Page 23 of The Naiad's Lover

I reluctantly took off my coat, then my boots and stockings. I sighed, took off my shirt and my breeches, and stopped there.

Ral glanced expectantly down at my drawers.

“I think I’ll keep these on,” I said.

“Oh. Do you want me to put mine back on?” He scooped up his drawers and hopped into them. “I didn’t think. Sorry. We always swim naked around here. Right.” He clapped his hands together and swept out an arm towards the lake. “Shall we?”

He strode confidently into the water and immediately disappeared below the surface with a startled shout.

He resurfaced a good hundred yards out.

“I’m okay,” he called. “It’s fine! I?—”

He went under again.

This time he popped up closer to the shore, and Sayan rose up behind him. He waited until Ral was steady on his feet, then gave him a petulant little push.

Sayan stared at me over Ral’s shoulder. He abruptly turned away, his body arcing gracefully and silently beneath the waves.

“Whew!” Ral scraped his wet hair back from his face as he sloshed towards me. He stopped when the water was lapping around his knees. “That was fun.”

Fun?“Was it? It looked quite horrifying from where I’m standing.”

“He’s trying to scare me, and it is not working. It was amazing. I’ve never moved that fast in my life.”

“Amazing,” I echoed.

Ral considered me. “Well, he scared one of us. Erik, are you afraid of the water?”

“No.”

“Come on in, then. It’s lovely.”

I trudged into the shallows, flinching at the cold that didn’t seem to bother Ral at all.

“If youwereafraid,” Ral was saying as he moved backwards, gesturing at me to follow, “you should know there’s no need to be. I won’t let you come to any harm. Sayan certainly won’t.”

“I do know all of this, intellectually.” I stopped when the water reached my mid-chest. “It’s simply that the deepest I’d ever been in water as an adult before Sayan tried to teach me how to swim was a few inches, and that was in my bath.”

“You’ll get used to it quickly enough,” he said. “We’re not in any rush, and we’re going to start with the easiest thing in the world. I’m going to teach you how to float.”

I groaned. “We’ve tried that already. I can’t do it! I can’t float!”

“Of course you can. All you have to do is relax, and let the water take you.”

I gritted my teeth. “I can do it when Sayan supports me, but the moment he lets go, I tense up and go under.”

I truly loathed the feeling of water rushing up my nose.

Ral contemplated me quietly. He was, I decided, much more thoughtful than his cheerful demeanour suggested. “It’s not the floating you’re actually having trouble with, is it? It’s worrying about what happens when you go under.”

“I suppose it is, yes.”

“Not a problem. We’ll fix that, and then you’ll be away. Now. Put your face in the water.”

“What?”

“Like this.” He sank down until the water came up to his chin, and then he leaned forwards and put his face in it. Hestraightened, and laughed at my expression. “Come on, Erik. It’s easy. Give it a try.”

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