Fire (The Mermaid Legacy - Book 2) (11 page)

“Oh yes…that…”

“You haven’t experienced that here?”

“The kelp keeps the water at The Haven very clean, many families come here to get well in our water. Of course we are aware of the effects humans are having on our environment, we are inundated with Oceanids trying to escape it, but to leave the blue…it is unthinkable.”

“Well, Neith has decided that humans deserve to be massacred so that Oceanids can have the pick of the land and the ocean. He has been planning this for a long time and judging from the army I saw in Ferengren his plans are very nearly ready.”

My statement didn’t have the desired effect. There was no sudden intake of breath, or expression of horror, simply a curious polite smile and a few murmurs of approval throughout the group which made my heart sink as I realised just how anti-human they were.

“He is the one who is sending scouts throughout the ocean looking for children and their parents. His scouts almost captured these children while I was waiting for you.”

“What?” Aoi turned to Thanh.

“It’s true. We found Alexandra fighting off a group of Oceanids we have not seen in these parts before. She claims they were there trying to capture the children.”

“How many of them were there?”

“Five,” we replied together.

“And you stopped them on your own?”

“I’m multitalented,” I replied, creating an energy ball in my hand as I focused simultaneously on disguise.

That got the reaction I’d originally been hoping for.

“So then you must be…” Azura gasped.

I nodded. “Yes, apparently I’m the one who is supposed to lead Oceanids to equality and peace.”

“You will fight the humans for us,” Aoi said in awe as the rest of the council burst into excited chatter.

“No I won’t,” I told them.

The crowd turned silent.

“But that is your destiny!” Aoi replied.

“No. I’ve looked at that blasted prophesy every way I can and it doesn’t say how I will bring peace and equality.”

“Humans are our only enemy.”

“Well, I won’t be part of destroying them, I will help you with equality, I will work towards peace, but I will not do it through the murders of countless innocents.”

Aoi frowned. “Then why won’t you let Neith do it? It seems to me that he has the right attitude when it comes to the humans.”

I struggled to contain the fury his words stirred up in me. How could a species that proclaimed they loved peace so much, be so insistent that killing hundreds of thousands of humans was the only way to equality?

“You would condone thousands of murders?”

“Don’t humans do that every day?”

“They are ignorant to what is going on. You on the other hand are willing to stand aside and allow Neith to massacre millions.”

He shrugged. “They are not of our kind.”

With that statement my argument became suddenly very clear, I couldn’t keep trying to get the Oceanids to see the human angle. They hated humans and would be very glad of the their demise. But in their fierce loyalty to their species lay my avenue of approach: I had to talk to them from an Oceanid perspective.

“What if they were? Would you try to stop Neith then?”

“If it was Oceanids Neith was planning on destroying, then of course we would stop him,” Aoi replied indignantly.

“You claim that the humans’ ignorance is untenable and yet you display the same type of ignorance. Neith is using Oceanids to attack humans and believe me not all of them are there by their own free will. Neith will destroy Oceanids along the way to victory. His ideals are fanatical and they ride roughshod over everything I’ve come to respect in Oceanids.”

“How so?” Aoi seemed at least willing to listen to what I had to say.

“The Oceanids I met pride themselves on freedom, on protecting what is good in the ocean. Your kind is not so different to humans as you imagine in that both species love and cherish their children, both species care for each other and both species exist within communities that hold the ideas of the group high. What is different about Oceanids is that you have ideals that are perpetuated across the species, that despite great power in the talents you possess you nurture gentleness and self-control…”

The group nodded and muttered their approval of what I’d said.

“Neith is destroying all of that. He is blackmailing very powerful Oceanids to do what he wants them to do. In Neith’s army there is no freedom, only his control. I want to stop him, not just because he holds Merrick, my love, in his cruel clutches, not just because he is going to attack innocent humans, but also because in doing these things he is destroying the essence of what Oceanids are.”

The group was quiet, but listening intently.

“But I can’t do that on my own, so I’m asking you to stand with me against the greatest threat to humans and Oceanids alike.”

“I understand your plea, Alexandra, and it makes sense to me. I must ask you though, how is it that we haven’t heard of you before?” Azura’s tone held a shade of deference that hadn’t been there before.

“I’ve only just learnt that this is who I am too. My father decided to keep this knowledge from me…Three weeks ago I was an ordinary teenage girl heading out on a camping trip.” I chuckled dryly, shaking my head at the crazy events that had transpired since then.

I told them what had happened in the mountain caves, explaining how I’d tried to lead the pod in peace, tried to show them how we could save the Oceanids without annihilating humans. I explained how Merrick had been taken and how the remnant had decided to rescue him.

“I was stupid and naïve to go after him alone but I am relieved I did, because I don’t believe anyone who’d come with me would have survived. Neith is that brutal, and I want to ask you to help me to stop him.”

“I am curious as to why you believe that attacking humans will lead to our demise. It seems to me to be quite the opposite. But you are the fortieth generation Gurrer and that alone is enough for me to want to hear you out,” Aoi said.

I shook my head in frustration. We didn’t have time for this, I needed everyone at The Haven on board as quickly as possible if we were to have any hope of success. I thought I’d made myself clear earlier, but Aoi seemed to need further convincing. I tried to phrase it differently, thinking how to scare them into action. Nessa and Bo popped their heads back into the council room, obviously waiting for me to finish, and their appearance gave me the angle I thought might work.

“Neith wants power, power over the land and power over the ocean. He’s using humans’ reckless misuse of the sea as an excuse to stir up this idea that Oceanids are more worthy of life than humans. But ask yourselves this question. Once he rules the humans, what do you think he well do with those Oceanids that don’t agree with what he is doing, and why he is doing it? If he is willing to sacrifice other peoples’ children as the fodder for his war, what else is he capable of?”

There was absolute silence and into it Aoi spoke the question I’d been hoping they would eventually get to.

“What do you suggest we do?”

“We need to attack him before he tastes victory.”

“But none of us are soldiers, Alexandra.”

“I am not a soldier either, but if we train we could all become soldiers.”

Aoi shook his head. “I don’t know, it seems rather drastic to me.”

“Aoi, what is it you protect?”

“The innocence of our species,” he replied.

“Well, all I’m asking is that you continue to do just that. If Neith sends those children into a war, not only will many of them be maimed or hurt physically, all of them will become murderers. You will have a generation of killers. How is that protecting the innocence of your species?”

“I bear witness to all Alexandra, Defender of Men says.” Pelagius cut in. “I’ve been listening to Neith’s conversations for some time now, and as shocking as it all seems to us, he is planning on using our children to kill humans and any Oceanids that stand in his way.”

There was another long silence before Aoi asked, “how do you plan to train us?”

I’d been dreading that question because I didn’t know myself, but before I could answer, a rough, gravelled voice replied from behind the other Miengu.

“I can help with that.”

“Dad?” I whispered.

The Miengu moved out of the way revealing my father, underwater and dressed like every other Oceanid in the room. It was a shock to see him and he instinctively drew into himself as if to protect himself from me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked coldly as a myriad of angry emotions coursed through my veins. He had betrayed me, lied to me, and left me completely unprepared for the destiny he knew I would one day have to fulfil.

“Livius contacted me a few hours after you left. I raced to get to you as fast as I could but you are surprisingly quick and very illusive in the water and I only managed to pick up your scent from within the kelp.”

Livius was an Oceanid who had remained in South Africa, promising to round up land-dwelling Oceanids who were willing to fight Neith for peace and follow my lead in the process.

Although he’d promised that he would contact Dad, I’d put the idea of seeing him agian out of my mind. He had, after all, been silent my whole life about the Oceanids’ belief that I was the leader that would even the playing field, and give them the ability to live in peace within the blue.

Dad had known about my ability to breathe underwater from the day that Brent, my beloved stepbrother had drowned… He had known that I’d played a terrible part in Brent’s death, my body’s natural defence mechanisms creating a massive shockwave in the safe waters of our swimming pool that had stopped Brent’s young and healthy heart. Dad had known all of this, and said nothing.

Not even when he’d left me within kilometres of the Oceanids who had been trying to contact me had he warned me, except to instruct me to stay away from the mountains where he knew
they
lived.

Hurt at his betrayal mixed viciously with anger as I wrestled with the emotions my father elicited in me: fury at his passivity, and the natural happiness that always filled me when I saw the father I’d idolised all my life. Fury won.

Aoi nodded. “Good, Zydunas has a great deal of experience in these matters. Before he was chased from the ocean, he was the greatest Gurrer of our time. If anyone can train us into an army it is him. Alexandra, when do they plan to attack the humans?”

“I don’t know, but I think it will be soon.”

“When do you suggest we attack?”

The faster we got to Merrick the better, but I was also fully aware of the challenge we would face at Ferengren. We would have to be a well-oiled machine.

I frowned as I thought. “If we’re to win this, we need to surprise Neith. We can’t be predictable in any way. I want to chat to any Shaha you might have here, to try and understand better how Oceanids fight.”

“That’s easy, we don’t fight.”

“You’re telling me in all of the years you’ve lived in the ocean there has never been a disagreement?”

“Disagreement yes, war no.”

I nodded, trying to wrap my head around that. “Aoi, I’ll get back to you with a date tomorrow.”

He nodded. “In the meantime, you and Zydrunas,” he pointed at Dad, “will devise a strategy on who will be trained and how you plan to do that. We will hold another council meeting tomorrow to discuss it.”

“I am not working with him.”

Aoi’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“But he is your father is he not?”

“That doesn’t mean I trust him.”

The council were whispering and shaking their heads, expressions of shock and embarrassment on their faces.

“You will find, Alexandra, that disrespect for one’s elders is not well taken here.” Azura’s words were clipped.

“She has every right to be angry with me.” Dad spoke softly, “I have lied to her, her whole life.”

His defence of my appalling behaviour sent a bolt of shame through me.

“Alexandra and Zydrunas, you must put your family quarrels aside. Your people need you and duty will come before any personal feelings. I trust.” Aoi closed the discussion before leading the rest of the council out of the room.

The council room seemed suddenly very large and at the same time horribly confining as I faced my Dad.

“So what do you think we should be doing?” I asked him belligerently, wanting nothing more than to get the meeting over with so that I could get away from him.

He sighed. “Before we begin, I’m really sorry, Alex. Please know that everything I did was to try to protect you.”

“How is keeping me in the dark protecting me? How is lying to me about who you are, who I am, protecting me?

He grimaced.

“I wanted to protect you from this world, Alex. This leadership that you’ve been pushed into was never my dream for you, I wanted you to be free.”

I was shocked at how little he knew me. “Dad, I have never felt more in control of my own life, my own destiny than I do now…this is what I was meant to be…and you kept me from this…”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he repeated lamely.

“Whatever, can we get on with this?”

A spasm of pain flashed across his face, but he nodded anyway.

“So what do you think?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure what to think, Alex, if what you say of Neith is true…”

“So you mean you don’t believe me either? That’s just great!”

He held up his hands. “Alex, I didn’t say that…”

“If you don’t believe me then please don’t even bother, I’ll figure this out on my own, just like I have been doing...”

I was really angry now and felt myself losing control of the emotions that I had held on to for so long.

“Does Mom know who you are?”

“If you’re asking whether she knows that I am an Oceanid…no she doesn’t, and I would never want her to know.”

“Why not? How can you live such a lie?”

“Alex, unless you haven’t noticed humans, don’t do well in our world…” He held out his hands to me as soon as the words were out of his mouth, trying to placate the fury I knew must be raging across my face.