The Tree of Water (24 page)

A terrifying thrum rose from the forest of men-of-war. It pounded against his skull and skin, making him shake uncontrollably. He understood its meaning perfectly.

Death is coming. Death is coming. Flee—flee. Death. Death. Death.

 

25

The Summer Festival

Char whipped around and looked behind him.

“Oh, man! Whatever's comin', they're not swimmin' like sharks—what's after us
now
?”

Amariel peered into the darkness. Then a smile of relief broke across her face.

“They're not after us,” she said. “They're after the men-of-war. Those are leatherbacks!”

“Leatherbacks?” Ven struggled to see better, but all he could make out was enormous shapes streaking toward them.

“Turtles,” the merrow exclaimed. “Great armored ones. The men-of-war can't hurt them. In fact, they're the leatherback's favorite food. The leatherbacks see a feast ahead of them—we should get out of the way. Come on, down to the floor, quick!”

Ahead of them, the men-of-war were beginning to tremble, then move. A few of them drew their tentacles in, then opened up like umbrellas, launching out of the group like fireworks going off.

Amariel grabbed Ven's arm, while Coreon took hold of Char, and dove for the ocean floor. It took longer to reach, as the sea had become deeper, and they were swimming into complete darkness, with just the slightest hint of silver shadow from the moon above on the surface to light their way.

“Put your pack over your head,” Coreon advised. “Just because this isn't our fight doesn't mean we can't get injured, or worse.”

“Watch out for falling tentacles,” the merrow agreed.

Ven held his pack over Amariel's head and moved closer to her.

The pressure of the dark sea above them changed again, as it had when Megalodon first passed by, but in patches of heaviness that moved swiftly.

The dark shapes roared in overhead. Ven was shocked to see that some of them were the size of wagons, while others were smaller, about as big as him. They were dark of color, though Ven was not sure exactly what that color was. They had smooth, oblong shells that looked like the armor soldiers wore. Chunky legs with flippers were jutting from that armor, and they bore down on the forest of men-of-war faster than the jellyfish could swim away.

The thrum of excitement and fear filled the sea with vibrations strong enough to stir the drift so that it felt like waves.

Tentacles rained down from above, like strings of beads in the drift. Char and Coreon dodged out of the way of a particularly big tangle of them that floated down fairly quickly.

For much of the night, the feasting and escaping went on, like a lavish ball at a great undersea castle.

It was strange, crouched on the floor of the sea, watching as the men-of-war tried to escape the leatherback turtles. The colors of jellyfish were beautiful against the moonshine, pink and green and orange and white, like blown glass and ribbon candy. The way they swim is so pretty, like a flower opening and closing, so the giant feast looked like a grand dance of sorts from below.

Of course, not from the jellyfishes' point of view, I'm sure.

The leatherbacks spun in the sea with tremendous grace for creatures of their size and heft. When I caught a glimpse of one their faces, it looked to me like it was carved from rock, heavy, with a pointed beak that seemed like it could snap a clamshell in half.

They reminded me a little of Scarnag the dragon, who literally is made from Living Stone.

We remained huddled together until the feasting was over and the remainder of the men-of-war had escaped, billowing their way deeper into the sea.

All that was left behind were many glowing strands floating in the drift, filling it with soft colors in the blue sunwater.

Which was coming to light with the morning.

“Wait here.”

Amariel pushed the pack Ven was holding over her head aside and began swimming up toward the squadron of sea turtles, who were now circling above them, full and happy.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Ven called nervously.

“Be right back.” The merrow approached a large leatherback and hovered in the drift near it for a moment. Then she swam quickly back to the others on the ocean floor.

“We're in luck!” she said, grinning so widely that her porpoise-like teeth showed, something she rarely did. “The leatherbacks are on their way to the Summer Festival. They say it's not too much farther, though it is in its last days. We can follow them if we like. They don't mind the company.”

“That would be great,” Ven agreed. He turned to see Coreon nodding and Char staring at him as if he were insane.

“Are ya daft?” his best friend asked. “What if they get hungry on the way?”

“Turtles don't eat merrows,” Amariel said. “Or humans. Come on. It will be great to have a guide that actually knows where it's going.” She looked at Coreon, then smiled. “No offense.”

Coreon nodded in agreement. “None taken.”

The merrow dove to the bottom and returned a few moments later with some stringy seaweed and a length of algae-encrusted rope. She handed one end of each to Char and Ven.

“Hold tight,” she said.

The boys looked at each other. They watched as Amariel swam up to the leatherback squad, which was swimming more seriously now, preparing to depart, and tossed the other ends of the seaweed and rope to two of the giant reptiles. The turtles seized the ends in their beaks.

Then, like a bolt from a crossbow, they shot off toward the west.

Dragging Ven and Char behind them.

Amariel and Coreon swam in their wake.

“Don't let go,” the merrow advised. “We'll never catch up with them again.”

Ven's stomach had flipped when the turtle on the other end of his seaweed tether launched off, but after a moment it settled back into place and he began to enjoy the ride. He turned his body to the side to see Char was clinging to his slimy green length of rope, his face pale as the leatherback he was attached to swam erratically, dashing up toward the surface, then diving suddenly, then zigzagging.

“You all right, Char?”

“I'm gonna throw up.” Char's thrum was as wobbly as his voice would have been. “I think I'm gettin' seasick.”

“He's just playing with you, Chum,” said Amariel. “Try to be a good sport for once. He'll get tired of it after a while, mostly likely.”

Char's reply was lost in a trail of bubbles that swerved through the drift.

Ven closed his eyes. The sickening feeling left his stomach once he could no longer see the ocean floor racing past underneath him. An excitement took its place as he sped along behind the turtle.

The sensation reminded him of standing on the deck of the
Angelia
, the first and only time he went out on an Inspection for his father. The man who would have been the doomed ship's captain had let him hold the wheel, and had laughed at the excitement the speeding ship had brought to him.

Don't drink too much of the wind, young master Polypheme,
Captain Faeley had said.
It's intoxicating; it will get you drunk more easily than you can imagine. And then you will be lost to it, as we are, and have no choice but to chase it over the sea for all your life.

The speed of the turtle swimming was a similar sensation—heady, thrilling, making him dizzy. He was enjoying it until he remembered that just after Captain Faeley had warned him not to get carried away, the ship had exploded.

Almost taking his whole life to the bottom of the sea with it.

Ven pushed the thought out of his mind and concentrated on the ride instead.

After what seemed like a very long time to Ven, and even longer to Char, the leatherbacks began to slow down.

Ven opened his eyes.

The surface was now too far above them to see. They were deeper than they had ever been before, the ocean floor at least ten fathoms below them still.

And heading for what looked like a steep drop-off.

The sun was higher in the sky above, he knew, because the bright blue water gleamed around them as they sped along.

“Hold on,” the merrow called to them. “We're coming to a rise, and I can't see what's beyond it. It looks to get suddenly deeper.”

Ven gripped the seaweed strand a little more tightly, hoping it wouldn't snap.

The leatherbacks swam up the rise, much as if it were a sand dune on the beach, then over it. When they got beyond the ridge of sand, the turtles slowed suddenly, floating in the drift.

“Oh
my
,” said the merrow.

The sea basin had deepened to about fifty fathoms. The bottom of the ocean stretched out in glorious blue water and golden light below them, as far as they could see.

And in the middle of it all was an enormous gathering of sea creatures of every kind, with towering plants of many colors waving merrily like flags in the drift. They looked as if they were marking the entrance to a fairgrounds.

In the very center they could see a large shaft of sunshadow. It was so wide and bright that it almost looked as if the ocean was raining light.

“Whoa,” Char whispered, pointing. He seemed to have recovered from his seasickness. “Look over there.”

Ven followed his finger. In the sunlight below the water were millions of fish, forming a ring around an area of ocean floor wider than the streets of the city of Kingston. They were swimming slowly in wavy lines, as if marking off a circus ground or racing track.

“This is it,” Coreon whispered. “The Summer Festival.” Ven's eardrums felt the awe in the sea-Lirin boy's thrum. “It's just as my father described it—only, well—”

“Grander,” Amariel said. “For me, too.”

In the center of the ring stood two enormous chairs on a tall platform of hard coral.

At first I thought they had been carved with many swirls and details like the finest carvings in King Vandemere's palace of Elysian. Then as I looked more carefully I could see that they were actually made of coral and fine shells, in colors that reminded me of the sky at sea in the morning. The sunshadow seemed brightest there, and so the chairs glowed in hues of soft yellow and pink, pale blue and gold.

Sitting in the chairs were two beings that looked at first glance like merrows, a man and a woman. The man was as tall as a human male but with a long, powerful tail. I had always thought that Amariel's tail was amazing, with beautiful colored scales of blue and green and pearl. This man's tail was far more commanding in its appearance, muscular and strong, the fluke almost as big as that of a small whale. It seemed that the scales that covered it were in every color of the rainbow. I knew at once that he could break my back with one slap of it.

Beside him was a woman with long hair so white that it almost looked clear. Like the man, she wore a crown of mother-of-pearl on her head, but while her body from the arms and shoulders up looked human, her chest was covered with ridges that swirled down into a long, curled tail like that of a hippocampus.

“Crikey!” Char murmured. “What would ya call
her
?”

Amariel rose up a little in the drift for a better look.

“I'd suggest ‘Your Majesty' if you get the chance to call her anything.”

“No—I mean what kind of creature is she?”

“I think she's an Epona,” Amariel said. “They're very rare—and somewhat wild, sometimes even silly. They tell good riddles, or so I hear. They are said to love the human world, and are fascinated with it even more than merrow are—well, silly merrow girls, that is. They live fairly deep in the sea. I'm not surprised she was chosen as queen this storm season.”

“And the king?” Ven asked. “Is he a merrow?”

Amariel's brow furrowed. “Obviously. I would think you would be able to recognize one by
now
.”

“Well, if I remember correctly, when you first described merrows to me, you told me that while females were beautiful, males tended to be, er, less so.” Ven cut off his thrum, remembering the words she had used.

Now, merrow females are the most beautiful creatures in the world. Everyone knows that. But merrow men, well, that's a different story. It's probably fair to say that, as creatures of the sea go, merrow men are a little bit lazy. All right, a lot lazy. Very, very lazy. They bask for more than just heat collection—they lie around in the sun on rocks whenever they can to get out of helping with the children or the other work that has to be done. As a result, they are fat around the middle—even fatter than you, Ven. And on top of that, they are ugly. Not my dad, of course, but most merrow men. They have noses that are flat and round, with big nostrils that sometimes sprout hair. Their teeth are frequently green, and they tend to burp a lot. Bubbles come out the other end as well, which makes them unpleasant to be around.

“Well, there are some exceptions, of course,” Amariel said. “My dad is not a typical male merrow—obviously the king is not, either.”

“He looks like he's part whale,” Char whispered.

Just then, an undersea horn blasted. It filled the drift with vibrations that swept over Ven, making his skin tingle wildly.

“Oh no,” said Coreon nervously. “Oh no! It's starting!”

 

26

The Wild Hippocampus Roundup

“What? What's starting?” Char looked down at the Festival grounds.

“Listen!” Amariel said.

The horn blast had come from the largest conch shell Ven had ever seen. It was mounted like a giant telescope at the base of the coral throne platform.

“Does that shell remind you of the Floatin' Island?” Char whispered.

Ven nodded, smiling. He had been thinking the same thing. The Floating Island was a hollow mountain on a piece of earth born at the beginning of Time. It sailed the sea like a ship, taken around the world at the whim of the wind. When he and Char had been inside that mountain with Captain Snodgrass and the sailors from the
Serelinda
, they had heard voices from all around the world, messages that had been spoken, whispered, and shouted into the wind and were caught in the curls of the shell-shaped mountain. It was a place that sailors and others who came upon it could send messages home, as well.