Moonfin (22 page)

“Eat. The Doritos from the vending machine survived in my pack,” said Jeff, pulling out several small red bags.

Lizzy wasn't sure what to do. She would much rather explore the island in the cloak of night, but unless all the island snares gave warning by glowing in the dark like the pits, it was better to travel during daylight.

“It's late, I guess we should wait here,” she said, yawning. “We can rest before the sun comes up in the morning.”

But then she caught something out of the corner of her eye and almost missed it because she thought it was an ember from the fire. But on second look, realized it was a translucent bubble, practically invisible, floating on the night breeze in front of her nose. It popped, and for a moment she could see words wobbling inside before vanishing into thin air.

She looked over at Jeff and Kai, who didn't seem to notice the bubble or the words. It looked like this:

Lizzy's eyes darted anxiously seaward.

“Think I'll see if—if anyone is stirring around the island waters—maybe Xili or Iddo can—can give us some help,” she stammered.
Was it for real
?

“Good idea. Jeff and I will keep the fire going—and be careful, will you? This island is messing with our heads … literally,” warned Kai.

“Look who's acting like a mother hen now,” Lizzy quipped.

Jeff looked at Kai like she was someone else.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

The waves had died down to a gentle lapping. Lizzy stepped into the water and somewhere inside of her words began to form—words she didn't even understand the meaning of …

“Kelea el omi yam!” she called out.

Minutes passed and nothing happened. After a bit, the water before her began to whirl and whorl, swish and swirl. Two forms shot up out of the sea, towering fountains of shimmering fluid.

“Mhmhmhm, my sister, you called to us in the language of the Deep!”

Lizzy liked when Xili giggled like that; it sounded like effervescent ripples along a gurgling creek.

“I did—I think. I'm not sure what I said.”

“It means ‘heart of the living sea' in your language.”

The figure next to Xili appeared to be the mysterious dark-haired boy she met before. It was hard to tell, his face kept popping in and out of the rippling fountain.

“More like ‘entrails of the sea'—but
heart
sounds much nicer,” the boy chuckled, and the water shook as he did so.

Lizzy smiled. A joke. She hadn't expected that.

“You remember Tevu? He has come to help instruct you.”

“Instruct me in what?”

“It's time, Lizzy, for you to know who you are,” he said in a low, and vaguely familiar, voice. “Step into the water with us, please.”

Lizzy hesitated. She glanced back at Kai and Jeff, who were breaking out the chips and soda.
They already know I'm a little different, I guess this won't be a shock.

She dove into the water and the change came at once; it was pure joy after being trapped in a pit on land all day and night. Never before had she glided through the water so well, so fast, and with complete ease.

Xili and Tevu swam next to her, and the more she concentrated on the ocean, the music and heartbeats—oh, so many hearts she could sense there!—the more her companions came into clearer focus. It was as if a dark and warping film was peeling away from her eyes.

“You swim like a pro,” smiled Tevu, flying effortlessly along on his side, keeping up with her speed.

Then his face turned serious.

“Lizzy … I have something to tell you.”

She gave him a quick glance while trying to concentrate on swimming. She didn't want to run into a walrus or anything—that'd be embarrassing.

“I was the one who left the scales on the Pinkerton's yacht for you to find.”

Lizzy was surprised.

“Why?”

“They might help you when the time comes.”

“Are they from Moonfin?”

He nodded mournfully. “Yes, she sheds them all the time—I ran across a few.”

Lizzy gazed steadily at Tevu and could see more clearly his coal-black hair and gray eyes, which were awash of one color, no distinguishable pupils or white. His ears were small, probably half the size of her ears, angular and fan-like. She thought his clothes were the most strange! Dark clouds and stars slid across his chest—like the reflection of a summer storm on the surface of a pond. She also noticed that she, herself, had changed, and timidly pulling down a curl in front of her eyes, saw that it shone brightly like burnished metal pulled fresh from the fire.

They stopped to watch some seahorses dancing around a crop of flowering plants. Lizzy held out her hand and they seemed to play a game of tag in her palm. One even curled its long tail around her wrist and started cooing softly.

“They're not afraid of me!”

“No,” said Xili, “they know who you are.”

Lizzy was wondering something and, turning to Tevu, asked, “
Soooo
, is this the Great Deep Iddo keeps talking about?” She swept her arms around in a wide circle, thinking the Deep was some special place near the islands.

“Yes. Magnificent, isn't it?”

“Um,
yes
… it is,” she said, puzzled, not seeing anything special or out of the ordinary.

Tevu noticed her confusion.

“What
do
you see?”

“Well, a kelp bed … some seaweed … green water—the usual. It's always beautiful.”

He frowned.

“Anything else?”

“Nope.”

Xili glanced anxiously at Tevu.

“That is not it. Try closing your eyes … yes … now concentrate. Think about the Deep. Let it fill you up, and when you are ready, open your eyes and tell us again what you see.”

Lizzy did as she was told. She thought hard about those two words for several seconds: The Deep. Then she opened her eyes, palms raised, in excited expectation …

Her face drooped.

“Anything?”

“It's the same.”

Tevu considered the problem. “When you first met Xili, could you see her or any of the Glimmruyn clearly?”

“Well, no, not at first. It took a few times. I can see you the most clearly now, as a matter-of-fact.”

Xili shrugged and shook her silvery head.

“All I can say is your eyes are not fully developed yet. Perhaps in time …”

That was a big letdown. All she'd been told by this lot was to remember the Way of the Deep, and now she couldn't even see what in the world they were talking about.

“But—but what does the Deep look like to you?”

“It's … wonderful,” Tevu said mysteriously. “I can't explain it with words you will understand. It's our home.”

Lizzy looked away, disappointed. What about the bubble she saw up on shore, and the words floating inside it? She was sure that was real.

“How did you do that, Xili?—that message in the bubble, I mean.”

Xili's face brightened.

“Oh! You did see that. Very good!” she said excitedly. “We can send bubble-mail to whomever we wish. Messages can also be sent by Blabberfish, but they are unreliable, often getting people and messages mixed up, or the mail never gets delivered at all. The bubble-mail works so much better.”

At least that's something
, thought Lizzy.

The life of the sea moved all around them like a busy city street corner: a cuttlefish scampered by, stalking a crab for dinner. Sea snakes whisked along the floor and hardly noticed them. Out of nowhere, two humpback whales barreled right at them in high gear. This made Lizzy nervous and seemed to startle the others also.

“It's Notch and Scartale,” said Xili, looking concerned. “They never come to us like that. It must be serious.”

“Why do you call them by those names?” asked Lizzy, but before Xili could answer, she saw why. Notch had a jagged cut in his fin, and a deep set of six grooves was etched in the other whale's tale
.

“It's just what we call them—we can tell them apart in other ways. For instance, the songs they sing are very different,” said Tevu. He broke away and swam right up to Scartale's wrinkled eye and started communicating in melodies and clicks.

“Wow, Tevu speaks ‘whale.' Impressive,” said Lizzy, amazed to hear the exchange between them, although she could feel in her heart that something was wrong, somehow.

He returned to Xili and Lizzy in a hot rage. “It's the dolphins! The
slaughter ritual
again!”

Never before had Lizzy seen Xili look so pained. She swam up to Notch and spoke soothing words to him while petting his injured fin. After many words of comfort, she sent both whales off into the teal sea.

“It is bad enough they have to eat mercury-tainted fish, and the poison courses through their veins, but to be so brutally killed!” Xili's gleaming eyes flashed darkly. “Dolphins are so much like the puppies of the sea and need to be enjoyed, not destroyed. Such a shame!”

“I don't understand—who would do such a thing?”

Tevu balled up his fists angrily. “There is a sect of people on land who consider it a sport to kill these guileless creatures for no reason at all. They take their vessels out in the cloak of night and cowardly seek out helpless schools to butcher,” he said bitterly.

Lizzy gasped. “Maybe there's a good reason for it … like they wish to use them for food?”

“They do not,” he growled and swam in impatient circles. “I must go immediately.”

“Yes, of course. We will tell the others,” said Xili. He burst at sonic speed after the whales, leaving them in a ring of bubbles behind him.

“What can he do?” Lizzy said sadly.

“He will draw as many away as possible. Others, he might be able to heal, if he can get to them in time.”

Lizzy felt sorry for the dolphins and wanted to help. Xili answered her thoughts with, “No, you are not ready yet,” which caused a curious confusion as to what she meant.

Ready for what exactly?

Lizzy puzzled over another comment Xili had made earlier—

“What did you mean when you said, ‘the seahorses
know me
'?”

Xili's lips parted, but no words came out. Rhizoo and Cheroo suddenly materialized, swimming up next to Xili, and joined in gaping at Lizzy. It was all very unsettling.

Lizzy stared back at them with arched eyebrows the way Sugar did when she was leery of Lizzy's food experiments. And while they all goggled at one another, Lizzy noticed a few things about Xili, Cheroo, and Rhizoo, now that she could see them more clearly.

Cheroo and Rhizoo looked much older than Xili. Both had round orange eyes that reminded Lizzy of the candy drops sold in Mrs. Doyle's shop. Cheroo had snow-white hair, which grew down to his waist, along with a cottony beard. He held himself proud and important when he spoke, as if he were an official of some sort. Rhizoo's white hair was also quite long; she tied it neatly behind her head with elaborate braids wrapped ornately around shells. Rhizoo was smaller, more scattered and nervous, and clearly the least composed of the group.

Their clothes seemed to take on some aspect of the sea or nature. Lizzy noticed Xili's was like the glassy, blue stones found along the seashore. Cheroo was dressed in the likeness of grains of sand, and Rhizoo was the most colorful, displaying the regalia of the abalone shell with streaks of silver, white, and green throughout.

Then someone said it. Maybe it was Xili, she didn't know, because it didn't feel real anyway. They were the most incomprehensible words to Lizzy's mind …

“
You are one of us
…” echoed softly through her skull, then loud, like an angry prisoner banging on the locked door of her memory.

It was a long time before anyone spoke. Every movement became trapped in molasses. Lizzy could hear every purl and tweedle from a nearby toadfish, her heartbeat pounding in her mind like an unwelcome locomotive. Cheroo and Rhizoo cast sympathetic looks her way; they seemed a lot nicer to Lizzy right now, not like the first time they'd met. Then her brain caught up with her mouth—

“
I-I am from the Waterpeople!
H-how can that be? I have a family!” she practically shouted, fighting a very strong urge to run away and hide.

“Please try to remember, Lizzy,” Xili said gently as a wave of passing sardines drifted by, a good many of which got caught in her silvery strands. “We are an ancient race called Glimmruyn. When you look at the water and see the streams of light shooting through it, such is our realm.”

“There are Nine Pillars of the Glimmruyn,” Cheroo added quickly, seeing the frightened look on Lizzy's face. “Those of us living in these waters are from the same place: the Protectors.”

“Nine Pillars,” mumbled Lizzy, not comprehending a single word. “I can't seem to … I'm sorry …”

Out of the blue she thought of Corky, only because it was a weird thing she did to the bleeding cut on his leg.