Page 57 of Between Salt and Serenades
We were far too deep.
Think, Sidra!
The next thing I knew, Tetwin was pulling at my shoulder, forcing me to face him. Zellia took Breena from me as I was ripped away from them both by the much larger hunter.
“The one who wears jewelry like tinker or healer,”he continued, pulling the pendant from around my neck. The rope snapped in two, and he held up the dangling pieces for the pod to see.“This is who you put your trust in to feed your family? Someone with such little regard for her own duty?”
He dropped the pendant, but I didn’t move as I watched it slowly sink to the seafloor, growing smaller and smaller as it did. I should have stuck up for myself, done something, but after meeting his cold, competitive stare, I turned my back to him and my pod once more. He and his ego weren’t worth it, especially not as Breena was dying in Zellia’s arms a mere foot away.
Tetwin grabbed my arm and pushed me out of his way. He reached for Breena, who was being cradled by my brave younger sister. When I realized he was going for the broken spear protruding out of Breena, I acted without thought. Our nails were always sharpest after a transition, and I used that to my advantage. I raked my fingers across his back, pulling forth trails of scarlet through the water.
Tetwin’s back arched, his body responding to the shock of the sharp, stinging pain of a siren scratch.
“The next fae to touch that selkie dies!”I warned the two dozen sirens in front of me, almost the entire pod paid witness to my treachery. The shock written across their faces was palpable as the remaining traces of Tetwin’s blood washed away from my nails in the water.
“She has come here because the selkie clans are starving just as we are. There are no fish remaining in their hidden coves. When I went to land, the two of us worked together to amass all that fish you’ve been enjoying these past few days. If you haven’t noticed, those fish are all but gone once more, but she is not to blame.”
Finding myself by Breena's side once again, Zellia was already assessing her wound. I took the selkie from my sister to free up her hands. Peering down at Breena, her large, dark eyes were hidden from me. My throat tightened, and I blinked my eyes rapidly, though I knew no tears would come.
Wake up!I begged her in my mind, because I knew it was no use saying it aloud.
“Then who is to blame?”One of the elders swam forward and brushed a bleeding Tetwin aside. I peered at the elder named Donia as she approached us. The muted oranges of her scales were a stark contrast to her long, silver hair swirling around her as she slowed a few feet away.
The siren wore the shell and spear emblem of the elders on a sash tied from her shoulder to her hip. The sheer green material of the sash flowed with her as she moved.
Preparing to catch the entire pod off guard with two simple words, I held my head high and channeled to everyone as I said, “The hybrids.”
Laying Breena down in the sand, I gathered every ounce of grace I could muster to avoid jostling her. The broken spear jut from her gut, but it’d been wrapped in seaweed to transport her to the Kilkov. While the trip from the Ever Wanderer typically took ten minutes, traveling slowly with her in my arms took closer to thirty. By the time I arrived at the Kilkov, I was surprised I was able to hold her at all.
Once she was nestled into the warm sand, I stopped fighting the shaking from taking hold of my arms. Breena was the strong one, not me. I wanted so badly to shake her, wishing it would be that simple to wake the selkie. Alas, shaking her would do nothing but worsen her injury.
The Dreslee was too deep, the oxygen particles too widely dispersed. Here in the Kilkov, bubbles of oxygen littered the water from the waves above, but also from the kelp forest that exhaled the lifeforce I needed for Breena.
Closing my eyes, I imagined drawing oxygen through the water, moving water particles aside so the oxygen would flow in my direction, like what I’d done for the fish out of water. This time, my selkie was the one who didn’t belong. She belonged in her cove, by the surface, not thousands of feet below sea level, where there was less oxygen and the weight of the water was crushing her fragile mammalian body.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a bubble forming around her mouth, her nose. The bubble continued to grow until the air engulfed her entire head. I knew mammals of the sea could hold their breath even unconsciously, but it was only a matter of time until her brain needed oxygen. My solution was temporary at best. I needed my sister to do the rest. She was the only one of the healers I trusted to save Breena’s life. As it was, I was already sending out prayers to a potentially imaginary Sea Goddess to help protect her.
When we were aboard the Indigo Tide, I’d laughed at the men as they groveled on the wet deck of their ship, on their hands and knees in the mixture of sea water and rum. They begged their Goddess for aid, and thinking back, I pitied them for their stupidity. Now, I found myself doing the same, hoping the sirens and their tricks weren’t the closest thing to Gods of the sea. I prayed that Cliodna, the daughter of the Sea God, would hear me.
As I waited for Zellia to arrive with her supplies, I prepared my wish for the Goddess. I placed a pearl in a double shell and tied it with a thinned strand of kelp. While humans tossed their wishes into the waves, I tossed mine off the edge of the Kilkov, thinking of Breena the entire time it drifted downward.
Just shortly after folding my tail to sit at Breena’s side, Zellia returned with a basket woven of sea grasses. Baskets made by sea fae were long and narrow, with a small opening to avoid losing our belongings as we propelled ourselves through the water. My mother had always been quite good at the craft, and she even spent her free time making them for trade.
Zellia placed her basket on the ledge of the Kilkov then rubbed the back of her neck with her newly free hand. Her breathing quickened as her eyes roved over Breena from her protected position on the other side of the ledge. Finally giving in for the first time in her sheltered life, she fluttered her tailenough to lift her above the plateau. I stared at her as she entered the Kilkov, getting closer to the surface than she had in years. She was stunning up here, her white scales shimmering hues of both silver and gold. Looking at her, it was almost easy to forget why she was here in the first place, why she was facing her deepest fears.
“Thank you, Zel,”I said, watching the way she grabbed her basket and tentatively brought it to Breena’s side. She sat opposite of me, Breena the cucumber in our sandwich.
“If fishermen come, you owe me,”she said with a scowl. Zellia glanced above us to the rocking waves of the surface. We were still a hundred feet under those waves, but that was nothing to a creature of the deep.
“Could be good for you. You’re due for an adventure.”It was all the joking I could manage as I held Breena’s speckled flipper.
Zellia grunted in response, but then she tilted her head, and her eyes softened.
“What is it?”I asked. There were plenty of reasons to be solemn right in front of me, but Zellia’s expression told me this worry was something different.
“Mother found me as I was gathering supplies.”She started fiddling around in her basket, pulling out a sealed shell that she thrummed her long nails against.“The council convened without you. It was a closed meeting at the pillars to discuss what you told the pod about the land hybrids… and that fisherman.”
“They’ve made a decision?”I asked. She averted my gaze as she cracked the shell open and poured the gooey contents onto Breena’s wound. She pressed the goo down into Breena around the edge of the spear before it had the chance to dilute and wash away.
