by Liz Kessler
And here I was, sitting crying on a box, unable to do anything to help her.
I couldn’t bear it.
“Emily?”
I swiped an arm across my wet face and looked up. Sam.
“What do you want?” I snapped.
He sat down beside me. “I wanted to see if you’re all right,” he said softly.
“What do you think?” I mumbled. “Do I look all right?”
Sam didn’t reply for a while. We sat together, the sun now beating down on our backs, the water gurgling below us as it swirled around the rudder. The breeze whistled through the folded sails.
“It’s all done now,” Sam said eventually.
“What’s all done?”
“The mermaid. It’s back in water.”
“Yeah. I saw.”
I looked at him. There was something in his voice, something about the way he was talking to me. Like he was trying to tell me something, but without the actual words. What was it?
Who cared? He was a pirate, like his horrible family. Whatever he said, he was just like the rest of them. He’d been brought up to hate mermaids.
It.
“I can’t stay here,” I said.
“You want to go below deck?”
I shook my head. “On the ship,” I said.
As soon as I said the words, I realized how much I meant them. I’d never said anything I’d meant more. I couldn’t spend another minute in the company of these people. I could never tell Sam the truth about what I was, and that meant that everything about being here was a lie. If Sam knew what I was, once he’d gotten over the disgust, he’d just trade me to get one over on his brother and even up in their contest.
But it wasn’t just that. Being around all this unspoken hatred and disgust was almost making me feel ashamed of myself. Like I was something disgusting. I couldn’t let them do that to me.
I stood up. “I need to leave.”
Sam got up and stood in front of me. “You can’t go,” he said, his voice raw, almost a whisper.
“Why not?” I challenged him.
Sam waited till I looked at him before replying. “It’s not safe,” he said.
“What do you mean? What’s not safe?”
“For . . .” His face reddened. “For you,” he said eventually.
“For me? Because I’m your prisoner?” I blurted out, anger making me braver. “I don’t care about that anymore. I have more to worry about than my own safety. Don’t you get that? No. Of course you don’t get it. You don’t get anything. You don’t know anything about me, and you never will.”
I turned and started to walk away.
Sam grabbed my arm. “Stop!” he said.
I wheeled around to face him. My face right up close to his, I hissed my reply through my teeth. “Make me. Hold me prisoner again. Put me back in that room. Act like a real pirate. Like the pirate you really are. Just like them.”
“Emily,” Sam hissed back. “Listen to me. I’m not like them, and I don’t want to hold you prisoner. I want to protect you.”
“Protect me?” I laughed in his face. My anger making me braver — or more stupid — by the moment, I added, “You wouldn’t say that if you knew who I really was.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you!” Sam said. “I do know. I know exactly who you are! That’s why I want to protect you.”
“What do you know?” I asked. I stopped breathing while I waited for his reply.
Sam let go of my arm. He held my eyes. Neither of us moved, looked away, or even blinked. “I know,” he said, his voice a whisper barely louder than the breeze. “I saw you.”
“You saw me? When?” I managed to squeeze the words out through a throat that felt about as thin as a sand eel.
“When you came back on the ship with the crystal. I saw . . . your tail. I know you’re a mermaid.”
I couldn’t speak. He knew. He knew all along. He’d been biding his time, and now was his chance. He could throw me in a cage like Shona and be even with his brother. It was all over. I looked down at the floor.
Sam touched my chin, lifted it back up. “Emily, listen to me,” he said.
I looked into his eyes. I could feel my mouth start to wobble.
Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry.
“I don’t care,” he said.
I frowned. “I don’t believe you.”
“I promise you,” he said. “It doesn’t change a thing.”
“It changes everything,” I mumbled. “You hate mermaids. Your family hates them. We’re evil; we’re bad luck — we’re something to capture to show others how tough you are.”
“Emily, stop it! Mermaids are none of those things. I’ve never liked hearing my family talk about mermaids in that way. I’ve just put up with it and acted as though I felt the same way. But I don’t.”
I stared into his eyes, trying to find the lie he was telling me. I couldn’t see one.
“And no matter what, I could never see you as evil or bad luck, or anything horrible like that.”
“Why not?” I whispered.
Sam smiled. As he did, I felt my anger start to crumble, my fear start to subside, my outside layer open up to him.
“Because it’s you,” he said simply.
I couldn’t speak. I could barely look at him. His words were melting me. His eyes were boring into me. I felt exposed and confused.
Sam’s hand was still touching my face. “You believe me, don’t you?” he said. He moved a step closer. There was barely any space between us now.
“I . . .”
“We’re the same, you and I,” he went on.
“The same?” Even despite everything, I laughed. “How on earth do you figure that?”
“Always busy trying to do what others want us to do. Knowing we’re different from how others see us, but always afraid to show who we really are.”
I stared at him. “But who I am . . . is a mermaid,” I whispered.
Sam smiled again. “Who you are is you,” he replied. “And you’re amazing.”
I laughed, mainly to hide my embarrassment. I shook my head, and he let his hand fall back down to his side.
“It’s true,” he went on. “You and I, we’re a team, and teammates look after each other.”
“Shona’s my team, too,” I said, biting my lip as I watched his face.
“Shona?” he asked. “Who’s — oh. The . . . mermaid?”
I nodded. I could feel my eyes sting again. “She’s my best friend,” I managed to squeeze out.
Sam exhaled. “OK,” he said carefully.
“So, if you really understand me as well as you think you do, then you’ll know what I have to do.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I think I do.”
I moved to turn away from him. “And if you understand, you won’t try to stop me.”
“Emily, wait!”
“I have to save her, Sam. I can’t just stand by.”
“I know. I know. But — look. If you go now, they’ll catch you too. Everyone’s out on deck; everyone’s looking. What use will you be to your friend if you just get thrown in a cage with her?”
“I . . .”
“We need to do this carefully, think it through. We need to make a plan.”
“We?”
“Emily, when are you going to get it? We’re in this together. You and I. You’ve helped me. And now I’m going to help you. That’s how it works.”
“Even though I’m a mermaid?” I asked.
Sam laughed. “Especially because you’re a mermaid. Emily, you’ve already helped me realize about a hundred ways that I don’t want to be like the rest of my family. Their . . . mer-phobia? That’s just another one.”
Sam sat down on the box and patted the space next to him. “Now, are you going to join me in figuring out how to rescue your friend, or am I going to have to figure it out on my own?”
I couldn’t speak for a moment. My throat was clogged up with emotion. Instead, I sat do
wn beside him, and together, we began to form a plan.
It was an hour later and I was ready to go.
Noah’s ship had moved farther out into the bay. We’d watched the crew gloating as they sailed away: striding around, punching the air with their fists, partying, and throwing trash overboard.
“Ready?” Sam was by my side.
I nodded. Something jagged was clogging my throat.
We’d agreed that Sam would come up with an excuse to gather his crew together at the bow of the ship for a meeting. If anyone asked where I was, he’d tell them I was busy inside with some research he’d asked me to do.
While they were all distracted, I would jump off the stern, swim to Noah’s ship, find Shona, and hopefully discover a way to free her from her cage. If I couldn’t manage it, at least I’d be able to let her know that she wasn’t on her own. I was here, Sam was on our side, and neither of us would give up on her. We’d get her out of there.
“Good luck,” Sam said roughly. He stood there, by my side, for another half a minute without saying anything.
I turned to him. My face was a hairbreadth away from his. “What?” I asked.
He leaned forward and whispered, “This.”
Then he kissed me.
Almost immediately, he turned away. As he went to call his meeting, I shook myself and tried to get ready to jump off the boat to go rescue Shona, but my mind was racing.
What had just happened? Had Sam actually done that? And had I really let him?
He just wanted to wish me luck. It didn’t mean anything. And I didn’t even like it.
Maybe if I told myself the same thing enough times, I might believe it.
This was it. Everyone was busy; no one was looking: it was time to go.
I clambered down the ladder attached to the back of the ship. It took me to just above the water level.
One last look. All clear.
As softly and quietly as I could, I let go with one hand, leaned as far down as possible — and jumped.
I landed in the water with a small splash and turned to swim straight down. I dived lower and lower, kicking with my legs and reaching wide with my arms.
As I neared the sandy seabed, I could feel the change spreading through my body. I stopped holding my breath as I felt gills take over the job of being underwater. I stopped kicking my legs as they stiffened and straightened and turned into a tail.
And I stopped worrying about the world above the water. I looked down at my mermaid body. I was ready. I had a job to do.
I flicked my tail and swam toward Noah’s ship.
“Shona! Are you there? Can you hear me?”
I’d reached Noah’s ship and called through the water as I swam around it, looking for her cage.
And then I saw it — right at the back of the ship. A long chain leading down to a cage. The cage was way below me, deep down, almost on the seabed.
I flipped over and dived down.
I could see her! Just a bit farther below me.
“Shona!” I wanted to scream with relief. I wanted to hug her tighter than I’d ever held anything. But I couldn’t, as she was still inside the cage. It was bouncing gently on the seabed, swaying with the current.
I swam down to the bars that surrounded her.
“Emily!” Shona swam up to the side of the cage and poked her arms through the tiny gaps.
I took both of her hands in mine. “Shona! Are you OK? Are you hurt?” I asked.
“I’m fine. Honestly. Just a bit shaken.” I could see Shona’s eyes had filled with tears — but I could also see she was trying to be brave, so I didn’t mention it.
“What happened? How did they catch you? Were you with my dad? What did they do to you?” The questions burbled out of me in a mangled mess.
“They caught me yesterday,” Shona said. “We stayed another night at the island after you’d gone. Then, yesterday afternoon, we swam to where Neptune’s transportation was supposed to meet us, but we couldn’t find the chariot. Your dad went off to see if he could find out what was happening. He told me to stay where I was in case it came. While I was swimming above the water, looking around, the ship came by.”
“Oh, Shona!”
She went on, her voice numb, almost lifeless. “I saw Aaron on board so didn’t think I was in danger, but in about a second, I was trapped. They grabbed me and bundled me into a cage before I knew what was going on.”
“Did my dad come back?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t see him again. I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t know if he got away, if he found Neptune’s chariot, or what.”
Shona looked like she was seriously going to cry now. Well, she’d looked like she was going to cry the whole time we’d been talking. Now she looked like she was going to collapse in a crumpled heap and cry till she’d raised the sea level with her tears.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I said. “I promise.”
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Shona asked. “Did you get captured, too?”
Where was I supposed to start? “I’ll explain everything when we’ve got more time,” I said. “But I’m here to help — and right now, you are my priority.”
Shona let go of my hands and pulled at the bars of the cage. “This thing is locked solid. I don’t know how we’ll manage it.”
I swam around the cage, studying it from every angle, looking for a weak link. “There’s got to be a way of getting it open,” I murmured as I swam. “We have to get you out of here before they come for you.”
Shona opened her mouth to say something else. Then she stopped.
“Shona, what is it? Are you OK?”
She nodded. “I have to tell you something,” she said. “I don’t want to. I wish it weren’t true. But you need to know.”
Shona looked so upset I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she was going to say.
“It’s OK,” I said. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
She hesitated for a moment. Then in a quiet voice, she said, “It’s Aaron. He’s changed. I think Noah has turned him.”
I dropped my head. “I saw him with Noah,” I said. “I didn’t want to believe what I was seeing.”
“I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen and heard him for myself when they pulled my cage up to check on me,” Shona agreed. “I thought he must be pretending, but the way he’s been laughing and joking with them, I’m just not sure.”
Even though I’d seen for myself that what Shona was saying was true, I could still barely believe it. It was unthinkable; it was horrendous; it was —
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The cage was moving!
“Emily! They’re pulling me up!” Shona’s face was white.
She swam around and around in her cage as I looked for a way to get it open. “Hurry!” she begged.
“I’m trying,” I said, pulling and yanking uselessly on a padlock that held a bolt across the door. “I just can’t see how to get you out of this thing. Shona, I don’t know what to do!”
The cage rose higher and higher.
“Maybe I could try to squeeze through the bars,” Shona suggested. “If I go arms first, you could pull me, and I’ll swish hard with my tail and —”
“Shona, you’ll never get your head through them. The gaps are only a tiny bit wider than your arms. You’ll get stuck, and then we’ll be in even more —”
CLANK! CLANK!
Shona fell on the floor as the cage tipped and jerked upward.
I swam up alongside her. We were nearly at the surface now.
“Emily, please! Do something!”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Shona.
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “None of this is your fault. OK?”
I fought back a tear as I nodded. The cage clanked upward again. One last jolt and it broke through the surface of the water.
I had nothing to lose. Shona was all that mattered now. If she was being tra
nsferred to the pirate king’s ship, they could take me with her.
Steeling myself for whatever was about to happen, I flicked my tail, swam as hard as I could, and broke through the water to face our captors.
“Aaron!”
Aaron was leaning over the back deck of the ship, hauling on the winch that had lifted the cage up.
He spun around toward me. He looked as shocked to see me as I was horrified to see him.
“Emily! What are you doing here?” he asked.
“What am I doing? What am —?” I could barely speak. “How could you?” I burst out. “How could you do it, Aaron?”
Aaron glanced around, then locked off the winch and came to the edge of the deck. “Do what?” he asked in a whisper.
“Join Noah! Become one of his crew. Please, please, tell me I’ve got it wrong.”
Aaron stared at me. His eyes turned from shock to anger, then — I didn’t know what. Hurt?
“Surely you know me better than that!” he hissed.
I flicked my tail to tread water. “I — I thought I did,” I replied. “I mean — I do. Of course I do. But it just looks so —”
“Convincing?” Aaron cut in. “That’s the whole point!”
Shona had swum to the top of the cage so her head was above water. Aaron looked down at her. His face was even paler than usual. “Shona, you didn’t actually think I’d joined Noah’s crew, did you?”
Shona flicked her head. Droplets of water sprinkled around her. “I . . . I didn’t want to. You just looked so happy and at home with them all. It looked so real.”
“Good!” Aaron said. “It was supposed to look real. I figured it was my only way to survive — or be of any use to you. It was either go undercover, pretend to be a convert, and cozy up with Noah, or be treated like a prisoner by one of the meanest men I’ve ever met.” He looked from Shona to me and back again. “Surely you know I’d never betray you guys? You’re my best friends in the world!”
I reached for his hand. “I’m sorry, Aaron. I should never have doubted you.”
