I was so distracted by the calmness of the water around us that it took me a second to realize what was going on in the other boat. There was a splashing sound, and the water around them began to broil. Cain’s grandfather was yelling suddenly, leaning over the side with the shotgun pointed at the water.

There were only two figures in their boat now. What had happened to the third man? How had he disappeared so fast?

I braced my hands on the railing, staring over the side at the spectacle across from us, and beside me, Eli gave a shout of alarm. The water around our boat had begun to bubble as well, and then slowly something began to surface.  A flash of violently red hair, large black eyes, and a pair of pale, milk-white shoulders.

My mouth dropped open. There was a woman in the water, and she was staring straight at me. More yelling from the other boat made me glance over on time to see Cain’s grandfather stumble backwards onto the deck, yanking his gun out of the grip of another woman who had just shot up from the surface of the water. I caught a glimpse of shiny, wet scales before she plunged back down into the depths of the ocean.

“Mermaids!” I hissed at the woman, and beside me, Eli made a noise of sheer astonishment.

“Mermaids are real?”

Before I could comment on the stupidity of his statement, or point out that his family had been experimenting on Jotun for years, the woman spoke.

“Valka Nystrom, Aegir Sea God welcomes you.” The woman pulled back her lips in a bright smile, which was ruined by a row of sharp teeth flecked with blood. “My sisters have distracted your enemies. Come.”

I glanced at Cain’s boat again. Cain was still crouched beside the wheel and his grandfather waved the rifle around. Every time the surface broiled again, the old man would let off a shot, which echoed across the water and made Eli and I jump.

“Don’t worry about the mer-sisters, they swim swiftly.” She smiled wider. “His iron pellets will not touch them.”
            “Well…thanks,” I said lamely. Though I was grateful for the help, my people knew better then to trust mermaids. We had all grown up with stories about them. They lied and cheated and tricked you. Men walked into their arms, smiling, only realizing later that they’d embraced their own death.

“I am Cassa,” the mermaid said. She beckoned with her fingers, and I noticed she had long, sharp nails. “Come, come.”

I wasn’t a fan of the way her eyes kept drifting to Eli. And the fact that she was beckoning towards the water. It seemed like she expected us to follow her into the sea. “Look, thanks for your help, but neither of us can breathe under water.”

The mermaid, Cassa, tipped her head back, bathing her ropy red locks in sea water. She laughed, and then locked eyes with me, smiling again. I was beginning to hate that smile. “You have the touch of water about you, love. You can breathe as well as I can.” Her black eyes drifted back to Eli. “He will be provided for.”

I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t like it. “I’m sorry, we have to go.”

“You deny a summons from the king? He greatly desires to see you.”

The water around Cassa was stirring, and shapes appeared below the surface, hair waving like seaweed, more bare shoulders and white skin. Other mermaids were swimming up to the boat. Nervous, I tugged Eli back from the railing.

“Tell the king I’m sorry, send my formal apologies.”

Cassa pursed her lips. “Very well, but he send a gift for you, in case you need it.”

She reached back, and I wasn’t sure where she pulled the shell from. It might have been in her hair. It was a small, conical shaped orange conch.

            “If you use this he will come help you. Anywhere the ocean lies. Are you sure you won’t come to him, sea daughter?” Cassa reached up towards me, holding the shell on the palm of her hand. Cautiously I bent to take it.

            “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

            “Shame.”

            The second her fingers closed around my wrist I knew how foolish I’d been. Mermaids never helped without a price. They never did anything that made any sense, except in their own twisted logic. Cassa’s grip on my wrist was like iron. The world was a blur as she yanked me forward. The railing hit my hips so hard it left a bruise, and then I was toppling over, and Eli was yelling behind me, reaching for me. His yells were cut off as I hit the water with a smack so hard it sent bursts of darkness across my eyes.

            Air. I needed air, more than I needed anything. My lungs were on fire, straining, bursting. Everything around me was dark, underwater dimness, the light from the surface barely cutting through. Something was still gripping my wrist, pulling me down and down, dragging me into the depths of the ocean.

            Panic made me struggle, but still the surface grew smaller and smaller, the light grew dimmer. I wasn’t sure if I was dying from lack of oxygen, or we were just going so deep into the ocean that the light was fading.

            If I didn’t get air soon I would die. The urge to give in and breath in water was overwhelming.

            “Don’t resist it, the more you do the more it hurts.”

            The voice was strangely clear. It should have been warbley and warped through the water, but when she spoke again I realized with a stab of horror, that the voice was in my head. The voice was Cassa speaking directly to me.

            “Breathe, the water will not invade your lungs. The water will not harm you.”

            I didn’t believe her, not for a second, but I didn’t have any choice. My lungs were going to burst. Finally I shut my eyes, opened my mouth and gasped, sure the water was about to flood in and drown me, fill up my lungs until I sank to the bottom to die.

            There was no flooding sensation in my chest, no strangling lack of oxygen, just…air. Shocked, I opened my eyes. The water was flowing around my mouth, forming a strange bubble each time I took another breath.

            What…

            “Your body is pulling the oxygen from the water.” Cassa’s voice in my head sounded amused. She hadn’t turned around, she was still facing away from me, her bright hair streaming behind her as she towed us deeper into the ocean. “You should have trusted me and breathed earlier, sea daughter.”

            "I don’t trust mermaids." I tried to think directly at her, and Cassa actually looked back this time, brow creased in annoyance.

            “Don’t shout, sea daughter. I can hear you fine the way you were thinking before.”

            Alarmed, I tried to stop our downward swim, yanking back on her arm. She could hear my thoughts?

            “Your thoughts are practically projected at me.” She sounded almost scornful now. “Complete with your unflattering opinion of my people.”

            I blinked against the gloom, surprised to be feeling guilt. "I’m…sorry."

            “Come, Aegir wishes to see you.” She turned back to the depths again, began towing me downwards again, and I was about to protest that I didn’t want to go to the bottom of the ocean where it was pitch black, when a glimmer of silver light hundreds of feet away caught my eye. Then another and another, until it looked like the bottom of the ocean was lit by thousands of tiny stars. Like the night sky was reflecting back at me.

            "What is that?"

            “It is the Ocean King’s domain. Wait, you will see. It is very beautiful.”

            But I didn’t want to see, I wanted to get back in the boat and get to my people. I wanted to find Eli and…

            Oh, Eli…A surge of guilt swept over me. True, I had been busy nearly drowning and being towed around by a maniacal mermaid, but still…I had forgot about him.

            “Your friend is safe,” Cassa said. “And I am not maniacal.”

            I really hated this mind reading thing.