Page 24 of Between Fear and Favor

Whatever she’d done had been successful. Despite the strange muffled noise of the water, I spoke clearly.

“Ah, no. I’m just...too excitable at the moment,” I said. Truthfully, nothing on my plate looked appetizing. I had never liked raw fish, and being amongst the seaborn had made me even more uncomfortable eating it. My choices seemed to be narrowed down to sea cucumber or seaweed. I had to admit, though, I was quite nervous and my appetite had vanished. “Thank you.”

She waved me off, instead focusing on the tiny fish grazing over her own food. After snagging it, using a quiet tentacle to sneak up from behind, she shoved the entire thing into her mouth. I swallowed, throat tight, discomfited by her vicious movements. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted more of her people eating in the same manner. Quickly and no less terrifying, many of the seaborn seemed to treat their meals like prey.

“Your people do not dine in these forms often, do they?” I asked, glancing out over the stone tables at the bottom of the vast hall. Eerily, the moonpearls cast the ballroom in a crisp glow, and it only highlighted the jerky motions of the seaborn who sat at the tables. Most of her people appeared in shades of blue and grey with little variation. Fox, who had shifted into her humanoid form, was the brightest person in the room. The limited lighting diminished even her color.

“It has been an age,” Estri admitted. “My people prefer their true form.”

“Seaborn like Foxglove are different then? Her current form is not quite a true seahorse, nor is it suitable for land. Do merrows have some in-between state as well?” I asked.

Fox’s pink form with translucent hair wasn’t meant for the land. Merrows and other seaborn wouldn’t be known only as legend if these people walked the earth. With skin in all shades of colors—unnatural to me, but obviously not strange to them—and sharpened teeth? Certainly, there was more of a spectrum. I wondered if perhaps Fox would be blonde and pale-skinned if she ever took to land.

“No. My merrows are special. I was a merrow once. To forsake our tail for the land is…well…”

Estri trailed off. I picked up a piece of seaweed and the taste surprised me when I bit down. Almost savory, it wasn’t what I expected at all.

“You see,” Estri began as she sucked a hermit crab right out of its shell into her mouth. My stomach roiled. “We are made of the sea. To find landwalking preferable, one must insult everything the water has given us.”

At this, her head snapped to the side, and with a start, I noticed Mairin hovering near the closest table. So far below, with little light, her hair appeared inky, the red barely visible in the moonpearls’ cast. A cloud of curls nearly swallowed her as she stared at her mother. I wondered why she was still here. She’d used me to get what she wanted. Why stay?

Mairin caught me looking at her, and I bit the inside of my cheek to hold my emotions at bay. With brows lifted and a soft, opened mouth, her expression begged forgiveness, and I resisted the urge to give it to her.

It didn’t matter that we both would have done whatever was needed to achieve our goals. What I did benefited thousands; Mairin only cared about herself.

“To choose the land is to forsake the sea,” Estri said.

The urge to defend Mairin rose within me, even though I could barely stand the sight of her. “I’m sure that isn’t the case,” I said. “There is water on land—lakes and streams. I’m sure your people can be thankful for the water wherever they are. I’m here, learning about the seaborn, yet I do not forsake the land. We are grateful for the font and everything else we’ve been given.”

At this, Estri laughed, low and menacing, before murmuring something I couldn’t hear. When I asked her to repeat herself, she ignored me.

But I felt Mairin’s eyes on me. Slowly, I turned my head, even though I knew better. The merrow pointedly tugged on her pendant. That was when I noticed the others. A few seaborn had pendants like Mairin, but the vast majority had no such talisman.

“You liked my gift,” Estri said, drawing my attention. It wasn’t a question. Those long fingertips, nails seeming to lengthen, reached for Rhia’s tiara.

“Is it really Rhia’s? How was she here? You said I look like her?” I hadn’t meant to blurt my questions all at once, but I’d been doing quite well staying calm. My tumultuous thoughts were certain to boil over, eventually.

“Your mother’s line is from Olistos. Of course, there is a resemblance to an extent.”

“Rhia’s skin color is the same as mine. That doesn’t make us?—”

“You didn’t let me finish, my jewel. Just like anyone who hails from Olistos, the people whom Rhia created in her own image, you have the same features. You also hold an uncanny resemblance to someone who shared her body with the Mother goddess. An ancestor of yours, perhaps.”

Instead of answering my questions, she only gave me more.

“The Mother goddess?”

Before she could answer me, the water around us swirled a midnight black.

I choked on it, and when I waved my arm in front of my body, attempting to clear it, I swore there was a long, silvery tentacle. Unlike the Sea Queen’s, it was thin and spindly. I shrieked when something traced over my leg. My eyes stung, and filmy eyelids slid down over them, alleviating the burning. Without being able to see, my heart raced, but when Estri placed her hand on my thigh, I slowed my breathing. For only a moment, I heard her song—haunting and quiet. It relaxed me.

“Smokkar, I am already tempted to take your pendant as it is. Do not think my favor for you allows this interruption.”

The blackness cleared away as Estri sent a rush of water to disperse it. Where the offensive dark had swirled only a moment before, a man now stood.

Not a man.

Something in between man and beast stood before us. Nude, his alabaster skin nearly glowed, and his long hair was even more white. The only color I could see was the ice blue of winter storms in his eyes.

---