Call the Witch

Chapter 15 Who am I?

I jumped resolutely into the water. I knew I would find it icy cold, so I could not hesitate to come into the water or I would struggle with doing it.

I swam like a possessed woman to the island in the river. I run along its shores, searching for a whirlpool. I hoped my intuition had been correct and I hadn't erred in determining the island. As soon as I saw it I had no doubt it was the right one. I plunged into the whirlpool. While it sucked me in I continued thinking about Evan and in what I have done to him.

I did not know what I was going to face. Legends relate in this kind of situation that you were going to wind up on dry land at the bottom of the sea where you could breathe normal air. The home of the Merrows. But I couldn't find the meaning. Apart from another unknowns, how they were going to live there with the tails they had? They would have to move about crawling over the floor. Unless they could exchange the tail for legs. In that case, legends in which humans married with them and had children with them would make sense.

The whirlpool ended in a cave with no water in it. A few metres away from the entrance, seated on the rocks, there was a mermaid with long green hair who looked at me with curiosity. I run as fast as the uneven and rocky ground allowed me to do. I fell upon her and I place a knife against her neck.

"Do you speak my language?" I asked her in Archaic Irish.

"Yes." She replied, without losing her cool.

"Sorry for doing this to you, but I need you to give me healing powers."

"You only had to ask." the merrow informed.

Without glancing away from her I took her hand. She wasn't lying. I quickly released her, I didn't want to see or know anything else. I turned away from her and sat down.

"Why? I know you rejoice in human misfortunes and you eat the flesh and blood of those venturing here.

"Ah, but you aren't human, not entirely."

I looked at her startled.

"What... do you want to say? Why would you give me those powers, just like that?"

"You are family. You carry our blood"

"Give me your hand." I requested.

I verified she was telling the truth.

"And then why I don't have those powers?"

"I'm afraid there is not much of our blood left in you. And by the way, I'll ask you for something in return for the gifts I will bestow you."

I nodded.

"But don't make me promise you the first thing I meet when I come out of the water or when I get home or anything like that."

The mermaid raised an eyebrow.

"What do I ask for, then?" She enquired, looking at me with her impatient green eyes, which looked disconcertingly like mine.

"I'll owe you a favor. I give you my word of witch."

I couldn't care less to promise such a thing. Maybe in a few months I would be dead. Death pays all debts.

"So be it. We have a deal, witch. The day in which I need you I'll search for you wherever you are."

Undoubtedly, she could obtain legs.

"And I'll comply with what is agreed."

"You and your future generations will have the gift of healing. You can leave."

"Thanks. What's your name?"

"Sionainn1."

"Thanks, Sionainn. My name is Fay... Fáinne Strange."

"It's not true. That's not your family name." She announced, with a sarcastic smile.

I looked at her, stupefied. I trembled, but not from the cold.

"You can go now."

She wasn't giving me permission. She was giving me a command.

Knowing that she wouldn't tell me anything else, and deciding that the best choice was not to disobey an ancestral being, especially considering the fact that I had threatened her with a knife before, thing that indeed she had taken very well, I got going.

"Would you propel me?"

"Yes."

"Thanks again."

Sionainn propelled me up the whirlpool. From the island I descried the light of a gas lamp on the shore of the river and I headed there.

Evan was waiting for me and I had to face what I had done.