You must never, ever swim out of the cove, Sapphy. The currents are dangerous. Stay in the cove where it’s safe.
Dad drummed those words into me for years, but tonight I’m certain that they aren’t true. Getting out of the cove is our only hope. Once we are in the open water, then Ingo has got to come to us. Or else—
Don’t think of that. Just swim.
The feeling of hatred is growing stronger, as if whatever has possessed our cove knows that we’re about to escape it. I’m
swimming as hard as I can, but my limbs are so heavy that they can hardly push the water aside.
“Saph! Look! I think – I saw Faro – out there–” Conor’s voice comes in gasps. We are both exhausted, but Faro’s name sends a pulse of hope through me. If he’s there, then Ingo is close.
A few more metres, that’s all. Those rocks aren’t really closing in on us from both sides. It’s an illusion. The thing that hates us wants to frighten us into turning back. Remember how wide the mouth of the cove really is. Remember how easily the
Peggy Gordon
used to sail out. It was wide – safe …
“We’re through!”
The drag on my mind and body has disappeared. I’m free. The sea buoys me up, salty and welcoming. It feels neither cold nor warm. It feels – it feels …
The surface parts, and lets me in. I swim down, and moonlit bubbles stream from my hands. I know there are no air bubbles streaming from my mouth. Down, down, down, through the live, velvety water. I catch a faint, far-off sound, like the boom of sea in a giant shell. I am in Ingo.
“Greetings, little sister.”
“Faro! Why didn’t you come?”
Faro swims close. “Speak softly. There are spies everywhere.”
Conor swims towards us. “What happened, Faro?”
“Ervys has made your cove into a Porth Cas. I could not enter it or warn you.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
We are in the moonwater, and there’s enough light to see the anger on Faro’s face.
“You know that we Mer can enter each other’s thoughts, Sapphire? You know how the Mer reach decisions in the Assembly chamber, by thinking together? Ervys has taught his followers a different way of using that power. They think together and make their hatred into a weapon. It becomes like a living creature, which can be kept in one place until it grows strong enough to change the nature of that place. They have made their Porth Cas at your cove. They knew you would enter Ingo that way.”
“Couldn’t Saldowr have stopped them?”
“No. He’s at the Assembly chamber now. Ervys is trying to prevent our people from entering, and Saldowr is there to protect them.”
“Where’s Elvira?” asks Conor. “Is she all right?”
“She’s in no danger. We will see her at the Assembly chamber.”
Our people.
Dad will be there among them. I am sure of it. He will come to see his own children present themselves as candidates for the Crossing of Ingo. I will see Dad there, among the ranks of the Mer. Saldowr promised it.
I can promise you that you will see your father again, and soon … at the next Assembly, when the young Mer who think they are ready to make the Crossing of Ingo will come forward … Your father will surely be there …
“Have you fallen asleep, little sister?”
“No – I’m sorry, Faro, I was just thinking—”
“You hide your thoughts from me today. Why is that?”
“Because they’re private, Faro.”
“Private! There is no yours and mine between us,” says Faro with an air of grandeur that makes him look like a prince. But there are no princes and princesses in Ingo.
It is so good to see Faro again. In spite of the dark and danger it feels like old times. Any minute now he will flip into a series of outrageously dazzling somersaults, calling, “Watch me, little sister!”
“Faro, is your tail all right?”
He shrugs. “It’s fine.” This probably means it isn’t fine at all, but Faro’s tone stops me asking any more.
“We must close our minds as we go to the Assembly chamber. You will be all right, Conor, since you open your mind to no one in Ingo.” He shoots Conor a glance which makes me think, for the first time, that perhaps Faro is disappointed by Conor’s lack of warmth towards him. It’s not that Conor doesn’t like him. I wish Faro could understand that. But Conor doesn’t entirely trust Faro, not as I do. All the same, Faro’s wrong. Conor
does
open his mind to one person in Ingo: Elvira, Faro’s sister. I wonder what Faro really thinks about that?
“I’m certainly not going to play mind games with Ervys or anyone else,” says Conor.
“Ervys will believe in the power of his Porth Cas,” goes on Faro, “but he may have laid other surprises for us just in case you two got into Ingo another way. And now
we
will surprise him.”
“Do you think … Is he waiting around here somewhere, Faro?” I ask.
“No. He and his followers will have gone to the Assembly
chamber. They want to be sure that all the young Mer who follow Ervys are accepted for the Crossing. If they can, they will stop those who follow Saldowr. But let any of the Mer dare to interfere with the Call!” Faro tosses back his hair. “They will learn what it is to break the laws of Ingo. Let them feel for themselves the hatred that they try to call down on others! Let the spear in Mortarow’s hand become the spear in Mortarow’s heart!”
“Faro!”
“What?”
“You sound so – so vengeful.”
“You have not seen my vengeance yet, little sister,” says Faro. His voice is very quiet. He is not boasting, but promising. “He tried to kill you there in the cove, with your
deublek
on your wrist, as you came to answer the Call of the conch. Every law of Ingo is outraged. And Conor too,” he adds quickly. Conor laughs.
“You find it funny?” demands Faro.
“Chill, Faro,” says Conor. “It was just the way you put it. I’m on Ervys’s case as much as you are.”
“Chill?”
“It’s like
Give me five,”
I put in quickly.
“Ah, I see! Conor, give me five!” And everything else is forgotten as they laugh and slap hands.
Excitement is building in me now. Faro’s descriptions of the Crossing glitter in my memory.
I’ve heard such stories, Sapphire! There are fish that fly and fish like rainbows and fish that walk on the floor of the sea, and whales bigger than any we see in these waters. There are lost cities too, Sapphire, which were in the
Air once and which sank down into Ingo long before our great-great-great-grandmothers went to Limina. Think of it, little sister! We are going to the bottom of the world …”
“Aren’t we supposed to be at the Assembly chamber?” I ask.
A
s we swim closer to the Assembly chamber we see a stream of young Mer approaching it. Faro has brought us round by the south, to my relief. I wouldn’t want to face the narrow tunnels we had to pass through last time, not after the Porth Cas. We swim easily, but I notice that Faro is not as fast as usual. Whatever Elvira put on the wound has worked well, but Faro’s tail hasn’t completely healed yet. The Call echoes in our ears like a trumpet, stirring our blood. Ingo wants us to be at the Assembly chamber. I am sure of it, whatever Ervys says.
I am longing to see Saldowr. We keep a few metres below to the surface in the moonwater until the moment when we have to dive to reach the chamber. Shadowy figures stream past on both sides now. It looks as if the whole of Ingo is gathering. I thought Faro would take us to join the current of young Mer, but he doesn’t.
“We are not going to use that entrance,” he whispers. My heart plummets. Just as I thought we’d missed the tunnel, we’re going to have to go into it.
“But, Faro, we can’t go back now!”
“I don’t mean the tunnel, little sister. Follow me.”
I remember how the main entrance to the chamber lay directly above the Speaking Stone, high in the rocky roof. Faro swims sideways, through the dark water. He can see better than I can. I follow closely, with Conor at my side. Now we can’t see any other Mer.
Faro slows, and swims along the face of the rock, testing it with his right hand, patting, feeling. He goes a little farther and then stops. “It’s here.”
I can’t see anything. The rock looks solid.
“Conor, give me your hand,” says Faro. He guides Conor’s arm. Suddenly Conor’s hand slides behind the rock. He pulls it out quickly.
“You try, Sapphire.”
The rock looks solid but there’s a space behind it about as wide as my two hands held finger-tip to finger-tip.
“Saldowr told me about the gap. None of the Mer know of it.”
“Can we get through?” Conor asks.
“He says so. We’ll have to squeeze in sideways. If we can get our heads and shoulders through, then our tails will be no problem.” It’s the first time Faro has ever forgotten that we are not Mer.
Faro turns and peers at us through the gloom. “Conor, you go first. You’ll have to feel your way. And then you, Sapphire. I’ll keep watch. Once you are through, you’ll find that you are on a ledge above the Assembly chamber, hidden by a veil of rock.”
“How far do we have to go?” asks Conor.
“It’s only a short way.”
“Can I go first?” I ask.
“Let me. It might be dangerous,” says Conor.
“No, Con!”
They move aside for me. I feel my way into the space. It is very dark and very narrow. I turn so that my shoulders are at the narrowest possible angle and push myself forward, head first. My head scrapes rock. I must have got the angle wrong. I try again, moving parallel to the rock, and this time it seems to open up for me. I edge sideways with my hands flat against the rock. It’s very tight. If it’s tight for me, it’ll be even worse for Conor. And then I see space ahead of me, and light – a greenish glow. Sea worms, thousands upon thousands of them, lighting the chamber.
There is the veil of rock, as Faro said. I can hear the vast murmur from the Mer crowds. The ledge is broad enough for three of us. I press my face against the dark passage from which I’ve just emerged, and whisper: “I’m through!”
I count until Conor comes to stop myself thinking of him wedged there, unable to move backwards or forwards.
Thirty-one – thirty-two …
It’s half a minute already. Surely it didn’t take me that long?
Thirty-eight – thirty-nine …
Conor emerges. I can’t see his face properly but I can hear the relief in his voice as he says, “That was a bit tight.”
“Did you get stuck?”
“Just my head for a few seconds.”
“Will Faro be OK?”
“He’s coming now.”
In a moment we are all reunited, pressed close together so that the rock veil hides us. I don’t suppose anyone will look up, but we’ve got to be careful. Conor swims a quarter stroke forward, and sculls himself into a place where he can peer around the edge of the rock. “I can see them!” His voice vibrates with excitement. “They’re coming in past Ervys’s men!”
“Let me look.” I join him.
Faro swims above me so that we can both see. The huge chamber is alive with people. I scan the crowds, trying to pick out Dad’s face. Rows of Mer are seated below us in ranks that rise way up the sides of the chamber. I scan up and down the ranks and then across. I think I see him behind a pillar, and then the figure moves and it’s not him.
“Conor,” I whisper, “can you see Dad?”
“Shut up, Sapphire, I’m looking …” Conor sounds edgy. He’s been as sure as me that Dad would be here. I’ll search for Mellina too. If she’s there, Dad will be close. But there aren’t any babies or small children here. She wouldn’t leave Mordowrgi behind.
“There!” says Conor suddenly, pointing.
“Pull your hand back!” Faro whispers urgently.
I’ve already seen where Conor’s pointing. All the other faces vanish into a blur, and one face shows up as if a spotlight is on it. Dad is high up in the top rank. He’s looking intently towards the chamber entrance. He looks different. Older. His face is
drawn.
But that’s natural; he’s been injured,
I tell myself quickly. You wouldn’t expect him to look the same. His hair flows around his shoulders like the hair of the other Mer. It has grown very long. His chest is bare. Like Faro’s, his upper body melts into a strong seal tail. I can look at nothing and no one else. My father, so close that if I called he would hear me.
The two times that I’ve seen him in the flesh since he disappeared, he has been alone. When he rose out of the pool I didn’t even see his Mer body. I couldn’t bear to. It seemed too monstrous. When he swam in to warn me on the night the Tide Knot broke, he was a distant figure in a wild stormy sea. I saw his face and heard his voice, but no more.
I knew that Dad had become Mer. I even saw his Mer body in Saldowr’s mirror, but I still refused to accept it. It seemed like a nightmare that had swept over us all. I believed that one day we would wake up from it, and Dad would return to himself.
Now that belief fades until I can’t feel it any more. Dad isn’t alone. He isn’t a stranger here. He belongs. He is seated in the ranks of the Mer, as if that’s his rightful place. He looks at home in this Assembly. Another Mer man leans over to speak to him. They confer for a few moments. It’s clear that they know each other well. Dad has a life apart from us of which we know nothing. When I held my baby half-brother Mordowrgi in my arms, I thought I understood that. But it’s only in this moment, when I see Dad turn casually to a friend in the Mer Assembly chamber, that I realise fully what he has become.
I thought everything would be all right, as long as Dad was
given his free choice, but I was wrong. A wave of bitterness washes through me, tasting of defeat.
Conor is watching Dad too. We glance quickly at each other, but say nothing. We are probably having the same thoughts.
I feel very tired, as if I’ve run a long, long race and at the finish there is no tape, just an endless track going on into endless distance.
I can’t look at Dad any more. I must hold on to what we came for: the Crossing. Deliberately I focus on the Speaking Stone, set into the floor of the chamber. I will block Dad out of my mind.
The stone flashes opal in the reflected light from the thousands of sea worms that cling in clusters to the rock face. The chamber is like a vast theatre, humming with excitement and expectancy.