don’t know. I used to hate him. I still do hate him sometimes…”
“I could deal with him for you,” says Faro, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. “Next time he’s in the sea, I can be there also.” He flexes his shoulders, and the muscles ripple.
“No, Faro.” Sometimes it seems that Faro might do anything.
He frowns darkly. “Your enemies are my enemies, Sapphire.”
But just at that moment something distracts him. There’s a flurry of foam on the calm water about a hundred metres out beyond the mouth of the cove, in deep water. Mackerel maybe. Or perhaps – perhaps even a dolphin…
Faro leans forward, watching the water intently as if he’s reading it. The surface breaks into a shower of glittering drops. I think I catch the shadow of a tail under the clear water.
“It’s a dolphin, Faro.”
“No. It’s one of my people.”
My heart thuds. One of the Mer. One of Faro’s people.
“It’s not my sister,” murmurs Faro. “No, it’s a signal. I must go.”
He turns to me, his eyes glowing with excitement. “Wait here. Don’t move.”
And in a second he’s gone, pushing himself off the rock, slipping beneath the surface in one smooth, strong dive. I watch him swim deep, his tail driving him out towards the mouth of the cove, and then he disappears.
I wait. I know he’ll come back. Faro always does everything he says. I look up and see a scud of cloud coming in, covering the sun. It’s past low tide now. Soon the water will be rising. I mustn’t stay too long or I’ll get caught by the tide. Soon it’ll be time to climb the steep, familiar path over the rocks, back up the cliff to home.
Conor’s in St Pirans, helping our friends Patrick and Rainbow to clean out their cottage, which is right on the beach. The full force of the flood hit it, and they’ve lost everything, even the windows and doors. Everything inside their cottage was smashed to pieces.
Conor took Sadie with him because Rainbow was desperate to see her again. She loves Sadie. Thinking about Rainbow makes me feel guilty because I haven’t seen much of her since we moved back here. She wants to be friends, and I want to be friends, too, but it’s complicated. I keep thinking, would Rainbow still want to be my friend if she knew the truth about me? If she knew that I had Mer blood and half belonged to Ingo? If she could see me sitting on this rock, now, with Faro? I’m afraid Rainbow might blame me for what Ingo did to St Pirans that night.
It’s all too complicated. I’m not going to think about it any more. Mum and Roger are buying stuff over in Porthnance. I didn’t use to be allowed to come down to the cove without Conor, but I’m older now, and Mum hasn’t said anything about it since we’ve been back. And anyway I’m not on my own. I’m with Faro. No one could keep me safer in the sea than Faro.
At this moment, Faro’s head breaks the surface, sleek and shining. He pushes back his hair.
“Sapphire! Come quickly!”
“The water’s freezing, Faro. It’s only April. I’ve got human blood as well as Mer blood, remember? I’ll get hypothermia.”
Faro shakes his head impatiently. “Come on, Sapphire. I’m not talking about the swimming that humans do. Come to Ingo with me.”
To Ingo. I won’t feel the cold there. The water will envelop me, and feel like home. I’ll dive beneath the surface, through the skin of the sea, and my lungs will burn just as Faro’s burn when he enters the Air. But not too badly. Like Faro, I don’t feel the change so much these days. The sea change. A thrill of excitement runs through me. But I still hesitate. Time in Ingo isn’t like our time. I might be in Ingo and think only an hour had passed, while it could be a whole human day. Mum has had enough fear and worry. Conor and I haven’t been into Ingo since the night of the flood. We’ve kept close to home.
“Quickly, Sapphire! My friend is here, waiting. There’s an Assembly.”
“What’s an Assembly? Is it like a Gathering?”
My heart quickens again. When I was in Ingo with Faro last autumn I saw crowds of the Mer in the distance, their beautiful cloaks of shell and net glimmering around them, on their way to a Gathering. It sounded like a wonderful party, but Faro wouldn’t let me go. I didn’t even get close enough to speak to the Mer. But maybe this time I will. I’ll get to know Faro’s people. Maybe I’ll have a cloak, too—
“No,” says Faro, “a Gathering is for pleasure. An Assembly is more… more serious. My friend has been sent to summon you.”
“Summon me!”
I stand up on the rock, and draw myself to my full height. “Summon me, Faro? Who is he to summon me?”
Faro looks up at me, and I look down. I feel the power in him. Mer power, strong as a magnet. But I feel the power in me, too, rising to meet his. I’m his equal. We stare at each other, and neither of us looks away.
At last Faro says, “They’re asking you to come, Sapphire. They need you there.”
“That’s not what ‘summon’ means, Faro.”
“Maybe that was the wrong word. Don’t be angry.” A persuasive smile flickers on Faro’s face. “Come, Sapphire. Come.”
I look behind me. The white sand of the beach, and then rocks and boulders rising almost to the lip of the cliff. The way home. I look back at Faro’s face, and then beyond him to where I think I see a shadow waiting, deep in the water. One of Faro’s friends. The Mer want me to go to an Assembly.
Maybe this means that the Mer are letting me deeper into Ingo now. An Assembly… If it’s for something serious, as Faro says, maybe Saldowr will be there. Surely they’d need him there, because Faro says Saldowr is the wisest of the Mer. I want to see him again. I hope the wound in his shoulder has healed. He was so badly hurt in the struggle to seal the Tide Knot again that I was afraid he would die.
So far, even though I’ve been to Ingo many times, I’ve only met Faro and his sister Elvira and Saldowr, and seen the shadows of other Mer swimming in the distance. There are bound to be a lot of them at the Assembly. Hundreds, maybe. And I’ll meet them face to face.
Excitement pulses in me like a rising tide. Senara, Mum, Conor, Sadie are already shrinking in my mind. They’re just as clear, but small and distant, like images at the wrong end of a telescope. Ingo is holding out its arms to me.
“I’ll come,” I say, and I swing my arms forward, and dive from the rock.
As soon as we’re out of the cove, the sea bed plunges away beneath us. We dive deep, through the turquoise surface water and into the rich blue-purple that lies beneath. Faro’s friend swims ahead. I watch the swish of his tail from side to side as it drives him through the water. Sometimes I think he glances back to see if we’re following, but
