Mermaid Spring (Mermaid Series Book 2)

by Dan Glover

  He was quick to hide under a large broom bush which concealed him while still offering a view of the sky. The bird flew directly overhead barely skimming the water as if searching for something lost. In a moment it disappeared yet he heard the din for several minutes after its passing.

  Unless his eyes deceived him, he was sure he'd seen someone inside the bird... it looked like one of those who were no more... one of the creatures who called themselves human but to him were no more than ill-behaved monkeys.

  On the other hand, he got the distinct impression that the person he had seen was not what he first took to be... as the bird passed overhead his mind shot out toward it the way he learned to do in the dimly remembered past and he caught a thought emanating from him, for it was most certainly a man.

  Something was scouring the coast and they were doing it for a reason. A vision of the girl sprinting into the sea washed over him and somehow he knew the two occurrences were not unrelated.

  Had the girl met with misfortune? Was someone searching for her or perhaps the boy? The world was filled with predators great and small and though he shunned the ocean waters he suspected they too abounded with life fast and hungry.

  He caught a sense of urgency. To him it was a feeling both foreign and familiar. Intrigued, he pressed forward with his inquiry, seeking out the intelligence issuing forth from the bird now fading into the distant and misty hills from which he had come forth.

  Fleeing was always an option and most times the best one. By staying put he only offered his enemies—and they were legion—a better target. Normally he moved with the darkness as an ally and the stars to guide him, particularly the one to the north that remained stationary.

  Something held him in place, however. Perhaps it was a rare glimpse into the future for he who lived eternally in the now. Maybe he'd been alone long enough and if the boy and especially the girl on the beach were harbingers of what was to come, he'd be a fool not to wait with a patience grown long with the turning of the world.

  "Ena."

  He said the name slowly allowing the sound to roll off his tongue as he looked in the direction that the bird had flown almost willing it to return. If the girl had waited he might well be in her presence even now but he had no doubt frightened her away with his eager anticipation of greeting her.

  Her features returned to him without recalling them... the way her lithe body moved so freely and how her dark eyes flashed with the knowing he was near. He was glad he had not chased after her yet he didn’t understand why he was so rooted to the sand grown dense under his feet.

  What he wanted he took. The girl was no different. And yet she was. Something in her manner stayed him and caused him to tarry rather than to burst forth madly from his hiding place and capture her for his own. So he sat down and waited.

  Three days later a sail appeared.

  Like giant seagulls gone awry high white triangles appeared against the blue backdrop of the languid sky long before he spotted the ship itself. The vessel seemed to be making way right toward the beach where he stood. He wondered if the bird had indeed spotted him from the air and whether he ought to hide once again.

  Still, this might be his opportunity to reach the Isles.

  After unsuccessfully exploring a nearby harbor for seagoing vessels he returned to the beach where the encounter had taken place, the images of the boy and the girl graven in his memory. Standing upon the sand he repeated the names they called out to one another: Ena and Alpin.

  Searching through cobwebbed recesses of times past he was bitterly disappointed how he could not recall even his own name. If he was to interact with others it seemed better to have a name than not.

  He wondered if he had always been like that... forgetting the moment as soon as it passed him by. Yet now, the images of the shimmering bodies of the pair on the beach doused in sunshine and alight with love kept beckoning to him, as if calling out to be recognized, like something he had long ago forgotten but was trying once again to burst forth into the world.

  He had been in love once. The recollection washed over him like the slap of cold water enveloping his body when he dove headlong into the crystal clear Lake. It was she who the girl on the beach reminded him of though the memory did not come with a name.

  It wasn’t fair for him to forget a love as glorious as theirs. Had they set the Lake on fire with it? Perhaps that was why he was destined to wander forgotten trails with gentle wisps of her lingering upon the edges of knowing.

  Did she yet exist? Though he hadn’t thought of her in centuries as the memories stirred in long dormant corners of his mind he couldn’t help but imagine being in her arms again if only for the moment.

  Coming out of his reverie he saw that the ship was quickly bearing down on him thrusting itself like an ardent lover who could never get enough against the seahorse-capped waves shimmering iridescently in the gentle sunshine.

  Part of him shouted: flee for the hills! He knew he was needlessly putting himself in harms way by exposing his position. He might be better off to hide in the broom brush again, to observe the actions of these beings that seemed so like him and yet so different.

  Instead he held up a hand waving a greeting at the ship as it plunged ever closer, heaving against the tides, mounting one crest, diving into the furrow, and mounting the next in a battle of forever. People standing on the deck waved back. His sharp eyes spotted incredulous looks upon faces made of laughter. He sensed no animosity here, only amazement.

  An anchor dropped as a smaller boat disembarked from the larger holding three figures: two he recognized as his erstwhile visitors, Ena and Alpin. They were clothed now. He thought how much less they shined. The figures grew closer until they became all he saw.

  "Who are you?"

  The largest of the three waded ashore to address him directly leaving his companions safely aboard the skiff. The language was strange, the same type of cadence the boy and girl used which seemed both familiar yet alien.

  He shook his head.

  "What is your name?"

  This time the man spoke a rusty sort of Russian, halting after each word as if searching for meaning.

  "Kāne."

  He uttered the name more to defend his dignity than anything else. It was an ancient name that came to him across a vast sea of time. By now the large man's companions have waded ashore as well. They sloshed through waves kicking their knees high. The girl filled him with compassion. She was grinning like an earthly sun as she spoke.

  "I told you! I knew someone was watching me."

  Kāne needed not know the language to understand her meaning. Her thoughts shouted at him in a way few ever had. He felt her sending out tendrils of anticipation and wonder at his appearance here. Without being told he understood these people had been alone in this world their whole lives.

  "I am Nate."

  The large man spoke while putting a hand to his chest in a way which symbolized his name yet it was unnecessary. Kāne read his thoughts nearly as perfectly as the girl's. He extended a hand in greeting gripping Nate's right wrist in the old ways.

  "This is Alpin and Ena."

  Nate nodded his head towards the boy and the girl.

  "You were watching me. I knew someone was in the tall grass."

  Ena spoke the same lovely lilting sprechgesang that he heard the two of them addressing each other with on the beach. He watched as her lips formed the words knowing what she was saying before she said it.

  I was watching you, yes.

  He threw out the thought at her rather than speaking aloud. The effect was immediate. Her eyes widened and she giggled.

  "Did you hear that?"

  She addressed Nate and Alpin looking at them one by one but they merely shrugged their shoulders with a confused look in their eyes. She looked quickly back at him.

  They cannot hear me, Ena. Only you may.

  You listen to my thoughts?

  I know your thoughts just as you understand mine.

>   He reached both hands out to pull back her long black hair revealing the gills on the sides of her head.

  "Hey, stop that."

  Alpin moved forward his eyes ablaze with anger, his fists at the ready. Sensing this might be taken as an affront Kāne stepped back with one hand raised in supplication while pulling his own jet black hair back with the other to show off his gills too.

  "He is like us."

  Alpin's eyes were saucers as the true scope of revelation soaked into the boy.

  Do you swim in the ocean too?

  No, Ena... I am of the Lake. The salt water does me no favor.

  "Come home with us."

  Nodding his head as he read the words mirrored in Ena's thoughts, he followed them to the skiff. Splashing through the waves he left his exile behind without a look back.

  Chapter 18—Old Lovers

  Natalia adored Lake Baikal like an old lover.

  As the years passed she dove deeper and stayed down longer than ever before yet even with her Gypsy blood she still could not match the dancing of Lily and Lauren. The waters became colder with each succeeding level she obtained. Thirty meters down the pressure became too great as she was yet unable to equalize it as did the Ladies.

  "You should not take such chances, my lovely Natalia. Should you dive too deeply you may drown before we can come to your rescue."

  Natalia knew Lily was right but she felt left out always floating above her lovers, wishing more than anything that she too could be cavorting a hundred and fifty meters beneath the surface for hours on end.

  Surfacing with her lovers, she watched Lauren go to their cabin to begin preparing lunch while Lily lingered behind with Natalia, dawdling in the shadows cast by enormous pine trees no longer cut down by wood-starved villagers or to feed ravenous paper mills.

  "I will take more heed, my sweet and caring Lily. You are right. I just miss your touch."

  Natalia hung her head as the corners of her mouth were drawn down in a frown. Though she bit her lip in an attempt to prevent it a tear found its way down her cheek followed by another.

  "Oh I'm so sorry, my darling Natalia. We're selfish in our desires. Please forgive us."

  She knew it wasn’t Lily's fault, or Lauren's. Since Lily took Nate as a lover they did not spend as much time together as Natalia wished. She understood the boundaries of love and respected them but she regretted the hours that no longer lingered like days entangled in each other.

  "There is nothing to forgive, my beautiful Lily. I speak of things that cannot be changed. I am the one who should be asking absolution, not you."

  "Come... let us spend this time wisely. Our precious and beautiful Lauren is waiting tea for us."

  Lily wrapped dripping Natalia in a sun-warm towel before taking her by the hand to lead her barefoot into their old stone cabin. Their steps synchronized. She remembered their first time here, just the two of them, and how they spent whole days and nights tangled in bed. Natalia never experienced such a love. And now, each time they were together it was just like that first time all over again. Lauren giggled as they walked into the living room.

  "I remember how fearsome you became when you thought I was here to take your darling Lily away from you. You came rushing out of the bedroom like a mad woman, all full of rage and shakes. I fell in love with you the instant I saw you, my tremulous Natalia."

  "You are teasing me now."

  Though she had been with the Ladies for a century, she never knew for sure their moods or their meanings. They varied with the seasons, these denizens of the deep, yet the one thing that never changed was the look of love abiding deep in their eyes. If there was a greater treasure in the world, Natalia had no use of it.

  "Oh no, I will never do such a thing, my sweet and lovely girl. I adore you far too much to ever tease you. It is but a bit of a succulent memory that I wish to share, merely a taste. I will not speak of it again if it leaves a bad taste."

  "I must have made quite a sight."

  "Well... let us say you made an impression, one that I will not forget. Trust me when I tell you that human beings were never so dear to me before that moment, my precious Natalia."

  The room was spartanly furnished the way it was a century ago when Natalia first arrived here: a hearth and fireplace chimney constructed of blue and green volcanic rock shiny like glass, a table made of old-growth rough-sawn planking surrounded by six chairs made of woven reeds soaked in water and bent into shape, draperies of thick velvet material, and a number of oil paintings by an unknown artist who neglected to sign the work.

  A tall antique copper samovar sat in the middle of the table along with four cups, a plate full of sliced lemons, and a second plate heaped with finger sandwiches made by Lauren. Natalia lighted the alcohol fuel beneath the samovar to make zavarka, her favorite kind of Russian tea. She knew Lauren and Lily did not care for such strong tea so she used water in the lower portion of the receptacle to dilute theirs.

  "I dearly miss everyone back home but at the same time it's wonderful to have this place to ourselves again. How do you think Nate, Kirk, and Delilah are doing on their sojourn to that old airport, lovely Lily?"

  "I have hopes they find it desolate and falling into ruins, darling Natalia. Nate desires to begin flying here instead of driving. I am not in favor of his plan but his heart seems set upon it."

  "Isn't flying to Lake Baikal taking an unnecessary risk, pretty Lily?"

  "That is my opinion, my precious Lauren. Nate is more concerned about the time we burn driving here and back. He seems to think we have only a limited amount of it. I keep attempting to convince him that we have an abundance of time so to put ourselves in danger makes no sense. It has been a hundred years since anyone has used that old airport. It is bound to be dilapidated, don't you think so too?"

  "Without a doubt, marvelous Lily... I am sure he will return dejected. We shall have to pretend as if we are sad for him too."

  Sometimes it was hard for her to remember that Nate was an adult now even though he grew up so quickly it was as if Natalia turned around one day and saw the man where a child stood only seconds before. Their time together as mother and son flew by too quickly before he was gone building a life of his own.

  She still found it strange at times, this world bereft of old age and death. Sometimes the salty demons still clutching at her heart whispered how their time had only been postponed... she was theirs. And though tens of millions of years might come and go, they would be there yet with arms of fire and ice waiting to gather her in.

  She shivered involuntarily. Perhaps the wages of this long and illustrious life would one day have to be paid but not today. This day was made for love. Natalia could scarcely remember the last time all three of them were here together and alone without the hordes of the People pressing in upon them.

  To be content was a rare and a too curious feeling that seldom arose these days. The fires that burned in her heart had turned the love living there into embers, still hot and yet not as vibrant and alive as it once was.

  Perhaps death had its place in the world after all. When time lost its meaning, so did love. She often wondered at the coldness that her Ladies sometimes exhibited toward one another, like barely concealed hate. Though she knew a little of their history, Natalia sensed it was but the surface that she touched and beneath that raged a pain too great to put into words.

  At times she woke in the middle of a dark night slick with sweat and pain dripping through her insides as if she was skewered with red-hot iron swords and left to suffer alone and ashamed of being who and what she was.

  She didn’t deserve the love of the Ladies. She was but an insignificant and ugly bug next to their radiant beauty shining like diamonds in the glittering darkness that was the world. She imagined that one day they would both sicken of the pretense of love and leave her to perish as she had been ready to do so long ago.

  The moment was all she had... it was meant to be savored, not malingered away with regrets a
nd uncertainty.

  "I think we should finish this wonderful lunch that our amazing Lauren has made for us and then adjourn to our private quarters. We really should take advantage of our scarce time together, and perhaps we can take our darling Lily's mind off of flying for a few moments."

  Chapter 19—New Life

  Alpin was filled with fury when he saw the stranger reach out to touch Ena.

  It was an oddly reassuring feeling to him albeit foreign. He was at once ready to strike down the man with his fists and feel no remorse in doing so but at the same time hesitant. Up until that moment, Ena wasn’t much more than a playmate, someone against who to test his expertise in swimming and diving.

  But now, she was his lover.

  During the last couple days something in Ena's demeanor changed. A twinkle in the corner of her eyes told him she was keeping a secret from him yet he wasn’t sure he wished to know what it was. Why had he run away from her that day on the beach? The question percolated up through his mind over and over, especially late at night when sleep refused him its forgetfulness.

  It all happened way too quickly. Now he felt uncomfortably withdrawn around her. Though he longed to open his heart to her—to fill her auditory organs with sweet nothings—whenever they were alone together for more than a minute he sensed a disquieting remoteness brewing under the surface.

  Three days ago they sat together under whirling stars high overhead and in front of a slowly dying campfire that crackled as it shot out hot sparks from a particularly sunny day many years ago. As the chill of evening descended everyone else had gone inside Orchardton Hall leaving the two of them alone together.

  A gauzy mist curled onto the beach arriving with the tides and surrounding them in a salty white making it seem as if they were floating on a sandy island high in the clouds. He yearned to reach out to her but something in the way the firelight reflected in her eyes caused him to hold back, fearful of rejection.

  "Grandfather Nate is taking the Nautilus to that beach in old France. I'm going with him."