and for a moment I’m afraid I’ve gone too far and his anger is going to flare out. I don’t look round, but I sense that Faro‘s watching me closely now. He’s on my side, I know it for sure. Faro is Mer, but he is no friend of Ervys. The tension between me and Ervys stretches as taut as a guitar string. Then, slowly, Ervys’s face cracks into a smile.
“Saldowr gave us a true picture,” he says slowly. A ripple of relief goes around the chamber. They were worried, too. Does that mean the other Mer are afraid of Ervys? “Saldowr told us, ‘These human children look as helpless as seal pups on a rock. Don’t be deceived.’”
“Where is Saldowr?” I ask eagerly. “Is he all right? Has he recovered?” Surely the wound Saldowr took on the night the Tide Knot broke must have healed by now. Saldowr is so powerful. His magic is as deep as the ocean, just as Granny Carne’s is as strong as a rock. Even if no one else can heal him, Saldowr must be able to heal himself.
Ervys doesn’t reply. Instead he nods at Faro, asking him to speak. To my surprise Faro dives down and touches the Speaking Stone a second time, as if he needs more strength, and then turns to face the Assembly.
“You all know that Saldowr is my teacher,” he says proudly. I suppress the thought that the Mer seem to spend a lot of time telling each other things that they already know. Faro is deadly serious.
There’s a murmur of agreement. Suddenly a broad-shouldered man leaves the front rank of seats and swims down to the Speaking Stone. As he swims up to face Ervys, challenge flashes between the two Mer men. Then he turns to Faro.
“You are Saldowr’s scolhyk,” he says, “his student and more than that. You are his follower. You are not his son in the flesh but in all other things you are Saldowr’s heir.” His gaze travels over the ranks of the Mer. “Am I speaking the truth?”
The ranks of Mer sway as if a strong current has swept into the chamber. Many clench their hands together, and hold them out towards the speaker as if they’re offering support to his words. But I can see some who look sullen and angry, and sit back with their arms folded. Ervys’s followers, I think.
“You are speaking the truth, Karrek,” says Faro calmly. “I am Saldowr’s holyer and his scolhyk. You all know how Saldowr is now. He cannot leave his cave. His wound refuses to heal.”
“I have not visited Saldowr, but I have been told this,” says Ervys, as Karrek swims back to his place. “But tell us, Faro,” he goes on smoothly, but with an underlying eagerness in his voice, “is there more we should know? Is Saldowr’s condition worsening? I hear rumours that he may be readying himself for the journey to Limina—”
“No!” cries Faro. “Never! Never, Ervys!”
Ervys waits again, as Faro’s cry dies away in the huge space of the chamber. Limina… that’s where the Mer go when they’re ready to die. Faro took me there once and I remember how the old and the sick waited on the white sand, patrolled by guardian seals. Faro told me that they were waiting for death. Limina is very peaceful – even beautiful in a way – but it’s on the other side of life. Once the Mer cross that threshold, they can’t come back.
Saldowr mustn’t go there! Saldowr holds the secrets of the past and the future. What would happen to Ingo without Saldowr? How can Ervys even think of suggesting that Saldowr might be ready to go to Limina?
“Everyone goes to Limina one day,” says Ervys, as if he’s read my thoughts. His voice is calm but the words are like a clash of weapons. What does he mean? Is he trying to suggest that Saldowr is not so special, that he is just one of the Mer like any other? But that’s not true. I know in my bones that it isn’t true. Saldowr has power – he has magic that Ingo needs.
“Saldowr is the Keeper of the Tide Knot,” says Faro boldly, as if that answers all arguments. But even I know that it doesn’t, not now that the Tide Knot has broken.
Sure enough, Ervys continues smoothly, “But the Tide Knot did not hold. Can Saldowr help us now, when we have to face the – consequences?”
Faro’s face is dark with fury. “Who is there to take his place, Ervys?” he demands. The question flashes through the chamber like the blade of a sword. The Mer begin to mutter. Ervys holds up his hand.
“We are not here to debate Saldowr,” he says. There’s nothing wrong with the words, but the meaning behind them is another weapon-thrust. Ervys is hinting that Saldowr can be put aside. He has lost his power, and decisions can be made without him now.
“Then what are we here for?” I ask. Both Ervys and Faro stare at me in surprise, as if they’ve forgotten I’m here. “What are we here for?”
Ervys folds his arms.
“We are here because the Kraken is awake,” he says.
Again the ranks of Mer lift their hands. This time they cross them as Faro did in the face of the Claw Creature. Their crossed hands touch their foreheads, hiding their faces. Their index and second fingers are crossed too.
“Raise your hands, Sapphire,” says Faro urgently. “Ward off the evil.”
I begin to raise my arms, but it doesn’t feel right. Why am I doing this? I look at Ervys and Faro, who have crossed their own hands. I shake my head, although they can’t see me. “The Kraken,” I say, tasting the ugliness of the word. “Who is the Kraken?”
For a long moment, no one answers. Very slowly the hands uncross, and the Mer settle back as they were before.
“The Kraken lives in the Deep,” says Ervys. “He sleeps, and while he sleeps the Deep does not trouble Ingo. As you know, none of us visits the Deep. None of us has ever seen the Kraken. But we know that he has woken before, in the time of our far ancestors.”
“How long ago?”
“About ten life-spans.”
Ten life-spans… how long would that be? Six hundred years, or maybe seven hundred. But suddenly I realise that I don’t even know how long the Mer live. I’ve been assuming that they live as long as humans, but maybe that’s a mistake. They might live a hundred and fifty years – or fifty.
“What does the Kraken do when he wakes?”
“Don’t you know?” asks Ervys, in a voice that says, Can you really be as stupid and ignorant as that?
“Nuclear warhead,” I say. Ervys stares at me in bewilderment. “Chemical weapons,” I go on.
“Sapphire, what are you saying?” asks Faro.
“Don’t you know?”
There’s a silence, and then Ervys gets the point. Again his face stretches unwillingly into a smile. “The Kraken is a creature of the Deep,” he says.
“A monster?”
“We Mer have never seen the Kraken,” says Ervys carefully, as if even to put the Kraken into words is dangerous.
“But then what – what kind of thing is it?”
And why is it so frightening? I want to ask, but I don’t dare. The atmosphere bristles with terror. The Mer sit as still as if they’ve been carved
