Page 23 of A Kingdom Restored

“No trouble,” he was saying. He floated with his hands behind his back, his long, mostly silver hair drifting out a little in the current. “I daresay I can inspect a mussel as well as my wife.”

He waited in austere silence as the mermaid from the market displayed her selection, then approved the goods with a simple nod. Once she’d passed off her basket, she swam briskly away, leaving Merletta hovering several strokes back from the door.

“Can I help you?” asked the silver-haired merman, who hadn’t even glanced at her until that moment. Most likely he’d thought she was an assistant to the other mermaid.

“I, uh…” Merletta swallowed, feeling foolish. She hadn’t planned any of this, but a direct encounter with the head of the family seemed too good an opportunity to pass up. “I’m looking for Elric, actually. Is there someone by that name in this family?”

The merman’s expression changed instantly, shock flitting across his features before his brow lowered.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m…” Merletta hesitated under the strength of his gaze, and he pushed on impatiently.

“What do you want? You’re too young to have known Elric. Why would you come asking for him after all these years?”

“So he is dead, then?” Merletta asked, her voice small.

“My brother has been dead for more than eighteen years,” Elfin said curtly.

Merletta felt her eyes widen. His brother? Was this merman her uncle? She looked him over surreptitiously. Streaks of dark brown were still visible in his silver hair, not dissimilar to her own hair color. His skin was considerably paler than hers, but that didn’t mean much. Perhaps she had her coloring from her mother.

“I…I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, belatedly responding to his words.

“Who are you?” he asked again, his eyes narrowed. “Why are you asking about Elric?”

“I’m actually looking for the Mer family,” Merletta said, deciding impulsively on a half-truth. “I don’t have an official family record, but I believe I’m descended from the Mer line. I’d understood that an Elric of the El line married someone from the Mer family.”

Elfin relaxed slightly. His hands, which had been clenched over his elbows, drifted slowly down to his sides as he gave her a critical examination.

“You do have a little of the look of Merminia,” he said thoughtfully. “Do you suspect that your mother was a relative of Merminia’s?”

Merletta hesitated. “It’s possible,” she said evasively. It wasn’t exactly a lie. She supposed anything was possible.

Elfin let out a slow stream of water. “You’re right,” he told her, his tone much less combative. “My brother Elric married someone from the Mer family—Merminia was her name, or Elminia as she became known. But I don’t think I can help you much. She was among the last of the Mer family. I imagine there are a number of others like yourself out there, carrying the name through the mother’s line. But the family no longer exists as a unit.”

Merletta nodded slowly, trying to master her disappointment. To have actually come face to face with a living relative of hers on this vague exploratory trip was more than she could have reasonably hoped for. But the El family was intimidatingly exalted. She’d hoped the Mer family, if they could be found, might have been a more approachable avenue for exploring her history.

“Thank you for your answers,” she said, through lips that felt a little numb. “I appreciate you speaking with a total stranger.”

Elfin inclined his head, his eyes passing over her form again as if not quite satisfied with the conversation.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more,” he said.

She swallowed. “And this Merminia, or Elminia…is she still living?”

He shook his head regretfully. “My brother and his wife died in the same accident.”

It was on the tip of Merletta’s tongue to ask if they’d had any children, but her courage failed her. Would he suspect? Did she want him to?

“How…how did they die?” she asked tentatively.

The merman who’d answered the door, and who was still hovering with a disapproving frown, clucked his tongue.

“If it’s not too painful a question,” Merletta added quickly.

But Elfin didn’t seem either angry or emotional. “No, it’s all right,” he said. “It was many years ago now, and it’s not as though it’s any secret. In fact,” he frowned, “given this recent obsession with adventuring outside the barrier, it’s all the more important to talk about it.”

Merletta stared at him. “What do you mean?”

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