by B. J. Smash
He hauled me toward the cell and stopped right before it. Before he threw me in, he kissed the top of my head. “My sweet soon-to-be mermaid. I will be back soon.” I cringed inside but I forced a smile, and I grabbed his wart-filled arm and stuck him with the thorn.
Immediately, his head swayed and he appeared to be getting woozy. “Hey! What have you done?” he boomed. He towered over me like a giant, and if I didn’t move fast I’d be a goner. I pushed past him, but he was quicker. Grabbing my ankle, he hauled me back and threw me up against the wall, his hand on my throat.
“Things are getting blurry. I-I can’t see good,” he said.
I couldn’t breathe, and so I couldn’t speak. What is it with people choking me? Gosh. And so I kicked at him and dug my nails into his arm. But he was way too strong for me. Things started to blur, and soon I would pass out.
“If you weren’t so pretty, I’d steal your soul now. I collect them, you know,” he said, as if it weren’t obvious, and he squeezed my neck harder.
About that time, a ruckus could be heard out by the entrance. Loud clanking noises. He drew back, puzzled. Almost instantly, four mermaids were upon us, whacking him with their tails, thrashing at him. Harleena jumped on his back and pulled his hair. The golden-haired girl I’d seen the other day punched him in the stomach.
You’d think under the water that things couldn’t move fast. But what I was seeing was real. She punched at him, and her fist sailed right through the water and caused him to expel a bunch of bubbles out of his mouth. There was that boy with dark hair and periwinkle eyes. He swiped Jonesby the Jinxer across the face with his tail, knocking him to the side.
And then…there was Eadgar. He came over and slammed Jonesby right in the jaw. Blood floated out of his mouth. Eadgar did it again, and a tooth went sailing out. They were beating the crap out of Jonesby the Jinxer!
Finally, Eadgar came over and took my hand. I paused to grab my bag under the table. And then I did something out of character for me. I thought of someone else, and I grabbed as many jars as I could hold. The fighting had stopped. Jonesby was now blind from the thorn and he was thrashing about trying to hit us, but he couldn’t find us. I yelled out to the others, “Grab some jars!” They looked unsure of this plan, but they all did it.
There was no way we could get them all. To that, I was sorry. The only thing I could do was make a plan to come back for them. We did get four or five apiece, though, and soon we were leaving Jonsesby in our wake. He did attempt to follow us, using his hands to guide him along the walls, but my friends were so much faster that we quickly escaped the cavern.
Had I just called them my friends? Yes, I guess I did. But that was dangerous territory for me.
When I turned around, Jonesby was at the entryway. He held onto the rocks, moving his head around, and screamed, “I will get you back, my Zinnia! I will come and find you and bring you back!” His voice bounced off the rock walls and echoed.
Ed held tightly to my arm and swam vigorously after the others. We didn’t stop until we were well out of reach. They took me to a small island, and I climbed out onto the sand. I coughed and spit out water, panting to catch my breath. To my surprise, the others followed me. They pulled themselves ashore while they held onto the jars, and their tails shifted to legs. It was almost instant. You could see the tail start to fade, and legs formed through the scales until there was skin. I had known that mermaids could do this. I had heard that they come to the land to dance in the moonlight, but I had never seen it done or witnessed them dancing.
When their tails disappeared, they wore small bikini bottoms, and most of their skin was exposed.
Ed sat next to me, dropping the jars he held. My, he was good looking. His face glowed in the sun. The sun! I was actually in the sun, and it felt nice and warm on my skin. The air was still chilled, but I wasn’t about to complain. The other boy stood, and so did the blonde girl, but Harleena sat on the other side of me. They all tossed the jars into a pile, the glass clanking together.
“Well, now. That was fun,” the dark-haired boy said. “By the way, my name is Nicoli, and this here is Jina.” He pointed to the blonde. She smiled at me. His name was pronounced with a long “i” sound. He spoke better English than Eadgar and Harleena, but he still had a strong accent.
“I suppose you want to know what I was doing in that cave.” I looked to Eadgar. His short, sandy-colored hair had golden tints, and his face in the sunlight was quite attractive.
“We already know. We talk to the evil sea witch,” he replied.
“She told us that you need help,” Harleena said. “She sent you down there for a pearl.”
Magella had talked to them?
I pulled the bag close to me and peeked inside, just to make sure the pearl was there. It was. I sighed with relief and lay back in the sand. I suddenly felt weird. The joints in my legs were beginning to ache.
“Oh no,” I said.
“What?” they all said at once.
For some reason, I didn’t want to tell them that Jonesby had given me a pill that would turn me into a mermaid. I would hold my tongue for now.
“Oh, nothing,” I said. “But we should let these souls loose.”
“I cannot believe we stole Jonesby’s souls. He is going to be so angry,” Jina said, smiling. Her long, golden hair had a few red highlights, and it shone brightly in the sun. It was so beautiful. Her shell bikini top was made out of seaweed, with little sand dollars and little pink shells. It barely covered her breasts, but it covered what needed to be covered.
“He going to kill us all,” Eadgar replied. “Or at least he will try hard.” He looked at me, reached out, and moved some strands of hair from my face and placed them behind my ear. Now he was looking at me funny. Almost…adoringly. I got lost in his eyes for a moment, and pictured myself leaning my head on that well-toned chest of his, but I snapped out of it. These merpeople had just saved me, but I wasn’t one of them. I belonged to Magella.
Magella.
“I better get back to the old sea witch soon. Shall we free the souls first?” My voice sounded funny, but I pushed myself up and grabbed a jar. “I don’t want her to know that we have these. She will want to keep them for herself.”
“Evil witch,” Harleena said.
They all agreed and followed my lead, picking up any random jar. We had carried back sixteen jars and hadn’t even dented Jonesby the Jinxer’s supply. He probably had another forty more in his lair.
I couldn’t get the lid unscrewed. It had been stuck on for so long, there was rust.
“We will break them on the rocks,” Nicoli said when he observed his jar. “The lids are rusted on.”
I went first. Walking to a rock, I slammed the jar down. It broke into several pieces, and I was careful not to cut my hand. The yellow, shiny ball of energy flew out and up to my face. Several wisps of white light pulsated inside and formed into a young man’s face. It just happened to be the same face I’d seen in Jonesby’s lair. He wasn’t frowning now; he was laughing. He then expanded to about five feet and formed into a ghost. His arms and legs were visible, but no feet. He wore an old buccaneer uniform, a long, dark coat with silver buttons, and tight brown trouser pants with a big silver belt buckle, and leather boots. I could only see the tops of the boots. And he wore a black buccaneer hat with a white feather in it.
“Wow,” I said, amazed, “you are free to go now.”
He reached out and touched my hand. It was freezing cold and it sent a chill throughout my whole body, all the way down to my toes. He pulled away and saluted me, and then he was a ball of light again. Swiftly he flew out over the ocean and up into the sky, disappearing in the clouds.
The merpeople each broke a jar, and four balls of light zipped around each of us and then followed the first spirit out over the ocean and up into the sky. We broke the remaining jars, and by this time we were all smiling, as it was a freeing feeling to help the lost souls move on.
The last one moved
lazily within the jar, as it had given up hope. When the glass jar was broken and it felt the sun and it felt the air, it blazed and burst into a million sparks and zipped around the small island. It then formed back into a ball and took off after the others.
“Nice,” I said.
“We should have done this at nighttime,” Eadgar said.
“Oh yes, it would have been beautiful,” Harleena added.
“Still, Jonesby is going to come for us now,” Nicoli said. “But we don’t fear him. You just be careful, Zinnia. Although, I think Ed will never take his eyes away from you for too long.” He snickered.
My face warmed, and it wasn’t from the sun.
Ed lifted his eyebrow at Nicoli. “You are one to talk. Always watching humans. If they knew, they would think you are very creepy merman.”
The way he said it, it sounded funny, and so I laughed. “I better get back now.”
“We don’t want you to go,” Harleena said. She pouted her rosy bottom lip out. Her eyes were a seafoam green. It was a very peculiar color, but she pulled it off well. They all had glistening skin, a sheen that was like diamond dust, but it wasn’t terribly noticeable. They could pass as humans on shore.
“I have to go. At least for now.” The aching soreness in my legs had really begun to bother me, and my head was feverish. I needed to get back to the boat and lie down. I didn’t know how I was going to explain this to Magella, but maybe she had something that could help me.
We all jumped into the water, and they escorted me back to the boat. It didn’t take them long to find it. Jina, Nicoli, and Harleena swam off, and Eadgar stayed with me. “I find you again. You get some rest. Do not worry about Jonesby. We laugh at him trying to pretend to be a merman.” He snickered.
He clasped my hand in his and then brought it to his mouth and kissed it. I still didn’t know what to think of him, and so I ignored this gesture and said, “Well, good-bye then. I’ll see you later.” I turned and swam for the boat. When I reached it I knocked twice, and before I could knock a third time, the ladder was in the water. Turning, I waved at Eadgar. He spun around and swam away.
As I was climbing aboard, Magella called down, “You get the pearl?”
“I did!” I called back. On board, I handed her my bag. She opened it and took out the pastel-colored oyster shell.
“Good girl,” she said and then looked me in the eye. “Those merpeople came looking for you.” She said the word merpeople with a bit of distaste. “It was a good thing, too. When you didn’t come back, I had started to worry that my pearl was gone forever.”
“You didn’t care that I might have died?” I asked. She was such an old hag.
“Sure! I’d care. Who would work for me then?” she said. “Oh and by the way, that one merman there—what’s his name?”
Puzzled, I said, “Eadgar?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. He’s the one who came to me first. He said that he is your eek eeeek ock.” Her voice had gone to high-pitched sounds. She was speaking their language and scrunching her eyes up as she examined her pearl.
“His…what?”
She focused on my face. “Your boyfriend.”
She paused and said, “I suppose if it puts salmon on my table you can keep him. Besides, he’s a looker. You could do a lot worse…and he could do a lot better.”
I could feel butterflies in my stomach at that moment. That he had called himself my boyfriend stirred something inside me. But it didn’t last. I felt faint, and my head was boiling hot. My limbs gave out from underneath me, and I passed out. I remember my head landing in a pile of fish guts.
Chapter Ten
I had passed out for a few hours, and when I had first awoken, Magella was sitting on a bench that lined the edges of the boat. She had leaned forward with her hands on her knees and asked me what had transpired in Jonesby the Jinxer’s lair. When I informed her that he had given me a big orange-coated pill that would turn me into a mermaid, she flipped her lid.
You would have thought that I had told her that I had killed someone, or that I had shot a cannonball into the bottom of her boat, or that I was pregnant or something. She had stood up, grabbed both sides of her hair, and pulled. She had paced the deck’s floorboards and stomped her foot and swore. She had looked at me and through grinding teeth said, “You fool! Now you will want to be in the water most of the time. And you can’t be! You must remain on my boat. You will just have to suffer.” She spat at me.
After she realized I was quite sick, she calmed down and went about making a remedy to ease my pain. I was so uncomfortable. My legs itched and ached at the same time. They hurt more than they have ever hurt in my life.
It was becoming a long night as I lay out on the deck beneath the cloudy sky, and it began to drizzle. The cool drops of water felt good on my hot body. My fever had peaked, and even Magella looked a bit concerned as she bent over me as I lay on the deck. She’d propped my head with a pillow and held a cup of something filled with warm liquid to my lips.
“I don’t know if you’re going to make it,” she observed.
I managed to roll my eyes. She always had to point out the worst of any situation. “Probably not.”
“Ain’t no probably’s about it. Drink up—this will help with the pain,” she demanded, and I lifted my head and took another long sip.
A short while later, the pain peaked. “Ow! Ow! Ow!” I said over and over as I lay there. “Ow!”
“Oh hush up. You will have to suffer the consequences,” she said.
“It’s not my fault. You were the one who sent me down there!” I said. I hadn’t told her that I had taken the pill willingly. It wouldn’t have mattered though if I had taken it willingly or not. Jonesby would have eventually forced it down my throat.
“’Tis true. But it isn’t my fault either. So, hush.” She sat the teacup down and paced the floorboards again. “What to do, what to do?” She had one hand on her hip, and the other rubbed her chin. And she paced, and she paced…over and over.
“I’ll have you know there is no counter spell for this.” She stopped and stared down at me.
“I guess I will have to live with it, then,” I whimpered. “Ow!” The pain was getting worse.
“It’s only the first time of changing that will hurt so much. I have heard that it gets easier with each change,” she said, almost with a hint of encouragement.
“How do you know? Do you know someone that has done this?” I asked.
“Oh few have. But I’ve heard tell of it,” she said. “I’m going now to check my grimoire. I shall return to you shortly.” She walked off, disappearing below deck.
I whined as I lay there in pain. Eventually I fell asleep.
***
Cold blasts of water splashed onto my legs. I jolted upright. “What are you doing?”
Magella stood above me with an empty bucket. Her long, gnarly fingers were turning white from gripping it so hard. “I read that only salt water will alleviate the pain. We must make do with bucketfuls. You cannot get into the water till morning. If you get in now, you might call the sharks.”
“Why would the sharks come? We’ve never had to worry about sharks in the past,” I said, shivering. My legs did seem to feel a bit better, but not much.
“You fool! He used shark innards in the spell. And you will have their essence upon you, until you’ve fully changed. They will approach you as if you were a wounded shark. In case you didn’t know, sharks eat other sharks.”
“Oh,” I said and lay back down.
“You’ve really gotten yourself into a real mess this time,” she spat.
She wasn’t about to take any of the blame. That wasn’t Magella’s method of operation. She always blamed everyone else for her problems. It didn’t really matter, though; I was used to her complaining.
I lay there controlling my breath. I’d inhale for five seconds and then exhale for five seconds. It seemed to help, and pretty soon, I’d be a mermaid. I sat up to rub my legs
. They had started to scale. I gasped. My smooth and silky skin was turning leathery and tough!
And then my thoughts drifted to my so-called “friends.” Were they really trying to be nice to me, or did they want something from me? It was still too early to tell. A part of me wanted to be friends with them, but really, did they like me for me? Nobody liked me for me. Well, Ivy did. But she was different. She had to like me. I was her sister.
I’d never really had many friends. In junior high I had some, but once we reached high school it wasn’t meant to be. In fact, I was picked on a lot. At the time, I was extra skinny, and my nose had been too big for my face. As I got older though, I sure did become more beautiful, and my nose was near perfect!
I’m not really vain, though. I just acted the part. My whole attitude was always an act. A cover-up. I felt like I needed to shield myself from people.
Anyway, that was neither here nor there. My thoughts strayed to Merribay. I wished that I was in my warm bed at Gran’s house, snuggled under my fluffy yellow comforter. At that thought, I opened my eyes to see Magella standing over me with a full bucket of ice-cold ocean water.
Splash! She dumped it on my legs. My whole body was stunned, and I sat there shivering.
“Can’t be helped,” Magella said.
Shivering, I lay back down on my sopping wet pillow and accepted the cold and the pain as best as I could. About an hour later, my limbs felt extremely stiff. When I looked at them, I noticed my legs and feet were fusing together.
“Oh great.” I shut my eyes tightly.
“By morning, it should be over. And Zinnia Seaforth will be reborn,” Magella said with disinterest. But part of me had to wonder. I think she found this more interesting than she let on.
Chapter Eleven
I awoke at the crack of dawn. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up. The first thing I noticed was that the pain had subsided, but the itchiness was intolerable. The last time Magella had dumped water on my legs, the pain had alleviated enough for me to rest. But this itchiness had to go! One good thing was my fever was gone.
