We’d been below surface for a while before Aletheia said we should return. We ascended quickly, making sure no boats were close enough to us to spot our tails. Both of us phased a few feet below the surface and pulled on our bikini bottoms.
After heaving myself onto the dock, I scanned the surface. There was hardly a boat to be seen, which was odd, particularly this time of the year. Aletheia sat next to me, gazing into the surface of the water.
“You need to remember to change your eyes back when you’re finished.”
“The same way I changed them before?”
“Yes.”
I focused and within seconds, my eyes were back to normal.
“You are a fast learner, which will make this all the easier to do.” Aletheia wiped the water from her arms in one fluid movement.
“Why are you helping me?” I asked, and she stared at me. “I mean, you don’t like Tammer and no one’s seen you in years. Why did you come back to help me?”
“I’ve always know who I was to be. I’ve been visited by angels who prophesized to me since I was little. I don’t know that I would have come but I was visited again and told it was imperative that I teach you our ways and be open to another.” She paused. “Geiruna taught me the old ways and it is my job to teach you. It has always been difficult for me to put my feelings aside, but I must. I gave up my powers to learn everything so that one day I would teach The Link.”
“But you hate Tammer.”
“I don’t hate Tammer.” She pulled her hair around her shoulder, wringing it out. “He’s my younger brother. I just haven’t been able to forgive him for what happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was engaged to Reyes Dartmoth. Tammer was the one who killed him.”
I didn’t say anything for a second. I knew of the fight that happened all those years ago, but the details were left out. All I knew was that almost everyone died in that fight, apart from Limus, Ramus, and Tammer.
“You think Tammer meant to kill him?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. He’s dead.” She stood, flinging her hair around to her back. “I don’t want to talk about this. You should eat now.”
I didn’t follow her, rather, I remained on the dock. Tammer had killed before. I guess it shouldn’t have shocked me as much as it did. I sighed. There was so much death and destruction within the merfolk world. It was as if no one bothered to stop and think before they acted. Everyone was always so eager to get rid of a problem they just considered the worst alternative, and got it done without thinking of a better way.
I looked up at the midnight blue sky beginning to twinkle with stars. The lights from the houses across the lake began to shine on the black lake water. Cool air and the smell of the forest whipped past me on the breeze and I felt a little happier. I loved Idaho.
Chapter Nine
Sharlie
“I’m going to shoot you now. Hold still.”
Yay. Aletheia stood sideways, drawing back the arrow in the bow, her violet colored eyes concentrating on me. A cool breeze ruffled the edges of her sapphire blue silk dress. She reminded me of an elf. I felt like William Tell’s son.
Today we were practicing disintegrating weapons. All morning, Aletheia had been chucking sticks at me from across the small meadow. I imagined what a human would have thought if they had been hiking and accidently came across us. Gossip of a mad clan of women on the east side of the lake who liked to sling pieces of wood at each other would have flown through the town.
“Remember to focus the power in one hand only and keep your arm straight. Draw your arm away from yourself as you destroy it.”
“I remember,”
She reminded me with every throw. Two pieces of wood and a large clump of moss had hit my head. One large branch managed to scrape my arm and a rock had bruised my kneecap. Three hours later, I finally managed to shatter the wood that was flung at me. We continued until I disintegrated it entirely. Now came the big challenge. Real weapons. Thank God she hadn’t chosen a gun.
“Okay, here we go.” She breathed out and released the arrow.
Time slowed down. The arrow zipped toward me and suddenly it was hovering at mere miles per hour in the air, its shaft twisting and the head glinting in the sun as it neared me.
Raising my left hand and locking my elbow, I stared at the tip of the arrow, feeling my powers want to burst from within me. Seconds later, the arrow was gone and my arm was at my side.
“Fantastic, Morgan!” Aletheia ran to me, the bow at her side. She dropped it on the grass and grabbed my shoulders. “That was simply fantastic! You are so fast!”