The Mermaids Madness

not to let you tell Jakob any bedtime stories.”
    “Halaka’ar guarded the river of the dead,” Talia explained. “My tutors taught me the old religions.” She shook her head, remembering. “They also told me Halaka’ar would come for any child who snuck sweets during lessons.”
    Danielle closed her eyes, presumably relaying Talia’s story. Moments later, the kelpie dropped flat. The merfolk hesitated, clearly distrustful of their beast’s strange behavior. Talia grabbed Snow and waded toward the animal’s harness. She hoisted Snow up, threading her arm through one of the loops on the harness. “Hurry up, Princess.”
    The kelpie’s body was warm, trembling hard enough to send wavelets knocking past Talia’s legs. She finished pushing Snow’s other arm through the harness, then grabbed another rock. The rock knocked the closest merfolk back, giving her time to grab another of the kelpie’s loops. She held the back of Snow’s harness with one hand, keeping her tight against the scales.
    “Hold on,” Danielle warned, taking the next loop of rope beside Snow.
    The kelpie reared up and twisted to face the wall behind. Merfolk fell back as the kelpie surged toward the arch and the open sea. Talia swore and pressed herself and Snow flat as they passed through the arch. The rock scraped skin from her shoulder blades and backside. Any tighter and she would have been torn free or crushed.
    The kelpie began to sink as they reached deeper water. Talia shoved Snow higher on the kelpie’s back. “Danielle?”
    “We can’t breathe water,” Danielle shouted. “And my friends are injured. Their blood could attract sharks!”
    The kelpie bobbed up like a cork. Its long tail undulated like a snake, shooting them through the water.
    “They have other kelpies,” Talia shouted. “They’ll be after us as soon as they regroup.”
    Danielle nodded and closed her eyes, resting against the kelpie’s body. Talia didn’t know what she said, but the kelpie began to swim even faster, paddling with its large fins. The movement of its body reminded her of a horse’s gallop.
    Talia stretched her legs, bracing her feet against the bony ridge behind her to take some of the weight off of the loops around her arms. This would be more comfortable if she could get Snow to the top of the kelpie, where they could rest on a relatively flat surface. But she couldn’t climb and hold onto Snow at the same time. Even with Snow’s arms through the harness, her body draped down the kelpie’s side, her toes trailing through the water.
    Blood dripped slowly down Snow’s neck and back. The bleeding didn’t look too bad, especially for a head wound, but she still hadn’t woken up.
    “I shouldn’t have made her cast the spell on me, back at the Phillipa ,” Talia said. “Morveren told me to let Snow conserve her strength.”
    “Snow thought she had enough power—” Danielle began.
    “Snow’s a powerful sorceress,” Talia said. “Almost as strong as she thinks she is. But she’s never been good at accepting limits.”
    “Unlike you?” Danielle teased. In a softer voice, she added, “This isn’t your fault.”
    Talia twisted her head, looking back at the shrinking shoreline. Danielle was right. Even if Talia had tried to kill Lirea while she slept, the air spirits likely would have thwarted her attack. Knowing that didn’t lessen the anger. “Can’t this stupid thing go any faster?”

CHAPTER 10

    L IREA CLUTCHED HER ARM where the human’s knife had stabbed her. Voices taunted her as she fled, mocking her weakness and her fear, but she couldn’t stop swimming.
    She had been dreaming of Gustan, so real she could still feel his hands on her body, the tiny hairs on his legs that tickled her skin as he moved. She could smell the sweat that dampened the curls on his neck. He had never been gentle with her, but humans were known to be rough.
    And then her dreams had shifted.Tears streamed from her eyes as she staggered up the beach, smiling through the pain of each tortured step. Naked and pathetic and human, she called out to him. She had been little more than a child, weak and desperate. She had begged for his love, and in doing so earned only contempt.
    And now that weakness surfaces again. The voice sounded distant, though the words were no less sharp. How could Gustan ever love such a coward?
    They came to my home, Lirea protested. Cracked open my mind like a seabird digging the meat from a snail.
    So you flee