Then We Fly

by Rebecca Salas

  “Which is why you brought me to Ophelia.”

  “Yes. Which is why I can bear to let you leave. Because I know that if you need me, you can reach me. Please, Cora. Please, if you find yourself in trouble, you can trust me.” And I knew that I could. He wouldn’t do anything to intentionally endanger me. What I didn’t trust was his ability to separate what he wanted for me, from what I wanted for me.

  The sunset was beginning to fade as Oran stood, offering me his hand. I took it to steady myself as I stood but released him once I was on my feet. We walked in silence down the halls until we reached the door to my room.

  “Your transportation is arranged. The boat will be ready at sunrise.” Oran took my hand in his, turning my palm over in his hand and bringing it to his lips, kissing the inside of my wrist. I was surprised by the intimacy of it. “Dream of me.” He said, releasing me and turning on his heel. A smooth movement and I was left watching his graceful steps as he walked away.

  {MISSING SYMBOL}

  The boat neared the shore and Dylan and I readied ourselves to disembark. The small crew would wait, moored in the deeper water for us to return. Dylan rowed the smaller boat onto the shore as the sun began to set. The light was fading and I questioned the wisdom of traveling in the dark, it would be much more comfortable to spend the night sleeping aboard the ship. But my nightmares regarding Naida had returned and I felt an increased urgency to do what I could.

  In my sleep I saw her, no longer a prisoner to Blake, but now choosing to help him, feeling a need for him. I still didn’t know what he wanted from her, why he would release her, because I don’t think she knew. I wished I could be sure of a time frame for what I was seeing. Had it already happened? Was Naida already broken? I hoped it was all still in the future, and that I would yet have time to help her. One thing I knew, was that there wasn’t any time to waste, and that spurred me onward, motivating me to keep going even when a soft bed, safe on the ship was so tempting.

  I was grateful for Dylan’s support. He had volunteered even before he knew what I was trying to do and why. And knowing the truth seemed to motivate him much the same way it had motivated me. Dylan was disgusted by Blake and, like me, was appalled to learn that he was in a position to do this to Naida after what had already happened to me.

  And so, it was an easy decision to leave the safety of the boat and seek out to find the help we needed for her. As we reached the beach Dylan and I strained against the sides of the small boat, pulling it onto the narrow strip of rocky shore, being sure to secure it against a rising tide. Ahead of us rose a steep cliff face, dark rocks speckled with sporadic thin bushes. Dylan walked ahead, confident. I looked nervously ahead, why couldn’t we find a better spot? How were we supposed to climb this?

  “Dylan?” I began, nervousness apparent in my voice.

  “It’s this way.” He said, no hint of a doubt. “There’s a trail.”

  I strained my eyes against the deepening twilight, looking for the path. I couldn’t see it until we were right on top of it. I fumbled in my pocket looking to turn on the flashlight from my phone. I flicked it on, a pale light illuminating a patch in front of me.

  “Leave it off.” Dylan directed.

  “It’s getting dark.”

  “I know, but it’s a full moon, it will be easier to see a wider area if we let our eyes adjust.”

  With some trepidation I turned off my light and allowed Dylan to lead the way. As my eyes adjusted again to the dark, I saw that he was right. I could see a wider area without the flashlight, which was helpful on the steep path. Still, our climb was slow and deliberate. Turning back, I briefly looked to the boat out in the ocean. It glowed like a small fire on the water. My legs began to burn and my breathing was more labored. I tried not to think of the cabin that could be mine on the ship. Instead, I looked down, focusing on not tripping on anything as we climbed the switch backs of the trail upward.

  Finally, we reached the top and after walking a safe distance from the cliffs edge, we sat, taking a breath. Dylan pulled out a water bottle and shared it with me. He had only briefly looked over the maps and plan that Dorian had helped me with. Following the memory that Nerine had put into his mind, he seemed sure of where we were going and how to get there. Ahead of us lay a clearing bordered by trees in the distance.

  “How long will it take to get there, do you think?” I asked Dylan, hoping Nerine’s vision was extremely specific.

  “I’m not sure.” He paused, looked up into the sky and back over our shoulders to the moon. “Maybe an hour. Not too long.”

  Excitement bubbled up inside of me. It felt good to be moving, doing, no more waiting. I began walking forward, eager to head in before I slowed.

  “Maybe it’s best if you lead the way?” I asked. “Did you see our path clearly enough?”

  Dylan paused, thoughtful. “Can’t you smell it?”

  I furrowed my brow and sniffed the salty air. The smell of the ocean overpowered anything else. “Smell what, exactly?”

  “The lake? Freshwater.”

  “No.” I looked closer at Dylan. “Can you?” I asked in surprise.

  “Yea. I think I can.” He nodded.

  “Well, lead the way, Fido.” I could see Dylan’s face, even in the moonlight, giving me an annoyed but playful look.

  “We can’t all be visionaries.” He teased, and walked ahead, leading us straight across the meadow and toward the trees. Once we were inside the forest, I had to pull my flashlight back out. Here the moonlight wasn’t strong enough to light our way and there was no real path. We picked our way through the brush, over rocks and fallen branches. I was grateful when the woods changed to tall pines with no undergrowth. I appreciated the ease of walking unobstructed under the tall trees.

  Before long however, I began to miss the brush and the sense of security it had offered without my realizing. Out in the open I began to feel exposed, unable to see anything beyond the light of my flashlight but feeling certain that there were many small eyes that could see us. I began to hum a random tune to myself.

  “What is that?” Dylan asked, a laugh in his voice. I hadn’t been trying for any tune in particular.

  “I’m trying to let the bears know that we’re coming. I don’t want to catch anything by surprise. “You know; make noise so they know we’re here and it can go away instead of eat us because we startled them.

  “Right. Want to pick a tune and stick with it?” He laughed. I shoved him in the shoulder and settled onto one tune. The first that came to my mind. “What’s that?” He asked.

  I hadn’t realized what it was when I had begun. I had hardly made a conscious effort to choose the song. “It’s something Fynn wrote.”

  “Huh.” He paused. “Maybe a different song, Cor.”

  “What’s wrong with that one?”

  “I don’t think we want to be luring in lovesick bears, or whatever else is listening.” Dylan laughed. I shot him an annoyed look that I knew he wouldn’t see then blew a raspberry for emphasis but switched to a different tune, nonetheless. As the time passed and nothing jumped out of the trees, I began to calm down, and enjoy the peaceful stillness of the forest at night. It wasn’t exactly quiet, as I listened thoughtfully. In fact, there was a cacophony of noises from the black depths of the forest. Crickets and treefrogs, the wind rustling through the branches and what might be larger animals as well. I tried not to think about those.

  I looked out to my side, sweeping over the forest and saw a pair of eyes glowing in the dark. I stared into them, trying to gauge the distance between us. The eyes held steady and unblinking, until the glow was replaced by blackness and they were lost to my sight. This, I decided, was worse. Now I knew something was there but couldn’t see where it was. We continued to hike, and minutes passed without whatever it was jumping out to bite me and I began to breathe normally again.

  A pair of eyes were there, again, in the distance. Watching. Again, the gaze was steady until it disappeared. I couldn’t b
e sure that it wasn’t a different animal, but I picked up my pace and hummed a little more loudly as I walked as close to Dylan as was comfortable.

  I thought about what Dylan had said, about not singing Fynn’s song, and I switched my tune, putting intention behind it. I had no way of knowing if it would work on animals. I didn’t seem to have a knack for using music on people, so I had even less hope of using it against animals. Still, I preferred trying over waiting for the eyes to appear again.

  As I hummed, I put the intention that the listener wouldn’t want to see us. That we weren’t interesting. That we were not a threat. That we should be avoided. I tried to picture small and otherwise harmless critters hearing us and leaving us alone. I didn’t know if it had an effect, but I didn’t see the glowing eyes again, and for that I was grateful.

  “Can you smell it now?” Dylan asked. I sniffed the air. There was something there, a change. I couldn’t smell the salty sea air anymore, now I smelled something cool, a pleasant contrast to how hot and sticky I was feeling.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “It’s the lake. Freshwater. It smells so much better than the ocean. Don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just a different kind of good.”

  “Not to me.”

  “Is this what you said you could smell all the way back at the cliffs?”

  “Yes.” He said simply.

  “That seems impossible.” I said.

  “Just about as impossible as being able to breathe underwater and jump into other people’s dreams I’d guess.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “So, turns out I have even more superpowers than we thought.” He said. It was dark, but I imagined I could see his bright smile.

  “I’ve been thinking about that. Shouldn’t we have less abilities, seeing as we’re only quarter ondine?”

  “I don’t know.” He paused for a moment thoughtful. “Maybe, an ondine giving up her immortality gives some special powers to her descendants?”

  “I wish we could have had mom around. She would have been able to make sense of it.”

  “We’ll figure it out.” He paused before speaking up again, “when you dream, is it always literal?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Just, when you have special dreams, of the future or whatever, do they always happen the way you see them?”

  “I’m not sure. I don’t have a lot of practice. And sometimes it’s feelings and images. I’m hoping that I can change some of the things I’ve seen, for Naida at least.”

  “Do you think it worked?” He said as we continued walking through growing underbrush.

  “Do I think what worked?” I asked back. The night was warm and a bead of sweat trickled down my back.

  “That tune you were humming. Do you think that it actually made animals want to leave us alone?”

  “You could tell what I was aiming for?” I asked. Wiping the back of my hand against my forehead.

  “Yea.”

  “Well, that’s a good sign, maybe it did work.”

  “I know that Zoya can get fish and such to listen to her. I wonder if that’s one of my superpowers. I’ll have to test it out.” He said, thoughtfully.

  “Good luck, aqua man.” I teased.

  “You’re right. I should have a superhero name. I’ll have to work on one. Do you think there will be fish in this lake? Maybe I could give it a go.”

  “Probably.” I answered, “Unless the naiads have scared them away, which doesn’t sound right.”

  We stepped through the last of the trees into the open night. The moon shone high in the sky glittering across the glass smooth water of the lake. The lake was large enough that in the dark I couldn’t see the far side. Beside me, Dylan took a deep breath and sighed.

  “This is the kind of water I was meant for.” He dropped his pack and began stepping on the heels of his shoes, slipping them off. I looked around to either side of us. There was no sign of any light other than the moon and stars. There were no eyes visible here, only a long stretch of trees rimming the pebbled beach. I felt more peaceful here next to the water than I had in the forest. I placed my own pack on the ground and began to slip off my own shoes.

  “You don’t think we should wait for daylight?” I asked.

  “We can. I’m just so warm after that hike, and the water smells so good. I want to take a swim first.”

  “It does look inviting.” I had worn a swimsuit under my clothes, just in case, and stripped down to my suit.

  Dylan stepped into the clear water sending out ripples over its otherwise smooth surface. The image tickled the back of my mind. A feeling of déjà vu swept over me. Had I dreamed this before? Dylan was in to his waist now and I followed him in, sending my own series of ripples spreading across the water my small waves bumping into his, scattering the reflected light of the moon. Stepping out until I couldn’t reach the bottom, I looked down into the water and was surprised by how crystal clear it was. Based on what Dorian had said, this was a good sign that we might find Clytie here. Naiads were particular about keeping their lakes clear and clean. Still, I was amazed.

  Dorian ducked his head under the water swimming in circles.

  “See any fish?” I asked.

  “Maybe further out.” And we swam around for a while, the sounds of the treefrogs fading and being replaced by the lapping of the waves we made as we swam.

  A familiar sensation tugged at my memory again. What had that dream been about? Like a cog turning into place I remembered. This hadn’t been a good dream.

  “Dylan.” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “We need to head back.”

  Dylan looked thoughtful and nodded his head. I began to swim backwards toward the shore. How had we come so far? I watched as Dylan swam behind me, looking for what I knew would be following us now. I could feel her, before I saw her. I tried to remain calm, she was still far enough away that she wouldn’t expect me to see her. She was behind Dylan now, and inching closer. She would get to him first if we stayed like this.

  “Cora.” Dylan whispered as we swam. “I don’t know if it’s literal, what Nerine showed me.”

  “Was it… something that would help us now?” I asked, trying to sound calm.

  “Maybe. I saw you change. You were trying to escape and—”

  Abruptly she was too close and grabbed Dylan by the ankle, pulling him under. She couldn’t drown him, I knew, but she could do other things, worse things. I knew what she was. A syphon.

  I plunged under the water to where he thrashed around while she pulled him down. She was so fast, I struggled to catch up as she pulled him deeper in the dark water. The distance between us was widening, I was going to lose him.

  I remembered my previous experience with a syphon and closed my eyes. Thinking of Nerine. Help.

  I opened my eyes to find that the syphon had stopped, floating in place. Watching me.

  She released Dylan and shot away from him, swimming toward me at a rate that I could hardly believe. Dylan was safe, but now I was in danger. I turned my back to her and began to swim for my life. I had no hope of out pacing her with her fin. Glancing back over my shoulder I saw how much closer she had already become; in another instant she would be able to reach out and grab me. In that moment I wished that I had a fin like the mer. I imagined myself swimming like a mermaid with a tail. I prayed I could pick up my speed.

  Looking over my shoulder I saw that she had fallen back, still following, still too close, but not as close as she had been. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glint of moonlight off a tail fin close behind me. Fish or mer? It was large, too large for a common fish in a lake. I whirled around looking for the second mermaid. How had she snuck up on me? The fin flicked out of my sight as I turned.

  I looked around in a panic before I saw that the fin was mine. My own legs had somehow melted together at the ankles and my feet had been replaced with a sparkling mer fin. I looked down in astonishment as
a dark hand reached out and grabbed a hold of my wrist. I tried to yank away, but the delicate hand held me firm. I tried to pull again, but I could feel her in my mind, a tugging sensation that morphed into a searing pain.

  “No!” I cried out closing my eyes against the blinding pain.

  No! Nerine’s voice was in my mind and the nightmares swept over me.

  I added to them. Desperate I grabbed for any and every horror I’d seen in dreams. I pulled the creature with the burning whip from Ammon’s nightmare and pressed it on the syphon’s mind. I felt her hand release me, but I didn’t stop. Nerine didn’t either. Through me to the syphon she poured more horrifying images than I could have thought possible from someone so young. I tried not to dwell on them, trying not to be sucked down into them. Instead, I tried simply to let them pass through me, water pouring through an open tap. After an eternity, the images stopped. I closed my eyes.

  Nerine?

  You learned my name. I could feel her smile in my mind.

  Thank you. I thought. This is the second time you’ve saved me.

  Third. The tone of her thoughts was matter of fact. I did send Dylan with you. He was the best choice to protect your secrets.

  Thank you. I thought again.

  Anytime. Her thoughts were cheerful, a discordant contrast to the horrifying images she had been pressing through me.

  I opened my eyes. In front of me, the syphon floated like a doll on the water, face down. Dylan came up and poked her cautiously. She didn’t respond and he swam past her to me.

  “Cora!” his eyes were wide. “It was literal!”

  “What?” I was confused by his cheery tone. I was still reeling from the nightmare creatures.

  “You’ve got another superpower!” He enthused pointing to my feet. No, not my feet. My fin.

  I swished around. “What the!” I had forgotten in the torrent of nightmares about my transformation. “Where did my feet go?”

  “I was watching. When you were swimming away from that thing. She was so fast, and she was about to catch you, but then… your feet. They kind of just, grew together and stretched out.”