Chapter Fifteen #2
“Jennifer, please, sir.”
Priddy turned and smiled at her. She sounded like an ordinary
Rosewarne girl, accent and all. “That’s a bit pedestrian,” Merou
said, frowning. “Still, at least it means white wave. Very well.”
“Thank you, sir. And nice and easy for him to understand.”
“Yes. You’ll have to be very careful with him until his brains
settle down. Next time, leave him in the pod for longer. Do you see
how he’s still all caught up in the things he was worried about
before?”
“Yes, sir. For now.”
Kit
burst into unexpected laughter. “Jennifer,” he said, reaching back
to take her hand. “Of course. You know what Geoff Blades can do? He
can go and fuck himself, that’s what.”
“You see?”
Priddy
was losing ground in this exchange. “Wait. Merou, are you telling
me these are the same ones you sent to rescue Kit after the
wreck?”
“Yes, and it was fairly irresponsible of me. A hatchling’s as
liable to eat her first human as save him. Still, I didn’t have
much choice.”
“But they were... they were little kids.”
“I know. All kinds of things about them are hard for topsiders
to get their heads around. Speaking of which...” Merou sighed, and
ceded his place to Jennifer, who promptly curled up at Kit’s side
and looked as comfortable as if she’d been there for years. “You
two are Hatchlings Three and Six, aren’t you?”
Both of
the godlike boys sprang to attention. “Yes, sir,” the taller one
managed, putting out a hand to catch his sibling. “Sorry, sir.
Three hasn’t got the hang of the legs.”
“That’s all right. It’ll come. Tell me, Six, how are the rest
of your brothers and sisters?”
Now Priddy recognised Merou’s expression. He’d never seen it
in his own household, but he’d envied it at school sports days and
on the sidelines at junior-league football matches. A mix of pride
and worry—as far as possible, the look of a perfectly ordinary dad.
Priddy got up in fascination. He went to stand at Merou’s side, put
a hand through his arm. “These are yours.”
“Yes. They’re why I had to run off on you just before our
picnic. Their mother was setting down her egg batch, and trust me,
you do not ignore
the call of a birthing mermaid queen.”
“You... went to do the thing. With the sperm. The ecstatic
outpouring.”
“Just so. Kerenza and I don’t have many dealings with each
other, but she’s very fine, and apparently I have certain desirable
genetic traits as well.”
Priddy looked at the beautiful children. His head was
spinning. Missus and kids—you know how it
is. “Apparently you do. But there were more
of them, weren’t there?”
“Yes. Six here is about to tell me about the rest. Aren’t you,
son?”
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Only two dead that I know
of.”
“I see. An excellent rate of survival.”
Priddy
turned to him in horror. “I saw five of them out at the boat. Are
these the only ones left alive?”
“I warned you it was difficult. In fact, these three adults are
the only remaining survivors of a brood of almost a hundred. The
ones you saw in the water looked like human children, Priddy, but
they weren’t. For the first few days of a mer-child’s life, it’s
more akin to a baby shark, and about as intelligent. Then it goes
through a rather ravenous carnivorous phase before it’s able to
order its dinner suavely in a fish restaurant. Isn’t that so,
Six?”
The
young man looked distant and embarrassed, as if he might have to
pull a fisherman’s thighbone from between his teeth at any minute.
“Yes, I’m afraid it is so.”
“Their appetites lead them into conflict with all kinds of
creatures bigger than themselves. Only the sharpest and best of
them make it to the developed phase of their existence, and
probably just as well. Imagine if all those hungry monsters
survived!”
“But they’re your kids.”
“Yes, these ones now are. The rest were my... well, fish-eggs
is the closest word, and it’s hard to grieve over those.” He put an
arm around Priddy’s waist, gave him a knee-melting glance. “You’ll
understand it better when we have a batch of our own. Now, Three
and Six, since you’ve survived, you too will want names. Any
ideas?”
“Jacques,” the boy called Six said promptly. “After your
friend, who knew how to keep a secret.”
“Yes, he certainly did. He discovered a whole colony of us
living off Corsica, but you never saw that on The Undersea World, did you? Jacques,
then. And you, Three?”
“Please,” Jacques said, when his brother failed to answer.
“Hatchling Three needs to go back into the sea.”
“Does he?”
“It’s his feet, sir. He doesn’t like having two. He feels like
he’s going to zip up in front of everyone.”
“Well, God forbid. Off you go.”
The two
ducked simultaneous clumsy bows, then turned and ran off together
towards the rocks at the water’s edge. Just before Three
disappeared, he skidded to a halt, dragging Jacques back with him.
He smiled like a hundred flashbulbs. “Priddy!”
“Er... yes?” Priddy felt a peculiar sympathy for Three, with
his troublesome feet and his struggle to articulate his problems.
He wasn’t sure how he could help him, though. He dropped a small
bow back at him. “What is it?”
Once more Jacques had to step in. “Please, Priddy, sir. He
wants to be called Priddy, sir. He thinks it means beautiful, and he thinks you
are, and so do I.”
The
changes in Priddy’s physiology hadn’t altered his capacity for a
ferocious blush. For the first time he missed having clothes, if
only for the sake of pockets to push his hands into. “Right,” he
managed. “Thanks.”
He had
no idea where to take it from there, but he too now had someone to
step in for him. “Sorry, Three,” Merou said gently. “There can only
be one Priddy. How about Jem?”
Again
came the megawatt smile. Jacques studied it closely. “He thinks it
means a jewel,” he said. “He likes that even more.”
They
vanished behind the rock. Splashing sounds echoed off the Rosewarne
cliffs, then two peals of exultant relief. Priddy clutched
gratefully at the arm Merou had wrapped around his waist. His head
was spinning. “How do they know so much? How are they so...
nice?”
“They have genetic memories in place of an education. And
they’re powerfully telepathic, so if Three saw something in you to
like that much, it wasn’t just your curly hair, my jewel of the
sea.” Merou smiled at the flicker of two bright flukes heading out
from the bay, easily mistaken at distance for rare dolphins. “As
for the charm, I’m at a loss to know. It’s not easy to go from a
fish-egg to a prince in a handful of days.”
“They must take after their dad.”
Merou
leaned over him. He lifted his chin, brushed one thumb over his
lower lip—the gesture so delicate that tears prickled into Priddy’s
eyes—then kissed him as if his life depended on it. As if they were
in deep ocean, sharing breath... Priddy forgot the whole world.
Forgot his new stepchildren, his mother who didn’t grieve, Kit’s
mum who did. The lighthouse and the village, even Kit, lost to him
and now restored...
“Whoa! Get a room, or a cave, or whatever it is you two fishy
characters need, Priddy-boy!”
Reluctantly Priddy disengaged. Merou gave him a wink, then
the tiniest roll of his eyes. He grinned at Kit, who’d borne
himself back in on their attention and was beaming at them both
from the sand. “A sea-cavern deep in the Lyonesse kelp forests for
my Priddy tonight, I think. You’re not in any position to talk,
landling—in case you haven’t noticed, you’ve got a naked mermaid on
your knee.”
Kit’s
mouth fell open. He turned to look at Jennifer, who had settled as
close as she could to him and was winding her hair around his neck.
His face altered with wonder. “Yes, I have. I never saw anyone so
beautiful. Why does she like me?”
She grabbed him by the chin. “I can speak, you know. When a hatchling
rescues a mortal, she can keep him or devour him. And I didn’t
happen to be hungry at the time.”
“So you’ll... you’ll keep
me?”
She
shrugged. “If you want to be kept. Of course, if Geoff Blades was
the love of your life...”
“Geoff Blades tried to kill me,” Kit said grimly.
“And the bastard
told me I was fat.”
“He’d best not ply the seas off this coast anymore, then.” She
ran a finger down his stomach. “Lovely mortal belly button! See, I
remembered mine, too. And a little extra flesh is always useful, in
case I get peckish in the night.”
Priddy
began to laugh. He let Merou lead him back to the extraordinary
couple in their tangle on the beach. “Does a lot of that go on—the
devouring, I mean?”
“She’s joking,” Merou said benignly. “Hardly ever at all.
Humans taste awful.”
“Jesus. Are you gonna be all right, Kit?”
“I think so. Jennifer, I want you to meet my mum and my
sister.”
“She’ll make a slightly less controversial impression if she’s
wearing some clothes.” Merou let go of Priddy long enough to gather
up the pile he’d brought down from the washing line. “Terrestrial
nondescript. Generic, unisex. And, see—these two cute little tubes
for your legs. Take them, if Priddy doesn’t mind.”
She
seized them avidly. “My first extra skins!” Her unsettling gaze
fastened on Priddy, full of anxiety. “Priddy, do you
mind?”
“Not at all. I feel as if I provided your trousseau. It’s a
pity we can’t keep the Weeverfish T-shirt, Merou—it suits
you.”
“And it’s quite a souvenir. Well, I’ve got a few stashes here
and there around the coasts. We won’t come to land very often, not
once you’re fully adjusted, but...”
“I’ve got a better idea. Kit, you could use something dry to
wear.”
“What—the Weevers? I couldn’t possibly. That was our first
concert together.”
“All the more reason.”
“It won’t fit me. I’m fat now, remember?”
“One size fits all, mate.” Priddy crouched down beside him long
enough to surprise him with a kiss. He too was more pissed off with
Geoff for attacking Kit’s self-esteem than for the attempted
murder. More than one way to kill a guy, wasn’t there? “I don’t
know when I’ll see you again. Take it as a parting gift, and
meanwhile be nice to the mermaid. It’s important.”
“I know,” Kit said unsteadily. “I listened to your stories. Are
you off now, then?”
“Yes, I think so. Are we, Merou?”
Merou
stripped out of the T-shirt. He handed it ceremoniously to Kit.
Then he unfastened and stepped out of his borrowed jeans too, and
stood as bounteous nature intended, proud and perfect, hair
shifting softly in the breeze. Priddy ran a longing touch down his
midriff. “Yes,” Merou said, returning the gesture, tenderly tapping
the place where Priddy’s belly button had used to be. “We have to
go. And not a moment too soon.”
“Tell me one thing first. It’s not like you to rob a
clothesline without giving a gift in return. What did you leave
this time?”
“A scale off my big fishy tail. Just to mess with Vigo’s
head.”