Dark Waters

Chapter 3

Down the watery street we swam. I was no longer being dragged behind Aelaria like the catch of the day, but kicking along beside her, arm in arm. As we swam, people stared at me and whispered after we had passed. Children darted out from behind stalls and rocks to follow us, laughing and tumbling around like puppies.

The end of the lane opened up from a market-meets-park area to a great city. Stately houses hewn of rough stone lined the lane. Some of the houses had seaweed curtains in their doorways, while others had wooden doors, some of the wooden ones inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The merpeople going in and out of the seaweed doors had little to no embellishments in their bodies, and simple undecorated knives rode on simple undecorated belts at their waists. Those who stood around the wooden-doored houses had more elaborate knives, with shells and coral inlaid on the handles, and fancy braiding and pearls on their belts. The women had beautiful hairpieces as well. As we passed down the street, Aelaria darted up to one house with a plain wooden door and took a knife off the windowsill. She belted it around her waist, where the single white pearl in the handle set off her pale skin very nicely. We kept swimming.

As I looked on, a well-off mother and young daughter swam past one of the poorer homes, where three children were playing with a tiny excitable fish. The little girl let go of her mother's hand briefly and swam towards the game. The other children opened their circle to let her in. They took turns blowing bubbles to the fish, until the mother called out "Lejaytah, time to go."

The little girl turned and thanked the other children for the game, then she did something that surprised me. She pulled a pearl-studded comb from her hair and offered it to the the leader of the little band of poor children. The mermaid bowed her head in thanks and accepted the gift with both hands outstretched. The rich little girl was now indistinguishable from the poor one, for the comb had been her only adornment. She darted away towards her mother and they continued on their walk (or swim).

Aelaria watched this exchange next to me with a calm expression.

"We teach our children charity and humility from a young age. They learn that by giving all they can to those who need it, and accepting graciously what they are given, they will achieve great happiness."

I was very quiet for several minutes. Judging by the reverence with which the poor girl fingered the teeth of her new comb, it was valuable and probably very precious to the rich child, yet she had given it away without a second thought. Further down the street, I could see it happening again and again. Poor children were giving their stone marbles to poorer children, and a grown mermaid with only a coral hairpin for her jewelry gave away her lovely bauble to a well-decorated merman whose bag of pearls (which I now gathered acted as both ornaments and currency) had just floated down a deep crack in the sea floor. Maybe if the whole world was like this, there would be more harmony.

Up ahead of us, a huge building towered. It was larger that any structure I had seen since leaving the surface, built with beautiful, fluid architecture that was reminiscent of seahorse tails and breaking waves. Two burly mermen with albone armour and shark-tooth spears guarded the grand double doors. Up to the entrance we swam, and Aelaria tugged my arm to bring me to a halt. The guards looked straight ahead without acknowledging us. Then one of them turned his head sharply in our direction. His green eyes were very piercing.

"Name?"

"Aelaria Iskapah-daughter, and Marin of the dry land." I felt the guard who had asked for names staring at my treading legs, and felt very self-conscious.

"Purpose?"

"To seek an audience with the council."

"Leave your knife," said the first guard, and the second one used his broad tail to swat a basket closer to us. Aelaria untied the belt at her waist and dropped to whole contraption into the basket. I raised my hands slightly in a pacifying motion when one of the guards glanced warily at me.

"Enter," said the first guard stiffly, "And don't make too much noise. Sound carries in there."

The two mermen turned in perfect synchronization and pulled open the immense double doors to reveal a marble entry hall. Behind a desk made of the same rough stone as the houses in the street sat a fussy mermaid with her hair pushed rather severely backwards with plain bone combs. Most of the mermaids wore their hair impossibly long, flowing and loose, with combs and pins to keep it out of their faces, but this one had shoved almost all of her mane backwards. The desk at which she sat was low and long, and there thin slabs of smooth rock scattered all over. Using a spine that appeared to have been removed from a blowfish and a tightly sealed jar of ink that looked like a squid's, the woman was making meticulous notes. She glanced up at us as we approached, but continued with her work for a minute or so after we approached the desk before looking up.

"Yes?" she said in a reedy, grating voice.

"We seek an audience with the council." said Aelaria clearly. The woman sniffed haughtily.

"The previous council session ended a while ago, so I shouldn't send you in now. But seeing as the circumstances appear to be a bit different," here she glanced over her desk to stare at my legs, "I suppose I will make an exception. Room forty-two B. Don't be all day about it."

And then we were off yet again, down the hallway that the woman had pointed to with her spiny quill.

The hallway circled the outside of the building, with tall windows at such close intervals that the outside was practically coming in. We followed the gentle upwards spiral, looking at the various doors for the number we had been sent to find. Once along the way, I ran out of air, and Aelaria had to blow another breath into my mouth. Losing air was terribly scary. Your lungs felt like they were collapsing in on themselves, and you suddenly became very aware of the thousands of gallons of water between you and the surface. I vowed never to let my lifeline, in the form of Aelaria, out of my sight for more than a few minutes.

I was slightly disoriented from nearly drowning again, so I didn't see the other figure rounding the curve of the hallway until we crashed into each other with an explosion of bubbles and people. I found myself somersaulting backwards several times before I came to a stop and looked up at one of the most handsome faces I had ever seen.

The merman was the definition of manly attractiveness. He had a rugged jawline and strikingly blue eyes, and his hair flowed ever so nicely around his head in the currents. His entire body was muscular and gorgeous, and it took me a minute to realize he was talking to me.

"Are you alright?" he asked, seeming sweetly and genuinely concerned.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," I replied, stumbling over my words. After a moment he tore his eyes away from my face and looked down at my legs (which I was getting really sick of people doing). He started and turned to give Aelaria an incredulous look. She nodded slowly, and I saw a whole unspoken conversation pass between them. Then the handsome merman turned back towards me.

"I'm very sorry. So sorry. Erm..." he trailed off uncomfortably, looking as though he wanted to stay a little longer.

"It's fine, I wasn't looking where I was going," I said. "My fault. I, uh... I'm Marin, by the way."

"Marin," he said, brightening. "What a beautiful name. I am Lanntryns. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He offered me his hand and pulled me to an upright position.

"Lanntryns. Thank you," I said, and trailed off again. "Well, I, uh, I'd better get going. Maybe I'll see you around."

"I hope so. Goodbye, Marin, Aelaria." He swam away. I shook my head to clear it and kicked along next to Aelaria. She gave me a sly look that, when given between friends, can only mean a single thing.

"Oh, be quiet," I said without conviction.

She chuckled. "Lanntryns," she said with mock loftiness, "is the Head Councillor's eldest son. He has a lot of power around here. You would do well to be nice to him, I think."

I smiled and looked over my shoulder at the direction Lanntryns had swum off in. "Don't worry, I will."