Water (23 page)

“Why?” I whispered.

“It has to do with your genes. The fortieth generation Gurrer is so special because they are a mixture of human and Oceanid genes which seems to have produced this type of mutation.”

“So I’m a freak,” I concluded miserably. The realisation that feeling like I didn’t fit in was because I didn’t.

He shook his head and put an arm around my shoulders, hugging me into his side.

“No, you are incredibly talented,” he replied quietly. “Not a freak but gifted.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes while I absorbed this information.

“So how come I’m more powerful than you are when you touch me?” I asked.

“I’ve been wondering about that myself,” he replied. “I think your Traduzir talents are amplified when you spend time with me, the same as when you spent time with Maya.”

“So would that apply to other Oceanids?” I asked.

He nodded, a flash of worry clouding his face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I’m almost certain Nereus experienced the same thing we did,” he told me quietly, “and if I’m right, he’s gone back to the pod and told the wrong people all about it.”

He shook his head, his jaw flexing. “It seems that we’re always on the back foot. Every time we discover another facet to your talents it fits even more perfectly into the war-minded Oceanids’ plan.”

I thought through the implications of being able to predict an enemy’s movements as they planned it. The outcome wasn’t good.

“So what are we going to do about it?”

“I really like your strategy for peace,” he replied. “I think the combination of Oceanid and human talents to influence the way humans are behaving is exactly what we need. But I want to be able to go back to the pod with a more specific plan.”

“OK, I agree,” I replied. “What do you need from the human side?”

“Who do we need to influence specifically?” he asked, before continuing, “I mean obviously world leaders will help and…”

I shook my head. “I don’t think world leaders or governments are where the problem lies,” I told him.

He stopped mid-sentence in surprise.

“Then who is?”

“Well, world leaders and governments can put policies in place to protect the ocean from pollution, but they’re not going to do that unless the people consuming the resources put pressure on them.”

“I don’t understand,” he told me, confused. “In our culture the leader determines the course of the people.”

I nodded. “I think that’s how it used to work with us too, but that’s changing. People, ordinary people, are the ones that buy fish. Ordinary people are the ones that use cars, and ordinary people are the ones that vote governments in or out, and
I
think that ordinary people will be the ones to save the oceans.”

“But there are billions of them, how are you going to reach them?”

“We need to figure out who they are listening to, and then maybe influence those people.”

“But that will take months!”

I shook my head. “No I don’t think so. We can find most of that out on the internet – I’m just going to need a phone or a computer and we’ll have a start at least.”

He was frowning again. “I don’t think that is going to placate the war-oriented Oceanids.”

“Then what will?”

“We need to show them that you are going to be able to take action immediately. That you are willing to ‘get your hands dirty’ – I think that’s the right English phrase.”

“OK, so what about a two-way approach?” I suggested. “I could start by helping to clean up the ocean and at the same time we could identify and begin influencing the humans to change their behaviour. That way, at least they will see some action.”

“It might work,” he replied thoughtfully, “I’m just not sure they will react to the human element well.”

“I guess it’ll be up to me to make that argument then.”

He grinned. “I guess so.” His smile faded. “I think it will help to show them the clean-up plan at the same time though, and that means showing them some of your more physical talents.”

“Like what?”

“The ball of energy for one, and speed – which I’m convinced was still more you than me this evening – and maybe even some strength.”

“But how is that going to help with the clean-up?”

“You remember the fissures in the earth’s crust I was telling you about?”

I nodded.

“Well, if we could take a group of Oceanids whose talents were –” he paused to think “– maybe strength and speed and energy ball effect, we could drag the pollution floating on the top into those fissures, below where any life survives and bury them there. That would leave the surface clean.”

“What about the oil?”

“The only way to get rid of oil is to burn it, but it takes so long and as it burns it sucks oxygen out of the water. Perhaps there’s a way to burn it faster, or change its compound…” He trailed off unhappily.

“I’ll chat to Muirgel and Llyr about it,” I told him, “I’m sure there must be a way around it.” I stood and stretched. “Let’s get going,” I suggested, trying to find my bearings.

He shook his head. “No, we need to develop the talents we want to demonstrate first. I don’t want you standing up in front of the pod unable to access the talents you need. A show of weakness when it comes to this plan is exactly what the war-oriented Oceanids want right now. Then they could argue that you are only suitable as a conduit to be used in war.”

I shuddered at the idea.

“So can we start practising?”

He laughed, standing and leading me back to the cave.

“No,” he murmured, his voice silken, “we sleep now. Tomorrow we’ll begin.”

My eyes were grainy and sore, so I kept them closed against the brightness, of what I assumed to be sunlight. A soft breath against the back of my neck, and with it the acute awareness of being wrapped in Merrick’s arms, had me instantly awake. “Shhh you’re safe,” he muttered sleepily, as a strand of silken hair fell across my face.

I wriggled around in the iron grip that surrounded me and watched him sleep, his breathing slow and steady, his face relaxed and unworried, reminding me that he was only a few years older than me. He always seemed so in control, so sure of the way forward. He was someone I turned to for protection and had come to trust for guidance, and yet as he slept I caught a glimpse of a man who’d been through too much too young and was just as vulnerable as I was.

I traced the bow of his lips with my finger tip, smiling as his lips curled into a dreamy smile and his eyes slowly opened.

He pulled me closer to him, hugging me tight and muttering a dreamy greeting before releasing me and stretching.

I sat up, light streaming into the overhang we’d slept in, between twisting tree roots and a fringe of grass, as the rising sun reclaimed the sky.

Merrick had rolled over from where he’d been curled around me and was evidently asleep again.

I crept to the edge of the overhang, finding the relatively well kept set of rock-hewn steps leading to the top of the mountain we’d followed the night before. Following them I soon found myself on top of the world, smiling as I soaked up the incredible, if crisp and slightly damp, view.

Every morning in these magical mountains was exquisitely different. Only a very little mist huddled in the deepest and still night-draped part of the valleys that dove in rich contrast to the rest of the soaring scenery, as it opened out in haze-drenched golden light.

My stomach gave a little flip as I remembered snippets of the day before, all of the most exciting ones being Merrick. On any other day breathing underwater would have filled me with awe and probably a little fear. On any other day, discovering I could create a ball of energy between my palms would have been the exciting thing. But this wasn’t any other day. This was the day I got to spend the whole day with Merrick. The thought formed a bubble of joy on the inside of me so intense I couldn’t help but grin at the start to this beautiful day.

Merrick joined me a little while later, lines of worry dropping away into a smile when he saw me enjoying the early sun as it lit up the world.

He stood behind me quietly taking in the view.

“So I figure,” I began, still gazing at the valley and the antagonistic mountains that soared above them, “we’d better start with energy balls soon.”

He grinned down at me as I tilted my head back to look into his face.

“How about a swim first?” he asked.

He led me across the side of the valley until we reached a cliff face, then grabbing me around the waist and using a branch on one of the trees, he swung us straight at the rock face. A moment before we hit the cliff, he let go of the branch and we flew through a narrow opening in the rock into the mountain.

He chuckled as he took my hand, the contact lighting up our surroundings and sharpening my senses enough to be able to hear and smell the water.

We walked through a narrow passage that glistened greenly with water-supported plant life until the passage opened up into a perfectly round, rock-encased room.

The entire space shimmered and sparkled with strange blue dots of gently pulsing light. The ceiling looked as if it had been strung with a myriad of blue fairy lights, the strands interconnected in a chaotic but seemingly purposeful pattern. A thin ledge of rock surrounded a steaming pool of water.

Merrick released my hand, plunging me momentarily into darkness. I concentrated hard, pushing at the darkness, and was rewarded by a dimming of the night. Merrick’s flowing trousers also began to glow as he brushed his hands over them. My own, now slightly grubby clothing glowed too, once I’d brushed them, the pinpricks of light from the cloth and that coating the room providing enough illumination for me to make out the edge of the pool.

The water was surprisingly, deliciously warm as we dove effortlessly beneath the surface. Again my body’s initial response was to fight the lack of oxygen. Merrick was swirling around me, watching me as we sank.

“Just relax,” he encouraged, “stop trying to fight it and just be.”

It was harder again this morning, as if my body had forgotten what it was like to breathe underwater in sleep. I didn’t have any rushing current to distract me either.

After more panic than strictly necessary, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the water. The way it moved in silky ribbons over my skin, the flavour of it, the warmth. And then my lungs had stopped burning and I was free of the need to fight for oxygen.

We spun and circled and laughed in the warm water, diving deep into the mountain to find its source and racing each other back to the surface again.

We floated just below the surface, watching the false stars glitter above the pool.

Merrick sighed, the stream of bubbles from the action frizzing around us as he pulled me towards him and kissed me gently.

“We’d better start figuring you out then,” he said between kisses, before gliding to the surface and getting out of the pool.

I followed him reluctantly, wanting to stay in the embrace and comfort of the water. The air outside of the pool was cool and slightly uncomfortable. Breathing also seemed to take a lot more effort than I’d ever been conscious of before.

He led me deeper into the mountain for a while before we came to a narrow passage way which ended in the crash of a falling waterfall.

He showed me how to climb down the slippery rocks until we were in the belly of the valley, encased in shades of green – the dark solemn green moss that stuck to the tumble of pebbles that lined the sapphire-blue pool, into which veils of water fell at different angles over the rocks, energetically green ferns that had sprouted excitedly from every possible nook and cranny and then finally the more ancient green confetti of trees that bowed gracefully towards their life source.

I rubbed my arms, chilled by the upward spray of the water.

“Try warming it,” Merrick suggested.

“What do you mean?”

“You probably have the same ability as Sabrina, so try warming the water.”

I gazed at the mist, focusing all of my attention on it. It became more visible, I could see it dancing to an inaudible tune in the filtered light, but I couldn’t warm it.

I explained what was happening to Merrick.

“What about using that anger you were telling me about yesterday?”

I closed my eyes, trying to dredge up the fury that had fuelled my abilities the day before.

With my eyes still tightly shut I didn’t realise he’d walked up to me until his lips lightly grazed my shoulder, working slowly along my collar bone and up my neck.

As he kissed me the anger dissipated, filtered out by an emotion much much stronger – love.

I considered this absently as his lips found their way along my jaw, before they very softly explored my lips.

“Are you trying to distract me?” I whispered, my eyes still closed as he worked his way back down my neck and collar bone ending at the opposite shoulder.

“Sorry,” he murmured, a smile in his voice, “I just couldn’t resist you. I’ll be good now, I promise.”

I kept my eyes closed, contemplating how I was going to pull out those angry feelings when I was so happy, when a different idea began to form.

I examined my happiness objectively for a moment, feeling out the shape and power of it at my centre, then very slowly I pushed it into the thought of warming the spray, not forcefully as I’d done when rescuing Josh and Luke the day before, but casually thinking about what I wanted to do.

I thought I was imagining it at first, but a triumphant whoop from Merrick had me slowly opening my eyes.

Everything around me had taken on a wavery effect. Merrick’s skin, when I looked at his face, was sort of overlaid by a transparent almost silvery liquid. The effect deepened in his eyes, intensifying the excitement in them. When he breathed out I watched, fascinated, as tiny droplets of mist fanned out from his mouth, curling and condensing slightly in the cold air.

“You’re doing it,” he exalted, picking me up and whirling me around in the now balmy air. “Better cut it out though, before you affect the eco system.” He grinned down at me, hugging me closer.

I let the emotion go, allowing it to take whatever form it wanted and immediately the mist cooled again.

“Now tell me how you did it?”

I explained the process, and that it appeared that any emotion was accessible.

“OK, let’s try the energy ball,” he suggested, bouncing a little on his toes in excitement.

I followed the same process, and within seconds had a ball of flickering blue energy between my palms.

“Now what?” I asked him, looking for a place to throw it but not wanting to hurt the valley.

“Reabsorb it,” he suggested, laughing at my incredulous expression.

“Is that even possible?”

“Well, that’s what all the other Oceanids who have this gifting do,” he explained.

I focused on the ball, willing it to break apart and reabsorb into my palms.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience. It was cold and alien and made me a little dizzy.

“OK, make another one,” he said.

I shook my head. “Only if I can get rid of it then, it feels awful reabsorbing it.”

“Throw it at that boulder,” he suggested, pointing at a large house-sized boulder a fair distance down the river bed.

“Do you think I’ll reach it?”

He shrugged. “Only one way to find out isn’t there?”

I formed the ball and then carefully transferred it to one hand and threw it with all my might.

There was a blinding flash accompanied by a whizzing sound and then a resounding boom as the rock splintered into a thousand pieces, bits of rock flying everywhere.

Merrick leapt at me, rolling both of us into the pool as a shower of debris rained into the water.

“I’m sorry!” I told him, my eyes open wide in shock.

He shook his head, his hair swirling around him. “No, I’’m sorry,” he said respectfully, “I have seriously underestimated you.”

He helped me across the slippery rocks as we left the pool to examine the damage. The boulder was nowhere to be seen.

“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” he whispered, staring in amazement at the empty space.

“I think we should try something else,” I suggested.

“What about strength? Try picking up that rock.” He excitedly pointed to a large rock a few paces from me. I walked over to it and tried to pick it up. It didn’t budge.

I stood feeling confused, and suddenly very tired. “You’re sure you were focused on it?” he asked.

“I think I was,” I told him, trying to shake the weariness that cloaked me, and forcing myself to concentrate. I scrambled to locate the core of love, or anger or anything I had left in me and forcing it into the action. I managed to lift the rock off the ground, but my strength abruptly failed me on the way down. I dropped it with a resounding crack that reverberated around the valley, only just managing to step out of the way before it landed on my feet.

I sat down on it, panting.

“Time for a break?” he asked.

I nodded, unable to speak I was so tired.

After an hour of resting in a mossy hollow with my head cushioned in his lap as he regaled me with ancient folk lore he, wanted to know if I was ready again.

“What do you want to try?” I asked, still feeling shaky.

“Well, I’m kind of hungry, so I was wanting to see whether you could command fish to you.”

“That’s a talent?”

“Well, it makes finding food a whole lot easier when they swim up to you,” he grinned

“Isn’t it kind of violating their trust?”

“And fishing isn’t?”

“Oh right, good point,” I muttered, walking over to the pool.

“So do I, like, call to them?” I asked, staring into the water and wondering if there were even any fish there.

“I guess so,” he replied, standing at the water’s edge with me.

“But I don’t speak fish,” I told him seriously.

He burst out laughing, pulling me into a hug as he did so.

“Just get into the water and concentrate on them,” he suggested.

I slipped into the comfort of the water, concentrating on fish. A few moments later, a school of tiny silver, edged with orange, fish swam up to me, nudging me and playing with my fingers.

They were so small the whole school would have comfortably fitted into a small fish tank. I chased them away, focusing my thoughts on medium-sized fish. Within a few minutes something silky brushed against my legs, not once but a few times.

All of the nightmares about Brent’s death and the sensation I’d had on my first swim in these pools came flooding back, but this time I didn’t run. This time I flipped around and snatched two wriggling fish out of the water as they swam past me.

Triumphant, I splashed out of the pool to where Merrick had already built a small fire.

We chatted as we ate the fish, Merrick explaining how being able to communicate with ocean creatures was going to be so important in the clean-up process.

“If we can move the ocean animals away from a dangerous area we’ll be able to protect them while we sort out the reason for the danger,” he explained. “I’ve also been thinking about some other skills you’ll need to master before we go back.”

“What are they?” I asked around a mouthful of fish.

“Spiritus and motives and even future plans are going to be important to be able to see so we can work out who to trust.”

“Well, I’ve already seen spiritus twice and future plans once,” I told him thoughtfully.

“I know, but I want you to practise because you were in very tense circumstances when you saw them.”

“OK,” I agreed.

“Try seeing my spiritus,” he invited.

I licked my fingers and sipped at the gourd of fresh mountain water, before shaping the happiness I felt into focus around him.