Kaitlyn and the Secrets of the Sea
Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna
Kaitlyn and the Secrets of the Sea
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.
To my children
Introduction
An eleven year old girl who is terribly afraid of the sea one day finds out that her destiny must take her to the very bottom of the ocean. All she has to do is play the magic flute.
Table of Contents
Amazing Gift
Unexpected Complications
Under the Sea
The Mermaid
The Witch
Transfer of Power
Amazing Gift
Kaitlyn was eleven years old, and she could not swim. In real life, that is. But she could swim in her dreams, dive deep into the sea and cut through the sunlit body of green water like an arrow. And she would know all about the arrows; her father taught her archery since she was five, up until he and her mom disappeared on their boat two years ago.
But no one, not even her rock-climbing, sea-diving grandmother, could persuade Kaitlyn to learn how to swim. The farthest Kaitlyn had gone into the sea water was up to her ankles. Now, in her dreams, she soared above the ocean floor like a mermaid until cold invisible tentacles would suddenly wrap around her feet and drag her mercilessly to the bottom of the ocean into the darkness so complete and devoid of life, Kaitlyn woke up scared every time the dream occurred, once a month, sometimes more often.
Unable to go back to sleep, Kaitlyn would often climb out of the skylight window onto the roof garden and watch the stars and the sea while rocking in an old hammock. Their house was designed and built by her mom on the edge of the picturesque low cliff overlooking the ocean before Kaitlyn was born. The roof garden was planted by her father. Kaitlyn would watch the waves from it, unshaken in her belief that there was something in the water out to get her.
It was the first week of June, and Kaitlyn was enjoying a well deserved break from school. She won the local junior archery competition the fourth year in a row and got laughed at during the beach party later for refusing to get her feet wet. Both of her best friends left on a cruise ship with their families and would not be back for weeks. Her grandmother Leanne gently suggested again that Kaitlyn see a counselor in town about her fear of water and what might be causing it. For the hundredth time, Kaitlyn stoically refused, and they settled to make dinner while waiting for the taxi to bring Kaitlyn’s paternal grandmother Jane from the airport.
Jane came to stay for two months every summer after teaching classes in marine biology at Cornell University. Every year upon her arrival, the three of them would have a cordial dinner together, and the next day maternal grandma Leanne would leave to teach sea diving on a cruise ship for two months. When she came back, Jane would depart for her job at the university and not come back until the first week in June of another year. Grandmothers disagreed on how to handle Kaitlyn’s fear of water and a few other things but made it a point to get along for their granddaughter’s sake.
Kaitlyn was adding final touches to the dinner table on the rooftop when she heard high pitched voices and something that sounded like doors being slammed. She looked down and saw a battered taxi cab. Next to it, Leanne and Jane were having a rare loud argument with lots of hand waving. After a few more minutes of unprecedented drama, Leanne walked back into the house, grabbed her long prepared luggage, and, after kissing Kaitlyn on the cheek, announced that she was leaving for the airport a day early so she could catch up on shopping in town.
“See you in two months, dear. Have a nice time. Your other grandmother is insane, but she loves you in her own way. Call me on my blackberry if she creeps you out with her stories.” And she left, taking the same taxi that brought Jane in.
Grandma Jane walked in and eyed a three place setting on the table. “I saw more archery trophies in the living room on my way up here. Congratulations, pumpkin, and never mind us old crones, we are just too ancient to change our ways. I am starving! Let’s start with dessert! With an extra portion to share, we might not have to eat steamed fish and seaweed after all.”
Two hours later, seaweed, fish, asparagus and chocolate pie gone, Grandmother Jane lit the lanterns in the garden and came back from the living room holding a long wooden box. She placed it on the table and first looked at the stars just making their appearance on the sky in the dusk and then at Kaitlyn. She sighed as if in doubt and lightly pushed the box towards her granddaughter. “Go ahead and open it. It seems I have no choice but to give it to you. Without it, there are doors in your life that will remain closed forever. It can help you confront your fears and discover something out of reach to others.”
Kaitlyn stared at the battered wooden box, wondering what Jane was up to and if she had any help from Leanne. The box appeared old, like something out of an antiques store. There was some obvious water damage to the wood. It most definitely did not look like any self-help kit that Kaitlyn ever saw. Leanne bought at least two every year without fail, but Jane had always left her issues with water alone and never even talked about them, and now this! Kaitlyn wrapped the fingers of both her hands together and lowered her locked hands on her lap with determination. She was not touching that thing! Her summer vacation could not have just gone all wrong on the first day! She gave Jane what she hoped was an accusing stare worth a thousand words.
Jane let out a breath she was holding and flipped open the case. “It’s a sea flute, my dear!” Kaitlyn froze in admiration. Inside the battered box on a moss green velvety lining was the most perfect instrument she had ever set her eyes upon. It was light and elegant. Ivory white, it shimmered in the starlight. Sea creatures and weeds were carved intricately all over it. It looked alive with mystery and beauty like nothing Kaitlyn had ever seen before. She simply could not believe her eyes. A distant melody started unraveling itself inside her mind.
The flute was so breathtakingly beautiful, that if Jane told her it could perform magic, she would have believed it on the spot.
“You are going to let me keep it if I learn how to swim?” she asked eyeing her grandmother nervously. Kaitlyn taught herself flute over online lessons, DVDs, and some help from her school’s music teacher, but her flute was a lucky find at a yard sale, nothing like this amazing creation.
Jane settled more comfortably in the rocking chair. “It is yours to keep for now. I am going to tell you a story, and you can decide for yourself whether you will ever play this flute.”
The Moon rose high in the sky, and in its light Kaitlyn’s waist-long blond hair seemed as white and shimmering as the mysterious flute. Kaitlyn stretched her hand and gently touched the carved surface of the instrument. Strangely, it felt both cool and warm to the touch. She had an urge to try it out, but Jane leaned over and lifted the girl’s hand off the flute.
“Many years ago, when the oceans covered even more of the earth’s surface than today, some creatures stepped out of the water and adapted to living on land; others stayed put in the water. There is some evidence that humans made similar choices. Some adapted to living on land; others stayed in the sea. There were always legends and tall tales about sea people, mermaids, sirens, and so on. We, of course, live in the age of technology. If there is anyone out there, we should be able to record them on camera, trace them with our supersensitive equipment, and have our proof. Well, apparently, magic does not work this way.”
Kaitlyn shifted her gaze from the flute to grandma’s face. Did she just say “magic”? But Jane continued as if she was not revealing anything extraordinary. “Magic has its own rules and opens doors science would find impossible to explain. The Sea Witch who carved this amazing flute lives at the bottom of the ocean in the house near the coral tree this flute was made of. Every now and then, a blond girl with a fear of water is born in our family. She is the only one who can wake the flute’s magical powers, travel to the bottom of the ocean, and become the Sea Witch’s apprentice. In return, the Sea Witch will…”
Kaitlyn made a nervous laugh. “Will teach me how to swim?”
“Will let you come back alive, stop haunting your dreams, and may bestow a gift of magic on you if you are worthy. The trick is that you do not have to go. The Sea Witch has the most power over you when you live close to the shore and between the ages of eleven and thirteen. After you turn thirteen, nightmares and fears of water fade away and you grow up quite normal. You can even become a marine biologist like myself or teach scuba diving like Leanne.”
Kaitlyn looked closely at her grandmother. She appeared sincere.
“Why would I want to go? If the nightmares will go away in two years, I can just hang in there a little longer. Now, I know, they will go away someday. I can buy my first bathing suit in two years! You’re not lying to me, are you?”
Kaitlyn touched the flute with her fingertips again. It felt alive. A haunting melody stirred in her head.
“It is not some strange new therapy to make me give up my fears in two years? Honestly, the story does not even make sense. There is no reason for me to go and risk my life. Our creative writing teacher says the story has to make sense, there has to be why, where, when, and a good reason for things to happen. What would I be missing out on if I did not go? A few years of the Sea Witch workshop? I do not care if I ever learn how to swim. I can outshoot all the boys in our town with the bow and arrow.”
Jane, her short blond and gray hair blown by the wind away from her tanned and deeply lined face, looked at Kaitlyn. “You will be missing out on the magic. That is your one chance to learn it, my dear.”
Jane smiled, watching Kaitlyn fidget impatiently in a hammock, the girl’s eyes locked on the flute.
“I was also afraid of water until I reached thirteen. On my eleventh birthday, my great-aunt told me the story and presented me with this flute. She said magic had changed her life forever, but she was in her late eighties and considered quite loony by the family. She was so exited to tell me about it. She kept talking on and on about the wonders of the under-water mansion the Sea Witch lives in, the magic, the spells, and the dangers. She gave me an impression of being slightly insane. She said that after death she was going to turn into a mermaid, live in the sea, and stay seventeen years old forever. She had more wrinkles than a tortoise and constantly mixed up everyone’s names. I just never believed her. She died during a storm a few days after telling me, and that was that. I learned how to swim at thirteen. My life turned out very well indeed without any magic in it, until your eleventh birthday. I had almost forgotten about it all, you see. The Sea Witch came to me in my dreams every day for a month. She only stopped when I promised to give you the flute.”
Jane’s attention shifted from the now quietly listening Kaitlyn to the peacefully rolling waves. “Now, I wonder. What is it I possibly missed out on? You can have the flute, my dear. Maybe my mind is starting to go, but during all these years as a marine biologist there are some things I saw that I still cannot explain to my satisfaction. That dream, it helped me make sense of some of it.”
Jane slowly got up from the rocking chair and leaned over the rails watching the sea. After a while she spoke again. “I wish I could explain it all better. One thing I do remember now. My great-aunt Sylvia had warned me not to play the flute if I did not wish for magic with all my heart. She said it could seduce me with its powers before I had a chance to think about my choices. I never played it. I was into bugs and romance novels. Music was never terribly important to me, anyway. My parents wanted me to take some lessons on it, but the flute kept being misplaced, as if it could sense my distrust in its powers. We should go to bed now and discuss it all again in the morning. I do not know what came over me to present it to you so dramatically.”
Kaitlyn did not answer. The smell of sea air was intoxicating. Bright moonlight burned on the wooden planks of the rails surrounding the rooftop garden. Potted flowers stirred gently in the breeze. The sea was strangely quiet and peaceful. She was afraid to move, afraid to say anything, because a part of her already believed that magic was possible and, now, suddenly, it was within her reach. Jane picked up a quilt from the rocking chair and wrapped it over Kaitlyn.
“I am going to start the dishwasher, unpack a few things, and head for the shower. I am really tired from the flight. I know there’s no school tomorrow, but promise me not to stay up too late.”
Kaitlyn just nodded her head and stretched out more comfortably in the hammock.
Unexpected Complications
She picked up the flute the moment grandma Jane disappeared down the stairs. It felt so right to be holding it. A melody formed in her mind at once. She tried playing it and was rewarded with a clear and sweet sound. It had an undertone, not unlike the whispering of the waves breaking down on the shore. As Kaitlyn played, lost in the melody, the wind appeared out of nowhere and picked up speed. Droplets of seawater from the waves, now slapping the cliff under the house hard and fast, landed all over Kaitlyn.
“Oh, snap out of it,” a voice broke through the magic of the moment.
Kaitlyn stopped abruptly, shocked to see an intruder sitting on the railing on the side of the roof garden facing the sea. A boy, about her age, wearing a pair of raggedy swim trunks, jumped off the rail and walked towards her. His blond waist-long hair was dripping wet. He pushed it away from his face, revealing a strong jaw, a slightly curved prominent nose, a pair of vivid cobalt blue eyes, and a frown. There was some kind of amulet hanging around his neck.
“I’ll be taking that now.” He stretched his hand and grabbed the flute.
Kaitlyn was too stunned to resist. The boy leaped back on top of the rail in one fluid graceful jump. While standing on top of the rail, his outline dark against the light of the moon, he paused for a second to admire his prize. Kaitlyn was not about to let this wet thief get away with her destiny. She threw herself after him and grabbed the flute with all her strength. They both went over the rail, off the cliff, and they were now falling fast towards the water.
Time slowed as they were rushing heads down into the angry waves. While trying hard to pry open Kaitlyn’s fingers away from the flute, the boy gave her a quick weird look and kissed her on the cheek just as they went under. Kaitlyn’s fist connected with his jaw.
“Don’t get all excited, that was just to allow you to breathe underwater,” the boy sneered, still trying to peel her fingers off the flute, even as they were free falling through the moonlit layers of the ocean.
“I can hear him talk! I can breathe!” The thoughts shot through Kaitlyn’s mind like lightning, and she sunk her teeth in the boy’s arm. With a terrible holler, he let go of the flute. Kaitlyn shot above the waves, prize in hand. The air rushed back into her lungs. She gasped and choked, incapable of taking one single breath. A second later a strong hand clasped her ankle and swiftly pulled her back under the water where she could finally breathe.
“I am not giving you my flute,” Kaitlyn screamed as the boy swam fast and furious, dragging her deeper and deeper under water. “It is my heritage, passed on to me from my family. The Sea Witch will take me as an apprentice and teach me magic. You can’t take it away from me.”
Without slowing down or turning to look at his captive, the boy whistled shrilly and answered, “The Sea Witch is dead. I live at her place now. I guess that makes you my apprentice. My name is Tingo, your new Lord and Master.”
Before Kaitlyn could stab him with the flute, a dark shadow floated above them, and a giant stingray came to a stop at the boy’s side. Tingo turned and let go of Kaitlyn’s ankle.
“I am tired of fighting with you. He’s going to give us a ride to your new home. And before you consider splitting with the flute, chew on this -- you can not breathe out of water until I kiss you again. And the way you are behaving, I do not think I will feel like kissing you for a long, long time. Unless you give up the flute and then, we can all move on with our lives from here.”
Outraged and embarrassed, Kaitlyn looked at the flute in her hand, then at the smirking Water Boy, and smiled sweetly. “Maybe after a few days in my company you will be begging to kiss me just to get rid of me. I am thinking some sunken treasure to finance my college tuition fund would do quite nicely to allow you to kiss me and send me on my way, Water Boy!”
The boy, frozen in a yoga-like pose on top of the motionless stingray, stared at Kaitlyn, lost for words. In a little while, his face broke into a sunny smile, and he gestured for Kaitlyn to take a seat on the unmoving creature. Unsure of what else she could do at the present, she sat on the other side of the stingray, as far as she could from Tingo, and prepared herself for the war of wills with the jerk. She brought the flute to her lips to pass the time and to goad the Water Boy a little.
Without saying a word, Tingo gently patted the giant stingray, and it started moving with power and grace, like a black butterfly of the sea, away from the shore and towards the unknown. Kaitlyn continued playing the flute, its sound as beautiful and haunting underwater as above.
Tingo stretched out on top of the fluidly moving creature and closed his eyes. Kaitlyn took the opportunity to study him closer. His skin was tanned but had a touch of bluish-green tint. He was maybe a little taller than her, lean, muscled, and had lots of short and thin silvery scars all over his arms and legs. What she first took for raggedy swimming trunks was a pair of pants cut above the knees and woven from some curly seaweed. The amulet he was wearing on a short cord around his neck was an inch or so long seashell carved out of what looked like green glass.
“It’s an emerald, Princess, not glass.”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Stop calling me Water Boy! And no, I can’t read your thoughts. You’re just painfully obvious.” Tingo stood up and pointed his hand to the left. “There it is, the old witch’s house.”
Where the sandy patch of the ocean floor ended, on the edge of the steep underwater cliff, stood a three story high old mansion. It looked cut out of green marble. Tall columns in front were cracked and heavily populated by various sea life. It gave the impression of a fantasy-horror movie prop. “It makes me want to admire the special effects and complement the set designer. I can’t believe it is real,” thought Kaitlyn, clutching the flute closer to her chest. A tall coral tree with branches the same color as the flute grew on a small hill close to the entrance. The stingray came to a stop a few inches away from the stairs leading to the heavy front doors.
Tingo jumped off the stingray and gave it a friendly smack with his hand. The stingray made a sharp turn, sending Kaitlyn tumbling into the sand, touched his head to the boy’s forehead as a sign of some secret fellowship, and was off into the depths of the sea, majestic and foreboding at the same time.
Kaitlyn got up on her feet.
“I am hungry,” Tingo said, stretching his arm in a silent invitation to go up the stairs.
“I am not about to cook for you, Lord and Master,” Kaitlyn snapped, hiding her hands behind her back. “Isn’t there enough raw material swimming around to make quick sushi or something?”
Tingo started walking up to the front doors, taking two steps at a time.
“I am a vegetarian, and I am cooking for you today. Do not get used to it though. You have lots to learn, and I do not want to teach on an empty stomach.” He shook his head, making his hair dance in the water. “Hurry up. Trust me, you do not want to stay outside alone and see who comes to visit. The old lady kept some strange company.”
Kaitlyn gave a quick look over to a gorgeous landscape surrounding them. “Looks peaceful enough to me, Water Boy.”
Tingo laughed. “If the sharks or a giant squid come calling, just run and knock on the doors with the flute. I do hate the taste of human blood in the water after a meal.”
Kaitlyn ran up the stairs. “How come you’re still alive?”
“I grew up in the sea. I do not smell like food to them.”
He made a quick motion with his wrist over the double doors and whispered a few words in a language Kaitlyn could not recognize. The doors flew open. Another short command and there was light: eerie, pale blue and green light, coming from fantastic sea creatures swimming all over the ceiling. They moved constantly but did not come down or leave.
“Let’s eat at the library. You do not want to see what the Sea Witch kept in her cupboard. I’ll be chasing your vomit out of the house for months. I am pretty sure she was not a vegetarian.”
He took her hand and rushed her down the corridor past many doors, some closed, some partially opened, until they finally entered what had to be a library. It had rows and rows of books, large windows, and an oversized table surrounded by several comfortable chairs next to a fireplace that had a small group of fish moving in and out of it. Tingo pulled a chair out for her. “Make yourself comfortable, I will be right back.”
Kaitlyn fell into the chair and tried to relax, staring down at some guppies nibbling on her toes. “Maybe I fell asleep in the hammock and I’m still sleeping,” she hopefully imagined waking up to a...
But she did not want to wake up yet. If this was a dream, she was willing to let it last a little longer. As far as dreams go, this was quite a trade-off from her usual nightmares.
The guppies fled as the doors rushed open, and Tingo fell into the room balancing a tray full of dishes in one hand and a large knife with a wickedly long, shiny black handle encrusted with blood-red stones in the other. He threw the knife towards Kaitlyn, and it stuck into the dark polished wood of the table inches away from the girl. Then he crash landed the tray in front of her. After playfully pulling the knife from the wood, he started chopping and cutting and slicing a variety of weird looking weeds, all the while whispering and occasionally cheering himself by tasting little bits of it and smacking his lips. Almost in no time, the little portions of things slimy and dried, thin and fat, moving and still, all unquestionably suspicious looking dishes, were arranged in front of Kaitlyn by a triumphant Tingo.
“Eat,” he said. “This is absolutely the best stuff.”
He grabbed a handful of slimy and wiggling weeds and made a blissful face. Kaitlyn chose a cup with short dark roots in it that resembled straight pretzel sticks and tentatively put one in her mouth. It melted on her tongue like the best, most savory vegetable cracker she ever tried. By the end of the meal, Kaitlyn tried everything that was not slimy or still moving. At least she was not going to starve as she spent time figuring out how to get the Water Boy to release her.
Tingo stretched out in the chair across the table from her. His long blond locks were entertaining a couple of seahorses, who were either playing hide-and-seek in it or setting up a nest. He stared at Kaitlyn from under incredibly long, bushy lashes and said in a reasonable voice, “I’d like to keep you around for chores and such, but your grandmother is going to go crazy in the morning, call police, start looking for you everywhere. Just give me the flute and I’ll do it.” He made a kissing motion with his lips and rolled his eyes. “And you will be back where you belong, and the flute will be back where it belongs. I can even dig up some old golden coins lying around for your college fund as a sign of good will on my part.”
He crossed his legs and tickled a seahorse’s tail with his long musical fingers. “I can always wait until you fall asleep and simply lift it from you, kiss you, and let Shadow return you home.”
Kaitlyn watched Tingo observe her carefully, waiting for an answer, and it suddenly dawned on her: “That’s it! Sometime after trying to steal it from me, you must have realized that I have to give it to you, out of my own free will, or the magic will not work for you! You slimy jerk! You did not think I could guess it!”
She crossed her hands over her chest and smiled. Tingo did not look so smug anymore. He picked up a dish from the table and threw it at the fireplace.
“Do you have to be so smart?! What do you want in exchange? Just be reasonable. I can make you very rich, or I can become very nasty company!”
Kaitlyn got up from the chair, flute in hand. “I think, now that we leveled the playfield, I want you to show me around the house.”
Tingo pulled his hair in a ponytail and gave her a cold stare. “Do not get too sure of yourself. Let’s start our tour with the dungeon--your new bedroom.”
He walked up to the wall on the left of the fireplace and pushed something invisible. The fireplace swung open revealing a narrow staircase disappearing into the inky darkness. A sudden unease rushed over Kaitlyn, as if something evil and cold was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. She barely suppressed a shiver.
“I am going to look around,” she announced. “You can make yourself comfortable in this basement if you wish. I like my breakfast at 8:00 a.m.”
Without waiting for an answer, she marched out of the library and took the first door to the left. Tingo did not follow.
Under the Sea
The Sea Witch’s house was packed with all kinds of knick-knacks and treasures. Every piece of furniture was a piece of art holding its own. Statues, musical instruments, lavishly decorated boxes of a variety of sizes, spooky creatures in sealed glass jars. Kaitlyn could not decide if some of them were alive or dead; everything seemed to move underwater. After wandering around for a while, she started to feel tired. She explored most of the rooms, staying clear of the kitchen. Kaitlyn decided to take Tingo’s warning about it to heart. Few of the doors stayed locked, despite the efforts she put into tugging and pulling on them. Some did not have any doorknobs at all.
Finally, she came upon what could only have been the Sea Witch’s bedroom. The bed, shaped like a fishing boat, hung like a hammock between two marble posts. The bedding was knitted from various seaweeds, decorated with gorgeous pearls of different shapes and colors. The bed swayed lightly side to side. A giant dresser, with three exceptionally smooth, dimly glowing silver mirrors above it, stood by one of the bedroom walls. There was a chair, hundreds of little boxes, and several exquisite hairbrushes. A giant walk-in closet took the entire wall opposite to the dresser and mirrors. The doors to it were wide open, and various clothes moved with the water as if performing a slow dance. Two floor length mirrors of the same spectacular luminosity as the ones above the dresser hung on the back wall of the closet.
Kaitlyn lay down on the bed, stuck the flute under the pillow, and, without letting it go from her hand, fell asleep within minutes. A little while later, the surface of one of the mirrors above the dresser became all cloudy and murky. A second later, Tingo swam out of it, a pillow and a blanket at hand. He pulled a small but dangerous looking spear from under the blanket that he had brought with him, set a place on the floor next to the peacefully sleeping Kaitlyn, and also went to sleep after casting a few sparks from his right hand and creating a thin circle of flames around the girl and himself. He whispered a few words in a strange melodic tongue and fell asleep, spear in hand.
In her sleep, Kaitlyn once again found herself underwater in total darkness. She could feel the cold tentacles wrapping around her feet, tugging her deeper and deeper towards the ocean floor. She screamed and screamed but could not wake up. Somehow she remembered that she still held onto the flute with one hand. She tried beating on the tentacles with it to no avail. Suddenly, she knew that she had to play it. Kaitlyn brought the sea flute to her lips, and a melody instantly flowed from her lips into the instrument. The tentacles let go of her ankles, and she heard a distant laughter, followed by applause. The darkness around her started to melt away, slowly replaced by water like liquid silver. She was sinking into it, her feet already invisible, when something or someone grabbed both her shoulders, shaking her awake and trying to pry the flute away from her mouth and out of her hands. Kaitlyn opened her eyes. Tingo was furiously battling her for the flute. They were on top of the dresser and somehow half submerged into the right mirror. Kaitlyn gasped in shock, and Tingo used that time to pull them both out of the mirror. Soundlessly, they toppled on the floor. See-through silvery tentacles retreated into the mirror, and it was smooth and solid looking seconds later.
Kaitlyn untangled herself from Tingo’s embrace, got up, and walked to sit down on the bed, flute in hand. “I am going to want a glass of cold fresh water first. Then, you’re going to tell me everything you’re not telling me that I need to know about this place.” Her voice shook a little, and she felt adrenaline rush through her blood and pound in her be ears like a swarm of bees.
Tingo gave her a marginally guilty look. He put his blanket over Kaitlyn’s shoulders and picked up his spear. “I am going to the kitchen to bring you back some fresh water, and then we will talk.”
Kaitlyn jumped off the bed in a flash. “No way I am staying here alone, with these mirrors!” She clutched the blanket over her shoulders. “After this, I am ready to face whatever is stored in that kitchen just fine.”
“Finally scared, princess?!” Tango laughed and pulled her by hand after him. Just looking at his smirking face fired her up.
“How about you give me that spear you so bravely brought with you, and I will save you, too, if something jumps out of the kitchen sink or if the walls develop grabbing hands or something,” Kaitlyn snapped, her eyes glowering.
She saw Tingo involuntarily cast a quick glance at the particularly dark and filthy wall they were passing and lightly twitch his shoulders. Kaitlyn smiled and walked a little straighter. In a little while, they made it to the kitchen.
It looked perfectly normal, except for being immaculately clean and three times larger than the living room at Kaitlyn’s spacious house. The Sea Witch’s kitchen had a large stove, a fireplace, and all the walls were lined with cabinets. Counter tops were pure white marble. No jars with wiggling pets here. She even had a refrigerator made of pure green ice. A huge block full of wicked looking knives stood on one of the counters. Schools of small fish danced around the stove top.
“How did she cook with all that water, and what was so scary about it that you did not want me here?” asked Kaitlyn after landing on the chair.
Tingo took a glass full of clear liquid out of the refrigerator and handed it to Kaitlyn.
“Magic. And I had my reasons for wanting you out of the kitchen.”
He sat on a chair next to her and picked up a knife from the block. From the cabinet on his left, he pulled a couple of glass jars with weeds and, after taking a handful out of each, proceeded to chop them and slice them in total silence. He did not use a cutting board, but the marble countertops seemed unaffected by the pounding of the scary blades flashing through the air in Tingo’s capable hands.
Kaitlyn finished her water and put the glass on the counter. She picked up a piece of the seaweed and bravely nibbled on it. It tasted like a raw carrot dipped in sea salt. Tingo ignored her.
“You have to tell me whatever you are trying to hide from me. You also probably have to kiss me and let me go, flute included. My grandma Jane is not an early riser when on vacation, but eventually even she wakes up. She is pretty relaxed about me leaving the house for a while, but in a couple of hours she will start getting worried.”
Tingo raised his head and narrowed his eyes, studying Kaitlyn’s face, lost in his thoughts. She could tell that he was trying to make a decision about her that may change her life somehow. One thing she was absolutely sure about, she was not handing over the flute.
Tingo sighed. “And I care about your grandmother getting worried because she will ground me and take away my allowance? Why don’t you just give it up?! I can give you enough gold to buy a magic life anywhere in the world! Don’t bother to answer. I can see it in your eyes. You are not going to be reasonable. Well, here is the truth. The Sea Witch is crazy. She is gone from our world and stuck inside one of the passages that passes through the magic mirrors. She is not dead, but she cannot get out without help from some very dark magic. She can manipulate you through that flute. You are a distant descendant from her son who left the sea hundreds of years ago to marry a mortal. They parted on very good terms. She gave him a flute to pass from one blonde, water-fearing daughter to another. The Sea Witch knew that these girls would have the ability to come underwater and study magic with her. Being able to pass her knowledge through generations of her family kept her young forever. She was stunningly beautiful, kind, and always very powerful. The mermaids told me that even Poseidon asked for her help now and then. Over the years, however, things started to change. Fewer and fewer girls came underwater to study with her. She was lonely for her own kin and, lately, pollution in the water started getting to her. It was time for her to go, to move on to another world. The Sea Lore says that Sea Witches know when it is their time to go. The Sea Witch has to name a successor, somebody with a magical bloodline. The successor has to be willing and worthy. The house and the flute both have to accept the successor.”
Kaitlyn stopped watching the guppies and turned to Tingo. “Are you talking about my flute? Is that why you want it, so you can become the next Sea Witch?” She did not know whether to laugh or take him seriously.
“A Wizard,” quickly corrected Tingo. “A Sea Mage.”
“Isn’t there an age limit, or a law something like a person not old enough to vote or to get a driver’s license, can’t be Ruler of the Sea?” Kaitlyn laughed.
Tingo did not seem to care. He locked his jaws and went on. “Poseidon is the ruler of the sea. The Sea Witch or Wizard is the keeper of its secrets. They retain the balance of good in the ocean and keep the darkness at bay.”
“And you know how to do it all?” Kaitlyn raised her eyebrows, skeptically evaluating Tingo head to toes. “What were you planning to do with my flute? Stab the Witch with it and take over? Show the flute to merpeople to prove you are the one?”
Tingo suddenly looked a little embarrassed. “I need it to save her and to prove to her that I am the one. It is a bit of my fault that she is stuck in the mirrors. Shadow and I were playing the bait-the-sharks game, and it kind of got out of hand. We were trying to escape from some seriously hungry sharks and accidentally swam into her open kitchen window when she was casting a spell in front of the mirror. She had the mirror on the stovetop, and we spilled the potion on it and sort of pushed her in when we crash landed in her kitchen.” Tingo pointed to his scars. “I still have all these scars from the way that mirror tried to claw me in, too. The Witch kept screaming that it could not happen yet, that she needed the final ingredient. She cursed, and she yelled, but the mirror sucked her in and sealed the door. I was lying on the floor bleeding when it dawned on me that the house let me and Shadow in! Nobody could get near this mansion unless the Sea Witch allowed it, only her successor.”
“Maybe it is Shadow,” suggested Kaitlyn with a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
“He got in after me. I was willing for him to follow me when we were escaping sharks,” answered Tingo, a small dose of fanatical glow firing up his remarkable blue eyes. “I was cut rather badly, shocked, and kind of scared to be here, so we decided to get out as fast as we could. He carried me out of the mansion when one of the mermaids happened by and saw us swimming out of the window all battered. She helped me treat my wounds and explained that because the house let me in, the Sea Witch could not harm me, and I had a right to stay here until she decided whether to name me her successor.” Tingo got up and pulled a glass of cold water from refrigerator. He drained it thirstily and went on. “I thought she would be back in a couple of hours, but days, then weeks went by, and I was still living here, all alone. I started exploring the house, reading. I had all kinds of visitors, but no one can get closer than twenty feet or so to the mansion unless I invite them in. The mermaid who helped me still comes by to check on me. I let her in. It has been like that for three years.”
“Just how old are you?”
“Thirteen.” Tingo looked at Kaitlyn. “There is something else. For some reason I can’t understand, she’s really mad at you. Once I became familiar with the house and sure that it was not going to hurt me, I started traveling through her magic mirrors. All other mirrors are interconnected; each has a way to see inside another. When I pass through them, I see her locked in a circle of burning black flames calling for your blood. She is always screaming something about an apprentice who betrayed her, her own kin, calling out your name over and over. I can’t understand everything she’s saying, but I know she needs the flute to be free. I think if I can help her get out after sending you on your way, I can convince her that I am the successor, and she won’t come after you. I watched you both for about three years. I am pretty sure I can work this out between the three of us.”
Kaitlyn almost fell off the chair. “You spied on me for three years?”
Tingo moved his hair away from his face with the knife and put a piece of seaweed in his mouth. “I feel that I got to know you pretty well while I was waiting for your Grandma Jane to finally present you with the flute. I thought she was going to show up on your eleventh birthday in January to do it, but she waited until summer.”
Kaitlyn nervously tapped her fingers on the glass. She was a private person. The thought of someone secretly watching her for three years was creeping her out.
“Why didn’t you just introduce yourself before? Provided that I believed you, I may have asked Jane for the flute earlier.” She waited for him to answer, trying to come to terms with it all.
“I almost did, but then your parents disappeared and you were so depressed. I did not think you would have believed me, either. I tried to steal it from your Grandma Jane’s house, but I could not find it. As I said, waiting three years was not easy. I almost approached you several times when you were hiding from your nightmares in the roof garden. A couple of times you even sensed my presence.” Tingo hugged an imaginary sphere with his long, agile fingers and an orange sized air bubble came out from under them with a moving picture of Kaitlyn sadly hugging her knees in a hammock on a rooftop.
Kaitlyn stared at the living picture of herself wearing old pajamas and a wrinkled bathrobe. “How do you know about my nightmares? I do not remember telling you. Are you the one responsible for them?”
Tingo popped the bubble with a knife and smiled like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. “You’ve got to be kidding. Come on, remember: Dear Diary, I cannot sleep, again!” Tingo rolled his eyes. “All girls are crazy about them. Even some mermaids have them.”
For Kaitlyn, this was the final straw. She jumped to her feet and went after him with a chair. “You read my diary! You jerk! You searched my room! I am going to kill you! I am going to learn some of that magic, and you are going to spend the rest of your life at the bottom of the toilet in the boys’ restroom in my school. You! Total! Jerk!”
Tingo swam above her head and grabbed onto the chair from the other end. “Take it easy! I know this was a day full of revelations for you. No need to feel embarrassed. Just to make you feel better – the Sea Witch wrote a diary since she was seven. About half of the library is written by her; a lot of it is serious magic, the rest is how she feels about stuff.” Tingo rolled his eyes and shook his body, laughing soundlessly.
Angry Kaitlyn was on a path of war. “Apparently you know how to read! How about writing, manners, respecting privacy of other people! Do you brush your teeth or just your hair?” She let go of the chair, grabbed an empty glass from the counter and threw it at him, going for the head. She barely missed. The porcelain bowl was next, and it found its target. Encouraged, and feeling somewhat bloodthirsty, Kaitlyn stared at the knives.
“How about a haircut, Water Boy?”
And she made a jump for it.
Nervously following her eyes, Tingo let go of the chair, and, using a quick spell, swiftly eliminated the butcher block from participating in the throwing party by stashing it in one of the cabinets. He swam all the way up to the ceiling and spoke from there.
“Take it easy! We have a bigger problem on our hands. The Sea Witch is getting close to freeing herself. Because of your connection through the flute, she somehow almost reached through the safe mirror and kidnapped you. If she succeeded in dragging you into the circle of black fire in the dark mirror she is trapped in, you would be long dead. That’s why I think you should be getting out of here.”