The Tree of Water (2 page)

My pride stung for days afterward.

But it didn't stop my curiosity from growing as fast as my beard should have been.

My name is Charles Magnus Ven Polypheme, Ven for short. Unlike the human boys in Vaarn, I am of the race of the Nain. Nain are somewhat shorter than humans, and grumpier. They live almost four times as long as humans, and tend to be much less curious, and much less adventurous. They hate to travel, don't swim, and generally do not like other people. Especially those who are not Nain.

I clearly am not a good example of my race.

First, I am very tall for a Nain, sixty-eight Knuckles high when I was last measured on the morning of my fiftieth birthday. I've already mentioned my uncontrollable curiosity, which brings along with it a desire for adventure. I have been blessed, or cursed, with quite a lot of that recently.

But as for the curiosity, while I've had a lot of satisfaction for the questions it has asked me, it doesn't seem to matter. As soon as one burning question is answered, another one springs to mind immediately. As a result, I am frequently in trouble.

So now I am about to lay my head on a chopping block,
on purpose
, and a man with a very sharp knife is standing over me, ready to make slashes in my neck.

I'm wondering if in fact instead of being a live Nain, I am about to end up as a dead, formerly curious cat.

Because now I have three whiskers of my own.

 

Ven Polypheme had two sets of eyes staring at him.

One set was black as coal. The other was green as the sea.

Neither of them looked happy.

The green eyes were floating, along with a nose, forehead, and hair on which a red cap embroidered with pearls sat, just above the surface of the water beneath the old abandoned dock. The brows above the eyes were drawn together. They looked annoyed.

The black ones were in the middle of the face of his best friend, Char, who stood beside him on the dock. They looked anxious.

In the distance a bell began to toll. Ven looked to his left at the docks of the fishing village to the south of them, where work had begun hours ago. Then he looked behind him. The sleepy town of Kingston in the distance was just beginning to wake up.

Ven looked back down into the water.

“Come on, Amariel,” he said to the floating eyes. “I can't really go off into the sea without him.”

A glorious tail of colorful scales emerged from below the surface, splashing both boys with cold salt water.

“Why not?” a girl's voice demanded from the waves. “He's a pest. And he isn't nice to me.”

Char's black eyes widened.

“I—I'm sorry 'bout that,” he stammered. “When I first met you, Ven didn't tell me you were a mermaid—” He shivered as another splash drenched him again. “Er, I mean
merrow
. I'm sorry if I made you mad.”

“Hmmph.”

“Please let him come,” Ven said. “Captain Snodgrass gave him orders to keep an eye on me. So if I'm going to explore the sea with you, he kinda has to come along.”

Char nodded. “Cap'n's orders.”

“He's not
my
captain,” said the merrow. “I don't take orders from humans. You know better, Ven. My mother will fillet me if she finds out I'm traveling with a human male.
Especially
if we are going to go exploring. There are very clear rules about not showing humans around the wonders of the Deep. And besides, it's dangerous. You have no idea how many sea creatures think humans are tasty. I don't want to get chomped on by mistake.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Ven watched Char's face go white.

“We'll be careful,” he promised. “Char will be on his best behavior.”

“I've seen his best behavior. I'm not impressed.”

“Look,” Char said. “If you get sick of me, you can always cover me with fish guts and toss me out as shark bait.”

The merrow stared coldly at him.

“Oh, all
right
,” she said finally. “But remember, there's a reason they call bait for sharks
chum
. ‘Chum' is another word for ‘friend.'” Her eyes stayed locked on Char. “And if you make a bunch of sharks angry,
Chum
—”

“I'll be chum,” Char said. “Got it.”

“So if you're coming, we have to find a fisherman named Asa with a red-bottomed boat.” Amariel pointed south to one of the far docks. “He'll cut your gills, and we can get going.”

Both boys grabbed their necks.

The merrow rolled her eyes. “Oh, come
on.
Do you want to be able to breathe underwater or not? Gills are the only way I know of to do that. I'm tired of waiting. Decide whether you're coming or whether I'm leaving.”

“We're coming,” Ven said as he let go of his neck. “Sorry—it's just instinct. Let's go.”

Char nodded, but did not remove his hands.

The merrow disappeared below the surface of the water.

The two boys hurried south over the packed sand along the shore.

“Ya know, it's not too late to change your mind, Ven,” Char muttered. “We could get a boat or somethin', and follow her out to sea, like we did when we were chasing the Floatin' Island, and then
dive
down to see whatever she wants to show us—”

“You can stay on shore if you want to, Char,” Ven said, trying to see the merrow in between the waves. “But I promised her a long time ago that I would explore her world with her. It's now or never.”

“Have it your way,” Char said gloomily. “You always do anyway.”

They followed the pebbly path in the sand south until the fishing village came into sight. Several long piers led out into the harbor, with docks along each of them. Small boats lined the docks. At each boat fishermen were hauling nets filled with flapping fish and cages with crabs and lobsters onto the piers. Seagulls flew in great wide circles above, screeching and crying, then diving for food.

“So how did she happen to find this Asa, and how does she know he won't just cut our throats?” Char asked as they picked their way among barrels and pieces of rope on the slats of the pier.

Ven shrugged. “No idea. But sailors and merrows have a pretty good connection.” He pointed about halfway down the pier, where a small green fishing boat with a red bottom bobbed lazily in the morning tide. A wrinkled man in a wrinkled hat sat on a barrel at the edge of the dock, cleaning his morning catch of fish. “Could that be him?”

Char squinted. “I guess so.”

“Come on. We may as well ask. If it's not Asa, he probably knows where to find him. Fishermen all know each other.”

The two boys walked along the pier, stepping out of the way of men dragging lobster traps and heavy netting, until they got to the red-bottomed boat. They stopped behind the elderly fisherman, who did not seem to notice they were there.

Ven coughed politely.

“Excuse me, sir—are you Asa?”

The fisherman looked up from his work, his sky-blue eyes twinkling in the sun.

“Who's askin'?”

“Er, my name is Ven, sir. I was told I might find a fisherman at this dock who could, uh, cut gills.”

The wrinkly man nodded. “Well,
Ven,
you've found 'im. But I can't say as I've heard of any recent wrecks.”

Ven blinked. “Pardon?”

“Shipwrecks,” said the fisherman. “That's the only reason I know of for a man to risk a slice in his neck—to salvage the treasure from the bones of a shipwreck.”

“Oh.” Ven and Char exchanged a glance, then looked off the edge of the dock.

In the water behind the boat, the beautiful tail of multicolored scales was waving at them from beneath the surface.

“Uh, we weren't really planning to dive for treasure,” Ven continued, trying to block the sight of the merrow's tail. “We just want to do some exploring.”

The fisherman's eyebrows arched.

“The sea's no place to explore without a good reason, lads,” he said seriously. “Lots of bad stuff down there—believe you me. The only reason a man takes his life into his hands on a daily basis by going out there is to make a living for his family. Otherwise, we'd farm the land.” The blue eyes twinkled. “If we knew how.”

“Well, we'd really like to have gills, nonetheless,” Ven said. “We've been told you know how to, er, cut them without too much pain—and safely. Is that true?”

Asa exhaled, then nodded.

“I suppose that depends on how much is too much where pain is concerned,” he said. “That's really up to you. It's not my business what you're doing. We mind our own business on the sea. If you want gills, and you're willing to take the risk, I can cut 'em for you right quick.” He held up a thin silver filleting knife. “Then I have to get back to cleaning my catch. So, what'll it be? Make haste, now.”

Char and Ven looked at each other once more, then nodded at the same time.

“We're in,” said Char.

“All right then,” said Asa. He reached into the boat and took hold of the top of a small sea chest that held his tackle. He slammed it closed and put it on the dock in front of them. “Kneel down and put your heads on this chest, your left ears down.”

The boys obeyed.

“Well, 's been good to know you,” Char whispered as they positioned their heads on the chest.

“Shhh,” Ven whispered back. “We're not being executed, for pity's sake.”

“You hope we're not. You never know.”

Asa wiped the filleting knife on his trousers, then came and stood over Ven.

“Hold very still, now.”

Char winced and put his hand over his eyes.

Ven started to close his eyes as well.

Suddenly, from the end of the dock near town, a bright flash of rainbow-colored light blinded him.

And the world seemed to stop around him.

 

2

The Fortune Teller's Return

Ven looked east into the light of the climbing sun.

A tall, thin shadow was standing there where nothing had been a moment before. The rays of morning light made it look like the shadow was dancing in the air, which had suddenly become still and heavy.

Ven's eyes opened wide.

“Madame Sharra?” he whispered.

He blinked. The shadow came into focus.

Standing at the edge of the pier near town was a woman of great height, with golden skin and eyes. The eyes were watching him closely.

This was only the third time I had ever seen her.

The first time was in a fortune teller's tent inside the Gated City, the magical, terrifying Market of Thieves behind high walls inside the city of Kingston. I paid a gold coin to draw from her deck of cards made from dragon scales, and in return she told me many things about my future that were both exciting and troubling.

The second time was at the abandoned pier in the north of Kingston where Amariel and I meet. She had come out of the Gated City, something I had not known was possible to do, with a warning for me. She told me that the path of my footsteps into the future was disappearing from her sight, a possible sign that my life is drawing to its end.

And she gave me one of her dragon scales. It led to an exciting adventure which almost made that prediction come to pass.

Now she is here again.

I guess I should stop being surprised by things like this.

Whenever she is near, Time seems to slow down around us. The bells of the city stop ringing, the people freeze in place; even Char, who is kneeling beside me, covering his eyes, does not seem to be breathing.

But maybe that's because he was peeking through his fingers, staring at the fisherman's knife.

The golden eyes did not blink in return.

“Is this how you intend to bring my prophecy to its end, Ven Polypheme?”

“Excuse me?” Ven stammered.

“You are allowing a man you just met to slash your throat? Why?”

Ven sat up, careful to avoid the knife in the fisherman's motionless hand above him, and began walking toward the golden woman.

“Er—well, I need to be able to breathe underwater.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Ven could almost feel them fall foolishly to the ground in the heavy air around him. He swallowed and tried again. “So I can go into the sea.”

Madame Sharra's expression did not change.

“For what reason is a Nain, a son of the Earth, going into the sea?”

Ven blinked again. His eyes felt as heavy as his tongue.

“Lots of reasons,” he said slowly. “Amariel—the merrow over there—she's my friend.” He pointed to the motionless tail rising out of the water, just the fluke fin visible. “I've been promising her for a long time I would come and explore the sea with her. It's her home. She came out of the sea to explore
my
world—she grew legs, in fact, and—”

“A good reason, perhaps, but good enough to risk death?” asked the golden woman. “Is there another reason?”

“Well, it's sort of my job.” Even as he spoke the words, Ven thought they sounded silly. “King Vandemere—the ruler of this island—has asked me to make note of any magic hiding in plain sight in the course of my travels. He—he thinks I have the ability to see that magic, and he wants to protect it. He thinks there is a great magical puzzle, and when we have enough pieces, we can solve it, and know why the world was made and what we are supposed to do with it. I've been keeping notes in my journals—”

The golden eyes did not blink.

“There certainly is a great deal of magic to be found in the sea. A great deal of danger as well. You can find magic hiding almost anywhere you look. Why the sea?”