Shearwater: Ocean Depths Book One (FULL)

by D. S. Murphy

  “That’s amazing,” I said.

  “It’s a party trick. Not that useful.”

  Sebastian had disappeared in the middle of the night. I had to force myself to get up and go to school in the morning. Homework and tests seemed pointless, and I couldn’t concentrate in class. I’d texted Sebastian to meet me at Mermaid’s Cave after school. But I didn’t want swimming lessons; I wanted to learn more about my abilities.

  “Is that what I did to Roisin?” I asked, as Sebastian made a miniature polar bear that started walking across the pond.

  “Yes,” Sebastian said, looking uncomfortable. “Humans would call it hydrokinesis, the ability to control water—although actually it’s more about the salt content than the water. But I’ve never heard of a mennow doing it before. Half-bloods don’t usually inherit those kinds of powers. Not that I’ve met many half-bloods.”

  “Isn’t there something else you could call me that’s a little less insulting?”

  “How about Butter-butt?” Sebastian said with a smirk, a glimmer of humor in his eyes.

  I punched him in the shoulder, and skinned my knuckles against his exo, which was already as hard and rough as coral.

  “Honey Bumpkin?” he said, glancing down at my body. I blushed as his eyes ran over my skin.

  I thought I’d need to change fully before I had any kind of power, but maybe that wasn’t true. After all, Lugh was just a half breed, like me, and he defeated the Fomorian army. Even if I never changed, that didn’t mean I was helpless. I just had to figure out how it all worked.

  “Why could I do it with Gatorade but not tap water?” I asked.

  “Gatorade is mostly salt water,” Sebastian said.

  “And the Coke?”

  “55mg of sodium per can. Your skin was already starting to sparkle when I pulled you away,” he said.

  I grimaced. That’s like drinking a pizza.

  “Your skin will react to common salt, but it’s a weak substitute for actual sea water,” he said.

  “So how do you do it?” I said, mimicking him and placing my hands out, palm up.

  “I don’t know, I just… picture what I want it to do in my mind, and then reach out and connect with a little patch of water.”

  I tried, but I felt the enormity of the ocean. When I tried to bring it up, it felt like I was trying to move a mountain. Sweat broke out on my brow and my forearms trembled. Sebastian pushed my hands down and smiled.

  “You can’t move the whole ocean. Just a little bit of it. You have to focus on a small part of the ocean.”

  “But it’s all the same,” I said, frowning.

  “We don’t have classes for this kind of thing, we just grow up doing it. The deeper you go, the longer you spend in the water, the more you’ll understand.”

  “Deeper?” I asked. I’d gotten used to my own personal kiddie pool, with a few feet of crystal clear water in the gaping mouth of the cave. But the thought of going into the open ocean still terrified me.

  “So what are we waiting for?” I asked, fighting down my fear. Sebastian nodded, then walked to the mouth of the cave and pulled something from the water. It looked like a cross between a jellyfish and a plastic bag.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Mer tech,” he said. “It’s a kind of biologically engineered breathing apparatus.”

  He stepped closer to me, “Don’t freak out. Just keep breathing. In and out.” He breathed into it, blowing it up like a balloon, then held it out towards me. I tried to stay calm as he put the thing over my head, and then squeezed it around my throat with his fingers.

  “It filters the oxygen out of the water for you. With this, you can dive and breathe underwater. We use them for our young sometimes, if they are slow developers. Or for guests, long ago—though that’s forbidden now.”

  Was this the magic cap that Galen had mentioned, that I’d read about in the legends, the cohuleen druith? It was kind of like wearing a big plastic helmet, and it was all fogged up.

  “I can’t see,” I said, flailing out my arms.

  “Put your head under water, try it out.”

  I went back into the pool and let myself sink to the bottom, like I did when I was practicing holding my breath. My face stayed completely dry. I took a small, tentative breath.

  I breathed deeper, suddenly excited. It was working, and I could see everything underwater in perfect clarity. I paddled around a little, till I’d explored every corner of the cave pool. My legs kept bumping into rocks as I tried to kick around. Luckily it didn’t hurt much with my toughened skin. When I came out of the water I had a stupid grin on my face.

  “I can see everything!” I shouted.

  “You don’t have to yell,” Sebastian said, the corners of his mouth lifting. “I’m right here.”

  “How do you communicate underwater?” I asked, wondering suddenly if merrow had their own language, and what it sounded like.

  “It’s surprisingly quiet down there, so you don’t need to shout. The sound carries. But we also communicate without words. We can communicate our moods and feelings. Out of the water, those abilities are even stronger.”

  “I’ve been able to sense people’s emotions,” I said.

  “Most of us also learn human languages, and we communicate that way with each other. We tend to speak the languages that humans use where we live. I learned English and Greek growing up. We have schools, just like you … dry areas under the sea.”

  “Dry? How does that work?”

  He tapped the side of my makeshift helmet.

  “Picture a giant one of these. Large enough to fit an entire city inside,” he said.

  “It sounds beautiful,” I said, my eyes shining.

  “It is. Want to go see it?”

  I stood up and pointed outside the cave mouth to the ocean hesitantly.

  “That’s right,” Sebastian laughed. “Out into the open sea.”

  I let him take my hand and guide me over the rocks, to the ledge that separated the cave from the ocean. He lowered me into the water, before climbing in beside me. It was deeper here, the water was up to my chest already, but I could still touch the bottom.

  I felt the panic rising up, but I had to do this. Sebastian was risking his life to stay here with me. Until I could change, we were both targets.

  I stuck my head under water and could see the steep drop off, leading into a dark blue void that seemed absolute and eternal. But with my enhanced vision and senses, I could feel the rifts and landscape spreading out before me. The terror was still there, but it was muted. I didn’t feel as vulnerable as I had before. Maybe it was the thickened layer of merrow skin around my body, that made me feel like I was covered in superglue, or the device around my head that kept the sea from rushing in and filling my lungs. Or maybe it was having Sebastian at my side, holding on to me. I knew he wouldn’t let anything bad happen.

  Sebastian moved behind me and wrapped his arms around me.

  “We’re going for a little swim,” he said. His voice sounded distant underwater, like an echo, but I could still understand him. “If at any time you feel uncomfortable, just tap on my arm and I’ll take to you to the surface.”

  We started off slowly, hovering just below the surface. I expected everything to be dark and cloudy in the deep waters off the coast of Northern Ireland, but with my enhanced color receptors I felt like I was on the set of Disney’s Little Mermaid. We swam through patches of bright pink, orange, green and teal fish, and chased an enormous lobster that shot back away from us. Everything was glowing, like those black light aquariums. Then Sebastian kicked behind me with his powerful tail, and we zoomed downwards, speeding along the bottom of the ocean, leaving a cloud of sand behind us.

  Sebastian pointed to the side and my eyes widened—a pod of bottle nosed dolphins were escorting us. They weaved and bobbed around us, chirping encouragement, then one by one they swam to the surface and jumped out of the water.

  “Hold on,” Sebastian said
in my ear, pivoting and swimming upwards. We broke the surface and shot out into the sky, maybe ten feet in the air; Sebastian tucked into a somersault and I screamed as we rolled and dove back into the water again, cutting crisply. He brought me back up to the surface right after, but relaxed when he saw I was smiling.

  “That was awesome.” I said, out of breath. “Let’s do it again.”

  My fears had almost disappeared. I realized that maybe it wasn’t the water I’d been afraid of after all, it was the unknown. The immensity of it: being able to feel the power of the ocean, like a malevolent force, but without the ability to fight back or swim against the current. It was omnipotent, and it made me feel insignificant and worthless. It didn’t care about me that day in Oregon, it didn’t even know I existed, but it would have killed me all the same.

  With Sebastian’s arms around me, and the ability to see and breathe underwater, the overwhelming sense of terror had diminished into a slight anxiety. And at the same time, some small part of me felt an indescribable elation. It was like learning to walk or ride a bike for the first time: exhilarating because of the potential danger of falling down. But there was nowhere to fall down here. And the longer I spent in the water, the more confident I felt.

  Sebastian pointed out a rock wall that stretched on for miles under the water, and a ring of standing stones that looked similar to the ones Ethan had shown me. It was incredible.

  We took a break on a rocky island that jutted up sharply out of the water, rising to a steep, pointed peak. I was surprised to see ancient stone walls and a path leading towards the summit. He pried off the strange helmet and tucked a strand of wet hair behind my ear.

  “We’re about a mile away from Portrush now,” Sebastian said. “This is the last bit of land before the deep water.” I gulped. The water we’d just swam through had seemed plenty deep to me. Sebastian’s face grew serious; nervous even. Whatever he wanted to show me next, he wasn’t sure I was ready for it.

  “Your mercap will help with the pressure,” he said, “but you’ll feel tightness in your lungs. Humans sometimes pass out at only 50 or 60 meters, which is one reason it’s so easy for us to avoid them.”

  “How deep is the ocean?” I asked.

  “On average, just over 4,000 meters.” That was over two and a half miles, straight down. It would be like jumping out of an airplane. Suddenly my legs felt wobbly.

  “How deep were we earlier?” I asked, trying not to let my voice waver. I was almost successful.

  “About 25. Look, we don’t have to go any deeper today. You’ve done really great so far. We could just head back.”

  “But you think we should keep going?” I asked.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “1000 meters is as deep as the sunlight can penetrate. Scientists call the area between 200 to 1000 meters the twilight zone, and deeper than that is the midnight zone. If we go down that deep, the pressure and darkness may force the merrow blood in you to activate.”

  “And then I’ll change,” I said hopefully.

  “You could change. Or it might be too much for you, and you could die.”

  My eyes widened and my heart pounded in my chest.

  “I’d never let that happen, of course,” Sebastian said. “Most scuba equipment is rudimentary, so divers suffer from high blood carbon dioxide levels, or oxygen toxicity, or nitrogen narcosis. You won’t have any of those problems with this—” He gestured to the swimming cap I’d been wearing. “Our technology is way better. And your body already reacts well to the sea water, which leads me to believe you can handle the pressure. But as soon as I see any signs of you getting disoriented or passing out, I’ll bring you back up.”

  I nodded. I trusted Sebastian. He wouldn’t suggest going deeper if he really thought it was dangerous. If he was hesitating, it meant he didn’t think I could handle it emotionally. I wanted to prove him wrong.

  “What’s it like down there?” I asked.

  “More beautiful than you can possibly imagine,” he said.

  Sebastian had been laying out in the sun like a seal, but now rolled off the rocks with a splash. Colorful lights and sparkles radiated from his body in the dark water, as the ocean began the process of rebuilding his exo. I stepped in next to him, and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, preparing to let him carry me under the sea. I wasn’t sure if I was ready, but it seemed riskier to just wait for someone to attack me again. If this is what it took to control my powers, so be it.

  We swam around to the other side of the island, then headed out into the open sea. I gasped when I saw the ocean ledge. It was a solid wall of darkness, stretching for miles in both directions. It looked like a black void, sinking into eternity. A giant hole in the bottom of the ocean so wide and menacing I almost couldn’t breathe.

  Sebastian watched me, and I realized my fingers were digging into his shoulders. I tried to take the fear out of my eyes, loosened my grip and took a few deep breaths. I bit my lip, then nodded. Let’s do this. He kicked forward until the ground disappeared below us, and there was nothing but unfathomable darkness. A gaping, monstrous mouth, ready to swallow us whole. Then we started descending.

  PART II

  26

  I kept my eyes on the horizon—at the surface layer of cool teal water that veiled the dark blue of the deep. Sometimes I saw massive bodies swimming above us, between us and the light above. But as we went deeper, the light faded. My hands and arms, along with Sebastian’s face, started disappearing, until suddenly they were gone and I was completely alone in a sea of blackness. I couldn’t even tell if my eyes were open anymore. I felt a pressure deep in my skull, like a sinus headache, and it spread until I could feel it throbbing all over my body. Just when I was about to tap Sebastian and point upwards, my eyes started itching and watering. And then, everything snapped into focus.

  The black nothingness around me became nuanced, and I could see depth again. Sebastian was there, looking worried. Rather than dim and blurry, he looked hyper-real, like an HDR photo or a 3D movie. His eyes down here looked like pale green fire, emeralds shining with inner light. I wondered if my own were as awesome. He looked relieved when I smiled at him.

  “There you are,” he said.

  “I can see.”

  “Your skin is getting harder too, adjusting for the pressure.”

  I glanced down at my pale, white legs. They shone like moonlight in the dark water.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Sebastian said as he caught me looking. “Wanna see something cool?”

  I nodded and he led me forward. My vision was improving all the time. Now I could make out fish and creatures in the darkness. There were strange and magical lights, pulsing through the inky blackness that swirled around us. Everything was alive, even the water felt conscious. Humming with a communal rhythm, connected by the palpably thick salt water. It was the perfect conductor for emotional energy—soft currents of electricity that tickled my skin. I could feel everything. In fact, I could feel further than I could see.

  That’s when I started to freak out.

  While the bioluminescent creatures around me felt like a fairy world, their small minds completely unthreatening as they darted away, I could feel other things at the edges of my awareness. Vast, slow bodies that felt ancient. If mermaids were real, what else existed in the oceans that humans couldn’t even imagine? I felt connected in a way I never had before. There was so much awareness, I couldn’t take it. It was like being in the mouth of the ocean, and having the ocean turn its eye down to look at me.

  The space around me felt suffocating, and my eyes widened as I felt the chill of the freezing water biting into my skin. The weight of that universe of water pressed down on me—cutting me off from the world above. I strained my neck to look up, but couldn’t see the light from the surface anymore. I realized I didn’t even know which way was up. I was too deep. My breath came out in shallow pants, even though I knew Sebastian would take care of me. But how could Sebastian understand what I was f
eeling? Humans weren’t even supposed to be able to dive this deep. Any normal human would have been crushed already. For him, the ocean was a home; for me it was death. I reached my arms out, clawing my fingers through the thick liquid, trying to anchor myself on something.

  Sebastian saw me panic and wrapped his arms around me. With a flick of his powerful tail, we shot upwards towards the light.

  ***

  When we reached the surface, I tore off the mercap and took a few long, deep breaths of the salty air. Sebastian told me to hold on tight around his neck before speeding us towards land. We climbed out of the water on the shore in front of the Runkerry house. After making sure I was okay, Sebastian lay on the rocks, his eyes shut. The sun glistened against his sparkling skin, and steam rose like sea tendrils off his body. His tail dried and began flaking off. I averted my eyes when the front had fallen open. A few minutes later, he tugged it off like a pair of stripaway pants and tossed it into the ocean.

  Sebastian grabbed the towels and clothes he’d stashed beneath a rock and wrapped a soft beach towel around my body. It wasn’t until he started rubbing my shoulders that I realized I was shivering. My thickened skin had protected me from the icy water, but now that I was back to normal I felt an aching numbness deep in my bones. Sebastian tried to smile reassuringly, but I could tell it was fake. Under the smile, his eyes were pensive. He was disappointed in me. Not only couldn’t I change into a full merrow, but I’d also panicked in the deep water. I pulled on the pair of gray sweats and black T-shirt Sebastian had picked out for me and followed him into the house.

  Sebastian also had on a pair of sweatpants, but was barefoot and shirtless. He dried his hair with a towel, then started cramming kindling into a small wood stove. I had the feeling he was avoiding eye contact with me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, biting my lip.