5. Flesh
Hands pulled me into the darkness of the rock as the murmur of worried voices drifted through my half-conscious dreams. Neith’s name was mentioned a few times and every time it was, I fought my failing body to wake and fight before the heavy exhaustion pushed me back down again.
Cruel laughter and the prodding of my wounds made me angry, but not angry enough to summon the energy to retaliate. I just wanted them to go away and leave me alone.
And then it was quiet again and I could drift in the dark heavy peace that surrounded me.
My eyes had a milky film over them when I pushed my lids open. I blinked but they didn’t clear. My hand, when I moved it to rub my eyes, brushed against a strange filmy substance that seemed to surround me and only came into focus when I pressed my hand against it.
It had an odd leathery texture and was translucent enough to allow the light through but not enough to provide any real details of the environment outside of it. It gave a little with the pressure from my hand but held enough rigidity to keep it from stretching out of shape.
My still confused mind was easily distracted by the unfamiliar texture beneath my fingers. I inspected my hand in horror, watching as the fine silvery net that encased each finger glittered in the faint light.
I pulled at the fabric. It was strands of hair-fine steel woven into a mesh that had been sewn in intricate detail into a head-to-toe garment for me. It fitted my body skimming up my bare legs and arms, encasing each finger and toe before billowing slightly at my neck, allowing my hair to float in the water. The elegant robe I’d hurriedly dressed in before diving into the ocean had been replaced by two narrow strips of coarse fabric that encircled my hips and chest leaving the rest of me naked. I didn’t want to know who had dressed me in this revealing outfit that fit so perfectly to my body.
I tried to turn around in the narrow space only to find the capsule I was in didn’t allow for that much movement.
Claustrophobia clawed up my throat as I pushed at the capsule again, desperate to find a way out. I tried to rip the capsule open, my net-encased fingers clawing ineffectually at the smooth “skin” that surrounded me.
I’d begun to panic when I saw the sliver of clear blue water above me. A narrow rubbery-lipped gap in the capsule stretched as I squeezed my stiff and sore body out into the water.
The capsule was attached to the floor of my cell – that was the only way to describe the rock-encased room with finger-thin slits at the very top and very bottom of one wall – by a purplish umbilical cord and it swayed in the slight current as the water moved in and out of the cell.
I examined the space in minute detail, which didn’t take very long as it was a box of stone only five paces wide, and deep and just a little higher than my head.
Blasting my way out of it was my first thought, but as I tried to form a ball of energy between my palms, pressing them together expectantly, a shiver of fear replaced the power that had run through my veins only a short while ago, because nothing happened.
I’d been confused trying to get out of the capsule, the absence of the strength I’d grown so used to a mere backdrop to the panic of being so tightly confined. Now though, when I needed to escape, I couldn’t seem to create the ball of energy that would ensure my release.
I closed my eyes, focusing my mind intently. The only sound was the muffled hush of the water as it pressed in on my ears.
It was my own fear in the end that forced me to face my vulnerability, because even as I felt it blossoming in my chest, thick with anxiety and panic, I couldn’t see any evidence of it in the colours of the water. Not a single wisp of spiritus drifted from my skin.
I was completely ordinary and that, for the first time in my life, spelt disaster.
How could this have happened? Since I’d discovered my gifting I’d been able to access any and all of them at any time except…
The image of Qinn struggling helplessly in the net sent a sliver of ice down my spine. I hadn’t been able to wrench the net apart. As hard as I’d tried, as much as I’d focused on trying to get him out, nothing had happened.
I lifted my hands, running my net-encased fingers over my arms.
They had figured it out far faster than I had. I was powerless within the net.
I drifted to the floor in despair, the soft current of the water wavering my hair around me.
I was powerless to rescue Merrick like this, just an ordinary teenager. The irony of my horror at being “just an ordinary teenager” swept over me. Only a few days ago I’d been insisting, to anyone who’d listen, that there was nothing special about me.
Now, when I needed to be strong, when I needed to be extra-ordinary, Neith had found a way to neutralise me. He’d found a way to bend me to his will.
A murmur of voices outside my door made my stomach drop in fear.
The wall behind me slid away and another gossamer-fine net similar to the one I was dressed in was hurled across the space, settling over me in a confusion of drapes and folds.
Four Miengu crowded into the room, one of them hauling me to my feet roughly while the others formed a defensive cocoon around me.
I was pushed out of the cell and into a curving passageway that ran in a thin gloomy streak bordered with cells on each side.
I wondered, as we swam in a tightly crowded group, which cell Merrick was being held in as I tried, unsuccessfully, to orientate myself.
They moved me fluidly through a grand doorway, ornately decorated with gems that sparkled faintly in the gloom. The door opened into a cavernous underwater room eerily lit in the pale blue fluorescence of the plankton I’d watched well up out of the volcano, as they clung to the walls in a fine irregular net of living light.
We swam over a room that was packed with Oceanids, some of whom I recognised, others I didn’t. The eerie silence that filled the space was made more threatening by the regimented style in which they were arranged.
Unlike at the cave in the mountains, where the Oceanids had interacted as a village of neighbours, these Oceanids were neatly divided into groups of varying sizes, all of them fanning out from a bare patch of rock in the centre of the gathering.
It was obvious that each group consisted of Oceanids of the same talent or type. I recognised the perfectly proportioned but diminutive form of the Merrow, although I didn’t recognise any of the faces within the group.
The Miengu were easy to identify; their intimidating bulk strangely contrasted by some of the smaller ones. I recognised two of them as the ones who had been tracking Qinn and me. They were standing beside each other, the smaller one looking smug and grinning and nudging the larger as I swam past.
Some of the other groupings I’d never seen before and while all of them were exquisite some of them held a far more alien quality than I’d been exposed to until now.
One group in particular, placed close to the centre of the gathering, had pronounced frightening features. There were a few with unnaturally long fingernails that ended in needle-sharp points, others with mouths full of pointed teeth, and still others covered from head to toe in sharply pointed barbs and spikes.
The Miengu led me into the centre of the gathering, pushing my netted feet onto the rock before forming a tight circle around me.
The silence boomed in the space as every eye focussed on me.
Without warning every Oceanid bent double at the waist making me jump in surprise.
Neith laughed dryly as he descended from above me, placing his hand firmly on the back of my neck and forcing me into the same position of deference as every other Oceanid.
“You will be showing me the proper respect from now on,” he hissed.
I squirmed away from his touch, pulling myself upright and glaring into his beautiful blue eyes.
“Alexandra, I am surprised to see you here, such a brave move to come alone, and really quite out of character for you.”
I glared at him.
“You are not what I would call a heroi
ne, so afraid of what everyone else is thinking of you, so eager to do what everyone thinks you should be doing, and yet here you are, clearly in search of your beloved Merrick.” His voice sneered around Merrick’s name.
“I am pleased that you came though.” Neith rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he circled me. “It has saved me having to assign valuable resources to ensure your capture. You see I know how ridiculously weak you are on your own …” He snickered, swirling around me, his eyes scudding over my body as he did so.
“On your own you have no hope of rescuing the Oceanids and no hope of convincing the humans to protect the ocean, after all why would they protect something if it is of no gain to them? You hope to convince them that by reducing fishing and stopping pollution they will save something beautiful, but you do not see that they do not care about beauty if it doesn’t profit them financially” He shook his head in pity.
“You are so young, so naïve, you haven’t suffered enough at their hands to realise that they will never change. I on the other hand…no…we.” He swept his hand over the mass of Oceanids as they watched the exchange. “We have suffered.
“I can see that you think I am forcing these Oceanids to be part of my army, but you are wrong, every one of them has lost a great deal to human greed. Loved ones, beloved homes, and many, many grow weaker every day. They are not here because I have forced them to come, they have each chosen to fight for their right to life…in their own way they have each chosen me, for I am the leader of the fight for life.”
As I listened to him speak I watched the Oceanids behind him, their faces peering around each other as they stood in unnatural lines. Many responded with nods of firm agreement to what he was saying, but there were some whose eyes were dull, their faces strained as they refused to look at me. It was these Oceanids that gave me hope, because it was obvious that not all of them were in agreement with Neith. What I couldn’t quite work out though was why they stayed. If they were so unhappy to be part of Neith’s plan, surely they could find a way to escape?
“You really can’t be blamed for your naïvety,” Neith continued. “You were raised as a human and lied to for so long about our existence, I was surprised you were able to access your talents so quickly. Honestly, when you first came to the cave I was among the first to express my doubt about you to Talita…not that my opinion of you has changed very much mind.” He tsk’d, his expression mocking. “Your father had similar idealistic and noble goals for the Oceanids, Alexandra, but like him before you your plan will fail if you try to attempt it on your own…but with me…” He paused, swimming in front of me and placing both hands on my shoulders, his eyes alight. “Together we could do what is necessary to save the Oceanids and convince humanity once and for all to leave the ocean alone.”
“You don’t want to save the Oceanids, you want to rule them,” I hissed at him
The amicable expression in his eyes immediately cooled into glittering ambition, before he flicked away from me, indicating the Miengu should pull me up to where he floated above the ranks of Oceanids.
“Alexandra, you see me as a monster, this much is clear, but you need to understand that I am no more a monster than the humans, whose blood runs through your veins.”
He seemed to be waiting for me to reply, but I had nothing to say.
“Do you see these Oceanids?” He waited until I nodded. “Their ancestors ruled earth, Alexandra. We always have been the stronger species and in our greatest day we chose the sea because it was the more beautiful of the two environments, the more bountiful.”
He paused, gazing at the Oceanids below him.
“These Oceanids have all but forgotten their heritage, and they’ve been waiting for the fortieth generation Gurrer to come along and rescue them from obscurity, not realising that the same blood that ran through our ancestors’ veins, the same genes that enabled us to do amazing and wonderful things, still is within us. The legend…your legend…has weakened our species to the point of extinction and then you come along and instead of inspiring them to greatness you encourage their peaceful weakness.”
Rage sparkled in his eyes as he spoke, each word meant to be venomous and hurtful.
“I want to return our species to their rightful place, Alexandra, a place where we are a great and mighty species once again. We didn’t just exist, we lived, we ruled, we thrived. We had the pick of the ocean and of the land. Humans worshipped us as the gods we should be, they built altars to our kind, offering food, and even their young to us in exchange for a kind word, or a touch from one of our hands. And why not, we are infinitely more talented than they are, infinitely more advanced. You see, Alexandra, we chose the ocean. It was the more beautiful of environments, and humans, well they have forgotten their place…and so have we.”
He shook his head, his face growing hard as he spoke. “Now look at us, weak, pathetic, and willing to give up the true treasure of this globe, the sea, to return to the dry dusts of earth because humans have been allowed to pillage our home, allowed to run rampant.” He turned from me and addressed the crowd of Oceanids below us.
“Well, I say let us remind them of who we are! I say it is time to turn the tables on those who kill indiscriminately and rid the earth of the plague of humans, I say it is our time to rule!”
A resounding and single boom of noise erupted from the Oceanids below us.
“You would be useful in furthering our cause. The war on humanity would be quick, painless really, like ripping a scab off the face of the earth.” Neith turned back to me.
I shook my head angrily at him. “This is not a cause, it’s tyranny. You want to rule, Neith, no matter what the cost to Oceanids or humans and I will not be a part of that.”
“I understand your hesitation, you have been raised to believe you are a human, yet here you are breathing and swimming like a fish. You can’t tell me that the land is better than the sea, I can see it in your eyes, you are in love with the ocean.”
I couldn’t deny his observation but I was also determined to give him nothing to hold me with.
He smiled knowingly, swimming behind me and whispering into my ear sending chills racing up and down my spine. “Think carefully, little girl. If you choose to join us I will make you second in command after me. Together we could rule and do great things for our people. We could heal them and provide safe haven for them, we could ensure a wonderful prosperous future for them.” His voice grew hard. “You could be a pivotal part of their future.”
“I will never join you, Neith,” I hissed. A bubble of rage exploded in my chest, solidifying the course of action I’d been skirting around ever since I’d worked out how helpless I was in the net.
Neith may have been able to stop my talents, he may even kill me if I didn’t co-operate with him, but he couldn’t force me to join him. My resolve congealed into a curl of hatred that swirled through me as I watched his mouth twist into an angry smile.
He nodded and as he did so the Oceanids parted and revealed a sight that made my stomach flip-flop suddenly in terror.
He had been chained by the wrists and feet to great iron rings imbedded in the rock. His face and body were covered in bruises which were magnified by the unnatural blue light of the plankton that lit the hall.
His eyes were frantic, worry creasing his face as he pulled angrily at the chains.
“Merrick!” His name exploded from my lips as I pulled uselessly at the netting.
“I’m all right, Alex.” My heart leapt at the sound of his voice, a sound I’d missed so much it was almost a physical relief to hear it again.
“Neith, leave her out of this.” Merrick’s voice was hard but edged in a little too much panic for me not to dread Neith’s next move.
Neith laughed. “Oh I intend to,” he replied, an evil grin crawling across his face. “After all, what good will she be to me if she’s injured? You on the other hand are a wonderful motivating factor, because even if she continues in her decision not to join me, I very much
doubt she will oppose me knowing what I’ll do to you.”
A bubble of terror formed in my belly as his plan became all too clear. He had never intended to use any form of physical force on me. He knew that he could do anything to me and I would probably still refuse to help him. But Merrick…
Neith turned and motioned to the group of Oceanids I’d been instantly afraid of, the most inhuman of any Oceanids I’d seen.
They surrounded Merrick, the ones with mouthfuls of sharp teeth clacking them together, the others with the claw-like fingernails raking them across the rock producing a haze of fine powder that drifted in the current. The others, the ones covered in sharp barbs, spun and leapt excitedly, each twist revealing their horrifying armour.
“You see, Alexandra, I am a compassionate Oceanid, truly I am. I am allowing you to make a choice. If you join me Merrick will be spared the agonising torture you are about to witness.”
“No…” I sobbed, glimpsing the fear in Merrick’s eyes before they hardened in determination.
“It is not my choice, it is yours,” Neith replied as he slid in front of me, his face a mask of false compassion.
“Alex, look at me,” Merrick commanded. I looked past Neith to his face.
“Be strong,” he told me, his face set in determination.
“Last chance, Alexandra.” Neith turned to me, raising his arm as he did so.
“Don’t do it, Ale—” Merrick’s shout was cut short in a gurgle of pain as they rushed at him.
6. Prisoner
The attack only lasted a few short minutes before Neith called them off. When they parted a tattered ghost of a person floated to the ocean floor, revealing large chunks of hair missing from a raw and oozing scalp. His back was completely devoid of skin, the white of several ribs showing through the lacerated flesh, strands of muscle wavering in the water.
Pain like I’d never felt before stabbed through my heart. He must be dead. No one could survive that much trauma. But he moved his arm, placing obviously broken fingers against the rock and heaving with an agonised wrench of sound, which was cut painfully short as the chains that still held him yanked on his limbs.
Fire (The Mermaid Legacy - Book 2) Page 4
