farther forward, Sapphire. They want us to go into the middle of the Chamber. There, above the Speaking Stone.”
He points to a stone set in the floor of the cave. It’s pearl coloured, with veins of green and blue and crimson, like the veins in an opal. But it can’t be an opal. No precious stone could ever be that big.
“Follow me, Sapphire.”
We swim to the centre. It feels as if our bodies barely disturb the water. We’re part of its stillness. When we reach the Speaking Stone, Faro dives and touches it with his hand, as if he’s touching it for luck. As he rises again he says to me, “Dive down, Sapphire, and touch the Stone.”
“Why?”
“It makes us speak more clearly.”
I dive down, and touch the stone lightly. I’m expecting to feel some charge of power in it, like the power that surged in the Tide Knot, but it’s just a stone.
A tall Mer man with a strong, hawk-like face uncoils his body from the front rank of seats, swims forward and holds his hands out to us, palm up.
“Greet him, Sapphire,” whispers Faro, and I hold my own hands out in imitation. Faro does the same. With a quick, easy flick of his body, the man dives to touch the Speaking Stone, then swims back up to where we are. His hair swirls around his shoulders.
“I am Ervys, Morlader’s uncle,” he tells me. “We are sea rovers. We gather news from all the oceans, and bring it to our people wherever they are. You are welcome here. I have come to share with you the thoughts that I have, and the thoughts of our people. These are painful thoughts, dark and violent. You would not want them in your head or in your dreams, and so I will not pass them into your mind. We will speak our thoughts aloud at this Assembly.
His eyes are fixed on me. They are very clear. I’ve never seen human eyes with that silvery light in them. He looks more – more Mer, somehow, than either Faro or Elvira. More Mer than Saldowr, even. I push the thought down, to consider it later. I need to concentrate. All those faces, all those eyes. But somehow the fact that we are floating above the Speaking Stone makes the hundreds of watching Mer a little less intimidating.
“These are dangerous times for us all,” says Ervys, “since the tides turned and the Deep awoke. Or since the Deep awoke and the tides turned.”
Suddenly I’m impatient. After such a journey, I don’t want to hear clichés. I know that these are dangerous times. I know all about the aftereffects of the flood. They are like the aftershocks of an earthquake, and no one could fail to notice them. The tides turned and the Deep awoke. What’s that really supposed to mean?
My impatience must show on my face because Ervys says sharply, “Do you expect me to deliver all my thoughts in a moment?”
“No,” I say meekly, but I don’t feel very meek inside. Faro shoots me a warning glance, and I remember my promise. “I’m a friend of the Mer. I’m ready to listen,” I say, and this time Ervys’s face relaxes.
“You are very young,” he says, looking at me with a certain doubt in his expression. “But we have been told that you have a gift. Saldowr tells us that you have visited the Deep.”
I feel the hush in the chamber, the tension stretched out so tight it might snap at any moment.
“Yes,” I answer, “I visited the Deep, before the tides broke.”
A gasp runs around the chamber, followed by a murmur of voices. Ervys turns and raises his hand. Silence falls.
I wish I had Conor by my side. Ervys is looking at me so intently. What does he want? His face is hungry.
The eyes of all the assembled Mer are fixed on me. It’s like standing on a stage with all the lights on you. The silence is eager. If only I knew what they wanted from me. I glance sideways at Faro for support, but he’s gazing down at the Speaking Stone, his head bowed as if in respect for the Assembly.
Maybe Ervys is waiting for me to speak first. If Conor were here, he’d know what to say.
“You visited the Deep,” repeats Ervys at last. “I was told that this had happened, but now I hear it from your own mouth. It seems… beyond our beliefs. Saldowr himself cannot enter the Deep. And yet it opened to you. Tell me how you did this. Tell me what force you used.”
“I – I don’t know.”
Ervys throws back his head. His hair eddies around him. “You don’t know!” His voice is full of disbelief.
“It just – it just happened. I was in a rogue current. It threw me off. It threw us all off. I couldn’t see Faro or Conor. They were dragged away from me… I don’t remember all of it,” I say slowly. “Maybe I was knocked out. When I woke I was in the Deep. It was so dark…”
My voice trails off. I should never have started talking about it. The memories claw at me. Everything is coming back. The crushing darkness and silence of the Deep. The weight of my hand when I tried to move it, as if my hand was made of lead. I was trapped, a prisoner of the Deep. If I hadn’t met the whale who rescued me…
“But you lived,” goes on Ervys sternly, like a teacher trying to find out what you’ve really been doing when he’s out of the classroom. “If Saldowr had not told us it was true, how could we believe it? How could a human do what none of the Mer can do?”
Suddenly my fear is swept away by anger. How dare he doubt me? How dare he think I owe him anything? The Mer want something from me. That’s why Ervys sent his nephew to fetch us. But Morlader didn’t even guide us safely here. He went ahead and abandoned us. We had to struggle through that tunnel on our own. What if Faro hadn’t found the way? I’d never have guessed that the tunnel entrance was hidden behind that curtain of weed. Those Claw Creatures could have got us.
Why do the Mer have to make everything so difficult and complicated? And now, after all that, they still refuse to trust me. The way Ervys is interrogating me, you’d think I’d committed a crime and was lying about it.
I clench my hands into fists, and dig my nails into the palms of my hands. I try to guess what Conor would say if he were here. Conor would keep his head and think clearly to the heart of what was happening. Conor doesn’t lose his temper and lash out like me. People listen to him.
I must be like Conor now. I can’t blurt out my anger. I must make it speak clearly, so that the Mer have to respect what I say.
Wait, Sapphire, wait. Let the silence stretch. Ervys needs something from you. All these Mer are here for a reason. Take control. You don’t have to let Ervys question you as if you’re on trial.
“It’s true that I’m human,” I say at last. My voice is reedy, but at least it doesn’t tremble. “It’s true that I’m not in my own world here. You knew I’d need a guide to find my way to this Assembly.”
“I sent my nephew to guide you.”
“But Morlader went ahead of us, out of sight. We had no guide.”
“Faro
