Rory. It is me. I am Rory and you are Lorali.
Reels of blood-stained blue hair fray away. The chest, an open mouth, and out come the metal lungs. One and two. Mer gasp. They’ve never seen anything like this before. Eyes together. Holding. Blocking out the world. Silence casts a spell of mourning. Long heavy tears slide and spill. Hands hold. Moved and hopeful. The blue princess sleeping, quiet and still on the same white rock she left from all those moons ago. Concentrating, ignoring the voices, Aurabel engineers, using tools from her tail, sacrificing her own spare scrap to repair what has been broken.
Aurabel threads her blue hair into her friend’s skin. Joining flesh together and, as the reflection of the light rebounds from the rock, Lorali’s eyes meet Aurabel’s as she wakes. Her tapestry finally morphs. Lorali at last resolves. A beautiful history paints itself onto the canvas of her skin. A shining, detailed, strong tapestry that steals the Mer’s breath. Speaking of happiness. Of the grass, the pebbles on the beach, salt on her tongue, sun in her eyes, music in her ears, the stars in the sky, the sound of laughter, the touch of flesh, the heat, the sting, the sequence of a day, the change of a season, the smile of a child, the kindness in a stranger, the architecture of a building, the bliss of a belly laugh, the taste of a lemon.
PATCHWORK
I knew Murray would be pretty. But I never expected her to be this pretty. You can know a love but love is a rich tapestry that has many layers. It is never as simple as it seems.
It was Victor who found her, locked in Sienna’s chamber. Red eyes, sore and angry; broken fingers; ripped flesh from fighting the iron claw bolting her in.
She was clutching the papery patchwork of her girl’s tail. Sick. Heartbroken and sorry.
He only wrapped his arms around Murray and told her that he kept his promise. That everything is going to be OK. And this time, it would be.
Aurabel. A new Mer. Shaved head. Big. Half metal. Covered in wounds and bruises and scars like an old banana at the bottom of a bag. Still, as always, she is Murray’s girl. It’s in the hands. The skin. The voice. The reason. The feeling that lets you know. Even when two paths spindle off, it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to meet up, once again, somewhere along the way towards the end.
And sometimes, there doesn’t have to be words all getting in the way. Sometimes we owe it to the patchwork of our own tapestries to say what we don’t have to. Some threads are too deep and thick to fray.
Some lines, in love, outlive the veins.
EPILOGUE
Above water, it is a surprising day for Walkers. Hundreds of beautiful naked women crawl out of the water and onto the shores. They are hungry and cold without their skins but it doesn’t take them long to find new homes.
With frowned, concerned faces, Cheryl and Flynn sit by Iris’s bedside. His sickness has spun him to a wintery flour-white. He sinks in the dregs of a hospital bed. Lino floor and ticking clock. Wilting purple petals in gunky water. Plastic cups and soggy greens. The babble of daytime TV. Chalky bitter tablets and the yellowing wires of fluid. ‘Flynn, my grandson,’ he softly crackles as his wavering heartbeat drops. ‘I have a fairly small favour to ask.’
Another moon counted in the square of Tippi. The newly appointed mayor of Tippi, Victor, stands proud. Later he will join his best friend, Kai, for drinks and games at the palace … He’s met a Tip. Her name: Orina.
Across the way, as the light shifts from blue navy night to the sweet cream of dawn, we see a happy Nevermind, freely dozing under my waves.
A dirty long grey chain, heavy and gruelling, joins Sienna to the wall of a cell. She rots in the pit, under the Sabre Tower. Powerless, friendless and probably remorseless. She is history forgotten.
At the council meeting, Carmine is late, as usual … but Myrtle, Keppel, Zar and a new member, Aurabel, are planning a hearing. They have exciting news. Lorali is to be queen and Kai king. For the first time in the Whirl it is decided that the best things come in twos. A balanced, equal set of scales.
Carmine finally rushes up in a hysterical fluster. ‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ she squeals excitedly as she rejoins the meeting. ‘I’ve done it!’ she shrieks. ‘I’ve salvaged.’ And over her shoulder she carries the body of a man she has loved all her life, a man she has waited for. His heart strong, there’s so much to see for this all-seeing Iris, in this all-seeing sea.
One day, a way away, Flynn will walk his own little ones over a pebble beach. The sound of laughter and my waves pushing in and pushing out. I will keep low and let him know it is safe. He might follow the springing leaps of his children towards the petrified forest. They will play hide and seek and hunt and fish. And he will tell them all about the qualities of the forest and how it sinks itself and then reveals.
‘Why does it have to disappear?’ the youngest will ask.
‘It doesn’t disappear,’ Flynn will tell them. ‘It just leaves for a little while. The world is round for a reason,’ he will say.
Nobody, ever, really has to leave.
Acknowledgements
Thank you, Jenny, for editing Aurabel with me and encouraging me to write a follow up to Lorali (there very nearly wasn’t one!). Thank you for pushing me when needed, punishing me when needed and praising me when REALLY needed. You are a tremendous editor and an even better teacher, thank you for your guidance.
Thank you to Catherine for the copy-edit.
Thank you to my agents at United: Jodie, Emily, Jane and Dan.
Thank you to all at Hot Key/Bonnier for their support and faith in this book. In particular, Emma, Tina and Jane.
Thanks to Alex for the potato-print cover design.
Thank you to Jen, Rosi and Sanne for their amazing ideas and getting up at the crack of dawn to sail on a floating house with me.
Thank you to Sarah.
Thank you to all of the readers of Lorali.
Thank you to my friends and family.
Laura Dockrill
Laura Dockrill is a performance poet and novelist whose wonderfully inventive and creative approach to life is reflected in the rich and vividly imagined worlds she creates. Laura lives in London, and you can follow her on Twitter @LauraDockrill
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First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
HOT KEY BOOKS
80–81 Wimpole St, London W1G 9RE
www.hotkeybooks.com
Copyright © Laura Dockrill, 2016
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Laura Dockrill to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781471404252
This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher
Hot Key Books is an imprint of Bonnier Zaffre Ltd, a Bonnier Publishing company
www.bonnierpublishing.co.uk
Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Praise for Lorali
ALSO BY LAURA DOCKRILL
Dedication
Prologue
Part I
Aurabel
The Sea: Heavy the Head
Mermaid and Mermen Appreciation Tribe – Aka ‘Mamat’
Lora
li: I Remember
Aurabel: Blood Pearl
Lorali: The Petrified Forest
Aurabel: First Day
Lorali: Gold
Aurabel: Sienna
Lorali: At Midnight
The Sea: Bloody Pearl
Aurabel: Heart on the Earth
The Sea: A Place for Dreaming
Lorali: Two Minds
The Sea: Adventure
Aurabel: Amusement
The Sea: Oops … One Moment
The Sea: Tanked Fish
Aurabel: Tapestry
The Sea: Murray
Lorali: A Cow-Skin Rug
Part II: One Month Later
The Sea: Teardrop
Aurabel: The Metal Tail
Lorali: China Doll
The Sea: The Missing Aurabel
DNA MAG
The Sea: Bound
Mermaid and Mermen Appreciation Tribe – Aka ‘Mamat’
The Sea: The Sabre Tower
Lorali: Only the End
The Sea: Welcome Home
The Sea: Muddy Waters
Aurabel: One Mer at War With the World
The Sea: The Sensitive Soul of a Selkie
Aurabel: A Fish in a Net
The Sea: Gush
Mermaid and Mermen Appreciation Tribe – Aka ‘Mamat’
The Sea: A Crown Without a Head
Aurabel: Iron Lungs
Part III
Lorali: Blue Thread
The Sea: Autumn
The Sea: Pin
Aurabel: Lorali
The Sea: Headhunted
The Sea: Tippi
Aurabel: Walkers
The Sea: Jumping the Gun
Lorali: Little Creatures
The Sea: Flynn
The Sea: Victor and the Tips
Aurabel: Hunting
Lorali: Aurabel’s Net
Aurabel: Revenge
Lorali: Saving a Hero
The Sea: The Mysterious Male
Lorali: Back on the Wheel
The Sea: A Tail Between the Legs
Aurabel: Silver Platter
SAS – Selkie Appreciation Society
The Sea: A Little Too Late
Lorali: Watching a Monster Kill Some Monsters
The Sea: Nevermind
Lorali: Meeting Nevermind
Aurabel: Finding Nevermind Paradise
Part IV
The Sea: Gathering Slowly, Old Moonshine
The Sea: A Good Day for a Good Day
The Sea: A Joint Resolution
Aurabel: The Chain
Lorali: Home
The Sea: Solve
Lorali: Patchwork
The Sea: Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Laura Dockrill
Copyright
Aurabel Page 20
