tiny bubbles zoomed around his body, binding his two legs together.

After what seemed like hours, the froth began to dissipate and float away from his body. He shut his eyes tightly as the rising bubbles swirled around his face, the surrounding water still warm from the transforming magic. “Did it work?”

“Look for yourself,” she told him. He slowly cracked one eyelid open and glanced downward. There, where he had always had two separate legs, was now one big green fish tail, similar to Kae’s in size and color but with flecks of blue and gold scattered along its length.

“How does it work?” Even as he asked the question, the tail suddenly flicked back and forth, stirring the sand on the river bottom. A school of tiny silver minnows darted past him, hurrying away from his shining scales.

“A tail is much easier than legs,” Kae said with a laugh. “You’ll see.” With one shimmering flick of her tail she put several yards between them and motioned for him to follow.

Taking a deep breath of water, Shea concentrated on moving his new tail from side to side by wriggling his hips back and forth. The end of his tail flickered along the sand, sending the green crabs scuttling to find shelter under nearby rocks.

A stream of bubbles burst forth from Kae as she bent over with laughter. “You look like you have a squid on your back that you’re trying to get loose,” she said between giggles. “Or like my father when he thinks he’s dancing!”

“Maybe you could help me instead of laughing at me,” he said, annoyed to realize how useless his efforts had been. He hadn’t moved forward even a foot. “It might be easier than riding a bike, but you still need to explain how it works.”

“I’m sorry.” A smile danced in Kae’s eyes as she swam back to his side. She placed her small hand over his bellybutton. “This is your center of gravity,” she said, pressing firmly against his bare skin. “Your movements should come from here, not from your hips.”

He put his hand over Kae’s and pressed against his belly. His tail flicked out behind him backward, and his body moved slightly forward in response, pressing him closer to Kae.