Son of a Mermaid (16 page)

She nodded, her cheeks flaming red again. “Umm, yeah, kind of like that. Swimming is more of an up-and-down motion, rather than a side-to-side one, see?” She withdrew her hand out from under his and turned to swim slowly away, her whole tail undulating slowly up toward the surface and then down again.

“Kind of like a wave on the ocean’s surface, how it rolls up and down?” He tried to imitate her slow-motion swimming. He kept his hand pressed flat over his bellybutton to remind him to focus on his center of gravity. Kae returned to swim by his side. His tail flicked slowly up then back down as he moved forward into the middle of the river.

Pretty soon, he felt more confident in his movements and removed his hand, putting both arms in front of him and pumping his tail faster. Kae kept up as his speed increased. “This is fantastic!” he cried, rising upward. His head broke through the water’s surface, and he laughed out loud. Seagulls whirled overhead against the backdrop of pure blue sky. Everything looked the same, and yet his whole perspective had changed. It was like things had suddenly snapped into place.

He had a mom.

He had mermaid blood.

He had a tail…

Nothing felt impossible. Not even saving the ocean.

“See? I told you it was easy, once you get the hang of it,” Kae said as she surfaced next to him.

“I can’t believe how wonderful the water feels,” Shea told her. “I never understood why my dad never let me go swimming, but maybe he was afraid I’d never come out of the water!”

“My father said your parents moved to Oklahoma to be far away from the ocean,” Kae said. “The King didn’t approve of the union, so she wanted to keep you a secret. After his guards captured her, your dad was supposed to keep you away until you were old enough to handle the truth.”

Shea felt his chest tighten at the thought of his poor father unable to be with the woman he loved because of him. At the same time, he thought the whole thing was so unfair. He turned away from Kae, not wanting her to see the tears that suddenly burned his eyes. As he looked toward the riverbank, he realized he could see all of the windmill house from this vantage point. Glancing up at the windows, he was startled to see Hailey’s face pressed against the uppermost window, staring down at him, her mouth hanging open. “Oh no,” he muttered, the tight sadness in his chest replaced with panic.

“What is it?” Kae was at his side in an instant.

Shea turned his back on the windmill house, and Hailey’s shocked expression. He put his hands on Kae’s shoulders. “What do you do when someone sees you?”

“Who?” She tried to see past him, but Shea gripped harder.

“It’s Hailey. No, don’t make it obvious that we see her watching. I’m not sure if she can see our tails from that vantage point, or if it’s simply the fact that I’m swimming that has her looking so wigged out.”

“Wigged out?”

Shea grimaced. “You know, upset, feeling weird about a situation, losing your head about something. Get it?”

A smile spread across Hailey’s face. “Let me give her something to really ‘wig out’ about.” She lifted her own arms above the water and wrapped them around Shea’s neck. Pulling him closer, she kissed him quickly on the lips. Shea was too startled to react immediately. “There, that will make her forget anything else she may have seen.”

“It’s certainly working for me,” Shea said, licking his lips and pulled her back against the length of his body. “But you can’t tease me like that.” With a short flick of his tail, he raised himself up slightly higher in the water, and then lowered his mouth onto hers with a long, hard kiss. He could feel the beat of her heart against his skin, almost as if they were one. The sudden heat he felt had nothing to do with the
transmutare
stone’s magic, and everything to do with Kae. Finally she pulled away from him, a dazed look in her eyes.

“We shouldn’t do this,” she protested. “You’re a royal. I’m just…”

“You started it,” he countered, interrupting her. His voice sounded rough even to his own ears. “We’re creating a distraction, remember?”

“Distraction…yes…” Kae said, her eyes locked on his lips again. Slowly they rose to meet his gaze. “But we should get going if we want to be at the castle before the Solstice ceremony begins. Now that you can swim, are you up for a race?”

He grinned in response. “You’re on!” He released her from his arms, diving under the water and speeding down the river toward the open water side by side with the blonde mermaid, all thought of Hailey forgotten. Only Kae and the open ocean beckoned him onward.

Having never even been in the ocean before, or any large body of water for that matter, each new sensation amazed Shea. Every new sight, every new smell, every different texture that he reached out to run his fingers across… Everything was so completely different than anything he’d ever imagined.

Each nuance of his new appendage, the shimmering tail that was suddenly a part of him, continued to fascinate and distract him. All five of his senses threatened to overload from the sheer pleasure of the cool ocean current caressing his body. He felt like the ocean was running its fingers through his hair, welcoming him home. He wondered if he’d ever be able to get used to the feeling enough to ignore it completely.

The smell of the water as he breathed in through his nose and pushed it out through his gills was salty, but not in a bad way.
Not bad at all
, he thought, becoming aware of the subtle differences in scent of the various streams of currents. He could taste the salt in his mouth too, every time he opened it to speak with Kae, to ask questions about their surroundings.

Algae covered rocks lay strewn across the ocean floor, amidst wildly growing beds of kelp and seaweed of different colors, sizes and varieties. Some rocks seemed to be lined in a deliberate pattern, marking the underwater road they seemed to be following along the ocean’s floor. Small schools of brightly shimmering minnows darted shyly across their path, startling Shea with their quick movements. He heard their silvery voices in his head like the tinkling of tiny wind chimes.

As yet another school of tiny bright grey fish darted in front of them, he asked, “Are there larger fish in this area?”

“It’s still pretty shallow along here,” Kae said. She pointed over to their left, adding, “There’s a deeper trench over that way where most of the big fish like to hang out during the day. They generally prefer the dark. You might see one or two, but in general they don’t like the sun so much. When it gets closer to dusk, they’ll come out to hunt for dinner.”

He shuddered, remembering the sharp, pointy teeth on the blue fish he and Hailey caught from the dock. He was glad to see the strong sunlight filtering down through the water around them. “We’re not on their menu for later, are we?”

Kae laughed, and even underwater he thought her laughter sounded beautiful. “Of course not, you clownfish,” she reassured him. “We have nothing to fear in these waters, except perhaps humans.”

Off to their right they passed by a field of scallops. He stared at the hundreds of fluted shells sitting in neat horizontal lines along the ocean floor. On three sides of the bed were rows of large stones, covered with green, fingerlike branches of algae stretching upwards three feet toward the surface, forming a waving green barrier. “Wow, look at the scallops all nestled over there,” he said, pointing to the rows as they swam by. “It’s almost like they were planted there somehow, like the rows of corn we used to plant on our farm back in Oklahoma.”

“Of course we grow crops! We Aequoreans are a farming clan,” Kae explained. “That tall greenery on top of the rocks is spongy codium, to discourage the fish from poaching in the beds. Beyond the scallops are a few fields of oysters, then the greens, and then the castle’s courtyard. We’ll be there pretty soon.”

They swam in silence as Shea marveled at the aquaculture being propagated on both sides of the rocky pathway, thinking how impressed his father would have been with the underwater farm. He wondered if his father had even known about all this cultivation at the bottom of Nantucket Sound. For a moment his heart felt heavy, thinking of his dad and the farm he’d been raised on. So different than the fields he now swam past, and yet in a way it was so similar.

The Aequoreans cultivated the ocean floor in the same way he and his father had farmed their land, taking advantage of every available space. The sandy fields of oysters were even bigger than the ones with the scallops, stretching out beyond where Shea could see, into the vast shadowy areas. “You Aequoreans sure eat a lot of oysters,” he commented.

“Mostly we raise them to harvest the pearls,” she answered, her voice low. “They’re good for trading, both with the other clans and with the humans. We should keep our voices down from here on, in case there are guards posted along the road.”

They soon passed by another wall of the tall codium, growing atop a foot or so of neatly piled slipper snail shells. On the other side of the living fence, Shea could see lanterns sitting on pilings, their large glass globes filled with tiny flickering jellyfish. The creatures’ phosphorescent green glow illuminated the broken white clamshells now lining the edges of the path. A tallish structure loomed in the distance. “Is that the castle?”

She nodded and reached for his hand, squeezing his fingers between her own. “Yes, and I see they’ve already started to light the lanterns. We should hurry.”

As they passed another of the glowing globes, Shea asked, “Why do mermaids need to light lamps? I’ve always been able to see pretty well in the dark. Didn’t you say that’s a mermaid thing?”

Kae smiled. “The jellyfish lamps out here along the road are more for show than anything else. It’s a tradition to light the way to a celebration, kind of like proclaiming that everyone is welcome.”

“So they’re like decorations?”

Kae nodded. “There are times when even mermaids need to use lights, though. Like when you’re inside the castle at night. If you’re in a room without windows, you need some kind of light source in order to see.”

“The cartoons usually make use of electric eels in those situations,” Shea said with a smile.

Kae scrunched her forehead and frowned. “What’s a cartoon? Is it like a car?”

“No, silly, a cartoon…”

“Hush! Someone’s there up ahead,” Kae said as she grabbed his arm. “Act normal.”

There was a group of eight young merfolk swimming slowly along the path toward the castle, laughing loudly as one of their number continued to gesture wildly with both hands. Kae and Shea slowed their pace, staying behind them. “University students,” she whispered.

Shea’s eyes opened wider as took in the multi-hued group. “Are they all Aequorean?” he whispered back, and Kae shook her head to indicate no.

“The one with the blue hair?” She pointed surreptitiously. “He’s obviously from the Pacific somewhere.”

Shea’s mouth quirked into a grin as he squeezed her hand. “Oh, right.
Obviously
.” She elbowed him in the side as they swam slightly closer.

“So I said to the guard,” one of the young mermen was saying, “I’m sorry, Officer, but I told you my stingray doesn’t like strangers!” He was big and blond, and reminded Shea so much of his friend John Hansen that it startled him. Swimming in Nantucket Sound now with Kae, it felt like Oklahoma was a whole different world. He didn’t expect things to seem so familiar.

The other mermen were laughing at the stingray story, but the young mermaid next to the storyteller folded her arms across her chest, bunching up her woven-hemp shirt. Her blue eyes glared at her partner as the current tossed her long, blood-red hair behind her. “You’re lucky you aren’t in the dungeons right now, Dereck.”

“Or being fed to the Adluo pet sharks,” added another pale-skinned mermaid, this one with hair the color of lemons and eyes that matched. “You shouldn’t tease soldiers. It isn’t safe.”

“The War is over,” scoffed another of the mermen, who was wearing a seaweed vest over his muscled chest. His hair was short, spiky, and blue, in a shade that blended with the water around him. “With the King’s announcement at the Solstice feast tonight, the hostilities will officially end.”

“Don’t count your scallops before they’re hatched,” the redheaded mermaid continued. “I don’t trust those Adluo ruffians as far as I could throw them onto the shore.”

“Which isn’t very far at all,” teased Dereck. “Come on, Gwendy, lighten up. The War is over. Don’t we deserve a little peace?”

“Deserve has nothing to do with it,” she countered. “All I’m saying is be careful, please? I want to travel back to the University of Atlantis this fall with you by my side, not stuck in some dungeon.”

“Fair enough,” Dereck said with a smile and planted a kiss on the mermaid’s cheek. “Let’s hurry now, before we miss the procession into the Great Hall.”

The group swam a little faster toward the castle. Shea and Kae stayed in the back, keeping pace easily. As the young merfolk swam under the elaborate marble arch marking the entrance to the courtyard, Shea grabbed Kae’s hand and pulled her off the path.

“We shouldn’t go into the courtyard,” Shea whispered. “Someone may see my birthmark.”

Kae’s eyes opened wide. “Oh my gods! You’re right!” She grabbed his hand and quickly swam over to a field to the side of the well-worn road. “Why didn’t I think of this before?” She started tearing large fronds of seaweed from the ocean’s sandy floor.

“What are you doing?”

Kae was concentrating on the fronds in her hands as she swiftly wove them together. “Didn’t you see the vest that merman was wearing? I hear they’re all the rage among the western clans in the Pacific.” She didn’t look up from her weaving, her fingers flying through the water so quickly that Shea could barely see them. After a few minutes, her hands slowed and Shea could see the green vest Kae had woven.

“You want me to actually wear that?” He smirked. “That’s not a vest, it’ll barely cover my chest. I’ll look like a Vegas cowboy.”

“I’m not sure what a Vegas is, but this’ll hide the Mark on your back. That’s all that counts at the moment,” Kae retorted, holding it out to him. “Put it on. Now.” He complied, and she checked to make sure that the Mark of Poseidon was hidden from view. “There. Now we can enter the courtyard safely.” She started to swim for the entrance, but Shea grabbed her hand.

“Let’s hang back. We can watch from behind some of these statues.”

Kae shook her head, a short quick movement that sent her blonde hair floating wildly around her face. “I think we should blend with the crowd. If we lurk out here on our own, we’ll look suspicious.”

“Not if they don’t see us,” he countered. “I don’t want to get too close to those guards.” He nodded his head in the direction of the Adluo warriors who lined the pathway inside the courtyard. The guards were as stationary as statues and dressed with decorative blue sashes across their chests, but their scarred faces were those of battle-hardened soldiers.

He tugged again on her hand, leading her away from the path and the marbled arch and over to a shadowy spot behind a large carved-rock statue. He recognized the statue as a fat Buddha, the giant rock carved into a pyramid shape with a huge round head at the top. “This is a bad idea,” Kae whispered.

“Better than walking straight into the tiger’s den,” he told her.

“What’s a tiger?”

“Okay, not a good analogy for a mermaid,” he said with a smile. “How about better than swimming into an octopus lair?”

“Oh, I get it now,” she said, nodding. She peered out from the shadow toward the palace doors. “See the door on the far right? That’s where the procession will exit the palace. The King and your mother will come out first, followed by the other dignitaries. This year there will be representatives from all five oceans. Then come those representing the lesser bodies of water and usually someone from the University of Atlantis. This year I think the Chancellor himself is here.”

“Then what?”

“See that door over there on the left?” Kae pointed across to the far side of the courtyard. Shea poked his head out from behind the statue to look. “That leads directly into the Great Hall. The King leads the procession along the garden paths while people cheer, and then he and the Princess stop at the door to greet each of the guests as they enter the Great Hall. On the Solstice, it’s tradition that everyone in the crowd gets to meet the King face-to-face and then take part in the feast.”

They watched the crowd gathering, the noise level gradually increasing as more merfolk filled the courtyard. After a while, he couldn’t see either of the castle’s doors. “Will we be able to see anything from here?”