The Secret of the Emerald Sea
Heather Matthews
Copyright © August 2010, Heather Matthews
Cover art by Anastasia Rabiyah © August 2010
ISBN 978-1-936110-87-2
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Sugar and Spice Press North Carolina, USA
www.sugarnspicepress.com
eBooks created by www.ebookconversion.com
For Jeremy
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
About the Author
Chapter One
It was late, but Jane could not sleep. She was weary, but she could not rest. In her upstairs bedroom, decorated in the peaceful, aquatic tones that she preferred, she stared out of her oval window into the darkness, watching the leaves of tall trees dance in the wind. Rain drummed its relentless tattoo upon the roof and rolled in rivulets down the small window, distorting the view.
At times such as these, when it was dark and lonely and raining, the young girl, who was just fourteen, missed her mother terribly. As well, she felt some hollowness inside because she had never known her own father. He had died before she was born, and soon—too soon!—her mother had passed away. Jane had been only seven years old when she’d died.
Now, she lived with her grandmother in Royalton, a village by the Emerald Sea, and she had so little of her mother to remember her by. There was only a tiny toy crown of hammered gold that had been given to her when she was three years old, and a book. Of her father, she had nothing at all.
When she turned ten, her grandmother took the crown away. Jane cried and cried, begging for the toy that meant so much to her, but her pleas were ignored. Usually, her grandmother was kind, but this one time, she had been quite cruel. Her grandmother did not take away her book, and so she treasured it even more, and read from it every day of her life. It was a slim volume of poetry, bound in crimson leather, and it was filled with all of the sonnets of Shakespeare.
The book was her solace on nights like this one, when she began to feel the curious feeling she experienced whenever it rained. Since she could remember, the rain had made her feel some strange longing—one that was acute and uncomfortable. She told no one about her feelings because they were so odd. Already, she felt somehow distanced from the people around her, although she loved her grandmother and had some friends at school. In her heart, she had always felt different, and she was sure this had something to do with the curious feeling she did not understand.
Jane held her book of sonnets in her hands, but she did not light a candle so she could read the verses. Instead, she clutched it for comfort alone, as another girl might hold a well-loved teddy bear. She knew that the strange feeling was stronger tonight, and she was not sure she could resist the desires it released. As the rain struck the roof, she felt compelled, as she always had, to go to the sea and to disappear below its still surface, but only in the dead of night, when everyone was asleep. Why she should need to do this was always a mystery to her, and it was dangerous, too.
Jane had never learned to swim. Her grandmother had refused to teach her how, and she was not allowed to go to the shore and learn with her friends. The Emerald Sea was forbidden, and it became all the more alluring because it was always just out of her reach.
On this night, when her sadness and restlessness were profound, and her urges so strong as to be overpowering, she was too weak to resist any longer. All she could hear was the gentle tap of rainfall as she got up out of her bed and put on her slippers. Tonight, she would give in, and she would do what she wanted to...at long last.
“I’m old enough now, aren’t I?” she asked herself doubtfully.
And so she crept out, clad only in a white nightgown, on this night when the moon was dark and the sky was midnight blue. She moved stealthily down the stairway, taking care to avoid the places where the wooden boards squeaked—these she knew from memory—and she quietly tiptoed past the room where her grandmother slept. Opening the front door as silently as she could, she slipped outside into the rain. She smiled as the cold droplets landed upon her ivory face, her long, flaxen hair, and her bare shoulders. The cold did not bother her.
The seaside village was deserted. It was almost three o’clock in the morning. She ran down a pathway that led to the rocky beach and began to trudge through the damp, uneven sands. The shore was always so close to her home, tempting her. Now she could smell the briny scent of the saltwater, and make out the dark, ruffled shapes of seaweed that had washed ashore. She kicked her slippers off, feeling the cold, gritty sand against her skin, and then she ran to the water.
At first, she merely dipped in the toes of one foot. Suddenly, the sea changed color, turning amethyst and pearl-white, and it became warmer against her skin. And so she went deeper, wading out until the water was chest high, and then she slid under the surface until her golden hair trailed below the water like floating reeds.
Jane closed her eyes and let her body sink down into the warmth. She could not swim, and yet she was not afraid. In fact, she felt a peculiar sense of peace. There was a glow behind her eyes, a light so pure and clear it seemed to illuminate her thoughts and emotions. It seemed at this moment that she had found the thing that was missing...it was here...under the dark sky and below the quiet sea.
As she luxuriated in this unfamiliar sense of serenity, she felt something ripple under her, some difference in her body...her legs were no longer legs! Opening her eyes, she was startled to find that
she had a beautiful tail, a mermaid’s tail, and yet she was not really frightened. She wondered idly if she were dreaming—for it must be so!—and then she flicked her tail about and began to move through the water as naturally as a fish might. Her tail was beautiful, blue-green and glistening, with scales that shimmered jade and aquamarine against the tides.
The water changed again now, back to its own natural green shade, which matched her own eyes, and Jane shook her head slightly. Elation and wonder bubbled inside of her, and she began to move faster.
There was no fear now, for at long last, she was who she really was, and who she was meant to be...and so she swam further and further from shore, down toward the center of the sea. She could breathe under the water as easily as she had on the land. The sensation of speed was thrilling to her, and she seemed to know her destination, although she could not have named it.
After a long while, she went down deeper and deeper, and all of a sudden, the creatures of the sea were everywhere, murmuring to her as she passed, and speaking in the secret language of their own kind. She stared at them in wonder and returned their greetings. The words she uttered were in their own tongue, and they seemed to gaze in awe at her through glittering eyes as she moved through the sea.
In time, she swam to an old ship that was set into the bed of the ocean. It was gilded and shining with sails of purest white. On its prow was the figurehead of a young woman with Jane’s own golden hair and green eyes. The statue’s mermaid tail was also blue-green and encrusted with gemstones, and on its head was a tiny crown that seemed exactly the same as the one her grandmother had put up on a high shelf just out of Jane’s reach. As she stared at the figurehead, she felt a presence all around her, and she began to hear beautiful, choral music swell and build in her ears.
She turned from the figurehead to behold a dazzling sight. A circle of mermaids had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and they were singing to her, so softly and sweetly, in their own language. They sang a song of welcome and friendship. Are they just like me? Jane wondered, puzzled. Mermaids in the sea, and girls upon the land?
A large man descended from the water above in a robe of white that swirled endlessly around him. He was bearded and white-haired, a muscular, strong man with a fearsome expression on his face. She was frightened by the look in his eyes as she stared at his weathered face. Something about him seemed so unkind, and the gentle chanting song of the mermaids ceased as he made his way toward her.
“I am Neptune,” he announced haughtily. “I am King Neptune of the Emerald Sea!” He waited and stared, and she bobbed a curtsy—no easy feat with a tail so large. She shivered, for the water now seemed darker and colder.
“Tell me who you are!” he ordered in a booming voice.
“I am a girl from the village,” she answered in a small voice. “I came to the water and dipped in my toe, and then the water changed color and became so lovely and warm, and so I went under the water, and then I became a mermaid.”
“You were always a mermaid!” he told Jane angrily. “For I know now who you are and why you have come to us this night. And what have those fools on land named you, and what have they taught you of life?”
“I am called Jane,” she answered, “and I have been taught to be good, and to say my prayers, and to do my lessons and be obedient.”
“You are not of their kind!” he bellowed. Jane watched as the mermaids around him shook and hung their heads. “You are my own daughter, you are my princess, and I have waited for you for many years...”
“Your...daughter? I am a princess?” she sputtered, dazed and shocked by his words. But some truth dawned on her in this instant, and she suddenly knew it was so. This was why she had longed for the seawater against her skin for as long as she could remember. This was why the Emerald Sea had been forbidden.
“If you are my father, then who is my mother? Is she here? I thought my mother died in Royalton when I was but a young girl?” Jane asked. “She looked much as I do... She was my mother, wasn’t she? Please tell me she was.”
Neptune nodded at her, and he lost his fearsome look as he hung his head. “She was your mother, indeed!” he cried. “But she is gone now, passed away, and I loved her well. Look at the figurehead that I commissioned in her honor!” Silvery tears began to run down his face and float away in swirling little trails, into the deep-green waters of the Emerald Sea, and Jane was touched. She was no longer so fearful of Neptune.
“She was human,” he wept. “Human, but I loved her, and I tried to bring her here, to make her one of us, but she regretted her choice, and she tried to return to the land. When she got there, nothing was as she remembered and she could not become the woman she once was. But she stayed on the land nonetheless, a human with a god’s child growing in her belly.”
“Your mother died when you were so small,” he went on. “I visited her the night you were born. I wanted to bring you back here, where you belong, and to bring her back as well, as my own queen...but she would not go, and she swore you were human, and she would not relent or listen to reason. I left you both there, although I knew you could not be human only. Your mother did not want to live under the water, you see, and she was so angry with me for the changes I brought forth in her. She could not be simply human anymore, but was always part mermaid, and longing for the sea she also dreaded. She vowed to never be mermaid again, and she swore that you would not live as she did. She took you away, but you are my daughter, and you belong to me.”
Jane felt coldness creep into her aching heart. If my mother hated being a mermaid, will I also hate it? The thrill of swimming free and feeling at one with the creatures of the sea was suddenly eclipsed by memories of sweets baking in the oven, of ripe fields that smelled of sunshine, and big, scrubbed wooden tables where she sat and read her sonnets and drew pictures.
“I...don’t know what I am,” she responded meekly. “And I am afraid.” She looked at the worried circle of mermaids bobbing gently in the water. They seemed to stare at her with too much intensity. She glanced at the figurehead, and indeed, its features and its proportions could have been her late mother’s. She looked down at her tail, and then felt a crown on her own head that could not have been placed there without some frightening magic.
“I want to go home,” she cried. “Please let me go and be as I was before!” Then, Jane turned and began to swim away as fast as she could. Her heart was pounding like a frightened bird’s.
Jane heard a cry of rage that seemed to reverberate through the sea, echoing over and over again. She turned and looked back, just for a second, and she saw Neptune wring his trident staff through the water until the sea turned rough and choppy and tidal waves began to form. She could still hear him yelling in his strange language, and she saw all the creatures of the sea cower and begin to slither into secret hiding places.
Chapter Two
Jane knew from the ancient myths that the rage of Neptune was the stuff of legend. It had sent sailors to early death, washed whales ashore, and flooded the land. The water was always dangerous, for its tides and currents were always at the mercy of the king’s many moods. Never had she witnessed such ferocity and violence as she did when Neptune churned the water into frenzy and willed it into a deadly froth. The creatures of the sea that hurried away at the first signs of his rage were spared. They managed to stay safe inside of caves and under stones. They wedged themselves tight behind branches of coral, and they waited. Jane saw their eyes, lit up with terror, as they lurked in the hollows.
The rest were not so lucky. They were torn away from the ship and thrown above the surface. She watched the mermaids cry in fear as giant waves loomed overhead and cast grave shadows above them. Soon, Jane swam far away from the others, and was rendered unconscious when she hit her head on the side of a cave. She floated oblivious as calm descended upon the sea again.
* * * *
Neptune stood rooted to the bed of the ocean and gazed at the aftermath of his destructive rage. His shi
p, once so beautifully clean and shining, was now broken in two. The figurehead he so loved was now detached from the ship and rested facedown in the sand.
Worst of all, his daughter, so long yearned for, was nowhere to be found. The princess he had created with his earthly bride might well be hurt. He wished again that he had never mixed with humanity. The women of the land were not to be borne; they were never satisfied no matter what one did to please them. He remembered the fear on his daughter’s face as she begged to return to her old life, and for a moment, he sat down on the bed of the ocean and placed his staff beside him. His heart hurt, and as strong and proud a god as he was, he felt, for a moment at the least, ashamed.
* * * *
Jane awoke to sunlight, bright and cold air, and solitude. She floated dreamily through the water and she began to think about the events of the day before. Her head did not really hurt, and yet she was sure there must be a bruise where it had struck the stone surface of the cave. She touched her scalp gingerly, looking for the source of the tingling and tenderness. As she did so, she noticed the crown was gone, and then she remembered Neptune’s rage and the fear in the faces of her sister mermaids.
Jane felt responsible for all that had occurred. It seemed impossible that she should have caused such havoc and suffering, but it had all happened so fast and she could never have predicted the outcome of her remarks to the king—her father.
“Some father!” she muttered to herself as tears came to her eyes. “It would have been better if I had never known him and never come here. Why did I do it?” She looked around her, and there was nothingness. Water surrounded her on all sides. She could hear no creatures to comfort her in the absolute stillness of the early morning. She still had her mermaid’s tail, which she now despised. “No wonder my mother hated this life!” she sobbed. “It’s so horrible here in the Emerald Sea! I hate my father,” she whispered suddenly. “I hate him.”
Jane began to feel anger rise within her that she had never before experienced. It filled every corner of her being and overwhelmed her with its force. She felt weak with its power and evil, and she realized there was Neptune’s darkness in her now, as well as the loving spirit of her mother. She realized she had changed already from what she had been, and that it was more than the simple matter of a tail. She had become something other than human on the inside, as well.
The Secret of the Emerald Sea Page 1
