Page 6 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

I rolled my eyes as she stood, patting my face gently as she withdrew her hand. “You know how I worry for you, Marina,” she said, looking at me tenderly. “It will give me such peace to know you are protected and cared for.”

I sighed, dropping my head back on the pillows. The selkies were not a romantic people by nature. Most matings were arranged, and most couples found happiness in those arrangements. Occasionally, the two were lucky enough to discover that the seas had fated them, feeling drawn to each other inexorably. I didn’t feel that for Vitulus, but I supposed I hadn’t really given him a chance.

“Try?” she asked, crossing my room to the door. I nodded, trying for a smile and producing something closer to a grimace. “That’s my girl,” she said as she left.

Sereia slid into the room after my mother, curtsying low as she was expected to. I’d told her a hundred times she needn’t bother, but Sereia liked protocol.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, coming to sit on the edge of my bed.

“Do you already know?” I asked, catching the glint in her eye that told me she was bursting with the urge to gossip about something.

“Seas below, yes,” she cried, turning to face me fully with her legs crossed. “Vitulus, of all males. Although he isveryhandsome. Do you think he likes you?”

“I doubt he likes anyone,” I said with a laugh that made me cough. I wanted another sip of tea to try to calm the spasms, but best to wait until my lungs were a little less volatile. “Mother asked me to try to get to know him.”

“He’s a sensible choice, when you think about it,” Sereia said, looking thoughtful. “He’s strong and steady.”

“Ugh, you and my mother,” I sighed, putting the teacup down. “What is this obsession with strength and steadiness?”

Sereia shrugged. “A girl likes to be taken care of,” she said matter of factly, as if this were the only thing I should desire in life.

It would be so easy, I thought, if that truly was all I wanted. Sometimes I cursed the seas for making me wild and curious, instead of agreeable and careful.

Sereia canted her head, a small smile tugging at her lips as if she could hear my internal struggle. “Would you prefer him if he were weak and flighty?”

I sighed again. Sereia would be a much better princess than I was. “Would you mate him?” I asked, genuinely curious about the answer. “Even if it wasn’t your choice?”

“Yes,” Sereia said, a little too quickly.

I looked at my friend, who had turned a faint shade of pink under her brown cheeks.

“Oh, seas, Sereia! If you have an understanding—”

“We do not,” Sereia said, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Vitulus has never looked at me romantically. Hehaslooked at you though. Often.”

I frowned, trying to think of any moment in which I had seen something other than criticism in his eyes, but nothing came to me.

Sereia stood, the blush gone and a warm smile on her face. She handed me the teacup, a wordless command to drink. “Since you’re to rest for the evening, I have time to go to the village for those taffies we like,” she offered, giving me a conspiratorial grin as if buying taffies was indeed the height of rebellion. “I’ll bring you some?”

I sighed, wishing I could go with her. The islands of the archipelago were dotted with small fishing villages around the coastlines, and farming villages further inland. The keep was one of several castles, most used as royal garrisons now, and the nearest village was a two-mile walk from the palace.

I had never been without an escort, and buying taffies with a six-foot wall of guard brooding behind me was not nearly as much fun as going alone with Sereia would be.

“Peppermint please,” I said, squeezing Sereia’s hand. She wrinkled her nose at my selection, and I laughed, which made me cough and wheeze so badly that Sereia had to help me sip my tea.

“Do you want me to stay?” she asked nervously, settling me back on the pillows. “I can, you know.”

I shook my head, sighing at the inevitable visit I’d have to endure. “Vitulus will be coming by. You should go.”

“I’ll bring you back double peppermint then,” Sereia said with a wink. “For your hardship.”

Vitulus came to visit not long after Sereia left. He carried a fresh cup of my special tea, and it was almost comical to see the giant of a male holding a delicate pearl teacup.

I had promised Mother I would try to get to know Vitulus, and I tried. I really did. But it was the most awkward hour of my life.

Vitulus seemed actually nervous to be in my room alone, even though he sat in a wooden chair a fair distance from my bed. Selkies were also not prudish about chaperones, and I rolled my eyes internally at his reluctance to relax around me.

I tried to ask him about his interests, but he didn’t seem to have any beyond training, and I couldn’t exactly tell him about my illicit interest in siren history. I liked to read, and he didn’t. I liked to play with the seals on the beach, and he didn’t.