The Mermaid's Mirror

Chapter 20

The other surfers eyed Lena curiously as she headed toward the water.

"Hey," called one of them.

Lena glanced back.

It was a youngish guy with blond dreads. "You're not going in, right?"

Lena nodded and turned away.

"Aw, go home to Back Yard, little girl," he jeered.

Lena quickened her pace a little.

Someone else called, "Miss? Hey. Wait up."

Fighting an impulse to snap, "What?!" Lena looked over her shoulder.

A middle-aged guy with a dark beard was walking in her direction. "You're not really going in, are you?"

"Yes, I am," she said, and kept going.

"Don't do it," he called. "They're breaking too big. You'll never make it outside."

Lena didn't slow.

"I'm serious," added the guy, raising his voice. "This is the kind of day people need a tow."

Lena lifted a hand to acknowledge that she'd heard him, but she didn't stop. She knew that surfers sometimes got "towed in" to the big waves by friends on Jet Skis ... it saved having to swim out past these monster breakers.

"Fine," yelled the dreads-guy. "Don't come crying to us when your board snaps in half."

There was laughter, but Lena ignored it.

As if having a bunch of guys yell at her wasn't bad enough, she heard Ani's voice in her mind, "Magic's is only for advanced surfers, and even then, it's dangerous."

But she also told me it takes some people years to develop the kind of instinct I already have, Lena reminded herself. I'm a natural.

Today the surfing was secondary. Lena had come here to look for the mermaid.

Lena splashed into the surf, letting a few small waves surge past her before she set Max's board down in the water. Then she lay down on the board and started paddling.

After a couple of minutes, she realized she was farther down the shoreline from where she had started. She would be busy enough just paddling parallel to the rip tide. She kept up a steady butterfly motion with her arms, pulling herself and the board through the water. A wave broke a few yards in front of her, and a froth of tumbling white water rushed toward her. Lena clutched the rails of the board and turned turtle.

For the next several minutes, Lena battled the punishing breakers, which seemed intent on throwing her back onto the shore. She had to turn turtle over and over as the waves towered above her, far too big to jump. Twice she rolled too late, and the waves crashed on top of her, tossing her violently around under water. She was more aware of the ocean's power than ever before, and of her own insignificance. "This isn't a swimming pool," she heard Ani's voice in her head again.

When she paused to get her bearings, she saw that she had been dragged closer to the Boneyard. One more smashing wave, coupled with a bad rip, and she would be scraping across the reef. Maybe Pem was right about the helmet, she thought.

Gritting her teeth, Lena whipped her arms as fast as she could, the surfboard slicing through the water, carrying her closer and closer to the next swell. With a giant intake of breath, she rolled with the board once again. The wave passed overhead ... and then she was on the other side of the breaking waves.

Lena lay on her belly, resting and catching her breath.

A sleek head popped up in the water nearby.

Her heart leaped. Then she saw it was a sea otter. She rested her cheek on the deck of the surfboard, waiting for her heart to quit hammering, and trying to stay still.

The otter floated on its back, apparently unconcerned about Lena's presence. It had a flat rock on its chest, and it used its agile little paws to smash a clam against the rock. Lena watched, giddy at being so close to the wild animal. After its meal, the sea otter blinked at her and slid smoothly beneath the surface of the water.

Magic, thought Lena. It feels magic out here. She has to be here.

But the ocean remained empty, a huge, shifting blue and gray tapestry. No other living creatures appeared.

The sun will be going down soon, she thought. I should catch at least one wave. I can paddle back out after.

She couldn't bear to think that the mermaid was not here. Not yet.

A nice big swell was forming, and Lena began to paddle quickly, using butterfly strokes as the wave rose up. She popped up at the last minute, and then she was flying, racing through the dark blue barrel, faster than she had ever gone. This wasn't so much like riding on the back of a dolphin as it was falling off a house.

The lip of the wave began to crash just behind her, then the walls of white water caught up to her, and she was flung under water with what felt like an avalanche of ocean on top of her. She felt her leash snap, then she was tumbling, waiting to see which way was up.

Ani should have been here to see this wipeout, she thought. After what seemed like a full minute but was probably only a few seconds, she was able to orient herself as to which way was up. She swam toward the surface, hands above her head as Ani had taught her, in case she came up under her board.

She broke the surface and took what felt like the biggest breath she had ever taken. She could see Max's surfboard near the shore. But she'd hardly had time to take a second breath when the next wave was rushing toward her. She ducked. This time the wave surged harmlessly over her instead of picking her up and smashing her beneath. She broke the surface again and began to swim for shore.

Exhausted, she picked up Max's board and trudged onto the sand.

"You got nads, girl," said dreads-guy. "Either that, or you're just plain baked."

The weak sun would be setting any minute. And she had broken her leash. So that's it, she thought. I can't go back out without a leash.

But this is why I came, another part of her protested.

Lena turned her face to the water again. She felt oddly unafraid as she walked back into the sea.

"What the hell!" cried someone.

"Hey!"

Ignoring the calls, she lay down on the board and paddled out. Her arms were trembling with exhaustion, and it felt like she was pulling them through thick mud, trying to stay in one place. She struggled past waves as high as a two-story house, turtle-rolling several times to let the waves break over her.

Finally, she made it to the main point break. She barely had time to turn her board around before another big wave was rising up behind her.

Legs shaking, Lena hurried to pop up. She had just steadied her feet on the board when she found herself racing through the barrel again.

She maintained her balance on the board as long as possible, feeling the lip of the wave curl ever closer to her head. Then it was breaking over her ... and she was wiping out.

The houseful of water seemed to push her down endlessly. Lena did not panic; she knew that she would surface eventually. You can hold your breath a long time, she told herself, Ani's words reassuring in her mind. Sure enough, the churning waves shot Lena waist-high out of the water, but she barely had time to take a breath before she was being sucked down under again. She felt her body being driven deeply into the underwater hole once more.

You can hold your breath a long time, she told herself again, more desperately this time. She felt that she should have been washed out closer to the shore by now and was scared to see that she was still in the same spot when she finally did surface.

This is it, she realized suddenly. I'm in the Cauldron.

Then she was sucked beneath the waves again. The waters churned, tossing her back and forth beneath the surface like a rag doll in a washing machine.

Pem was right, she thought, as a terrible weariness came over her limbs. I should never have come.

She was too tired to struggle to the surface again. She was not even sure which direction was up. She knew she should try to remain relaxed in order to surface. Now it felt strangely comforting to relax and allow the boiling waters to toss her. Black dots danced at the edge of her vision.

I wonder if I'm going to die, she thought, but there was no longer a sense of panic to the idea. This is where Dad almost died.

At that moment, Lena felt something touch her arm, then a hard object was pushed into her hand. She clamped her fingers around it automatically.

Before she even had time to wonder about the object, Lena felt two small hands grasp her beneath the arms and pull her out of the deadly grip of the Cauldron.