Page 29 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

I scowled, but couldn’t speak while chewing, and Caspian laughed again as he dragged me from stall to stall, giving me only a few seconds to look at each.

He pulled me to one stall near the edge of the market that looked to sell pearl jewelry. He smiled at the owner, a female with skin a little lighter than mine and deep green hair.

“By the seas,” said the female, her eyes going wide as she looked between us. “Cas, do you have a lover?”

I blushed crimson as Caspian laughed, bringing my hand to his in a mockery of a kiss. “What do you have that’s fit for a queen, Marella?”

“These are lovely,” the female said, gesturing to a display of what looked to be hundreds of pearls strung on nearly invisible string. “I’m Marella, by the way,” she added, holding out a hand to me.

“Marina,” I said, shaking it. There was a flicker of what might be recognition in her face, but I pushed on. “Are you a selkie?”

“I am,” she said brightly as Caspian perused her wares. “First time in Nordhavn?”

“Yes,” I said, wondering how rude it would be to question her.

Caspian beat me to it. “This is Marina’s first time off the Isles,” he said casually, as if I weren’t a kidnapped princess he was hiding. “She didn’t realize selkies lived on the mainland.”

“We do,” she laughed, studying me faintly. “I’ve never actually been to the Isles. Born and raised here, after the Exile.”

“The what?” I asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

“The Exile,” she repeated, looking between me and Caspian in confusion. “Of the sirens? My father was mated to one, so of course, he left too.”

I looked at Caspian, whose face was enigmatically expressionless, his brows raised in challenge. Marella looked as confused as I felt.

“They don’t tell the story like that on the Isles, Marella,” Caspian cut in. “They call it the “Great Betrayal”.”

Marella laughed in disbelief. “That’s rich, since the selkies were the ones doing the betraying the way my folks tell it.”

“What?” I asked, still gaping between them.

“I’ll take this,” Caspian interrupted, picking up the strand of pearls delicately. “And this.” He pointed to a comb fashioned with a flower made from pearl and shells. Lovely and delicate and clearly of selkie make. “And I’ll tell you the whole story later, Urchin. Marella has to work.”

“It was nice to meet you, Marina,” Marella said, eyeing Caspian as he paid. “Whatever you’re up to, Cas, do be careful?”

“Always am, Marella,” he said, giving her a faint smile and a knowing nod before ushering me away.

“How do you know her?” I asked, probably too loudly to be considered discrete. “And what exactly happened between our people?”

“There was a selkie prince,” he replied, holding my hand tightly as we wove through the remaining stalls. “Mated to a siren princess. He was killed, and the selkies blamed his mate. The sirens took the princess’s side and defended her. It all ended with your ancestor cutting off my ancestor’s wings, and all of my people being exiled or killed.”

“That can’t be right,” I argued, trying to remember everything I had been taught about the Great Betrayal. It wasn’t much, and it was always vague. Was that on purpose? “Who do the siren’s think killed the prince? And how do you know any of this is true?”

“Urchin,” Caspian said, frowning down at me, “I’ll do what I can to give you the true history when we reach my home. But it won’t matter how true anything I say is if you refuse to believe it.”

I gaped, and Caspian laughed. “Ask any other questions and I’ll tell you now, Urchin. Save the history lesson for later.”

“Fine,” I said, trying to file my questions about the past away in my mind where I could easily recall them later. “But I won’t forget.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Caspian drawled, squeezing my hand companionably. “Ask me something else.”

“Where ishere, exactly?“ I asked after parsing through my questions to select the most relevant. “This town? These people? What realm are we even in, and how do you know these people?”

I had seen a map of the continent once in my father’s study. All the lands were divided into neatly organized territories, but I couldn’t remember this town being on the map. Granted, the map could have been several hundred years old.

“That’s five questions, Urchin,” Caspian laughed. “But I’ll try to answer them all. Nordhavn is one of several port towns, all founded by humans in the last few centuries.” The market gave way to cobbled lanes as we wound our way through the streets, the store fronts all with open doors and merry chiming bells to welcome shoppers. We passed what looked to be a book shop, and I ached to go inside, but Caspian dragged me past. “They traveled up and down the coast from their realm in the south, establishing trading posts as they went.”

“But I haven’t seen any humans,” I said, giving the bookstore one last, wistful look as we continued walking, and keeping my eyes open for rounded ears. “At least, I don’t think I have. Human ships aren’t allowed on the Isles.”