The Gargoyle and The Mermaid
KFay 198120@aol.com
Prologue  by Dylan P. Blacquiere 
Forward by Dylan P. Blacquiere 

DISCLAIMERS
Disney Owns Gargoyles *sigh*  
The characters Whitbourne, Carbonear, and Bonavista and history of these 
characters belong to Dylan P. Blacquiere and are used with his permission.  
Thank you my son!  :) Coney Island, the Aquarium for Wildlife Conservation 
Formally known as the New York Aquarium) Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach 
(Yes there is a Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn! :) )  All belong to the City 
of New York. 

Special thanks to Maui, Mary Pletsch and again Dylan P. Blacquiere for 
editing 

Dedicated to Dylan P. Blacquiere.  If it weren't for him and his wonderful 
characters I probably never would have bothered writing this.  :)  

Historian's note:  This occurred soon after "A Gargoyle Went A'Courting"



  FORWARD
     The first time Kellie asked to used my characters...Whitbourne, 
Bonavista and Carbonear...well, she never really asked.  It started out just
as a creativity demon she had that she sent to me as a crossover involving 
one of her characters, Ricky O'Neal.  That story ended up being "The Ghosts 
That Haunt Me", and I liked it so much that I flat out decided that Kellie
didn't even have to ask to use my characters anymore.  They were hers as 
much as mine from that point in.

     Earlier this year she came up with another idea.  This time it wasn't 
about ghosts...it was about mermaids.  She had tried the story before as 
just a straight fanfic, but she wanted a second go at 'er with my characters
involved.  So she asked me to help her out, and I blindly promised I would. 
Like the selfish twit I am, I kept putting it off and she ended up writing 
the whole thing without me.  Lucky for her.  "Lexington and the Mermaid" 
isn't the kind of story I would write, and as such, I wouldn't have been 
much help.  The characters may be mine, but the story is 100% pure Kellie 
Fay.  All I did was write the prologue and fix up the Newfoundland accents 
for her.   Kellie has this unique slant on my characters that even I don't 
have, and she's been one of the greatest inspirations for my own stories 
out there.  Of course, she doesn't have the characters exactly the way I 
do...her version of Bonavista is a bit more mature than mine, and reading 
this I wish I'd paid a little more attention so poor Bonnie could have been 
a little more noble.  Her stories also dwell a bit more in the fantastic 
than mine do, too, and her take on Whitbourne and company makes them quite 
a bit more innocent than they are in mine.  That's not a bad thing, 
though...if her characterizations were exactly like mine, I'd probably freak
out. As the old commercials once said, "Different is good".  But they're 
recognizably my characters, and what Kellie has done in this story is put 
them in a situation that I could probably never do right, no matter how 
hard I tried.

     So when you read this story, don't read it as one of mine.  This isn't 
a story I wrote, or fostered.  All it's got of me is a few figments of my 
imagination and a few editing changes.  This is Kellie's story, and the vast
majority of the credit for it belongs to her.  For those of you who read my 
work, read this with an open mind.  These aren't exactly my characters, but 
they're just as real as anything I ever typed.  For those of you who read 
Kellie's, you're in for vintage Fay.

     Finally...Kellie, thanks a lot for taking a little bit of my world and 
merging it with something as wonderful as yours.  Would that all people 
were as willing to accept other people's creations into brilliance.
  
                                        Dylan P. Blacquiere
  
 
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Prologue  

  St. John's, Newfoundland
  July 15, 1991
  
     It was a warm July night.  The moon was shining and the stars were out,
with just the barest hint of clouds in the sky.  Down below, the city of 
St. John's was quiet...the harbor was deserted for the night anyway, but 
lately there were a  lot fewer boats out there.  Large Spanish trawlers had 
replaced the old fishing boats...it was sad, but a way of life was passing. 
And while many a man has tried to stop progress, more often it ends up 
people merely watch the eras slip away into memory.

     Over the harbor front this night, there was coming a trio of off key 
singing from up in the air, however.  Three gargoyles...all of them drunk 
as lords...were heading home after a leisurely night at the bootlegger's.  
Bonavista, Whitbourne and Woodstock...it was a boys' night out in every  
sense of the term.

     "Now was twenty five or thirty years since Jack first saw the light!  
He came into this world of woe one dark and stormy night..."  Whitbourne 
sang, nearly dropping the bottle of whiskey he held in one claw.  He turned 
to Bonavista and hooted.  "Wake up, Bonnie!  That's your Jesus cue!"

     "He was born on board his father's ship as she was lyin' to..."  
Bonavista began, and then Woodstock cut in.

     " 'Bout twenty-five or thirty miles southeast 'a Baccalieu!"  he 
crooned, not caring at all that he was off key.

     "Jack was every inch a sailor, five and twenty years a whaler, Jack 
was every inch a sailor, born on the bright blue sea!"  the trio hollered 
in most unmusical tones, and landed with a thump on the quay.  Woodstock 
very nearly fell off the side of the wharf, and Whitbourne very nearly
pushed him.

     "Man, does that buddy ever know how to party, eh, byes?"  Bonavista 
grinned, taking a swig of whiskey.  "I never seen so much screech in me 
life!"

     "Ye never drank so much, either, ye jerk.  Took my friggin' glass," 
Whitbourne growled.  He stumbled around and sat down heavily on the wharf.

     Woodstock rolled his eyes.  "I thinks that was buddy's own glass 
anyways,"  he grinned.

     Whitbourne grinned, and nearly swooned.  "Ye's too friggin'...def...
defensive..."

     "We gonna get goin' home now?  Carb's still at Marsha's, she's prob'ly 
gonna be worried," Bonavista muttered.

     "Let her be worried, my lad!  If she ain't gonna come out and see a 
good time with us, it's her own friggin' fault,"  Whitbourne laughed.  He 
suddenly squinted, and peered out at the water.

     "What's ye see, Witless?"  Woodstock asked.

     "A big ship,"  the blue gargoyle replied.

     "Hittin' the screech again, I bet.  Ye got a bottle in your pocket we 
doesn't know about..."

     "Ssh..."  Whitbourne frowned.   "That's a big Spanish trawler, I 
thinks.  Docked out in the bay."

     Woodstock cursed.  "Bastards.  I supposes they's just out there so they
can pop down to the Grand Banks tomorrow and rob honest Newfoundlanders of 
their work."

     "Just like they ripped off Jason, them pricks,"  Bonavista slurred.  
It was good that he was drunk...mentioning Jason Doyle's name always set a 
pang of loneliness in his heart, and the alcohol  numbed that quite nicely.

     "Yeah.  Just like they ripped off Jason,"  Whitbourne cursed.  He stood
up, and walked to a nearby building.

     "Witless, where's ye off to?'  Bonavista asked, seeing Whitbourne 
climbing up the wall.

     "Let's go out to that ship, byes,"  Whitbourne proposed.  "Scare the 
piss out of 'em friggin' Spaniards."

     "Witless, ye can't go gliding out there!  They's a few hundred yards 
out!  And ye's too friggin' drunk to stand, ye idiot!"  Woodstock chided 
him.  If Whitbourne heard, he made no indication.  He took off, and headed 
out over the water, weaving in a drunken glide towards the ship.

     The wind started to pick up almost immediately.  The section of the 
wharf had been sheltered by the buildings, but out over the open water was 
a different story.  He started swerving   about, out of control as a result 
of both the alcohol and the wind.  Whitbourne was beginning to see   a bit 
of reason through his intoxication, and just about to head back, when
suddenly he dipped  down low enough that his wing slapped the water.  He 
hollered in pain, was choked by the ocean  spray, and suddenly he fell with 
an almost graceful splash.

     The water wasn't very cold, but he immediately started to panic.  He 
thrashed his limbs wildly, trying to surface and being repeatedly 
disappointed in his attempts to do so.  He broke the  surface of the water, 
but was immediately sucked down by an undertow, and felt himself slipping   
deeper and deeper beneath the waves.  His alcohol-dulled mind was suddenly 
alert and aware, fighting for oxygen, but in the end, he started to give in.
His eyes drifted shut, and he began to take   in water...

     ...and then he dimly felt a pair of arms grab him, and suddenly felt 
as if he was being propelled along the water at a great speed.  He could 
suddenly breathe, not understanding why, and in the moment, not really 
caring.  He felt consciousness grey in and out again.

     When he opened his eyes, he was lying half in, half out of the water.  
His back was on a hard wooden surface, and he looked around, seeing that he 
was on a boat launching jetty.  Then he looked up, and found himself staring
into the face of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  She had liquid 
turquoise eyes, and red hair that seemed to surround her in a halo of fire. 
He felt his heart lump up in his throat, and he was suddenly filled with 
the irresistible urge to follow her like a puppy.
   
  "Who..."

     "Ssh, Whitbourne,"  the woman said in a musical voice.  The second she 
spoke to him, he felt his mind slip away in a tingling haze of ecstasy.  He 
was totally tongue tied, not aware of anything else around him...totally 
fixated on the woman's face.  She looked vaguely familiar, but Whitbourne 
wasn't thinking of that now.  He just stared at her.

     "You were protected, and you wouldn't have drowned, but you still 
needed my help,"  she explained. Whitbourne nodded, and tried to get up.  
She pushed him back down gently, and shook   her head.

     "You shouldn't remember me, Whitbourne,"  she stated.  "You can't.  
You have a life on the land.  Close your eyes, Whitbourne.  You'll remember 
swimming back to shore.  Close your eyes...and forget..."

     Whitbourne obediently closed his eyes, and instantly he felt the 
memories of the last few minutes slipping away like a rapidly lifting fog.
"Forget..." he repeated groggily, his voice thick and  slurred.
     
"Forget,"  the woman said again.  Her voice stopped, and Whitbourne slowly 
opened his eyes.     She was gone.  He could distantly hear a splash, and 
then he could suddenly no longer remember that there had even been a woman 
there in the first place.

     Bonavista and Woodstock came running down to him, and pulled him up out
of the water. In the excitement, they had temporarily sobered.

     "You stupid jackeen!  Ye could of drowned!"  Woodstock scolded.

     Bonavista looked at him.  "What happened?  We seen ye hit the water, a
nd then suddenly we seen ye go under.  Then we heard voices over here."

     "I swam back to shore,"  Whitbourne stated.  His voice sounded 
confused, and for some reason he could dimly remember something else going 
on, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what.

     "Look.  We'd better get ye home,"  Woodstock frowned.  He and Bonavista
hoisted him up, and helped him get up to the wharf.  By then he had 
sufficiently recovered to stand up.  He coughed a few times, and then he 
followed his rookery brother's leads as they scaled a building and soared 
off, headed back for the bell tower.  But he turned back and stared out at 
the foreboding  Atlantic almost longingly, trying to remember back...

     Forget...

     He turned, and headed home.  By the time they got back, he honestly 
believed he had swam back to shore.
  

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The Gargoyle and the Mermaid.

Manhattan Spring 1998  
  
  It was a beautiful evening.  The sky was incredibly clear.  It had a 
crispness in it that reminded one that autumn had only just begun.  It was 
an evening to have fun. Lexington felt it in his bones the moment he woke up.
  
  Brooklyn must have felt it too.  "Man, what a night!"   He jumped off his 
perch, giving a hand to Carbonear.  She reciprocated with a kiss.  Brooklyn 
turned to Goliath.  "Hey Goliath, why don't I cruise the Boardwalk tonight?"
  
  "If Carb is after going with ye, then the muggers won't have nothin' to 
worry about, my son,"  Bonavista teased.
  
  Whitbourne puffed himself up.  "I'll keep the lovebirds' minds on business," 
he said with a mischievous grin.
  
  "Then we know the muggers will be safe,"  Lexington answered dryly.
  
  "Shagger," Whitbourne replied good-naturedly.
  
  Brooklyn ignored them and turned back to Goliath.  "Come on, Goliath, you 
know it will be busy out there.  Muggers love that place."
  
  Goliath was about to answer when a strange high pitched whine filled the 
air.  It was almost musical.  Lexington's eyes widened.  He knew the singer 
of this song.
  
  Lexington took a quick glance around.  As he had expected, Goliath and 
all the others were as still as statues listening to the haunting melodies. 
The girls were the only ones not affected.
  
  "Father?  Father!?"  Angela shook and pulled at Goliath but he gently 
shoved her away, and continued to listen to the eerie song.  Ophelia and 
Carbonear were not having any better luck with the others.
  
  Lexington didn't wait for the song to stop.  The girls hadn't noticed him,
and that was just the way he wanted it.  Ever so silently he  slipped down 
the courtyard steps.  He went into his own privet room, and wrote a quick 
note.  "I'm fine, I had to go meet an old friend I don't know when I'll be 
back.  I owe her.  I have to go."  Placing the note on top of the TV he 
pulled a silver sea shell on a chain out of his belt pouch.  He placed the 
charm around his neck and fingered it.  "Christa," he whispered to himself,
and glided out of a nearby window.
  
  ************************************************************************
  For the third time  Carbonear tried to shake Brooklyn from the spell that 
held him. "Brooklyn, my son!  For heaven's sakes, snap out of it!!"  And 
again he just pushed her away.
  
  "What's wrong with them?"  Ophelia asked as she pulled on Bonavista. 
"Carb, what's going on?"
  
  "I doesn't know, me girl."  She was getting scared now.  Nothing any of 
them could do could wake them from this trance.
  
  Then as suddenly as it began, the singing stopped.  Goliath and the others
blinked and went right back to their conversation.  "It's not like I won't 
be busy,"  Brooklyn was saying.
  
  Goliath gave an amused sigh.  "Very well, you may go to Coney Island."
  
  The normalcy of the conversation took the girls aback.   Angela grabbed 
on to Goliath's arm, shocked.  "Father! Are all of you all right?"
  
  Hudson gave her an odd look.  "We're fine lass. What's wrong?"
  
  "What's wrong?"  Ophelia echoed.  "You were all in some kind of trance.  
For at least ten minutes!"
  
  "Uh, Ophelia, I think we would have noticed that,"  Brooklyn said.
  
  "She ain't kiddin'! Ye was all under a spell of some kind!"  Carbonear 
said. From his expression, she knew Brooklyn wanted to argue with her, but 
he couldn't find a reason to.
  
  At that moment Fox came out looking as pale and worried as Carbonear felt.
She looked at the group of confused males, then at Carbonear.  "It happened 
out here too, didn't it?" she asked.
  
  Angela eyed Fox worriedly.  "I take it that Owen and Xanatos were frozen 
in some kind of spell for the last ten minutes."
  
  "Not just them," she said, nodding hastily.  "Every man in the building 
just stopped,  no matter what they were doing.  There are three coffee 
stains in lounges now because some men were pouring themselves a cup when 
it started.  And then there was that weird sound."
  
  "Yes!"   We heard it too.  Does ye think that's what put 'em under a spell?"
Carbonear asked, excited and relieved that the guys were not the only ones 
affected by this power.
  
  "What,"  Goliath asked, in an impatient voice,  "are you talking about?"
  
  *******************************************************
  Goliath watched the video screen uneasily.  If it were only Fox making 
this claim, he would have been suspicious.  But Ophelia, Carbonear, and his 
own daughter were making the same claim.  Something had held them under a 
spell for ten minutes, then had released them.  Only one thing had changed 
in that entire time.
  
  Ophelia came running in followed by Bonavista.  "It's no good, Goliath, 
I've searched everywhere. Lexington is missing."
  
  "Not exactly, me girl."  Whitbourne and Brooklyn entered right behind 
them.
  
  Brooklyn handed Goliath a slip of paper.  "Lex left this on the TV."
  
  Goliath read the note carefully.  He didn't understand it in the least.  
Who could he be talking about?  He glanced at Xanatos, who had been watching
the video with Goliath. "Did your instruments record Lexington leaving the 
building?"
  
  Owen nodded, and spoke in his normal flat tone of voice.  "Our radar shows
a gargoyle matching Lexington's description leaving the castle a full two 
minutes  before the sonic disturbance ended.  It appears he was unaffected."
  
  "Unless buddy wanted only Lex and he's run off to whoever was after doing 
this to us," Bonavista put in.
  
  "I don't think so,"  Brooklyn said.  "If he were under a spell he wouldn't
have left a note."
  
  "Which way did he go?"  Goliath asked Owen.
  
  Owen said calmly,  "According to the data Lexington was heading due south,
and perhaps slightly to the east.  Current radar  information shows him 
landing On Coney Island by the pier on West 17'th Street."
  
  Goliath looked at Brooklyn.  He sighed.  "Well it looks like I'm going to 
Coney Island anyway."
  
  Goliath nodded.  "Take Carbonear and Ophelia with you.  They were immune 
to whatever happened to us.  Angela will stay here with us, and I shall telephone Elisa."
  
  Brooklyn nodded, and Whitbourne said,  "I'se goin', too."
  
  Brooklyn eyed the Newfoundland gargoyle oddly.  "How come?"
  
  Whitbourne looked distant as he answered.  "I ain't got a friggin' clue, 
Uncle Brook.  I just feels like I has to."
  
  Brooklyn shrugged.  "Okay, team, " he said to the three of them.  "We 
leave in five minutes."
  
  **************************************************************************
  Lexington soared past the southern tip of Manhattan.  He hated running out
on the others like that, but if Christa was calling him for help, he had to 
go.  She and he had taken a terrible risk being friends, but as far as he 
knew the trouble and secrecy had been worth it.  Now, after so long, it was 
time to pay her back.
  
  ***************************************************************************
  Scotland  977
  
  He dropped the message in the box in front of the Abbey.  He was proud 
that Prince Malcom and Goliath trusted him with something so important.  As 
long as the priests didn't see him, Goliath figured he'd be safe enough.  
He perched on the roof of the church and scanned the surrounding horizon.  
The wind had picked up a bit, not too much to be trouble to him, but his 
elders always told him that in a strong wind to avoid the shoreline in a 
strong wind.  If he glided overland, he might not make it back to the castle
before sunrise.  On the other hand, if he used the beach shortcut, a strong 
sea breeze could pick him up and cast him into the water before he could 
control it.   He made up his mind.  If he hurried maybe he could out-glide 
the stronger winds.  He launched himself from the church roof, and began to 
follow the shoreline.
  
  The winds were much stronger than he expected.  It took every bit of
concentration to keep from being blown away.  He was faster than the others
in his rookery but right now he wished for the larger wings of most of his
brothers and sisters.  With his wings attached to his legs and arms he 
didn't have the maneuverability of his rookery sibs.
  
  Suddenly a gust of wind did exactly what his elders warned him about.  It
picked him up and blew him into an arc.  He tried to gain control, but the 
wind was too strong.  Pushed by a strong gust, he fell into the sea.
  
  The cold water stung and the waves were harder to deal with than the winds
above.  A huge wave washed over him.  He fought to reach the surface, 
spitting out water as he did so.  A second, larger wave was coming.  The 
young gargoyle didn't know how to get out of the way.  He was going to drown.
  
  Suddenly something pulled him under the water from below.  He couldn't 
see, but he felt arms around him.  He tried to fight his way to the surface 
so that he could breathe, but he heard a sweet voice telling him to hold 
still.
  
  "Easy, little gargoyle.  You're safe with me.  Breathe!"
  
  ~ Huh?  Breathe down here? ~  he thought.  He was surrounded by water!
  
  "Breathe.  You can with me," the voice insisted.
  
  The young gargoyle knew he needed air.  He gave himself up to this 
stranger and took in a breath of water.  Only it wasn't water.  Sweet ocean 
scented air filled his lungs.  He was aware that he was moving at a great 
speed, but he had no idea where he was going.
  
  A moment later his head broke the surface of the ocean.  He was only a 
few feet from the shore.  Something from below him pushed him along to 
some rocks. He scrambled back onto solid ground and turned to face his 
rescuer.
  
  A girl was floating in the ocean less than a foot from the rock he was
  sitting on.  She had rust colored hair, and turquoise eyes.  In her hair
  was a comb made from scallop shells, and she wore a silk wrap around her
  top half.  Her bottom half was a fish's tail.
  
  "What are you?" the young gargoyle said in wonder.
  
  The girl gazed right into his eyes.  "I'm a mermaid.  My name is Christa."
  She continued to stare into his eyes.  "You're a young gargoyle, aren't 
you?"
  
  He was still digesting her first statement.  A mermaid!  His elders had 
warned him about mermaids.  He had been told that mermaids drown humans and 
gargoyles with their hypnotic songs.
  
  But she hadn't drowned him.  She had saved him.  "How did I breathe under 
the water?" he asked, still in shock.
  
  Christa realized that he was confused, and a little frightened.  She 
decided to let his questions take precedence.  It was obvious to her that 
this yellow green gargoyle was too young to be affected by her more 
dangerous powers.
  
  "I can enable anyone in contact with me to breathe under water," she said,
calmly.  "It's one of the things I can do."
  
  "Oh, like when you call to sailors and they jump overboard?"  he asked.
It was rude of him, he knew, but he wasn't sure if he could trust her.
  
  "I don't call them to jump off their ships," she explained.  "When they 
see me, part of my magic makes them fall in love with me.  It's our curse
to have all males love us to the point of obsession.  We can't control it,
and neither can they.  If a male sees us in our true form he will pursue us
to the point where he will drown."
  
  "But I'm male and I can see you," he said, "and I don't think I'm falling
in love with you."
  
  Christa rested her arms on the rock the little gargoyle was sitting on.
"So how old are you?" she asked wryly. "Sixteen, seventeen?"
  
  "I'll be nineteen next month," he said, slightly hostile.  "I'm just real
 small for my age."
  
  "Oh," Christa replied softly.  She must have realized he must have had a 
lot of ribbing about his size back in his own rookery.  "It doesn't
matter," she said. "You're still too young for a mermaid's power to touch 
you. You have to be mature, or at least adolescent.  If you're not of 
breeding age the part of your mind my powers touch hasn't developed yet.  
If you were older than twenty-four, I'd have worried."
  
  "But I'm smart!" he protested.
  
  Christa shook her rust colored locks no.  "It doesn't matter how smart you
  are.  It has to do with changes inside your body and brain as you get
  older.  Even If you don't grow much taller, those changes will happen 
inside of you."
  
  The young gargoyle wasn't sure he understood yet, but he accepted what
  the mermaid told him. "So your powers can't touch me yet because I'm not
  grown up," he said.
  
  "Right," Christa replied.  "and I don't want to see how long it takes your
  kind to grow up, so you'd better go on your way and not come back looking
  for me."
  
That confused him all over again.  "Why?  You said your powers wouldn't
affect me for a couple of years yet."
  
  "You're right, but one never know when one will no longer be a child.  If you
keep coming here looking for me one day you might not want to leave me,"  
she said.  She sounded sad though, as if she wouldn't want it to happen.
  
  "Can't you keep your powers from affecting me even when I do grow up?" he
asked.  She sounded so lonely.
  
  Again she shook her head no.  "Like I said, it's our curse.  Mermaids are
children of Oberon, but we preferred the shores around Avalon to the land.
The sea around there affected us in many ways.  We became irresistible to
the other fays there.  Our numbers began to increase faster than that of
the others.  Oberon and Titania decided that we were becoming too dangerous
to be around the others.  He didn't exactly banish us.  We are allowed to
visit Avalon, but for no longer than a fortnight, and no more than five of
us at a time.  We didn't care.  The seas in the mortal realm are just as
wonderful as the shores of Avalon, but we are still a danger to any males
we might encounter by accident."
  
  "Wow!" he said. "But isn't there a counter spell?  Something that could
protect me?"
  
  Christa thought a moment.  "There might be.  I'll have to ask some of my
sisters, but there might be a charm or two that will block our powers.  If
you really want to be friends, come back in four nights when the moon rises
over that rock."  She pointed to an outcropping several yards away.  Then
she asked, "Are your elders going to let you come back?"
  
  "No, That's why I'm not telling them.  They'd never let me come back.  
They think you drown people on purpose,"  he said sadly.

  Christa looked very sad at that.  "I know," she said, "and I can't blame 
them. It's what I am that's dangerous.  That's why mermaids spend most of 
their time in the open sea.  The only reason I was here is because I saw 
you fighting the winds.  I didn't want you to drown."
  
  The little gargoyle thought about that.  "I do want to be friends, for 
as long as I can.  I owe you my life, and one day I'll pay you back."
*******************************************************
  
  Christa was as good as her word.  She asked her elders and they gave her 
the silver scallop shell pendant he now wore around his neck.  As long as 
he had it on him, she had said, a mermaid's power would never affect him, 
and he would know messages in her songs. That song she had sung at the Aerie
had been a summons.  A call for help.  Now he would pay her back for saving 
his life.
  
  He perched on the pier and looked around.  Then he saw her in her 
human-like form, with legs instead of a tail.  He landed at her side, and 
she drew him into her embrace.  Her hair still smelled like sweet algae  
and sea foam.  "Ah, Lexington.  I am so glad to see you alive again!"
  
  Lexington backed up, surprised.  "How did you know my name?  I didn't have
it in Scotland."
  
  Christa smiled, and began walking with him down the beach.   "Do you think
I wouldn't have my brothers and sisters watching you?"  She gestured around 
and he saw about a dozen sea gulls.  "When they told my sisters that live 
not far from these shores that Gargoyles had awakened on the old Castle 
Wyvern, I asked them to watch for you.  There have been many times while 
Xanatos was in prison that one of my sisters has walked your castle and
watched your sleeping forms."
  
  Lexington frowned.  "But why didn't you let me know you were around?"  The
look in her eyes answered that, but not to his satisfaction.  "Oh, you 
figured I was safer that way?"
  
  Christa looked at him sternly.  "I also did not know if you had kept my 
token, or if it had been lost during your long sleep.  Only if you still 
possessed the token would you have come to me tonight."
  
  Lexington fingered the chain around his neck.  "I always kept it.  I'm not
a fool, and I had to keep it in my belt pouch so the others wouldn't find 
it.  I know what a powerful talisman it is.  By the way, why did you call me?
What's wrong?"  Something had to be wrong.  Christa wasn't usually so 
serious.  The last time she called to him was to warn him of the Viking 
ships coming to Wyvern.    She never called   him unless there was trouble.
  
  She lowered her eyes to the sand under her feet.  "Lexington, something 
terrible has happened."  She raised her eyes to meet his.  "A gargoyle has 
stolen the horn of Tethis."
  
  "A gargoyle?"  Lexington repeated.
  
  "Yes she--" Christa broke off as one of the sea gulls flew down.  She 
reached up and caught it on her arm.  "What have you seen, my brother?" she 
asked.  As the gull squawked, her face grew grim.  "Your clan has come 
looking for you,"  she said.
  
  "Oh, man!"  Lexington exclaimed.  "If they figure you out...."  He looked
around wildly. Up on the beach house he could pick out Ophelia and Carbonear.
"Oh, no, the girls.  You can't sing them away."
  
  "There are two males with them as well, according to my feathered brother," 
she said. "I can sing for them  to leave this place.  Perhaps your females 
will follow them to protect them?"
  
  Lexington didn't like that option, but he knew if they figured out Christa
was a mermaid....."Okay, but don't let anything happen to them,"  he warned.
  
  "Of course."  Christa launched the sea gull from her arm, raised her head 
to the night sky, and began to sing her siren's song.  Lexington could  
understand the meaning in those eerie melodies.  ~~Forget your fears.  All 
is well.  Follow my brother  inland. Forget your fears.  All is well.~~
  
**************************************************************************
  Brooklyn was scared to death.  He knew he wasn't the only one who had 
experienced the memory loss. Every guy in the castle, from Xanatos to the 
cleanup crew, didn't seem to remember the same ten minutes, and every woman
in the castle claimed that they had just stood there like statues.
  
  He was more worried about Lexington.  What had made him vanish like that? 
It seemed like too much of a coincidence that he had disappeared during 
those ten minutes when all the other males were entranced.  According to 
Ophelia, Lexington had been  perfectly lucid the whole time.  He even seemed
to have acted a bit concerned.
  
  "There he is,"  Carb said. The four of them landed on some buildings over 
looking the Boardwalk.  They had followed him all the way to Coney Island.  
Lexington was on the beach talking to a beautiful woman.
  
  "Hello!"  Brooklyn said, mildly surprised.  Who was she?  He had never 
seen such an incredibly gorgeous woman before.  She had fiery red hair, and 
wore a turquoise dress that showed off every curve.  Almost against his own 
will, he growled deep in his chest.
  
  Carb shot a jealous look at Brooklyn, but Ophelia put her hand on her 
friend's shoulder. "It's not just him.  Look at Whit!"
  
  Brooklyn didn't want to look at Whit.  He just wanted to keep staring at 
the vision of loveliness next to Lexington.
  
  "I'se seen her somewhere before,"  Whitbourne said dreamily.  He also 
growled.
  
  Carbonear shook her head.  "This ain't right, me girl."  She physically 
pulled Brooklyn around to look at her.  "Brooklyn, look at me!  Don't be 
after looking at that girl. They's something wrong with her!"
  
  The moment Brooklyn was forced to take his eyes off  of the girl, the 
compulsion ended. ~What on Earth!  What happened to me?~  He couldn't 
understand why he had suddenly been so attracted to her.  It was like 
something had just turned on every mating urge inside of him.  It didn't 
feel natural and he didn't like it.  He looked up and saw the concern
in Carbonear's eyes.  Terrified for himself, he drew Carbonear to him 
instantly and shut his eyes.  "Oh!"  He took a couple of deep breaths, 
trying to control his emotions.
  
  "Brooklyn?  Brooklyn my son, what's gotten into ye?"  she asked, startled 
at his change in mood.
  
  "I....I don't know what came over me.  When I saw her.....I don't know 
what happened." Brooklyn held on to her.  He wasn't sure he wanted to let 
go.  He was certain that he didn't want to turn around and look at that girl 
again.
  
  "I'se glad I ain't the only one,"  a voice said to his left.  Brooklyn 
turned to see Whitbourne sitting on the roof, shivering in the warm evening.
  
  Brooklyn understood exactly what he meant.  "You felt it too?"
  
  Whitbourne nodded.  "I never wanted a girl so badly before.  I can tell 
ye I'm some friggin' glad me girl Delilah weren't here to see me like that, 
she'd of skinned me alive."  Delilah had been visiting the Labyrinth for 
the weekend.
  
  Carbonear untangled herself from Brooklyn's grasp and knelt next to her 
childhood friend. Brooklyn sat next to her.  "She would have known it wasn't
ye.  It's some kind of magic."
  
  "Yeah,"  Brooklyn said his voice dropping three octaves.  "But why just 
me and Whit?  Why not you two?"
  
  "I wish I knew, "  Carbonear said evenly.  "But we's gotta get closer."
  
  "And we have to get Lex!"  Ophelia said nervously.  The others nodded.
  
  "All right; ye byes stay here.  We doesn't want no more problems for ye.  
Ophelia, let's have a look again."  The two girls turned back to the beach.
  
  Brooklyn and Whitbourne looked at each other sheepishly.  "I feels filthy,"
Whitbourne said sulkingly.
  
  "How do you think I feel?  Carb was standing right there!  "Brooklyn 
replied uneasily. He was nervous --it was as if something was watching him. 
He looked over his shoulder at a piling that had a ring-billed gull sitting 
on it.  It was staring at them intently. "That bird is watching us,"  he 
said suspiciously.
  
  "Uncle Brook, I thinks this has all gone to your head.  It's just a gull. 
We had tons of 'em back in Saint John's."  He giggled a bit.  "Ye knows, 
when I was little, I'd pretend they was talkin'  to me."
  
  Brooklyn looked at Whitbourne.  "You are crazy!"  Whitbourne grinned and 
shrugged.
  
  Suddenly  the gull took off and glided over their heads.  Brooklyn almost 
turned fully until he remembered what was back there.  He quickly turned 
back only to see Whitbourne do the same thing he had almost done.
  
  "Whit, no!"  Brooklyn tackled Whitbourne and sat on top of him.  "You 
almost looked at her again."
  
  "Well, I didn't see her, so get the frigg off me, Brook."  Whitbourne said.  
He sounded tense, but there was nothing either one of them could do.
  
  Suddenly a soft sweet sound was heard over the sounds of Coney Island.  
The wind and the crash of the waves provided a strange harmony to the music.
  
  All the tension left Brooklyn's body.  He felt, calm, at peace, fulfilled 
in a way he didn't understand, but it didn't matter.  He lifted his head 
and saw that the sea gull was back and sitting on the piling again.  The 
bird took off, moving inland.  He had to follow the bird. He didn't know 
why, and he didn't care.  He just had to follow the bird.  He slowly walked
away, listening to the song, and following the bird.  He didn't even notice 
that Whitbourne was following beside him.
***************************************************************************
  
  "He doesn't look the way Brooklyn and Whitbourne did,"  Ophelia observed. 
Carbonear nodded.  It was terribly odd.  Lexington was acting perfectly 
normal, if a bit worried.
  
  A gull glided over their heads to land on the girl's outstretched arm.  
The girl's face grew grave.  She spoke to Lexington who suddenly looked 
extremely upset.  Then he nodded reluctantly, but by his manner he was 
giving her a sharp warning.
  
  The girl merely nodded.  Then she raised her head, and then an eerie flute
like sound filled the air.  It was the same sound they had heard at the 
Eerie Building.  "Glory--it was her that was after zappin' our byes!"  
Carbonear said, surprised.
  
  Ophelia looked at Carbonear now.  "But why is she sing........The guys!!"
  
  Carb made an about face.  "Don't let Lex out of your sight, me girl.  I'll
take care of Brooklyn and  Witless."  With that, she was off.
  
  Ophelia nodded and decided that it was time to stop watching and do 
something.  She jumped off of the Boardwalk and made  for the beach.  As 
she got closer, she could hear Lexington speaking to the stranger.
  
  "That's not going to hold them for long.  We'd better get somewhere where
they can't follow me."
  
  "Agreed," the woman said.  Her speaking voice was rich and deep.  Ophelia 
could understand why a male might be attracted to her, but the way Brooklyn 
and Whitbourne reacted to her spoke of magic.
  
  She began to run across the sand.  She had to stop them before they left. 
Lexington's sensitive ears must have picked up her footfalls.  He turned to
face her.
  
  "Ophelia!"
  
  "Lexington, what's going on?  Who is this woman and what did she do to 
you?"
  
  Lexington  backed up, but the sea and the stranger were at his back.  
"Ophelia, I have to help her.  You wouldn't understand.  Just keep an eye 
on Goliath and the others.  I'll come back if I can."
  
  Ophelia took a step forward.  "But Lexington, she's magical.  She did 
something to Whit, and Brooklyn!"
  
  The woman placed a hand on Lexington's back.  "You don't have a lot of 
time," she reminded him.
  
  Lexington nodded, then said, "Ophelia, I'll come back I promise.  I owe 
her two life debts.  I love you, but I have to go."  To the stranger he 
said,  "Christa, give me a boost and a breeze, and I'll meet you twenty 
yards out."
  
  The girl held her hands out, cupped.  Lexington stepped into her hand and 
she tossed him into the air.  As she stood with her hands raised, a breeze 
suddenly appeared and lofted Lexington out to sea.
  
  "Lexington!"  Ophelia  shouted.  She tried to advance, but the woman 
pointed her finger at her and a fierce gust of wind knocked her to the 
ground.  As she got up, the woman ran into the ocean and dove in.
  
  Biting off a curse, Ophelia ran back to the boardwalk and climbed up so 
she could glide. When she got up to the boardwalk she looked out and saw 
Lexington dive into the ocean from the air.  Instantly she took off and 
glided over to the spot.  For a moment she thought she saw two figures in 
the water, but they were moving too fast, and soon were swallowed up by the 
algae green waters.
  
  She waited around a bit more, but no one surfaced.  Lexington had dived 
into the waters and had vanished without a trace.
  
  Not able to do anything else, she rejoined Carbonear.
    ***************************************************************************
  "No!  Wake up byes!! It's me, Carb!!"  Neither her friend nor her love 
made any indication that they heard her.  They moved like sleepwalkers, 
ignoring everything except the bird in front of them.
  
  Carbonear had no idea what to do.  She pulled on their tails,  she yelled 
in their faces, but nothing worked.  Frustrated, she looked around and saw 
a little baseball cap shop on the boardwalk where a young man sat next to a 
horn on a can.
  
  Carbonear recognized the air horn.  Whitbourne had gotten one once and 
scared Loveless to death  with it.  Those things were louder than anything 
Carbonear had ever heard.
  
  She ran up to the young man, trying to look  as friendly as possible.  
"Hi! Does ye mind if I borrows this?"  She   picked up the can.
  
  The man was slightly taken aback.  "Uh, yeah, sure. "
  
  Carb ran back to where Brooklyn and Whitbourne was walking.  "Thanks bye, 
I'll bring 'er right back!"
  
  The shopkeeper looked after her.  "Uh, yeah," he said after she was gone, 
"no problem."
  
  Carbonear reached the two, who were almost to West 8th Street.  She jumped
in front of them and said, "I hopes this works."  She blared the horn right 
in their faces.
  
  The deafening sound of the horn caused the two to blink and  shake out 
their heads.  "Oh, man!" Brooklyn complained.
  
  "Carb!  What the frigg is ye doing? Trying to blow out me Jesus eardrums?"
Whitbourne grumbled.  He was about to say something else, but then he saw 
Carbonear's frightened expression. "Carb,  is something wrong, me girl?"
  
  Brooklyn took the opportunity to look around.  "Wait a minute...how did 
we get over here?"
  
  Carbonear breathed a sigh of relief.  "Thank heavens ye's are both all 
right," she said, as she went into Brooklyn's arms for a hug.  "That girl 
Lex was after talking to started singing.  It sounded just like it did at 
the castle.  When I came back to check on ye, ye's were both wandering off."
  
  "No,"  Brooklyn said, trying to remember.  "We weren't wandering.  We 
were told to follow that sea gull.  That's the last thing I remember.  I 
couldn't think about anything else. I didn't want to think about anything 
else."
  
  "Ye didn't hear me calling for ye?"  Carbonear asked.
  
  "I could hear ye yelling at us, but I couldn't stop.  I didn't even want 
to stop,"  Whitbourne said, shivering slightly.  Carbonear felt Brooklyn 
hold on to her tighter. When she looked at him, he nodded.
  
  Just then Ophelia landed among them.  "Lexington's gone,"  she said  
uncertainly.
  
  "Gone?  What do you mean, gone?"  Brooklyn asked.
  
  "Couldn't ye keep up with them?"  Carbonear asked.
  
  "Not unless I grew fins and gills,"  Ophelia said breathlessly.  
"Lexington and that woman dove into the water and disappeared."
  
  "But they had to come up for air,"  Brooklyn said.  Ophelia shook her head 
no.
  
  "No, they doesn't,"  Whitbourne  said thoughtfully.   He was staring out 
to sea with an intense concentration.  "Not if that buddy's not after being 
human."  Both Brooklyn and Ophelia looked up curiously.
  
  Carbonear shook her head frustrated.  "Witless, my son, that's only after 
being a story Jason was after telling us when we was young."
  
  "I doesn't think so.  I heard the same friggin' story from more than half 
the fishermen down on the docks up in Saint John's."  He pointed an accusing
finger at her.  "Ye just doesn't understand cause ye's a girl!"
  
  "It's the biggest cockamamie fish story I'se ever heard!" she shot back,
bristling at the insult.
  
  "What?"  Brooklyn demanded.  "Carb, what are you two talking about?"
  
  Carbonear folded her arms and gave a long angry sidelong glare at 
Whitbourne.  "Witless is after thinkin' Lexington's buddy is after bein' a 
mermaid." she said sullenly.
  
  She expected them to agree with her, but instead both Scottish gargoyles 
looked at her with widened eyes.  Brooklyn put his hand to his head.
  
  "Oh, man," he said, sounding defeated.  "It *is* a mermaid."
  
  Ophelia placed her hand on Whitbourne's shoulder.  He looked at them, 
amazed.  "Ye believes me?"
  
  "I grew up on Avalon with Princess  Katherine and the Magus,"  Ophelia explained.
  
  "And I grew up on the Scottish coast with a colony of  them right off the 
coast," Brooklyn said, not waiting for Ophelia to finish.  "A mermaid has 
kidnapped Lexington."
************************************************************************
  "A mermaid?"  Goliath asked, as the four stood in a row in front of him.
  
  "That's what Whit thinks, and given what happened to us here, and out at 
the beach, I think he's right," Brooklyn answered firmly.  He watched Hudson's
face and saw what he expected to see.  Usually if a mermaid kidnapped a 
person, weather human or gargoyle, they were  lost forever.
  
  "What happened?"  Goliath asked.
  
  "We found Lex and the girl."  Brooklyn paused uneasily, remembering how 
she had made him feel. "Carb and Ophelia went in for a closer look.  Carb 
said she started singing, and after that everything is fuzzy for me.  The 
next thing I knew,  Whit and I were in front of the aquarium, and Carb was 
blasting an air horn in our faces."
  
  "What happened to Lexington?"  Hudson demanded.
  
  Ophelia took up the story.  "He was on the beach with her.  He told us to 
leave him alone, and that he had to help her and he'd come back  to us when 
she didn't need him anymore." Wrinkles formed at the base of her headplate. 
"He wasn't acting like Brooklyn and Whit did when they saw her.  He was 
acting normal.  The only reason they both went into the ocean was to get 
away from us."
  
  "Impossible," Goliath said.  "No male can see a mermaid and not instantly 
be entranced by her."
  
  "That is not necessarily true, Goliath."  Owen Burnett's voice said.  He 
looked a bit unsettled himself.  "There are a number of talismans that will 
protect one from a mermaid's power.  However, the only way to gain 
possession of one of those talismans is from a mermaid, or to have it passed
down from another."
  
  Ophelia's eyes narrowed with thought.  "Could the necklace Lexington was 
wearing have been a talisman?"
  
  "What necklace?"  Goliath asked.  Owen looked mildly interested himself.
  
  Ophelia turned to Goliath.  "He was wearing a little silver necklace.  
I'd never seen it before.  I didn't really get a good look at it, but I 
think it was some kind of a silver sea shell."
  
  "Mermaids like to use silver instead of gold,"  Owen said.  "It is very 
possible that  the necklace was a talisman."
  
  Whitbourne was paying very close attention to the conversations.  Suddenly
he reached out and pulled Bonavista into the hall.
  
  "Witless!  What is ye doin'?  This is important!"  Bonavista said, 
struggling.
  
  "So's this, my son.  Didn't Jason have a little silver sea shell on a 
chain?"
  
  Bonavista thought a moment.  "Yeah, you know he did!  Ye thinks that was 
like Owen was after talking about?
  
  Whitbourne gave his trademark grin for mischief.  "Only one way to find 
out, Bonnie, my lad."
  ********************************************************************** 
  
  "What can we do against a mermaid?"  Ophelia asked.  "All she has to do 
is sing and she can actually turn all of you against us!
  
  "Why didn't she?"  Brooklyn suddenly said.
  
  They all turned to look at him.  "Lad?"  Hudson asked.
  
  Brooklyn looked as confused as they were but his eyes were sharp-- like 
they always were when he was trying to  solve  a problem.  "Why didn't she 
use me and Whit against the girls? According   to what you guys are saying, 
she could have just as easily forced us to hold onto Carb and Ophelia while 
she and Lex escaped, but she didn't.  She just lured us away."
  
  "Maybe the wench only needs Lexington,"  Hudson mused.
  
  "Please do not speak of all mermaids as being evil."   Owen said. 
"Mermaids are relatives of a sort to me, and I do not like to see them 
slandered.  They do not steal people merely to kill them."
  
  Brooklyn looked at him, the fear from his last encounter still on his 
face.  "Maybe not, but now I know why people jump into the water to go after
one.  All I wanted was to be with her, and I know Whit felt the same."  
Brooklyn paused as if expecting to hear Whitbourne answer, but no reply  
came.  "Whit?"
  
  Carbonear looked around the room.  "He's not here.  And Bonnie is after 
bein' missin' too!"
  
  "Where could they have gone?"  Angela asked as she sat next to Broadway.
  
  Goliath frowned.  "Carbonear, you, Brooklyn, Angela, and Broadway go 
search for them.  But search in pairs.  If a mermaid has kidnapped Lexington,
I do not want any male member of the clan alone without a female.  If the 
mermaid sings again,  I do not want her to take anyone else."
  **************************************************************************
  
  As Carbonear and Brooklyn drew near to the smoke hole they heard the 
sounds of what they thought was a struggle.  She exchanged a glance with 
Brooklyn, who nodded.  She placed her hand on the door.  When Brooklyn gave 
the signal she opened it, and an amazing sight lay out before them.
  
  The room looked as if a cyclone had struck.  Clothing was everywhere.  So 
were several books.  Their pile of CD's were stacked precariously in a 
corner, as were their instruments.  In the middle of this chaos were 
Whitbourne and Bonavista, going through the pockets of every pair of jeans.
  
  "Oh, sweet frigg,"  Carbonear said, trying to keep her temper.
  
  Brooklyn was trying his best not to laugh.  "What did you two lose?" he 
asked.
  
  Whitbourne sat on his heels and looked at the two of them.  "We didn't 
lose nothing. We's lookin' for something."
  
  With a sigh, Carbonear  picked up a discarded shirt and began folding it. 
"Witless, my son, how many times does I have to tell ye?  If ye wants to 
finds something, ye cleans up a room.  Ye don't demolish it!"  She passed 
the folded shirt to Brooklyn and started on another one.
  
  The two looked at each other, slightly embarrassed, but they both began 
to help clean the smoke hole.  Between the four of them they were done in 
an hour.
  
  "So," Carbonear said as she put away the last item.  "What was ye looking 
for that had ye tearing up the place?"
  
  Whitbourne looked very put out at the question.  "Jason's good luck charm."
  
  Carbonear folded her arms and looked cross.  "Jason had twenty good luck 
charms, my son."  Brooklyn snickered.
  
  Whitbourne and Bonavista both made a face at her.  "The one he always took
fishing with him.  Ye know, Carb!  That little sea shell!"
  
  "That's why ye's wrecking the place?"  She marched over to where she kept 
her own jewelry and fished out a little pendant on a chain.  She presented 
the object solemnly to Whitbourne.
  
  "You found them?"  a voice outside called.  It was Broadway and Ophelia.
  
  "Yeah,"  Brooklyn answered.
  
  "Buddy's been up here for over an hour looking for a friggin' necklace,"  
Carbonear added disdainfully.
  
  Ophelia looked at the charm.  "That's it!  That's the necklace I saw 
Lexington wearing."  She looked at the two Newfoundlanders, confused.  "But 
how did you get it?"
  
  "This belonged to Jason,"  Bonavista said.  "He always tolds us it brought
him luck at sea."
  
  Whitbourne clenched the charm in his hand.  "I'll bet it did, too.  
Remember what Owen was after sayin'.  Mermaids likes silver, and they's 
charms that protects a buddy from 'em."
  
  As patently as she could Carbonear said to her rookery brothers,  "Witless,
they's just old wives' tales Jason was after telling ye.  June never 
believed them."
  
  Brooklyn shook his head.  "I don't know, Carb.  In Scotland my elders all 
said there were a colony of mermaids in the sunken caves right below the 
castle.  I never saw them, but Lex does have a necklace exactly like this 
one.  He showed it to me once, and he's had it since we were hatchlings."  
He looked at Whitbourne intensely.  "And you think this is a mermaid's 
charm?"
  
  Bonavista looked torn, trying to decided whether to  believe Whit or not; 
after all he had yet to encountered  this stranger.  "Why don't we takes it 
to Owen?"
  
  ************************************************************************
  "Lexington has had this charm since before the Massacre?"    Owen asked.
Goliath and Hudson glowered at the charm.
  
  Brooklyn and Broadway both nodded.  "He only showed it to us once, but I 
remember. We were just kids then.  He said it was a.... "  Brooklyn paused, 
suddenly remembering what Whitbourne had  said earlier.  "Oh, man!  He told 
us it was a good luck charm!!"
  
  Elisa and Xanatos exchanged a look.  "The stories sound too alike to be 
coincidence."  She said evenly.  She knew Goliath was worried, but she had 
no idea what she could do for him.
  
  "Where did he get it?  How could Lexington, as young as he was, have 
received a mermaid's charm?"  Goliath asked in wonder.
  
  Broadway frowned.  "He told us he found it along the beach--"
  
  Owen cut him off.  "That would have been next to impossible.  Mermaids 
are very possessive of their charms.  The only way Lexington could have 
come across one at all was to have had it given to him by someone who 
possessed one, like this was passed to Whitbourne and his clan, or for a 
mermaid to have given it to him directly.  "
  
  Goliath turned to Hudson."Is there anyone you knew who might have given 
Lexington that charm?"  The elderly gargoyle shook his head.
  
  Ophelia, who had been quiet for some time, spoke up.  "I think the only 
way we're going to find out who gave that necklace to him is for him to 
tell us.  "Angela nodded in agreement.
  
  "Well we can't be after doin' that now, me girl.  What about this one?  
It's a mermaid's charm like Witless says, right?"  Bonavista asked, 
eargerly.
  
  "It is,"  Owen said.  "I would recommend that one of you wear this at all 
times until this crisis has  passed."
  
  "Great.  This has officially become a crisis,"  Brooklyn mumbled.
  
  Bonavista and Whitbourne looked at each other, both wanting the necklace
but neither wanting to be selfish.  With a sigh Bonavista said, "Well, my 
son, ye found it."
  
  "No I didn't.  Carb did,"  Whitbourne returned.
  
  "But ye was the one who thought of looking for it.  Ye should wear it."
  
  Whitbourne looked at the  charm in his hand.  "I doesn't wanna be selfish."
  
  "Since when?"  Bonavista retorted.
  
  With a heavy sigh Carbonear glared at both of them.  "Oh, for Christ's 
sake. Give me that thing."  She took the charm; then she took a Canadian 
quarter out of her pocket.   When she had  their attention, she said,  
"Okay, Whit, ye started this. Call it!"  She tossed the coin into the air.
  
  "Tails!"  he called.  The three of them backed up as the coin fell on the 
ground and revealed Queen Elizabeth's features.  Carbonear handed the charm 
to Bonavista, who gingerly placed it around his neck.
  
  "Maybe we should try again,"  Bonavista said uncertainly.
  
  "Bonnie, ye won fair and square and I don't wanna hear another word about 
'er,"  Whitbourne insisted as they went up to their perches.
  
  "What if the charm doesn't work?"  Broadway asked.
  
  "Well, Broddy my son, then I'se no worse off than before,"  Bonavista 
said sagely, as they turned their faces to greet the rising sun.

********************************************************************
  "You're sure it was Demona?"  Lexington said, as his head broke the 
surface of the water. They were in a little underwater cave somewhere off 
of the coast of New Jersey.
  
  Christa nodded eagerly as she came out of the water besides him.  "We have
kept a watch on her   ever since the massacre of Wyvern.  We knew she had a 
hand in it, because she knew the attack  was coming.  She slept that night 
on the beach instead of on the castle with your clan."
  
  "So that's how she survived.  We wondered. "  Lexington shook off most of 
the water.  "So what happened. with this horn of yours?"
  
  "The horn was in a museum in Hawaii where many of my people live, but she 
came by day and stole   it.  We followed the woman whom we thought was a 
stranger only to learn that at night she became the gargoyle   I  knew in 
Scotland.  That was why I was assigned to retrieve it."
  
  Lexington nodded thoughtfully.  "What can she do with the horn?  I 
remember you telling me a story about it once, but I don't  remember if you 
told me about  its power."
  
  Christa looked unsettled.  "When a female plays the horn for a male it 
works like our songs.  It entrances them, and they obey the holder of the 
horn until she releases them, or until a mermaid breaks the spell."
  
  "What could Demona want with that kind of power? "  Lexington mused.  At 
the moment he couldn't think of anything; and other things were on his mind.
  
  "Lexington, who was the female who tried to stop us?"  Christa asked.
  
  Lexington sighed, hoping that Christa wouldn't  figure the whole thing 
out, but she was usually very  good at reading his body language.  "Her 
name is Ophelia.  She was raised on Avalon."
  
  "You love her."  It wasn't a question.    He nodded.
  
  "You don't know how hard it was to leave her on the beach,"  he said 
glumly.
  
  "Good,"  Christa said.  When he turned to her curiously, she said,  "I 
was afraid that having me for a friend would ruin you if another of your 
kind wanted you."
  
  Lexington smiled at this.  "If you want to know the truth, I chased  her 
for over a year before she  told me she loved me, and it almost took losing 
me to make her realize that."
  
  "It sounds like a long story,"  Christa observed.
  
  "It is a long story,"  Lexington said.  It wasn't something he really 
wanted to talk about either. Just then his internal clock warned him of the 
coming dawn.  "It's almost dawn."  He looked at his friend squarely.  "If 
you don't mind, I'd like you to take a note to them during the day.  That
way you won't have to deal with them, and they'll still get it."  He gave 
her a wry grin.  "I'm sure you'll have no trouble sneaking into and out of 
the building. "
  
  Christa's grin matched his own.  "I didn't have trouble before,"  she said.
  
  Lexington laughed.  "I thought not."
  
  ********************************************************************
  Xanatos picked up his personal phone.  This had to be an employee.  No 
one outside of the building spoke to him unless Owen spoke to them first, 
and informed him.
  
  "Mr.  Xanatos."  He identified the voice easily--  Dorothy Chase from 
International Sales.  She was  Peter Stewart's assistant.  She must be 
using his office; only the heads of departments had access  to Xanatos' 
extension.
  
  "Yes, Dorothy, what can I do for you?  Where is Mister Stewart?"
  
  The girl sounded frustrated and angry.  "Mister Stewart and every other 
man in Sales  is following that cheep street floozy down the hall.  He 
almost gave her the castle access keys!  I took  them away from him, but 
he's still following her trying to help her.  The ladies and I down here  
thought you should know."
  
  ~Every man?~  Suddenly a thought came to him.  "Thank you, Miss Chase. 
I'll see to it right away."  He hung up the phone and beeped Fox.
  
  Seconds later she was on the intercom.  "David, is this important?  I'm 
giving your son a bath!"
  
  Xanatos ignored the tenseness in her voice.  Since Alex had learned to 
walk, bathing him was no longer  an easy task.  "There's a woman on the 
87th floor who has the entire male population of Sales  following her 
around like lost puppies, and she's trying to gain access to the castle."
  
  "The entire male population.  Every single male?"  she asked.
  
  "Yes."
  
  Fox was silent for a moment.  "The mermaid?"   Goliath had informed them 
both about Lexington's disappearance.
  
  "I don't think we can rule it out as a possibility." 
  
  "Okay,  I'll get Owen to finish up here."  A click was heard as the line 
disconnected.
  
  Xanatos nodded, satisfied, then looked up to see the most stunning woman 
in all the world  standing in his doorway.  She had cascading fire red hair, 
and was wearing a long sundress of turquoise, with a sea shell embroidered 
on the front.  She smelled of salt water and new rain.
  
  "Hello, David Xanatos.  Do not trouble yourself over me. I shall be gone 
as soon as I have discharged my duty.  While I am here, you should take a 
nap, so I will not disturb you."
  
  David Xanatos nodded slowly, and closed his eyes in sleep.
  
  ********************************************************************
  As  predicted, Christa had no trouble entering the Aerie building that 
morning.  A few soft words to the security guard won her a way inside, and 
sweet quiet hums inched her closer and closer to the castle.  She didn't 
encouter any opposition until she tried to get one man to hand her the key 
to the castle elevator.  A female aide with a hateful expression on her 
face took the key away and marched into her  supervisor's  office  to call 
security.
  
 Christa simply  found someone else who got her into the castle. As an 
afterthought, she went into Xanatos' office, and eliminated him as a threat.
She turned to walk out of the office and found herself  facing a woman with 
hair as red as hers, with a blue fox tattooed over her eye, holding a
semiautomatic at her gut.  "What the hell did you do to my husband?"  she 
demanded.
  
  That was the problem with these modern times.  Too many females had high 
positions and could fight nearly as well as a man.  They gave her no end of 
trouble now.  "I did not hurt him, woman. I  just need to discharge my 
duty, and I shall be gone."
  
  "I don't  think so,"  Fox retorted.
  
  Christa put her hands on her hips.  "Please let me pass.  The sooner I 
finish, the sooner I will leave.  Do not make me use your man against you."
  
  Fox leveled the gun at Christa  again.  "Try it,"  she answered flatly.
  
  "You won't kill me, woman.  You would not dare anger Oberon's cousin so!"
  
  Fox lowered the gun in confused anger.  "Oberon's what?"
  
  "Cousin,"  Christa repeated.  "My mistress Tethis, queen of the seas.  
Allow me to leave my message for the gargoyles, and I swear in her name I 
will leave in peace."
  
  Fox considered  a moment.  Then she said,  "Press that red button on the 
phone and dial 23, and  If you so much as sing a single note, you're Swiss 
cheese."
  
  Christa complied, and stayed silent.  The voice over the intercom was 
strangely familiar.  "Yes, Mrs. Xanatos?"  Surely that was not Oberon's 
trickster!  Tethis and all below the waves had heard the rumor that Puck 
had sided with a human and was banished from Avalon, but here, as a
servant?
  
  Fox's voice sounded tense.  "Owen a relative of yours is here.  I'd like 
you to vouch for her."
  
  The man's voice sounded extremely nervous at that moment.  "Does she 
claim to be a mermaid?"
  
  "Fox looked at Xanatos asleep in his chair.  "Oh I'd say that's a big yes."
  
  The voice changed to one a annoyance.  "Mrs Xanatos, I believe it would be
hazardous for me to meet with your guest in that case.  Once I had set eyes 
on her I would quickly succumb to her many charms."
  
  Christa let out an exasperated sigh.  Men no matter which of the three 
races were so afraid of her!
  
  "Well What do I do with her?"  Fox asked equally annoyed.
  
  There was silence on the other line for a moment.  Then his voice said, 
"Has she sworn by Tethis?"
  
  Fox didn't answer right away.  Finally she said, "Yeah,"
  
  "Then you can be assured that she is speaking the truth."  Owen answered.
Then he disconnected the line.
  
  Fox didn't say anything for a moment, then looked at Christa.  "Leave your
message on the desk and get out of my house."  She demanded.  "I'll make 
sure the gargoyles get it.  I promise
  
  Christa looked at Fox with a cold disdain.  "And what is the worth of a 
mortal's promise?"
  
  Fox swallowed every curse she was thinking.  "This is the word of Titania's 
daughter.  I swear by  my mother that your message will be delivered."
  
  Christa was surprised at this, though that rumor was also rampart in the 
sea.  Titania had a human  like hybrid daughter who had chosen her father's 
race instead of Titania's.  According to the  rumor Titania's daughter 
wasn't thrilled with her immortal parentage, and didn't wish contact with  
them, but to swear by Oberon's queen...."
  
  "I will take you at your word, My lady."  Christa said.  She left a small 
folded scrap of paper on the desk then slowly walked by Fox.  At the door 
she stopped and turned around.  "By the way, Lexington is fine.  He is a 
very dear friend to me, and I would never hurt him.  That is my message to 
the gargoyles."  Then she left the room.
  ************************************************************************
  Fox breathed a heavy sigh as she saw the mermaid leave.   She had no idea 
why she felt so threatened by this creature.  She looked so small and 
helpless but some deeply ingrained instinct told her that she was 
potentially dangerous.
  
  She wondered at the message the mermaid left for the gargoyles.  She and 
Lexington friends? Own had mentioned it as had Goliath when he briefed her 
and David on Lexington's disappearance.  A mermaid was responsible, and as 
far as they knew he was not under her spell. Curious Fox picked up the 
paper and read it.
  
              Guys I'm perfectly all right.  Christa is an old friend of 
              mine And I owe her a favor.  Please do not come looking for 
              me! She really needs my help.  Be careful all of you.  I 
              don't want This mess spilling over on all of you's.  And keep
              Bonnie, and Witless off my computer!  I'll see you as soon as
              I can come Back.  Tell Ophelia I love her.  And don't worry 
              about me I'm all right.   
                                        
                                                     Lex
  
  ************************************************************************
  Goliath frowned over the note.  He turned back to Fox and Xanatos.  "And 
she said nothing of where Lexington was or how we could find him?"
  
  Fox shook her head no.  "Well according to what the note said, it sounds 
like he doesn't want you to know where he is."
  
  "And he'll only come back when he's good and ready."  Brooklyn said 
scowling.
  
  Bonavista made a half nod .  "So what're we at now?"
  
  Ophelia  frowned and looked at the others.  She held her hand out, and 
Goliath passed her the note.  She read it over again.  "It sounds almost as 
if Lexington doesn't want us involved."
  
  "If the lad is protected from the mermaid's power that  makes a bit of 
sense. He's keeping us males away from her."  Hudson said.  The others 
nodded in agreement.
  
  "But surly he knows he can trust us,"  Angela said.
  
  "Lex probably wants you girls to take care of us,"  Brooklyn said.  He 
looked out of a nearby window.  "If only we knew what the problem was."
  
  "We shall continue to look for Lexington."  Goliath said.    "We must 
assume that the mermaid has him for a purpose, and if we can assist him, 
she will release him."
  
  Brooklyn frowned, as did Whitbourne.  "Goliath, I don't think that going 
to find this mermaid is a good idea.  If she sings or anything, we're sunk."
  
  "We shall have females in each group," Goliath said firmly.  Brooklyn, 
you, Bonavista and Carbonear  will go back to Coney Island.  Whitbourne, 
you and Ophelia--"
  
  "If it's all the same to ye, Goliath, I wants to go back to that beach, 
too,"  Whitbourne said uncertainly.  As the others turned to look at him, 
they noticed that he seemed as confused as they were.
  
  "Why?"  Ophelia asked.
  
  Whitbourne looked unsettled as he answered.  "I'se doesn't know, me girl. 
I just gots this feeling that I might be able to figure something out if I 
goes back."
  
  "Is ye sure ye doesn't just want to find that mermaid again?" Carbonear 
asked a little harder than she intended.  Whitbourne glared at her.
  
  Goliath gave Whitbourne a visual once over.  "Very well, you and Ophelia 
may go with Brooklyn's team, but take care.  I will go with Hudson, Angela, 
and Elisa to Battery Park. Broadway, you and Bronx stay here to guard the 
castle.  Stay as close to Fox as possible."
  
  The others all nodded and went to their assignments.
  ***********************************************************************
  
  Christa splashed Lexington as her head broke over the water in the cave.  
"Good evening, Lexington," she said to the gargoyle, who was shrugging the 
last bits of stone off of himself.
  
  "Hi Christa!  Did you deliver my note?"    Christa nodded.
  
  "I do not think that it will dissuade them, though.   I remember how your 
clan felt about protecting their own, and the three Newfoundlanders are very
much like - minded."
  
  "Yeah I know I--"  Lexington broke off and gave Christa an odd look.  
"How did you know that three of my clan were from Newfoundland?"
  
  "I know them," she said simply.  At his astounded look she said, "I was 
assigned to Newfoundland for several years.  I knew that there were four 
gargoyles in residence there for the longest time.  One of our elders, 
Naiomie, knew them.  She asked Tethis to bless them, because we thought that
they were the only gargoyles left.  This was over thirty years ago though.
They  probably don't remember her"
  
  "Tethis blessed them?"  Lexington repeated, amazed.  
  
  "Yes she did,"  Chrisa explained.  "She thought they were the last of 
their kind.  We didn't know if you'd ever wake from the spell  you were 
under. I supported Naiomie's request."
  
  "Oh."  Lexington considered this for a moment.  "So nothing from the ocean
can hurt them, right?"  Christa agreed.  Lexington thought a moment more.  
"What about the horn?"
  
  "It won't hurt them, but the two males still can be entranced by the horn."
  
  Lexington frowned, but then looked down at the opening to the ocean.  
"Well, let's get on with it then.  Come on Christa. We have to find that 
Demona and that horn."
  
  Christa nodded,  and taking Lexington's hand, dove into the water.  As 
their heads broke the surface outside, Lexington noticed that they weren't 
in the ocean, but one of the two rivers that surround Manhattan.  Looking 
up he saw something that he swore looked like a medieval church.  "Christa,
what is that?"
  
  Christa followed his eyes and said matter of factly.  "Those are the 
Cloisters.  I guess they remind  you of your home a little, don't they?"
  
  "The Cloisters?"  A sudden memory struck him.   In a very quiet voice he 
said, "Christa, I think I  know what Demona might want the horn for."
  
  "What?" she asked.  She noticed how unsettled he had become. 
  
  "It's a long story.  I'll tell you on the way. We have to find Goliath 
and the others."
  
  Christa nodded as she dove beneath the waves with Lexington again.  "But 
I thought you said that  if you appeared before them, they would try to 
take you from me." 
  
  "They might," he admitted, "but If we don't find them and warn them about 
the horn,  Demona might use it against them."  As soon as the words were 
out of his mouth  he felt Christa's speed increase.  There was no time to 
lose.
  
  They split up as Christa reached  the docks on the Hudson.  Lexington 
would go and warn whoever was at the Castle, and stay inland to find the 
others.  Christa would go and find any near the coast to warn them.
  **********************************************************************
    Whitbourne felt odd as he landed back on the beach with the others.
  
  Lexington did not come back this evening, but nobody really expected him 
to.  His note said that  he didn't know when he could come back.  Goliath 
ordered another search around all the beaches.  So, much to Carb's dismay, 
Whitbourne had volunteered for the Coney Island search.
  
  He didn't know why, but he felt that he had to find this mermaid.  It was 
as if he was forgetting something important.  He needed an answer from her,
and he didn't even know the question.
  
  He  walked over the pier and looked out over the ocean.  He looked out to 
the horizon, trying to organize his feelings.
  
  "Whit, are you all right?"  Ophelia asked.
  
  "Huh?"  Ophelia had woken him from his musings.  "Oh, I'se okay, me girl.
I was just thinkin'."
  
  Ophelia looked at him with concern on her face.  "Maybe you should go back
to the castle.  I don't like  the idea of me and Carb watching the three of 
you."
  
  "But Bonnie's protected,"  he said.  Suddenly he looked cross.  "Ye 
doesn't trust me!"
  
  Ophelia turned on him instantly.  "How can you trust yourself!  That 
mermaid's controlled you once!  She could do it again."
  
  Without thinking the words came out of his mouth.  "She's not after 
wantin' to hurt us."
  
  Ophelia spun on him more frightened by his words than anyone else.  "What 
are you talking about?  She took   Lexington!"  Ophelia glared at him 
critically.  "She's got you, Whit!  She's got you so messed up   in  your 
head you don't know what you're thinking."

  Whit wanted to protest, but how could he explain his feelings to her when 
he couldn't understand  them himself?  Without answering her, Whitbourne 
jumped off the pier and landed on the beach.  Ophelia didn't follow.  She 
left him to his thoughts.
  
  What was wrong with him anyway?  Ophelia was right.  That mermaid  was 
dangerous.  She had Lexington, and if they weren't careful she could lure 
him and the others right to her.  All the same, even when her power was off 
of him, and he was remembering with fear how good she had made him feel, he 
didn't think she was trying to harm them.
  
  "Whitbourne."
  
  Whitbourne looked around.  He didn't see anyone.  He took two steps into
the surf.
  
  "Whitbourne."
  
  Again he heard the voice.  This time he noticed that he moved deeper into 
the water.  It was up to his ankles now and he was underneath the pier.  He 
had to steady himself against the waves pushing him back to the shore, but 
he ignored that.  "Come on, buddy, show yourself,"  he called out.
  
  The voice came again.  It was the sweetest calming voice he had ever heard.  
It stirred some odd memories about his childhood.  "Please, Whitbourne, 
come a little closer. I need to speak to you."
  
  He took a few more steps forward without realizing it.  Suddenly  a wave 
broke over his pants, and  he realized what he was doing-- and probably why.
"No," he said, more to himself than to his unseen companion.  He couldn't 
go back for some reason.  His body just wouldn't obey him.  He lifted his 
beak to call Ophelia.
  
  "No. Don't call anyone, and don't be afraid, Whitbourne.  I won't hurt 
you."
  
  All the fear vanished the moment she said that.  A small part of 
Whitbourne's rational mind was screaming at him that this was the mermaid 
and he was under her control, but the rest of him couldn't care less.  The 
simple act of her speaking to him was sending pleasant chills up and down 
his spine, that he couldn't ignore.
  
  His rational side was still pretty much in mental control even though not 
physically in control.  "Ye's the mermaid, ain't ye, me girl,"  he said.  
"Ye's the buddy who stole Lexington."
  
  "Lexington is my friend.  He came to me because I needed his help.  And 
now I need yours."
  
  ~This buddy is what stole Lex from us.  She's after controlling our minds.
I ain't doin' nothin' for her,~  Whitbourne silently vowed.  He opened his 
mouth to say no, and said, "What does ye want from me?"  Mentally he kicked 
himself.
  
  "Lexington believe that he knows why Demona stole the horn of Tethis.  It 
gives mortal women powers like that of a mermaid's song."
  
  "Demona?"  ~No wonder Lex was after getting involved.  If she has that 
kind of power we'se all be in trouble.~
  
  "Yes.  He is afraid that she stole the horn to use against the males of 
your clan.  She has tried to control Goliath in the past.  She might use it
to enchant and enslave all of you.  You must convince the others to stop 
searching for Lexington.  Goliath must be warned and you all must be 
protected! "  Suddenly voices were heard inland.  "I must go!" Whitbourne 
heard a splash of water, but saw nothing.
  
  "Girl?  Come on, me girl!  Where are ye to?"  He began wading in the 
water looking for her.
  
  "Whit?  Whitbourne?"  That was Ophelia's voice.  Suddenly he felt someone 
pick him up and deposit him back on the shore.  Ophelia landed next to him, 
and the others quickly came up.  "What the hell were you doing in the water?" 
Ophelia asked him.
  
  Whitbourne gave her a hard look.  "She was here, me girl!  The mermaid!  
I was after talkin' to her but she ran off on me before I could find her!"  
He looked out to sea.
  
  "You what?"  Carbonear  ran to him and grabbed his shoulders, prepared to 
shake him, but Brooklyn gently moved her away.
  
  "Wait a minute, Carb,"  Brooklyn said.  He looked Whitbourne squarely in 
the eye.  "Did you see her?"
  
  Whitbourne shook his head.  "I never laid eyes on her, but I heard her.  
She was after tellin' me that we has to warn Goliath!"
  
  "Warn Goliath?  Witless what are ye goin' on about?"  Bonavista asked.
  
  Whitbourne dusted the sand off of his wet clothes.  "Lexington's
  buddy was after sayin' that Demona was after stealin' some kind of horn.  And she wants
  to be after using it on us!"
  
  "Wait, wait, wait,"  Brooklyn said.  "A horn?"
  
  Whitbourne nodded.    "Buddy was after sayin' that the horn gives a girl 
the power of a mermaid.  She says that Demona would be after wanting to use 
it on us!  We's gotta warn Goliath and get us all together."
  
  "And in the meantime we aren't looking for Lexington,"  Ophelia said with 
her arms crossed.  Brooklyn and the others looked at her and nodded grimly.
  
  Whitbourne looked at them, confused.  "What does ye mean?"
  
  Brooklyn looked sadly at Whitbourne.  "Whit, she nailed you.  She wants 
us to go looking for Goliath so we don't go looking for Lex!"
  
  Whit looked slightly hurt and puzzled.  "But she says--"
  
  Carbonear gave her rookery brother a gentle pat on the back.  "Whit, my 
son, she was after lying to ye so ye'd have us on a wild goose chase.  It 
wasn't after being true."
  
  Whitbourne looked so upset and torn.  "But ......"
  
  "It wasn't true,"  Brooklyn said firmly.  He looked at Whitbourne squarely.
Whitbourne knew the look.  It was the same one Ophelia gave him earlier.  
Brooklyn didn't trust him fully.
  
  ~Frigg, maybe they's right.  I'se just reactin' this way cause she's after
being a mermaid. Whitbourne my son, ye's got to get a grip on yourself and 
not go rushing off under a mermaid's power.~    Still, there was a tiny 
voice inside of him that wondered if maybe that mermaid was telling the 
truth, and if she was, what Demona was going to do to them.
  
  ********************************************************************
    Christa swore as she heard the other gargoyles convince Whitbourne that 
she had lied. She had no time to  go back  and explain to them -- so she 
decided to find Goliath herself.
  
  *********************************************************************
    Lexington landed on the north wall, and looked around.  No one was there.
He frowned and went inside.  In the arboretum he found Owen and Alexander.  
"Owen, is Goliath or anyone else around?"
  
  Xanatos' Major Domo looked up from where he was playing ball with 
Alexander.  "Goliath and the gargoyles are out looking for you," he said 
surprised to see him.
  
  "Man!"  Lexington muttered in frustrated.  "Christa was right.  They 
didn't listen to the note." He looked at Owen and  remembered what Christa 
had said about male Children of Oberon. They weren't immune to mermaids, 
or the horn.  "Owen, get yourself a pair of earplugs. Demona stole the Horn 
of Tethis.  I think she might want to use it to entrance the clan, but she's
probably not picky about who else she nails.  Especially since she's not 
too fond of you."
  
  Owen considered that for a moment,  then pulled out a small box with two 
electronic ear plugs.  He placed them in his ears.  "These allow normal 
conversations to take place, while blocking the psycosonic vibrations of 
the mermaids and the horn."  At Lexington's curious glance, he added,  "They
are only a prototype."
  
  Lexington looked at him more than a little worried.  "You mean Xanatos 
doesn't have a pair?"
  
  Owen wasn't even phased at Lexington's raised voice.  "Mr. Xanatos wanted 
to insure the safety of his son first.  There wasn't time to make another 
pair."
  
  "Oh boy!  We'd better warn Xanatos then.  There's no telling when Demona 
will show up."
  
  Owen nodded, and moved toward the intercom.  He pressed the button, and 
suddenly heard a strange whining sound coming from the other end of the 
line.  Lexington swallowed involuntarily.  It sounded remarkably like 
mermaid song.  Lexington ran out of the room, leaving Owen with his duty to 
protect Alex.

  **************************************************************************
  Fox was in the middle of discussing  some stock sales with David, when she
heard the sound.  It was quiet and melodious, but it send a cold chill down 
her back.  David stopped in mid- sentence and got up to follow the sound.
  
  
  "David!  No!"  she cried.  She tried to stop him, but nothing she did 
could deter him.  He fought off  her blows, and she didn't want to hurt him 
seriously.  All she could do was follow and watch  as he led her, not to 
the mermaid as she had suspected, but rather to Demona.
  
  Demona was playing some strange jeweled horn.  It was solid gold, and 
decorated with coral, pearls of many colors, and sea shells.  Broadway, in 
a trance, was already at her side.  "Oh no!" she said.  "That's what the 
mermaid wanted with Lex!  You stole something from her!  Let them go!"
  
  Demona regarded Fox thoughtfully.  "So, Lexington's little fish friend is 
after me, and Lexington himself  as well.  Well, I can handle them.  Or 
better said, they will handle them."  She nodded at David and Broadway, 
both of them entranced.  "Take her," she said.
  
  Fox considered.  One on one with her husband she could handel, but with 
Broadway and Demona thrown in?  She ran down the stone corridor with 
Demona's laughter following in her wake.
  
  She ran into Lexington in the main hall.  "Lexington!"  she cried out.
  
  "Fox!"  he called simultaneously.  "Did Demona..."
  
  "You know it!"
  
  "Who's in the castle?"
  
  Fox knew that Lexington wasn't talking about her family at that moment.  
"Just Broadway.  The others are all out."
  
  "What about Xanatos?"  he asked frantically.
  
  "Here,"  Xanatos said.  His voice was flat and unemotional.  There was a 
strange green glint in his  eyes.  Lexington and Fox both shuddered.  
Coming up behind him was Broadway.
  
  "Lexington, run!"  Fox commanded.
  
  "Fox!"
  
  "Lexington, go!  You have to warn the others!"  Fox insisted.
  
  "How can I leave you?"  Lexington protested.
  
  "Just go!  I'll hold them off.  For some reason Demona can't enchant me 
with that."
  
  Lexington sighed, giving in, but not before he explained.  "That's 
because you're female," he shot back as he ran for the doorway.
  
  Xanatos and Broadway started to chase him.  "She has commanded."  
Broadway said dully, as if he had no control over his words.  "Capture the 
clan."
  
  "Not this time."  Fox said.  Not knowing if it would do any good, she ran 
into Broadway and knocked him over. Lexington disappeared  through the door,
but Broadway got a tight grip on Fox and dragged her up with him.
  
  "Pursue him,"  Xanatos ordered Broadway.  Broadway passed Fox over to 
Xanatos and chased the smaller gargoyle down the hall.
  
   Fox managed to struggle out of Xanatos' grasp and was about to run 
herself when a voice said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."  Fox looked 
up to see Demona leveling her gun, not at her,but  at her husband.
  
  "Run if you want,"  Demona said, "but if you do, he dies."
  
  Fox sighed and surrendered.  She prayed that Lexington had escaped.
  
  He had.  Broadway returned a few moments later with that report.  Demona 
was not happy. "Fool!" she cried out.  She looked at her two mind slaves 
and sighed.   "No matter.  Take her to  the Nightstone warehouse  in  
Harlem.  Imprison the female, and guard her," she told her slaves.  "I 
intend to find Goliath before he can be warned."  With that she left, her 
mind slaves caring for  Fox.
  
  "David?  David, she's gone!  Come back to me!"  Fox pleaded with her 
husband.  But as far as she could see he couldn't even hear her.  David got 
into his exoframe and followed Broadway to the wearhouse.   As they cuffed 
her to the wall, Fox wondered if  the gargoyles really could combat such a 
weapon as that horn.
  *************************************************************************
  Christa swam up to the very tip of Manhattan.  Goliath was there with two 
other gargoyles and a human female.  She poked her head  out of the water. 
It would do no good for the two males to see her.  They would forget all 
else save following her, even into the water.
  
  The female gargoyle, Lexington had told her this one was named Angela, 
was nearest to her, so she decided to take a small risk.  "Psst, Angela,"  
she called out.
  
  Angela  spun around, not expecting to hear a voice from the water.  She 
saw Christa floating in the water before her.  Without warning, Angela 
leaped over the safety rail and dove into the water in an attack.
  
  Christa sank below the waves.  If the others heard her splash  they might 
investigate, and that wasn't part of her plan.  Angela followed right 
behind.  That was part of her plan.
  
  "Angela!  Please!  Your Clan is in terrible danger!  You must listen to 
me!"  She reached out and touched the gargoyle, who was shocked as soon a she realized she
could breathe.
  
  Angela was intent  on her goal.  "Where is Lexington?"  she demanded.
  
  "Hopefully warning the rest of your clan in the castle about Demona.  She 
has stolen a powerful talisman from my people.  We think she intends to use 
it against the males of your clan."
  
  "Why should I trust you?"  Angela said suspiciously."
  
  Christa sighed in exasperation.  "Look above you."  Angela did so, only 
to see the surface ten feet   above her.  "We are in these depths so your 
father will not see me and fall under my power, which I cannot control.  If 
I wished to elude you, you would not be sharing my water-breathing 
abilities.  You would be on the surface, and I would be gone."
  
  Angela considered this for a moment, but then Christa heard the horn sound.
"It's Demona!" Christa  cried pulling Angela to the surface.  Angela 
climbed up the barrier rail to see Demona with a laser rifel.  She was just 
standing there with Goliath and Hudson next to her.  Goliath was holding a 
struggling Elisa.
  
  "Demona!  No!"  Angela vaulted over the railing, only to be stopped by 
Hudson.  He grabbed her  only with enough strength to hold her, not to harm her.  "Mother, no! 
You can't do this!  It's
not  fair!"  She cried out.
  
  "If I cannot beat Goliath fairly,"  her mother retorted,   "then an unfair
fight this will be. "  She looked at Angela sympathetically.  "Do not worry,
my child.  As long as they are under my spell, I  will not have to kill 
them."
  
  Christa decided that she couldn't just watch.  She rose from the water 
and jumped over the rail herself, transforming her tail to legs as she did 
so.  Goliath and Hudson didn't turn to see her, but  Elisa and Angela did, 
as did Demona.
  
  Christa called out in her pure crystal voice.  "Demona!  Let them go!"
  
  Demona looked at Christa, frightened for the first time.  "No!  If she 
calls to them my plans are all  undone!"  she cried.  She took her gun and 
pointed it dead at Goliath's chest point blank." Leave me, mermaid!"  she 
ordered.  "Leave or Goliath dies!"
  
  Christa was afraid to call to Goliath.  He had heard her songs before and 
would obey her before Demona.  She looked at Angela with her pleading eyes 
for an answer.  "Go,"  Angela said evenly. "Warn the others."
  
  Elisa struggled out of Goliath's arms for a moment.  She reached, not for 
her gun but for her badge.  "Show them this!  They'll believe you!"  she 
called as she tossed the soft leather wallet towards Christa before Goliath 
grabbed her again.
  
  Christa looked first at the human,  then into the young gargoyle's eyes,  
and nodded.  "You won't win, Demona.  The sea knows what you have done; the 
sea will be against you."  With that  she dove into the water, and vanished 
from sight.
  
  Demona led the group to her warehouse.  As expected, Broadway, and Xanatos
were both still under her spell.  She supervised the imprisonment of  her 
daughter and the human, then retreated to her lab where she consulted her 
reference on the horn.  That cursed mermaid could undo the spell just by 
addressing any make who had heard her son before.  That meant that any
who had heard her were not reliable.  That did not bode well for Goliath.
  
  *************************************************************
  
  Scotland 990
  
  "Goliath, no!" she insisted.
  
  "My love, no one else can go.  I must."  Before she could protest further,
he took off, heading toward the ocean.
  
  Goliath's mate  frowned as she watched him go.  She hated these long 
patrols off the coast.  She knew that several scouts  had reported seeing 
the masts of Viking  ships.  It was Goliath's turn to  watch the ships to 
see where they would land, but every trip away from land was dangerous for 
a gargoyle.  If he fell into the open ocean.....
  
  She glided to the coast and watched as she saw the tiny dot that was her 
mate explore  the coastline.  Suddenly a fierce gust of wind  cast Goliath 
into the sea.
  
  "No!" she cried. Without thinking about the danger to herself, she leaped 
into the air and headed for the beach.  She had no idea one of the younger 
warriors had followed her.
  
  She tried to enter the water but the winds and waves were too strong.  The 
small warrior came up  behind her.  "Wait," he said, as she moved to scold 
him.  "I can help."  He pulled out a strange  whistle made from a long sea 
shell and sounded it.
  
  "What are you--"  she began.
  
  "Just watch!"  he replied, cutting her off.
  
  Suddenly the winds died down in force, and the waves stopped cresting.  
The fog lifted a bit, and she could see a slim figure swimming towards them 
at a great speed.  In no time at all it had reached the shore carrying its 
cargo-- Goliath.
  
  "My love!"  she exclaimed.  She tried to move towards him, but the 
mermaid lifted her head.
  
  "No!  Little one, the sea has invaded his air - breathing lungs.  I must 
restore what the sea has taken.  Hold her!"
  
  The young warrior nodded and obeyed her, grabbing on to his elder's arms. 
"Wait, " he said, "she  has to fix him first.  Look, he's not breathing."
  
  "What?"  That only made her struggle more, but the little warrior held 
her until  Christa used her  magic to restore Goliath.  Once he was 
breathing again, she cast a spell on him to make him sleep  and forget he 
had ever seen a mermaid.
  
  Goliath's lady looked at the mermaid with an odd expression on her face.  "You have saved my
  mate.  I thank you."
  
  The red - haired mermaid nodded, then disappeared back into the waves.  
Goliath's lady pillowed her love's head on her lap, then turned to the 
young warrior.  "This mermaid, she is your friend?"  When he nodded shyly, 
she asked, "How is this possible?"
  
  With a large heavy sigh, he told her everything.
  **********************************************************************
    ~No! No, no!  What do I do?~  Christa  thought as she swam along.  Demona 
had Goliath, she didn't know how Lexington fared, and the others didn't 
understand the danger.  She paused in the  water as she considered that.  
She had no choice now;  She had to make them believe her.
  
  She swam back to the beach where she had seen them, but all the gargoyles 
were gone.  That mattered little.  Christa knew a way to get them to return,
but it wasn't very diplomatic...Then again  she didn't have time to be  
diplomatic.  Who knows who else Demona had taken.  If she sang for the males
who were still free they would have a minor protection against Demona. She
got out of the water, using her magic   to  shape her tail into a pair of 
legs.  It would be far too dangerous for them to see her in her true 
form -- she would never get the males to leave her alone then.  She raised 
her eyes to the skys  then  sang out a simple summons.  *Gargoyles come to 
me. You must come to me!*

      ******************************************************************
  "Where should we search next?"  Ophelia asked, as they glided along.
  
  "We'll follow the rest of the beaches here in Brooklyn,"  Brooklyn said.  
He looked down at Sheepshead Bay.  "I think  Manhattan Beach is over that 
way."  He pointed, and they all turned in  that direction.
  
  Bonavista glanced at his rookery brother.  Ever since they left Coney 
Island, Whitbourne had been   sullen and unnaturally quiet.  He mentally 
cursed the fact that the mermaid had gotten to him.  Whitbourne should have 
taken the charm; after all he was the one who had thought of it. Well, 
Whitbourne wouldn't  take it now, so Bonavista decided to tease Brooklyn to 
ease the mood.
  
  "Brooklyn my son, now why in heaven's name does we calls it Manhattan 
Beach when it's after being in Brooklyn?"  He gave one of his silly grins, 
and Brooklyn smiled in return.
  
  Brooklyn gave a soft chuckle and watched as the others smiled and giggled.
"Bonnie, if I knew that, I would--"  Brooklyn broke off and paused, as if 
he were straining to hear something. Whitbourne paused as well.  "Do you 
hear that?"  His voice sounded funny-- soft, and distracted.
  
  Carbonear looked around, as did Ophelia.  "I doesn't hear nothin',"  she 
said.
  
  "Me neither," Ophelia said.
  
  Bonavista listened.  He heard something-- a clear and beautiful sound.  A 
haunting pipe - like song  was filling the air.  ~Why can'ts the girls hear 
it?~  Then he saw Brooklyn and Whitbourne with a  look of quiet joy on 
their faces.
  
  "She's after calling us,"  Whitbourne said, almost in ecstasy.  "She's 
after wanting us."
  
  "Witless?"  Carbonear said, sounding worried.  She turned to Brooklyn.  
"Brooks?"
  
  "She's calling us,"  Brooklyn said in the same rapture as Whitbourne.  
Without another word he and Whitbourne  took off heading back towards Coney 
Island.
  
  "Brooklyn!"  Carbonear shouted after them.
  
  "It's no good, Carb!"  Bonavista moved in front of her for a moment.  
"It's gotta be that mermaid bitch that's after catching Lex!  I can hear 
her, and I knows what she's after wanting, but I doesn't feels like running 
off to her!"
  
  Carbonear and Ophelia looked at him in wonder.  "That means the charm 
must work!"  Ophelia said.
  
  Carb nodded once and then looked at the retreating pair.  They were both 
going as fast as they could.  She had  never seen  Whitbourne go so fast 
before.  "Fine, great byes!  Now let's go after those two before that sea 
witch grabs them!"  Without waiting for an answer from either of the the 
others she climbed the wall and took off.
  
  
  For the first time in her life, Carbonear found that she had to push 
herself  to keep up with Whitbourne.  He   and Brooklyn, under the mermaid's
spell, were racing back to the beach as fast as they could.
  
  "Carb!"  Bonavista called.  "We's gotta stops them!"
  
  "If ye's got an idea, Bonnie, I'se all ears!"  she shot back, but neither 
one of them could catch up to Brooklyn and Whitbourne.
  
  They landed back by the pier.  Sure enough, the mermaid was there.  Her 
eyes were filled with tears .  With a wave of her hand, Brooklyn and 
Whitbourne both faced away from her and woke up.
  
  "Brook!"  Carbonear shouted as she dove for the sand.  "Brook!  You and 
Whit don't turn around!  That sea witch is after standing right behind ye!!"
  
  The mermaid glared at Carb in accusation, and as her feet touched the 
ground she threw a soft leather wallet at her.  "Damn you!  Damn you and 
all your suspicions to the bottom of the sea!  I warned you and you wouldn't
listen!"
  
  "What  does ye want with us?"    Bonavista asked slowly.  He glanced at 
Brooklyn and Whit, who seemed very nervous but willing to stay out of it.    
Out of curiosity, he picked up the wallet.
  
  "Oh damn,"  Whitbourne said softly.  "It was true, wasn't it, me girl?  
All that stuff about that Demona bitch was true and we didn't warn Goliath."
  
  "It's not true!"  Carbonear snapped.  "She just wants ye to believe that, 
Witless!   She's after trying   to distract ye."
  
  "Uh, Carb?"  Bonavista said slowly.  "I doesn't think she's after lying."
  
  Carbonear looked at the wallet in his hands.  Inside of it was Elisa's 
badge.
  
  "How does we knows ye didn't  capture her likes ye did Lexington, and 
takes this from her?"
  
  The accusation only enraged the lovely mermaid.  "I swear by Tethis 
herself that I speak the truth.  If I had been a second sooner I could have 
saved Goliath and his elder.  BUT I COULDN'T! " The tears came down faster. 
Brooklyn and Whit were fidgeting.  The sound of a  mermaid crying wasn't 
something they could ignore easily.
  
  Just then a small greenish yellow figure landed in their midst.  "Christa,
I didn't reach the castle in time.  Demona--"  Suddenly he broke off  as he 
saw what was in Bonavista's hands.  "Oh, no, Goliath and Elisa!   What 
happened?"
  
  Christa looked pained.  "I chose a messenger from them, but they didn't 
believe him.  They didn't  believe me!  Goliath and Hudson have been taken 
by the horn.  The two who were with them   were captured as well."  She 
turned to Lexington.  "I ....I was going to sing, and free them, but   
she..."  She heaved once or twice in sobs.  "She was going to shoot Goliath 
at point blank range,  if I uttered a single word.  I.....I didn't know what
to do."
  
  Lexington bent down and looked the mermaid in the eyes.  "Christa, as far 
as I'm concerned you just saved Goliath's life again. "
  
  "What?"  Brooklyn said still facing away from them.
  
  Lexington turned to him and said firmly,  "Christa saved Goliath's life 
for me about a year after she gave me the charm.  She's been my friend 
since I was nineteen years old.  She saved my life too.  That's why I went 
off with her when she called me for help."
  
  Bonavista swallowed. " Then what she's been saying?"
  
  "It's all true,"  Lexington finished.  "Demona has the horn, and she's 
using it to capture every male in the clan..  We're the only ones left who 
can stop her."
  
  "No!"  Carbonear said weakly.  She clung to Brooklyn, who looked as 
frightened as she.
  
  Ophelia took  a step forward towards Lexington.  "Lex, what can we do?"
  
  "Can your little magic gizmo protect you from the horn too?"  Brooklyn 
asked, facing his friend.
  
  The others began to surround Lexington and bombard him with questions.  
Bonavista almost joined them when he noticed the mermaid backing back into 
the water.  He quickly intercepted her.  "Going somewhere, me girl?"  he 
asked.
  
  Christa looked at him, surprised at first, but her eyes quickly went to 
the charm around his neck. "You have protection," she said quietly so as 
not to disturb the others.  "Where did you get it?"
  
  Bonavista wondered at her.  She was beautiful, true, and she had this 
wondrous compelling voice,  but he didn't feel anything.  He could have 
told her to shove off without any problem.  In this  giddy awareness that 
he felt nothing for her, he decided he could be honest with her.  "It's
part of  me inheritance.  I gots it from a human I knew in St John's, 
Newfoundland."  He decided not to  tell her how Jason raised them from 
hatchlings.
  
  "Ah,"  Christa said with understanding.  " Jason Doyle.  I have heard of 
that human.  He was very  unique to have raised gargoyle children."
  
  Bonavista's jaw dropped open.  "How does ye know him, me girl!"
  
  Christa smiled.  Oh, if she wanted to, she could have any man she wanted, 
magic or no.  "I know of  him.  I lived in Newfoundland for a time.  Or 
more precisely off the coast.  Besides--" she tapped  the sea shell around 
his neck playfully-- "he had to know one of us to receive this gift."

  Instinctively Bonavista covered the charm with his hand.  "Yeah, I 
guesses so."  A faint noise sounded from some distance.  There was 
something sweet and compelling about it, but like the mermaid herself, he 
felt no urges toward it.  "Ye hear that, me girl?"  he asked.
  
  "The horn!"  Christa called out.  She looked at Bonavista in horror.  
"Demona must not discover that you are protected from her as is Lexington!"
  
  "Me girl, what are ye--"  Bonavista began but Christa shoved him several 
feet backwards, deeper into the water, and shouted as loud as she could.  
"GREAT TETHIS, I BEG YOU, TAKE UNTO  YOURSELF THIS CHILD OF YOUR
CHOOSING AND KEEP HIM FROM YOUR ENEMY!"
  
  "No!"  Bonavista tried to say, but then a huge wave appeared and broke 
over him.  The force of the waves drove him deep into the water.  He 
struggled to come to the surface but the powerful current carried him 
several feet until he caught one of the legs of the pier above.  Only 
then was he able to poke his head above water and catch his breath.  He 
noticed that he was now many feet  away from the others.  He tried to move 
back towards them but some seaweed was firmly wrapped around his leg.  Then 
he recalled what Christa said.  "Aw, frigg!  She was after casting some 
kinds of spell on me to keep me safe!"  She didn't want Demona to find out 
he was safe from this horn.  He decided to stay put and peered out from 
behind the pole to see what was happening.
  
  Things didn't look good.  Christa was laying on the sand in such a manner 
that Bonavista wondered if   she had been hurt.  Carb and Ophelia were 
being held by Whitbourne and Brooklyn who were   both  under Demona's 
control.  Lexington was speaking to Demona. He looked very angry and   
defensive, but he also looked defeated.  Bonavista watched and gasped as he 
saw Lexington   remove his protective sea shell charm and hand it to 
Demona.
  
  Demona grinned triumphantly as her fist curled around the trophy.  She 
raised some kind of jeweled horn to her lips and sounded it.  Again that 
strange compelling sound came forth, but all  Bonavista felt was his 
stomach lurch as he saw all emotion save adoration leave Lexington's
features.
  ******************************************************************
    As soon as the wave had taken Bonavista, Christa turned to face Demona 
again.  Already  Brooklyn and Whitbourne had fallen under the spell  of the 
horn, attacking   Ophelia, Carbonear and Lexington.  The three were trying 
desperately to defend themselves without hurting the pair.
  
  ~They won't have to worry about that for long,~~  Christa thought.  She 
opened her mouth to sing....
  
  A pile of sand was flung into her face and throat.  "You really don't 
think I was going to let you perform for my slaves, now do you?" a voice 
said.  All Christa knew, though, was the sand.  Something of the land, not 
of  the sea.  It invaded her eyes and throat and stole all her strength 
from her.  She fell to the ground helpless to move or speak.
  
  Demona chuckled evilly as she stood over Christa.  "So the powerful 
mermaid  is struck down by a little bit of earth.  I should have known."
  
  Lexington roared fiercely and tried to attack, but Demona calmly placed 
the nozzle of her rifle at Christa's head.  "I wouldn't."  Lexington 
stopped in mid - attack.
  
  "You wouldn't!"  Lexington said, more frightened than anything else.
  
  "You don't think?"  Demona said.  She hadn't moved.
  
  Lexington sighed, defeated.  "What do you want?"
  
  Demona held her hand out.  "The charm.  Give it to me."
  
  Lexington looked at her in terror; his hand went to the pendant at his 
throat.
  
    Demona just flexed her hand on the trigger.  "Give it to me, or she 
dies."
  
  With a fearful sigh, Lexington removed the necklace and handed it to 
Demona.
  
  Demona received the charm, grinning with glee.  "Now this won't hurt a 
bit."  She played the horn for Lexington, and he became hers.
  
  Demona looked around.  One of the gargoyles was missing.  She hadn't seen 
him, so he might have been somewhere else.  Well, no matter.  He'd be hers 
soon enough.  She led away her entranced slaves and her captives.
  
  ***********************************************************
  Bonavista felt lousy for hiding and watching the others walk away like 
zombies, but he didn't want Demona to take his pendant like she had taken 
Lexington's.  Only when she had gone taking her captives  with her,  did 
the seaweed release him.  He walked out of the water and looked around.
  
"Oh, sweet frigg," he said to the sky.  "I'se the last one."  He fingered 
the pendant around his neck. What on earth was he going to do?  Goliath 
and all the others had been placed under the spell of the horn.  Even 
Lexington once Demona had taken his pendant. She didn't know about Jason's 
but all she had to do was make the others hold him down while she took it 
from him.  That was why Christa had cast him into the ocean.  All the girls
were captured along with the mermaid now, and Bonavista was sure Demona had
done something with that sand to keep her from singing.
  
  He looked at the sky again.  "Ye know up there, I could sure use some 
help."  He didn't want to think about what Demona would force Goliath and 
the others to do.  She might even make the guys kill their girls.  He tried 
to shut the image out of his head of Goliath strangling Elisa, or Brooklyn 
killing Carb, or Witless...wait a minute!
 

 Delilah wasn't among the girls.  No one from the Labyrinth was there!  
Delilah had spent the weekend over there for the Anniversary of the 
founding of the Labyrinth  community. They had no idea what was going on.  
Delilah and Maggie could help him.  And Malibu!  He was deaf! He might fall 
in love seeing a mermaid, but the horn shouldn't affect him in the least!
  

Bonavista ran from his hiding space and scaled the nearest wall.  He had 
to save the others.  He had to.  He climbed the nearest building and glided 
off  without the slightest idea that one of the shorebirds was following 
him.
 
  ***************************************************************
    "Brook,  Brook, my son, ye doesn't want to be doing this!  Ye's under a 
spell!  Ye's gotta wakes up!"  Carbonear begged and pleaded with her love, 
but Brooklyn gave no indication that he heard her as he clicked the 
manacles in place.  Carbonear sniffed back tears.
  
  "It's all my fault,"  Ophelia said,  near tears herself.  "If I had 
believed Whitbourne, we wouldn't be in this mess.  We could have protected 
them."
  
  "It's not your fault,"  Fox put in, trying to comfort the girls.  "I 
mistrusted the mermaid too."  She nodded at all the entranced males, who 
didn't even seem to notice that the girls were there.  "Don't blame them 
either. They can't help what they're doing." 
  
  "I know."  Angela said. Her voice grew hard.  "There is only one person 
to blame."
  
  As if on cue, Demona entered the room.  "Hello, Angela my dear," she 
said, ignoring the others.
  
  Elisa didn't care.  "Is this the only way you can get a guy now, Demona?  
Brainwash them?"
  
  Demona glared at Elisa in silence for a moment, then said,  "I'm guessing 
my little boat trip will have one more guest then."  Her expression turned 
to one of amused hatred.
  
  "What boat trip?"  Fox asked cautiously.
  
  Demona paraded in front of her entranced slaves.  In a moment of perverse 
whimsy she had dressed Whitbourne in a more traditional gargoyle  
loincloth.  Carbonear watched her rookery brother carefully but he didn't 
appear to care.
  
  Demona waved her hand over Christa, who was not chained up.  Instead she 
was in a low cage, too small for her to get up or move.  She seemed to be 
having trouble breathing, and she looked ill.  Furthermore, she couldn't 
speak.  She could only breath out the words to make herself heard.  

Demona chuckled at the mermaid's discomfort.  "You see some of these males 
have heard our little sea bird  here sing once.   That means that if she 
ever recovers her speech, she could turn them  against me.  Instead of 
risking that.  I have decided to eliminate them."
  
  "Eliminate?"  Elisa shot back struggling
  
  Demona grinned evilly.
  
  "You'll never gets them all!  Ye's just watch, ye's going to miss one!"  
Carbonear threatened.
  
  Demona laughed at her  and walked before her slaves.  She glanced at 
Goliath and Lexington.  "You two I know have heard her sing. It's just the 
others I need to find out about."  She chuckled, then turned to the others. 
"Have you ever heard a mermaid sing?"  she asked.
  
  Xanatos, Hudson, and Broadway all answered, "No."
  
  Carbonear gulped.  She knew what was coming.
  
  Brooklyn and Whitbourne both answered "Yes."
  
  Carbonear winced in pain.  "No, " she whispered to herself. She would 
never give Demona the satisfaction of listening to her beg -- this was a 
silent prayer.  ~Please don't let her take them both from me.~
  
  "No,"  a weak voice breathed.  Carbonear barely heard it, but they all 
stopped and turned to Christa, who was struggling for air in her cage.  
"You mustn't harm him."
  
  "Save your breath my dear.  Your powerless now. Goilath and the others 
can't hear you." Demona insisted.  She went to a nearby table and picked up 
a beaker of water.  "Of course, this will restore your powers and save your 
life.  I think I shall put it right here.  Out of reach."  Demona placed 
the beaker high up on a shelf before leaving the room.
  
  Christa was still struggling to speak.  "Doesn't understand.  Mustn't 
hurt Whitbourne....Tethis....blessed..." 
  
  "Tethis?"  Carbonear began to shiver.
  
  "Who's Tethis?"  Elisa asked.
  
  "She's related to Oberon," Fox answered.  "I'm guessing she rules the 
mermaids."
  
  "Whitbourne? blessed?"  Ophelia said, puzzled.  "What does she mean?"
  
  "It can't be true,"  Carbonear whispered, sounding very frightened.
  
  "What, Carb?  What can't be true?"  Angela asked sympathetically.
  
  "I thinks I knows now how Jason was after knowin' so much abouts mermaids."
  
  "How?"  Fox asked.
  
  Carbonear's eyes unfocused as she called up the memory.  "Well, it was 
right after sunset of Jason's funeral.  I was under the hill when I heard ..."
  
  ********************************************************************
  
  St. John's, Newfoundland 1985
  
  
  "So ye came anyway,"  June's voice was heard over the hill.  Carbonear 
thought her voice sounded odd, frightened.  She climbed up the hill to have 
a look.
  
  "Despite what you think of me, June Tibbo, I did love Jason,"  came a 
stranger's voice. It was a pleasant voice to be sure, but for some reason 
it made her nervous.  On the other side of the hill stood June Tibbo and a 
tall woman with silver hair.  She was beautiful, but Carbonear didn't like 
her at all.  She seemed slightly familiar... Carb pushed those thoughts out 
of her head as she listened to the conversation.
  
  "Ye shouldn't have come.  The byes are too old to be after seeing ye now,"
June said to the woman.  By her face, Carbonear could tell that she did not 
like her either.
  
  "They shall not see me," the woman replied.  "I only came to say goodbye 
to Jason.  He was a good man, and I shall miss him."  Her voice sounded sad.
  
  June did not look mollified.  "See that they don't."  She turned to face 
away from the stranger.
  
  The woman looked hurt, but was trying to hide it.  "Goodbye, June Tibbo." 
As she walked away, Carbonear walked up to June.
  
  "June, who was that lady?"
  
  June looked down at her, mildly surprised.  "Ye doesn't remember her?  Ah,
well, I guess that's all for the best."  She drew her in for a hug.  "She's 
just after bein' just an old friend of Jason's.  She used to be around a bit
when ye was little things."
  
  "I doesn't likes her,"  Carbonear said.
  
  June looked at her young charge.  "Ye doesn't, now?  Humph, well, I 
doesn't  neither, but Jason was after loving her, the old fool.  So if ye 
ever sees her again,  I expects ye to be polite, but I doubts ye'll ever 
sees her again."
  
  Carbonear just stood here with her head on June.  She still felt terrible 
about Jason, and even though she didn't like this stranger, she was glad 
that the woman had come to the funeral.
  
  "June!  June! "  Both June and Carbonear looked up to see Bonnie, Woody, 
and Marsha running up the hillside.
  
  "For heaven's sakes!  Ye's are making enough noise to raise the dead!  Now
cut the racket and tell me what's wrong!"  June demanded.
  
  Bonavista, the only one not out of breath said quickly.  "He's gone!  He's
gone!  We can't find him nowheres!"
  
  "Who?"  June asked, but then she answered her own question soon enough.  
"Witless?" Bonavista nodded.  "Oh, sweet Jesus," she exclaimed.  She 
instantly began giving orders. "Marsha, take these three back to me house 
and don't come out for nothing.  I'se gonna round up the byes and start 
checking all his haunts."
  
  A high pitched whine sounded in the air, and a flurry of wings broke out 
behind her.  They all turned to see every sea gull on the hill take off and 
spread out into the air.
  
  "Buddy didn't go far, did she," June muttered to herself.  then seeing 
the four others stareing at her, she said,  "What are ye after waitin' 
for?  Go!"
  
  ***************************************************
  
  "I didn't have time to think about it for a while, but now...."  She 
trailed off uncertainly.
  
  The others were silent for a long moment.  Finally, Ophelia spoke up.
  
  "You think that lady was a mermaid?"
  
  "Why else would every gull on the hill take off like that?"  Carbonear 
countered. "If she was after bein' a mermaid and she loved Jason, she would 
have wanted to protect us."

  "She was a mermaid,"  Angela said sharply.
  
  "How do you know?"  Fox snapped.
  
  Angela said nothing.  She merely turned to Christa.  Even though she was 
unable to speak, sing or stand, the mermaid was nodding at the group.
  
  Carbonear looked right into the mermaid's sea green eyes.  "It's true, 
isn't it, me girl. Witless and Bonnie are under Tethis' protection."
  
  Christa nodded but she was still desperately trying to tell them 
something else. Something about the sea hating Demona, and the anger of 
Tethis.
  
  Carbonear wished that she could understand the mermaid, and that Christa
would be  able to use her powers.  Then they could be free.  For now she 
could only watch helplessly as the mermaid choked and coughed and lay  
there, powerless.

  ********************************************************
  "But Bonnie, I don't see why we're not bringing  Talon and the others."  
Delilah said as she climbed out of the manhole with Bonavista and Malibu.
  
  Bonavista gave her then the clone a hand up.  "Because I wants Maggie to 
stay here to keep an eye on your guys.  If Demona is after playin' that 
horn for them they'll just be after fallin' under the spell.  Maggie was 
after sayin' that she's after knowin' where ye lives.  If she comes here, 
Maggie will have to protect the guys.  I needs you two to help me free the 
others."
  
  "Will you guys slow down and tell me what's going on?"  Malibu demanded.  
He could see them talking but since Bonavista had insisted that he leave 
his hearing aid behind, he couldn't hear a word they were saying.
  
  "Sorry, my son."  Bonavista slowly retold his story so Malibu could read 
his lips.  When he was done, he looked pensive and said, "The only problem 
is that I'se hasn't a clue what to do."  This was just like   when 
Bras d'Or had kidnapped them.  That time,  Whitbourne had thought of a
clever plan to  escape.  Now Whitbourne was entranced and Bonavista knew 
it was up to him. The problem was, he didn't know where to begin.  He 
fingered the pendant again.  "Maybes I should of given this thing to
Witless in the first place."

"I should never have gone away,"  Delilah said.

"It wasn't either of your faults!"    Malibu said, "So stop trying to 
blame yoursleves and let's figure out what to do!"

"If only there was more of us,"  Bonavista said to himself quietly.
  
  *I will help you, Bonavista.*  A quiet voice came out of nowhere.
  
  Bonavista looked at the two.  "Well of course ye's....."  He broke off 
as he saw their confused expressions.  "Ye's didn't say that, did ye's?"
  
  "Say what?"  Delilah asked.  Malibu shook his head.
  
  Bonavista whirled around.  "But I heard..."
  
  *I said it.  Up here.*
  
  Bonavista looked up and saw what appeared to be a small sea gull perched 
on a lamp post.  The bird looked at him and said, *If you'd make me a nice 
perch, I'd come down closer.*
  
  Bonavista was too shocked to do anything but obey.  He held up his right 
arm and in a flash of feathers, the bird rested contentedly on his arm.  
*That's much better.  Thank you.*
  
  It was a small bird,  all black and grey with very little white.  It had 
a straight sharp black beak, but otherwise it looked like a seagull.  "A 
friggin' talkin' seagull!" Bonavista said more to himself than anyone else.
  
  *Indeed!  I am not a sea gull."  It preened several feathers as it spoke.  "I am a tern.*
  
  "Oh, well, excuse I!"  Bonavista said, sounding a little annoyed.  This 
was too weird.
  
  "Uh Bonnie, are you okay?  Who are you talking to?"  Delilah asked.
  
  Bonavista turned to see Delilah and Malibu giving him the strangest of 
looks.  "Ye doesn't hear buddy here talking to me?"   He hefted the bird on 
his arm.
  
  Delilah spoke slowly and carefully, as if she were afraid he'd go mad at 
any second. "Bonnie.. it's a bird.  All I've heard is some noises."
  
  Bonavista thought about it for a second.  She was right.  The tern was 
only making some soft cooing noises, not like the cries of sea gulls he was 
used to, but for some strange reason he _knew_ exactly what the bird was 
saying with those noises.  "But I knows what buddy's saying," he insisted.  
He turned back to the tern.  "Why doesn't Delilah understand ye?"
  
  The tern looked at her and made a noise that Bonavista seemed to know was 
a indignant huff.  *She has never been blessed as you have.*
  
  "Blessed?  Buddy, ye's better be after making some sense before I feeds 
ye to the alley cats around here!"
  
  The tern looked at him sternly, then with a little more understanding.  
*You don't remember, do you?*
  
  "Remember what?"
  
  The bird focused one of its shining black eyes on him.  *Remember,*  it 
commanded, and suddenly Bonavista felt like he had been hit by a brick wall.
  
  ********************************************************
  Remember
  *******************************************************
  St John's, Newfoundland  1965
  
  All he knew was pain.  His body ached and felt hot.  His mouth felt worse.
He wasn't able to tell anyone what hurt, so he cried.  He cried, and with 
him his siblings cried as well.
  
  A noise was heard-- the opening and closing of a door.  A tall woman with 
silver hair walked into the room.  Jason took her coat, and gave her a kiss.
"Am I'se glad ye's here. me girl," he said.
  
  "If I had four children teething all at the same time I would call for 
help too," she said.  Bonavista knew this voice.  It was Nomie, Jason's 
pretty lady friend.  He peeked over his crib to see her greet Carb.
  
  "Hello, little one!"  she said.  Carb hissed and snapped at her.
  
  "Carb!  Bad girl!"  Jason scolded sternly.
  
  "Never mind, Jason," she said. "I have never known a female of any age to 
like me." Nomie already was moving to another pen.  This time she picked up 
Whitbourne.
  
  "Nomie!"  he cried happily and snuggled into her arms.
  
  "Hello, old friend!" she said, laughing.  She had a beautiful laugh.
  
  "Why does ye keeps calling him that, me girl?  The lad isn't after being 
five yet, and he acts as if he's three."
  
  "Do you not know your own history, Jason?  I met a man once named Sir 
Richard Whitbourne, when your kind first came here.  I thought you named 
this little one  for him."
  
  Jason laughed.  "Ye's almost right, me girl, but once removed.  I'se 
named him for the town that was named for yer Sir Richard.  So in a way's 
ye's right. "  He smiled broadly.
  
  Nomie  returned his smile and laughed.  "Jason, how about you setting the 
boys up with me, and you can take care of Carbonear."    She shifted 
Whitbourne into one arm and picked up Woodstock in the other.
  
  Jason nodded and arranged the three of them on Nomie's lap.  She smiled 
at all of them and began  to sing one of her songs.
  
  All the aches and pains vanished from his body.  He began to feel sleepy. 
He snuggled down on one of Nomie's legs and let her music take him to a 
wonderful place full of sweet dreams of the sea.
  
  *******************************
  Remember
  *******************************
  St. John's, Newfoundland 1985
  
  A noise brought him out of the half doze he was in.  Carb and Woody were 
still sleeping. He shuddered as he noticed that Carb's pillow was still wet 
with tears.  ~Aww frigg, first Jason, and now she's worried sick about 
Witless. When June and Marsha finds him I'se gonna knock him clear into next
Sunday for scaring her.~~  Some voices were heard on the other side of the 
door.  As silently as he could, he cracked the door open. Whitbourne was 
asleep on a couch, and June Tibbo was standing there softly arguing with
a tall stunning woman with long silver hair.
  
  "You witch!  What has ye done to him?"  June asked.  Bonavista had never 
seen her this angry before, or this frightened. 
  
  The tall woman looked as if she had been insulted.  "You're welcome, 
woman!  Are you so prideful you would attack me?  I was the one who found 
him after he had run off.  I was there to comfort him.  And I returned him 
to you.  Jason did not tell me you were so ungrateful."
  
  "And I bets he'll be diving off the next pier if ye asks him to,"  June 
replied hatefully.
  
  The stranger stepped forward angrily.  "Believe what you will about me, 
woman, but I loved Jason!  Do you think I would willingly hurt or allow 
his loved ones to come to harm?  Their kind are so few in number now I 
asked Tethis to bless them and she has! Nothing from the sea shall ever 
harm them.  The waters themselves will push them towards the air.  Do not 
deny them protections simply because you dislike my sisters and I."
  
  June looked shocked.  "A blessing from your mistress?"  She fondled 
Whitbourne's hair for a moment, then looked up again. "Even Carb?"
  
  She nodded.  "The girl as well.  Just because females dislike us does not 
mean we will not protect them."  She bent down and also touched Whitbourne's
hair as well.  He sighed contentedly in his sleep.  June glared at her 
again.
  
  "No," she replied.  "He is not old enough to have strong feelings for me, 
but I am no fool.  They shall not see me again.  I shall leave them in your 
care."
  
  June looked as if she were at war with her emotions.  Shortly she nodded. 
"Maybe ye's not as bad  as the stories I'se heard.  And forgive my manners. 
Thanks for finding Witless."
  
  "I believe tonight you have learned something, June Tibbo."
  
  Suddenly June's cat slipped past Bonavista's foot.  Startled, he yelped 
and the door was pushed open.  Both women were looking right at him.  "Oh 
Christ,"  June said.
  
Standing face to face with this woman, Bonavista remembered a half forgotten
name from his babyhood.  "Nomie?"  he asked.  In an instant his head was in 
her lap.  "Nomie, why didn't you ever come back?"  The stress of the last 
few nights suddenly crashed down on him and he began to cry softly into her 
lap.
  
  Nomie looked at June, who shrugged.  She reached out and started stroking 
his hair.  It was a strange sensation, one he had never felt before, but 
it felt wonderful.  His crying began to subside.
  
  "Oh, little one," Nomie said gently in her wonderful voice.  "By the time 
you're old enough to understand it will be too late for you.  Don't think 
about it.  Don't worry about anything.  You are safe with your friends."
  
  She began to hum softly.  The tune sent the most pleasant chills through 
Bonavista's body.  He somehow knew that it would make him fall asleep and 
forget what he had heard and seen, but that did not matter.  If Nomie 
wanted him to sleep, he would.  If she wanted him to forget, he would.  He 
closed his eyes and surrendered to the song.
  
  And he dreamed about the ocean.
  
  ************************************************************
  1998
  
  Bonavista stood there in shock from the memories.    It all made some 
bizarre sense now. Nomie had been a mermaid.  He pushed his memory back as 
far as it would go, but the images of the tall woman with silver hair only 
went as far as the night Witless had run away.  She never came back to them.
  
  Because they had grown  up.
  
  A hand touched he shoulder.  He turned to see Delilah looking at him with 
a very worried expression on her face.  "Bonnie?  Are you all right?"
  
  He looked from Delilah to the tern on his arm.  "I remembers now.  Jason 
had a friend that was after bein' a  mermaid.  I hasn't seen her since he 
died."  He eyed the bird, still trembling with the reawakened memories.  
"Ye knows Nomie!  But that was years ago!"
  
  "Naomi is of the third race.  Her kind do not age."
  
  "But hows can I understand ye?"
  
  *Do you not remember the blessing of Tethis?  She gave it to you when the 
human first showed you to Naomi.*  The bird began reciting an old verse.
  
  *On you my child my blessing is bestowed.
  Nothing born of the seas shall bring harm to you.
  The wind and the waves will bring comfort to you
  when your heart is heavy.*
  
  Suddenly, without knowing its source. Bonavista finished the passage.
  
  "All creatures of the waters shall watch over you and protect you,
  and in your need you will know their tongues.
  The water itself shall keep you above its depths,
 and my servants will watch over till the end of your days."
  
  He staggered back again, overwhelmed with the information.  "Those words...
I'se been hearin' them in me dreams all my life!  The thunderstorm when I 
was thirty!  I wasn't imagining things!  A seal did push me to land!"
  
*Of course he did.*
  
  "Bonnie!!"  Delilah said forcefully.
  
  "Huh?  Oh, when I was thirty I got blown off course by a Jesus 
thunderstorm and I hit me friggin'   head on a rock comin' down.  
Somethin' pushed me to shore.  I thought it was a seal or something, and 
Carb swore she saw one, but no one believed me.  According to buddy here,
  nothing in the ocean can hurts me."
  
  "But the horn!"  Delilah said.
  
  *The horn hasn't hurt them,*  The tern said.
  
  Bonavista nodded understanding. "Ye's here to helps me?"  he asked the 
bird.
  
  *Of course,*  he replied.
  
  Bonavista found he had a new courage growing within him.  "Then let's get 
going, me byes!"
  
  *Wait,* the tern commanded. * If your enemy sees you with a mermaid's 
charm around your neck, she will take it from you as she did to Christa's 
friend.*
  
  "What is it saying?"  Delilah asked.
  
  "Buddy's saying that if I traipse in with this around me neck, Demona's 
just going to be after takin' it.  And he's right."
  
  Malibu, who only caught half of what was going on, made a suggestion.  
"Put it in your pocket."
  
  *No good,*  the tern replied.  *She has dressed your rookery brother in 
clothes of her choosing.  You would lose the charm.*
  
  Delilah could tell by Bonnie's face that the bird had not approved of the 
idea.  "I have an idea," she said, "and a plan."
  
  ********************************************
  Carbonear's heart sank as she saw Demona lead Bonavista into the room. 
Like Whitbourne she had dressed him in a traditional Scottish loincloth.  
The silver sea shell he had thought might protect him was nowhere in sight. 
He was holding on to Delilah and forcing her onto the wall. He clicked the 
manacles onto her wrists, legs and tail.
  
  "No, Bonnie!  Not you too!"  Carbonear cried out.  Demona chuckled evilly.
  
  "When my clan comes looking for me...."  Delilah warned.
  
  "They will also become my slaves,"  Demona answered.  She laughed again, 
then turned her attention to Bonavista.   "Has a mermaid ever sung for you?"
  
  "No," Bonavista answered.  Carbonear noticed that Christa's eyes went up, 
but since Demona had flung sand into her mouth the mermaid could neither 
speak nor sing. Carbonear wondered what had surprised her.  Perhaps she 
knew something about that mermaid that had come to Jason's  funeral.
  
  Demona stepped back so that Bonavista could see Christa.  "Look at her," 
she commanded. When he did so, she asked, "Do you know who she is?"
  
  "No,"  Bonavista said again.  Demona smiled in satisfaction.
  
  "Well, then, I'll keep you around."  She turned to where the other 
gargoyles were assembled. "Goliath, Brooklyn, Lexington, Whitbourne."  The 
four raised their heads as she called their names.  "Go out to the docks, 
get on  the Destiny III, and wait for me there. And take Elisa Maza.  Kill 
anyone who interfere with you."  As they left, she  addressed the rest of 
her slaves. "Xanatos, Hudson, Broadway, and Bonavista,  you four   guard 
our prisoners.  If they try to escape, kill them."
  
  "You bitch!"  Carbonear hissed.
  
  Demona looked at her and made a move to strike her, but Christa coughed 
and choked again. Demona turned her attention from Carb to her.
  
  "Starting to feel a little dried out, my dear?"  Demona asked viciously.  
She went over to the shelf far away from the prisoners and picked up the 
beaker of water.  "I'll bet this would be refreshing right now.  Sad to say 
I'm not interested in seeing you get your drink.  I'm only sorry that I 
won't be here when you shrivel up and turn to dust. Goodbye, Christa."  
With that, she strode out the door.
  
  Carbonear looked at Christa with pity.  She was dying before theire eyes, 
and she could instantly free the males if only she had her voice!  
Carbonear never thought she could feel sorry for a mermaid, but right now 
she wished that another one was here.  "I swears," she said, looking up at 
the sky, "I swears if I ever gets me and the byes out of this mess, I'll 
never say an unkind thing about mermaids again."
  
  *********************************************************************
  
  Bonavista stewed as he tried to act as enchanted as the others.  Demona 
seemed to be fooled, but what would happen when he started acting normal?  
He had to wait until he was sure she was gone.   Until then he watched them 
as blankly as he could. 
  
  There was something wrong with the mermaid.  Her breathing was labored  
and she looked as if she were at death's door.  Even so, she was the most 
beautiful woman he had ever seen.  She looked like a goddess.  If he had 
wanted to, he could have easily fallen for her.
  
  But he did not want to.  Now he understood the allure of mermaids.  He 
could feel her power even now, but chose not to act on it.  He bit back a 
sigh and said a silent prayer of thanks  to Nomie, Jason's mermaid who most
likely had given Jason the charm now hidden in his hair.
  
  Just then the tern flew into the room.  Without thinking twice, Bonavista 
put up his arm to catch him.  *Bonavista it's safe, she's gone.*
  
  Now it was time to act.
  
  **************************************************************************
  ~Please, Christa me girl, hang on!  Don't be after dying yet!~  Carbonear 
thought through her tears.  For all the ill she had wished on the girl 
before,  voiceless and drying out like a fish flopping to death on land 
had not been part of it.  She had once seen a cruel child kill a fish by 
keeping it out of the water.  It was an ugly death even for an animal. 
Christa didn't deserve to die like this.
  
  Suddenly a small sea gull flew into the room..  To her surprise 
Bonavista caught it on his arm as if were the most natural thing in the 
world.  With eyes that were suddenly aware, he looked at the bird.  As the 
bird squawked she heard, or thought she understood, its message.
  
*Bonavista, it's safe.  She's gone.*
  
  Carbonear's eyes widened.  Did she imagine it or did that sea gull just 
talk??  What happened next was even more astounding.  Bonavista pulled his 
little shell necklace out of his hair, and placed it back around his neck. 
Delilah pushed on the manacles and came free.  At once Broadway, Hudson, 
and Xanatos advanced on her,  ignoring Bonavista.  He moved to stop them, 
but Delilah cried out, "No, they're ignoring you! Free the others!"  At 
that moment, Malibu came in through the open window, and began to help 
Delilah with her assailants.
  
  "Be gentle on them, me girl!"  Bonavista called, then moved to Carbonear's
chains.  "Hi Carb, surprise!"
  
  "Bonnie!"  she called out happily.  "Ye's all right!"  As he moved to 
unchain her, she said, "Bonnie, don't be after worrying about me now.  Take 
that water over there over to the mermaid.  If she doesn't gets that drink 
soon, she'll die!"
  
  Bonavista looked at her oddly for a moment, but then took the beaker off 
of the shelf and brought it to the mermaid.
  
  Her turquoise eyes glimmered in hope and the glass was brought to her.  
She was too weak to hold it at first so Bonavista put it to her lips and 
supported her while she drank. She sipped at first, but as her strength 
returned, she soon grabbed the beaker from him and drank in huge gulping 
droughts.
  
  In the meantime, Malibu and Delilah were trying not to hurt the enslaved 
males who were attacking them.  "Hudson!  No!  You must wake up!"  Delilah  
insisted.
  
  "Hang on, Delilah,"  Carbonear shouted, as she watched Christa drink.  
"Help is on the way!"
  
  Bonavista stood by as the mermaid drank.  When she finished, Bonavista 
was surprised to see  little grains of salt in the bottom of the beaker.  
She had been drinking salt water  as if it were the sweetest pure water.  
That didn't seem to bother the mermaid, though.  As soon as she had drained 
the glass beaker dry, she opened her throat and her haunting melodies came 
forth.
  
  Hudson, Broadway, and Xanatos all stopped in their tracks. One by one, 
they all fell to the floor in a deep dreamless sleep.  While Bonavista and  
Delilah freed the girls,  Malibu was staring at Christa.  Biting back a 
curse, Bonavista physically turned Malibu around.  That broke the spell on 
him.  "Huh?  What?" Malibu mumbled.
  
  "Malibu, my son, don't be after turning around!"  Bonavista ordered,  
facing the deaf gargoyle. "Yer ears might not work, but there's nothing 
wrong with your eyes!"
  
  "She took them!"  Christa said, agitated, as she helped Delilah free the 
others.  "She took  them to kill them.  The very oceans themselves will 
rise up against her if she hurts Whitbourne."
  
  "Is that what ye was trying to tell us, me girl?"  Carbonear asked.
  
  "Yes! We must stop her!"
  
  Fox looked at the little group before them.  "Will they wake up on their 
own?" she asked. 
  
  Christa, now fully recovered, looked at the three sleeping males.  "Yes. 
They will be free  of the horn, but to protect them against the horn further, 
I must do this."  With a single glance at all of them, she began to sing.
  
  Carbonear began to follow her first instinct, which was trying to stop 
the mermaid from singing to the enscrolled males. To her surprise, 
Bonavista stopped her. "It's all right, me girl.  I knows what she's after 
telling them.  It won't hurt them none."
  
  Carbonear looked at Bonavista, uncomprehending. As far as she could tell, 
the mermaid was just making sounds.  She wasn't singing any words.  "How 
does ye know what she's after telling them?"
  
  Bonavista and shrugged.  It was a completely natural behavior.  "I hasn't 
a clue, me girl. I just knows she's after tellin' 'em not to hear the horn 
if that Demona bitch is after playin' it again."
  
  If she could do that, it made perfect sense to do so.  Carbonear watched 
a few seconds more until Christa finished.  "Now,"  the mermaid said.  "We 
must hurry."  She led the others outside into the night.  Angela gave a 
worried glance in Broadway's direction.
  
  "I'll take care of things on this end,"  Fox  said.  "Go."
  
  Angela nodded firmly, then followed the others into the sky.

******************************************************************************
  Demona cursed as she tried to throw Whitbourne into the ocean for the 
third time. What was with this gargoyle? Even entranced and chained in 
manacles, he still floated on top of the  water.  He did sink a little, 
but not enough to drown him.  She wondered if that cursed mermaid had 
anything to do with it.  The mermaid had tried to tell her something before 
she had captured that last one, the green gargoyle.  

Ah, no matter.  She knew how to make this oh so   stubborn gargoyle sink.  
She drew up one of the anchors on her yacht and wrapped the   chain around 
Whitbourne's body.  "Now," she commanded,  "walk the plank!"
  
  She had always wanted to say that.
  
  Like a zombie, Whitbourne slowly walked off the end of the plank, dragging
the anchor behind him.  As he jumped into the water, he bobbed up once, 
then sank below the waves as the anchor pulled him under. 
  
  The boat gave a violent lurch and the waves grew higher, but all Demona 
cared about was that  Whitbourne was finally under.

"You getting the feeling that someone is trying to tell you something, 
Demona?"  Elisa said as she struggled to keep her balance on the rolling 
ship.  The Detective was chained to the railing. Demona wanted her to watch 
as the gargoyles died.
  
"Silence, human!  Or I will have your precious Goliath strangle you before 
I kill him!"  she snapped.  She considered it for a brief time, but knew 
that forcing Elisa to watch them die would hurt her all the more.  She 
looked into the water, and couldn't see Whitbourne any more.

  ~One down, four to go.~
  
  ******************************************
  They were gliding as fast as they could, but Bonavista had a sinking 
feeling in his stomach that they were going to be too late.  He angled his 
wings to get a bit more speed and tried to ignore the aches of protest he 
felt as he did so.
  
  "There!  I sees the boat!"  Carbonear shouted.
  
  "Do you see Goliath?"  Angela called out.
  
  "Do you see Whitbourne?"  Delilah asked simultaneously.
  
  An updraft lifted Carbonear slightly.  "I doesn't see--BROOKLYN!! "  
Without warning, she suddenly turned and began to spiral down as fast as 
she could.  As Bonavista caught the same updraft he saw what she had seen.  
Demona standing on the gangway of a plank, and a ripple of water  where 
Brooklyn must have jumped in.  Bonavista angled his wings further,
ignoring the pain, and went into the same dive as Carbonear.
  
  "Bonavista!"  Christa exclaimed, "release me and hold my hand.  Carbonear,
you as well!  I can help you!"
  
  What?  Christa was wriggling out of Bonavistia's  arms. His first instinct
was to hold her tighter, but he realized that they were over her element.  
"What does ye mean, me girl?"
  
  "I can help you rescue the others.  I know sea magic!  But I must touch
  your rookery sister for it to take hold!"
  
  Carbonear acted as if she hadn't heard the mermaid, so Bonavista 
maneuvered closer to her and allowed Christa to jump out of his arms.  She 
grasped Bonavista's hand firmly, then reached out to touch Carbonear's.  
Carbonear looked at Christa sharply, but suddenly a wave of energy gushed 
over them and Christa chanted.
  
  "Born of land, thee needs the sea
  whose only task is to watch for thee.
To help you now, I command with flair:
  beneath the waves you will find air!"
  
  The three hit the water simultaneously.  Christa's body instantly 
reformed to a mermaid's tail. She let go of Carbonear and dove deep into 
the waters.  Out of the corner of his eye, Bonavista spied Brooklyn 
sinking, covered in heavy chains and already beginning to choke on the 
water.  He swam over to help Carbonear  with the heavy chains, only
realizing now that he was breathing as naturally as if he were above the 
waves.
  
  They freed Brooklyn and dragged him up to the surface.  "Carb!  Did ye 
notice!" Bonavista asked her, as his head broke the surface.
  
  Carbonear must have noticed the magic, because she was partway in shock.
"We was breathing!  But how?"
  
  "How can we talk to sea gulls?  I'd be after giving up asking how if I 
was ye!"  Her rookery brother answered  with a grin.  The moved to the side 
of the boat where Malibu was waiting for them.  

"Guys!"  He called, motioning them to the boat.  "No one's on the boat but 
Demona!  Angela and Ophilia have her, and we freed Elisa, but she sent 
everyone else overboard.  Delilah  dove in!"
  
  At that moment Delilah surfaced empty handed.  "I can't find him...
too deep!"  she panted.  She was already winded, and she had to hold her 
breath under the water.
  
  Bonavista and Carbonear exchanged a glance.  "Christa was after casting a 
spell on us.  We can!"  Bonavista said excitedly.  He looked up at Malibu. 
"Hold the fort up here, byes! "  He said.  They handed Brooklyn up to 
Malibu then he and Carbonear both dove back under the waves.
  
  After a few experimental breaths under the surface, Bonavista was 
confident that the spell she  had  cast on them enabled them to breathe 
under water.  He and Carb  swam down several feet before they   saw  
Christa dragging Goliath up with her.  Carbonear, forgetting her initial 
distrust of the mermaid,  grabbed Goliath's arm.  "I'll take him up from 
here, me girl!  Take Bonnie and find the others!"
  
  Christa nodded and grabbed onto Bonavista's arm.  The speed at which she 
swum was dizzying, but presently they reached the bottom.  Lexington was 
there and so was Whitbourne, both bond in chains.  Whitbourne had a heavy 
anchor entangled in his chains.  As Bonavista broke the chains,   Christa 
reached out to touch both of them.  Lexington began to cough as if he were  
starting to breathe. but Whitbourne did nothing.  "Hold on to his arm and 
swim as if your life  depended on it, my friend,"  Christa commanded once 
they were free.  Of course, the moment she  began to swim, she ended up 
dragging all three of them.
  
  Near the surface she said,  "I can help Whitbourne, but you must get all 
your males who are unprotected away from the water.  Lock them up in the 
ships hold.  They cannot be allowed to see me!  She took the  dazed 
Lexington, who was breathing shallowly next to her, under the boat itself 
and allowed  Bonavista to reach the surface carrying Whitbourne by himself.
  
  As his  head broke the surface, he felt arms take Whitbourne away from 
him.  It was Delilah.  At  first she was elated that Whitbourne had been 
found, but as they laid him on the deck, they saw  that he was no longer 
breathing.  "No!"  she cried as she tried to begin CPR.  "No! You
can't die!"

Malibu and the others had Demona in custody.  Since they had received no 
orders from Demona, Goliath and Brooklyn just stood about in a daze. They 
didn't even notice Whitbourne and Delilah.
  
  Bonavista bit his lip and kept to the task at hand.  "Get all the byes 
down in the hold!  Christa's after coming up and they's can't be after 
seein' her.   As   Bonavista went back to help Christa, Ophelia put 
something in his hand.
  
  It was Lexington's sea shell charm.
  
  Bonavista's hand closed over the gift.  Lex was certainly going to need 
it.    On deck, Delilah was  still trying to revive Whitbourne.  Carbonear 
was standing nearby, looking lost.  Bonavista gulped,   then called to 
Christa that it was safe to come aboard.
  
  Christa hefted Lexington up first,  and Bonavista placed his charm 
around his neck.  All at once Lexington became aware.
  
  "Wha?  What happened?"  Then he spied Delilah and Whitbourne.  "Oh, no!  
Where's Christa?"
  
  "I am coming, Lexington!"  she called.  "Get the female out of my way!"  
Christa had changed back to legs and was climbing up the ladder over the 
ships side.  The moment she appeared,  Delilah lunged for her.
  
  "You!  You witch!  He's dead,  he's gone, AND IT'S YOUR FAULT!!!!!"  
Lexington and  Carbonear held her back.
  
  "Delilah, it ain't her fault!  Demona did this!"  Carb said, as the 
tears fell from her eyes.
  
  "Delilah!  Christa can save him!"  Lexington added.
  
  "No, she can't!  He's dead! " Delilah wailed.
  
  Christa had already knelt next to Whitbourne.  "No one drowns while a 
mermaid is nearby to help them!" she announced.  She bent over Whitbourne's 
still form and kissed him.
  
  Delilah growled in protest, but Lexington held her firm.  "No!  Watch!  
I've seen Christa do this before.  She can save him!"
  
  Delilah stopped struggling and watched the mermaid.  She definitely knew 
how to kiss a man.  If Whitbourne was alive, she wouldn't doubt that he 
would be responding to her.
  
  Suddenly Delilah noticed movement!  Whitbourne was responding to her kiss.
He reached up and  wrapped his arms around her and was kissing her back.  
She could see his ribs going in and out  as he began to breathe again.
  
  When the kiss ended, he looked back at Christa with shining eyes.  "I 
does know ye," he said with  wonder.  "Back in St. John's."
  
  "Shhhh," Christa gently chided him.  "I told you before-- you should not 
remember me.  I have no  place in your life.   You have a wonderful female 
waiting for you.  You do not need me." Christa   gently kissed his 
forehead.  "Forget me, Whitbourne.  I am only a dream you had while
beneath   the waves.  Delilah saved you."  She kissed him on the head 
again.
  
  "Delilah," Whitbourne repeated as he sunk into a deep natural sleep.  
Christa laid him back down on the deck and rose to face the others.
  
  Delilah was now free from Carbonear and Lexington.  She looked at the 
mermaid with awe in her eyes.  "I'm sorry...I mean....I....thank you!  I 
can never thank you enough!  If ever you need  my help..."
  
  Christa smiled.  "I know."  She turned away from Delilah and faced 
Lexington, Carbonear and Bonavista.
  
  Lexington looked a bit sad. Ophelia came behind him and placed her arms 
on his shoulders; he touched her hand.  "Will I see you again?" he asked 
his childhood friend.
  
Christa nodded and smiled at both him and Ophelia.  "You have a life above 
the waves too, my friend.  Only Tethis knows!"  Angela came forward and  
handed her the jeweled horn.  Christa nodded her thanks.  She placed the 
horn in a pouch at her  side, then dived over the rail.
  
  All of them except for Delilah ran over to the rail.  For a second 
Christa  surfaced and waved at them.  Bonavista had previously been too 
busy to notice, but now in her true form, he didn't think  he'd ever seen a 
more beautiful girl.
  
  "Goodbye, my friends! and thank you!"  With that, she dove below the 
waves and was gone in an instant.
  
  Bonavista stared at the water for a few more moments.  Carbonear gave him 
an odd glance.  "Bonnie, if ye tells me ye's after fallin for her, ye'd 
better hope that spell is still after workin', 'cause I'se gonna knock ye 
into the water."
  
  A crash made them all turn and run into the cabin.  There was a hole 
blown into the side of the cabin, and Malibu and Elisa was sitting there, 
dazed.  "Malibu, my son, what happened?" Bonavista asked.
  
  "Where's Demona?"  Ophelia asked.
  
  Malibu gave a frustrated groan.  "She jumped me when I wasn't looking.  
She grabbed her laser gun.  blew a porthole out and glided off."  They 
looked through the gap left by the explosion and saw Demona fighting  high 
winds and a dark cloudy sky.  
  
  "What's with the friggin' weather?"  Carbonear asked, frustrated.  She 
wanted to pay Demona back for what she had done.

"I wish I knew,"  Elisa said still, dizzy from Demona's attack.  "The 
weather started getting crazy the moment Demona dropped Whit over the 
side."
  
  "It's us Carb,"  Bonavista said, a grin slowly playing across his 
features.  "Demona was after hurting us, and the water is after knowin'.  
It's after bein' mad at her."
  
  "Where did ye gets a crazy idea like that from?"  she asked, but somehow 
she knew he was  right. They all walked out of the cabin.
  
  "Christa's friend was after tellin' me,"  He said.
  
  "What friend?"
  
  "Up there."
  
  Bonavista pointed.  Up on the mast was the tern who she had seen talking 
to Bonavista before.
  
  "The sea gull?"
  
  "A sea gull?"  Bonavista scoffed with a mischievous smile.  "That, me 
girl, is a tern!"
  
  Cabonear made a face and didn't answer.
  
  The tern chittered something, and flew off.  Bonavista felt as if it was 
saying 'goodbye,' but for some reason he couldn't understand the words like 
before.
  
  ~Crisis is over, my son. Ye doesn't needs to know what buddy's after 
sayin' now.~  Yeah, that made sense.
  
  Suddenly they heard Delilah laugh as Whitbourne slowly came to.  He 
looked around, puzzled. Then, with a sneeze he said,  "Delilah, me girl?  
Why's I so friggin' cold and wet?"
  
 **********************************************
Epilogue 

 Bonavista closed his eyes and just sat listening to the gentle lapping of 
the waves on the shore. Off in the darkness he could hear the others 
playing in the surf, and if he opened his eyes and searched inland he knew 
that he would see Whitbourne's and Delilah's shadow under the boardwalk.
  
  A slow smile spread over his face as he thought of Whitbourne.   Delilah 
had remarked to Carbonear how frisky Whit had become ever since Christa 
had resuscitated him with her unique magic Almost   anything that made him 
happy put him in the mood, and if they were at the beach he was nearly   
insatiable.
  
  For Whitbourne's sake, he was glad.  Even though Carbonear and Delilah 
weren't mad at Christa anymore,  they still felt uneasy thinking about her.  
Lexington, who had said very little about his time with  her, told him that 
the girls couldn't help it.  It was part of a female's survival instinct 
not to trust  mermaids.  Remembering how June had reacted to Nomie only 
reinforced the idea. He himself  resolved not to say anything more about 
Christa or Nomie, to any of them.  Right now he didn't  want to think about 
any of it; he just wanted to relax.  Even when he was little, the sound  of 
the ocean always calmed him.
  
  "Bonavista."
  
  Bonavista opened his eyes.  That was Christa's voice!  He looked around 
but saw nothing.  He almost began to believe he imagined it when the call 
came again.
  
  "Bonavista."
  
  ~Okay that's not my imagination.~  His hand went instantly to the shell 
around his neck.  Lexington had placed his back in his belt pouch, but 
Bonavista decided he had nothing to hide, and decided to wear the charm 
openly.  It was still there, so he was safe.
  
  "Christa?  Where's ye to, me girl?" he called out into the darkness.
  
  "The rocks on your left.  Come,"  Christa's voice called.
  
  Bonavista glanced back at the others playing, and at Whitbourne and 
Delilah.  None of them had  heard her.
  
  "Please, Bonavista, come."
  
  Bonavista shrugged, and trusting in the charm that saved him before, 
jumped off the pier gliding  over to the rocks.  He landed lightly and 
looked around.  "Christa?"
  
  "Here,"  she said gently.
  
  Bonavista turned to the side and saw Christa with only her torso out of 
the water.  Her fish-like tail wiggled in the surf behind her.  He bent 
down so he could speak comfortably.  "I'se didn't expects to see ye here, 
me girl."
  
  Christa smiled at him.  "I had to come.  Tethis asked to me to make sure 
you were all well.  Naomi is quite valuable to her, and so she feels 
responsible for the three of you."
  
  "Oh,"  he said, a bit confused.  "Well, we's all fine.  Witless is after 
being a bit more on the frisky side nowadays, though," he said with a 
grin.
  
  He didn't know that mermaids could blush, but Christa did.  "Well, that 
tends to be normal after a  mermaid resuscitates them."  She giggled 
nervously.  Then she changed the subject.  "Bonnie, there's another reason 
I came back."  She looked a bit unsettled, but then ducked under the
water, and came up with a younger mermaid.   "This is Julia.  She's Naomi's 
daughter."
  
  The girl had dark brown hair and equally brown eyes.  She looked up at 
Bonavista with complete  trust and acceptance.   "Christa says you know 
Mother."
  
  There was something hauntingly familiar about her.  Bonavista shrugged it 
off as a long forgotten  memory of Nomie.  "Yes. I knows her.  I hasn't 
seen her since I was just a little fart in a mitt,  though."
  
  "I know,"  the girl responded instantly.  "Mother has told me many 
stories of gargoyles.  I'm glad  to finally see one."
  
  Suddenly Bonavista felt as if someone had hit him with a board.  Without 
understanding how, he realized why the girl was so familiar.  It was that 
softly angular nose, and those haunting brown eyes.
  
  They were Jason's eyes.
  
  Bonavista knew he was about to fluster and stammer any minute now.  
Thankfully Christa seemed  to recognize his difficulty.  She sent the girl 
away.
  
  As soon as he felt it was safe, he sputtered nervously.  "She's....
She's...  But how?  The girl is way too young to be Jason's!"
  
  "We age slowly, as you do."  Christa said.  "Naomi told me.  We breed at 
a certain age when walking about amoung humans is much safer.  We seek out 
a human male who is strong in character and  who does not care about 
appearances.  He proved that when he took you four in. She watched  him 
raise you, so she knew what kind of man he was."
  
  Bonavista was nearly floored by the knowledge.  "Jason's daughter," he 
said in wonder.
  
  "I wanted you to know,"  Christa said.  "I thought it was important."
  
  More than she knew.  He suddenly felt a kinship to the Julia.  In a way 
she was a rookery sib, or  at least a clan sib.  "If she ever needs me for 
anything, ye lets me know,"  Bonavista said sternly.
  
  Christa nodded.  "Well,  actually there is something she does want."
  
  "Anything, me girl."
  
  ****************************************************************************
  
  All Bonavista wanted was for the sun to come up so he could have a good 
day's rest.  Even so, he dutifully sat and dialed the phone.  He didn't 
particularly care about long distance rates or how long he was going to 
spend on the phone.  This was something he had to do-- for Julia, as
well as himself.
  
  The phone rang five times. Then he heard a sleepy voice say,  "Okays, 
what shagger is this that's after waking me up at three o'clock in the 
friggin' morning?"
  
  "What are ye at, Marsha?"  Bonavista asked sheepishly.
  
  "Bonnie?  Bonnie, me son, what the hell are ye thinkin' callin us at this 
hour?  We don't keep your hours, ye know."
  
  Bonavista sighed.  "I'se sorry, but this couldn't wait till tomorrow.  I 
needs to talk to June."
  
  "Ye wants me to wake her up now?"  Marsha asked incredulously.
  
  "Please, me girl, this is important," he answered.
  
  On the other side of the line Marsha sighed.  "Well ye sounds dead serious, 
my son, so I'll do it. But ye has to promise to come to me funeral when she 
gets done with me."
  
  Bonavista chuckled and promised.  The line was quiet for a few moments; 
then he heard June's voice.  "Bonnie, my son!  What's in Christ's name is 
wrong?  How's Carb and Witless?"
  
  "June, we's all fine!  This....well this just couldn't wait till tomorrow.
I needs to talk to ye about Nomie."  He knew her name was really Naomi, but 
for some reason it sounded funny when he said it.  The childhood name seemed
to flow from him far more easier.
  
  The phone on the other side of the line rattled as it connected to the 
floor.
  
  "June?"  Bonavista asked.
  
  He could her June pick up the phone voicing several expletives as she did 
so.
  
  "June?"
  
  "How did ye finds out about her?  If she..."
  
  "For heaven's sakes, June, ye's gonna give yourself a hernia.  I never 
seen her.  But I met another  mermaid.  She's friends with her."
  
  "Ye's found another one of those heathen man stealers!  They's better not 
be trying any of their tricks on ye or I'll--"
  
  Bonavista sighed.  Even though he knew females acted against mermaids 
instinctively, it was  tiresome to hear how evil they were.  "June, I'se 
wearing  Jason's old charm.  We knows what it does now.  Don't ye worry.  
Witless didn't even know she was around."
  
  "But ye wasn't supposed to remember her, my son.  How did ye-"
  
  "It's a long story, me girl.  And if ye wants to hears it, fine,  but I 
needs to ask ye a big favor."
  
  "What?"
  
  "Nomie has a daughter."
  
  There was silence on the line.  Bonavista continued.  "She's Jason's."
  
  The phone clattered to the floor again, but this time there was only 
silence as June picked it up.
  
  "Are ye saying that Jason has a daughter?" she asked as soon as she found 
her voice.
  
  Bonavista nodded.  "Me girl, Christa said Nomie picked Jason, cause he was
after lovin' us like his  own."
  
  For a time he didn't hear anything except June's steady breathing.  Then, 
"What does ye want, Bonnie?"
  
  Bonavista took in a deep breath.  "Well, for one thing I'd like ye to be 
civil to the girl when she comes by.  She's too young to do most of the man 
stealing right now, and she's after wantin' to learn about Jason."
  
  "I see."  the line was quiet for a few more seconds.  "What else?"
  
  Bonavista shifted uneasily in his chair.  "Well me girl,  I'd like to 
learn everything 'bout Nomie. I knows ye knew her, even if ye wasn't the 
best of friends."  He wasn't sure how to voice this compulsion inside him.  
Maybe it was because of the blessing, or maybe because of Julia,  but
whatever the reason, it was steady and strong. " I needs to know."
  
  "I guess ye does," she said.  "Well, get yerself comfortable, and pop 
yourself a beer, Bonnie, 'cause this is a long story."
  
  Bonavista nodded. He opened the can of beer he had next to him, and 
listened to June begin her tale.
  
  The End.