Updrift (24 page)

“Often enough,” Michael countered. Carmen placed her hand on his arm.

Kate was subdued but couldn’t hold back her questions. “Aren’t you exposed, when one of you is brought up crushed or drowned in a net?”

All sirens at the table seemed to consult each other before John answered her. “We dissolve. Haven’t you read
The Little Mermaid?
”

She had. The tale had left her heart-broken each of the many times she’d read it, and it bore little resemblance to the Disney video she’d watched over and over when she was little. In the Hans Christian Andersen version, the little mermaid behaved like her animated counterpart up to a point by falling in love with a human and selling her voice to be by him.

But in Andersen’s story, the man the little mermaid loved did not love her back, choosing a human woman to marry instead. On the eve of his wedding, the little mermaid’s sisters came to her with a poison dagger, which they had procured for her by selling their beautiful, long hair. She had until the first rays of the sun hit the sea to plunge the dagger into her lover’s heart or she would die herself, and they pleaded with her to save her own life. She refused to kill the man she loved, despite his rejection of her, and as the sun rose, she died, dissolving into sea foam.

“I thought Hans made that up,” she reflected sadly. “Actually, I thought he made up the whole idea of mermaids, but now I know better.”

“As far as he knew, he did make everything up,” Carmen told her. “He guessed accurately when it came to how we die, though.”

Cara raised her hand. “I’ve got a question. If there’s no evidence after one of you dies, how do you know for sure they died? I mean, if someone just disappears, how do you know what happened?”

“There’s evidence,” John answered. “If the siren is older and nearing the end of his or her life, they start to show physical signs they’re about to die. They kind of fade, and shimmer around the edges, and they can’t tolerate being in deep water any longer. Also, when one of us is ready to die and showing these signs, the death is usually witnessed by the community.”

“You mean people lurk around so they can watch?” Kate didn’t quite hide her distaste.

“I mean there’s a public event so we can all see the person off,” John replied. “It’s a spiritual rite of passage for all of us to witness death, to join with the person leaving us. We sort of send out our spirits to let the person feel our support, and help him or her release the energy keeping them tied to their failing body. It’s very beautiful, a privilege to see.”

“It sounds amazing,” Cara murmured.

Kate was confused. “So what if someone is killed accidentally and no one sees? How do you know that person died?”

“It doesn’t happen often,” Carmen assured her. “If one of us is caught in a net, we can usually cut ourselves away.” She gestured toward the knives they all wore around their waists. “But with an accident, the people—or sometimes the person if it’s a mate—closest to the deceased can feel it. Family members, usually. There’s a…” Carmen paused to find the right words. “There’s a void you feel. A part of you dies, too, and you just
know
that person is gone.”

John cleared his throat, and his voice when he spoke was thick with emotion. “It’s like having your heart ripped, bleeding and pulsing, from your chest. You’re told you can survive, but you don’t feel very enthusiastic about living.” Cara went to stand behind her husband’s chair, looped her arms around John, and rested her chin on his shoulder. He pressed his cheek against her hair and placed a hand on her forearm.

Michael stood up. “No more gloom and doom, my friends. This is supposed to be a honeymoon, for crying out loud.”

Carmen joined him. “You’re right, of course.” She faced Gabe and Kate. “We’re leaving at sunset. We should spend these last few hours doing something fun.”

“You could leave early, if you want. Like now, even,” Gabe suggested, not quite innocently. The men laughed, and Michael clapped a hand on his son’s back.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Gabe. This is our celebration too, you know.”

John rose. “Let’s get in the water. Maybe we could hunt for the kids, so Gabe doesn’t have to choose sea bass over his bride for the next few days.”

* * * *

As she strode to the cottage with Gabe to retrieve her swimsuit, Kate revisited their conversation about siren intuition and the need for talking. “I mean, I could kind of—
kind of
—sense the thoughts back there, but we all talked to explain ourselves. Why didn’t we just sit around and stare at each other until we had it all figured out?”

Gabe was amused by the idea. “We communicate better in a group by talking. And we weren’t in the water, so our intuitive abilities are more sluggish. Mostly it’s easier, though. Everyone takes turns, we don’t have to work to know what people want to say, or try feeling them out in a less conductive environment. And listening to too many people at once can give you a headache. The concentration is hard to maintain with more than one person.”

“Huh.”

“You’re dealing with all of this really well, Kate,” Gabe remarked. “Are you sure you aren’t secretly freaked?”

She nudged him with her shoulder. “Wouldn’t you be able to tell if I were?”

He laughed. “Yeah, I suppose I would. I’m just trying to put myself in your shoes. I don’t know if I’d be able to roll with it like you do.”

She pressed herself against his side. “It’s because I’m with you. You could breathe fire—”

“Become a frog?”

“Breathe fire, turn into a frog, and dance the Watusi for all I care. Sign me up.”

“Oh, you’re signed up,” he threatened. “Good luck getting out of this one, Blake.” His eyes grew wide. “Say! You’re already a Blake! Guess we don’t have to decide whether or not you’re keeping your maiden name.”

Kate flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Yeah, I’ve decided to keep it. It’s already on my lease.”

Gabe seemed amazed. “This is terrific. I wonder if they’ll think we’re related when we file at the courthouse.”

“Ooo!” Kate giggled. “Let’s tell them we’re cousins.” They reached the cottage pretending they were inbred relatives talking to some horrified clerk.

Sirens, when not in human society, didn’t wear anything to go swimming, which made sense to Kate, but she wasn’t exactly comfortable with a family party on the beach where the family was nude. She and her mother arrived by the bay in swimsuits and kept their attention on the water until everyone waded in.

Once there, Kate’s reservations disappeared, since the sirens seemed less exposed in their fish forms. Carmen, John, and Michael chastised her for being prudish, truly unable to understand why anyone would care. She understood maybe she shouldn’t care. But she did.

Deal with it
, she told them.

If she were to do nothing for the rest of her life but watch sirens swim, Kate knew she would always be in awe of their strength and grace. And, goodness, they were fast. With one small flick of their tails, they could move ten yards. She’d never seen a siren’s true potential when it came to speed; she wondered if perhaps today, when they were hunting, she’d get a glimpse of their storied quickness.

The sirens needed no adornment but each wore some small decoration nonetheless, a coral ring or leather wrist band or mother-of-pearl necklace or comb. They also wore thin leather ropes at their waists, which secured small pouches, a knife and sometimes a few beads. The only accessory Kate and Cara wore, other than their swimsuits, was a facemask so they could see. Everything was so beautiful and neither wanted to miss anything, although they lamented the horsey-ness of their goggles.

We’ll never look as good as they do in the water, anyway
, Cara said ruefully.

Kate was too distracted by the scenery around her to care much, anyway. She was enchanted by all of the colors, and riveted by her husband’s handsome form. She also noticed how each siren’s knife was unique, the hilts individually carved and decorated with various inlays and gemstones.

I’ll make one for you
, Gabe promised. She squeezed his hand by way of thanks, and they all continued swimming away from the beach.

Let’s hunt the reef
, John suggested.

They’d entered the water from a natural beach that curved all the way around the bay in which it sat. An extensive reef stretched across the mouth of the bay, protecting it, Gabe informed her, from the more violent forces of nature raging farther out at sea. She and Gabe had practiced her swimming thus far in this warmer, protected expanse. And in the week and a half they’d been on Shaddox, her stamina had already improved; she was able to stay submerged fifteen minutes at a time, now. Her mother, she saw, was comfortable for a full half hour—with a little help—before needing air.

Carmen attracted Kate’s attention as a slow color change crept over her skin the farther they progressed. At first, she thought it was some trick of the light in the water, but as none of the others exhibited the same phenomenon, she sent a silent question to Gabe.

She’s turning blue
.

Not as blue as some, but yes
.
Carmen was adopted.
Apparently, she’s part Illyrian, because Illyrians are blue underwater but the color fades on land
.

I thought Anna and Lydia were her sisters, and they aren’t changing color. Were they adopted too
?

No
.
All of us refer to each other as sisters and brothers, especially to humans, to explain our similarities
. Kate nodded and forced her gaze away from Carmen to avoid appearing rude.

Everett was going to be a separate problem, Kate saw, requiring constant siren oversight. Watching him dart off toward whatever interested him, she knew her mother wouldn’t be able to keep up.

I’ve got Everett during the hunt
, Carmen promised, and Cara thanked her.

With this nagging worry dispatched, Kate gave her attention to the dazzling tableau before her. Sunlight played across the varied surfaces of the reef, highlighting the already brilliant colors in a mesmerizing display. On the side facing the ocean, the range of wildlife expanded to include larger fish, and, as the reef sloped downward, it encompassed topical indentations and sheer drops that seemed to disappear into the sea beyond.

John, Michael, and Gabe broke off from the group to descend down the slope in search of prey. Kate watched them, fascinated.

Working together, the three men positioned themselves around a school of Blackfin tuna in a wide triangle. At some unseen signal, the two hovering above the school drove inward and down, splitting the fish into two schools as they fled the reef. Michael, who had been positioned below the swarm, quickly seized a fish, and even more quickly, the other two joined him to secure the catch. Then, Michael clenched one arm around the head of the fish and the other near the tail, and in one fluid motion, twisted each section in the opposite direction, breaking the fish’s spine.

Kate checked on Cara to see if she was enthralled too. She was.

Now we know how fast our boys can go
.

That’s got to be difficult to do with bigger fish
, Kate remarked.

Yeah. I expected them to use their knives
.

Carmen brought Everett to them.
With a bigger fish, two of them break it. One would twist from the head and one from the tail
.
And they only cut the fish as a last resort, because they don’t want to attract other predators
.

Gabe tucked the newly dead fish under one arm and dragged it back toward Cara and Kate to show it to them. The women’s minds were a cacophony of recipe ideas.
Fry it in butter? Olive oil? Wrap it in bacon? Grill it?

Whatever sounds good to me
, Gabe chimed in.
Of course, we’d eat it raw, too
.

Ugh
. The recipe ideas halted briefly while the women considered this strange and unattractive option. Kate decided for them.
Let’s bake it in salt
.

Yum
, Cara replied.

* * * *

Kate was especially pleased by how much the professional fish eaters enjoyed her preparation that night.

“This is almost as good as raw,” Carmen complimented her. “And I never say that.”

John agreed. “It’s not salty at all. I would have thought a salt crust would have ruined it.”

Gabe helped himself to thirds. “It’s amazing. Better than cake.”

Kate leaned back in her chair, too full to sit up straight. “Where are Dana and Will? We have enough to share. And shouldn’t someone be watching them?”

Michael’s answer was so brazen it startled her. “They’re having sex at the Mattegins. The Seward women are checking in from time to time.”

She took a second to compose herself. “Is everyone all better?”

“Better and probably pregnant,” John answered, smirking.

“That’s kind of funny,” Kate mused. “Dana and I will have babies at the same time.”

“It’ll be great,” Cara promised. “Hopefully she’ll be close enough for you to help each other out. Another pair of arms can mean the difference between making it through the day and going completely nuts sometimes.”

Kate elbowed her husband. “I’m trying to get Gabe to go into psychiatry so he can prescribe help.”

Everyone at the table chuckled, and then Carmen, John, Cara, and Michael all rose to leave. “I’ll get Everett ready,” Cara called as she left the room. She reappeared with her napping son, who she handed to John. She hugged Gabe and then Kate. “Are you coming back home before you head back to work, Kate?”

She glanced at Gabe. “We haven’t talked about it, yet.”

“We’ll stop in,” Gabe decided.

Kate felt a guilty pang as she thought of Maya. “Don’t say anything to the Wilkes, will you? We need to call Maya first.”

Cara stroked her hair. “I understand. Mum’s the word.”

“We’ll have the guest house ready for you,” Carmen offered. “Just let us know your plans when you have them.”