by Liz Kessler
“Come on, now. Let’s not fall out,” Morvena said. “I thought you wanted to find the young siren.”
Amara turned away with a swish of her tail so sharp it was like a scythe slicing through the water.
“You’re right. We’re wasting time,” she said. “Let’s help the others.”
“What about the girl?” asked Nerin.
Morvena broke away from the others. “I’ll see to her,” she said quickly. “You go ahead. I’ll follow.”
The sirens exchanged a glance. “All right,” Amara said finally. “Put the child somewhere safe. We can deal with her later.” With that, the three of them swam away. Morvena nudged me in the opposite direction. “Come on,” she said.
“What do you mean, you’ll see to me?” I asked as we swam up to the top of the clearing and along a dark ledge that ran the length of the walls.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you,” Morvena said. We swam along the ledge in silence, swimming past dark holes and caverns all the way along.
We passed a low cave with jagged rocks hanging in its entrance like a jail door. Green stone walls were decorated with pink ferns dangling down like a feather curtain; ledges with fat pillars stood on either side, and stone hills sloped down, lined with pillars and rocks in a hundred different shapes and sizes.
Morvena stopped in front of a large opening. “We’re here,” she said. “Come on.” She swam into the recess. I followed her to the entrance and looked around. Huge purple leaves fanned out around the sides. Bushy green moss formed spongy seats in one corner. A jelly-like bed ran along one side. A large rock was piled high with what looked like homemade jewelry made of driftwood and stones.
Morvena indicated for me to swim inside. “This is my room,” she said as I looked around. “Stay here.” Then she smiled at me. It wasn’t the way the others had smiled. She wasn’t snarling. “You’ll be fine,” she said. “Just wait here.”
“And what if I don’t want to stay here?”
Morvena smiled again. “Then don’t,” she said sweetly. “But I’m afraid you won’t be able to get out. This is as pleasant a place to wait as any, until you can leave.” She looked down, and her tail swished nervously in the sand. “If you can ever leave,” she added.
I didn’t reply, but as she swam away, her words gradually sank in. If I could ever leave? What did she mean?
The more I thought about it, the worse it looked. The lost sirens had been here for years and years, according to Shona’s teacher, and now I’d joined them. A cold shiver shot through me as I realized what I’d done.
I’d found my way in here, but getting out seemed impossible. And unless Shona managed to perform some kind of singing miracle, it looked as if there could only be one conclusion.
I was going to be trapped in here with them forever.
My stomach growled. How long had I been here? I wished I’d at least had some breakfast before coming out. Too bad I’d forgotten the loaf of bread I’d bought for mom. I’d left it on the counter — I’d been too shocked, and too desperate to get out of that shop. I doubted very much that my new friends were going to provide a banquet for lunch.
I swam around Morvena’s room, looking out to the larger caves beyond the entrance. What was this place?
Rocky ledges and walls sprawled out all around, lined with crazy shapes. A church steeple at the top of a hill, a giant upside-down jellyfish, a wedding cake, an elephant’s trunk — all of them and more lay scattered everywhere, as though the caves had stolen a hundred random objects and turned them to stone.
I saw a tail farther down the murky darkness of the ledge and darted quickly away from the entrance. Someone was coming.
I hid in the darkness, peering out while I waited for them to pass.
And then they did. Just one of them. I watched as she swished past me.
Wait a minute! That wasn’t one of the sirens; that was —
“Shona!” I darted out from the darkness and joined her on the ledge.
“Emily!”
“You found me!” I said. Then I remembered about the sirens going to look for her. I grabbed her and pulled her inside. “Oh — or they found you!”
Shona tilted her head to stare at me. “Who found me?” she asked. “What are you talking about?”
“They haven’t found you, then?”
“Who haven’t found me? Em, you’re being really weird. I’ve just —”
“How did you get here?”
Shona’s eyes widened as they always do when she’s on an adventure of some sort. “Well, that’s the weird thing,” she said. “I didn’t even try. I just felt this really strong current pulling me along. It was swishy! Next thing I knew, I was whizzing downward, water gushing all around me.”
“Like an underwater waterfall?” I said. “Inside a well.”
“That’s it exactly! I was pretty scared at first, but then when I got to the bottom, I looked up and it had disappeared. I figure as long as I can find that spot again, we could swim out whenever we want to go.”
“Did you try it?” I asked glumly.
Shona shook her head. I was about to explain that it wasn’t going to be as simple as she thought when there was a noise outside the room. Someone was coming.
I grabbed Shona and swam over to the purple ferns in the corner. “Quick! Get behind here,” I said as the swishing noise came closer.
“Why?” Shona asked. “Em, what’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” I said. “Just —”
But it was too late. The sirens turned a corner and came into the room. It was Amara and Lorelei.
They spotted me instantly and swam over to me. “No luck so far,” Amara snarled. “What shall we do with this one in the meantime?”
Then Lorelei glanced sideways and spotted Shona. “Wait!” she said. “What’s this?”
Amara looked across and saw her, too. In a flash, the snarl was gone, and she smiled with the warmth they’d turned on me earlier. It’s an act, Shona, I said in my mind, hoping she’d somehow hear my thoughts and trust me. Don’t be taken in.
Amara swam over to Shona and stopped beside her, flicking her tail gently in the water below her. She looked Shona up and down. “Hello there, pretty one,” she said, her voice oozing with sweetness. “You must be Shona.”
Shona smiled at Amara, her big round eyes full of innocence and excitement. “How do you know?” she asked.
Amara tilted her head toward me. “From your friend,” she said.
Lorelei swam beside Amara and held out a hand to Shona. “We’ve heard so much about you,” she said, sounding as much like Shona’s long-lost best friend as Amara.
Shona reached out awkwardly to shake Lorelei’s hand, but Lorelei took hold of it instead and turned it over to examine the back. “Oh, just look at those dainty fingers,” she said. “I think you’ve got the prettiest nails I’ve ever seen on a siren!”
Shona blushed. “We did nail decorating in B. and D. this week,” she said. Turning even deeper red, she added, “I got the best score, actually.”
“Beauty and Deportment — oh, that was my favorite subject at school,” Lorelei said with what sounded to me like a bitter cackle heavily disguised as a wistful sigh.
“Mine too!” Shona exclaimed. “And my best.”
“Well, fancy that; so much in common already. Now, singing — that was my other favorite thing in school.” Lorelei licked her lips, as though sizing Shona up for her dinner plate.
“Oh, singing is my favor —”
“Shona!” I burst out. I couldn’t listen to this any longer. “Don’t tell them anything else!”
Shona stared at me. “What d’you mean, Em? Why in the ocean shouldn’t I?”
“They aren’t what they seem! They’re evil and mean, and they want to use you for their own purposes.”
“What purposes?”
I hesitated. “I don’t know,” I admitted, lowering my head. “But believe me. You can’t trus
t them!”
Amara let out a soft laugh. “Oh, dear — have we made someone jealous?” Then she reached out with one of her spindly thin fingers and stroked Shona’s hair. “So pretty,” she said. “If your singing is anywhere near as beautiful as the rest of you, I’m sure we’d all love to hear it.”
Shona beamed at Amara.
“Shona, please don’t trust them,” I pleaded. “Don’t be fooled.”
Shona turned to me. “She’s right,” she said, jutting a thumb at Amara. “You’re jealous. You just don’t want me to get all this attention, do you? It’s usually you at the center of attention, and now it’s my turn and you don’t like it!”
“Shona, that’s not it at all!” I said. “Why on earth would I —?”
“Enough of this!” Lorelei suddenly butted in. “Let’s go tell the others we’ve found ourselves the little siren.”
Shona looked so pleased at being called a siren, you’d think she’d just been crowned queen of the sea.
Amara and Lorelei began to swim away, escorting Shona between them. Before they left the room, I grabbed Shona’s arm.
“Shona, when have I ever lied to you?” I asked. “When have I stopped you from getting attention?”
She held still in the water for a moment, her tail splishing around nervously, her forehead creased into a frown. “I don’t know,” she said. “I suppose you haven’t.”
“Then believe me,” I said urgently. “They’re not to be trusted!”
Amara picked up a brush from the rocky side cabinet in Morvena’s room. She brushed Shona’s hair with it in a couple of long sleek movements. “So smooth,” she said gently. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen hair so soft and perfect.” As she smiled at Shona, her face was such a picture of wonder and admiration that I was almost taken in myself.
“You must be mistaken, Em,” Shona said softly. “I’m sorry. I know you wouldn’t deliberately stop something nice from happening to me; I shouldn’t have said that. But I’m being treated like the siren I’ve dreamed of being my whole life! Please don’t try to take that away from me,” she pleaded.
Before I had a chance to say anything, Lorelei took hold of Shona’s arm. “Come on,” she said sweetly, between gritted teeth that Shona clearly hadn’t noticed. “Let’s go.”
“What about Emily?” Shona asked.
Amara left her side and swam over to me. “I’ll tell you what,” she said. “As a special treat, I’ll take Emily off for a special seaweed wrap: our very own spa treatment. How does that sound?”
It sounded like she’d probably rather wrap me up in the seaweed and leave me to rot. It wasn’t much use complaining, though, as she was already leading me out the door. Shona was swimming ahead with Lorelei, so she didn’t see Amara’s hand clutching my arm so tightly her nails left red marks in my skin.
It took a few moments to realize where Amara had taken me. I was back in the well, only this time the hole in the wall was blocked. She’d dragged a rock in front of it, and it was too heavy for me to push out of the way.
I swam around, feeling my way along the walls for a way out. Nothing. I tried to swim upward. Impossible. The invisible waterfall just threw me back down again and again.
I slumped down on the sandy floor and tried not to think too hard about the stupid, hopeless, awful mess I’d gotten myself into. How did I do it? Every single time I tried to do anything to solve a problem, I always managed to create a bigger one in the process.
I looked down at the murky seabed. Two round blue fish with large orange fins floated toward each other. Flapping gently, they skirted the surface of the well, chasing each other around in a circle. I was busy chasing my miserable thoughts around in a circle of their own.
I pulled myself into a ball, huddling my arms over my tail. Then I heard a noise. Must be one of the sirens, I thought. I hoped it was Morvena. At least she didn’t seem as mean as the others.
But the sound was coming from above me.
I jumped up and craned my neck to look up into the well.
“Emily!”
My heart leaped. It sounded like . . . but it couldn’t be — could it? I didn’t dare hope. Surely I’d imagined it. That was what happened when you were confined in a dark cell like this. My spirits sank again, as though they too had been hurled into a dark, hopeless, underwater cell.
“Emily, can you hear me? Are you there?”
I looked up again. This time I saw something, too. I wasn’t imagining it! There was a figure at the top of the well. A face. I couldn’t see him clearly, but I knew who it was. It was really him!
“Aaron?” I called, the word echoing around the walls, spiraling up toward him.
“Emily! Where are you? Are you down the well?”
“Yes, I’m here — can you see me? I can see you!”
Aaron shook his head. “All I can see is water!” he yelled. “I’ve been swimming all over. This was my last hope.”
“How did you know I was around here at all?” I called back.
Aaron paused for a long time. I could still see him there above me, leaning into the well. He didn’t reply.
“Aaron?”
“Don’t be mad, but I followed you,” he said eventually. “Mandy told me what happened. I know you wanted to be with Shona, but I was worried. I just wanted to keep an eye on you. But then you both disappeared, and I’ve been trying to find you ever since. I just had this awful feeling that something bad had happened to you.”
He wasn’t wrong there.
“Can you get out?” he called.
I shook my head. “It’s too strong.”
“Right, I’m coming down, then,” he yelled. “Hold on.”
For a fraction of a second, I held my breath and allowed myself to smile for the first time all day. Aaron was here! He had come to find me, to save me!
Then I remembered.
“No!” I screamed. “Don’t come down!”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Aaron sounded hurt. “Do you just want to be with Shona? I’ll go away if you want, now that I know you’re safe.”
“No! Don’t go away!” I screamed even more urgently. “But don’t come down.”
“Don’t come down but don’t go away? What do you want me to do, then?”
“You can’t come down,” I said. “You’ll never be able to get out again. They said earlier: you can get in but you can’t get out. No one can! I don’t want you trapped in here, too.”
“Who was talking earlier?” Aaron asked. “Who’s in there with you? Em, I’m coming down!”
“No!” I pleaded. “It’s the lost sirens — they’re all trapped in here by the waterfall. It’s magic.”
“Magic? Em, don’t be —” He stopped.
“Aaron?”
He paused for ages. “Magic, you say?” he called eventually.
“Yeah, it’s like they’ve had a curse put on them or some —” I stopped abruptly.
“Emily?” Aaron said breathlessly.
“A curse,” I repeated.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.
“If the sirens are trapped in here because of a curse, perhaps we could undo it?”
“Exactly!”
But then, just as quickly as my hopes had risen, they shot back down again. “Except for the magic to work, our hands have to touch,” I said. “And how can they do that through this thing?”
“Maybe I should just come down after all, and we’ll figure it out from there.”
“No!” I shouted. “It’s not worth the risk. If you come down and we can’t stop it, we’ll both be stuck here.”
“OK, listen,” Aaron called, all the hesitancy gone now. “Edge as high up as you can get, and stretch your hand as far as you can reach.” This sounded hopeful, and my spirits lifted again.
I tried to swim up through the invisible waterfall. The weight above me was so huge, I had to look down. Come on, fight it, get through it.
I swished and splashed my tail as
hard as I could, trying desperately to gain some ground. I clung to the rocky sides, gripping tightly as I tried to heave myself upward — but it was useless. I wasn’t getting anywhere. The sirens knew what they were talking about; there was no getting out of here.
“It’s impossible,” I called.
“No — it’s not. Don’t say that.”
“I can’t do it. I can just about drag myself up into the current, but only for about a second before I’m thrown back down again,” I said. “It’s no use.”
“A second might be all we need,” Aaron called. “Stay there — don’t go anywhere.”
I would have laughed if I’d had the energy. Where exactly was I likely to go? That was the whole point, wasn’t it?
“I’ll be right back, OK?”
I slumped back on the seafloor, bedraggled, exhausted, and out of ideas.
Ten minutes later, Aaron’s face reappeared at the top of the well.
“I’ve got it!” he said. “I’ve tied a long trail of seaweed around my waist and secured it to a rock at the top here. I’m going to lower myself slowly. When I say ‘now,’ drag yourself as high up as you can. If we both reach out at the right time, maybe it’ll work.”
It sounded like a slim chance to me. But then a slim chance was better than anything I’d managed to come up with. “OK,” I called up.
I watched as Aaron lowered himself into the well. Instantly, he shot down in a rush, whirling about in the water, banging against the sides. But then he stopped going any lower. Dangling halfway down the well and bouncing around in the current, he grabbed the seaweed around his middle, letting it out bit by bit. Then he gave me a thumbs-up sign. I whirled my tail around, preparing to swim the hardest I’d ever swum. I felt around the rocky walls, searching for the best grip to pull myself up.
Aaron edged closer and closer, gradually letting himself drop down toward me. I gripped the wall, digging my fingers hard into the rock.
“Now!” he yelled.
Spinning my tail so fast it felt like a propeller, I heaved myself up as hard as I could with one hand, reaching upward with my other arm. I couldn’t see anything — the force pushed my head down. Nothing, nothing. Just whirling, crashing water. I gripped the rock harder, dragging myself a tiny bit higher, flailing around with my arm, searching blindly for Aaron’s hand. Come on, Aaron, where are you?
