Girl at the Bottom of the Sea (14 page)

She fingered it, feeling the love she felt for the bird in her heart. If Livia were alive, were with her, she would urge Sophie to be brave, brave and well-mannered. The feather dangling in her hair would remind her of that always, would help her live up to the person her pigeon friend had believed her to be.

And what of all the others she'd left behind? What would Ella say if she saw her now, sleeping in a place so far beneath the sea she bet no other human had visited?
But I'm not human
, she answered herself. She couldn't wait to tell her best friend the news:
Hey, guess what, I'm not even totally human!
She could imagine Ella making a joke and giving her a swat. How she missed the girl's half-mean, half-funny way of joking. Sophie missed everyone, even her mom. She wished there was a phone she could use to call Andrea, to tell her,
Hey, I'm fine, I'm at the bottom of the sea with that mermaid, visiting some Ogresses. No, don't worry, they're nice Ogresses. Be back soon, stay away from Nana!
Sophie
shivered with emotion. There were so many people who needed her care, but they were gone, gone for good or too far away for her to be able to help.

“Please, don't be scared.” The Ogress spoke in a rich accent, her words rising high and dipping low, almost a growl—but a friendly growl, like the rumble of a curious dog. “I know we are so large, my sister and I, but we are only gentle, and we have been awaiting you. I hope you find your room comfortable.”

Sophie looked around at the room. It was a cave of sorts, the walls gray and marbled, and her bed was linen stuffed with soft plants.
Sophie was so exhausted she could have fallen asleep upon a coral reef, but this bed was something special.

“It's lovely. Thank you so much.”

“Much better,” Syrena said approvingly. “You hungry? Ogresses make you food.”

Sophie's stomach rumbled at the mention of it. “I am,” she said. “I don't think I've eaten in a long time. But I don't want to put you out,” she said quickly. “I think I can conjure myself something.”

“No, no, we fixed you a feast!” the Ogress said. “I am Fenja. My sister, Menja, would like to meet you also. We cannot both fit inside this grotto, so I will let her in now.” Sophie wasn't sure but she thought the Ogress smiled as she turned around and crawled out of the cave. In a moment, a nearly identical Ogress came crawling in, her hand made into a fist the size of a boulder.

“Greetings,” said Menja. “I am Menja.”

“I am Sophie,” Sophie said. She wriggled to sit up. Now that she was awake it felt a bit strange to be meeting these famous creatures all slumped down in bed. She patted down her tangles and hoped she looked presentable.

The Ogress brought her fist toward the girl and slowly opened her hand, revealing a stone cup of water in the center. “I thought you might be thirsty,” she said.

“Oh, I am,” Sophie said, though she wasn't sure that she was at all. But she was touched that the Ogress had brought her something, and it looked so funny, so tiny on Menja's giant palm. She hesitated, unsure
of how to retrieve it. Would she have to scramble up the giant's fingers?

“I will get for you,” Syrena said, swimming up to grab the cup of water. “Don't strain you brain.” She brought the cup down to Sophie. “Is special water,” the mermaid said. “Come from hole in the ocean. Much good salt. Like medicine for you.”

“Thank you,” Sophie said, and brought the cup to her lips. And it did taste wonderful, the salt rich, not stinging as salt sometimes is. She gulped it down.

“If you feel able, we would love for you to dine with us in our dining chamber,” Menja said. “My sister and I cannot both fit in this grotto, though we thought it would make a lovely room for a human girl.”

“It does!” Sophie cried. “I love it. Thank you.”

“The walls are salt.” The giant gestured with her fingers, running one against the wall and pulling up a spray of salt in her wake. “It's very good for you.”

“I will ready her and bring to table,” Syrena said to the Ogress, and the Ogress smiled, her teeth as big as window frames, and crawled back out of the cave.

“You sleep long time, almost long as in Swilkie!” Syrena told her, pulling back Sophie's bedding. “You either real lazy or need rest bad. I'm not sure.”

“Syrena, I don't even remember getting here,” Sophie said.

“Ogresses oooh and coo over you like sleeping baby,” Syrena said, amusement in her voice. “They have this cave all fixed for you. They like to keep you forever I think! Like little girl pet.”

Sophie climbed out from her bed and stretched. It felt like her body had been pummeled by a natural disaster, which, she supposed, it basically had. Her body popped and cracked as she moved. “Oh, man,” she grumbled. Her hand went to her face, where the sting she got from Kishka's dragon whisker still bubbled. It was gritty with a salty ointment.

“You be fine,” Syrena said. “Not like you attacked by shiver of sharks, ya? That give you something to moan and groan about! You eat from giants' feast and feel better. Wait till you see this food. Giants eat lots of food. But we must make you proper for their table. Have you seen yourself?”

Sophie looked down and took herself in. Her T-shirt looked like a wad of Kleenex, wadded up and somehow stuck to her body. Her jeans trailed more stringy bits than a jellyfish. She was a disaster.

“Syrena, I look terrible,” she gasped. “My clothes are so ruined I don't even know how to get them off!”

“Is true,” the mermaid nodded, and removed a knife fashioned from a sharp bit of shell from where it was tied to her arm with seaweed. She went to work cutting the girl's clothes off, nodding with her giant head of hair toward a garment laid out on a hunk of coral.

“You see that? The Ogresses make for you.”

Sophie examined the garment. It was a one-piece fashioned from the same linen the giants wore, a material both hardy and soft. It was trimmed in braids of seaweed and strips of seal leather, and it fastened up the front with chalky bits of coral that fit into loops of rope. It
looked like a uniform for a corps that didn't exist, a deep-sea mermaid apprentice's outfit. Sophie stepped into it and solemnly fastened the buttons. It fit her perfectly. Her hands ran down it, unbelieving; she'd never worn anything so nice. She found a set of pockets at her hips.

“Pockets!” she exclaimed. “They made pockets.”

“Girl like you need pockets,” Syrena said, extracting the pouch Hennie gave her from where it tangled into the belt loop of her old shorts. “Here. You keep this in pocket.” The mermaid paused, giving Sophie an up-and-down appraisal. “Ya. You look much better now. Less like human girl, more like Odmieńce. Like have special task. Is good work suit.”

Syrena turned on her tail, and Sophie followed her out from the mouth of a cave, swimming into an antechamber that led her into a cavern so tall she couldn't see the roof of it, just a hazy darkness. Sophie
could
see the giants' dining table, a slab of stone set upon blocks and blocks and blocks of other stones, rising like a house above her head. Glowing worms, radiating jellyfish, and glass bowls of phosphorescence lighted the room. Luminescent lantern fish swam in slow circles above the dinner table. As Sophie was taking in the scene, the most grotesque sea creature she had ever seen pulled up beside her. It was an enormous fish, its mouth cranked open to reveal a graveyard of crooked, rotting, but very sharp teeth. Painful-looking spines splintered up across its back, and a twig seemed to be growing out of its face, hanging over its mouth. On the tip of this branch was a light, glowing blue like Sophie's own talisman.

“Uh… hello,” Sophie said to the fish, who seemed to be staring at her with its beady fish eyes. Sophie made an effort to look at the creature's eyes and not into its banged-up, ramped-up mouth crammed with all those teeth. Her heart pattered.

“Are you down there?” called one of the Ogresses. “We sent a fish to swim you up here. Don't be frightened! We know she can be quite surprising!”

“Just jump on her head,” said the other Ogress. “Or get in her mouth.”

Sophie looked at Syrena with wide, pleading eyes. “I'm sure I can just—”

“Get in the fish,” Syrena hissed. “This Ogress hospitality. I meet you up there.” Syrena turned and paddled up the leg of the table.

Sophie turned back to the fish, who was probably waiting patiently, though it was impossible for it not to look menacing. “Okay, then,” Sophie said awkwardly. “I guess I'll just…” Head or mouth? Spiky spines or jagged jaw? “Pardon me,” Sophie said, and she dog-paddled directly into the gaping mouth of the anglerfish. Sitting down on the fish's tongue, she wrapped her hands around its teeth. She felt like she was in a cage of sorts. The fish began to wiggle its fins and rise slowly, like an underwater helicopter. It was, Sophie had to admit, sort of fun. When the fish came up above the edge of the table, it brought itself to a landing before a bowl heaped with curling seaweed. Sophie gingerly swam up and over the fish's teeth and, once on her feet, gave the creature a little bow of thanks.

“That was great,” she said shyly.

“Angie likes to help out however she can,” said Menja, or perhaps Fenja. “She was in a some very bad relationships when she showed up here, and we helped her out of them.”

“We sure did,” said Fenja, or perhaps Menja. “With my very own hands I plucked three different males out of her. One had been latched onto her so long his eyes had vanished. Another had lost all of his organs.”

“It's the anglerfish way,” the other Ogress said with a sad shrug when she saw Sophie's surprise. “The males are parasites, they merge totally with the females—but poor Angie was really upset about it.”

“They were bringing her down,” the other Ogress nodded. “So we got rid of them, and now her energy is a lot lighter. She's my favorite reading lamp.” The ogress reached down and gave one of the fish's spines a little tweak. “Aren't you, Ang?”

“Not so easy on the eye,” said Menja or Fenja. “But not much down here is. Wait until you see the frilled shark, if you haven't already.”

“I don't think I have,” Sophie said politely, waving to Angie as she swam away.

“Oh, you'd know it. Once you see a frilled shark, you never forget.”

“But enough with all that,” spoke the other Ogress grandly. “Please, dig in!”

Sophie was charmed by how small she was in the Ogresses' world, walking across their dining table as if she had become a fairy, or Alice in Wonderland. The table was piled high with a mountain of dried fish, crusted in banks of salt, and salted tangles of sea greens sat in chunky bowls of carved-out salt. She watched in awe as the sisters grabbed fistfuls of fish, entire schools, and tossed them into their mouths whole like they were no bigger than sardines. Sophie ran around the table like a mouse, scavenging; she sought out the occasional stray fish that fell through the Ogresses' fingers, dunking it in the dust that fell from their huge chunks of salt.

“This is
so good
!” the girl cried. It had been so long since she'd had anything but whatever raw sea creature she was able to get her hands on. To eat fish that had been salted and cured, plants that were seasoned—it was, to Sophie, the best meal of her life. She ate
until her belly strained against the coral-and-rope fastening of her new clothes, and then she lay down on the table, laughing, her back against a giant jar of phosphorescent plankton, their green glow lighting her from behind. She felt overcome with gratitude for these loving giants, for Syrena, even for the anglerfish. “And these clothes you made for me. They're—so cool.” Sophie looked down at herself again, gently fingering the soft strips of shark leather edging her pockets. “Thank you.”