You are invited to join Marin and her exuberant sister Gen on vacation in Cornwall, where they attend a seaside wedding. During their stay, Marin is acutely aware of the mysterious people who staff the old resort where the wedding is held. She is particularly drawn to Geoffrey, who challenges her to feel her emotions and overcome fear. In the process, Marin discovers an ancient world that coexists with the modern one in this remote and scenic land. The Bay of Mermaids By Majia Comella Balboa Press Copyright © 2015 Majia Comella All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5043-2849-4 Contents 1 Odd Dreams, 1, 2 Walking in the Sand, 17, 3 The First of Many Rehearsals, 34, 4 A Strange Image, 47, 5 Geoffrey, 68, 6 Beyond the Portal, 83, 7 Secret Party, 92, 8 View from the Ruins, 115, 9 Night Swim, 130, 10 Running Water, 153, 11 The Wedding, 167, 12 Something on the Beach, 187, About the Author, 201, CHAPTER 1 ODD DREAMS If Marin knew what lay ahead of her, she might not have made the trip; but then again, she might have. Secretly thrilled to be in Cornwall, she was also exhausted. The trip from the northwestern corner of the United States to the southwestern tip of England had been a travel marathon. One more hour and she would reach her destination. Slouched in the front seat of an old tour bus, her dark blue mohair coat wrapped around her and her light brown hair a tousled mess, she watched the scenery slip by as if in a dream sequence. Pastures and hedgerows in all shades of green appeared and disappeared in the window frame of the bus. Mint-green field. Forest-green hedgerow. Kelly-green pasture. Beyond the tidy fields and hedgerows lay the highland moors, with patches of rusty green and burnt yellow. Marin was headed to a resort on the scenic coast of Cornwall to attend her aunt's wedding. Ten years older than Marin, Trish had always seemed like an older sister rather than an aunt. Now Trish was about to marry into wealth—a lot of wealth. Trish, who had always been ostentatiously proper and pathologically competitive, wanted to share—or more likely show off—her good fortune. So Trish had invited twenty-five relatives and friends to spend a one-week vacation, all expenses paid, with her at a small seaside resort. The week would culminate with Trish's wedding to Franklin Farnsworth Deheubarth III and Trish's metamorphosis into Mrs. Franklin Farnsworth Deheubarth III. Being a mid-September wedding, the theme was "The Harvest." Marin smiled wryly as she reclined in the bus seat. Yes, Trish was definitely harvesting her man. Knowing her aunt Trish, Marin thought a Halloween wedding with the theme of "Trick or Treat!" would be more appropriate. To get to this point on her journey, Marin had awakened at 4:00 a.m. on the previous day, taken a one-hour ferry ride from the island where she lived to the mainland, ridden an airport shuttle bus for three hours, navigated airport ticketing and security lines for another two hours, endured a monotonous ten-hour flight shoehorned into the heart of the economy section, anxiously waited an hour for her bags to appear, and now had spent five comatose hours on the bus with a brief rest stop somewhere along the way. At first there had been the white noise of babbling conversations as seatmates got to know each other, but now it was just the hum of the bus engine and the occasional shifting of gears. Marin had started to wonder if the effort to attend her aunt's wedding was worth it. As much as Marin had dreaded the long trip, her pumpkin-colored bridesmaid dress, and some of her relatives, she was looking forward to the down time and introspective distance the trip would provide. Work had been incredibly busy that summer. As a freelance grant writer for several clients, she had pulled long days for weeks on end in order to meet deadlines. Now she was having second thoughts about a profession that kept her too busy to enjoy the brief Pacific Northwest summers. As if that weren't enough, she also taught a night class at the local community college. The heavy workload had left her exhausted and numb. At age twenty-seven, Marin had also broken up with her first serious boyfriend since college. Duane left her for an old girlfriend who just happened to be visiting the small town where she and Duane lived. His ex-girlfriend had no reason to be in town other than to get reacquainted with Duane. Marin kept consoling herself that if he was the kind of guy who would dump her for a flirty ex, it was best she found out now. Marin stared at the dirty floor of the bus. It still hurt. While Marin hoped to forget her ex and work, at least temporarily, she was also looking forward to spending a week by the sea; she loved the ocean. Her earliest childhood memories were of visiting her grandmother's beach house. She could recall running on the cool sand first thing in the morning when there was no one else on the beach, building sand forts that melted in the wave