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 re
galed 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.
Very slowly and only with the greatest concentration did I begin to see a glimmer of something around him. It was a pale iridescent blue and it came from within him, clothing him so that I could barely see his skin. It covered him from head to toe, only his face exposed.
When he moved, it flowed around him, softening his outline, as if he were covered in silk.
“It… it’s beautiful!” I stammered, amazed.
He grinned, the covering changing to a warm bronze in what I assumed was happiness.
“What do you think it means?” he asked.
“Well, it was blue to start with, is that your normal colour?”
He grinned, nodding. “All Oceanids have a sort of silvery blue spiritus.”
“And then it changed to a warm bronze, I assume in happiness.”
He was obviously pleased. “Yes, exactly right. Now try to see my future plans.”
I concentrated again, surprised to see an image of me intertwined throughout the spool of freeze-frame snapshots I got.
I focused on him again in surprise.
“What?” he asked, bemused.
“I was part of everything,” I replied.
He kissed me softly. “Now you know my plans for us,” he whispered, his eyes tender.
I smiled. “I can live with that,” I replied, kissing him firmly.
He stood, pulling me to my feet and hugging me tightly.
“You ready?” he asked.
I nodded, a ball of anxiety twisting suddenly through me.
I watched as he doused the fire and prepared to leave, forcing a smile onto my lips at the thought of the looming conflict Merrick suspected would take place when I outlined the peace.
Chapter 34
Soldiers
The trip back was a bit subdued for both of us. Merrick paused often to hug me and show me a little piece of the landscape he wanted to share with me.
Sometimes he would gaze at me while I asked questions about the history of this place, looking at me like he was trying to memorise every tiny part of my face. Sometimes he would kiss me tenderly and tell me how much I meant to him.
We returned to the Oceanids at midday. Merrick quickly took me to the sick Oceanids asking Marinus if he could call Maya for us.”You think I’ll be able to help all of them?” I was very suddenly excited.
He shook his head. “No, not alone, their sickness could kill you if you gave them that much health. But maybe with Maya and me, we can help many of them.”
She appeared a few moments later, her pretty face still pale from helping Luke and Josh to recover.
“I hope neither of you are sick,” Marinus boomed worriedly. “Maya can’t help anyone else again, she is too weak.”
Merrick shook his head. “No, we want to help her,” he replied.
I took her hand and concentrated on her health, grinning in satisfaction as colour returned to her cheeks and her eyes began to sparkle.
After a few moments she drew back from me, grinning from ear to ear.
“How do you feel?” Marinus asked her sceptically.
“Great,” she said, laughing, “better than great actually.” She twirled around excitedly.
Marinus’s booming laugh echoed around the cave as he pulled her into a tender hug.
“Do you think I’ll be able to help too?” he asked me over the top of Maya’s head.
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly, “what is your talent?”
“Strength,” he replied.
Merrick nodded. “Yes, I think that would help a lot!”
Our elation was quickly stunted when we entered the first aven and the tiny little Oceanid I’d visited the very first time I’d come into the hospital. She had recovered a little bit and her large liquid eyes followed our progress as we surrounded her hammock. She smiled when she saw me, struggling to move so that she could take my hand again.
“Is it such a good idea to experiment on her?” I asked, suddenly doubting my new-found abilities and desperately afraid that I might hurt her.
“She is not going to get any better unless we try this.” Maya’s voice was soft and sadly sympathetic. “We’ve done everything we can for her,” she whispered, taking Marinus’s free hand and stepping forward.
We gazed at the little Oceanid as every cell in my body hoped she would get better.
At first nothing seemed to happen, she continued to wince every time I moved imperceptibly, her hand still broken, her mouth a twisted grimace of pain.
I closed my eyes and imagined her whole, imagined her vital and as I did so, instead of growing weaker as I had before, I grew stronger, healthier.
A gurgling laugh filled the room.
My brain couldn’t quite understand what my eyes were telling it. She was laughing at me, exquisitely beautiful and so full of life it looked as though she would burst with it.
The hand that rested in mine was completely restored, and she pulled it from my clutching fingers to clap them together and push aside her blankets so that she could get out of bed.
I stared at her in awe, as she skipped around us before hugging me tightly and racing out of the room.
The others were just as incredulous, before Marinus scooped Maya up, swinging her around and laughing as he
did so.
Merrick pulled me into a hug and kissed me soundly.
“You did it,” he whispered, pride and adoration shining in his eyes.
“I think…” I whispered back, “I think we did it.”
I explained the strength I’d felt flowing into me to the others which sparked another excited discussion, because they’d felt exactly the same way.
“Let’s try again,” Maya enthused, grabbing my hand and leading our little procession to the next aven.
The same thing happened, except that when the next Oceanid leapt from their bed as healthy as if they’d just been on holiday for a few weeks, the four of us felt even stronger.
The more Oceanids we helped, the better we felt, until we were racing from aven to aven, laughing and hugging each of them as they thanked us and exclaimed at their health.
By the time we reached the last aven, our elation had turned to awe-inspired silence. In just one afternoon, the four of us had helped all of the sick Oceanids, tripling the pod in size.
“I can hardly believe how easy that was,” I whispered as we stood and watched the last Oceanid, run up the path, whooping with joy.
“Do any of you feel tired?” Maya asked us, her expression thoughtful.
No one did.
She turned to Marinus. “I think that was you,” she told him, “and Merrick, I think our health has remained in such good condition because of your sensory talents.”
“What are you saying?” Merrick asked her, frowning.
“It seems that if we combine the right talents with Alexandra, we form an almost indestructible team,” she replied. “I don’t doubt that if there were more sick Oceanids here, we would have easily been able to help the rest of them too. Just wait until we tell the rest of the pod!”
Merrick shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a great idea, Maya,” he cautioned her. “Not all of the Oceanids are as dedicated to peaceful activities as you are.”
Marinus nodded. “He’s right, Maya, we need to be careful.”
“Well, they’re going to want some sort of explanation,” she replied, pointing to the swell of excited voices that was flowing over the cliff from the direction of the fever tree.
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