Chapter 22
2033 Words
22
The rest of the day passed without incident, and an hour before sunset all the parties gathered in the field. Cathal brought with him two sheep skins complete with attached heads and tails. One of his guards also held a wooden box.
I nodded at the box. “What’s in there?”
Cathal removed the lid and drew out a hoof with straps attached to either side of the top. “You will need to use these to hide your footprints.”
I took the hoof and cringed. “What if I just crawl on my hands and knees?”
“If you disagree with my suggestion one of my men will be glad to take your place,” he warned me.
I whipped my head up and slapped on a tense smile on my lips. “It’s fine. I can work with this.”
Cathal moved on and his guard handed me the other three hooves. Roisin slipped up beside me and smiled. Her arms were full of the sheep skin with the hooves atop it. “At least with two of us we are more likely to be kidnapped.”
My face drooped. “Let’s hope it doesn’t get that far.”
Xander helped me on with my costume and Spiros assisted Roisin. Soon we were two more sheep among the grass. I turned toward the pond, but Xander grasped my upper arms and pecked a kiss on my lips. “Whatever may come, please return to me.”
I smiled and nodded. The action made my sheep head bob. “Always.”
He and the others hid themselves among the trees some fifty yards from the meadow. The shadows were long as Roisin and I trudged down the slope to the pond. A few of the sheep lifted their heads and stared at us, but soon returned to their grazing.
I stopped at the water’s edge and gazed at my reflection in the clear, still water. The lamb head stared back at me, and beneath the head and wool was my small eyes. The hooves were strapped to my knees and hands, and their hard surfaces dug into my bones.
I shifted uneasily as Roisin came up beside me. “These hooves are killing me. What about you?” The sheep dipped down and took a drink from the pond. “Maybe we should have asked for some padding.”
The sheep raised her head and stared at me. “Baa.”
I sheepishly grinned. “Sorry. Honest mistake.”
“Are you well?” Roisin asked me as she trotted up to my other side.
I sighed and shook my skull. “I hope these thieves are as stupid as me.”
She chuckled. “You are not foolish. I think you are very brave to offer to help my people.”
I lifted my head and looked out across the pond. “Yeah, well, I’m kind of hoping maybe that story about the god might be true.”
Roisin tilted her head to one side and blinked at me. “Why?”
I shook my head. “No reason. Anyway, let’s get sheeping.”
We wandered around the edge of the pond and up the hill. The sun set amid the throbbing pain of my poor knees and hands. Darkness enveloped us, but not the sheep. They migrated to the top of the hill and lay themselves down around the new trough. The sky above us was a clear screen of twinkling stars. The picture of the meadow was one of serenity.
I tripped over a small rock and stumbled up to the edge of the pond. “God damn-” Movement. A ripple flowed out from the center of the otherwise still pond.
I stretched my neck and squinted. The rings of the ripple gently lapped against the edges of the round pond. The disturbance vanished, but my unease didn’t.
I looked over my shoulder. Roisin was five yards behind me. “Psst.”
Roisin lifted her head from the grass. “What-”
“Over here!” I whispered.
A soft gurgling noise caught my attention and I glanced back at the pond. My weak eyes detected a large dark shadow just beneath the surface of the water. The figure was shaped like a person, but darted through the water like a fish. They circled the center of the pond, but never surfaced.
Roisin hurried to my side and gasped as she beheld what I saw. I inched one of my hoofed hands toward the water and tried to relax my tense body. I whetted my lips for a nice, loud cry of alarm. The shadow darted up to the edge of the water and raised their head above the shallow surface.
This strange shadow was a young man of sixteen. His skin was pale and his soft features reminded me of the round rocks smoothed over by countless years of waves. He wore his bluish hair short, but some strands fell close to his eyes. He was dressed in a simple pair of shorts made from long, short strips of seaweed, and around his neck was a necklace of pearls. A devilish smile danced across his lips.
He also had blue eyes. Shockingly bright blue eyes. They were so bright they glowed in the still darkness. I was trapped by those blue eyes, glued to the spot as he reached out and grabbed one of my front ‘legs.’ He yanked me forward and dragged me into the water.
The cold chill of the pond woke me from my stupor. I thrashed and yanked on my arm, but his grip was as strong as any dragon. He dragged me deeper into the abyss of water, so deep that I wondered if we weren’t in a lake rather than a pond. We sped through the water at a speed great enough to force my hair and wool backward. The fresh-water of the pond was replaced by the salty flavor of the open ocean. There must have been a hidden entrance in the pond to the open seas.
More pale young men appeared from the depths of the water, three in total. They were close in appearance except for the lack of a pearl necklace. One of the others had a hold of Roisin. She didn’t struggle like me. I glimpsed her face beneath her disguise and her expression was blank.
The young merman who was without a sheep floated up to my captor. “What is wrong with the sheep?”
My captor tugged me deeper into the dark depths and shook his head. “I do not know. The spell seems to have worn from her mind.”
The sheep-less merman floated up to my face. His eyes glowed as the other one had, but I didn’t feel the soothing effects as before.
Instead I reached out and slapped him. My movements were slow, but I used my water magic to extend my reach and make it faster. He didn’t have time to dodge before I got him in the cheek.
The merman flew back and grabbed his red cheek. His eyes no longer glowed, but they were wide and unblinking. “The sheep slapped me!”
My captor leaned his head back and laughed. “The sheep kicked you, you-” I socked him in the chin with my extended water fist. He released me and flew back to join his companion. “The sheep struck me!”
I kicked over to Roisin. Her captor, fearing the mad sheep, swam away. I grabbed one of Roisin’s arms and slapped her in the face. She started back and the blank expression fled from her face. Her eyes swept over the darkness and the pale young men who gawked at these strange sheep.
The sight of the men made Roisin start back. Her disguise flew off in an eruption of leathery wings as the symbols of a dragon lineage burst from her back. I gasped. Our kidnappers did more than that.
“Demon sheep!” one of them shouted. They sped off in all directions and disappeared into the darkness.
They were gone, but not our problems. My inadvertent gasp meant the air in my lungs was expelled into the endless salt waters. I took in a mouthful of water before I slapped my hands over my mouth. My lungs burned for oxygen. I couldn’t hold back the instinct to breathe. My hands burned with a bright blue light as my mind panicked. I unwillingly took a deep breath.
And found I could breathe. I started back, and in doing so separated my hands from my face. The precious oxygen disappeared. I slapped a hand over my mouth. The sweet air returned.
Roisin wasn’t so fortunate. She thrashed and twisted in the water. Her cheeks were puckered as she fought against the urge to suck in air that wasn’t there. I stretched out my free hand toward her. My dragon came forth, but in a more tendril-like form. He wrapped around her and pinned her thrashing arms to her side. She gasped and all her precious air escaped.
I swam over to her and pressed my air-providing hand over her mouth. She took in a deep breath. Her wild eyes calmed, but they were wide when she looked to me.
I sheepishly smiled at her, but the effort forced some air out of my mouth. Small bubbles slipped between us and floated upward.
My dragon that was wrapped around Roisin slithered off her and wrapped itself around my head. I floated backward and waved my arms around to bat it off, but the dragon formed itself into an impenetrable bubble.
“Get off me!” I shouted.
I paused and blinked. The bubble around my head not only held oxygen, but allowed my voice to carry beyond its borders and into the water. I could breathe and talk underwater. I swept my eyes around the bubble and whistled. “Not bad, Miriam. Not too bad.”
I had one last loose end to deal with. I created another dragon that swam over to Roisin and wrapped around her head. She started back and tried to swim away, but the water creature held tight to her noggin.
“He’s not going to hurt you,” I told her.
Roisin stopped and turned her head left and right. The bubble turned with her. She tapped the bubble. Her finger made an impression that disappeared when she released pressure.
Roisin tilted her head to one side and studied me. “What are you?” she whispered.
I looked past her at the leathery wings that floated behind her. “I’d kind of like an explanation, too.”
She winced and averted her eyes. “I-I did wish to tell you, but Mother ordered that I not tell any outsiders of my half-heritage.”
“You mean Grandmother?” I corrected her.
She shook her head. “No. The woman whom others call Mac Bradaigh is my mother. As a half-dragon I age much slower than she, and so to strangers I am her granddaughter.”
I nodded. “Makes sense. Mostly.”
She studied me. “But what of you? How can you control the waters?”
I shrugged. “I’m just your normal, every-day half-water fae.”
She blinked at me. “Only half? Are fae very powerful?”
I turned away and studied the darkness around us. “Maybe we should save the fae discussion for another day. You’re scaring away our kidnappers means we don’t have a way to get back, wherever back is.”
She cringed. “I am sorry. I was so frightened that I had not time to think.”
I floated to her side and looked around us. “That’s all right. I would’ve gotten my wings out, too, if I had them.” The dark waters pressed against us. I couldn’t see any sign that would tell us which way was the surface and which was the deeper depths. “I hate to say this, but I don’t really know how we’re going to get back to the pond.”
Roisin blinked and pointed at her air bubble. “But you are able to give us breath here. Can you not draw us back?”
I shook my head. “I don’t really have that much of a handle on this whole fae power thing, so that would be a ‘no.’”
My friend bit her lip and swept her eyes over the darkness. “Then we may never find our way to the grove?”
I slipped my hand through hers and smiled. “We won’t know until we try. Just follow me and keep your eyes peeled for some light.”
Roisin started back. “But I do not wish to peel my eyes.”
I snorted and gave her a gentle tug. “It’s only a figure of speech. Just look around and see if you can find a way out of here, or maybe see some of those fishy guys that dragged us down here.”
She nodded. “I will try.”
- Writer
