All The Mermaids In The Sea

by Robert W Cabell

  “Humbled by her magic and proud of the gleam of envy that shone in the eyes of his guests, the emperor praised her voice and beauty as a treasure beyond compare. Then he called his daughter and the rest of the mermaid’s handmaidens to come forward and strip the princess of her robes. This was not done with disrespect, but to show Speio’s physical perfection, and so that her transformation into a mermaid would not be obscured.

  “Then Princess Speio was carried on a golden chair up the spiral stairway to the top of the tank, which was as high as a temple, for it was in fact to be the temple of a living goddess. The tank was a wonder all its own, built to resemble a pagoda, and made of the finest gold and the clearest spun glass in the world, scattered with jewels and reminiscent of a necklace fit for an empress. So with great pomp and ceremony, Princess Speio was lowered into the temple tank, and it was sealed.

  “All should have been well. Speio had not struggled or protested, for she knew that when she wished, she could command the water to expand and shatter the tank. She could ride the wave down the mountain to the river below which would take her to the sea.

  “Her love and greed for the gold, jewels, and intricate art of mortals had trapped her. The treasures surrounding her enchanted Speio, and she wished to take much of what was inside the tank with her once she assumed her immortal form and fled.

  “The emperor’s decree that the wizard take a vow of silence had unknowingly sealed both their fates. He had not been allowed to confer with or advise the builders of the temple tank, and they did not have his wealth of arcane knowledge.

  “Since the summer palace was high in the mountains, the tank had been filled with river water, not seawater. It was the power stored within each tiny crystal of salt that Princess Speio needed to draw on to transform. Without saltwater, her gills would not open and her tail would not grow. When she began to thrash around and struggle without transforming into a mermaid, the emperor stood there in shock and ordered no one to touch the tank. He was certain that her movements were only part of the transformation. But, they were, in truth, the last throes of a woman struggling for breath, the final tremors and twitching of a mermaid drowning.

  “As her body grew still, her eyes dimmed, and she floated to the surface like a dead fish in the sea. The emperor flew into a rage. He had been deceived and embarrassed in front of all the nobles of the land. He ordered the wizard and his youngest daughter beheaded on the spot, certain they had somehow collaborated in this fraud. Then he ordered the glass of the tank smashed and the body of Princess Speio thrown into the river.

  “Eventually, as her body floated down the great river, the freshwater yellow dolphins found her and tenderly carried their beloved princess out to sea and back to her palace. Her sisters buried Speio with all the jewels and treasures she had collected over the centuries.”

  The Turtle King concluded his story and sighed softly.

  “So, mermaids can swim in fresh or saltwater, but they can’t change from human to mermaid form unless they’re in saltwater?” Pearl queried.

  “That is correct. Fresh water will not activate the Tethys’ gland to secrete the liquid that dissolves your leg bones and spins them back into the tail-like structure of a dolphin. It is also what activates the opening of your gill slits.

  “Once you are in mermaid form you can swim and breathe in any water, though it may make you feel weak to swim in fresh water. So, if you try to leave the man-ship as it travels between the two oceans and dive into the fresh waters of the lakes and canals before you reach the other sea, you will not transform and could drown as did our beloved Princess Speio.”

  A Family Affair

  Ivan was at the wheel for a while as Hal sat down to look at the new series of pictures Lina had just finished sketching.

  The first sketch pictured Pearl stretched out awkwardly on a promontory of rocks. The next sketch showed her riding on the back of a large sea turtle as it crawled up a beach toward some strange-looking trees as lizards and birds gathered to watch them. The third sketch had her transformed back into a human girl, wearing her swimsuit, talking to a gigantic turtle the size of a house.

  “She must be in the Galapagos Islands!” Hal shouted excitedly and snatched up the other drawings. “That’s where the oldest and largest tortoises live. Look, these are the marine iguanas. Here are the swimming cormorants, and these trees are prickly pear trees!”

  “That’s a few hundred miles south of the Panama Canal. What is she doing there?” Ivan muttered.

  “She seems to be talking to the oldest turtle, maybe even the oldest animal alive,” Hal mused.

  “I was sure she’d head to the canal,” he said disappointedly.

  “She will,” Lina said as she fingered the ivory ring on the gold chain around her neck. “I can feel her swimming there now.”

  Hal had noticed that she tended to hold the ring in one hand and draw with the other. “What is that ring you keep touching?” he asked.

  “It was my great grandmother’s,” Lina explained softly. “She was over one hundred and forty years old when she died, and she gave it to me on her deathbed. It was too dainty for me to wear. I have hands like my father, so I have always worn it on a chain.”

  “Was it her wedding band?” he asked. “I’ve never seen one in ivory before.”

  “No!” Lina laughed. “It is the ring that all who serve the Duke and Duchess of Egeskov wear. Legend says it brings long life. They call it a selkie ring since it is made of narwhal ivory.”

  “Selkies? The seal mermaids?” Hal gasped with a flash of insight.

  “That’s what legends tell us.” Lina smiled. “She was given it by her mother, my great-great-grandmother who was said to be a selkie herself.”

  “We seem to be living with all kinds of legends these days,” Hal said, shaking his head. “Hey! You want to see something freaky?” he asked Lina with a rush.

  “Freaky? I’m not sure I can handle too many more ‘freaky’ things right now,” she said and then sighed.

  “You’ll like this, Lina!” Hal laughed as he went over to a bookshelf under the radio set and pulled out a small photo album and brought it over to her. He flipped quickly through some pages and then turned it toward her. His thumb held down a page as he showed Lina a picture of his much younger self standing with an old woman in a blue hooded sweatshirt. What made the picture interesting was the statue of the Little Mermaid behind them.

  “That’s a picture of my Nana and me in Copenhagen. She lived on Jutland, but we went to Copenhagen just to see the Little Mermaid statue.”

  “So your family is Danish?” Lina smiled.

  “Oh yes!” Hal beamed. “We’re descended from Danish kings!”

  “Really?” Lina laughed. “So you are Prince Hal of Denmark?”

  “No, we’re the scandalous descendants of Prince Valdemar and a servant girl, before he became King Valdemar the first. When he found out she was pregnant, he gave her poor father, a local fisherman, a very grand fishing boat and a fine little cottage on a nice plot of land for the mother and baby to live in. That is how the Thorson family became captains of the sea.”

  “Sounds exciting,” she said, and smiled. “Wait until your grandmother hears about Pearl’s little family secret.”

  “She’s gone now. Both of my grandparents are. They had my dad and Uncle Halder late in life because of the war. She left me the cottage though, and my dad owns the family fleet of fishing boats, which he rents out.”

  “It sounds like you have quite a family history.”

  “Yeah.” He smiled. “I guess we really do. My grandparents moved to the United States after World War II and Granddad worked on big fishing boats all along the west coast from Oregon to Alaska. Dad and Uncle Halder were born in Seattle, just like me. My grandparents moved back to Denmark after my great-grandparents died because they had left Nana their fishing fleet and the cottage.”

  “My uncle and my dad stayed in Seattle to finish their college degrees at the
University of Washington, which is where my dad met my mom,” Hal continued. “I was born while he was still writing his thesis, and then he got a grant to research and map the deep ocean trenches of the Atlantic Ridge between the Faeroe Islands and Canada. I guess Mom said something like, it would be a cold day in hell before she went to live on a rock near

  anything named Iceland. So they split up. But my Uncle Halder worked with my dad; they did their research together. After my uncle died—or I guess now, didn’t die—Dad got sudden pangs for family ties and took a job teaching back at the University of Washington so he could see me.”

  “Where is your mother now?” Lina asked.

  “On the road. I was still little when she moved in with a musician. They formed a band and she dropped me off at my dad’s one day, and said, ‘Tag you’re it,’ and she’s been traveling ever since.”

  “How often do you see her?”

  “Whenever she needs money she shows up on my dad’s doorstep with a lame excuse, stays a couple of days, and then leaves again. It’s been a few years now. The last time was right after my dad got the offer to join Dolphin Quest. She read about it in the papers and came to Hawaii to hit him up for a big chunk of money.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lina soothed as she reached out and gave his hand a squeeze.

  “Don’t be.” Hal shrugged. “Going from Seattle, where it’s too rainy to do anything, to Hawaii, where you can swim, surf, and sail year ’round, gave me so much to do, I didn’t have time to miss her. My Aunt Amy and Uncle Randy have us over for all the holidays, since Dad can’t cook at all, and they really know how to make things special.”

  “So your mother has a sister or a brother?” Lina asked.

  “No, they’re really just my godparents. But wait until their kids, Zack and Jessie, hear about Pearl! Zack is like my brother, and he’s going to be jealous like you wouldn’t believe! Amy and Randy used to work with my dad and my uncle so we all practically live in the water. Jessie could swim before she

  could walk, and she’ll think it’s awesome that I have a mermaid for a cousin.” He beamed back at Lina as she rolled the ring between her fingers.

  “Can I see that ring for a second?” he asked softly.

  “Of course, dear,” Lina replied as she slipped the chain from around her neck and handed it to him.

  “Wow, real narwhal tusk. It feels so warm and smooth. How old is this ring?”

  “At least four hundred years,” Lina said proudly.

  “Probably about as old as that turtle in your picture,” Hal muttered thoughtfully. “If Pearl can talk to turtles and dolphins, do you think she can talk to narwhals? They have narwhals up in the Faeroe Islands, don’t they?”

  “Yes, they do!” Lina laughed, charmed by his excitement.

  “I’ve always wanted to see one of them. There is this incredible narwhal tusk in the little museum in Victoria, British Columbia. I can’t imagine seeing that horn growing out of the head of a living whale.”

  “I think you’ll see as many of them as you want in the Faeroes. The local legend says Queen Helmi has her castle beneath Little Ditma Island where she helps to birth the calves in the spring and tends the wounds of all the whales that survive the grind.”

  “I’ve read about that. It’s the annual harvest of the whales in the Faeroes.”

  “Yes. It is very bloody and savage, as many of the old ways are. But it seems to me and most people that many things were better in the old days, so we Faeroese are reluctant to abandon our traditions.”

  Back and Forth

  Pearl practiced the water wave trick for the rest of the day in the cove of the Turtle King’s Island. She got really good at it and it gave her time to talk to the swimming cormorants and marine iguanas. None of them had any idea how special they were. Unfortunately, after she told them they were the only breed of their kind that did what they did, it gave them swelled heads. The swimming cormorants, who could observe several varieties of flying birds on the island, had no idea that at one time their kind could fly. It really brought home the old saying, “Use it or lose it.”

  Echo seemed very happy to be back in her role as personal hairdresser to the princess. She’d begun choosing hairstyles for Pearl without even being asked. She styled Pearl’s hair neatly pulled back and out of the way as Pearl practiced hard at using her mermaid powers and transforming between her tail and her legs. Pearl found it very comforting to know that she could do that. It meant that somehow, someday, she could reconnect with her parents, and that thought helped to calm her tears and not send every sea creature around her into distress.

  The Turtle King said it would take a good part of the day for the whales to sing a message to her grandmother, so she had plenty of time to practice her new skills. By the time the sun began to set, Pearl was pretty exhausted so she took Sandy’s suggestion and curled up on her back to sleep as they began their swim up to the Panama Canal.

  Enter the Real Prince Charming

  Halder and his brother Holger had landed the grant of a lifetime from the Gaia Foundation based on their doctorial theses. They were mounting the largest oceanographic topography expedition ever funded to map the Mid Atlantic Ridge between the Faeroe Islands and Canada. Halder had just spent the day organizing berth space in several ships at the dock and local accommodations for himself, his brother, and the crew of scientists that would arrive within the next week.

  He was tired and hungry and needed a drink and some good conversation. He’d asked around for the best hotel in Tórshavn, the small capital city of the Faeroe Islands, and headed toward it. He never expected to walk in and see the most beautiful woman in the world.

  “Who is that woman sitting over there?” Halder asked the bartender.

  “That’s not for the likes of you, young man. That is the Duchess of Egeskov,” the bartender said, glaring at him.

  “Who’s the duke?”

  “There is no duke at the moment. Her father passed some time ago.”

  “Well, I should at least pay my respects, don’t you think?” Halder smiled as he slipped off his barstool and headed over toward Miranda.

  “Now don’t you go bothering the duchess, or I’ll have you thrown out on your keester!” the bartender hollered after him.

  Of course, Miranda and half the patrons heard the bartender. She turned her eyes toward the voice and saw the tall, tan, auburn-haired Halder with truck driver shoulders and a swimmer’s waist, sauntering over to her.

  “Pardon my impudence, miss, but a man has to pay homage to a regal beauty like you, no matter what the consequences,” Halder quipped, flashing a smile that carved dimples deep in his cheeks.

  Half the men in the bar stood up, clenching their fists, and half of them were as tall or taller than Halder’s six foot two, lean muscular frame.

  “Pardon is what a prisoner asks a judge to keep from going to jail, not what he asks a lady in public.” Miranda’s voice rolled off her tongue like liquid honey as she raised an appraising eyebrow and gave him just a hint of a smile.

  “Well …” Halder paused impishly to consider her answer and then gave her an impudent wink. “I understand you hold the title of duchess, and I have the title of doctor, so that should at least give me the right to buy you a drink.”

  “Son,” a tall and rugged looking islander stepped forward, “you’d better back up and leave the duchess alone if you want to walk out of here on your own.”

  Miranda’s reaction to that was to toss her head back and laugh loud and lusciously as her blonde hair cascaded down the back of her chair almost to the floor. “Gurnard, you make it sound as if I’m some Mafia princess in an American movie. Relax. Besides,” and she turned her iridescent eyes on Halder in a way that made his knees a go weak. “I’m curious to know what kind of doctor has bedside manners like his.” She smiled up at the islander and patted his forearm, then turned to look at Halder once more. “So, Doctor Who—just what kind of doctor are you?”

  “Dr. Halder D.
Thorson, at your service, miss. I hold two doctorates. I’m a marine mammal veterinarian, and I also hold a doctorate in oceanographic topography. I’m here on a grant to map the Mid Atlantic Ridge from the Faeroes to Canada.” As he finished speaking, he tossed back his drink with a nervous gulp.

  “Well, I haven’t much use for mapmakers,” Miranda said with a shrug. “They always exaggerate the size of things.” That gave the men around the room a good snicker. “But any man who takes care of sick seals, whales, and dolphins can’t be all bad.” She gave him one of her prettiest smiles. “So sit down and tell the bartender what you want to drink. It’s on the house.”

  “Oh no, the deal is I get to buy you a drink.” Halder wagged his finger at her as he pulled up a chair.

  “Well, I own this inn, so that won’t impress me at all, but there’s always the Marco Polo Restaurant down the street if your wallet is as thick as your head,” she countered sweetly.

  “Lead the way, Your Grace.” Halder stood up and indicated the door. “I’d buy you the moon if it had a price tag.”

  Miranda stood up with a laugh and addressed the room. “Stand back, gentlemen! I think you’re going to see some hefty swaggering. Just look at those boots!” She winked and pointed to Halder’s cowboy boots. Then she turned and walked out the door without so much as a glance behind her.

  Halder took a step toward the door to follow, only to be blocked by Gurnard’s large forearm. “Mind your manners, young man, ’cause we’ll all be watching.”