I frowned. "Have we met before?"
"Well, we were not formally introduced, but that-" She nodded at my hand wherein lay the strange ivory, "-is this." The woman held up one of her hands and splayed her fingers. The digits were long and all of them ended in sharp white nails but one.
"Then you're what grabbed me?" I guessed.
She grinned and nodded. "Yep. I was trying to save you from Fox, but your transformation and him jumping in the water frightened me, so I released you and swam away."
My eyebrows crashed down as I climbed to my feet. "Save me? You almost killed me! I could have drowned!"
She laughed and shook her head. "Not with me holding onto you. We mermaids grant whomever we are touching with the power to breath under water." She stretched out her hand. "Let me show you."
I crossed my arms over my chest and firmly planted my feet into the sand. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on, and why you're in this pond in the first place."
Her smile slipped off her face and was replaced by a dark look as she drew her hand back. "I am a prisoner like you, bound to this place and under the control of Fox."
"I'm not a prisoner." It was then I remembered Emery's boundaries. "Sort of. And he doesn't control me."
"Did he not order you to swim across the pond when you did not know how?" she pointed out.
"He's trying to help me control my powers," I argued.
She laughed. "Do you honestly believe that?"
"I'm going to believe it more than a talking fish," I quipped.
She frowned and her tail slapped the water. "I am not a fish, I am a mermaid, mistress of water and the only true friend you have right at this moment."
I snorted. "That's the third time I've heard that, and the other times it got me into loads of trouble."
She smiled and held out her hand. "Then let me prove my sincerity by showing you the city."
I arched an eyebrow. "How?"
"By drawing you into my world," she explained.
I took a step back. "Uh, thanks, but I don't do water so well, remember?"
She dropped her hand into the water and sighed. "Very well. I thought I might help you with your 'training,' as I heard it called, after our fun, but I see you do not wish for me to be around. I will leave." She turned around and headed out to the deeper part of the pond.
I frowned. "Help me how?" She continued swimming out toward the middle of the body of water. "Hey! Wait a sec!" The mermaid dove down into the water and her tail gave me one final flip before she disappeared. I scrambled across the sands and splashed mid-calf-deep into the water. "I'm sorry, okay? I'd really appreciate if you'd help me out!"
Her head peeked out from the water. "You will believe me that I want to help you?"
I winced. "I don't-" She began to sink below the surface, "-okay! I believe you!"
She swam back to where I stood in the cold water and smiled up at me. "Then you will let me help you, and you will help me?"
I frowned. "I can't exactly make that promise without knowing how I'm supposed to help you."
"By helping yourself, of course," she answered.
I blinked at her. "Come again?"
"Fox holds many secrets inside his home, and the pride of his secrets is his collection of mystical items and books," she told me.
"You mean like the Myrddin Grimoire?" I guessed.
Her eyes widened. "Does he have that?"
I shook my head. "Not anymore."
Her face fell. "Pity. Such a powerful tool might have-" a soft smile crept across her lips and she shook her head, "-well, never mind. That is not what we seek. What I seek is a small plate, and what you seek is a small dagger called the Sikin Alqamar."
I flinched. "Can't I be the one with the plate?"
She shook her head. "No. The plate grants me freedom from my imprisonment within this pond, and the dagger grants you the power you seek."
"And let me guess, Fox has these things behind a couple dozen locked doors each filled with werewolf-eating sharks and lasers," I quipped.
She smiled at me. "I do not know how he protects them, but I do know they are held within the walls of his home."
I arched an eyebrow. "How?"
Her eyebrows crashed down and her expression darkened. "The plate was in my possession when I was imprisoned deep within the bowels of his castle. The whereabouts of the dagger I learned from another, along with its abilities."
I ran my hand through my hair and shook my head. "What didn't Fox have in that basement?"
"Many precious creatures, our brethren in their magnificent rarity." She balled her hands together and glared into the distance. "If I could but catch that fox in my waters I would-" She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. A smile slid onto her face as she opened them and turned her attention to me. "But revenge does not suit us, does it? And that is not what I seek. What I seek is my complete freedom, and I need my plate in order to achieve that."
"Can't you leave?" I asked her. "You know, just flop out of the water and-"
She shook her head. "No. Only my human half can rise above the surface. Otherwise I am trapped here until I recover my plate."
"But I don't know where he keeps those things," I admitted.
She grasped my hands and caught my gaze with her own. "But you will try to find them, will you not?"
I sighed and shrugged. "Why not? It'd get me out of a lot of drowning practice."
She laughed and swam back, tugging me along with her. "It is with that in mind that I wish to show you something."
I dug my heels into the sandy bottom and frowned. "Show me what?"
"Another world. My world," she explained.
I glanced at the dark waters behind her and shook my head. "I don't think I'm really up for that, and we really only just met. I mean, I don't even know your name."
"My name is Ligeia, a princess of the waters," she introduced herself as she gave a soft tug. "Now that we are acquainted, you would surely trust one who wishes your help not to drown you, do you not?"
I snorted. "I've been almost killed before for helping somebody out."
She shook her head. "I will not betray you if you will not betray me."
"And you're sure humans can breath under water with you holding them?" I persisted.
Ligeia nodded. "Absolutely."
I sighed and allowed her to pull me deeper into pond. "Why not?"
The water was almost to my neck when the survival instinct kicked in, but my momentum wouldn't be stopped. Ligeia dipped below the surface and pulled me along with her. I clapped my mouth shut and tried not to panic too much as she drew me down far below the surface.
She laughed at my swollen cheeks. "You need not hold your breath. You can breath and even speak so long as I hold your hands."
I unclenched my teeth and forced my lips to rise a little. Great was my surprise when water didn't go rushing down my throat and into my lungs. There was an invisible barrier that siphoned only air into my mouth.
"Wow," I whispered as I took in the sights.
We were nearly at the bottom of the pond far below the light of the moon, but the darkness was kept away by Ligeia's shimmering scales that illuminated the smallest details. Tall columns of seaweed towered above us and soft moss carpeted the floor. Fish scurried out of our way and small crabs clacked their claws at us.
Ligeia stopped us before a large rock with a flat surface that faced us. She opened her mouth wide and a sweet melody flowed past her lips. The serene song made the waters in front of us vibrate like droplets hitting the surface and from one of those circle of ripples came a window to another place. She swam us up to the window and turned to me before she gestured to the window. "Do you recognize this place?"
I floated closer to the surface and peered through it. My eyes widened as I beheld one of the busier intersections of the city. The angle only allowed me to look up as though peering through a sewer grate, but I recognized the skyline of apartment buildings a
nd novelty shops. In the distance rose Indigo Tower, nearly crowded out by flashing billboards advertising everything from lipstick to theater tickets.
A foot stepped down on the surface just an inch above my nose. I started back as the surface was obscured with ripples for a moment before it returned to its smooth condition. I stretched out my hand and found the mirror to be impenetrable. My palm merely pressed flat against the surface.
The magic was permanently marred when an advertisement flashed on one screen announcing the local history museum's temporary exhibit on ancient hygiene. The sponsor of the exhibit was none other than Fox, and by the advertisement he had loaned part of his own personal collection of ancient mirrors.
"I'm surprised he was willing to part with them . ." I muttered.
Ligeia sighed and shook her head. "If I had my mirror you could enjoy other sights by climbing through my mirror. As it is, we can only look." She swished her tail and stirred up the water. The image rippled and disappeared, and she drew me toward the surface. "You should return to land. Fox may notice you are missing."
I snorted. "He wouldn't notice me if I was a purple-spotted elephant."
She looked down at me and smiled. "You underestimate his affection for you."
I arched an eyebrow. "Really?"
We reached the surface and my feet touched land with my head above water. I stumbled a few yards inward before I turned to my new companion. She followed close behind and stopped just behind me. "I have lived a long time and seen much in the nature of man. What I have learned is that no man would jump so willingly into deep waters unless he cared deeply for what he was trying to save."
I furrowed my brow. "Thanks. I think. Anyway, I guess I'll see you later."
I half-turned, but Ligeia stretched out her hand to me. "A moment. I have a gift for you." She lifted her other hand from the water and revealed her broken fingernail. The nail was now strung upon a necklace that glistened as blue as the water. four pearls, two on either side of the nail, finished the dazzling arrangement. She held it out to me. "A token of our friendship."
I took the necklace and admired the shimmering beauty. "It's-I really don't know how to thank you."
"I do not need your thanks, but I would ask for your promise not to tell Fox about me," she pleaded.
I nodded. "I can do that."
She smiled at me as she swam backward. "Remember me and my plea whenever you see my necklace. Farewell."
Ligeia dove beneath the surface, leaving me alone with my treasured memories and necklace.
4
The necklace also reminded me of my own treasure hidden away by Fox, namely the dagger Ligeia had mentioned. I furrowed my brow and tucked the necklace into my pocket. First, though, I had to trust and verify.
I returned to the house and changed my wet clothes before I sought out my well-source of information, Emery. He would be more willing to answer my questions than the mysterious Mr. Fox.
I found him in the library picking over several cardboard boxes that were stacked on the floor beside the long wooden table. The top one was open and I glimpsed the covers of ancient books.
He didn't look up from his tablet as I approached him. "Was there something you wanted, Miss Rogers?"
I nodded at the boxes. "What are those?"
"Newly arrived additions to Mr. Fox's library," he replied.
I picked up the book on top and studied the worn brown cover. "Metaphysical Remains In the Old World. Sounds like some nice, light reading material."
Emery plucked the book from my hands and met my eyes. "Please handle them more carefully, Miss Rogers. Many of these books are hundreds of years old."
I met his gaze and leaned toward him. "You mean like the Sikin Alqamar?"
His eyes narrowed. "Where did you learn that name?"
I folded my arms across my chest and shrugged. "Oh, just-well, just in one of these books-" I gestured to the stacks around us, "-and I was wondering if one of those Sikin things really exists."
He set the book back in the box and pushed the bridge of his glasses up. "I suggest you-"
"Does it?" I persisted.
Emery pursed his lips. "There is such a dagger."
"And Fox has it?" I guessed.
He arched an eyebrow. "How would you know of that?"
I shrugged. "He's got everything else, why not that?" I furrowed my brow. "Speaking of that, why does he collect all these things, anyway? They just seem to get him into trouble." A smile crept across Emery's lips. I frowned. "What? It's an honest question."
"You must excuse me. I put forth the same question to Mr. Fox soon after my employment with him began," he explained.
I plopped myself in one of the cushioned chairs around the table. "And?"
Emery met my gaze with his steady, dark eyes. "He told me that many of the creatures he collected were immortal, and to a man who has everything Mr. Fox realizes how fleeting wealthy truly is. Immortality is a contradiction to everything he has attained and what is treasured in the world. Power, wealth, they all fall before time, but the creatures he captured and set away were beyond that."
"So he wants to put them in a glass prison and do what with them? Have them remind him of mortality?" I guessed.
Emery returned his gaze to his tablet and typed on the pad. "I believe I have said enough. The rest is Mr. Fox's business."
I frowned at him. "I think I'm a part of this business, especially since I'm pretty much trapped here."
"You are free to leave though I would advise you learn to control your abilities first," he reminded me.
I snorted. "And do what? Be the Bearded Lady at a circus?"
"If that occupation suits you," he returned.
"It doesn't suit me!" I shouted as I leaned forward slammed my hand down on the table. There was a loud crack of wood breaking and the table gave way beneath my hand. I raised my gloved fist and saw it left an imprint two inches deep in the solid wood.
Emery looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "You really should watch that temper."
I drew my hand back and my face fell as I stared at the floor. "I'm sorry. It's just-I don't know. I guess it's all this still happening to me." My eyes flickered up to meet the gaze of Emery. "I'm not making good progress on my training, am I?"
He swept his eyes over the remains of the table. "You have shown we needn't work on strength building."
I snorted and ran a hand through my hair. "I guess not, but I could kill somebody with a punch like that."
Emery walked over to me and took a seat in the chair opposite me. He set his tablet down beside him and clasped his hands in front of him on the table.
"Might I point out that you have yet to do so," he commented.
"Yeah, but it's not a matter of 'if,' but when," I argued.
"You doubt you can control yourself," he surmised.
I threw up my hands. "I doubt everything. You, Fox, me. There's just so much I don't understand. I feel like everything I've learned over the last couple of weeks is just scratching the surface of something larger, and Fox is keeping me in the dark on purpose just to piss me off."
"Mr. Fox has your best interests in mind," he told me.
I snorted. "Maybe as a guard dog and to fetch his other pets back, but he doesn't really care about me."
"Are you so sure?" Emery challenged me.
I frowned. "I'm pretty sure a guy who locks me up with an electric collar isn't a good guy."
"That's true, but that hardly describes your present situation," he argued.
I leaned over the table and met his eyes. "Listen, I know you're trying to convince me your boss is some sort of good guy, but I just don't have enough info to convince me that's true. He's used me as bait, he's lied to me, and-"
"He risked his life to save you from Fay Morgan," Emery added.
I pursed my lips. "All right, I'll admit it was a good deed, but one good act isn't going to excuse everything else."
Emery leaned back and pressed his glasses
against his nose. "I presume then that you don't believe in the ability of a man to change himself."
"I'll believe it when I see more proof," I replied.
"I might be able to provide that proof," Emery commented as he stood. He walked over to the desk in the corner where sat a small cardboard box. Emery took the box and returned to me where he held the box out for me to take. "This is my proof."
I frowned, but took the box and opened it. Inside was folded one of Fox's white undershirts. It was wet and smelled of pond water.
I lifted my eyes to Emery and arched an eyebrow. "Your proof is Fox's dirty laundry?"
"Lift it out," he commanded me.
I shrugged and pinched the collar to raise it out of the box. My eyes widened as the shirt unfolded to reveal two layers. One was the white outer shirt and the other was a heavier black lining on the inside. The white shirt sported large holes in the back. Those same holes only slight punctured the inner lining. "Are. . .are these from me?"
Emery nodded. "They are. In your fright you loosed your claws and they in turn dug into his shirt."
The color drained from my face as I lowered the shirt and looked Emery in the eyes. "And. . .and how do people become werewolves?" I asked him.
"Through physical contact with a werewolf's teeth or claws."
I swallowed the lump in my throat and lay the shirt back in the box. "And Fox-"
"Mr. Fox was well aware of the dangers when he dove in to the water," Emery told me.
I folded the box flaps shut and pursed my lips as my gaze lay on the top. A soft smile teased the corners of my mouth. "I guess you never know a guy until you wear his shirt."
Emery chuckled. "The great philosophers could not have said it better." He tablet made a beeping noise. Emery glanced at the screen and frowned. "I'm afraid I must cut short our conversation. It seems I have other chores to attend to," he explained as he grabbed his tablet.
Emery stood and tucked the machine inside his suit jacket. He closed the boxes of books and took the box with the shirt from me.
I leaned against the back of the chair and studied the man. He partially turned away from me before I spoke up. "What don't you do around here?"
Emery paused and turned to me with that strange slim smile of his. "That is a conversation for another day. If you will excuse me." He bowed his head and walked toward the door.