Son of a Mermaid (8 page)

“All legends are based on some truth,” her father said, swishing his tail. The sand rose in a cloud below him. “Else how would the drylanders tell the same sorts of tales about mermaids to their young ones that we do?” Kae hadn’t considered it from that angle. “Unfortunately,” he continued, “many such unions ended in sorrow for the mermaid, rather than for the humans.”

“Tell me,” Kae urged, putting down her trowel.

“Long ago, when there was peace in all the worlds, the tradition of the Grand Journey began. When a mermaid or merman turned fifteen, they would leave their home to travel alone, visiting each of the world’s five oceans. They would spend a year in each, living with host families and learning the knowledge of that clan.”

Kae nodded. Over the years, she’d heard many bedtime stories based on her mother’s own Journey, of the wonders Kira had seen in other parts of the globe. With the current War and the climate of distrust between the clans, Kae’s own Journey would be limited to the University housed in the undersea city of Atlantis, neutral territory for all the tribes and the High Council’s seat of power. If she was allowed to make any Journey at all.

“My mother fell in love with a Gaelic fisherman across the Atlantic,” Lybio continued. “When I was but a small child, she decided to tell him the truth of her being a mermaid, and not of the land as he thought. He ran from her, and she never saw him again.”

Kae stared, waiting for her father to continue. He seemed lost in some memory, so she prodded. “If he was human, how is it that you a merman?”

“Mermaid’s blood,” Lybio explained. “Many mixed offspring never grow gills, which is why their mothers choose to stay with them on dry land. Mermaid’s blood is a tricky thing. Poseidon, god of the seas, creator of us all, chooses who shall serve him and in what form. After my transformation, my mother went before the Aequorean king. In exchange for her return to the clan, she pledged me into his service. Her pledge binds me to the new king as well.”

“I’d hardly call King Koios new, Father,” Kae said, crossing her arms and tossing her blonde hair with the current. “He’s got to be as old as you are.”

“He was crowned king less than a hundred years ago when his father died, gods rest his soul. Even a century is barely a drop in the oceans of time.” Lybio’s expression was stern. “King Koios has found it much harder to govern than his father ever did, with all the problems arising between ourselves and the humans. And with the bloodthirsty Adluos always anxious to battle.”

“Problems with humans?” Kae’s mind flashed to the boy on the beach.
Shea wouldn’t ever cause any problems.

“Humans have mastered many forms of technology, but not the wisdom or self-control to govern it properly.” Lybio shook his head. “They create too much waste, spilling it into the seas without thought to the consequences. They turn from the easily renewable powers of sun and wind, choosing to burn carbon fuels that pollute the air and seas. This leaves the ocean’s inhabitants to fight for what remains…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Kae rolled her eyes, having endured this same rant against pollution several times during their long swim northward. Everyone knew pollution was getting worse and that humans were to blame. Personally, Kae thought if the merfolk explained the situation to the drylanders, they would stop dumping in the oceans.

“No, my daughter, you do not know,” Lybio said, his bushy eyebrows lowering over his steel blue eyes. “When I was a boy making my Journey, we had nothing to fear from the humans or the other clans. The few boats upon the surface were powered by the wind alone, and posed no threat to our way of life.”

“But why do they teach courses about drylanders at the University if we are never to interact with them?” Kae asked. She reached up to touch the black stone hanging at her neck. “Why wear the
transmutare
medallions if we are not supposed to travel above the surface?”

Lybio explained that the
transmutare
stone held very old magic, mined from the deepest part of the ocean’s floor where Poseidon himself had buried it. “The stone channels the power and magic of the sea to do your bidding,” he said, “allowing you freedoms such as passing a fishing boat unseen, or traveling upon land in human form, or staying in touch with your family when you are oceans away.”

“I know these things,” Kae said impatiently. Her tailfin fluttered more quickly, stirring the sand and knocking down one of the freshly planted seedlings.

“Only a finite number of these stones remain. Some clans hoard them for their magical powers, seeking to use them to harness the weather, although I don’t truly know whether such endeavors are fruitful. Many more have simply been lost over time.”

“Lost?” Kae echoed, her tail frozen mid-flutter.

“The magic fades if the medallion washes ashore. Without a mermaid’s touch the hole disappears in the drying air, and with it the magic. It becomes yet another stone upon the sand.”

Kae looked down at the kelp bed, unable to meet her father’s eye as guilt swept through her. “I should confess… I lost my
transmutare
while gathering scallop shells. The one I wear now is from the King’s storeroom.”

She peeked up as Lybio exhaled forcefully, sending a burst of bubbles streaming upward from both his mouth and the gills behind his ears. “Tomorrow you will go back and search for your stone. As for the humans, the less said about them the better. Especially once the King and the Adluo delegation have arrived.”

Kae nodded, again casting her head downward and picking up her trowel. She watched as her father swam back over to where his fishing net lay on the ground next to Kira. Though they were on the far side of the grounds, the current carried their words back to Kae’s ears.

“What?” Lybio’s voice sounded gruff. Kae watched her father lift the fishing net he’d already filled with debris and swing it over his shoulder. Kae knew her father liked to dump the human garbage back onto the shore, where it belonged. It had always bothered her to see it among the seaweed at the strandline. She felt better knowing Shea was there, to finish the job.

Kira’s hands were on her hips. “Do you not feel the least bit of guilt in lying to our daughter about your own father? You know he loved your mother, you told me so many times over the years. He did not run screaming from her because she was a mermaid.”

Kae quickly turned her head away.
They don’t know their words are floating down current and I can still hear them talking!

“The truth is too scary,” Lybio was saying. “Humans are frightening creatures.”

“You are half-human,” Kira reminded him. “I’ve never had reason to fear you.”

“So you think I should tell her how the townspeople killed my father and tried to drown my mother and myself as witches? That I had no idea of my mermaid blood until that fateful night when they threw me off a cliff?”

Kae gasped, clutching at the kelp seedling until the fragile stem broke in two. No wonder her father kept his past a secret!

“The truth is that humans can be every bit as cruel as those Adluo fear mongers who stir the clans against the drylanders. All of us fear what we do not understand.”

“I still think it’s always best to tell the truth,” Kira replied.

Derisive laughter filled the castle’s courtyard. “You? Tell the truth? You always tell the truth which best suits your friend, the Princess.”

“You keep the King’s counsel and do not enlighten me as to your secret missions,” Kira countered quickly.

“Those tasks I perform for His Majesty have nothing to do with you. And the clans are still at war until the treaties are signed and sealed.”

There was silence, and Kae dared to look over at her parents again. Kira had her arms crossed over her chest and Lybio was leaving the court, dragging the fishing net in his wake.

Kae looked down at the crushed seedling in her hand. Her parents seemed to have more secrets than she’d ever imagined. Bigger secrets than talking to a human boy along the shoreline.

Kae’s world suddenly seemed a lot more complicated than it had been. And more than a little dangerous.

Four empty water bottles, three green shotgun shell casings, a green plastic shovel, two green plastic army men, three apple flavored NutriGrain wrappers, and a length of green plastic rope.

“Not a lot of trash, Lucky,” Shea said as the pair trudged along the shoreline. “Not like yesterday. But today’s theme seems to be ‘green.’ Even the water bottles are green from the algae growing inside them.” Shea swung the plastic garbage bag alongside him, the wide arcs keeping time with his slow strides. He decided to keep one of the army men. The second plastic soldier had already lost its head and one arm, so he tossed it in the bag with the rest of the day’s trash.

Two hundred yards up ahead, he spied a familiar figure walking along the water’s edge. It was Kae, intently searching the strandline, the line where the high tide leaves its row of seaweed, shells and other natural debris. “Hey!” He waved an arm to draw her attention. “Wait up!” He ran down the beach toward her, Lucky keeping pace.

She turned her head, smiling as their eyes met. “Hey there, Garbage Boy.”

He skidded to a stop in the sand in front of her, panting a little to catch his breath. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said between gulps of air. “Where’ve you been?”

“I had to help my mother with planting the garden, while the ocean is calm,” Kae explained, looking out at the ocean’s flat surface. His eyes followed hers, not understanding what gardening and quiet seas had to do with one another.

Reaching out to touch his arm, she asked, “What did that angry man want with you the other morning?”

“The policeman?” When Kae nodded, he shrugged and said, “He wasn’t angry. He wanted to tell me Lucky’s not allowed on the beach.” Shea bent to scratch the dog’s head. A wave washed up to soak the cuffs of his blue jeans before pulling back toward the ocean, his feet sinking a little deeper beneath the surface of the sand as he looked back up at Kae.

“But… you didn’t listen to him?” Kae tilted her head to one side, looking confused.

“I don’t always do everything I’m told,” he said, waggling his eyebrows up and down.

She broke into a sunny smile, laughing. “Me, too. So you came looking for me, huh?”

“Yeah,” he said, mirroring her smile. “There’s a new girl who moved into the neighborhood this week and she wanted to meet you.”

Kae’s eyebrows lowered, smile gone. “A new girl?”

“Yeah,” Shea said, puzzled by the sudden chill in her attitude. “Her name is Hailey. She moved into the windmill house this week with her parents and older brother. You know, the house at the end of the street with the windmill attached to it?” Kae stared at him, a glowering look on her face. She gave no indication she knew which house he meant. “She and her brother actually have their bedrooms up inside the windmill itself. Pretty cool, right?” Still nothing from Kae, except that glare. “So, umm,” Shea continued, finding it hard to complete his thought while her eyes shot daggers at him. “We, umm, went bike riding around the neighborhood trying to find your house because she wanted to meet you, like I said. And then we came down on the beach, even, to see if you were here, but we didn’t see you.”

“Bike riding?” The angry look was gone, replaced with one of curiosity. “What’s that?”

“Haven’t you ever ridden a bicycle before?” When Kae shook her head, he explained, “Two-wheelers, you know, to get around faster? Tires, gears, brakes… Bicycles. I mean, how can you summer on the Cape and not know what bikes are?”

Kae looked out at the ocean’s undulating surface. “I spend most of my time on the beach or in the ocean,” she said, putting her hand to her neck, wrapping her fingers around her medallion. “Tell me more about these bikes of which you speak.” She looked straight into Shea’s face, her green eyes widening under her long lashes. His heart did a little leap as a tingling jolt ran through his body…and he forgot how strange it was for Kae to know nothing about such an ordinary thing.

“I’m not sure how to explain bicycles, but I’d be happy to give you a lesson. John, my friend back home, taught me in one afternoon when we were both only nine. It’s pretty easy.”

His eyes rested on the medallion at her neck, reminding him of the stone in his jeans. He put his hand into his front pocket, against the stone, and rubbed his thumb in a slow circle around its surface, mimicking Kae’s movements.

A crackle ran up his spine, like a flash of lightning exploding behind his eyes. He pulled his hand quickly from his pocket as if he’d been stung. A woman’s surprised face flashed into his head, surrounded by a halo of floating blond curls. It was the woman in the silver frame on Gramma’s mantle. His mother.

“What’s the matter?” Kae asked. “Got a stingray in your pocket?”

He looked at his hand, still tingling from touching the stone, as the vision of his mother’s face faded from his head. He flexed his fingers, making a fist and then releasing. His hand seemed unharmed, yet he felt the burning sensation traveling up his arm, as if sparks of fire were traveling in his bloodstream. “That was odd,” he said to himself, forgetting for the moment that Kae was there, standing right in front of him.

“What?” Kae laughed, hands now on her hips. “Don’t try to change your mind about the bicycle lesson. You’ve already promised.”

“No, I…” Shea began, and looked up into Kae’s laughing eyes. Abruptly he asked, “Where did you get your necklace?”

Kae’s hand went back to her neck, where the
transmutare
medallion nestled against her collarbone. Before she could answer, Shea plunged his hand back into his pocket and brought out the other black stone. “I found one just like yours the other day on the beach.” He held it on his palm, careful not to rub his fingers against it, afraid to start the fire searing through his veins all over again. He noticed that the shine was back on the stone’s surface, even though it was dry.

“My
transmutare
!” Kae grabbed for it.

“Your what?” He pulled his hand up and away, out of her reach.

“It’s the medallion I lost the other day,” she said, holding out her hand. “Give it back.”

“You have the same thing hanging from your necklace. I found this one.”

“The stone in your hand belongs to me, Garbage Boy. I lost it while I was swimming.”

“My name is Shea,” he reminded her, and slipped the rock back into his pocket.

“What are you doing?” She stamped her foot in the shallow water. “I said, give it back.”

“But you didn’t ask nicely,” Shea said. “Now let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“Lessons. You’re a teenager, right? It’s high time you learned how to ride a bike.” Shea pushed his hair out of his eyes and grinned widely at her before turning away. He headed up the beach toward the dunes. Lucky sat on the sand next to Kae, watching him leave. He turned his head to look at them over his shoulder. “Are you coming or what?” Lucky jumped up, wagging his tail as he followed Kae up the beach and through the dunes after Shea.