Dark Water

by J. A. Armitage

  “She’s in her study with Astrid,” I replied. “Did Hayden just come up here?”

  “He did indeed. Just walked in and then turned back around and walked out without saying anything. He probably forgot what he wanted. I do that all the time.”

  He nudged Hayden’s father with his elbow and gave him a jovial smile before turning back to me. “Come on, what are you dilly-dallying over? Come and sit beside Ari here. He’s a quiet fellow, but he seems to think that we can defeat this sea witch person your mother talked about.”

  I was going to ask how he knew that, but I could see a pad of paper with writing on it and a pen next to it. I raised an eyebrow, and he grinned back.

  Taking the seat my father pointed out, I tried to make out what had already been said by reading Ari’s writing on the notepad. My father poured over sea charts as I leaned forward.

  “Where is this?” he asked Ari jabbing his finger at the map. It all looked like sea to me.

  Ari pulled the pad towards him, scribbled something down and passed it back to my father.

  He picked it up and held it to his face, his eyesight not being as good as it could have been.

  He read whatever Ari had written then peered over the notebook at me.

  “I must say, I was surprised when this young chap brazenly walked in here this morning, but when he told me he was friends with you and knew where the sea witch lived, I let him stay.”

  Ari grinned again. The whole world had gone mad. First, my mother went crazy and told me she is a mermaid. Then, Hayden got a stick up his butt over the merpeople or the wedding, I still wasn’t sure which. And now, my father had let Ari into his most private room. The room where important decisions about the kingdom were discussed, and almost no one was allowed to enter, not usually anyway. My head reeled from everything going on

  “Does he know you are a merman?” I asked Ari in my head.

  “No. He does know we exist, though. He told me a story about how his ancestors had trouble with the men of the sea over a hundred years ago. After a brief war, they decided it was best to keep to their own kingdoms and never cross paths again. It seems the people of Trifork have almost forgotten we exist. The people of Havfrue have been harboring a grudge about it for all this time.”

  “Oh, young love,” my father nudged his long-suffering friend again and pointed his eyes towards us. “Gazing into each other’s eyes. I knew young Hayden wasn’t right for you, no offence, Henry. There must be something in the air at the moment.”

  “Daddy!” I chastised, feeling more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. “Don’t you have better things to be doing than speculating on my love life. Come on Ari, let’s go and get breakfast.”

  I turned quickly, hoping they’d think I was angry. In reality, my cheeks were burning like beacons. I couldn’t believe I’d just said that to my father in front of Ari. Thankfully, Ari followed, and my cheeks felt less hot by the time we got to the breakfast room.

  A breakfast of croissants, jam, and butter along with some other pastries and fruit had been left out on the circular table.

  My mother was already there as were Astrid and Hayden. He was looking as glum as ever, and as he saw me walk hand-in-hand with Ari, he dropped the croissant he was munching on, threw his napkin onto the table and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

  “Whatever is the matter with him this morning?” my mother scrunched up her eyes.

  “He’s in a bad mood,” I offered.

  “Plainly. I just wish he’d be quieter about it,” she replied, massaging her temples. “My head is still a little delicate.”

  She chopped her apple into slices. She always cut her food that way and ate it in tiny dainty pieces. I just gobbled things down whole. “Did you see your father?” she asked.

  “Ari was with him,” I replied, taking a seat and grabbing a plate. My mother raised her eyebrows at this piece of news. “He doesn’t know where Ari is from, don’t panic.”

  “I don’t panic, dear; you know that,” she replied, grabbing another apple.

  She was obviously pretending the last couple of weeks where panic had been the constant state, hadn’t happened.

  “They want to go to war against the sea witch,” I announced.

  “Which they can’t do,” said Ari, picking up a croissant and dipping it in the jam.

  “You don’t eat croissants that way,” I said, taking it from him and slicing it in two. I used a knife to take all the jam from the outside and spread it on the inside before passing it back to him. “What do you mean they can’t go to war on the sea witch? We need to get the sea back.”

  “How? Their boats are all stuck on land now?”

  “I don’t know. Father and Hayden’s dad are figuring it out. Some of our ships might still be at sea. Maybe he could call them all to dry land?”

  My mother and Astrid watched us talking, only hearing my half of the conversation. It must have looked very funny to them.

  “Havfrue is on the very horizon. The king of Havfrue will be livid that the sea witch has done this. He’ll be expecting the land dwellers to be walking right out to his border. Treasure hunters, perhaps. There’s no way he’s going to let your father and his ships invade. The entire kingdom of Havfrue will be ready for an attack. The king hates humans. Ever since Delilah...your mother left, he’s been waiting for an excuse to attack. I think this might be it.”

  He munched on his croissant happily as though he’d not just told me the place where he came from was gearing up for war.

  “It’s hardly our fault that the sea witch took the sea. Why doesn’t he attack her?”

  I saw my mother’s eyes widen at the use of the word attack. Beside her, Astrid was staring off into space, looking miserable. Because of Hayden, no doubt. I ignored them both and concentrated on Ari. The sea witch was our most pressing problem.

  “The sea witch has been around for centuries. She’s practically immortal thanks to her ability to swap and change body parts. It’s part of her magic, but she has more.”

  “I thought my grandfather was the ultimate ruler? Doesn’t he have magic?” I spoke through my mind, not wanting to mention my mother’s father in front of her.

  “He does, but he can’t just go around murdering people for no reason. She is very influential in Havfrue.”

  “No reason!” I shouted out, forgetting we were talking in our heads. “She took your voice! She tried to take my legs!”

  “I know that, and you know that, but the king doesn’t. Anyone who has tried going up against the sea witch has either disappeared, died, or been too scared to come forward. Just as it is up here in Trifork, Havfrue has a legal system. She would have to be found guilty of her crimes, and that can take years. Despite everything she has done, a lot of people support her. She not only takes body parts for herself, she gives them to people. The ones with the most influence she doesn’t ask for anything back, so a lot of people think she’s great.”

  “What do you suggest? We let the sea stay out where it is?” I argued back. I wanted to sound strong, but arguing in your head kinda takes that away from you.

  I stood up, leaving my food, and ran up to my room, feeling determined. What with the king of Havfrue planning to attack us, my father and Henry Harrington-Smythe planning goodness knows what, and Hayden being the way he was, I didn’t trust anyone but myself to sort out this mess. I opened my closet door and looked at my clothes. I needed something serviceable if I was planning to walk all that way across seaweed and sand. I’d also need a good pair of shoes.

  I pulled off my pajamas, jumped into some fresh underwear, and grabbed a handful of my clothes, dragging them down from their hangers.

  I was in the middle of throwing them all over my bed when I heard a knock on the door. Without waiting for an answer, Ari walked in.

  “So, this is how princesses live? Kinda messy,” he grinned, nodding at the giant pile of ball gowns on my bed. I picked one up quickly to cover myself. I co
uld feel the blush rising throughout my body, up past my breasts to my face where it blossomed.

  “I’m going to see my grandfather,” I said aloud, more to hide the color of my cheeks and my obvious embarrassment.

  Ari looked at me with a stunned expression. “You can’t! A land dweller won’t get in to see him. He’d never allow it. He’d kill you first.”

  “Not if I was with you,” I maintained.

  “He’d kill me as well. He doesn’t know me. I’m no one special. I’m just one of his subjects. It was dangerous just bringing you to my house on the outskirts of Havfrue last time.”

  “Why did you then?” I looked at him and waited for an answer.

  He hesitated for a moment before speaking. “I wanted to take you home. I wanted to pretend we could be together. I didn’t care about the danger. It was worth it to have you with me.”

  His words were sweet, but they didn’t sway me. “What’s changed? Why can’t we go now?”

  “Nothing has changed about me wanting to be with you. Last time, we sneaked into my home. This time, you are planning on going right up to the front door of the Havfrue Palace and asking to be let in.”

  He took my hands in his. I quivered slightly as the ball gown I was holding up in front of me fell to the floor between us, but I kept his gaze. “I’m sorry, Ari, but I have to do this. I’ll do it with you or without you.”

  He sank onto the bed, looking defeated.

  I sat beside him, taking his hand. “I appreciate that this will make it hard for you, but I can’t leave things like this. Just say my father does find a way to get to Havfrue? What do you think he’ll do? He’ll cannon the place to the ground that’s what.”

  “I won’t let you go alone,” he said, picking up a sweater from underneath the mess and handing it to me. “If you really think this is the only way, I’ll come with you.”

  “Even though it will be dangerous?”

  “That’s exactly why I’m coming with you,” he replied squeezing my hand.

  I looked into those eyes of his. They showed much more purple when he had high emotions.

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  He leaned forward and kissed me, making my heart pound. He’d kissed me before, but this was different. For a start, we were both in my bedroom, and I was half naked.

  He brushed my hair back from my face. The touch of his hand sent my pulse soaring as he continued to run his hand through my hair and then down my spine, hitting every bump along the way, giving me goosebumps. It felt like the air was being sucked out of the room as my world was reduced to nothing but the feel of Ari’s lips upon mine, the heat between us, and a moment in time I hoped would last forever. It felt so right, so perfect, and yet, I couldn’t get everything going on around me out of my head. He dipped to my neck, kissing places I’d never been kissed and as the heat rose within me, I forgot all about the king of Havfrue and the sea witch that could swap and change body parts as if she was a children’s toy. I forgot everything.

  Havfrue

  “What are you two doing in there?” called Astrid from outside of my room after giving a couple of brief knuckle raps on the door.

  “Nothing,” I called back, untangling myself from Ari and trying to get my breathing under control. I picked up the sweater and pulled it over my head quickly. In the closet I found a pair of trousers and some boots and tried pulling them on before answering the door, one foot in one boot, the other still on the floor when she let herself in.

  She arched an eyebrow. “It sure didn’t sound like nothing,” she grinned. Her disappointment over Hayden’s mood seemed to have subsided, thankfully. Whatever was wrong with him, it wasn’t Astrid’s fault. I’d already seen her two times today, but now that she was standing right in front of me, the state of her hair was worse than ever. Some of it had already begun to fall out in patches, leaving bald spots between the clumps of messy green hair. If it was worrying her, she wasn’t showing it. That was Astrid all over. She took the rough with the smooth.

  “We were just planning on how we were going to go visit the king of Havfrue,” I said, trying not to stare too much at her hair.

  Her eyes widened in surprise. “You are going to see the underwater king? Your mother is going to blow a gasket if she finds out you are planning another trip to the ocean. Are you trying to kill her off?”

  I sighed, feeling bad. I’d already put my mother through so much, but what else could I do? Sit back and watch while my father and my grandfather blew each other to smithereens. “I don’t feel like I have much choice. Will you help us? Can you tell her that I’m in bed with a migraine or something?” I hopped on one foot as I pulled on my other boot.

  Astrid shook her head as if what I was asking of her was wrong, but she agreed anyway. “I’m going to see if Hayden wants to go out for a walk. I guess we should talk about what happened at the wedding. He’s been acting weird ever since it happened.”

  Her cheerful demeanor dropped at the mention of Hayden, and I couldn’t blame her. He was being an ass.

  “What did happen at the wedding?” I asked cautiously, not at all sure I wanted to know. She seemed unusually glum about it.

  “I didn’t want to say anything, especially to you, but Hayden’s been acting so weird ever since. He barely talks to me, and he’s in such a foul mood. I think he might be disappointed that it wasn’t you under the veil after all.

  I broke out laughing until I saw that she wasn’t joking. “You’re not serious, right? Hayden doesn’t want me. Maybe he was just disappointed that the wedding was cut short.”

  “You think?” She perked up a little at my words.

  “Of course,” I answered, opening the door for her. Once she left, I let out a sigh.

  The truth was I wasn’t sure what was going through Hayden’s mind at the wedding. One thing I was pretty certain of, though, was that not marrying me was the best thing that ever happened to him. I thought back to the conversation I’d had with him the night before. He’d been acting so weird. Could Astrid be right, and he really did have feelings for me? It would explain why he was mad about the canceled wedding. It would also explain why he had such an aversion to Ari. It was nothing to do with Ari being a merman. It was because he was with me.

  Surely, that couldn’t be right. We’d been friends for forever. Maybe with everything that was going on at the moment, we were all a little crazy

  I tried to put it to the back of my mind. I had more pressing matters to deal with. Whatever Hayden’s problem was, I’d have to deal with it later.

  Ari and I headed back downstairs, bypassing the breakfast room completely, and rushed outside to the gardens.

  I’d escaped from the palace this way once, and if the ladder was still there, I’d be able to do it again. Amazingly, it was still propped against the wall where I’d left it. Ari let me go first, following quickly behind me. From there, getting to the edge of the sea was pretty easy. Ari took my hand as we walked along the clifftop away from the palace. If anyone spotted us, we’d look like any other pair of young lovers out for a stroll.

  About a mile later, we came upon some stairs cut into the cliff face. I knew they were here despite never having used them. I’d made this walk plenty of times with various nannies.

  Ari insisted on walking down in front of me so that he could catch me if I stumbled. It was sweet of him, but now that I was walking behind him, I could see how much pain he was in. He made no sound, but he trod lightly, almost limping with each step. I wondered whether he’d cry out with the agony of it if he still had his voice.

  At the bottom of the stairs, we came to a beach. Usually a small beach, now it was huge with no sea surrounding it. The sea was so far away, it was barely a tiny strip of blue on the horizon. In the distance to my left, the main public beach was full of curious people, fascinated with the phenomenon. The local police and palace guards were doing a good job of stopping them from walking out too far, thankfully. I only hoped we could get out far en
ough before we were spotted and chased.

  The walk was difficult with legs that worked. I could only imagine how awful it must be with legs that were new and painful. I gripped Ari’s hand hard, letting him squeeze me when the pain became too unbearable for him.

  I liked holding his hand. It wasn’t passionate like it had been in the bedroom before Astrid interrupted us, but it felt natural and safe, the way my hand fit so perfectly in his. It was beyond the most wonderful feeling in the world.

  Below our feet, we stepped over long green and brown strands of seaweed and mollusks in rock pools that would normally have been completely underwater. Dead fish and other ocean animals littered the sand. The sea must have gone out so quickly that they didn’t stand a chance. Ari’s eyes remained focused ahead, but I could see he was finding this hard. These weren’t just creatures to him; they were his friends, his family. With each step, I prayed that we wouldn’t see an octopus. With any luck, Ollie had been pulled out with the tide. Either that or he was still in the underwater cave. I glanced around to see if I could see it, but it wasn’t apparent where it was. Maybe it was further out than the current tideline.

  “How close are we to the sea witch’s lair? I asked, checking out the ocean to my left.”

  Ari squeezed my hand more tightly. “It’s not that far from here.” He pointed to a spot in the ocean that was way too close for comfort. “We are closer to Havfrue, though. We’ll be safe there. She visits the town, but there is no way she’d dare perform any magic under the king’s nose.”

  “She took the tide out under the king’s nose,” I reminded him.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Havfrue is still under water.”

  As we got closer to the water, I wondered what my grandfather was like and whether he’d know who I was. Would he recognize me as his granddaughter? I had the same red hair as my mother, but I took my looks more after my father’s side of the family.