Flux

bits of metal and wood and bones and such; that was to be expected so close to the shore. But there were also colorful fish and strange plants, and everything moved differently than on land: more slowly, more sinuously. Dreamlike. The shadows cast by the sun were unfamiliar to him, and, off in the gloom where his vision failed, he could make out only mysterious shifting shapes. Noises were muffled here as well, so all he could hear was a sort of liquid rushing that was not so different from the sound of his blood moving through his body.
    He should have been terrified of the water itself, and of the failure of whatever spell held him. There were creatures in the sea that should have frightened him. He had heard stories in Praesidium of enormous sharks with huge mouths full of razor teeth, and of other things that lived in more exotic climes. Many-tentacled monsters big enough to sink ships. Poisonous snakes. Jellyfish with venom enough to kill a man. Eels that could somehow channel lightning, stunning or killing from many yards away. Miner didn’t know how many of these tales were true and how many were simply fictions meant to scare or impress the landlocked. In any case he wasn’t frightened, but simply awed, and he might have spent hours hovering in the water, watching the activity around him.
    But then he thought he saw something fairly large dart by, just past where he could see clearly. He blinked, which didn’t help at all, and the thing rushed by again. Then there was nothing and he was almost convinced he’d imagined it. Perhaps he’d merely seen the shadow of a cloud scudding far overhead.
    Miner was just wondering how long he could stay there, how long he could continue breathing underwater, when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and there it was, suddenly so close that he kicked his feet in alarm, propelling himself slightly backwards.
    It looked a little like a woman, although it had no nose and its too-large eyes were all red iris except for the vertical slits of pupils. Its hair was long and a pale green and braided intricately, its skin was almost white, and when it opened its mouth it revealed two rows of tiny, sharp teeth. It had a severely receding chin and no eyebrows or lashes, and where ears should have been there were only small, membrane-covered indentations. Its upper torso was bare, revealing a pair of small, round breasts, while its lower body was very long and sinuous, almost snakelike, with no legs or feet but, instead, a large fin at the end. She wore a thin rope roughly where her waist should have been; tied to the rope were pretty shells and bits of colored sea glass and a few large beads.
    He must have been gaping, but she looked just as surprised at his appearance. She swam a little closer and raised an arm that was longer than a human’s and seemed to have no bones, or perhaps just many more joints than his. She lifted a hand—only two fingers plus a thumb, and they were joined by webbing—and delicately touched his hair, his nose, his collar, one of his legs, and then, to his acute embarrassment, his penis and scrotum.
    And then she turned and with a flick of her tail, she was gone.
    A mermaid. He’d seen an actual mermaid. Despite everything, he managed a small grin, because who would have imagined he’d encounter a wonder like that?
    Perhaps ten or fifteen minutes later the mermaid reappeared. At least, he assumed it was the same one. But she had someone with her this time—another mer-creature. This one appeared to be male, although no genitalia were visible. Its build was a bit larger than the female and its chest was flat and without nipples. It had a broader face, too, with wide cheekbones, and it wore two decorated ropes instead of one about its middle.
    While the male gaped at Miner, the female waited, looking a little smug, Miner thought. The male swam in a slow circle around Miner, taking in the details of Miner’s body, which must have been as strange to him as the merman’s was to Miner. The male tentatively touched him as well, pressing his fingertips against the brand mark.
    The mer-people must have communicated somehow, although Miner didn’t hear anything or see anything obvious. But they moved in unison, each of them grasping one of Miner’s forearms firmly in its hands. Before Miner could even decide whether to fight they were swimming away, towing him with them. They were very fast, so that as the harbor floor