Fathom L. Standage (books for 8th graders .TXT) 📖

the vessel. She was successful stealing it back from Linnaeus but had to flee and had no choice but to give it to you to keep it safe. By the time we found her again, she was dead, and the vessel was gone. Then we tried to find you to see if you had any information since you were the only other merperson we knew of in the area—at least, one who might be willing to help us. We were almost too late.”

“What is the vessel? Why is it so special?” I asked. Aside from the fact that smoky people singing strange poems came out of it.

“They’re important artifacts. They store information. When Delfina said one of her people had stolen it and brought it here to San Diego, Linnaeus was our first lead. We’ve dealt with him before. We knew it wouldn’t be a simple matter of getting the vessel back. It all became a tangled mess when Delfina mistook you for a mermaid.”

“Because of me,” said Sam with a grimace. “I talked you into it, Liv. It’s my fault. It was just a stupid photo shoot. I was trying to be more creative.”

“No,” I said, “it’s Brock Mallory’s fault.”

“Who?” asked Eamon, his demeanor darkening with concern.

“No one, just the stupid guy who sent my picture to the tabloid. He’s got a few screws loose.”

“Ah. I’ll have to put Uther on the alert for the lad. If he’s a threat, we’ll find him out. But generally speaking, his type fade into obscurity quickly.” He leaned over to Sam. “We can’t expect you to have known what would come of that picture.”

“And…did Delfina really kill herself?” she asked.

Eamon sighed, long and sorrowful. “I’m afraid it’s very likely. Someone of her skills and experience would carry poison in case they were caught. There must have been something to threaten the merpeople’s very existence or she would not have done it. Unless, of course, we are mistaken and someone killed her. Walter has gone with the merpeople to retrieve her body.”

“I’m really sorry,” I said. “She seemed nice.”

“She was to you.”

“What do you mean?”

Eamon clasped his hands behind his back. “Merpeople are dangerous and suspicious creatures. You’ve seen that already, from the, uh, warm welcome you received from Cordelia. It is a rarity for one of them to trust a human, much less be kind to one. I seem to remember Delfina threatening to throttle Walter once.”

He looked up, his brow rumpled in recollection. “Ah…a story for another time.” He stopped walking and looked us both in the eye. “I trust you understand the delicacy of this situation. You weren’t supposed to find out about what we do. Secrecy is absolutely vital.” He folded his arms and stared at us as through narrowed eyes as though trying to laser the importance of silence into our brains.

Sam and I nodded.

He continued with more fervor. “I’m serious, now. We may have joked about you being ‘dealt with’ a minute ago, but in truth, there are ways of ensuring your silence. Ways the merpeople will not hesitate to use. However, because of your innocence and your actions in bringing back the vessel, Cordelia has allowed us this conversation. I do not believe human life is expendable but the merpeople will disagree. If there is any doubt, even a whisper of treachery—”

“I get it,” I said quickly.

“All too well,” said Sam in a small voice, her fingers traveling again to her throat.

He bobbed his head once. “Come, let’s get back to the house. I see our beach is no longer deserted.”

He motioned toward a few wetsuit-clad people in the distance trying their luck with the minimal swells and threatening rain. It felt odd to see them, like the world was trying to remind me of just how ordinary it used to be. Not anymore.

We followed Eamon away from the sand and the sea. I turned back once to gaze long at the ocean—only because I knew from now on, there would never again be any turning back.

Showering felt miraculous. The hot water sloughed off a lot of the worries I carried. I wanted to stand there and let the heat roll over me for hours, but of course, being half gate-crasher and half prisoner in this house, I turned the water off quickly. Six other adults in this place wanted a hot shower sometime today too.

At every turn, I also wondered strange things: did mermaids like hot showers? Did they even bathe? Did they have sinks where they live? Did they have mirrors? Did they have lights? How did they work? What did it feel like not to have legs? Did they live in houses? Did they sleep in beds? Did they have hobbies and families and best friends? How many were there? And how did they turn into humans? How did it all work? And why would they want to turn into humans in the first place?

I went into the bedroom to comb out my wet hair while Samantha had her turn in the shower. I dug my brush out of my bag, ran it through my hair a few times, and then held it up and stared at it. Did mermaids have brushes?

I lay on my deflating bed, looking at the ceiling when Sam came in after her shower. Did mermaids have ceilings? She sat down on her bed quietly, took the towel off her head, and used it to dry her hair. Merpeople probably never heard of a towel. Unless they came on land.

“You all right?” I asked Samantha.

She hesitated. “I don’t know.” She laid the towel aside and looked down at her hands. “A week ago, I would have said these people were crazy. But now…”

“Yeah.” I sat up and looked at her. “Mermaids.” I couldn’t help a small smile forming on my face as I said the word. Samantha’s eyes shone with the same awe I was feeling.

“I don’t know what to think.”

“Me either. Some summer, huh?”

She snorted