by Kim Falconer
‘Salila.’ Her voice was velvet smooth seduction, whether aloud or in my head. She pronounced it Sah-LEE-lah. Hindu?
‘Assuming you aren’t another hallucination, what do you want?’
‘You.’ In two strides she grabbed me, hoisted her arms high, holding me over her head like a feather-filled pillow. ‘This way, pet.’ She threw me up in the air, over the railing and into the sea.
I’ve never screamed louder in my life.
* * *
I bellyflopped onto the cold surface. It stung hard, like hitting concrete. The air rushed out of my lungs, cutting my wail short. I flailed around, beating the water, trying to punch my way free, until my head followed the rest of my body, down under the waves. I sank like a stone, as in my hallucinations, only this time, I was quite sure it was real. My contacts popped out, and water poured in my open mouth, down my oesophagus, into my stomach, and down my trachea into my lungs. It filled up every space inside me with its cold, salty hunger. Pain ripped through my chest as it rose and fell, trying to breathe air out of the sea. It couldn’t happen. I was conscious enough to note that in the midst of the madness.
Help me! Help! The louder I screamed in my head, the more I heard laughter rising like bubbles, tickling and taunting. It brought a memory to the front of my mind: me, as an infant, underwater and laughing up at my own mother who was trying to drown me. Maybe I’m having a psychotic breakdown. Part of me knew it would be over soon, that I’d already burned through what limited oxygen was left in my bloodstream. Even for me, the one who could hold her breath the longest of anyone and resist tapping out from even the tightest chokeholds, this was it. Consciousness was slipping away, darkness inking in.
Only it wasn’t.
I continued to feel everything, including tons of water over me, and even though I had a good two hundred feet of visibility, this was aqueous fluid, not air. Not air, Ava. Think what you are saying. I was still conscious. Alive, and starting to feel, um, better. The excruciating spasms in my chest subsided. My feet touched lightly on the top of a metal perch that turned out to be a slightly bent streetlight overlooking a sunken intersection. I clung to it, wrapping my legs around the pole to keep from drifting the rest of the way to the seafloor. The desperate need to breathe was gone.
I sat there, on top of the pole, mostly dumbstruck, while part of me enjoyed the view. I’d never witnessed anything more surreal, or more spectacular. Fifteen years under the sea had turned this part of the coast into a coral encrusted page out of California history, salt preserved. I saw everything clearly, and that didn’t make sense. My contacts were gone and I was batshit-blind without them. Not anymore. Rows of streetlights, like the one I clung to, poked out of the silt and sand. Cars that hadn’t been worthy of salvaging lay on their sides or upside down, brown with rust and covered in anemones, green, yellow and brilliant red. Huh? Red? I could see it. Inexplicable. The red spectrum vanished at fifteen feet under the surface, and I was way deeper than that.
Baitfish swam in large schools over the streets, like silver bees swarming. In the rubble below, a street sign poked out of the cracked road. It read unset Blvd. That made me laugh. I turned to look behind me, across the expanse, and sure enough I spotted the famous Riviera Golf Course. The clubhouse was on a knoll, now half hidden in kelp gardens. The Spanish-style tiled roof was covered in life, glinting under beams of afternoon sun. Damn, it was sensational. When I saw a flash of silver from the corner of my eye, the euphoria vanished.
I became aware of a dozen long sleek bodies weaving ribbonlike from windows and back through doors, up and down the levels of ruined structures. They circled around the intersection, their side-to-side undulations and downturned mouths unmistakable. Yeah, I’d seen the remastered Jaws series, all seven of them. Sharks!
I didn’t know the species. They were moving too fast around the baitfish for me to count gill slits or estimate tail to dorsal fin ratios. They started working themselves into a frenzy as blood inked the water. Dark-red blood. I tried to swim away, but with my clothes on, tight jeans creating drag, as well as the weight of my sneakers, not to mention the severe lack of skill, I floundered.
Help! I cried out, arms thrashing. Great. That drew their attention. A few sharks broke off from the feed, swimming through the now-chummed water to me. I froze, sinking slowly to the seafloor. Rossi! Help! I didn’t want to go out pathetic, but there it was. Help!
He’s busy right now, little Lander-fish. The words cut into my brain, snapping my head to the side.
Damn, Salila could project. I recognised the Mar bitch who had thrown me overboard by her impact on my neurons, as well as the sound of her voice. A long, pale streak darted in. Her Rapunzel-length hair fanned out, and her long, naked body undulated. I thought she was going to go after the sharks, like a bulldog into a pack of wolves, but no. Those huge, circling, open-mouthed, jagged-toothed killers scattered the instant she showed up. Next thing I knew, Salila was in my face, laughing at me. I was impressed she could do it so well underwater. I suspected she’d had many years of practice, though she looked my age.
Salila. I didn’t want to think how deadly she had to be, to frighten a shark.
Ten of them, but who’s counting? She grabbed my arm and took off like a shot, dragging me behind. Gods of Atlantis, you’re a pathetic little polyp. Where’d you learn to swim?
Haven’t. I tried a few times to wrench my arm out of her grip and gave up. She was ridiculously strong. Where’re we going?
Teern doesn’t believe you exist. Miguel can’t convince him, poor cuttlefish. She wrenched me across the water so she could change hands. Can’t wait to see Teern’s face when he gets a look at you. She banked around a reef and picked up speed. This’ll be priceless.
I wasn’t sure what to make of her words. Her tone, though, especially the way she said Miguel, like his name was rich, mouthwatering chocolate slowly dissolving on her tongue, was making my ass clench. And where’s Teern?
Over the drop-off. You might want to clear your ears.
* * *
The water turned to a deep emerald as it rushed by. Salila pulled me in her wake so fast I couldn’t even bring my hand up to pinch my nose and attempt to equalise the pressure in my head. Oddly, it cleared on its own. As darkness swallowed us, the bioluminescence blossomed, bringing a new light to the world. It streamed by so quickly though, I couldn’t make anything out, until finally my jet-propulsion companion cut her engines and drifted to a stop.
We’re here. She smiled, which gave me way too close a view of her spiky teeth.
Great. Now you can let go of me. I planned to disconnect from her iron grip, but her fingers wouldn’t budge. I rolled my wrist inward, automatically using a move to bring her hand close to my chest, allowing me to peel those fingers back, but in a weightless world, I only managed to pull myself to her, completely off balance.
None of that, small fry. Her hair rippled about in the current.
We were in front of a reef that opened into a cave. I don’t know how deep it was, but the water felt heavy against my skin, and I was pretty sure Salila’s eyes were bugging out a bit. I looked down at my fingers. They were wrinkled like prunes.
Now listen to me, scallop. You’re going to stick close, keep your thoughts in your head and show some respect. Teern’s not going to be amused by your inadequacies, not like Miguel and I are.
There it was again. His name; her sensual pronunciation. I hated it.
Jealous? She tugged me into the cave.
Hardly. I tried to twist out of her grip again. No luck. But the cave was extraordinary, a sparkling mosaic of bright-blue starfish, jewel-encrusted abalone, red hermit crabs and orange, blue and purple dotted nematodes. Medusas pulsed through the water around the entrance, and I noticed Salila avoided the long, threadlike tentacles, so I did too. Rock fish from dazzling Garibaldi, our State fish, to green lingcod, hovered about the crevices in the walls. The water felt warmer, the light magical, and the sounds, murmuring susurrat
ions around me, were the most peaceful audio vibrations I’d ever heard. It’s pretty.
Salila pulled me to a stop. You might want to think about expanding your vocabulary. Teern doesn’t suffer fools.
Suffer fools?
Put up with ineptitude.
I’m familiar with the term. I just wasn’t used to anyone associating it with me. I think —
Shut up! We’re here.
My eyes pulled away from her gaze. I had to push back lengths of her hair, a dark violet in this light, as it floated in front of me. When it cleared, I saw in the distance a formation of rock carved into a throne. It looked to be made out of jade; smooth swirls of green and black. But that wasn’t the attraction. Um, no. It was the man, or manlike creature, lounging on it who had me riveted. The muscular shoulders screamed male, but there was so much hair streaming about him, long like Salila’s, only pitch-black, I couldn’t make out the rest of his features. There was a beard, and a face, from what I could see, like a lion. I stared, mouth open, trying to take it all in. The word sphinx came to mind, and king. The king of the sea, or maybe the god. I looked on in awe and realised I could hear his voice, subtle at first then booming into my head.
You waste my time, Miguel!
Teern, she’s different. One of us, but better.
You think walking on land is ‘better?’ To what purpose? Our tombs are here. Our life is here. Our sustenance the sea. Landers are nothing. She is nothing.
It wasn’t hard for me to work out who ‘she’ was, or Teern’s opinion on the matter.
Rossi didn’t seem to be aware of me and Salila. He was certainly talking like I wasn’t in the room. Way to make a girl feel special.
Salila laughed. At least my thoughts had some comedic value for her.
But what she is changes everything! Rossi was louder now.
How? You think our tombs will be any safer from the Shen? Will we suddenly be free of our constant vigil? They’ve become too powerful. One little girl isn’t going to change that.
I disagree.
Absurd! Even if it is true. He said the words with finality. The entire cave shook. When it settled, he went on to another topic. Atlantic is clear, for now, but there are still pockets of Shen in New York City, enmeshed in Wall Street. They’re playing hell with the Landers’ financial affairs.
I thought you said the Landers don’t matter.
They don’t, but repercussions to the sea do. The West Coast is another matter.
That was it? The Ava Sykes conversation was over? I wasn’t impressed by the instant dismissal.
Salila looked at me, a new curiosity in her eyes. Rossi turned my way as well, but his expression was something else altogether. Shock and anger mostly. Uh oh.
Quiet, Salila and Rossi both whispered in my mind.
What, so he doesn’t see me? I knew it was too late for that. Slowly, Teern turned his head. The stare flattened me against the wall. It wasn’t much comfort to feel Salila flattened beside me. Her cocky vibe was out with the tide. She was as scared of Teern as I was.
Rossi was in front of us in an instant, shouting at Salila, threatening to mince her to pieces for the sharks while trying to explain my presence to Teern. The combination of placating and rage was something to see. You wouldn’t think a person could be both at once, but he pulled it off. Teern, on the other hand, pushed Rossi aside.
This is the mongrel? He had my wrist in his hand in less than a blink. He nicked it with a canine, a pinprick, and touched the welling drop of blood with his tongue. His eyes closed.
Hey! I snapped back my hand when he released it.
Teern ignored me. She is half-blood, both Lander and Mar.
Rossi relaxed. So you see! We have to protect Ava from the Shen. Rossi had a hand on my shoulder. I was pretty sure he was trying to keep me quiet. Like that’s going to happen.
Protect her? Why? What good is she, a woman-born child, not raised from the Ma’atta? Her half-blood is a dilution of our race. Let the Shen have her, if they’re fool enough.
Newsflash. Nobody’s ‘having’ me, not without my permission.
Rossi’s grip tightened. We’d be fools to ignore this, Teern. She can breathe in both worlds. She’s stronger than us by day. She needs training, but …
Teern waved an enormously long hand through the water. The wake knocked Rossi into me, and me further into the wall.
The West Coast is the issue now, especially with the contaminants.
Teern, please reconsider. Ava can help.
We’re losing this battle. It’s time to move the tombs, again.
Teern talked on about tactics and Shen this and Mar that. I lost the thread when the pronoun she disappeared. It was over. My introduction to the Mar side of the family tree had gone about as well as meeting my birth mother. A pressure built in my chest as my shoulders sagged.
Rossi’s hand reached out and found mine. He gave it a squeeze and didn’t let go. It would have felt comforting, if I let it, but my throat went tight and my body stiffened. It was easier to face-off in a shouting match with that sea lion-monster of a man Teern, than accept the kindness from Rossi. Screw this shit! I jerked my hand back and swam out of the cave. Actually, I did an aquatic version of stumble. Maybe I should learn to swim. Somehow, an Olympic-size pool wasn’t so scary any more, and this floundering wasn’t getting me anywhere. At the cave entrance, the watery world looked like an aerial shot of LA at night, a dark expanse with twinkling lights etched in shadow. I looked up at a distant surface and started kicking that way, like I’d seen divers do on the nature channel. Rossi caught up before I’d gone very far.
Ava, wait. Not that way. He reached for my hand and took off in another direction. It was Salila all over again, what with the speed and the grip and me being buffeted along behind. Let go! I wrapped my hand over his fingers and peeled them back, breaking his hold on me. Of course, I started to sink immediately, and tried to counter with the flail-about swimming style that I was sure to become famous for. He grabbed for my other arm and I rolled, managing to clock him on the chin with my heel, only it was in slow motion, hardly a deterrent. Wearing sneakers instead of my steel-toed boots didn’t help. On second thoughts, the Tims would be hefty sinkers. While I tried kicking the other way, he clamped on to my waistband. I laid a right hook to his jaw. That just made him mad.
For the next few moments we were in a cat and dog fight, tumbling tail over teakettle, going for each other’s throats. At least, I was going for his. He might have been holding back. I landed more than a few good punches and kicks. Rossi did the same. The difference was, he was fast in the water. Lightning fast. Before long he had my back pinned to his chest as he propelled us onward again. He fluctuated between apologising to me and cursing Salila, who had vanished completely. Smart. I noticed Rossi didn’t have a single swear word for Teern, who I thought was the biggest jerk of them all.
Don’t think that, Ava.
I’ll think whatever the hell I like!
You won’t like it if he hears you.
I would have shrugged if I could move. Rossi wasn’t taking any chances this time. I was pressed tight into his chest. Thoughts of Teern’s dismissal continued to course through my head, and I let them. It kept me from thinking about Rossi’s totally hot, totally naked body against mine. His thoughts, on the other hand, were focussed in another direction. He’d spotted Salila.
We were out of the drop-off and back over the expanse of the Riviera in lightning-quick time. Salila must have thought to hide in the shark-infested waters. It was an effective keep out sign for me, seeing them flash in and out of view. Not so for Rossi. Fortunately, the creatures scattered from him even faster than they’d done from Salila. He swam in and out of a few buildings, me clamped tight to his chest, until he found her. Instantly, she turned and ran. Swam.
Stop! he commanded. Enough! It was a testament to his authority that she obeyed, though her expression had plenty of attitude when she appeared in front of us. We all tread water,
not far above the streetlight I’d perched on when first falling into this world.
She crossed her arms and stuck out her aristocratic chin. What is the big, fish-gutting deal? Ava didn’t drown. I proved a point, and your precocious half-blood is at no risk.
Hardly the issue! Rossi said.
Really? Did you know she was Mar, for sure? Salila asked.
Half-Mar, I corrected.
Whatever. Salila was not impressed. Miguel, you couldn’t have been certain until she hit the deep.
I’d planned to test her in a swimming pool, Rossi said, as if I wasn’t right under his nose.
Test? I tried to turn around and punch him, but couldn’t budge. This must be how babies felt when their parents strapped them to their chests in those carrybags.
Ava, it’s not how it sounds. I’ll explain in a minute.
I can’t wait to hear that. Salila couldn’t have sounded more taunting. Face it, Miguel, Teern’s not interested in your little discovery.
He’ll change his mind, when he understands.
Really? Is that before or after he orders her put down?
What’s that supposed to mean? My anger was rising, and so was Rossi’s.
It’s not going to happen, Salila. She’s our most valuable member.
Teern doesn’t see it that way.
I’m not finished with him yet, Rossi yelled.
But he’s finished with you.
Salila was clever. She’d managed to take the focus off her own ass and put it on a much bigger worry: Teern. You’re not going to let her get away with this, are you? I wanted him to pound her into the sand, at least. She tried to drown me, don’t forget.
Salila turned to me. No, baby sweetcakes, I just wanted to see if it was true.
You dragged me miles into the deep.
Because you couldn’t scare off a few puny sharks.
Puny? They were fifteen foot and about to rip my insides out.
Girls, stop it.
We both turned to Rossi. Well, Salila turned and I tried to look over my shoulder, saying at the same time, Girls!
