Autumn Mermaid (Mermaid Series Book 4) Read online

  "Help me! Is there anyone there? Help me get out of here!"

  Whispers arose from the dimmed memory of that long ago time he spent the night trapped inside an iron casket inside a locked museum. No one noticed that he didn’t get on the bus for the ride back to school nor did his parents miss his presence at the supper table that evening. Of course there was no supper most evenings except that which he managed to steal from the corner store.

  It wasn’t until the next morning when a member of the cleaning crew saw something red flowing in the blood gutter at the feet of the Maiden, heard a whimper from inside, and upon opening up the metal coffin discovered a small boy nearly dead from fear and loss of blood.

  He wondered silently if he was still inside that creation of dread.

  When he tried to move he could not. A grip of iron held him onto a slab of granite cold and unforgiving. He couldn't tell if he was standing or lying down. Though he should have been able to see just a little in the darkness, the night seemed such that he might as well have been blinded, his eyes gouged out of their sockets as his loving father often threatened.

  As the thought arose, he realized he could not blink his eyes. It was as if clamps had been inserted onto his lids holding them shut though they felt open. If they were indeed open, however, it meant he was blind. His skin felt tight, as if his body had grown too large for it. When he tried to breathe his lungs failed to inflate. Though he listened he couldn't hear his heart beating.

  Perhaps he was in his grave. He recalled going to his grandmother's funeral and how her body seemed to be made of wax or perhaps clay, cold and impervious. Her hair was done up all wrongly and though her eyes were nearly closed all the way if he looked closely he could see the whites peeking out from under heavy lids.

  "I see you, boy."

  She had always called him boy, as if he had no name or else she couldn’t remember it. The old woman drank and she stank of it... the alcohol seemed to leech out of the pores in her skin and permeate the room and whenever he was made to visit her he tried to hold his breath and failing that at least taking tiny short gasps, like in the Maiden.

  Had they lowered him into the ground too?

  Perhaps he never made it out of the Maiden. He could scarcely breathe inside that monstrosity without the knives drawing blood from each rising of his chest. Had he been just a little braver he was certain he would have pressed his body against them and ended a life that had been bad from the start.

  Had he only dreamed of a girl named Luciana? Was his daughter a mirage as well? Though he sensed a vague feeling of fright he discovered more of a morbid curiosity at his demise. Had he but dreamed of living forever in the space of a single night?

  It seemed more likely than having lived with creatures that had webbed fingers and toes and gills where their ears should be and who swam deep beneath a Lake where they once made their home and who offered immortality to all who stayed by their side.

  He had made it all up. He was still just a little boy hallucinating from lack of food and loss of blood. The dream of being found hadn’t happened yet... it might not ever happen. Instead, he would linger there as life ebbed away and no one would know. Decades from now, when they moved the Maiden, it might fall open revealing the bleached bones of the small boy who'd been locked inside and no one would even know his name.

  Someone was talking. Though he couldn’t distinguish words he thought he heard them calling out a name. He found it odd that the name sounded familiar, somehow, as if it had once belonged to him.

  A shiver of energy ran through his mind awakening him from the morbidity of dreaming.

  Chapter 11—Mistakes

  Though they continued making the trip to Lake Baikal every seven years, the Ladies had grown more isolated than ever.

  There had been a time when Nate attempted to assimilate himself back into her life, but Lily had no feelings left for the man... at least none that bespoke of the same love she felt for Lauren and Natalia.

  Men were a mistake. The world would be better off without any of them. She had been wrong to allow Karen and Marilyn and those horrid children to stay with them at Orchardton Hall and Lily had no intentions of committing that same error again.

  "Please don't disrupt your life at Toulon to stay here with me, darling Nate. You have wives and family there who need you. I do not."

  He had been hesitant to go, as if his continued presence might one day cause her to change her mind. Even after she forbade him entrance into the castle, Nate stayed on, camping out of doors and visiting with his mother every chance he got, presumably in hopes of insinuating himself back into Lily's good graces once again.

  "I know you love your son, sweet Natalia, but I cannot abide his presence here at Orchardton Hall for another minute. Please talk to him. If he does not leave, then I shall."

  She didn’t want to abandon her lovers again, not now, not when they had finally reconciled and repaired the breech that had nearly destroyed the feelings they had for one another. For years, Lauren had been aloof, withholding the love that she had heretofore proffered so freely.

  Lily knew it bothered Nate that Niall had disappeared into the wilds of the world... not because he took one of the two operating anti-gravity crafts—it was easy to fabricate another now that Ena had showed the way—but on account of the love he felt for the boy. Lily attempted to assuage the guilt that he carried but he mistook her soft words for those of love and not advice.

  "I've been back to old America numerous times looking for Niall. I cannot find him, nor can I locate Kirk's body. I'm not sure what else to try, darling Lily."

  "Niall's fate is sundered from ours, my precious Nate. He has always been of his own mind, even as a child. Though he is young, he will find his way home just as we all will."

  As soon as she spoke she sensed she'd made another mistake. Though she was just being cordial, Nate took her interest in his endeavors as evidence of love. A moment later, he confirmed her suspicions.

  "Come away with me, my sweet Lily... we can make a home for ourselves in the farthest reaches of the world, just like Niall has done."

  "Please don't take me wrong, darling Nate... we will never be man and woman again. What we had once was wonderful but it is over. If you really care about me and your mother, you should leave this place now."

  "I'll never leave you again, my darling Lily."

  Never proved to be a very short time, for once Natalia had talked some sense into her son, Nate left the following day. In time, Lily knew his heart would heal and like all the men of the Lake he would forget all traces of the past they once shared.

  Time had no meaning at Orchardton Hall though the walls slowly crumbled and each year the roof sprouted more leaks until it became apparent they were fighting a losing battle at keeping the old castle intact.

  The days and the nights followed each other and if not for that, Lily sensed she would not recognize the passage of time at all. Though before she had loved her Ladies with a wild abandon, now the feeling matured into surety of heart that not only enchanted but enthralled her.

  Visitors were rare and even more rarely welcomed. For the first time in centuries the Ladies took to locking and barring the doors lest unwelcome guests appear at inopportune times. Mostly all of the People and every one of the hybrids had no knowledge of locked doors so when they did encounter one they waited a brief while and then walked away.

  "This is how it should have always been, darling Lily."

  "You are right and I was wrong, sweet Lauren. I never should have allowed the People to stay with us that fateful day. It has done nothing but brought discord to the harmony of our music. Perhaps they will soon leave the planet all together and our peace will be ensured."

  "Hush, sweet Lily... Nate and his family have been nothing but good to us. I know you no longer love the man but he loves you and always will. I see it in his eyes each time he speaks. I was wrong to ever think about sending Karen and her friends away from Orchardton Hal
l. My heart had hardened from the long years away from Lake Baikal.

  "You are right about one thing though... soon our people will begin to leave this beautiful world. They will spread throughout the galaxy like seeds blown on the autumn breeze. One day we will wake to the sounds of loneliness. The world will be empty of the sweet sounds of laughter and the tragedy of tears.

  "I believe the time has arrived for us to consider leaving our home here too. This castle is old and though we might well live forever, its walls will soon begin to crumble and fade back into the nothingness from which it was once wrought."

  "But where will we go, sweet Lauren? Can we not repair Orchardton Hall rather than abandon it. We've lived here for centuries."

  "No matter how we shore it up, Orchardton Hall will be in ruins in another century. Before they all desert us, my darling Lily, I think we should ask for help in building a new castle on the shores of the Lake. We can no longer count on our beloved Nate to ferry us there when the need arises to immerse our bodies in its waters once again. He has his own life to lead and his path will soon take him the faraway worlds that we may only dream of."

  "I cannot imagine living anywhere but here, my precious Lauren, but wherever you go, I will follow."

  "We must plan our new dwelling with care, sweet Lauren. The Archives are filled with architectural drawings for habitats meant to survive harsh winters. Let us decide on the best home to suit our needs before consulting the others for help in constructing it. Otherwise, our decision may be held as undoable. We will be talked into a house rather than a home."

  "As always, you are the wisest among us, sweet Natalia."

  Lily wondered how she had existed for so long without such grace by her side and such gentle intelligence. All the years she spent under the waters of Lake Baikal meant no more than a blink of an eye. Her years with Nate had been but a yawn. Kāne was a bad dream. It was only here in the presence of her Ladies that happiness blossomed anew each morning.

  Still, she knew nothing ever lasted. The world would one day run down, stop spinning, and disintegrate into the rubble from which it once was born of. The Lake where their beings were replenished would grow stagnant and evaporate under a harsh sun, bloated and mean. If they were fortunate to live so long, they too would roast as their beloved earth sank into the day star which it owed its life to and which would be its death.

  They had today, however. Of course, that was all they ever had.

  Chapter 12—Poverty of the Heart

  Being with Amanda in Toulon lessened the blow of losing another husband but she still missed him.

  She had become accustomed to thinking of herself as someone undeserving of happiness. Even if she accidentally happened upon it she knew it was fleeting at best—an illusion of that which could never be.

  Ginger knew all too well about the men of the Lake and their propensity for forgetfulness. Still, she expected better of Nate. He understood what it was like to sport a broken heart, or at least she thought he did. It didn’t shock her to see him leave like it did Amanda though it was always an unsettling feeling to be reminded of how she was so easily disposed of.

  She was happy to see Amanda breaking out of her downcast mood of late. Perhaps she had accepted the finality of Nate's decision. She had always been such an optimistic girl, even when they were growing up together at Orchardton Hall and trying their best to look out for one another.

  Ginger had never expected much out of life. She learned early and often that being one of the People meant she was a second-class citizen at best, and growing up in poverty meant that she would always be looked down upon even among her own kind.

  They made a game out of teasing her, of how her clothes didn’t fit and how her shoes stank whenever she took them off. None of them realized that her mother had never taken the time to teach her the art of bathing. When she was small she simply assumed everyone lived like she did.

  As she grew into an adult she was made to bear the brunt of the derision of not only her peers but grown women who should have known better than to berate a girl for having nothing to eat or nowhere to sleep.

  She had rationalized that it was on account of the surfeit of leftover items after the Great Dying had eliminated most all of humanity. In those days the people had only to walk into shops and take what they wanted. Ginger didn’t understand that, however. She had always been left behind whenever her mother Mindy went foraging for liquor.

  Though she'd be gone for hours... sometimes days... her mother never brought home any food. About the time Ginger became a teenager she had the sudden and miraculous realization that she had to fend for herself. She left Mindy to live in one of the vacant apartments on the upper floor of Orchardton Hall that most of the People shunned on account of the many flights of stairs they had to climb to reach it.

  For a short time, Ginger was happy. She furnished her apartment with scavenged furniture and knick knacks she found discarded or lurking in the fast-rotting houses of nearby villages. She learned the hard way that she could never stay away from Orchardton Hall for long lest she begin to feel sick.

  Drummond was her father, or so she was told. He was an uncouth and disgusting man with whom she would rather not have anything to do with. He seemed to take particular pleasure in attempting to seduce her even though he knew full well that she was his daughter.

  When he learned that she had moved out of Mindy's apartment and made a home for herself, he began stalking her, waiting on the stairwell for her to either enter or exit the apartment.

  She knew it was wrong. Though she had never gone to school she had taught herself to read and write though only in a rudimentary way. She had read just enough to know fathers did not do what Drummond wanted to do to her.

  Though she tried to avoid him, it was impossible. At first, she had tried to fight him off. He was too strong. Her screams were muffled by a hand over her face and when she tried to bite it, he slapped her so brutally hard that she saw green and yellow stars hovering over her head as he did what he wanted.

  She didn’t know who to tell.

  The Ladies ignored her. Karen and Marilyn were always locked away in their laboratory behind the castle brewing up new and more potent magic. She had no friends. Ever since she had left Mindy, her mother never even spoke to her even should they pass each other on the street.

  Nate was still a child at the time though more fully grown than her and for reasons of his own he seemed to enjoy the indulgence of bullying her too. She had heard how he nearly beat Drummond to death while protecting a sullen little girl named Lucy. Ginger once thought he might come to her defense as well but he never did.

  She endured the horror of being Drummond's plaything for what seemed like ages. Her worst fear was becoming pregnant by him. She read about birth control pills in some of the old literature and going into the village and pillaging the pharmacy she was able to procure some. The pills were old but apparently they still worked.

  Kirk was always around back then, hovering in the background. He never attacked her like Drummond did but neither did he attempt to put a stop to it. Though he knew what was happening she told herself that Kirk was as afraid of Drummond as she was.

  He had tried to make her feel better by offering her food and clothing he found while visiting his old home of Kurgan. She had taken those trinkets as a sort of token of friendship yet not too long after Drummond had died in an ill-fated attempt at starting a colony apart from the Ladies, Kirk pushed her down the hard limestone stairs of the dungeon beneath Orchardton Hall breaking bones and leaving her there to die.

  She had detested Drummond for using her like he did and when he died she rejoiced. After the pain he subjected her to, the disgust she felt for Kirk was beyond even that hate. She mulled many times murdering the man. No one would care. Kirk was useless and why Nate and Lily had voted to allow him to stay at Orchardton Hall was beyond her.

  "I don't know how we're going to get the harvest in this year, sweet Ginger. We have
over a thousand hectares and only six helpers. Perhaps we should consider leaving most of the grapes on the vine."

  "We'll take what we can and leave the rest for the birds, darling Amanda.

  She found it curious that everyone looked to her for answers. Even before Nate left them, people often approached Ginger with questions about everything: life, love, the vineyard... even on how to deal with the Ladies.

  It wasn’t fair. She was just an ignorant girl laden with sorrows and tribulations of her own. People like Amanda were smart. The girl knew everything there was to know about medicine, even more that Karen, who was a real doctor who'd gone to universities and studied the art before the Great Dying left the world empty of people yet potent with possibilities again.

  "I don’t know why we bother any more, precious Ginger. No one drinks our wine except for us and the vines are slowly dying. Perhaps we should consider moving away from here too. Everyone else has gone."

  Amanda was right. Toulon had once been a thriving community with dozens of people working together to produce the finest wines on the planet. Now it was a ghost of itself.

  The old village was gone. Even the foundations of the homes and stores had crumbled away as the forest advanced. The vineyards were slipping into ruin as well. Amanda wasn’t the only one who thought of leaving... Ginger had considered it too. Before Niall had taken off unannounced, she had considered asking him to go on a journey with her to scout out a better place to live.

  She envied the Lake people and their ability to live on their own. Even after all these years she still felt like a subservient slave, always beholden to others for her life. She remembered talking to her friend about it, gently chiding her about the lack of progress over the years.

  "Why can't you and Karen come up with a remedy for Lake Syndrome, my precious Amanda? It's been centuries since the Great Dying. It seems as if you could have discovered a cure by now."