Smoke and Mirrors (33)

Thirty-Three

The Mirror’s Mermaid

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We stayed in our own rooms in the king’s underwater castle.

I laid inside a cocoon weaved of kelp that was suspended from the walls by some kind of rope. The cocoon kept me from floating aimlessly while I slept, but had a slit in the side for me to slip out when I wanted.

My wrinkled fingers were wrapped around the icy glass jar of air jelly. As soon as I swallowed another flavorless spoonful, I placed the jar back into my sack. Almost immediately after swallowing, the water seemed to move easier through my lungs.

Eventually I sighed and slipped out of my hammock. Curiosity about the mermaid’s mirror itched away at me and I left my small room, then knocked on Sterling’s door down the hall.

It opened silently–almost everything was very quiet underwater, and I didn’t sneeze at all here, which was wonderful–to reveal Sterling, who was clinging to the door frame to stay close to the entry with one hand. His other hand was holding his button-up shirt closed.

He raised an eyebrow at me.

I swallowed and mimed looking into a hand mirror and patting my hair.

He pursed his lips, then released the frame and waved me inside.

I closed the door and followed him as he withdrew the mirror from its box, which sat on a stone table in the center of the room.

The mirror glinted as he pulled it out, reflecting a cluster of glowing fish in the corner of the room that acted as a small light. It swirled as Sterling touched it, as if it was a rippling, silver lake.

We studied the mirror for a moment, then the reflection began to escape the glass as Sterling pulled it towards himself. The reflection slipped out of the mirror and created a giant circle in front of us that looked like we could have walked into it and left this room behind.

Sterling swirled his fingers towards the mirror and it continued to dance there, rippling and spinning as if it was beckoning us.

I blinked as that same, repetitive scene began to play out before us.

A dark-headed mermaid with a blue, glowing mark on her shoulder lurked in the shadows of a room, which was occupied by three sleeping mermaids, wrapped in kelp cocoons similar to mine. She looked so unassuming at first–like any other mermaid in the city just outside. But her actions damaged a nation. Her own nation. How could she betray her own kind like this?

She swam forward and poured something from a vial of liquid over each mermaid’s face. It was blue, even in comparison to the water, and seemed heavier somehow than the sea, because it sank immediately over their faces.

Sterling began signing something to me, then stopped, likely remembering that I didn’t understand the merfolk’s speech. He pointed up and gestured towards us.

I followed him as he swam towards the cieling and our heads surfaced inside a chamber of air. We began coughing water out of our lungs. When the coughing subsided, I studied the chamber. Old barnacles clung to the sides of the room, which was built from some kind of brick, sealed with something glossy. It smelled like dead fish in here, but at least we could talk.

“That mermaid from the mirror,” Sterling started, then coughed again. “I know who she is.”

My eyes widened. “Who?” Our voices echoed almost hauntingly.

He looked at the water solemnly, as if it could answer a riddle that only he knew about. “She–was my mother.” His voice was a mere whisper. A drop of water in a storm. It was so quiet, I almost thought I’d heard my own thoughts.

But I knew I hadn’t.

“My own mother betrayed her kingdom.” He inhaled a shaky breath and pinned me with a sudden look. “You can’t say anything to anyone, do you understand me? If you say anything, it could start a war that none of us are prepared to deal with. Let me handle this.”

I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that his mom was a mermaid. Dumbly, I nodded. “Of course–I won’t say a word.” I cleared my throat. “Your mom was a–mermaid? How. . . does that even work?”

“You mean because I don’t have a tail and scales? The fairies have gotten good at aiding with transformations for the merfolk. It’s the reason my mother was even able to be married to a Landkin.” He inhaled. “She got the wrong end of the Fates’ matches. She was supposed to marry my. . . father. But he hated her. He hated both of us, really. We weren’t completely human, like he was, and it drove him crazy.” He let go of his shirt and pulled it down to reveal the mark I’d seen when he was still under the influence of the Shadow Fever. His arm was full of scars, slashing up and down, across, and even at an angle. “He tried to remove our marks, but they can’t be taken off like a piece of dead skin. They’re a part of us.”

The mark went all the way up his arm and a little past his shoulder, swirling and circling over his skin. My fingers itched to touch the glowing swirls. Did they feel like normal skin? I kept my hand at my side and pushed the thought away, my face burning. What was I thinking?

“I’m sorry,” I forced out. I didn’t know what else to say.

He pulled his shirt together again and buttoned some of the buttons. “I just–I always thought my mother was different, you know? That she was. . . good. Not like my father.” He chuckled bitterly. “She took a lot of hits for me when I was little. She was my hero.” He looked at the water again. “I never would have imagined that she. . .” He shook his head. “Something else had to have been going on. My mother never would have betrayed her people like that. She loved them too much. She always told me stories from the Merfolk–legends of battles fought against giant creatures from the deep, or how they held off the pirates from storming the land and destroying kingdoms.”

I rolled my lips into my mouth in thought. Suddenly, I was seeing a whole new angle of Sterling. He wasn’t just a jerk who was being a brat about getting married, he was a man–a boy, really–who had faced monsters and lost. He was human–just like anyone else.

Well, half-human.

“I just don’t get it,” he continued. “What could have made her–Oh.” He cut himself off and drug a hand down his face. Water splashed as it rolled off his skin. “I’m an idiot.”

“Well yeah, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for months now.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m serious here. My dad never liked the merfolk–or my mom. It makes sense that he would have forced her. . . “ He trailed off and jumped to another topic. “But then how did Seraphina find this out? What does she hope to accomplish by showing me this?”

I pondered the same question many times. “There has to be something we’re missing. Why would Seraphina kidnap Adrian? What does that elf lady from the Shadow kingdom have to do with anything? What’s up with the Weeping Stones?”

He tilted his head. “What if it’s all connected?”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

He rubbed his chin. “Think about it. The Weeping Stones are a tribute to the Merfolk. The Mermaid’s Mirror? Merfolk.”

“But what about the Shadow elf lady?”

“The Light in the Hall of Shadows.” He ran a hand through his dark hair, which made me realise how much he now looked like the dark-headed mermaid in the mirror. “My memory. . . is a bit rusty on that area of history, but maybe she’s connected, too. There’s all sorts of things we don’t know about the past.”

I eyed him curiously now. “What exactly did you dream about when the shadow dart hit you?” I didn’t even realise I’d asked the question until the words left my lips. I had been curious for a long time. “Adrian said it shows you your worst nightmare. What. . . What was it?”

Then that old, familiar mask went over his features again and the broken boy before me was gone. He scoffed. “You, of course.”

I rolled my eyes. “Wow, thanks. Just what every girl wants to hear from her husband-to-be.”

“In name only,” he replied curtly. “Trust me, if I could change that, I would. If you want my opinion, someone in the Fates’ circle needs to be replaced.”

I snorted. “Agreed. Your mom and dad? You and me? Someone failed. Miserably.”

He inhaled. “Alright, we’re getting off-topic here. Back to my mom.”

“Yeah. What are you going to do about her? Will you ever tell. . . you know, the Merfolk king?”

He looked away. “I have to. Somehow. It would be wrong of me to keep something like this a secret.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “Wait, I thought the kidnappings happened hundreds of years ago or something? How did your mom do that? And why is the mirror only showing that?”

“Oh, merfolk live to be really old. My mom was almost two-hundred years old when she married my dad, but in human years, she would have been nearly thirty.”

My eyes widened. “Don’t tell me you’ll outlive me!”

He smirked. “And I’ll dance on your grave.”

I groaned. Then another thought hit me. “Wait–how old are you?!”

“Twenty-four. My father gained the long-life thing when my mom married him, so they were together for a while before I came along. And. . . I wasn’t their only child.”

“Wait, there’s another one of you?!”

“No. Well, not. . . She. . .” He inhaled and suddenly looked angry. “Look, why the interrogation? None of this is your business. We’re talking about the mirror and how to get the unicorn horn back so you can fix your powers and I can protect my kingdom.”

I crossed my arms defensively and kicked my legs harder in the water to keep me up. “Well, excuse me! You know the same things about me that I’m asking about you–I didn’t think it would be such a problem!”

“Well–it is. Go to sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.”

“But I can’t talk if we’re underwater!”

“Exactly.”

I gaped at him.

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Hey guys, how are y'all? Sorry I haven't been the greatest at updating the last couple weeks XD I got a job (and I love it, I've made a lot of new friends and even met a few fellow writers, which is super cool!!) and writer's block has been an ever-present foe lately. I have a few stored up chapters I'll be sharing, (like maybe one a week or something) but for now, they may be coming at a slower rate haha. Thank y'all for sticking with me during this time in my life, you have no idea how much it means to me <3