Dark Water

by J. A. Armitage

  I blinked, ready to take my last look when there was a flash of something in front of me. The water all around us displaced quickly, and the pressure on my arm let up as the witch let go of me. Another great swish of water sent me hurtling backward and down to the seabed.

  My leg felt like it was on fire, but the shock of the sudden movement had me opening my eyes widely, trying to make sense of what was going on.

  Huge white teeth cut through meat in front of me sending another plume of red into the water. All I could see around me was blood. My own?

  I closed my eyes, ignoring the currents of water pulsating around me and finally gave in to the darkness.

  I felt movement. Either water was whooshing past me, or I was being pulled through it. I didn’t have the energy to open my eyes to see which it was. I had never felt so dizzy and sick in my life, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered if it was Ari who was pulling me through the ocean.

  “I love you,” I murmured in my mind, but I was either too out of it, or he hadn’t heard me because there was no response.

  I was aware I was breathing again, although I could feel that I was still underwater. I drifted in and out of consciousness, neither knowing nor caring where I was going. After a while, the feeling of being pulled through water abated, and I was laid down gently.

  “Ari!” I shouted his name, but my voice sounded strange as though I was in a chamber of some kind. My throat hurt, and I could taste the salt in it. I was also aware that I was no longer underwater. The air around me was stale and smelled fishy, but at least, I was breathing again, really breathing, not aided by magic. My leg throbbed as I tried to pull myself back to full consciousness. I could definitely smell and hear, although the noises around me felt distant and strange. I could also feel and knew I wasn’t in a normal bed. It felt like I was on a beach. A cold beach. There was definitely sand beneath me. But opening my eyes to see was a struggle. I felt like I was trying to claw my way out of a dark pit.

  “Don’t fight it. You need to heal, to sleep.” I felt a damp cloth graze over my forehead. The voice was calming. Whoever had spoken was obviously taking care of me, but I didn’t recognize the woman’s voice. With everything that had happened to me, being incapacitated in a strange place with someone I didn’t know made me feel even worse.

  “Where is Ari?” I mumbled, my voice tight with the salt caking my throat. I should be asking for a drink to wash it down.

  “I don’t know, honey, but you’ve been calling for him in your sleep.”

  I had? I wanted to ask her who she was, where I was, but exhaustion was winning the battle. Wherever I was, I knew I was safe. Without opening my eyes, I allowed myself to drift into unconsciousness.

  When I awoke, maybe hours, maybe days later, I felt so much better. My leg still hurt like hell, but opening my eyes wasn’t the struggle it had been.

  I found myself in the strangest room. The walls were made of the most beautiful pink coral, and the floor was a bed of pristine sand on which I was currently lying. It looked and sounded like I was underwater, but I could breathe normally. It wasn’t the weird breathable water of the witch’s cave, but real oxygen. And yet, I’d never seen a place like this above the water. I pulled myself into a sitting position to try and get a better look at my surroundings to work out where I was, but as I did, pain flooded through me. I gasped, looking down at my leg. Someone had bandaged it tightly, but I could still see a few spots of red where my blood had seeped through. I gritted my teeth until the pain subsided and then looked around the room again. Apart from myself, the room was empty.

  “Hello,” I cried out, my voice straining.

  Less than a minute later, a woman walked in. Actually, she pulled herself in by her hands as she had no legs to walk on, only a breathtaking iridescent pink tail that trailed in the sand behind her.

  “I’m sorry,” she huffed as she pulled herself over to my side. “I’m not used to this.”

  She nodded down to her tail “I’ve always swum before. This is new.”

  She was stunningly beautiful with long red hair so much like my own and a face that looked eerily similar to my mothers.

  “You are one of the king’s daughters,” I observed, recognizing her. I’d seen her in passing the last time I was here with Ari.

  “Yes. My name is Adella,” she smiled pleasantly pouring me a glass of water, which she handed to me. I took it and drank it down greedily, thankful I was finally able to rid myself of the salt clogging my throat. She poured me another glass which I also downed quickly.

  “My father made that for you. He desalinated it.”

  “Desalinated?”

  “He took the salt out. You land dwellers don’t do well with saltwater. Can I ask you a question?”

  She looked at me in a strange way. I had an idea what she was going to ask. I nodded my head.

  “Are you Anaitis’ daughter? You look so much like her. Your hair...”

  “My hair is just like yours. I am her daughter. You must be one of her sisters.”

  She gave a small laugh, little more than a puff of breath. “I never thought I’d see any child of hers. I’m so glad that I have, although I would have liked to meet you under better circumstances. Are you an only child?”

  I shook my head. “I have a younger brother, but he’s not allowed in the ocean. My mother was always worried that the sea witch would take him...and me.”

  Adella took my hand and smiled widely. Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes as she spoke. “You don’t need to worry about the sea witch anymore.”

  “She’s dead?” I asked, not daring to hope it was true.

  “The king has been desperate to stop the sea witch for a long time, but there are laws here. He has known for a while that she has been up to no good, but until last night, he had no proof. She preyed on the people that she knew wouldn’t tell the king. That’s how she’s managed to keep what she’s been up to under wraps for so long.”

  “So, my grandfather killed her?”

  “He saw what the witch was going to do to you, so he set his pet on her.”

  I thought back to the fearsome shark in the cage above the king’s head in the throne room. It certainly explained all the blood I saw. It wasn’t all from my leg after all. It was the blood of the sea witch.

  “I thought the king hated me,” I mumbled.

  “He did. He hates all land dwellers, but then something about you changed his mind.”

  “What?”

  Her face brightened. “I saw you when you came to see him yesterday. There was something about you. Of course, you caused a sensation by just being here with legs instead of a tail. There was an uproar, but it was only after you had gone that I put two and two together.

  “I went to father with my assumption about who you were. He took a lot of convincing, but then he came around to the idea that you might be his granddaughter.

  “When one of the guards spotted you walking across the sand and told him, he decided to see where you went. I think he was surprised to see you heading straight toward the sea witch’s cave.”

  “What happened?” I asked. “I don’t even remember seeing him there.”

  “He heard what you said to her, about how you wanted Havfrue protected, along with Trifork. I think that’s what finally convinced him who you were.”

  I had wanted Havfrue saved. It was my ancestral home, and even though I couldn’t breathe underwater, I did feel at home here.

  There was something missing though. I now knew it was my grandfather and not Ari who had brought me back here, but I was surprised he hadn’t come looking for me.

  “Where is Ari?” I asked.

  Adella cocked her head to the side. “Ari? The boy you’ve been talking about in your sleep?”

  “My boyfriend.” It was the first time I’d called him that. It felt weird saying it to this stranger, but how else could I describe him?

  “Is that the boy you came here with yesterday?”

>   I nodded

  “I’m afraid I haven’t seen him. There’s a good chance he won’t know you are here unless you told him where you were going. Even then, unless he saw the king save you, he wouldn’t know where to look for you.”

  Everything she said made sense. Of course, Ari didn’t know where I was. He had no reason to think that I’d be in the King of Havfrue’s castle.

  “How long will I have to stay here?” I asked, thinking that I’d go straight home and tell everyone where I was. It wasn’t just Ari that would be worried. My parents would too.

  “You need to rest. You got hurt pretty badly and need time to heal. The king has used his magic to provide a room of oxygen for you. In a couple of days, he will take you back to your own land himself.”

  “A couple of days!” I blurted, pulling myself up quickly. A slice of pain shot through me, making me whimper.

  “Yes. A couple of days. We will do what we can to heal you using our healing balms, but they take time.”

  I lay myself back as she gently removed the bandage on my thigh. She applied some green goop which soothed my painful skin and then rebandaged it.

  “Please, will you go to Trifork, to the palace and tell them that I’m alright?”

  Her eyes widened as she took in what I was asking of her.

  “I can’t do that,” she answered fearfully.

  “You have to,” I begged. “My family will be out looking for me. You know my parents are the king and queen. They already have half the navy called back to Trifork. They were going to use the ships to blow up Havfrue. Now, they won’t, but they will use them to come looking for me. Do you really want hundreds of ships above Havfrue, because here is the first place they will look for me.”

  She closed her eyes, inhaling a deep breath. “You don’t understand what you are asking of me.”

  “I’m only asking you to swim a mile and tell someone where I am. It doesn’t have to be your sister. You could tell one of the guards outside the palace.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” she conceded, “But you have to rest up. That leg isn’t going to heal by itself.”

  She finished bandaging me up and then pulled herself back through the door the way she had come. As I watched her leave, I saw a rippling effect at the doorway that I’d not noticed before. Beyond the doorway was water, only held back by magic.

  I lay back and waited

  The two days Adella promised me I’d be here became three, dragging on for what felt like an eternity. On the morning of the third day, Adella came to let me know that the king was on his way to see me. Since the first day, she hadn’t been back. Instead, merpeople I assumed were palace servants brought me food and water. I was just about to ask her if she’d had the chance to go to my parent’s palace when my grandfather came floating in behind her.

  The king had such an imposing presence that I was surprised when he came into my room without making a sound. Unlike Adella who had been pulling herself into and out of the room, the king used magic, floating silently towards my makeshift bed on the sand. On seeing him, Adella bowed and left as quickly as she was able to.

  “Thank you for saving me,” I began, but he raised his hand to stop me.

  “I’ve been angry for a very long time,” he admitted, his voice booming, resonating around the strange underwater room. “But I came to realize with the help of Adella and my other daughters that it is not you that I’m angry with.”

  “My mother hates the fact that she has never been able to come home. She was terrorized by the sea witch and told that if she ever stepped foot in the ocean again, the sea witch would take her legs and her voice. She’s been afraid of the water ever since. I think she wanted to come home, she just couldn’t.”

  The old man turned his head away from me and brought his hand to his mouth as if he was crying. It was so incongruous to his fearsome persona to see him weeping. When he turned back, his eyes were dry, but the redness around the edges gave him away.

  “I could ask her to come visit,” I offered, “if you want her to, that is. I’m sure she would love to come home now that the sea witch is dead.”

  His mouth set in a hard line. “It is not just that. I have long since been wary of the land dwellers. Look how quick they were to declare war on us. She chose the land dwellers over us, and that is unacceptable.”

  I sat up and looked him straight in the eye. “She chose love. As her father, I would have thought you would want her to be happy.”

  He nodded his head slowly but didn’t answer.

  “I will take you back to the land. I believe you are well enough to travel now. Adella tells me that your leg is healing nicely.”

  I bent my leg at the knee. It still hurt, but not to the extent it had three days previously.

  “Adella has done a wonderful job. Please thank her for me.”

  He nodded his head and then, without asking, scooped me up and carried me through the door and out into the water.

  The journey back to the palace took almost no time at all, and my grandfather stopped by the small dock. One of the palace guards drew his sword and came running over to us.

  “Stop!” I yelled. “It’s me.”

  “Is this how all your people greet visitors?” asked my grandfather quietly in my ear. I was just about to answer him when my mother flew out of the house, her gray-streaked hair flying in the wind behind her.

  The guard stepped back to let her through, but she didn’t stop. With a leap, she dove headfirst into the water.

  When she surfaced, she flung her arms around me, holding me tight. I could hear her weeping.

  “I’m ok,” I murmured, once again, feeling terrible. Of all the people in the world I’d have to make this up to, my mother was at the top of my list. She stroked my dripping wet hair, burying my face in her shoulder, which shook with her sobbing.

  “Thank you for bringing her back,” she stammered between sobs. I couldn’t see my grandfather’s reaction, but I assumed he nodded because she invited him inside for tea.

  “It’s about time I told my husband who I really am.”

  My grandfather and the guard helped my mother and me out of the water. My grandfather didn’t need any help, He floated up using his magic, letting the ocean water drip off him. The guard’s eyes widened at this huge white-bearded man with a tail floating past him.

  “At least, this news is going to completely eclipse your wedding fiasco,” joked my mother.

  My grandfather began to laugh as I’d told him all about the wedding as we were swimming, but I had other things on my mind.

  “Where is Ari?” I asked her, looking around for him. “Is he still in the hospital wing?”

  “I don’t know, honey. He left three days ago. Before Adella came to tell me where you were, I thought he’d gone to look for you. He never came back.”

  Merman lost

  I raced up to the hospital wing even though my mother had just told me he’d already left.

  The bed he had been in was now freshly made. On the bedside cabinet beside it my mother’s necklace, the Havfrue ruby was exactly where I’d left it. It hadn’t been touched at all. I picked it up and slipped it around my neck as Lucy, the nurse entered.

  “You’re back!” she exclaimed in delight, making a beeline straight for me and wrapping me in her arms. “Have you spoken to your mother yet? She’s been beside herself with worry.”

  I told her I had. “What happened to Ari?” I asked, fingering the ruby around my neck. It was strange that he’d leave it there.

  “I don’t know. The day you disappeared, he just vanished.”

  “Vanished? He didn’t say where he was going?”

  Lucy shook her head. “I didn’t see him leave for him to say anything. Before your parents came to tell me about you, Ari had already gone. His bed was empty.”

  If he’d left before finding out I’d gone, why had he left? Was he in so much pain that he’d gone back to the sea without saying goodbye? Then, it occurred t
o me that he could have come to say goodbye and found my room empty.

  I thanked Lucy and dashed back outside. At the very edge of the rocks, the furthest point I could go to without getting wet, I shouted his name, both in my head and out loud. The only answer I got was the call of a couple of gulls. As I made my way back to the palace, I saw a large group of people gathering. Many of them had cameras. It looked like the press had already gotten wind of my grandfather’s visit. It didn’t take long for the news to spread. Ignoring them, I ran back inside the palace.

  I could hear my grandfather’s booming voice coming from the parlor. To my surprise, he, my mother, and my father were sitting eating scones and drinking tea.

  “If I’d have known how good scones were, I’d have come up on land years ago,” he laughed.

  They all seemed to be getting along so well. Who knew that decades of hatred could be brought down with a few pastries and some clotted cream?

  “I need help,” I said breathlessly, interrupting their little party. “I need someone to take me back into the ocean to find Ari.”

  My father’s eyebrows shot up. “Don’t tell me that he’s a merperson too? No wonder the lad knew a lot. What a week!”

  “I’ll take you,” my grandfather offered.

  My mother sat up in alarm. “I don’t want you to go yet. You only just got here.” She turned to me. “I’m sure your friend will be alright.”

  My grandfather stood up, or rather floated, out of his chair. “I’ll come back, Anaitis. You have my word.”

  My mother gave me a huge smile as my grandfather came to me. I’d made it up to her. I’d made everything up to her. Bringing her father back was worth all the stress I’d caused her. At least, I hoped it was. My mother and father walked us out to the promenade. As soon as we left the palace, the photographers at the other side of the fence began snapping pictures. Both my grandfather and my father waved. Even my mother cracked a smile at the reporters. Everyone was happy it seemed but me. Something had happened to Ari. I knew it. There was no way he’d just leave the palace. If he’d been in the water when the sea witch was hurting me, he’d have heard me crying out for him.