Surrendering (Swans Landing) (20 page)

But the current was too strong and the water too dark. I couldn’t see anyone near me or find her hand.

“Mara!” I called, but my shout disappeared in the explosion of bubbles from my mouth. I swung my arm out again, searching for anyone, slicing at the water around me.

Finally, my hand found something solid. An arm. I grabbed hold, squeezing my fingers around the limb. I wouldn’t lose them again. The water swirled around me, sending me spinning in violent circles.

We needed the door. Where was the door?

A brightness seared through the water under my feet. I peered down at it as I spun on the current. The light was first just an outline, then an entire circle that shone brilliantly. Where there had been only complete darkness moments ago, there was now a golden light like I had never seen before.

Still holding onto the person’s arm with one hand and the finfolk key in the other, I dove down, swimming and fighting to get through the water to reach the door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The gold light was so brilliant I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I squeezed them shut, hanging onto whoever’s arm I had hold of. I drifted through the current that pulled me into the light, wondering for a moment if all the stories about death were true. Maybe this wasn’t the way to Finfolkaheem after all. Maybe instead of going toward the light we should have fought to swim away.

But then the light faded, leaving me with residual spots in the darkness behind my eyelids.

Slowly, my body still tensed, I opened my eyes to look around.

It was immediately clear that we were no longer in the water just off Swans Landing. The water here was the clearest I had ever seen. The Atlantic Ocean around Swans Landing was murky and it was hard to see more than a couple of feet. But the ocean floor spread out for miles around me, the hills and rocks and fish and plant life all easily visible. Before us, in the valley between craggy cliffs, lay a city built from rock and sand, lit with a strange blue glow.

Mara, Dylan, and Sailor floated next to me. It was Dylan’s arm I was holding and I let go, reaching for Mara’s hand instead. She raised her eyebrows, her face showing the same question that went through my head. Was this Finfolkaheem?

It had to be. There was no place else it could be.

But what should we do now that we were here? The key I still clenched in one fist had gotten us here, but I couldn’t feel any more direction coming from it.

Two figures appeared floating down from above us. They were finfolk, the man with glittering silver scales and the woman with a mix of blue and green. They both had long hair that floated loose in the water around their heads like a halo.

Memories of our arrival in Hether Blether flashed through my head. We had been taken to the palace by armed sentries who had found us, and then we had been imprisoned for a few days by Domnall. My body went rigid as the two finfolk swam toward us, their faces stern as they studied us.

“You will come with us,” said the woman, speaking in a musical tone. She nodded to her companion and then they turned, swimming toward the city.

The rest of us exchanged glances. Sailor looked as nervous as I felt, probably remembering what had happened in Hether Blether too. But these finfolk were not armed, and when they realized we weren’t following, they stopped and gestured to us.

“It is all right,” the man said. “We are taking you to speak to the council. That is why you are here, correct?”

I didn’t know what the council was, but it seemed like the best place to start to ask for help. I opened my mouth to say yes, but found that I still couldn’t speak underwater. The two finfolk made it look easy, like it should have been natural. But the only thing that came out of my mouth was a muffled noise and bubbles. So I nodded instead and then the four of us followed them toward the city.

Hether Blether had reminded me of Swans Landing when I first saw it. Not the sandstone palace, but the decaying village that sat around it. The people there had been fighting to hang onto their homes and history, just like the people of Swans Landing had been doing for years. The two places had had a lot of similarities between them, though it had taken me too long to realize just how similar they were.

But Finfolkaheem was entirely different. The city stretched on and on, dipping into valleys in the ocean floor and climbing up the sides of the cliffs. Seaweed drifted around us and lush plants grew up from the sandy floor, climbing over the rock walls of homes and buildings as if it were decoration put there on purpose. It took me a moment to realize that the city’s glow wasn’t from any kind of lights that I had ever seen above the water, but from the algae that grew on the rocks and ocean floor. The bacteria gave off a phosphorescent blue light that lit the paths between the homes.

A song hung in the air around us, songs of water and earth combined into something I had never heard before. Tension left my body as the song vibrated through me, renewing me with a calmness that settled deep inside me.

A little school of bright yellow fish darted out of the way as we drew close to the center of the city. Finfolk milled about the area, some sitting on rock ledges to talk and children chasing each other in circles.

All movement stopped once they spotted us following the other two finfolk into the village square. All I could do was stare back at hundreds of eyes that stared at us. I had never seen so many finfolk in one place. The color of finfolk scales were based on family lines and most family members had similar colors. There were only a few different colors still left in Swans Landing, but here there were more variations of colors than I had ever thought possible.

The man and woman who had found us approached a stone circle where four men and women floated together. They were older than most of the finfolk there, with long white streams of hair floating around their heads. They wore necklaces made of seashells, large conch shells in front.

“We found visitors who came through the door,” the woman said.

The men and women turned to us, their eyes looking us up and down. I knew how dangerous finfolk could be, but I didn’t feel afraid. The song in the water had eased all of my worries. Everything was all right. We were safe here.

“Welcome to Finfolkaheem,” one of the men said, smiling at us. “We are the council, the judges here in the city. I am Finlay. These are my companions, Iomhar, Mairead, and Sorcha.”

Finlay looked at us expectantly, as if waiting for our introductions. I opened my mouth, letting out a stream of bubbles and shaking my head as I pointed to my throat.

The woman called Mairead nodded. “Ah, you cannot speak underwater. You are not the first to come here with that problem. You have human blood, aye? It is one of the weaknesses the human part of you introduces into the finfolk form. We can repair you.”

The four men and women closed their eyes, and a hum drifted toward us. My body tingled and my throat warmed. I touched my neck, expecting it to be hot, but the skin felt cool in the tepid water around me.

When the humming stopped, the council looked at us, expectant smiles on their faces.

Mara, Dylan, and Sailor looked back at me with blank faces. What had the finfolk done to us?

Mara coughed. “Can we talk now?” she asked. Her voice sounded different, more musical and lower, but she spoke clearly, just as the finfolk did. Her eyes widened.

“You changed us,” I said to the council.

Mairead inclined her head. “I am sorry if it was unwanted. We have met others with your condition and assumed that you would want the change.”

“What did you do?” Sailor asked, rubbing her throat.

“The song can be used to change the way your body works in connection with your mind,” Finlay said. “You had the ability to speak underwater all along, but your human heritage did not allow you to remember how to do it. We merely told the finfolk genes inside you how to override the humanness in your vocal chords.”

“Like how Domnall kept Callum from changing form,” I said to Sailor.

Iomhar nodded. “That is one of the ways the song can be used, though it is not used often. It is considered the ultimate punishment for a finfolk to be unable to change form.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at us. “Who among your people has been doing this?”

“Not our people,” Dylan said quickly. “Domnall is from Hether Blether.”

A murmur spread through the crowd in the square at his words.

Sorcha’s eyebrows rose. “We lost contact with the vanishing isle long ago,” she said. “The door closed there, but one opens at another location from time to time.”

“In Swans Landing,” I said. “That’s where we came from. You said we’re not the first finfolk you’ve met with human blood. Are there others from our island here?”

Mairead gestured toward the city around us. “There are others of your kind here. Ones who found their way home, though it has been a while since anyone has come here from your island. But you are welcome. All finfolk are welcome in our city.”

We wouldn’t be thrown into a prison like we had been in Hether Blether upon our arrival there. I could see relief and contentment in the faces of my friends as well. Sailor smiled as she floated in the water next to me. The song whispered through my body, erasing my fears. Why had I been afraid? Everything here was good. We could be happy here, no one could ever hurt us.

Finlay smiled, as if he understood everything going through my head. “Welcome home, young ones.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I let myself float along with the gentle current that flowed through Finfolkaheem. I felt so relaxed, in a way I never had before. Why had I been so tense? Whatever it was, it didn’t matter now. I was safe. Mara and Sailor were safe.

Mara floated at my side, her eyes closed and a soft smile on her face. Her black curls drifted in the water around her head. She looked so beautiful, so peaceful. I moved toward her, slipping my arms around her waist. She opened her eyes and her smile stretched wider when she saw it was me.

“Hey, you,” she said, laughing a little.

“Hey.” I pressed my lips on hers and she kissed me back, wrapping her arms around my neck. The finfolk council had given us a room—a suite, really. A collection of rooms all to ourselves, decorated in brightly colored sea anemones and fluorescent algae that grew in swirling patterns on the rock walls. We had everything we could need in these rooms, including food. All given to us freely. The finfolk here were so nice, so much nicer than…

Than who? Who was it I was trying to think of?

“What’s wrong?” Mara asked when I pulled away from her.

I furrowed my brow as I tried to focus on the thought that was already slipping away into the recesses of my mind. I couldn’t remember who wasn’t as nice as the finfolk here.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. It didn’t matter anyway, whatever it was. It couldn’t have been important.

I kissed Mara again, flicking my tail to pull her toward the collection of sea sponges that served as a kind of bed. We floated just above the sponges, my hands roaming over the curve of her hip and the slickness of her golden brown scales. I didn’t know where Sailor and Dylan had gotten off to, and at the moment, I didn’t care.

“I love you, Josh,” she whispered in my ear, letting out a stream of bubbles that tickled my skin.

Her words and the constant humming song that hung in the air around us filled me with a swell of happiness. “I love you too,” I told her, knowing it was true. I had loved her from the moment I met her, swimming at Pirate’s Cove.

No, wait. Not
swimming
. We’d had…What were they called? Legs? We’d been standing on the beach when we first met, hadn’t we? It seemed impossible to think of myself ever having legs. I looked down at my silver tail, flicking it back and forth.

“Josh?” Mara’s forehead was creased into a frown as she studied me. “Are you okay?”

“Did we…” The question seemed ridiculous, but I had to ask it. “Did we walk on land? With…legs?”

My head felt so fuzzy. I couldn’t focus on anything. Already, the thought was slipping away again, and I laughed at myself, at the ridiculousness of my question.

But Mara wasn’t laughing. She bit her lip, her eyes narrowed. “Walking?” she asked. “I think…I remember something. Sand. And…trees?”

But even as she spoke the words, her expression relaxed and her eyes took on the distant, contented look they had before. She reached for me again, pressing her lips to mine. Part of me was still a little tense, but I kissed her back, letting myself relax into her embrace.

This was good. This was the way it was supposed to be, the two of us together, happy and safe.

Safe from what?

I kissed Mara harder, driving the thoughts out of my head. It didn’t matter. I was with Mara and I loved her and we would be together here in Finfolkaheem forever. We would get married one day. Have a few kids. I could be a father.

A father.