The Mermaid's Mirror - L. K. Madigan [58]
Her dad paced back and forth. "Please, Lena. Please trust me."
"Trust you?" She made a sound of disbelief. "Are you kidding?" She moved toward the door. "Fine. Mom will tell me."
Her dad grabbed her arm, then let go. "Wait." He stared inside the house, as if looking for answers. After a moment, without turning his gaze to Lena, he said quietly, "I was safe in the water as long as I was with her."
"What?"
"I was safe ... in the water..." He faced Lena. "...as long as I was with Lucy."
Lena looked at him in confusion.
"Your mother's parents—your grandparents—had found out about her plan to live on land, and they were ... not happy. That day we were headed to Lucy's village, before we ever got there, a group of mer-folk accosted us." He paused, remembering. "It was chaos. All of these voices in my head ... yelling ... threatening..."
"In your head?"
"That's how they communicate. In thoughts."
"Oh." Lena almost asked, In English? But she didn't want to interrupt again.
"Someone grabbed me and started to drag me away. Someone else—I think it was her mother—ordered Lucy to be restrained."
Lena swallowed. Her own mother?
"She pleaded to go with me, but they wouldn't let her. The only reason I'm alive today is that Lucy's brother—your uncle—followed the mermen who took me away. When they stripped the cloak off me and left me half-conscious in the water, he carried me to shore. He risked his own life to save mine."
"But—" said Lena. "Lucy got away later. How?"
"They tried to feed her lotus blossoms, to take away her memory, but she wouldn't eat them. She stopped eating entirely. Rather than watch her die, her parents allowed her to leave, finally."
Lena sat still and silent, trying to absorb this tale of love so tragic, it rivaled anything by Shakespeare. After a time, she said, "I still don't understand why you didn't go back to Magic's after she left us. I know the surf is rough, but you were a great surfer, right? Once she saw you again, she would've remembered."
He massaged his head, as if that old injury had flared to life. "That day ... that day under the water ... there were so many voices. But someone ... someone with power—I could feel the words in my head like thunder—someone swore that if I ever set foot in the sea again, they would destroy me."
"Who was it?"
He sighed. "I think ... it was your grandmother."
Lena shivered. "But how could she do that?"
"I don't know. I just know Lucy told me I was safe in the water as long as I was with her." Her dad stared sightlessly toward the sea, remembering. "Once I lost her, I was willing to risk my life to find her. But I couldn't."
He opened the sliding-glass door and paused, turning back to say, "I've never forgotten those words." He closed his eyes, chanting:
"Man, beware: I banish you from the sea.
The cold salt clasp is forbidden to you.
Death will be quick should you fail to heed me,
And those you love will die gasping in blue."
With a bitter sound, he added, "Their version of 'sleep with the fishes,' I guess." He stepped inside the house. "Do you understand now? You, and everyone else I love, are safe in the water ... as long as I stay out of it."
Lena watched him close the sliding-glass door and walk away, but she stood alone in the garden for a long time, unable to make her trembling legs work.
CHAPTER 31
Cole asked Lena to sing to him that night at bedtime.
"Uh—" said Lena. She felt as empty as an abandoned shell; she didn't have the energy for singing. But Cole was the only person in the house she could bear to be around right now. "Sure." She snuggled up next to him on his bed. "I can see clearly now the rain is gone," she sang softly.
Cole sighed and closed his eyes. When the song was over, he murmured sleepily, "Sing the blueberry one."
Smiling, Lena complied. When she had finished, Cole didn't move. She kissed his hair and whispered, "Sweet dreams, Cole Dog."
"I'm not a dog," he mumbled.
Lena's parents were hovering outside the bedroom when she emerged.
"Thanks, honey," said her mom.