Water (11 page)

“We all know that integrity counts for nothing, if she doesn’t have the courage to stand up for what she believes,” Kendall continued, his eyes blazing as he looked straight at me.

I swallowed nervously.

“I don’t believe in anything,” I said, hoping that this would soothe them.

It didn’t. Kendall threw his arms in the air, his breath coming out in a rush of exasperation. He picked up the sacks they had descended with, shaking his head.

“There is still time for confusion to give way to courage, Kendall,” Sabrina said softly as he moved past us. “For now why don’t we start with some much-needed education on our kind, and what she” – she placed her hand on my shoulder – “is meant to achieve?”

“All the information and education in the world is not going to result in strength or conviction,” he said shaking his head. “You know my opinion on this, Sabrina. There is only one solution to our problems, and it doesn’t involve a spineless Halfling.” He turned and walking away from us without looking back. Tirta and Aysel followed somewhat reluctantly.

Shannon paused behind her friends and placed a delicate hand on my wrist, whispering, “Don’t take Kendall too seriously, he has height issues.” She giggled and skipped off, her laughter echoing and reverberating around the cave.

“That was intense!” I commented as Sabrina continued to lead me around the cave.

“Yeah, your presence here is somewhat unsettling,” she replied, a frown creasing her face as she rubbed her hands together, staring at them as she did so. She was quiet as we walked across the central area beneath the tree, dropping over the side of the cliff without a word of instruction to me.

I got down carefully on my hands and knees and crawled inelegantly to the edge. Sabrina’s face popped up right in front of me, and I squeaked in fright.

“Coming?” she asked grinning, before she slipped into the gloom.

I carefully lowered myself over the edge of the cliff face, bumping my knees on the rock as my toes reached for the ledge below. The drop on the edge of the pathway I found myself on was immense, with a dank, old smell that crept upwards from its depths.

I hurried to catch up with Sabrina, an icy wind and a feeling of foreboding making my heart race and interfering with my inner monologue as I tried to sort through the expectations the Oceanids seemed to have for me. They hadn’t articulated what they wanted just yet, but they had let me know that they thought I was something very special. “I am just an ordinary teenager, camping with some friends,” I muttered under my breath.

I knew of course that this wasn’t true, because regardless of my surroundings I hadn’t been “just an ordinary teenager” since Brent’s death. It wasn’t just the grief that had sobered me beyond my years. It was more tangible than that, a physical… oddness, as if I was perhaps in the wrong place, or the wrong era, or the wrong body.

I pushed the uncomfortable thoughts aside and focused on my incredible surroundings.

We walked along the pathway carved into the cliff face, Sabrina holding a flaming torch alight as we went. The flame was comforting in some ways, and disturbing in others as it flickered and danced, creating deep shadows.

Pull yourself together, Alex, I told myself firmly, there is nothing creepy here. But my instincts said otherwise, and I’d learnt, in the last twenty-four hours, that my instincts were often right.

I stopped suddenly, snatching at Sabrina’s arm and jerking her backwards, outside a mini-cave entrance on the curve of the pathway.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her tone tense.

I pointed dumbfounded at the rim of the cave entrance, unable to ask the ludicrous question that was forming on my lips.

“Alexandra?” Sabrina came to stand in front of me.

“Are those…” I squinted in the dim flickering light at the rim of the cave door, as dozens of tiny rainbows sparkled on the floor in front of me, toying with my toes. Hundreds of stones had been carefully arranged in beautifully intricate patterns, swirling out from the cave entrance to create a mane of softly sparkling decorations.

“Are those diamonds?” I eventually managed to get out.

Sabrina laughed, sounding relieved. “Of course, silly. Nothing else sparkles like that.”

I gaped at her and she laughed again.

“Then, er, then the cave we were in earlier…” I drifted off in mid-sentence.

“Yes, some of those were diamonds too,” she replied. “Talita only lights that cave when we have very important guests.”

“Wow!” was all I could get out, as we continued to walk down the pathway. “Who’s here today that’s so important?” I stared in wonder at a beautiful blue entranceway, the blue stones clustered around intricately carved wood work depicting fantastical creatures.

“You of course.”

I shook my head, my brain trying to process everything.

“Sabrina, I’m just an ordinary teenager on a camping trip with my friends,” I told her, repeating the mantra that had kept me sane over the last few hours.

She laughed, the sound bubbling around her.

“You couldn’t be ordinary if you tried,” she replied “and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can stop behaving like a …” She used the same word Shannon had used to insult Kendall earlier.

“Where are we?” I asked, wanting to change the subject, and feeling disoriented as I tried to see the softly dappled sunlight that had lit the main cave.

“The cave we are in is shaped like an oblong amphitheatre,” replied Sabrina. “The tree marks the one side, there’s a great chasm in the middle, and the cave we were in earlier this morning, the opposite end.”

The dizzying drop on the side of the pathway we were walking on was emphasised by the soaring height of the cave walls on either side.

A lithe beautiful man emerged from the shadow of the cave, his movements reminding me of a stalking cat. Sabrina moved in front of me slightly, her back stiff.

“Sabrina.” Her name came out as a hiss between rows of sharp teeth.

She lifted her head and squared her shoulders.

“What do you want, Laine?” she asked, her tone hostile.

He took a step to the right and Sabrina mirrored him. He chuckled darkly and then in a blur was behind me. Before Sabrina could react, his breath hot on my cheek as he hissed, “What do I want?”

His hand rested on my neck, his finger nails digging into my skin painfully. I shuddered away from his touch, instantly terrified by his unprovoked and surprising hostility.

“Hmmm”, he replied, softening his hands on my skin and running them down my arms, pausing where his hand covered Sabrina’s and mine as she tried to pull me away from him.

I watched in shock as ice crystals crawled up each of our arms with alarming speed.

A thick mist suddenly surrounded us as Sabrina pulled me away from him, his clutching fingernails leaving groves in my shoulder and in the ice on my hand, deep enough to draw blood. I stumbled after Sabrina, surprised when she pushed me hurriedly over the ledge and back into the clearing with the fever tree.

“What was that?” I asked breathlessly, relieved to be in the light again.

“What was what?” asked a familiar voice. I turned to see Merrick leaning casually against the tree trunk watching us. A rush of relief at seeing him took me by surprise as Sabrina explained.

“Laine,” she muttered, staring at her hands again and brushing ice crystals off her skin.

Merrick hissed.

“I told you to be careful!” he said, his cheeks colouring, his expression furious.

Sabrina glared at him, but didn’t try to defend herself.

“Why was he so mean?” I asked shaken and upset, pressing my ice-cold palm onto the still stinging scratches. I needed answers, and quickly if I was going to survive the ever-changing and infinitely complex puzzle my life had suddenly become.

“You make him nervous,” Sabrina replied, “and unfortunately I think you may have also just given him some horrible ideas.”

“Why?” Her answer didn’t make much sense to me.

Sabrina turned to Merrick. “How much does she know?” she asked, her tone serious.

Merrick shook his head, looking worried. “Nothing, Sabrina, can you believe that? He told her nothing! We have been waiting for him to fill her in for years now. Ever since the incident with her sibling, we’ve been expecting him to have the courage to help her take her place. It’s been an exceedingly frustrating time.”

Sabrina shook her head and made a tsk tsk sound. “Monumentally stupid,” she muttered.

“What about Brent?” I asked, my voice rough with emotion.

Sabrina ignored me. “How much should we tell her?”

“Talita has asked us to show her more than tell her, She’s worried it may take more convincing than we originally thought.”

“By her, I assume you’re talking about me?” I asked, heat rising into my cheeks as I worked to condense the anger I could feel bubbling to the surface.

Sabrina and Merrick took a slight step away from me. “Can you see her controlling that?” asked Merrick, talking to Sabrina.

“Yeah, interesting isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about?!” I snapped.

“We can see how angry you’re getting, and how well you tame it,” Sabrina said smiling as she waved her hand at me. Then turning to Merrick, “We met the Merrow earlier. They explained spiritus to Alexandra, so she is at least more aware of communicating her emotions.” She turned back to me, cocking her head to one side. “Perhaps that’s why she’s able to control her anger so well.”

Merrick shook his head.”No, she always does this. I’ve seen interactions with humans where she manages to do even more. I think that’s why her spiritus is so faint, she keeps a handle on her emotions all the time.”

“It was much stronger when we were with the Merrow.”

“Really?” he replied, surprised.

Sabrina nodded and grinned. “Her control could be useful in the future.”

Merrick grinned and nodded.

“So why was Leeroy so angry?” I asked again, determined to get some answers, “and why did our hands ice up like that?”

Merrick turned to Sabrina, his expression surprised as he waited for her to explain. She shook her head almost imperceptibly before Merrick took my hand and started leading me away from the tree, looking around him casually but with the practised eye of someone always on guard.

“Laine.” Sabrina emphasised the name as she followed us, a smile pasted on her face as she bobbed politely to some passing Oceanids. “He has issues with what you are here to do, and how we’d like to do it.”

“What is it that you want me to do?” I asked her.

“It’s not just him either, Alexandra,” Merrick interrupted, “so I want you to make sure that you are always with Sabrina or me.”

“Or Josh and Luke,” I added, assuming that Merrick considered them safe too.

“No,” he replied harshly. “The only two you can trust are Sabrina and me. Josh and Luke are…” He paused, glancing at Sabrina again. “Compromised,” he finished.

I was about to start arguing when I noticed Josh drifting by in the background, a gorgeous woman lolling on his arm and whispering seductively into his ear. He smiled dazedly at whatever she’d said and nodded his head.

“Josh,” I called, waving at him. He started to turn his head towards me, but the woman whispered in his ear again, tracing a finger down the side of his face, as he turned back to her and walked in the opposite direction to us. He hadn’t even acknowledged me! Stung, I turned to Merrick and Sabrina for answers.

“Alexandra, you need to understand that your appearance here is not welcomed by everyone,” Sabrina said gently.

“But why?” Merrick took my elbow and guided me to the very edge of the semi-circle of cave openings. We sat on spongy moss, Sabrina and Merrick’s legs dangling into nothingness over the edge of the cliff, while I sat with my arms wrapped around my knees.

“What we’re about to explain to you is going to be difficult for you to grasp at first,” Sabrina said, “but please try to keep an open mind.”

“OK,” I replied, preparing myself.

“You are the secret which will ensure our species’ survival,” Merrick told me.

“I’m sorry, what?!” My voice squeaked on the question. “I thought you’d been around for centuries — “

“You have very special giftings and abilities…” Sabrina began while I shook my head in denial.

“Do you remember the story I told you about Sabine?” Merrick asked.

I nodded.

“Well, unbeknown to her, she played a pivotal role in our species’ survival. She provided a way for Oceanids to leave the ocean, something our species had never considered until very recently.”

“Why would they need to leave the ocean?” I asked, “and what does this have to do with me?”

“It’s best explained by showing you,” replied Sabrina, standing, her expression sober.

They led me back to the pathway where we had me Laine, Merrick holding my hand. Everything around me sharpened; the darkness dimmed to twilight and an intense sense of wariness and icy foreboding settled over me. Warm light blazed from the chasm below. I peered over the edge of the cliff, my palms itching in fear, and watched the swift sure movement of someone as they leapt from ledge to ledge down the rocky wall we’d climbed up earlier. As they ran through the passageway, the light from their torch illuminated hundreds of circular entrance ways opposite us, which sparkled faintly before slipping back into shadow again.

My gasp of surprise froze Merrick, his stance instantly protective.

“How many of you are there?” I asked faintly.

Sabrina and Merrick exchanged a tragic glance.

“A couple of thousand,” Merrick replied quietly.

“So many?” I squeaked, surprised. “There weren’t that many in the cave earlier though?”

They didn’t answer me immediately, instead walking down a steeply sloped pathway until we reached another fissure in the rock.

A beautifully menacing Oceanid stood on the opposite side of the gaping split in the rock. The thick muscles on his neck, shoulders and torso tensed as he watched us approach. Across his bare chest a thick strap of leather, pierced through with a variety of odd-looking objects I didn’t recognise, drew attention to the crisscross of scars that laced his body and disappeared beneath a wide belt which secured the flowing trousers to his waist.

Sabrina bobbed politely. “Marinus,” she greeted him. “We have an important guest to show around today.”

Marinus smiled, instantly transforming his face from menacing to friendly.

“Of course, Sabrina,” he replied, and then to me, “I am most honoured to make your acquaintance, Alexandra.” He bowed slightly from the waist before stepping aside.

Merrick released my hand, grabbing the long bendy pole Marinus threw to him before using it as a lever to make the leap across the chasm first. He greeted Marinus jovially in the same strange liquid language Sabrina had spoken earlier.

Sabrina paused before the gap, her hands moving gracefully around her, as if she were trailing them through water. I gaped in astonishment as the air grew perceptibly colder and ice crystals began to form across the chasm. Within minutes she’d created a bridge of ice.

She offered me her hand, smiling at my incredulous expression. “That’s
my
thing,” she said in answer to my unasked question, as I watched the breath fanning out from her mouth in a fine purple transparent blue mist, curling and condensing slightly in the cold air. “I can manipulate water.”

“So you were the one doing the ice thing with Laine earlier?” I asked, still determined to get better answers than I’d been given.

She shook her head, as Merrick’s conversation with Marinus stopped abruptly at my question.

“No,” she replied, “that wasn’t me entirely, at least not voluntarily…”

“We’ll take you through the different talents later,” Merrick cut in, sounding irritated as he took my hand again, and glaring at Sabrina as he did so.

“Is that such a good idea?” Marinus asked, pointing at Merrick’s hand wrapped around mine.

“Oh yeah… probably not,” he mumbled, releasing me.

Marinus handed me a small bunch of sticks that smoked gently, releasing a pungent spicy smell.

“You might need this,” he told me, his expression grim. “If it gets too much, hold it up to your nose.”

Sabrina and Merrick accepted their bunches of smoking herbs solemnly before silently following Marinus.