Skin Deep
by Zoe Storm

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Part the Third: I Want the Good Times Back

In Which Friends Become Sisters,
Kids Are Napped,
and a Villainous Plan Is Revealed

“Woo!” I cheered, as I broke through the water’s surface, doing a somersault high in the air before plunging back into the sea. “This is amazing!”

“What did I tell you?” Aine said. “You’re a natural at this! It’s only your third time, but you’re already moving as if you were born with a tail.”

“It does feel that way, yes,” I replied. “But you’re still much better at swimming than I am.” And it was true: Aine was faster and more agile than I was in the water – it was only natural, she’d been swimming for ten years already, while I only had a handful of hours under my belt.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it, sis,” she said, punching me lightly in the shoulder.

I blinked in surprise, but then giggled. “Sis?” I said. “Where did that come from?”

She shrugged. “Well, I mean, when you’re like this you’re like my twin. No, scratch that, you’re actually my twin. Magic.” She smiled. “So it almost feels like you’re my sister.”

“Almost? I could get offended. How long have we known each other?”

“Um… about six months?”

I laughed. “Feels longer, really. I’ve been having so much fun with you.”

Aine smiled, reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. “Same goes for me.”

“And I shall wear the title of ‘Aine’s sister’ proudly, even if it’s only an honorary one.” I paused, and then blinked. “Wait, does that mean I get to be Ursula’s niece, too?”

She inclined her head slightly, and looked at me with a smile on her lips. “Maybe? I guess so. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Why would I mind? She’s cool.” I paused again. “But if I’m going to be your sister, I’m going to need a new name to use when I’m like this. Blair’s a man’s name, after all.”

“We’ll think of one,” Aine said, and then peered at the sun, shielding her eyes with her hand. “We should have maybe four hours before they notice we’re gone, so we can go exploring to our hearts’ content. Ready?”

“Ready,” I said, and together we dove under the surface, swimming downwards, towards Aine’s home town.

So far, we’d avoided going into the city proper, to avoid being spotted by anyone: a mergirl carrying a human boy – or, worse, two identical mergirls – were sure to raise some eyebrows, especially since Aine, as the Chief Paramount’s daughter, was well known. But that day a large delegation of merpeople, with Chief Flyde at its head, had gone up to the surface for the signing of an official trade treaty between the Sea Clans and the Land Clans: so many merpeople, in fact, that the underwater city would be almost deserted – it would be the perfect occasion for Aine to show me around without us being spotted.

The treaty had been the tireless work of my father and Chief Haf, who had negotiated for months on end: the signing was a huge occasion, but Aine and I weren’t officially required to attend, so we’d been able to slip out of the proceedings without being seen, put on our seaskins, and return to the sea. We would have to be careful not to lose track of time, however, or we would have some explaining to do as to where we’d been.

Swimming down to the ocean floor was quicker than it had been the first time: after all, I could swim on my own, without Aine having to drag me along, and we didn’t have to stop so she could breathe for me. In about half an hour after diving under the surface, we were there. The shimmering city was still beautiful, a real sight to behold: an island of shining light surrounded by the pitch black darkness of the ocean depths. We stopped above it, taking in the scenery, for what felt like hours, but were probably only a few minutes; and then we dove deeper, down to street level.

The architecture was weird, to say the least: the houses were several storeys tall, and they had doors as well as windows on each floor. It took me a few moments to realise why that was, but in the end it was obvious: merfolk, after all, could swim in whichever direction they wanted to, so they weren’t limited to entering buildings at ground floor – they could just swim up to the level they wished, and go in from there.

We kept lazily swimming through the streets, with Aine stopping every now and then to point out a landmark or an important building, from statues to schools to concert halls. Aine told me merfolk had quite the appreciation for music, and there were many famous singers among them; she, however, had never been able to sing in tune, but she told me she’d borrowed Ursula’s voice once or twice – despite the appearances, the sea-witch was an accomplished contralto. (I didn’t ask how voices could be borrowed, I just assumed it had something to do with magic.)

Lastly, we made our way to Clan Flyde’s manor and explored it top to bottom: it wasn’t all that different from my own clan’s, really, the layout was quite similar once I got past the complete lack of stairs. I even managed to locate the kitchens without Aine having to direct me there, and we raided the pantry, grabbing some snacks – I finally got to taste the oysters I’d been promised many months earlier (they were indeed quite tasty), though we had to flee from the cook screaming obscenities at us and waving a huge kitchen knife in our general direction.

We made our way to Aine’s room, where we lounged by the window, looking out on the city.

“It’s a wonderful sight, it’s so bright. I had no clue a simple stone could shine so brightly,” I mused.

“I got my name from that stone, you know,” Aine said.

“Oh, really?”

She nodded. “Really. Aine means ‘radiance;’ that’s how my parents came up with it.” Then she blinked, and her eyes went wide; she snapped her fingers. “Wait, how about Meryl?”

“Meryl? For what?”

“Your name,” she said. “Your girl name. It means ‘bright sea,’ I think it would go well with mine.”

I put my hand to my chin, considering her words. “It does, actually.” I nodded. “Yeah, alright. Then from now on, when I’m like this, I’m Meryl.”

“Great!” she cheered, and leaned over to give me a hug. “Oh, we have to celebrate! I’m going back to the kitchens to get some more oysters.”

“Want me to come with?” I asked.

Aine shook her head. “No, don’t worry, it’s fine. I’ll be right back,” she said, and swam out of the room.

I started turning around to look out of the window again, but turned back when I heard Aine exclaim, “Hold on, who are you?”

“Hullo there, miss,” a man’s voice said. “Apologies, but we’re going to ask you to come with us.”

“…What?” Aine said. “What are you– no! Help!” she shouted.

As quickly as I could, I swam out of the room, too, stopping right outside the door: Aine was struggling with two mermen, one tall and stocky, the other short and thin, who had a firm hold on her.

“Alright, lass, come on now, we don’t–” the tall one said, but stopped when he spotted me; his eyes went wide, as did his accomplice’s.

“Let her go!” I said, launching myself towards them. “Let her–”

I let out a yelp of surprise and pain as the larger of the two grabbed me and roughly twisted my arm behind my back. “Ow! Let go!” I screamed.

“Quiet!” the man hissed. “Will, what in Neptune’s name is going on? Why are there two of her?!”

“I don’t know,” the shorter man replied warily, his eyes darting from me to Aine and back again. “This… is weird.”

“It is.” A pause. “What’s going on, girlies? Which one of you is Aine of Clan Flyde?”

Aine stopped struggling, and locked eyes with me; she visibly gulped. “I am Aine of Clan Flyde,” she said. “So you can–”

“No, I am Aine, daughter of Chief Paramount Gordon Flyde,” I cut her off. “Let my friend go!”

Aine blinked in surprise. “Blair– Meryl, what are you doing?!”

“I’m not Meryl, you are,” I replied. “I won’t let you take the fall for me.” I twisted myself around to look at the man who was holding me. “Heard that? Let my friend go!”

“No, let her go! She has nothing to do with this!” Aine exclaimed. “She–”

“Quiet!” the man named Will said, putting a hand on Aine’s mouth and muffling her voice; the larger man did the same with me. “Jack, what in blazes do we do? Which one do we grab?”

There was a prolonged moment of silence before Jack replied, “Both of them. Then we’ll call the boss and let him sort it out.”

“Alright,” Will said. “Come on now, let’s go. Don’t make us hurt you.”

Keeping our mouths covered and a firm grip on us, Will and Jack floated out of the window and down to street level, heading out of the city.

 

---

 

“I can’t believe you’ve done this,” Aine muttered under her breath. “Seriously, Meryl.”

“What I was supposed to do?” I hissed back. “To let them take you away?”

“Yes!” she replied. “Yes, you were supposed to do exactly that! And then call for help!”

I shook my head. “By then they would’ve taken you somewhere else. They would’ve taken you here,” I said, gesturing at the small room we were being held in, “and there would’ve been no way to find you. I’m sorry, but I refuse to let my sister be put in danger.”

“Yeah, and now we’re both in danger, instead of just me,” she rebutted. “I hope you’re satisfied.”

I hmpf-ed, but didn’t say anything.

“What do you think they want with me anyway?” Aine said.

“I have no idea,” I replied, shaking my head again. “But they were looking for you, specifically.”

She nodded. “Right. They didn’t want to grab someone at random, they wanted Aine of Clan Flyde.”

“Yeah,” I agreed; then, after a moment, I added, “Let’s see if we can find out the reason.” I turned away from Aine and then, louder, I called out: “Hey, you! Jack, or Will, or whatever!”

The two men looked up from their card game, and simultaneously raised eyebrows at me.

“Yeah, you! I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you better let the two of us go right now!” I shouted. “You know who my father is, right? His vengeance will be terrible and prolonged!”

Will chuckled. “They’ll have to catch us first. Once our job is done, we’ll just skedaddle and never come ’round here again,” he said. “So too bad.”

“And what is that job, exactly?” I asked.

“Beats me,” he shrugged. “We were just told to grab you and hold you for a while, until we got word about what to do with you.”

“Well, now you have me, so you can let my friend go,” I said.

Jack laughed. “Ha, nice try, kid. One of you is clearly Aine of Clan Flyde, so we’re not letting either of you go until the boss gets here.”

“How are you so sure?” Aine said.

“What?” Jack asked, blinking in surprise.

“How can you be sure one of us is Aine? After all, there was supposed to be just one of me. Of us,” she said. “So what if there’s a third one? The real Aine, who’s getting away right as we speak?”

The duo looked at us carefully for a moment, then Will shook his head. “Don’t try to muddle the waters, lass. Just sit tight until the boss comes here, and then he’ll tell us what to do. We’ve already sent word to him, he should be here soon.”

“Speak of the kraken,” Jack said, as there was a knock at the door. “This should be him. Keep an eye on them, Will.”

Will nodded, and Jack swam to the door, opening it and peeking out. “Hullo, boss,” he said.

“There better be an excellent reason why you two dolts have called me here,” a voice – which sounded somewhat familiar – hissed out. “I was quite busy, and I had to make up an emergency to leave the ceremony. And I can’t stay for long, either, they’re waiting for my return for the signing.”

“Yes, there’s a good reason, boss,” Jack replied. “You see, there was a problem.”

“A problem?!” the voice half-shouted. “Don’t tell me you let the girl get away!”

Jack shook his head. “We haven’t let either of them get away.”

“Either of them?”

“Probably best if you see for yourself,” Jack said, and he floated aside, opening the door fully; a tall, thin merman, his face concealed by a cloth wrapping, swam into the room, and stopped short when he spotted me and Aine.

“What in blazes?” he exclaimed. “Why are there two of her?”

“You see the problem now, boss?” Will said. “We don’t know which one is the real one.”

The tall man kept staring for a moment, then shook his head. “It’s not a problem, you buffoons!” he shouted. “Whichever is the real one doesn’t matter! You just need to hold both of them until Flyde has agreed to step down as Chief Paramount!”

“What? My father would never do that!” Aine exclaimed.

The man turned towards us. “He will, in exchange for your life,” he said, and I could hear a smirk in his voice. “And once someone resigns, he can never be Chief Paramount again.”

“But that’s blackmail,” I said. “Everyone will know he was forced to resign.”

“Chief Flyde would never go back on his word, no matter what,” the man said. “He’s an honourable man.”

He spat out the last two words in clear contempt; I gulped, and turned to Aine, who locked eyes with me, and nodded.

“Alright,” Will said. “But now there’s a small matter to discuss: our payment.”

The tall man turned back towards him. “I’ve already paid you plenty.”

“You paid us to kidnap one girl. One. Kidnapping two is a different matter entirely. The fee is higher,” Jack replied.

“If you think I will–”

“You will, or else we’ll let them go.”

A pause. “Let’s discuss terms.”

As the three mermen started talking among themselves, I turned towards Aine. “What do we do?” she asked under her breath.

“There’s only one thing we can do,” I said. “And we’ll never get a better chance than this.”

“What do you mean?”

I nodded towards the trio, and the door to the outside, which was still open: the tall man was standing in front of it, but he wasn’t paying attention to us – none of them were. “When you’re out, just swim for the coast as fast as you can. Go directly to the manor. Tell our dads about this,” I said. Then I started moving.

“No, wait!” she said. “Meryl!”

I ignored her; putting all of my strength into my tail, I launched myself forward, and barrelled into the tall man, bowling him over; Jack and Will flinched back in surprise. “Now! Go!” I shouted.

Aine hesitated for just a moment, then she too sprung forward, swimming past us and through the open door, Will and Jack grasping for her and missing narrowly.

“No!” the tall man said, trying to grab her, too, but I clawed at him, holding him back and tearing the cloth from around his face.

I gasped in surprise. “Chief Haf?”

“Chief Haf?!” Aine exclaimed, turning back.

“Don’t stop!” I shouted. “Go!”

Aine hesitated for a moment, but then turned around, and swam away as fast as she could.

“What are you waiting for, an invitation!” Chief Haf shouted, still grappling with me. “Go after her, you buffoons!”

Jack and Will looked at him for a moment, then started after Aine.

“And you, get off!” the chief shouted, grabbing me and throwing me bodily off of him; I crashed into the wall, and just floated there, dazed.

“How dare you ruin my plan!” he hissed as I shook my head to clear it. “Now I’ll…”

He paused, seemingly in thought.

“No,” he muttered. “No, I can still do this. Yes. Yes, I can do this.”

He grinned a sinister grin.

“I have a plan.”