Girl at the Bottom of the Sea (23 page)

Sophie was able to pick the Dola out from the pod. Still heavily decorated, a bit apart from the others, not partaking of the Jottnar feast.
The Dola looks like me,
Sophie thought.
The Dola doesn't belong down here, and neither do I.
Sophie imagined what Ella would say about this place. She would be bored, with all these girls and not even one boy to get giddy about. She would say funny, mean things about the Billow Maidens, and probably pocket some jewels from the treasure chests. Sophie was suddenly gripped by a longing for her friend that was so great it felt like her heart had hiccupped. She should bring her back a trinket, a souvenir. What would Ella want? Sophie rummaged through
the great chest, picking through golden coins and diamond crowns. Maybe she should bring her two souvenirs, Sophie thought—one to pawn for all the money it could bring her, and one to keep for herself.

Sophie felt Kolga approach before she saw her. The water turned suddenly cold, like bathwater that had been sitting for hours. Sophie shivered and turned, and there she was. Her eyes were blue, as were her lips, and even her skin seemed like she wore grayish blush on her cheeks. Still, she was beautiful. She smirked at Sophie.

“You like our jewels, do you?” she said in a chilly voice.

“Well, yes,” Sophie said. “They're beautiful. You have so many.”

“Years and years and years of treasure,” Kolga sighed. “So much of it was here before I was even born. But Mother brings back more with every wreck. Sailors used to pad their pockets with gold, you know, back in the day. So that if the ship wrecked they would have gifts for Mother, and she might be pleased and spare them.”

“Did she?” Sophie asked hesitantly, glancing over at Ran, who was dancing with Hefrig, spinning by their elbows, holding crab claws in their fists. She seemed the very source of happiness. Sophie couldn't imagine her wrecking a ship, drowning its passengers, stealing its bounty.

“Of course not,” Kolga said snippily. “It doesn't work like that. You can't buy your way out of destiny. Mother does what the Dola tells her. But humans always think that
things
will save them.” She said
things
with terrible scorn in her voice. “Take what you want,” she said to Sophie, but it was not a warm offer. “We don't care about such stuff
down here. We play with it, but it doesn't mean anything to us.”

Sophie felt herself growing angry with this snobby maiden. “Easy for you to say,” she snapped. “When you have so much. Things like this”—she looked around at the trunks of riches—“they
help
people on the earth. It—it buys them things.”

“See?” Kolga said, raising an icy eyebrow. “Things to buy more things. Humans. Ridiculous.”

“Some things are necessary,” Sophie said, her voice rising. “People need
real
things, like food, or, or they need to pay rent, or pay to have lights in their house, so they can see, and they need to pay to see the doctor if they're sick, and a lot of people can't afford those things—”

“Well, it sounds awful,” Kolga said. “Human life. Why don't you all do something about it if you hate it so much?”

“It's not that easy,” Sophie said hotly. This maiden was impossible. “Do you even
know
any humans?”

“I walk amongst you from time to time,” Kolga said in a bored voice. “But the things that interest you—it's like being amongst babies. I'd rather stay down here with my sisters.”

“Well, we wouldn't like you, either!” Sophie said, and began piling chunky strands of gems around her neck. The stones were so heavy they cut into her collarbone. “And I guess I'll just help myself to these, then, if you're so above it all.”

Kolga laughed, a string of frosty bubbles. She waved her blue-gray hand at Sophie, as if dismissing her.

“I'm walking away,” Sophie said, “but I'm walking away because
I don't want to talk to you. Not because you did
that
.” Sophie swished her hand back at the maiden and stumbled away, her gait off balance with the heft of the jewels piled around her neck. She made her way to Syrena, who was speaking with Unnr in a low, happy voice.

“Sophie!” the mermaid welcomed. “We were just to speak of you!”

Unnr took note of Sophie's scowl and the hefty pile of jewels around her neck.

“Ah… were you just talking to Kolga?” the maiden asked.

“To talk to Kolga is to fight with Kolga!” Syrena said.

“She's terrible!” Sophie spat. “I don't understand how you all live down here, stealing treasures from people and drowning them, and then you act so happy to see me. Syrena, I want to leave!”

Unnr turned to Syrena and gave a sad little smile. “See?” She said. “It is very hard for us to be friendly with the humans, for this reason. They don't understand.”

“But Sophie is Odmieńce,” Syrena said. “A great race, like Jottnar. Sophie—” She smiled at the girl, placing a tender hand on Unnr's arm. “Jottnar much like Odmieńce. You practically cousins. Old, old people.”

Ran drifted over to them and handed a lobster tail to Sophie. “Here, my love. Eat up.”

“But you kill people,” Sophie accused.

“Sophie!”

“How is this different than Kishka!” the girl demanded. “Kishka and her evils?”

“Kishka!” Ran gasped. “Oh, dear. Kishka—Kishka is of a different nature than the Jottnar. We are of the sea, we
are
the sea. We do the sea's bidding. The sea gives life and takes life, and we are its servants. In return, the sea gives us joy, and health, and family.”

“And, like, a billion dollars worth of gold and diamonds,” Sophie grumbled.

“Yes, true. They add much beauty. And I do adore beauty.”

“She was talking to Kolga,” Unnr said to her mother.

“Oh, my Kolga. I think humans would say she was born without a heart. But it is how she serves the sea. She makes its waters cold, and the shock of it helps the sailors go quicker. She is a mercy in her way. All my daughters help me.”

“Me and Bara just sort of manage things,” Unnr offered. “Bloo is mostly lazy, but she is helpful when the ships are battling. She only helps when there is war.”

Sophie looked over at the maiden with the sticky red hair. She ate not from a platter of cooked fish but chomped into live ones, eating them slowly.

“Wars are hard,” Ran said. “They are Kishka's work. But we cooperate with the sea, and we help to end it as swiftly as possible. Most of my daughters cannot bear the wars. To die by the sea, that is natural, destiny. To die by war, it is the work of evil. I am grateful that Bloo is so capable, to help with those calls.”

“Dufa stirs the waters to confuse the sailors, spin them down.” Unnr said. “This helps the boats sink. Hefrig is more of a clobberer.
She's good if it is taking too long. She moves things along with a swift punch. And Hronn, she brings the sailors down. The last thing they know is Hronn's embrace.”

“I have more daughters,” Ran said proudly. “Bylgia works out in the deep, pushing the boats toward us. And Himinglaeva, she is the most beautiful. She floats along the vessels and brings pleasure at the sight of her. She brings the stars down to her belly and shimmers. She is delightful. I do wish you could meet all of my children. But—” She smiled at Syrena. “You are so close with my tenth daughter, the mermaid Syrena. I feel as if she is my own.”

“After Griet,” Syrena said, “after all that happen, I stay here for so long. I learn to cook food like Jottnar do, and make ale. I help with all the maidens, like, what you call—nanny? So many little maidens! Make me quite crazy. But so very nice to be among others. To know and see love, like I had for Griet. I thought my love was gone. It could have infected my heart and made me go bad. This is what Kishka hopes will happen. She hopes that we are weak-hearted, that we tip ourselves into hate. I could have gone about and brought pain to humans for what they did to Griet. And my wrath would double up inside my heart till it was huge and rotten inside me. Kishka would have sunk her teeth into me then, and I would not even know! But I come here—I see love. I learn my heart strong. Too strong for hatred.” The mermaid laid her head on Unnr's arm.

“You do seem very good,” Ran nodded, observing the mermaid. “Even better than last time, yes? You seem—happier.”

“Is her.” Syrena pointed a long, elegant finger at Sophie. “She do something. She try to take away all my pain, pain for Griet, and for other loss. Not good, but also, she do take away some bad things. We all have little bits of dirt on our hearts, ya? Sophie clean them up.”

“And I will clean you up!”

Sophie ducked out of the way as Dufa came twisting toward Syrena, holding a great, lumpy sponge in her hands. “You are a mess! I never seen you look so scabby!”

Ran smiled and nodded as her daughter got busy loofahing the dried, torn scales from Syrena's tail. And to Sophie's surprise, Syrena seemed glad at the attention, smiling with pleasure as her scales started to shine.

Sophie noticed, as she bent to the mermaid, that Dufa's legs beneath her watery dress were also somewhat scaled, and her toes were webbed. Her hands too, clutching and working the sponge, had bits of shining web between the fingers. A look around at the others showed Sophie that all the Jottnar had these attributes—shining scales that climbed their legs beneath their clothing, and webbing that fanned their fingers and toes.

Sophie shivered as Kolga approached the two of them, holding a comb fashioned from fish bones. She began working the tangles from Syrena's hair. Unnr left to fetch a hollow piece of coral filled with something fatty she smeared across Syrena's tail, following the path of Dufa's sponge. Syrena sighed and—Sophie could not believe the sound—giggled.

“You maidens spoil me so,” she said happily.

“And what of you?” Sophie turned to see Bloo, the most fearsome of the maidens, staring her down. “What is it you need?”

“Uh… nothing,” Sophie said. “I'm good. I'm just a girl. I don't have, you know, tail problems or anything.”

“Your hair is insulting,” Bloo said. “I must fix it.” And without asking permission, the maiden pulled a comb from her own crimson hair. She lifted the hem of her watery dress to wash away the sticky red from the tines.
Blood
, Sophie realized with a shiver.
That's blood in her hair.

Bloo went to work sternly, pulling apart the great tangles that had snarled Sophie's hair. The girl protectively shielded the octopus. “Be careful,” she said weakly.

“What is that octopus doing living on your head? We should eat him.”

“No!” Sophie cried. “I like him. Please.”

“And this?” Blooughadda held up the lock of Sophie's hair holding Livia's feather.

“Leave that!” Sophie snapped, tugging it away from the maiden. “That is my power.”

Bloo smiled, her lips lifting up over her fanged teeth. “Well, well,” she said. “Perhaps she is Odmieńce after all.”

“Of course I'm Odmieńce,” Sophie said haughtily. She was getting sick of these snotty maidens. “I turned myself into a shark and bit Kishka's head off!”

“Did you?” Bloo asked, her bloodshot eyes wide.

“She had tricked me into a giant shell, but I fought her, and I am here. I turned myself into a mermaid to escape the Swilkie. I can do many magics.”

Bloo nodded, seeming somewhat humbled, and continued un-ratting the girl's hair. Sophie thought briefly of Andrea, how her mother had brushed her hair smooth at the start of this long voyage, before she said good-bye. But Bloo's nails were sharp and pricking. She got no comfort out of this maiden's touch. Sophie worried she had not savored that moment with her mother enough. She wished she had slowed time to make last her mother's sweet fingers sending goose bumps up her shoulders as she plaited her hair. That last demonstration of Andrea's complicated love. Sophie had no idea when she'd ever be touched by her mother again, or even see her.

Bloo let go of Sophie to fashion a crown from coral and fish bone, linking them together with a chain of gold and rubies. She wound Sophie's newly bouncy hair into a series of braids, pinning it here and there with fish bone. She laid the crown on her head, then placed the octopus inside.

“There,” Bloo said. “You look much more beautiful now.” She brought a reflective seashell up before Sophie's eyes, and Sophie barely recognized herself in it. Partly because it had been so long since she'd seen herself. Partly because she rarely looked so cleaned up and groomed. But also—she had grown. She was growing. She looked older than she remembered, less like a girl, more a woman. A young one,
but still. There was the flash of something adult in her eye, something that shocked but delighted her.

“Thank you,” she said to Bloo, who bent her head in return, and pinned her fish comb back in her mass of sticky red hair.

“I need something from you,” Bloo said. “And you need it, too. I need you to look inside my heart.”

“Why?” Sophie asked. She found she was not so afraid of Bloo, not as she had been even moments ago. Something about seeing herself in the seashell.
You forgot who you were
, Sophie thought.
You must not forget again. You are Odmieńce. Sophie Swankowski.
Even though Sophie still wasn't sure what this meant, she knew it meant something. And she would figure the rest out as she went along.