Water (26 page)

The sun was too bright when I opened my eyes a few short moments later, my ears ringing with the explosion. Talita lay a few paces from me, her dress tattered.

I crawled over to her, turning her to face me and trying to understand why she didn’t answer me, even though her eyes were open. It took a few more moments of watching dark red blossom across the white fabric that covered her chest and midriff to realise that she would never answer me again.

I groaned, the sound distant and foreign as I lay her down gently, shifting away from her and wrapping my arms around my legs as I tried to make coherent sense of my surroundings, rocking backwards and forwards as I did so.

Shards of rock were everywhere, the mountain had a huge gaping hole in its side and was bleeding dark brown mud that dribbled in a macabre gash down the cliff face we’d been climbing.

Watching the water brought me back to my senses, as with sickening dread I began to stumble towards it, hoping against hope that the black fear that edged my mind couldn’t possibly be true.

Once I’d managed to claw myself into the horrible gash in the mountain, I found the stream easily, focusing my fear into navigating my way back to the cave, back to the Oceanids, and mostly back to Merrick.

I didn’t allow myself to think too much, I was too afraid of what might greet me to do that, instead I pushed my body to swim as fast as I possibly could, focusing on the last image I had of Merrick’s face.

The water was murky, full of mud and debris making it difficult to place where I was in the labyrinth of underground waterways, so that when my head broke the surface I was surprised to find myself at the entrance to the great hall where I’d first met Talita.

I wouldn’t have recognised it but for the remains of one wall that trembled constantly. Dozens of the delicate crystals that lined the walls lay in shattered pieces over the cracked onyx floor.

An almost inhuman howl of anguish sent goose bumps racing over my skin as I hurried through the razor-sharp remains of the once beautiful hall.

The passageway that led to the where the sick Oceanids had been had collapsed in a tumble of rocks. I tried to find a way through them as the weeping on the other side gained in volume, different voices groaning their horror.

Eventually in sheer frustration I grabbed one of the rocks and pulled, focusing my panic into strength.

It felt as though the whole mountain shook, more crystals crashing to the floor of the great hall, as panicked voices on the other side of the rock fall shouted to each other.

I waved the dust aside, finally seeing a gap in the rock through which I could squeeze. I pulled myself through it, ignoring the sharp pain as the fallen rock cut into my hands, elbows, hips and knees. Pushing pieces of rock aside, I’d just managed to pull my feet out of the tunnel when it collapsed.

My worst nightmare could never have prepared me for the scene that greeted my wide-stretched, horrified eyes as I picked my way through the debris. The hospital area was completely destroyed and I hoped against hope that no one had been in any of the avens when they collapsed.

A shuddering sob from the top of the cliff pulled me from where I was stumbling in dazed horror through the devastation, focusing my confused mind as I searched quickly for a way up.

The rock steps we’d climbed up when I’d first come to this cave still remained, despite the destruction of whatever had happened here.

I leapt at them, racing to the top as I heard more voices. The scene at the top of the cliff was just as sickening. The once beautiful fever tree that had been the epicentre of the pod was a smoking stump. Around it lying or sitting in devastated huddles were the survivors.

My eyes scanned them quickly, recognising some of them, but not finding the one person I so desperately wanted to see.

“Merrick?” I shouted, my voice frantically loud as my desperate eyes searched for him, hoping that he’d turn around and smile at me.

“Merrick!” I shouted again, my voice cracking in panic as the Oceanids turned and looked at me, some of them with pity in their eyes, others with anger.

“Merrick!” I screamed, terror blossoming around me as I began to shake with fear.

A soft hand on my shoulder made me jump.

“It’s no use,” Maya whispered, her face ashen. “They’ve taken him.”

“What? Why? What happened?” I pulled away from her, not wanting to comprehend her words.

“Just after you and Merrick left this morning, Neith and dozens of other Oceanids, people I would never have even suspected thought that way, came to find you.”

An olive-skinned Oceanid I recognised as the first sick man Maya and I had worked with stepped forward.

“They didn’t want to wait until the evening banquet for your answer,” he continued, his deep blue eyes creased in the horror of the events he related to me. “They were planning to force you to choose war.”

A petite little woman with straight jet-black hair bobbed as she stepped forward. “My name is Darya and I read motives. Your plan for peace would never have satisfied them. I watched as you spoke last night, and was shocked at how many of the Oceanids only wanted power and the complete submission or annihilation of the humans. Sharing was never something they were willing to even consider. I warned Talita about it and that’s why she and Merrick agreed to keep you away from the pod for most of the morning.”

“What happened to Merrick?” I asked them impatiently, not understanding why they wanted to give me a blow by blow account of the events that had taken place.

Maya squeezed my hand gently. “When they discovered that you had left, they used the opportunity to hold a council meeting in your absence.”

“That wasn’t a council meeting,” Llyr interrupted angrily from where he was curled protectively over Muirgel, “that was a veiled excuse for them to identify their enemies so that they could remove us. They are all cowards, not willing to follow the tradition we have always upheld when it comes to leadership and decisions…”

Muirgel hushed him, indicating that Maya should carry on.

“There was a lot of talk about power and riches and opportunities. Merrick arrived back here in the middle of it. He challenged Neith, telling everyone the details of your plans for peace, reminding everyone of the terrible dreams of bloodshed and horror we’d had the night before.”

“He was succeeding,” Darya cut in, “many of the Oceanids who had been swept away in Neith’s talk of grandeur started to change their minds. I believe that that is the reason Neith called the ultimatum.”

“Ultimatum?” I asked, a curl of dread worming its way through me because that didn’t sound good at all.

The olive-skinned Oceanid continued, “Neith called each Oceanid to choose between his ‘short-lived and victory-assured war’ or your ‘human-led’ peace.”

“Once the Oceanids had made their choice, they attacked those who chose peace.” Muirgel’s soft voice sounded out of place around such violent words.

“The attack began on Merrick,” Maya whispered, her eyes filling with tears as she watched the shock and horror on my face.

“They hurt him didn’t they?” I asked, a sob rising in my throat as I sank to the ground, because the expression on all of their faces confirmed it.

“Where is he?” I asked, looking at each of them.

“They are holding him captive, Alexandra, in the hopes that you will come to rescue him. If you do that, they will use you to fight their war for them.”

My whole body began to shake as I realised what an awful predicament we were in, because there was no way I wasn’t going to go after Merrick. He was the only way I could really breathe in life, the only person who knew every deep and horrible secret about me, and loved me still. He was my everything… and they knew it.

The Oceanids were discussing something, their voices humming in the background. I listened distractedly as the shock and reality of what had happened settled over me coldly.

“We can’t let them start this war.” The olive-skinned Oceanid was arguing with Llyr.

“It is not our business, Qinn, you’ve seen how violent they are. I won’t put Muirgel in that kind of danger.” The tenderness with which he cupped her pale cheek in his hand sent a fresh stab of pain through me as I remembered Merrick touching me just like that the day before.

I watched as the Oceanids fought over how to hold onto the miserly fragments of their world Neith had so casually shattered.

The confusion and uncertainty of what I was going to do settled like silt, leaving the way forward crystal clear.

I was going after Merrick and I would destroy those who had stolen peace from my people, both the humans and Oceanids.

I turned the decision over in my mind, facing the possibility that I would fail to rescue Merrick and end up a pawn in my enemies’ hands.

I pushed myself up and stood, facing them.

“I am going after him,” I told them with certainty.

The voices that had swelled around me as the Oceanids debated dropped away into silence.

Livius’s faded voice spoke into the silence.

“They know you’ll come looking for him, Alexandra. It is an absolute certainty in their minds.”

“It’s not a certainty, Livius, they don’t know how much I feel for Merrick, for all they know he is just a summer fling to me,” I told him.

Livius shook his head. “No, it is a certainty, my dear. It’s like that with our kind, we don’t swop partners or skip from one to another as the humans do. You and Merrick are two halves of one whole. As long as you are both alive, your bodies yearn for one another. Haven’t you noticed how hard it is for you to be away from him? How it almost feels like you can’t breathe properly unless he is with you.”

My jaw dropped open in shock because, of course, I had noticed. It was almost physically painful to be away from him.

Livius smiled sadly. “They will use your love to draw you into their trap and then they will use you to fulfil their plan of death for all humans.”

“Are you suggesting I stay here?” I asked him incredulously.

“I don’t see that you have much of a choice, poor child,” he murmured.

“If we stay here, we can rebuild.” A deep baritone reverberated through the crowd.

A hum of muttered approval rippled through the survivors.

“Rebuild for what, Irving?” Maya cut in, her voice angry.

“We can help those that Neith sends from the sea until the war is over,” Irving replied.

“You agree with his plan?” Llyr was incredulous.

Irving shook his head. “I neither agree nor disagree, Llyr, all I want is for my family to be safe, and staying here and waiting it out seems the safest option for me.”

“Do you honestly believe Neith will win?” Llyr asked him incredulously. “Do you think without Alexandra, the Oceanids are strong enough to take on the humans?” He shook his head. “Because I don’t, which means the humans will annihilate them.”

“If he doesn’t win it will still be better to be here than anywhere else right now.” A petite little Oceanid spoke up.

“That is pure cowardice, Adva,” Muirgel chided, her eyes flashing as she sat up.

“Rather cowardice than death, Muirgel,” Adva shot back angrily.

A couple of other Oceanids expressed their agreement with Adva.

“We should be grateful we escaped,” a slightly nasal voice agreed with Adva. “Neith doesn’t know who is alive and who is dead, so if we just lay low, we can disappear off his radar, and things can go back to the way they were.”

I held up my hand and cut them off

“Are any of you listening to yourselves?” I asked them, incredulous that these were the same people who had taught me so much about fighting for survival.

Most of them wouldn’t look me in the eye and refused to answer my question.

“This isn’t just about rescuing Merrick, although I’m surprised at how quickly you’re willing to sacrifice him so that you can go back to this shadow you call ‘life’. You were created to live in the ocean. You were created for the space and freedom and light and colour of the blue, and yet you sit here in the dry darkness of this cave and convince yourselves, and each other, that this –” I waved my hand at the dimming light “– this is what you’re happy to settle for?” My voice had risen with the anger that now bubbled just below the surface at the smallness they were willing to accept because of Neith’s violence.

“Perhaps I need to remind you of who you really are,” I asked them more gently. “When I first met you, you were the most beautiful alien creatures I’d ever laid eye on. But over the past few days I have recognised in you the loveliness of humanity that seems to have been leeched from humans over the years.”

I began moving among them and touching them on their shoulders, heads and hands as I did so, recognising almost every face as an Oceanid I’d helped to heal with Maya the day before.

“You are brave and strong, and you care more for each other than for yourselves.” I hugged Maya lightly before continuing to move among them. “I have come to respect and admire you, because you are survivors, you are the creators of exquisite music and literature and art. You are founded in your history and determined to create a beautiful future for your children.” I stopped and looked around at the all. “But the thing I admire most about you, is that you place family above all else.”

There was silence in the cave, but every eye was now focused firmly on me as they shifted their bodies in cohesion with every word I said.

“I know some of you are afraid of what will happen if we go after Neith, but I think you should be more afraid of what will happen if we don’t. You see, I’ve seen what fear can do first-hand. That’s why so many humans are in the state they’re in, living life so furiously fast, they can’t breathe, so that they can be ‘secure’.” I shook my head. “Fear makes many of them, including me for the longest time, live mere shadows of the life they could be living. Neith knows I will go after Merrick because he knows more about my DNA than I do, but he also ‘knows’ that I will go alone, because he thinks you are too afraid to stop him.”

I smiled at each of them, looking them in the eyes as I turned around.