Water (17 page)

Towards the top of the valley, hidden by bushes, appeared a cave entranceway. It was relatively high, allowing us to walk easily inside.

A few metres in, Merrick paused and ran his hands over his flowing trousers, before turning to me and running his hands slowly across my ribcage to mid-thigh where I’d twisted the fabric around my legs into the shorts ensemble.

My stomach flipped excitedly as my breath caught.

He was grinning at me naughtily, moving as if to run his hands down the middle of my body too. I caught his wrist before he could do so, grinning back at him.

“I think I can manage,” I told him, quickly copying him before he could run his hands down the length of my body.

He chuckled and muttered something in their language.

A few seconds later our clothing began to let off a soft luminescent light, just enough to see a few steps in front us.

The cave wasn’t as dark as I’d expected it to be though, and when I looked forwards I could see shafts of sunlight beaming into the darkness, bouncing at strange angles.

I gasped as we drew closer to them, my brain struggling to believe what my eyes were telling it.

Splits in the cave ceiling were the cause of the natural spotlights which illuminated the most exquisite stalactites. They extended from the ceiling in a fringe of spikes, some of them pinkie-finger thin and others thicker than my waist, all of them reflected in a glass-still pool of turquoise water.

I walked forward in a daze, each blink of my eyelids revealing another snapshot-like-view of the natural wonder of the cave.

Merrick led me to the edge of the pool before stepping into the water.

I watched in fascination as the mostly unremarkable flowing trousers he wore seemed to come alive in the water.

The fabric swirled and flowed, as if it were desperate to float away in the current only it had found. It changed colour too, from the dark navy it had been in the light of day, to a rich royal blue with flecks of turquoise and sliver and navy in it.

I’d been so distracted by my surroundings I’d ignored Merrick’s outstretched hand until he cleared his throat, grinning at me.

“Oh. You want me to swim with you?”

He smiled and nodded as I took his hand and walked into the ice-cold water.

Once he was in the water, he let go of my hand and slipped beneath the surface, swimming with incredible speed across the breadth of the cave.

He surfaced behind a screen of stalactites that had made their way into the water, making it look like he was in the mouth of some giant dinosaur.

“Come on,” he called, “you have to see what’s behind here.”

I swam with my head determinedly out of the water until I reached the stalactites. I circled them, looking for a way in.

“Come on under,” he called me.

The thought of being underwater still frightened me, but I was less afraid than I’d been in years. Merrick had saved me from drowning twice now, I was pretty sure he wasn’t about to let me drown here.

I took a deep breath and dived beneath the surface, searching for the bottom of the stalactite formations.

The water was so clear that I struggled with depth perception. It didn’t get darker or murkier as it got deeper. I could see every detail of the slowly growing rocks as they reached deep into the water, their colours glowing slightly in pale ochres and oranges.

I had kicked down a good couple of metres and still found no bottom when I began to run out of oxygen. Abandoning the idea, I raced back to the surface, bursting out of the water at the top and gasping for air.

“It’s too far,” I told him.

He shook his head. “I promise you, you can do this,” he said. “I’ll be waiting for you at the bottom, and I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I don’t know, Merrick,” I argued.

“Alexandra, I have watched you be defeated by your fear of water for years now. Isn’t it time to stop being afraid?”

His statement revealed just how well he knew me. I had once loved water, more than land, more than air. It had once been my haven, my playground, my sphere of excellence. In recent years it had become my enemy, and I missed it. I missed the comfort of it, the quiet.

“I’ll give it one more shot,” I told him, pushing the fear that edged my thoughts in black angry negativity away from me.

I was tired of being afraid. I wanted the adventure of swimming deeper than was strictly sensible, just as I had as a young child.

This time I swam with all my might, pushing the water up and away from me, and blowing a continuous stream of bubbles out of my nose.

I could see Merrick slip from beneath the formations far below me.

I watched as he waved to me enthusiastically. And thought I heard his voice from a great distance away as black spots blotched my vision and my body began to go limp, the searing pain up the sides of my head incapacitating as I no longer swam but sank deep into the clear water.

His mouth over mine, filling my lungs with oxygen and his body warming mine as he raced to the surface, seemed surreal.

He pulled me quickly onto the rock and then ran with me out of the cave and into the sunlight, cradling me in his arms and whispering comforting words to me.

I sat in his lap, my head against his chest as the late afternoon sun warmed through my chilled skin.

“I… I’m sorry.” My teeth chattered together with convulsive shivers.

He shook his head angrily. “No, I’m sorry, Alexandra. I should have stayed with you all the way. It’s just…” He trailed off, hugging me tighter and resting his cheek on my hair.

“J-j-just what?” I chattered at him.

“You were doing amazingly for a moment,” he told me. “The way you were moving was incredible.”

“And then I flaked out again.” I finished his sentence.

He shook his head and rocked me a little bit. “We will figure this out, Alexandra, don’t worry about it.”

I nodded, clambering out of his lap and bouncing a little to keep warm.

“Can we go back now?” I asked, feeling exhausted, and suddenly longing to see Josh and Luke. In all the excitement I hadn’t seen them at all today, and was suddenly homesick for their decidedly human conversations.

He nodded, looking glum and led me back the way we’d come.

He was quiet for the first part of the hike back to the cave, his shoulders slightly slumped and his expression decidedly unhappy.

“Are all parts of the ocean uninhabitable?” I asked him, hoping the question wouldn’t upset him even more.

He shook his head. “No, there are still some areas unaffected. Some humans have tried to protect the ocean by setting up sanctuaries. Most of them are being affected by the rest of the water though. That’s the tricky thing about water, it never stops flowing. Take your navy for instance, they spend more time chasing whalers from your waters than they do protecting your shores from any sort of attack on humans.”

“I didn’t realise it was still such a problem,” I breathed, horrified that whaling still happened.

He shook his head as he walked

“I know it’s not your fault but you and ignorant people like you are exactly the reason it continues,” he told me firmly. “I bet you’ve never bothered to find out about whaling because it doesn’t directly affect you, so the question is, what are you going to do about it now that you know?”

“Me?” I asked, surprised. I felt as though he was laying the whole all of the injustices humans had committed to the planet on my shoulders, even if I didn’t like what had been done, even if I didn’t know about it.

“Yes you, Alexandra, you have been quite happily contributing to the problem for years, what are you going to do about it now that ignorance is no longer a valid excuse?” He was definitely angry now, his back straighter, the muscles taunt as he walked in front of me, throwing accusations over his back.

“I don’t know!” I replied, my temper flaring. I found it more and more difficult to squash it back the longer I was with the Oceanids, they threw such ridiculous expectations at me.

He shook his head and picked up his pace, muttering, “Maybe the other plan is the better one.”

“What did you say?” I asked him, getting angrier by the moment.

He stopped and half turned towards me. “Maybe the plan where we declare all-out war on humans and simply utilise your abilities as a catalyst is a better one than trying to get you or them to change,” he spat, his eyes flashing angrily.

“So it’s OK to kill humans but not whales?” I ground out, trying desperately to hold onto the human side of this story.

“Let’s reverse that question shall we?” he replied hotly. “Is it OK to kill other species so that humans can have turtleskin handbags and shoes, or eat fish for dinner, or just for the sport of it?”

He was towering over me, every muscle in his body tensed and angry.

“Fishing is controlled now,” I replied, determined to at least try and reason with him.

“Controlled?” he hissed, really angry now. “How can you control something you don’t understand, you arrogant fools!”

“I am not the one doing all of this stuff, Merrick.” I managed to control the anger bubbling just beneath the surface, my voice clipped.

“Really?” he tossed over his shoulder. “You really believe that?”

“What do you want from me?” I yelled, abandoning all semblance of control as the unfairness of his accusations bubbled over. “I can’t go back to living in the Stone Age and walking to school, and even if
I
recycle and
I
stop eating fish,” I swatted at the annoying tears, “I’’m just one person, Merrick, it’s not going to make a difference.”

“Where does that ridiculous notion come from?” He wheeled as he spoke. “The idea that you are helpless to change the world you live in? That you have no power, no influence?”

“Because I don’t,” I yelled back at him, taking a step forward so that I was inches from him.

“How can you condemn us to death so easily?” His voice was venomously quite as he began circling me, his gaze flickering over me as he did so.

I followed his movements, reeling at the question. “What do you mean condemn you to death? “I know your people are in trouble but death? You’re being over-dramatic surely?”

“Do you think all of this is just for show?” he asked me. “Alexandra, we have no home. In the next year, two at the most, all Oceanids will have to leave the ocean, that is how desperate our situation is.” His shoulders slumped as he came to stand in front of me. “Do you remember what I told you about Oceanids being able to breathe on land once they mature?”

I nodded.

“There is a whole generation of Oceanids who will die in the sea if we don’t come up with a way to clean it up, if we don’t stop humans from polluting it.”

I couldn’t breathe. “You mean only adult Oceanids can leave?”

He nodded.

“How many children are left?”

“Thousands,” he replied simply.

I’d fled to the hospital when Merrick laid the weight of his entire species on my shoulders, and was listening to a woman who had told me she was ready to join the main pod in a few days. Her name was Maya, and while she still lacked the vibrancy that the other Oceanids exuded, she was inhumanly beautiful nonetheless. Her recovery had been much quicker than the others because her gifting was that of healing. She could impart health to any Oceanid, but only to the degree of health she held.

Surprisingly she’d known about this pod and informed me that word had spread in the ocean, about this pod and their ability to help the wounded. “I can’t wait to get back to the ocean to tell them about you.” She smiled at me.

I nodded absently.

“Would you tell me what is worrying you so much?” she asked gently, surprising me with her perceptiveness.

I pushed away the tears that threatened to embarrass me in front of this woman who was almost a complete stranger.

“I really want to help your people,” I whispered around the tears, “but I don’t know how to. I’ve spent the whole day trying to grasp these wispy pieces of talents that I can feel are just beneath the surface, but every time I get close, they fade away…” The tears I’d been trying to avoid spilt down my cheeks. “And Merrick is so angry with me for not being able to do anything tangible, and the whole pod is waiting for a report back on my progress today, but most of all, most of all I don’t know how to help you save the Oceanid children… and I can’t, Maya.” I began to sob. “I can’t bear the idea of them being abandoned in the ocean to die.”

She pulled me into her arms, making soothing noises as she did so, before helping me to sit upright again and wiping the tears from my cheeks.

“Do you know what I think?” I shook my head. “I think you need to relax and learn to trust yourself a bit more.”

I shook my head. “There’s no time for that.”

“Do you know that my healing talent only flows when I don’t think about it?” She smiled at my incredulous expression. “Most of us function that way. I’m not surprised you’re battling with so much pressure being placed on you. I tell you what,” she said, taking my hand in hers, “I think you have a little bit of all of us in you. That’s how I read the prophesy, so if that is true, then you have a little bit of the ability to heal in you too.”

“You really believe that?”

She nodded, smiling. “In fact I’ve been doing a little research on the Oceanids you’ve visited so far, and you know, they are all doing quite a lot better, far more so than the other Oceanids you haven’t visited yet. In fact even as we’ve been talking
I
feel more energetic too.”

My mouth fell open at her statement.

She laughed, a lovely happy sound that lit her features and filled the air around her, before she grew intensely serious again.

“So I’d like you to think about what you were feeling and doing when you were with them.”

“Nothing,” I replied firmly, “I just wanted to speak to them and listen to them and mostly help them feel better if I could.”

She nodded, smiling at me. “That is how my talent works too, I don’t access my talent by focusing on it and trying with all my might, I simply want the sick Oceanid I’m with to feel better, and they do, without me trying.”

A bubble of excitement formed in my stomach. “Can we go and try with the Oceanid next door?” I asked her excitedly.

She laughed, taking my hand as we scurried to the next aven.

My excitement instantly waned as we walked into the darkened cave. This Oceanid was so sick he wasn’t conscious.

“Just relax,” Maya whispered as she led me forward, her face infinitely tender as she stroked the sick Oceanid’s hair away from his frail face.

I walked forward and allowed myself to just “feel” for him, to hope that he’d get better. I took his hand and closed my eyes, imagining him vital and full of life.

A gasp from Maya had my eyes springing open, as we watched colour and flesh return to his cheeks, his laboured breathing easing and crumpled body straightening as his eyelids fluttered open.

“Was that you?” I asked her incredulously.

She was grinning. “I think that was both of us.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She motioned for me to follow her outside of the aven.

“I could never have given him that much life energy in my state, without seriously damaging my own health,” she explained, bouncing on her toes in excitement. “I know what my talent feels like, so I could feel it working, but much much stronger than I’ve ever experienced before, and I think that was you.” She could barely contain her excitement.

“Really? You really think I was part of that?”

She nodded. “How do you feel?”

I thought about her question for a moment. “Tired actually, as if I’ve been exercising really hard.”

She nodded. “Then it was definitely you, using talents takes energy.” She pulled me into a bear hug. “Don’t you see what this means though? Together we can go through the pod and help them so much faster!”

“So I’m not just the bunny rabbit?” I asked her, the excitement of being able to do something for these people thrumming through me and pushing the exhaustion aside.

She cocked her head to the side. “The what?”

I explained how useless I’d felt as a conduit and she laughed at my description.

“Don’t brush aside your ability to connect us, Alexandra, imagine if there were two or three or four of us all working on the Oceanids’ health at one time, each of us feeding off the others’ healing talents…”

The possibility of a whole army of healers opened up a completely different avenue of thought.

“Maybe that’’s how we can peacefully resolve everything?” I mused.

Maya looked a little confused. “By making everyone feel better?”

“Well, at least the Oceanids we do have will be healthy.”

She shook her head. “It’s a very short-term strategy, what are we going to do about the source of their illness?”

I didn’t have the answer to that question yet, my elation at being able to help the sick Oceanid deflating as the bigger problems they faced weighed on my shoulders.

She touched my hand, her expression compassionate. “Let’s talk to the others,” she suggested. “I feel well enough to go to dinner this evening and we can tell everyone of the progress you’ve made and perhaps ask all of them to start thinking about what your ability to heighten and unify our talents might mean.”

“OK,” I replied, gloom settling over me at the thought of having to face an angry Merrick again.