Mermaid Curse

by Louise Cooper

  There was a pause. Then Kes replied in a small voice, ‘Yes, Mother.’

  ‘Tegenn?’

  ‘…Yes,’ whispered Lizzy.

  ‘Good. Because, if you do, you could be in danger. I lost Tegenn once. I don’t want to lose both of you. Now, listen and I’ll tell you the rest of the story.’

  Sobered, Kes and Lizzy fell silent, and Morvyr continued. ‘A certain person wanted something from your father and me, which we would not give them. So this person waited until Jack had to go away to land for a time, and while he was gone, sh– the person stole our baby daughter in revenge.’ She bit her lip. ‘I was distraught! I went as close to the shore as I dared and I swam there for days, calling and calling for Jack – I was so desperate that I almost let myself be discovered by humans, which is something a mermaid must never do! At last the dolphins saw him walking on the beach, and they were able to get close enough to tell him what had happened.’ She gave a great sigh that echoed around the cave. ‘He came back at once. But what could he do? Tegenn was gone. And we didn’t know where to begin searching.’

  ‘But Father tried to find her, didn’t he?’ said Kes. ‘That’s why he went away.’

  ‘No, he didn’t. We believed – we were led to believe – that Tegenn had been taken to a far distant place. Jack promised that he would search the world until he found her, and he left on a ship, thinking he knew where she might be.’

  ‘He didn’t find me, though,’ whispered Lizzy.

  ‘Yes. I realize now that the kidnapper laid a false trail, to deceive us.’ Morvyr’s voice caught again. ‘Jack never returned, and no one knows what became of him.’

  Lizzy felt hot tears pricking her eyes. They trickled down her cheek and she didn’t even try to stop them. ‘Oh, Mother,’ she whispered. ‘If only…’ But she couldn’t say any more. What use was ‘if only’? It wouldn’t bring her father back. They didn’t even know whether he was still alive.

  Morvyr wiped her eyes and blinked. ‘At least I’ve found you again, Tegenn, and that is such a joy to me. I want to know about your life on land. For instance, I heard Kes call you by a different name. What was it – Lussie? Lishy?’

  ‘Lizzy.’ Despite her sadness, Lizzy smiled. ‘It’s short for Elizabeth.’

  ‘Elizabeth… how strange it sounds! What does it mean?’

  Lizzy was nonplussed. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I’ve never thought about it.’

  ‘But all names have meanings. Morvyr means “daughter of the sea”. It was my mother’s name too, and my grandmother’s, and many great-grandmothers’ before that. But Jack and I wanted our daughter to be different, so we called you Tegenn. It means “little jewel”. And Kesson – which is Kes’s full name – means “harmonious”.’

  ‘ “Little jewel”… that’s lovely!’

  ‘I think Lizzy is lovely too, whatever it means. I would like to call you Lizzy. Is that all right?’

  Lizzy hugged her. ‘I’d like that too… Mother.’

  Morvyr’s face was radiant as she gazed at Lizzy for a few moments. Then abruptly her face grew very serious.

  ‘Before I hear your story, though, there is one more thing to be done. Please, Lizzy – give me your locket. There’s something I must be sure of.’

  Mystified, Lizzy slipped the silver chain over her head. Morvyr took the locket, opened it, and laid it in the palm of one hand. Then she closed her eyes and, as if remembering something from long ago, moved her fingers over its surface.

  There was the faintest click. And to Lizzy’s amazement, another tiny compartment sprang open. She gasped, leaning forward to look more closely, and saw that inside the compartment was a beautiful silvery pearl.

  ‘Oh!’ Lizzy’s eyes shone with delight. ‘How wonderful!’

  ‘It’s still here!’ Morvyr breathed. Very gently, she touched the pearl with a fingertip and whispered, ‘Sing…’

  A faint, sweet, high note began to ring out from the locket. To her amazement Lizzy realized that the sound was coming from the pearl. Morvyr gazed at it as though in a trance. She seemed to be listening for something else, and there was a far-away look in her eyes. Then her face clouded, and suddenly she snapped out of her strange mood and quickly closed the compartment. The sweet sound vanished, and Lizzy blinked in bewilderment.

  ‘Mother?’

  Morvyr hung the locket back round Lizzy’s neck. ‘I had to find out if the pearl was still there,’ she said. ‘But it isn’t safe to let it be seen for more than a few moments. I can’t tell you why; all I will say is that it’s vitally important that you protect it. You must take it back to land and never bring it to the sea world again. Please, Lizzy, promise me you’ll do as I ask!’

  ‘I promise, of course,’ said Lizzy. ‘But why won’t you tell me any more?’

  ‘Because it’s safer if you don’t know,’ Morvyr replied. ‘Don’t tell anyone about it; don’t show it to anyone. It must be our secret, until the time is right.’ She put a finger to her lips. ‘No more questions now. We have happier things to talk about.’ Then she smiled, as if nothing strange had happened at all. ‘To begin with, I want to hear everything about your life on land!’

  The eavesdropper had seen and heard enough. Silently, stealthily, he turned and swam away from the coast, heading out to the deep sea. No one saw him go. The dolphins were somewhere else – the rumour he had started about a large shoal of mackerel had seen to that – and the smaller creatures were too afraid of him to do anything other than hide as he passed.

  On and on he swam, until he came to a massive solitary rock on the seabed. In the centre of the rock was a deep, wide hollow. The eavesdropper swam to the rock and hovered above it, his cold, cruel eyes staring down. He waited patiently. Then a voice echoed eerily to him, seeming to come from inside the hollow.

  ‘Who is there?’

  A shiver of pleasure ran the length of the creature’s body, and his own harsh voice rang out. ‘It is Tullor.’

  For a moment nothing happened. Then the invisible speaker said, ‘Come.’

  The water in the hollow began to agitate. It stirred, then swirled, and as the swirling increased the hollow started to glow with a strange crimson light. Tullor moved towards it, closer and closer. As his head touched the rim of the hollow, the crimson light flared to scarlet, spilling outwards until his whole body looked as though it were on fire. Then, with one smooth, swift movement, he vanished into the hole.

  Tullor saw the rainbow of light above him and he swam towards it. It grew brighter, and moments later he surfaced in the middle of a huge calm pool in a perfectly circular cave.

  The cave had no entrance but was completely enclosed, and the air inside shimmered with light. It was a breathtakingly beautiful place. But Tullor had no interest in beauty. He swam across the pool to where a couch of rock jutted out of the water, and when he reached the couch he bowed his head respectfully and said, ‘Your Majesty.’

  Taran, self-appointed mermaid Queen, stared haughtily down at him from where she reclined on the rock.

  ‘Well, faithful servant?’ she said in a silvery but icy voice. ‘What news have you brought?’

  Tullor writhed with excitement. ‘Your Majesty, the rumour is true – Morvyr’s lost daughter has returned!’

  ‘Ah!’ Taran clenched her fists eagerly. ‘So my suspicions were right!’ Her eyes hardened and she stared menacingly at her servant. ‘You’re sure of this, Tullor? Because if you’re mistaken –’

  ‘I’m not mistaken! I saw her with my own eyes only minutes ago. She looks exactly like her mother. There can be no doubt of who she is.’

  ‘I see… And does Morvyr know of this?’

  ‘Oh, yes. The boy, Kesson, told her, and brought the girl to her. At this moment Morvyr and both her children are talking together in a cave not far from the place where the human fishermen live.’ Tullor shuddered as he said ‘fishermen’, as though he hated the word. ‘But there’s more, Your Majesty. The child has one of the missing magical pearls!
’

  ‘What?’ Taran’s eyes lit with excitement. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Certain, Majesty. I followed her to the cave and saw the pearl with my own eyes – and I heard it sing!’

  ‘Which pearl is it? Tell me, quickly!’

  ‘The silver, Your Majesty.’

  ‘And the black – does she have the black pearl too?’

  ‘No, madam. Or, if she does, I didn’t see it.’

  Taran hissed between clenched teeth. ‘How could she have come by the silver pearl? It isn’t possible!’

  ‘It was inside a locket – a bauble, nothing more – that the girl wears round her neck.’

  ‘What? That locket? I remember it! Morvyr’s husband, that wretched human, made one each for his children…’ Now Taran’s eyes blazed with fury. ‘They tricked me! They tricked me!’ She made a wild gesture with one hand, and the water in the pool began to agitate. Waves smacked against the cave walls, and Tullor was tumbled from side to side as the pool churned as though in a violent storm.

  ‘When I think of the time I wasted in the hunt for those pearls!’ Taran raged. ‘I always suspected that Morvyr had them! I had her home searched, every cranny of it. When I didn’t find them I took that girl-child in revenge and left her on land – and all along my prize was in the worthless trinket round the baby’s neck!’ She clenched her fists. ‘I was such a fool! I should have destroyed them all!’

  ‘But, madam, if you had, you would have lost all hope of finding the pearls!’ Tullor cried, gasping as a ferocious wave threw him across the pool again. ‘Morvyr was the only one who knew where they were hidden, and no one could have guessed – not even one as powerful as you!’

  ‘That’s true…’ Taran took a deep breath and the water quietened a little as the worst of her fury abated. ‘And the human Morvyr married was a cunning creature. He chose the hiding place, I’m sure of that. And I’d take any wager that he hid the black pearl in the other locket! But the boy-child doesn’t have it. So where is that locket now?’

  The pool was much calmer by this time, and Tullor swam back to the foot of the rock where his Queen sat. Gazing up fawningly at her, he said, ‘At least we know where the silver pearl is, Your Majesty. That is surely better than nothing?’

  Taran stared at him for a moment, and then laughed. ‘You are right, faithful servant. And that is thanks to you. Well done, Tullor – I shall reward you for your cleverness. But first…’ She tapped a finger on the rock, her expression thoughtful. ‘You say the children are with Morvyr now?’

  ‘Yes, Your Majesty.’

  ‘Good. Then from now on, you must forget all your other duties. You will watch the girl, and follow her whenever you can. Make sure no one realizes what you are doing – especially those interfering dolphins!’ Her face darkened in a scowl, and the pool started to stir again. But then it settled as the scowl was replaced with a cunning smile. ‘I have been patient for eleven years. I can be patient for a little while longer. So I want you to wait carefully for your chance, and when it comes, as it is sure to, you will attack the girl and take that locket with the pearl inside!’

  Tullor’s face was not made to show pleasure, but Taran could feel his satisfaction as he said, ‘Yes, Your Majesty!’

  ‘Don’t fail, Tullor,’ she told him. ‘Don’t dare fail. Once I have the silver pearl, I will only need one more – the black one – and then I will be all-powerful. I want that pearl, and I will have it. I must have it – at any cost!’

  Chapter Eleven

  There were tears when Lizzy and Morvyr said goodbye, and even Kes was blinking and pretending to have something in his eye. Morvyr gave Lizzy a present of a beautiful ring. It was made from corals of three different colours, pink and blue and green, all twisted together like a tiny rope. It fitted her finger beautifully, and she only wished that she had brought a gift for Morvyr. But they would see each other again soon, and when they did, Lizzy promised herself that she would find something very special to bring her mother from the land.

  ‘Remember,’ Morvyr repeated as Lizzy and Kes prepared to leave, ‘you must keep the silver pearl safe, and never bring it to the undersea world again.’

  ‘I promise,’ said Lizzy solemnly. She longed to find out why Morvyr was so concerned about the pearl, but she knew there was no point in asking. When the time was right, her mother had said, she would be told. Until then, she must be patient.

  ‘Take care of her, Kes, and see her safely to shore!’ Morvyr called as the twins slipped into the water. ‘Goodbye, Lizzy! Goodbye, my little Tegenn!’

  She blew a kiss and Lizzy blew one too. Her vision blurred, then with a final wave she dived after Kes, down into the pool and away towards the entrance of the cave.

  They travelled in silence for a while. Kes was swimming slowly, as if he were reluctant to reach the land. Lizzy felt the same. She wanted time to think, and to absorb the wonderful thing that had happened to her today. The thought of going home to her other family made her sad. It would have been so amazing to be able to tell them. Instead, though, she must keep the secret to herself.

  Kes looked at her then and spoke for the first time. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

  Lizzy nodded. ‘Sort of.’ There was a pause. ‘She – Mother – is so beautiful, isn’t she? I’d love to think I might look like her one day.’

  Kes smiled. ‘You already do. Me, I look like Father, or so Mother says.’ His face clouded. ‘I wish I could remember him.’

  ‘So do I. And I wish…’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Oh… it’s silly, I know. But one fantastic thing’s already happened. I just thought, what if another fantastic thing happened, and he came back.’

  ‘If he’s still alive,’ said Kes sadly.

  ‘Yes… I was wondering about that too. Maybe we’ll never know.’

  They swam on for a few minutes more, finning their hands and feet and letting the current carry them along. Lizzy was beginning to get used to the deep sea, and now she was more fascinated than afraid. But then in the distance she thought she heard something. It wasn’t the sound of the sea; in fact it wasn’t really a sound at all but more of a vibration, throbbing through the water.

  ‘Kes…’ Tensely she reached out and touched his arm. ‘Listen. What’s that?’

  Kes slowed down and stopped. He put his head on one side, frowning. Then his expression became alarmed.

  ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘It’s the engine of a fishing boat – if we don’t get out of the way, we could get caught up in the net!’

  He grabbed Lizzy’s hand and towed her quickly off to the right. Lizzy had no idea which direction the boat was coming from, but Kes seemed to know with an unerring instinct. Sure enough, minutes later she saw the long hull cleaving the sea’s surface directly above the spot where they had been. Behind it flowed an undulating shadow, and she glimpsed the outlines of a mesh trailing almost to the seabed.

  ‘Look out for the wake!’ Kes warned. ‘Dive!’

  They dived deeper, but even so the wake churned up by the powerful engine’s propeller stirred the water and set them both lurching and rocking. At last the disturbance was over, and the twins regained their balance and stared after the boat as it chugged on its way.

  ‘That was close!’ said Kes.

  Lizzy was shaken. ‘W-would it have killed us?’

  ‘No, not unless we got pulled anywhere near the propeller. But just think what would happen if the fishermen hauled us up from under the sea! We couldn’t explain our way out of that, and they’d find out about the merfolk.’

  ‘Would that be so awful?’ Lizzy sounded wistful. She was thinking about her family on shore.

  Kes shattered her hopes. ‘Of course it would! Father told Mother what humans are like. If they knew we existed, they’d stop at nothing to catch us, and then what would happen?’

  Lizzy realized what he meant. She could picture it: news headlines flashing around the world, the sea people imprisoned in tanks and aquariums
, examined by doctors and scientists… Her imagination ran riot as she thought of Morvyr captured and helpless, and she looked aghast at Kes.

  He said, ‘You see, now, why we have to be so careful.’

  Gravely Lizzy nodded. Though the underwater world was a magical and beautiful place, she was beginning to learn that it had its dangers.

  They started to swim again, making their way along the coast towards the beach and the town beyond. They could still hear the fishing boat’s engine, but it was faint and far away now, just a vague murmur in the distance.

  ‘When do you think I’ll be able to see Mother again?’ Lizzy asked.

  Kes did not answer. She turned her head to repeat the question, but paused as she saw that he was looking back over his shoulder. There was a frown on his face.

  ‘Kes? What’s up?’

  Still Kes said nothing for a few more moments. Then: ‘I’m not sure. I had this feeling there was something behind us just now…’

  Abruptly Lizzy remembered what he had said earlier, on the beach. ‘Yesterday, when you went home… you told me something was following you.’

  ‘Yes.’ He sounded strained, and Lizzy felt her heartbeats speeding up.

  ‘Maybe it’s one of the dolphins,’ she said, trying to boost her confidence.

  ‘It isn’t,’ said Kes. ‘If it was, or any other friend, they’d have called out. Lizzy, we are being followed, I’m sure of it.’

  Fearfully Lizzy peered through the water. She couldn’t see very far before the currents blurred everything – but for a moment she thought she glimpsed a long dark shape gliding behind them.

  Kes said quietly, ‘Swim faster. Let’s see what happens.’

  Trying not to let dread get the better of her, Lizzy kicked powerfully with her feet. Their pace increased until she could feel the pressure of water rushing past her face.

  Kes glanced back again and said, ‘It’s still there. It’s keeping up.’

  ‘Wh-what do you think it is?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘You’re not… scared, are you?’