Landlocked (A water witch novel) (36 page)

Halfway there, Sylvia grabbed my arm and propelled us both to the sandy shore. “Pick her up!” Sylvia shouted to Jaron. Without a seconds hesitation he threw me, tail and all, over his shoulder. “Come on, we have to get her out of here.”

“Wait, Dylan’s still out there!” I shouted.

Neither of them responded and I struggled to get out of Jaron’s grasp.

“Didn’t you hear me?” I cried. “Sylvia, Dylan is out there with those things!”

My aunt already had her legs back, and she turned away from me quickly, trying to hide the tears streaming down her face. “Run as fast as you can,” she instructed Jaron.

“Won’t they follow us?” he asked.

“They can’t come on land,” she said before bolting back toward the car with Jaron hot on her heels.

“No! Dylan,” I screamed, beating Jaron’s shoulder with all of my might. I looked at the water All was serene once again.

Jaron dove into the backseat, and Sylvia threw the car in drive.

“What were those things?” he asked as he set me into the seat. My tail was so bulky he had to sit on the floorboard.

“Those are siren—”

“Dylan’s okay, right?” I interrupted. My stomach wouldn’t unclench. I needed to know that he was all right. If anything happened to him, it would be my fault.

“I don’t know,” Sylvia whispered, her voice strained. “If anyone can make it out, it’s him. That’s his gift. He is the fastest thing in the ocean I’ve ever seen, and his senses are amazing.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Jaron said reassuringly. “I’m not sure if this is a good time, but… can you tell me what the hell is going on? Is Mari all right, I mean she hasn’t lost her tail like you did.” His voice was two octaves higher than normal.

Sylvia whipped onto the highway. “Well she hasn’t phased in so long, and she's frightened. It’s hard to go back and forth at first. Once her tail is dry of all the sea water, her legs will be back.”

“So you are both… mermaids?”

“Yes, so are you.”

“No—”

“Yes, you are. Your parents must have fled to land just like we did. We were escaping those things. But they have their pawns on the land and humans can still hurt us. Like what happened to your parents… Maybe I should start at the beginning, or at least the beginning of the end…

“Seventeen years ago our kingdom was at peace—”

“An underwater kingdom?” Jaron asked.

“Yes, now don’t interrupt again. This is a hard story for me to tell.” She sighed. “The sirens have hunted and killed us since the beginning of time, but with the enchantments that your mother kept in place, none of them could enter our kingdom. Kora had a beautiful coral-colored tail. Not like yours. You have a tail of two colors. That’s very rare. It means that you have both of your parents' gifts. Your dad has a gold tail and he controls the water—tail color gives clues as to what gifts you have. Kora was the last witch in the kingdom, until you were born. When everyone saw the flecks of coral on you, they saw hope for a future of safety. Many were worried that the witch might die out of the kingdom…” She glanced at me.

“But you put that constant worry to rest.” She turned her eyes to the road. “You were the most beautiful baby and the apple of everyone's eye.”

Somehow picturing what she described was easy, like a small distant part of my mind clung to the memory of a life that had been stolen. I looked down to see the flecks of color that had brought so much hope, but my legs were embarrassingly back. “Is there a blanket in here?” I asked. Jaron turned his head. “Don’t look at me!”

“Oh!” He closed his eyes. “Here take this.” He pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his perfect chest.

The t-shirt didn’t provide much coverage, but it was better than nothing. “Thanks—So, Sylvia, what went wrong?” I asked.

“Your mom was an amazing leader and no one could remember a time of better prosperity and happiness… but Kora had a weakness. And I suppose that it was a good weakness to have, it’s what made everyone love her so. She had a big heart, the biggest. One evening, your parents, Dylan, and I heard a disturbance on the surface. When we got closer, we realized it was a shipwreck. Your mother wanted to help, but assisting humans had been illegal since they'd started hunting us for our magical properties over two hundred years before. She finally agreed, until a baby’s cry reached our ears. We held her back, but she wouldn’t listen. Kora said the baby sounded no older than you and she couldn’t let it drown. She spelled us to sleep and left to rescue the child.

“But it was an ambush. They used the small babe for bait. Your mother’s spell lifted when they killed her. We rushed to the scene… but we all knew that the only reason we were awake was because she was dead. We were almost to the humans and meant to kill them, but when Kora died, our borders opened and sirens stormed the kingdom, killing at will. Your father had to return to defend the city, all of us did. I only ever saw the back of the human who killed your mother, but that faceless man’s bright red hair still haunts my dreams.”

Jaron’s shoulders tensed. My mom had died to save a child… she had been murdered in cold blood by the same man who had killed his parents. I was sure of it.

“Why didn’t you kill the man?” he asked, his voice hard. “Surely the people could have defended themselves. He—”

“A kingdom needs a king, and that is who Mari’s father is. His duty will always be to his people, like any good leader.”

“What?” I shouted.

“Yes, Mari. That makes you a princess, and there isn’t a soul in your kingdom who wouldn’t die for you.”

“No, this is too much! Sylvia, I don’t…” I couldn’t say that I didn’t believe it. “I don’t want this.” My stomach churned. “Pull over. I think I’m going to throw up.”

She slowed and pulled the car to the side of the road. I wrapped the shirt around myself and jumped out of the car, emptying my stomach on the way. When I finally stopped, Sylvia was at my side, rubbing my back.

“You already have it, poor thing, you were made for the ocean,” Sylvia cooed.

“What are you talking about?” I asked before the next wave of nausea bent me back over.

“You’re sea sick. If we go away from our home, we get violently ill. I can make some medicine when we get home. I’ll get sick too, and Jaron might.”

She ushered me into the back seat and sat next to me. “Jaron, you drive,” she said, and he climbed over the seat. Wrapping her arms around me, she whispered into my hair, “Mari, you are a mermaid, you are a princess to our people, and you are the only hope that we have to reclaim our territory and happiness.”

I shook my head.

“And you are stronger than you know. Bravery runs in your family.”

“What do you we do now?” I asked.

“We will do what we’ve been doing for that past seventeen years. Wait for word from your father and pretend to be normal humans—”

“But they know where you are, the people who brought me there,” Jaron interjected.

“Without Dylan, I don’t know how successful we’d be at running from them. He’s the one with the instinct for it. The best thing to do is play dumb; pretend that you still haven’t told us anything about them. They’ll find it harder to bargain without your brother’s health to use against you. Hopefully my husband will return soon.” She paused and took a deep breath. “Tomorrow is the first day of spring break, so what are we going to do?”

I looked up at her. “Get ready for the annual party?”

“Yes, and we have a lot to get together… I’ll need to think up an excuse for Dylan’s absence as well.”

Jaron was silent as Sylvia and I talked, and I wondered what he would do now. Would he take his brother to his house to nurture him back to health and then leave forever? Sylvia followed my stare and cleared her throat.

“Hey, Jaron, I know that you have your own place. But I really think that we should all stick together right now. Would you like to stay in the guesthouse with your brother? I can help you give him his medicine until he’s better.”

“Really… Sure, I was going to ask if it’d be okay. I don’t like the idea of you two there without Dylan around. What’s in my brother’s medicine anyway?” The car turned down the main street of our hometown.

“It’s just essence of the sea. It helps with the sea sickness, we’ll all have to take it now, or we’ll get very sick.”

“Does that mean Owen went to the ocean and that’s why he started to get sick?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s the only way that he could be in the state that he’s in,” Sylvia said.

“But if he went, he would have found out about… about what we are. He never told me about any of this.”

“It’s a hard thing to tell someone.” Sylvia looked at me with sad eyes.

Our house came into view, and for the first time, it didn’t feel like home. Jaron parked the car and I got out, awkwardly trying to cover myself.

“Go and try to get some rest, Jaron. I’ll be over in a bit to give you some medicine as well, just in case.”

I was inside before their conversation was over, but I didn’t feel like standing around half-naked any longer. I ran up to my room, slipped into some PJs, and walked back out into the hall. I couldn’t hear Sylvia in the house yet, but I didn’t want to wait around for her. All I wanted was to climb the staircase into the art studio and stare at the painting of my mother, now that I knew it really was a true likeness of her.

Shutting the door behind me, I laid down in front of the canvas.

“Mom,” I whispered. She was so beautiful. Sylvia had captured her disposition well. Her face was the kindest I’d ever seen. How could anyone do what they'd done to her? All she'd tried to do was save a child and they'd killed her and strung her up and harvested her. I looked at her chocolate brown hair that fell well below her waist. Had they chopped it all off like they had Jaron’s mother’s?

I raised my hand and touched her face. How could I miss someone I'd never known? When I started sobbing, I couldn’t stop. Making no effort to quiet myself, I was sure my aunt heard me. But she let me have my space, and I was grateful. Sylvia’s mournful cries reached me and I thought of Dylan. Where was he? Was he okay? Was that the last time that I would see the man who had raised me with such love and care? My sobs turned into full-blown hysterics. How could I—how could Sylvia live without him? This was the first time that I’d heard her cry… she must have been wondering the same thing. At some point in my breakdown my father came to mind but I pushed the thought away. He had chosen to give me up, and it was a hard thing to not feel angry about. My eyes were puffy and heavy and it wasn’t long before I drifted off to sleep. The last thing that went through my mind was the hideous face of the Siren and its hollow black eyes. 

20

Guests started to trickle in that evening. I couldn’t believe the party Sylvia had thrown together in such a short time. Fairy lights covered every tree and bush, lighting the garden warmly. In Dylan’s absence, she'd hired a restaurant to cater the party. Men and women dressed in white walked around carrying trays full of decadent looking bites. I was no longer sick
, thanks to the medicine Sylvia had given me, but that didn’t help my heavy heart. I missed the ocean terribly and couldn’t believe that Sylvia and Dylan had been feeling this way all of these years just to protect me. It had been such a selfless act for them to give up their home for me. Many mer were still in the ocean, scared and on the run, but I was sure that most of us would choose an existence in the ocean, even a terrible one, over living on land.

My eyes hurt and I was incredibly dry all over. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to go away. I would always feel like a fish out of water here, because that’s what I was. I had never been conscious of the symptoms before because of the potion Cala gave me, but I didn’t have that to make me forget my mer self anymore. I tried to smile and greet guest while ignoring my discomfort and sadness at being there. Once again my heart swelled, realizing how much my guardians had gone through for me.