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"I have something I can try," Luch said softly. "But you're going to have to trust me."
"Anything." Tears stung Macey's eyes as she agreed, and Luch nodded her head. Right now, her only focus was on making sure Amber was safe.
"I need you to be ready to run for the water and shift as soon as this works," Luch instructed.
"Okay," Macey agreed shakily, wondering what was about to happen.
"I don't know if this will hurt or not, but if it does, I'm sorry," the mouse added, before lifting her hands and cupping them together.
An intense look of concentration covered Luch's face, and a tugging sensation built within Macey, as if someone was drawing on her power. She opened her mouth to speak, but Luch shook her head, stopping her in her tracks.
Instead, she looked at Amber in the water. She was still walking into the centre of the pool, but it didn't look to have gotten much deeper. The beithir's tail twitched from where it floated in the water, and hope rose instead. Until she realised that was Luch's doing too.
Something swirled around the woman's hand, and before long, lightning and water were swirling there, much like they had when Amber and Macey had combined their powers earlier.
With a deep breath, Luch threw the power in the direction of the barrier. It lit up as the lightning crackled around it, before disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Macey stood there for a few gob smacked moments, before realising what she should be doing.
Without waiting a second longer, she began to run towards the lake, already pulling on a shift, knowing she’d hit the wat
er before she needed to breathe.
Even with her kelpie vision, it was hard to see underwater. Amber walking into the pool had whirled up a lot of mud which was now threatening to clog up Macey's eyes. The water was a lot deeper than she'd thought, deep enough for several kelpies to stand on top of each other. She was by Amber's side in a flash, using her powerful tail to propel her forwards.
She took a deep breath and broke the surface to check what the other woman was doing. Amber stared blankly into the distance, but she'd stopped moving. She was now to her neck in water but didn't seem to be bothered by it in the slightest.
Macey couldn't speak so she whinnied loudly, but Amber didn't even blink. She was in a deep trance, but how to get her out of it?
Macey went back underwater to check for the strange woman she'd seen earlier. She'd never heard anything good about the ceasg, but she had to keep reminding herself that most people thought kelpies were monsters, too. So, she should really keep an open mind... but luring Amber into the water like that wasn't a good sign.
She came to a halt and listened. The water around her was flowing steadily, a rhythm that she could focus on. Now if there was to be a disturbance to the rhythm... yes, there it was! She shot towards her target and almost crashed into the ceasg.
The woman was swimming close to the surface, a few metres downstream from Amber. If you ignored her sharp teeth and strange colour, she could almost be called beautiful. No wonder there were stories of human men falling in love with these river mermaids. She smiled toothily at Macey, who wasn't quite sure what to do. Could she communicate with this other species?
Kelpies used language that to humans sounded like whinnies and dolphin-like clicks. So far, she'd not met anyone other than kelpies who could understand it. And most other supernaturals made fun of it because it sounded so unsophisticated. They just didn't understand the nuances of a well-executed click.
"Who are you?" she asked in her own language, not really expecting a response.
I am Mhara.
Ah, she was one of those mind-talkers. Not everybody could talk in the pretty sounds of the kelpie.
"What do you want from my friend, Mhara?"
I was curious. I've not come across someone like her before.
"So, you entranced her to walk into the water just to satisfy your curiosity?"
Pretty much, yes. But why are you here, kelpie? I've only ever met one of you before. He was quite a bore.
"We were just passing through," Macey said noncommittally. She still didn't know if this Mhara was friend or foe.
"Now that you've seen her, could you let Amber go, please, so we can move on?"
Tell me first, what is she?
Macey wasn't sure if she should divulge Amber's identity, but at the same time, what could it hurt?
