Water (12 page)

The first sound that wailed through the silence made every hair on my body stand on end. It was gut-wrenching in its intensity and heart rending in its youth.

I stopped, trying desperately to figure out the source of it.

Sabrina winced as another wail, ending in a hiccoughed sob, echoed from somewhere else in the chasm.

Marinus hurried us forward towards a cave a few entrances in. He disappeared into the darkness, crooning softly as he pulled the leather strap over his head.

The stench that emanated from the cave entrance was a physical force so intense I reeled backwards. I gasped for air, struggling to get away from it.

Merrick and Sabrina formed a cocoon around me, holding their bunches of herbs to my face and instructing me to breathe deeply.

Another pitiful wail from within the cave helped me focus on something other than the smell that assaulted my senses.

“Hold your nose,” suggested Merrick.

It helped a little, but only until I breathed in through my mouth, because then the decay formed a flavour on the back of my tongue, so intense that I doubled over, gagging.

I could still hear Marinus talking quietly to whoever was in the cave, his voice soothing and kind and encouraging.

“What is this place?” I eventually managed to gasp.

“This is where we try to heal Oceanids who have been poisoned by their home,” Merrick replied simply.

“The ocean is no longer safe for us,” Sabrina continued quietly, bobbing politely as a worried-looking woman hurried past us into the cave Marinus had just entered.

“Why not?” I asked managing to straighten up, holding the branch of herbs over my face, so that only the very faintest cloy of decay made its way through.

“Because humans have been using our home as a rubbish dump and a toilet,” she hissed, wincing as a bloodcurdling scream echoed around the cave from below us. “Because humans could care less when they spill tons of crude oil into our home suffocating every living thing beneath it.” Her voice grew quieter and more venomous. “And because humans, having no natural predators, have bred like flies and now consume more resources from the ocean than is possible to sustain.”

I was horrified, and ashamed because I knew everything she was saying was true.

“Alexandra?” Marinus interrupted the tense conversation. “There is someone who would be very happy to meet you.”

His eyes were anciently sad and tired as he stood aside and indicated I should go into the cave.

I looked at Merrick, and he nodded encouragingly. “You need to see this,” he whispered.

I stepped into the gloom, keeping the branch over my face and breathing as shallowly as possible. The space was as small and neat as Sabrina’s had been. In one corner hung a hammock in which a very small pile of soft blankets moved slightly as I entered. The woman I’d seen earlier was standing beside the hammock, her face infinitely tender as she gazed at the bundle. I walked forward slowly, my heart hammering a terrified tattoo at what I might find in the blankets.

My first impression was of the largest blue eyes I’d ever seen, rimmed in luscious lashes. Wispy hair floated around her, framing her delicate and very young face. There though, her beauty ended. Her cheek bones protruded harshly, emphasised by the dark hollows of her sunken cheeks. Her neck looked too thin and frail to hold her head up, and her shoulders were drawn upwards as if she were cold. Worst of all though, were the suppurating sores that covered her skin, oozing wetly, the stench of decay coming off of them enough to make me want to gag again.

I focused with all of my well-practised strength on her eyes, pressing my revulsion away from me.

She was watching me carefully, her eyes glassy with pain and a deep and ancient sadness.

She whispered something I didn’t understand, wincing as she did so.

“She says she is greatly honoured to meet you,” her nurse translated for me.

I took a shuddering last breath of the herbs as I lowered them from my face, pasting on a smile and kneeling beside her.

“Please tell her that the honour is mine,” I replied. The nurse smiled and repeated what I’d said in that strange liquid language.

I offered my hand to the little bundle of a person, watching as the nurse carefully removed some of the blankets from her. Despite her gentleness, tears trickled down the patient’s cheeks at the movement.

The nurse placed her hand on mine. I stared at it, horrified for a few moments, unable to process what my mind was telling me I held.

The flesh had been eaten away from her hands, revealing the horrifying white of bone in some places. She was missing two fingers and the skin that remained was charred a crinkled black.

I looked back into her face, burying my horror as I did so and smiling at her again. I was rewarded by a slight lightening in her eyes as she pulled her damaged mouth into a grin.

A spasm of pain rocked through her as she curled in on herself, her grin turning to a grimace as she wailed.

I rocked back from her in shock, scrambling to my feet and moving to the entrance of the cave as her nurse and Marinus rushed to her side again.

Sabrina took my elbow and led me gently backwards and into the passageway. Tears streamed down my face as I listened to the wailing. Merrick pulled me into a hug, letting my cry for a few minutes, before I pushed away from him.

“What happened to her?” I managed to ask eventually, drying my eyes.

“Imagine the air you breathed was full of poison,” he replied gently, “That every time you took a breath your body decayed just a little bit more, weakening you.” He stared through me, his eyes vacant. “And then one day you wake up, and everything around you is dark and you can’t breathe and your skin is covered in something you’ve never seen before. It’s black and thick and burns like… like acid. And you swim as hard as you can until you reach the blue again, but it won’t come off, and you’re scared and your body doesn’t work as it should. You can’t find anyone any more, and you can’t remember where you are…”

He trailed off, his expression tortured.

“Is that what happened to you?” I whispered.

He looked at me for a few moments. “To most of us,” he replied, before taking my hand and leading me down the pathway, back towards the fever tree.

I stopped him as soon as I realised where he was taking me.

“I want to see more,” I told him firmly.

He stopped, his expression incredulous.

“You’re sure?”

“It seemed to help that little one.”

He nodded. “Yes, you are a great inspiration to many of them… not all of them, but many of them.”

I nodded firmly before turning back down the passage. “Then I want to see more of them.”

He led me past the first entrance, pausing at the next doorway.

Every time I looked inside my heart dropped. I’d never seen or even imagined so much pain and so much suffering in one place. I smiled at each one of them, holding their broken hands and accepting their kind words about me, like I knew what any of them meant.

After the tenth cave though, I couldn’t do it any more. It was as if my emotional tank had only so much room in which to bury pain, and it was full. Full from three years of trying not to cry about Brent’s death – after all society only allows a small window in which to grieve, after that everyone around me had expected me to get over it.

Full from putting a brave face on my parents’ divorce, trying desperately to placate both of them, and cope with the pain of their split.

Full from taking the barbed comments from kids at school, who had no idea who I was, but still felt the need to push me around simply because they could.

Full from witnessing so much pain and anguish and horror in the half an hour we’d been walking though the cave.

“Isn’t there anything you can do for them?” I asked.

“Time and clean water is the best medicine for them,” Sabrina replied quietly. “If they have the will to live, they may make it.”

I thought about this as I entered the cave. This Oceanid had been strapped down because the pain had driven him crazy and he’d tried, on several occasions, to kill his caregiver. Despite the murderous look in his eyes as I knelt beside him, my heart ached for him.

He motioned for me to come closer, his eyes glazed and unfocused.

“You are –” he struggled to breathe “– dangerous, Alexandra.”

I was surprised that he could speak English, and even more surprised that he knew my name.

His hand flailed at me as he tried to grab my wrist. Spittle flecked his lips as the effort taxed his breathing.

“They will use you,” he said, still searching for my hand.

I shook my head. “I don’t know who you think I am,” I tried to answer him, “but I have no intention of hurting anyone.”

“They will mould you to think of the humans as creatures who deserve pity,” he continued, seeming not to hear my protests.

I shook my head again, leaning closer to him to try to get his wandering eyes to focus on my face.

“And all will be destroyed,” he hissed, his previously glassy eyes focusing with predatory intent as his hand found my arm. With blinding speed and primal strength, his other arm wrapped around me, pinning me to the ground.

The sickening crack of his head hitting the ground and the light fading from his eyes was followed by the blinding speed with which Merrick scooped me from the ground and ran with me back up the passageway, cradled me in his arms.

“I don’t understand,” I sobbed into Merrick’s chest as he ran, “they either think I’m going to change all of this or they want to kill me.” He made comforting noises, pausing slightly at the fissure before the air whistled around us as he jumped across.

He went through the entrance to another mini-cave, strode quickly across the floor and lay me in a soft hammock before pulling a light covering over me.

Sabrina hovered in the doorwary momentarily, her face crumpled in worry. Merrick whispered something to her, at which she darted out of sight.

“Where am I?” I asked half sitting and clutching the sides of the hammock as it swayed gently with my movement.

“This is my aven,” he replied.

“Your what?”

“Sorry. Aven is sort of an offshoot from the main cave,” he replied. “That’s what we call them.”

I nodded absently, as Merrick continued to watch me. I feigned interest in my surroundings in an attempt to distract him from the panic I knew must be displayed on my face.

I was in a perfectly round room with the silhouette of the tree from the centre of the cave visible from the doorway. A ring of soft bluish light encapsulated the room. On closer inspection, I realised that the light was coming from tiny, umbrella-shaped mushrooms that grew haphazardly in a fringe on the rock face.

I leaned out of the hammock and touched one. It immediately glowed a brighter yellowy green, slowly fading to the soft blue light of the rest of them after a little while.

“These are different to the lights in Sabrina’s room.”

“Yeah,” he replied, “I prefer these little things, they give off more light and are less finicky to keep alive. Sabrina’s cave fur is always dying or losing its light.”

Sabrina walked back into the cave, with Talita in tow carrying a small wooden cup of liquid. Talita settled beside my hammock, handing me the cup and indicating that I should drink, while Merrick and Sabrina stood beside the doorway.

I took a deep shuddery breath, knowing that the conversation I was about to start would change my life forever. I couldn’t deny the pain I’d just seen any more than I could deny the deep empathy I felt for these people.

“I’m ready,” I told her calmly. “Tell me what they want from me.”

“You are not completely human, Alexa,” Talita began, her voice very gentle. “You are what we call a Halfling, one half Oceanid and one half human. Your father is an Oceanid, a man I owe my life to and the greatest love of my life.”

I gulped some of the liquid, surprised by its energising sweetness as I processed what she was telling me.

“I’m sorry we’ve had to expose you to this species’ greatest pain so quickly. I would have preferred the last three years to prepare you for the role you must take, if any of them are to survive, but your father has denied us that, and so we need to get you up to speed very quickly.”

“Why would he do that?” I asked in a whisper.

“To protect you,” she replied simply, before nodding to Merrick.

“There is a group of Oceanids called Gurrers whose talents are war,” he told me. “Whenever necessary they’ve protected our people from danger, for thousands of years.”

I didn’t respond, I just concentrated on the melody of his voice as he spoke, concentrated on breathing in and out.

“Throughout our history we’ve been threatened by stronger and more pre-dominant species. We’ve fought for survival and clung to a legend that has promised us equality.”

He fell silent and I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t I glanced up at his face. He was staring at me, his eyes anxious.

“Tell me the legend, Merrick,” I demanded, my eyes flickering back to Talita and Sabrina; legends were proving themselves frustratingly real on this camping trip.

“The hope our people have clung to is that the fortieth generation Gurrer of each Gurrer pod will form the leadership of the Oceanids that will change the course of our history. It claims that the leader of this army will be different from all the rest – a mixture of our greatest Gurrer and the enemy – and that she” – he said the word in hushed awe – “will save our people at a time when all hope is lost.”

I hadn’t realised I was holding my breath until it whooshed out of my lungs as with his last words he pinned me with the fear I’d been dodging.

“Your Dad is one of the thirty-ninth generation Gurrer, and as far as we know you are the only female Halfling to be born.”

“He was once a great warrior, who fought for peace and lost,” Talita continued. “He was forced to flee the ocean and to cut a long story short, that’s how we met.” She smiled, her beautiful face lighting up at some long-ago memory.

“I was being abused by my father,” she continued matter of factly. “Tom rescued me by introducing me to the Oceanids and arranging for me to stay with them. I have come to love this people for their kindness, their tenacity and their incredible ability to survive. When I arrived, Sabine’s niece taught me how to help them, she showed me some of the horrors you witnessed today. When I was old enough I went to medical school, realising that the hunger of our kind” – she touched my hand lightly – “for more, would increase the danger to the Oceanids. I have been helping them to contact and nurse the sick since then.”

“So why do you need me then?” I asked, bewildered by the shattering of the normal world I’d thought I lived in.

“Not all Oceanids are content to leave the ocean and integrate into human society,” she replied quietly. “Many despise the way we treat each other and the resources we so blatantly abuse. There is the added problem that any immature Oceanid cannot leave, and so must suffer whatever poison is in the water.”

She sighed, glancing behind her and checking with Merrick who gave her a small nod before continuing quietly.

“I have managed to placate them for a while by helping them to get better, but it is a short-term strategy. They cannot continue to survive in the ocean for much longer, and even the fresh water subterranean waterways are becoming too poisoned to survive in. Some of them feel that the only way to stop humanity is to cull them…”

“You mean war?” I asked, horrified.

She nodded.

“If you are the fortieth generation Gurrer, as we believe you are, then you will be able to implement a peaceful strategy to help the Oceanids survive and in doing so convince the others that war is not the answer. Our peaceful strategy is two-fold: a complete exodus from the ocean to land, and the parallel cleansing of the ocean to enable those Oceanids who have to remain and who wish to return, to be able to do so.”

“How am I meant to do that?” I squeaked in horror.

“You will introduce the Oceanids to the humans,” she replied, smiling, “and influence them to take on our cause.”

I was shaking my head before she’d finished her sentence.

“You are very talented, Alexandra.” She patted my hand gently before rising, ignoring my protests. “Merrick is here to help you develop your talents. You are already far more powerful than you know.” She turned to Merrick. “We start tomorrow. You know what needs to be done?”

He nodded, keeping his eyes to the ground.

“Sabrina, make sure she is adequately dressed for tonight please,” Talita continued, “I’d like you to introduce her to some of the Oceanids.”

Sabrina bobbed obediently as Talita left.

When she’d gone, I buried my head in my hands and burst into tears. “What am I going to do?” I wailed pathetically. “I don’t have any of the powers any of you think I have, and there’s so much pressure on me, and I don’t know what to do!”

Merrick and Sabrina stared at me for a few moments before Sabrina marched across the small space to my side and shook my arm.

“That’s quite enough,” she told me firmly. “I’ll tell you what you’re going to do, Alexandra. You are going to pull yourself together and start living up to the blood that runs through your veins. You don’t have to believe in yourself for now, but you do have to respect your heritage. You are an Oceanid, or at least half of one, and we do not give in to useless self-battery, and besides,” she said pulling me to my feet, “I’ve already seen amazing things happen in your presence here today. Things we’ve only speculated about, only hoped for.”

“What do you mean?” Merrick interrupted her.

“I don’t know what it was exactly,” Sabrina said, staring at the palms of her hands. “The Merrow were able to produce water on their hands and Laine ice.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how it happened though. I could feel my power being accessed, but I had no control over it…”

“And you didn’t think you should tell me about this?” Merrick snapped angrily.

Sabrina dropped her palms and glared at him. “I needed some time to figure it out a little first.”

“And?”

She turned back to me and took my hand. “I think it has something to do with her,” she replied, smiling at me. “I was able to see her spiritus better when the Merrow were around me, something I wasn’t able to do before.”

“I don’t completely understand what you mean,” I replied meekly.

“Each Oceanid has only one talent,” Merrick replied,

“It seems that when you are with Oceanids with different talents, they are able to share them with other Oceanids,”Sabrina continued before grinning at me. “So you see, Alexandra, already your presence among us has helped us to develop something new.”

“That has massive implications,” Merrick cut in thoughtfully. “I wonder if it works across the whole pod?”

“Only one way to find out,” Sabrina grinned, turning to me. “Let’s go and get you ready to meet the rest of the Oceanids and test my theory.” She bounced on her toes excitedly.