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The darkness closed in around Nara, but the sound of the ocean remained. As it had the night before, it pushed at her senses, and she could not hear the whisper of the jade. The longer it continued, the more frightening it became. No matter how tightly she squeezed her sword, it would not light up, and the fear threatened to overwhelm her. She sheathed it and put her hands to her chest.
She dragged in a slow, deep breath and then blew out softly, listening to the sound of it across her lips. The ocean was above her and around her. That was the reason she could hear it. It was not with her; it was not inside her. She dragged in another breath, tasting the salty air, so different to what she had tasted above—or wherever the town was that she had been in. There, she could only sense dust and emptiness. A dry and desolate world.
“Why would you go to such a place when you have this?” she asked the darkness. The Mer was close, even if it could not be seen. Nara thought of Marina talking to nothing in the courtyard and the gentle hissing responses. Nara had not seen the Mer there, and yet she had been there. Perhaps these worlds were connected by more than the house, more than a room that led to another world.
“There is little left,” the hissing voice replied from the dark.
“You came to steal from us?”
“Steal?” Her voice was icy, making Nara shiver. “You do not mention what your people take from the ocean.”
“Do you feed on fish?”
Silence followed. Was this Mer claiming that they only took men because there were not enough fish to go around? They had been hunters long before they became something that Nara and Haven hunted. They were designed to kill and destroy men. Men.
“Where are the women?” Nara asked.
“What women?” the Mer replied, as though she had not considered them.
“The women of the town—the women the men gave to you.”
“They gave us nothing!” the Mer growled, the candles flaring to life with her words. She was within reach of Nara, just before her despite the sword in her hand and the magic making it glow. The ocean swelled in Nara’s ears again, driving her to her knees.
“Stop,” she whimpered, but the noise only grew louder, as though waves crashed against her mind. “There are no women in the town,” she continued, trying to find her voice above the crash of the ocean.
“Of course there are,” the Mer hissed. When Nara glanced up, the Mer’s grin widened to reveal her sharp teeth. It made her shiver, and it made her worry all the more for Haven. “You have not looked,” she said, her iridescent skin rippling between silver and green. The movement along with the sound swelling in Nara’s head made her feel ill.
She needed to get out of this house, back to the dry town on the surface and Haven. She was never going to be strong enough to finish any of this on her own. She could not do this without Haven.
They always worked together, she thought as she curled into a ball. The sound rushed over her, and for a moment she thought she was lost beneath the waves and drowning. It was hard to breathe, hard to focus. The moment she opened her eyes, the movement of the scales or the light over the scales of the Mer now leaning over her was just as sickening. She was sure that she would die here in this moment, beneath the waves and far from Haven. Far from any resolution as to why they lived as they did.
Something sounded in the distance, like a door or a bang, and the Mer over her stood up and walked away. The candles flickered, and the sound of the ocean died down a little although it was still there, as though she would be lost to the waves forever. Nara wondered if she would still hear it in her next life.
She felt ill, as though the world had turned her upside down beneath the ocean and the waves were tossing her about. A soft hand rested on her shoulder. She opened her eyes in surprise, unable to hear anyone approach over the sound of the waves. It was not the Mer nor Marina, but the child. She was solid, not a spectre, as she gently shook Nara and motioned for her to stand up. It was hard enough to sit, let alone stand, as she tried to stop her head from spinning and her stomach retching. There was nothing in there to come back up, and yet she feared it very likely.
“Help,” the child whispered. Nara was about to ask what she needed help with when a woman dressed in a white nightgown stepped forward and helped Nara to her feet. Hooking her arm under Nara’s, she moved too quickly towards the door. Nara’s feet faltered, and she tumbled forward. The woman’s hold kept her upright, but not enough to prevent her knees from hitting the ground.
The child appeared frustrated and waved them forward as Nara put more weight onto the hold of the woman beside her, and using the sword in her hand as leverage, stood again. They stepped out into the strange courtyard. The sun appeared warmer out here than in the cool house, and although it was not shining from above, it still seemed to come from the water that flowed around them. The two large shadows crossed again before Nara on the gravel of the courtyard, and she stopped. They were watching—everyone was watching her—and although the child and the woman she had not really taken in appeared to be human, Nara had no idea of anything other than the sound in her head.
She put a hand to her ear, and it made no difference at all other than to amplify the crashing sound, somewhat like holding up a shell.
“We help,” the child said, not looking at her but across the courtyard to the far wall and the dried remains of a garden. In the far corner was what appeared to be a narrow well. The rock formation was rough and only stood a couple of feet above the ground. A wooden lid sat in place over it. If it contained any water, she had no idea how it would be pulled from the well, for there was no bucket, no rope, no pully system at all. The women from the kitchen had collected water from the nearby river in her first life. Carrying the heavy wooden pails from the river back up the slope of the bank and across the meadows. Any water they used had come this way.
Now they were surrounded by it, Nara thought, looking up again—but salt. It was all salt. And where she had left Haven, there was none. Was this how they managed to survive?
She leaned into the woman beside her, and the sound of the lid scraping across the stones seemed to bring her back to her senses. Would there be fresh water all the way down here beneath the ocean? She leaned forward to look into the well and then, with a heavy nudge from behind, she tipped forward. Slipping her sword into the sheath, she used both hands to hold on to the wall of the well and prevent herself from slipping into the darkness. In the distance, silver shone like the moon, but she had the feeling it was not water.
“Go,” the child hissed, reminding her of the Mer in the candlelight. As Nara turned towards her, certain she was human, the woman behind her shoved her forward, and she tipped over and down into the well.
She would have screamed, but the darkness stole it from her. She expected to hit against the rough stone walls, but the space had opened around her. Before she could cry out, she splashed into clear water, the light almost overwhelming after the short intense darkness. She looked up, unable to see where she had come from.
The water was dragging her down, deeper and deeper, and she could not breathe. The little breath she did have was escaping in bubbles that seemed to hover around her, and she had no idea which way was up and which was down.
Nara was certain she was going to drown. The pull of the water frightened her as water seeped into her lungs. The darkness surrounded her, and as she dragged in a ragged breath, she realised she was on the wet, hard floor of a cave. Or so it appeared as she rolled over onto her stomach, heaving up the water that had tried to take her. Her eyes stung, her body ached, and she wondered just how much of the wall of the well she might have hit. She sucked in another deep breath, feeling the water around her, the salt in the air.
She sat up, drawing in more air, her hands on her thighs. Looking out at the water that appeared like a wall before her. A fish swam up, looked, and then swam away in a quick twitchy moment.
Another swam towards the wall, only it did not appear to slow, and then it was splashing through and into the cave. Nara backed up so it did not land on her. As a face broke through the wall, she bit down on the scream. Only to have it escape as she backed into something just as wet and smooth—not a rock, she was sure as strong arms closed around her and a hand covered her mouth.
She reached for her sword, but the strong hand moved to close around her arms with surprising speed. She was trapped against a Mer while another stood before her. She tried to relax as much as she could, to show she wasn’t fighting them, wasn’t a threat. The hand moved slowly from her mouth, although not from around her arms.
“Since when did Mer start taking women?” she asked, hoping her voice did not sound as shaky as she felt.
“As long as Mer have been taking men,” the voice behind her hissed. But it was not menacing, rather soft and comforting, and Nara realised it belonged to a man. Or at least a male Mer. Was that possible? She had only ever heard of female Mer, and that was all she had seen. Fear tickled at the back of her neck. She was alone with those that would try to take from her, and Haven was too far away to even know she was there.
The Mer before her gave a subtle shake of her head, and she was released instantly. She felt for the stones as she pulled her sword free. She would not know what to do without her jade, but then it was the one thing she could not clearly remember—how many she had, from one life to the next. She knew it was different, but she did not know the number she should have.
And Haven had given her one, a black stone filled with sorrow that had become one of hers without a hint of magic, without either of them understanding how such a thing could happen.
“Where am I?” she asked, but she knew it was not the question she needed to ask. It was not the most important thing. “Why am I here?” she said before either of them could answer. Not that they appeared ready to do so. They stood closer together.
He was a head taller than the other, although they were both tall. Both towered over Nara as Haven did, but there was no sense of safety here, no feeling that these Mer wanted anything other than to harm her, eat her, or worse—turn her into something like the woman she had seen. A servant of sorts, perhaps. Her hand closed around the bag of stones, and yet she could only hear the ocean.
The Mer who had been holding her reached out a hand and, although she flinched away, it contained a stone. The deepest blue of the ocean, the same colour as Haven’s eyes. She wanted to reach out and take it, as though for the first time the jade whispered to her to do just that, and yet she could not trust the feeling.
He bowed his head. And the Mer beside him appeared somewhat frustrated. She looked to the rock and nodded. Instead of reaching for it, Nara drew her sword, and the blade lit up.
“Please,” he said, the word taking her by surprise, and she allowed the light to go out in the sword. Holding it at the ready, she reached forward with her left hand and plucked the stone from his hand.
She closed her fist around it and breathed it in, the salt, the water. She could almost feel the slippery silver scales of the two Mer before her in the stone itself. The water appeared to be talking, whispering in its own way, and then fell silent. The rush of relief brought tears to her eyes.
She opened her hand, and the bright blue had turned to the same dull green of the jade. She slipped it into the pouch with the others. “Thank you,” she said. The relief at the silence in her head made her smile, and the two before her smiled back. She was reminded of the fear she should be feeling when they exposed sharp pointed teeth.
“Why?” she asked again, sure that they would not give her any reasonable response.
“Because we...”
“No,” he said, his voice echoing through the cavern. The water wall shimmered and rippled.
“Did you ask them to send me here?” Nara asked instead, thinking of the child and the woman as she wondered if they could somehow move between the different worlds. They were in the town; she had seen them. Haven had seen them. And they had disappeared, and then they were here. Haven had thought them spectres, but Nara imagined they were something very different.
“They do not heed our requests,” the Mer said—the woman, her voice clear with a slight hiss like the others, like all of them but Marina.
“Do they follow Marina’s instruction?” Nara asked, and they both hissed loudly at the name.
“She is not what she was,” the male Mer hissed angrily, and Nara’s hand tightened around the sword.
“We will not hurt you,” the Mer said.
“I do not believe you,” Nara replied.
For the first time, he turned his back on her, walking a little deeper into the cavern. It was wet and dark, and there was no indication that anyone else visited the space.
“Are you going to leave me here?” Nara asked.
“For the moment, it is the safest place for you,” the Mer said, but she was looking at the back of the Mer who had walked away from her.
“You will give me back to Marina,” Nara said.
“That creature has given up too much of the sea,” the male Mer growled.
“She is Mer.”
“She is not,” the Mer responded, but she sounded sad. “She gave it up, as she gave up the ocean for the idea of a better life.”
“A better life?” Nara asked sceptically. “A Mer is strong and rules the oceans. What could be better?”
“Ruling the land,” he said, turning back to her.
“She will never have such an opportunity. She lives in a dry and dying town.”
“Dry?” he asked, looking at the other Mer.
“Without water,” Nara said.
He laughed then, an odd sound, like the waves and smashing glass all at the same time. It echoed around the cavern.
“The rain,” Nara said softly.
“Mer are never without water.”
“And salt?” she asked.
He sighed then and walked toward the wall of water. Something struck at Nara, like fear that she would be left alone.
“Why does she think she can do that? Why is she different?” The words tumbled from her nervous lips.
“That is not the question,” the Mer said as she nodded once. The male Mer slipped through the curtain of water and disappeared in a silver flash into the blue.
“I don’t understand,” Nara said.
“No, and you may not in this life of yours.”
Nara opened her mouth to ask if the Mer knew who she was and why she and Haven were living as they were over and over. They had met Mer before, and the creatures had not seemed to understand what they were. But the words were not quick enough as the Mer followed the other and disappeared into the ocean beyond the curtain of water.
Nara moved to the edge and looked out, but she could not tell where the surface might be, nor how she had come to be where she was. There was no sign of land or anything else for as far as she could see. She wondered how far away she was from the house with the well and the link back to the town where Haven was. And if he was searching for her. Or did he trust the idea that they had to work alone? She stepped back and ran her hand over her wet hair.
She shivered, only just then realising how cold and wet she was. Soaked to the bone, as she has been submerged in the ocean so completely and nearly long enough to drown. There was no way she was finding a way out of this without the Mer. She looked over the sword still in her hand, the pale blue light making the cavern look even more frightening, and then she looked back into the ocean, wondering what else might be living in here.
If only there was something she could set light to. If only she had Haven’s flint. She hoped he had managed to hold on to it. She sheathed the sword and poured the stones out into her hand. She had been in this life only a matter of days, and already she had two new stones. She had never been given stones before. She squeezed them tight in her hand and closed her eyes. So many memories, so much from five lifetimes ago that was as clear as though it had happened yesterday, and yet no memory of stones—of being gifted stones. Not from Haven, not from anyone else. Could this be the first time? Could this mark a change?
The relief still lingered that the sound of the ocean had stopped in her ears, even though she was beneath it. And then something called, something like the ocean that was not pulled at her senses. Haven had hummed or sang, and that had helped. That had countered the sounds of the waves, and yet they had returned. Nara wondered, if she managed to find her way out from beneath the ocean, if it would return, calling to her in some way.
As it called now. Something from the stones told her she had to go into the cavern. She knew it was a bad idea, but it was a calling she had to follow. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, lit the sword again, and walked into the cavern lost beneath the ocean.