Chapter 10

"It's an unusual case," Halt said softly. The woman, who went by the name Bridget, buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking in unsuppressed sobs.

Will found this extremely awkward. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say or do in this kind of situation. It was their second day in Selsey and they had gotten ahold of Bridget, one of the mother's whose child had drowned. They were sitting around her kitchen table, nursing cups of herbal tea, while they interviewed her- or rather, Halt interviewed her, while Will shuffled his feet under the table.

"How so?" Bridget managed to choke out between sobs. Halt gently rested his hand on top of hers, squeezing it lightly.

"Most of the strange drownings were children," he explained, still speaking in the soft tone that one did to someone who might break at any second. "That's unusual. Mermaids will usually target men if they are going to drown anyone." Earlier in the morning, Halt had explained that if the mermaid was good, it should have noticed it was killing people and it would stop returning to Selsey. He suspected it might be causing these drownings deliberately. Will had puzzled over this for a while, because mermaids were supposed to be creatures of the 'light'.

Bridget clenched her fists. Her body was shaking. "Then why my son?" she whispered.

"I don't know that yet," Halt told her. "Perhaps he was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. But anything you can tell us will help."

Bridget brushed tears off her cheeks. Her eyes were redrimmed, and it was all too obvious that she had not slept for days.

"You'll find this mermaid, right?" she asked, spitting out the word 'mermaid'. "You'll avenge my son? Please, ranger, avenge him!"

"We'll do everything we can," Halt said calmly. "Can you tell us what happened on the day you found out?"

Bridget nodded. She took a moment to collect herself and had to swallow several times. When she spoke, her voice was no more than a whisper, and it cracked at times."It was just a normal day. My husband was out fishing. I was at home doing the laundry and caring for the kids. Aiden always like to play at the river. He told me he was heading out there with some friends." She took a deep breath; pressed her trembling hands together. "I should have known. There were all these rumours about the mermaid, but I just didn't think and I let him go." She heaved a shuddering sigh that rocked her whole body.

"It's not your fault," Halt assured her. "You couldn't have known this would happen."

Bridget managed a small smile. "Thank you ranger," she said. "Anyway, I knew something was wrong when he wasn't home for dinner. Aiden was never late. Never. So I got my husband and his friends to look for him and they...they..." She couldn't finish, but Halt didn't need her too. He already knew Aidens body had been found in the sea. Which raised another question.

"Aiden went to the river, not the coast?" Halt asked. There was a wide river that flowed out to the ocean, and provided a popular picnic spot for Selsey residents.

"Yes," Bridget nodded. "I'm sure of it." In that case, the body must have drifted out to the ocean. She saw Halt's cocked head and explained, "there was a stray horse around there. A black mare. Aiden would always describe it to me and he liked to see it. He always asked if he could keep it."

"What about the other kids?" Will put in. "You said Aiden went with his friends to the river."

Bridget swirled her tea. The steam had long since faded as it cooled, but the cup remained full. "They were never found."

There seemed to be nothing to say, and all three of them fell into a tense silence as the words lingered. Will closed his eyes briefly, to pay respect to the young kids- who had aged around eight years old according to reports- whose lives had been cut short.

"Well, thank you for your time," Halt said eventually, standing up and offering his hand for her to shake. Bridget clung to it, evidently savouring the comfort she got from physical contact.

"Find that mermaid, ranger," she said.

"Like I said, we'll do our best," Halt told her. "You've helped a lot."

As they mounted their horses and rode away from the house, Halt appeared to be deep in thought. Will glanced at the hard line of his mentor's jaw.

"What now?" he asked.

Halt was shaken from his reverie. He stretched his arms up, held them to the sun for a moment, then let them drop back to his sides.

"I'm thinking we might split up," he said. This alarmed Will- he wasn't confident that he had the ability to handle situations on his own, and he was in a town foreign to him.

"Split up?" he repeated.

Halt's eyebrow twitched. "Yes, Will. I just said that. Split up."

"Why? What am I supposed to do?"

Halt rolled his eyes. "You can stop asking questions for a start."

Will shut his mouth. He was about to retort that if he didn't ask, he'd never found out anything, but he realised that Halt didn't answer his questions anyway.

"Good," Halt nodded and proceeded to say nothing further. Will groaned aloud.

"Halt! Please!" he whined. "I want to know what's happening."

Halt turned in the saddle to hide the shadow of a grin forming on his face. "Alright," he conceeded. "I'm going to meet with the rest of the families whose children have either drowned, or disappeared. You, on the other hand, are going to take off that ranger cloak, go to the tavern to listen to conversations and see what you can pick up on. Then we'll compare notes tonight, and tommorrow morning we'll be ready to take action."

Will wasn't convinced he'd find anything out at the tavern. Then again, he was a bit useless with the families, sitting around while Halt spoke to them. So he supposed it was a better use of his time to eavesdrop at the tavern.

They split up, Halt heading to the western side of Selsey, Will towards the coast where the tavern was. He bundled up his cloak into his saddle pack, and upon reaching his destination, he led Tug to the stables, then found himself a suitable seat. As he had the previous evening, he picked a table where his back was to the wall.

Halibut was lunch for the day. As Selsey was a coastal town, fish was plentiful, and the tavern rarely served anything else. Will dug in, quietly listening to the people around him.

"What do you reckon about that mermaid?" Will perked up, subtly glancing over to the nearby table. Three men- all roughly shaven and tattoed- and one woman.

"Dunno," one of the men said. "Maybe there isn't one."

"Oh there's a mermaid alright." This was a fourth man who had overheard the conversation and moved over to the table. He was obviously a local as the others all greeted him and addressed him as Lochlan.

"I've seen it with my own eyes," Lochlan said. Will took more interest in him now. He was thick muscled, tall, and had curly hair and a bushy beard. A tattoe of an anchor decorated his face around his eye, and his rugged clothes along with the coil of rope over his shoulder and the filleting knife at his belt marked him as a fishermen. Most of the men in Selsey were.

"You've seen it, Lochlan?" the woman asked. "Do tell." The others pulled out a chair to make room for him. Will took care to eat slowly, so he would not finish before the story.

"Just the other day, as I was walking along the beach, I saw the most beautiful woman," Lochlan said. "Just a glimpse it was, but that was enough to have me chasing over the rocks to her. But by the time I reached her, she slipped away, and I swear I then saw the glitter of scales as her tail flicked up when she dived beneath the waves." Will snuck a glance and saw that Lochlan's eyes had fogged up. "I very nearly dived in after her," he added.

"What did she look like?" The woman asked.

Lochlan's face screwed up. "I can hardly remember," he admitted. "Like I said, I just caught a glimpse. She had long hair though-blue or green or something, and scales for skin." He leaned in closer. "You know what else? As she swam off, I saw that she was headed for Niall's house."

"Really?" the woman asked. "You think Niall is in on the killings?"

"Wouldn't be surprised if he were," one of the other men grunted. "Niall's always been a loner. Who knows what goes on in his head?"

Will could barely contain his excitement. He'd actually found out something useful! And when Halt asked about it, he decided he would reply with, "do you ever stop asking questions?" in his sternest and most grim voice. He'd drag out the moment, just like Halt did.

Maybe he should find out even more. He could interview Niall. Will nodded to himself and moved over to the bar. He couldn't contain his curiosity- he had to know what was going on with the mermaid.

"Thanks for the meal," Will said, sliding a few coins over the counter. The owner of the tavern accepted them graciously.

"Thanks for coming, stranger," he said. He was wary of outsiders like any townsperson in hard times, but he was also always happy to earn a little extra.

"Listen," Will said. "I'm related to someone who lives here. Niall's his name." He held his breath, waiting. If what the other man had said about this Niall fellow being a loner, then perhaps they wouldn't know much about him.

"Ah, Niall," the tavern keeper said at length. "Really? Are you his nephew?"

"Yeah, but I haven't seen him for years," Will lied. "I wanted to surprise him. Can you tell me where he lives?"

As the tavern keeper said, Niall lived right by the ocean, on a wooden platform that acted as his own private wharf. The house itself was in dire need of a fresh paint job, and from what Will could see through the windows, it was cluttered with knick-knacks like painted vases and clay scuptures.

Will swung his ranger cloak back around his shoulders and drew the hood up over his face. He took a deep breath, then rapped on the door.

The man who opened it was different from the other Selsey men. He had no tattoes or visible scars, his skin was not tanned from the sun; rather it was a milky white with an unhealthy yellow hue. His nose was crooked and his brown hair reached below his shoulders.

"Who're you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Ranger Will." Will offered his hand, but Niall stared at him and refused to take it. "I'm here about the mermaid."

"I don't know anything about that," Niall said, and slammed the door. Will was affronted by the action and he knocked again on the door.

"I'm a king's ranger," he called. "I act with the king's authority! Open up!" This was something he'd heard Halt say many times before. Perhaps Halt just had a natural aura of king's-authority-ness about him, because whenever he said such things, people hurried to do his bidding. Will must have lacked that king's-authority-ness, because Niall did not open the door.

Will took a deep breath. His impulsive nature had gotten him into trouble many times before, and this was not to be the time he fought against it. He hopped over the railing onto the wooden platform above the rolling waves, and crept around the side of the house.

The apprentice wasn't entirely sure what he expected to find- he was merely following his instincts, and those insincts told him that there was something to see he continued around the side of the house.

At the end of the platform, five steps led down to sea level. Will could see the top of Niall's head poking up from where he was kneeling on the lowest step. A little hesitant, Will walked as silently as he could to stand behind Niall. His eyes widened and he sucked in a breath.

With her delicate hands in Niall's, the mermaid was floating in the sea in front of him. Her cherub like face was decorated with glittering aqua scales, shimmering over her high cheekbones. A delighted smile was formed by plump lips- and yet it was not a human like smile. Perhaps it was the blue tinge to her lips, but the smile reminded Will of the simplistic grin of a dog, or horse, and when it widened, he realised that her teeth were pointed.

The mermaid's eyes were vivid green, and they turned on Will now. Her hair seemed to shift from blue to green in the sun, and it framed her face as it floated to the water, where it spread out like seaweed in the rippling waves.

She lifted one hand from Niall's-her fingers were webbed- and pointed at Will. The sound she uttered sounded much like bubbles popping. Niall jerked up and spun around, her eye's widening in horror.

"Leave Shell!" he urged. "Swim away." But the mermaid, whom he had called Shell, was busy regarding Will with curiosity.

Niall gritted his teeth. "Don't kill her!" he said. "Please," he added.

Will hesitated. How could he harm her? She was so very beautiful. And besides, he could not kill in cold blood.

"She killed all those children," Will said. He was reminding himself as well as Niall.

"I told her not to!" Niall insisted. "I heard the rumours and then I knew it must have been her...I honestly thought she just came here to see me. I kept telling her with every one killed- don't do it Shell, stop doing it. But she doesn't understand." With a shock, Will realised Niall was crying.

Shell pulled herself up a step, smiling a toothy smile at Will. Her tail flicked up out of the water, spraying them with sea foam.

"I love her," Niall whispered. "She's my mermaid. She's mine! I'll fight you if you try to hurt her."

Will raised his hands. "Whoa, whoa." He was starting to feel a bit out of his depth here. If only Halt was around. He recalled his mentor telling him about how there was a mermaid colony further along the coast. "Look, maybe we don't need to kill her. Maybe we can get her to go back home." He glanced at Shell. "Can she speak araluen?"

Niall shook his head. "She just bubbles and gurgles. And if she goes home, I'm coming with her."

"That's not you talking," Will tried. "It's the magic. She's weaved a spell over you."

"Lies!" Niall roared. Shell burbled in alarm as the man seized Will's collar. "What do you know? You're a boy! A boy! You know nothing about love!"

Shell made another bubbling noise. She held out her hand to Will as she began to sing. This did nothing for the apprentice. In fact, he wasn't sure what all the fuss was. Sure, she was beautiful, but he would not follow her to the depths of the ocean.

It didn't occur to him that her charms might not work on him because he too was a magical creature. Even without the magic, he couldn't bring himself to just waltz over and kill her. Not when she was watching him with such fascination, not feeling threatened at all.

Then Shell flicked her tail again and disappeared under the water. Niall staggered towards her, and she reappeared some distance away. Raising a webbed hand, she beckoned to them.

"She wants me to go with her!" Niall cried. Will grabbed his arms before he could throw himself into the ocean.

"No!" he said. "Niall, we can follow her along the shore."

Surprisingly, the mermaid nodded her head. So maybe she could understand araluen after all. Either way, Niall and Will ran along the shore as she swam along.

They were heading for the river, Will realised. The place where she had killed all those children.

But he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he just let Niall run to his death, so he whistled to Tug and the little horse joined him in chasing the mermaid.

A little rushed was this chappie...