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I give a shriek of rage. Pushing past her, I charge into the waves.
“Keliveth!” I slip beneath the surface and shift to my tail and fins.
Murk engulfs me as I dart away from the shore. The light of the moons barely pierces the waters tonight. Seaweed sways around me, tangling in my hair and around my tail as I swim. Other hunters rush past me, nearly colliding with me before vanishing again into the swirl of sand and shadows.
I curse my own folly with every beat of my heart. I should have been more alert, should have expected the Seamother to carry out a scheme like this.
A flash of gold catches my eye. The sun shark, its skin gleaming with light and its slender fins moving frantically. I dart after the little shark, holding onto the thin hope that I will find Keliveth pursuing in its wake.
Where is he? Take me to him!I beg the ocean, but it doesn’t answer. I strain my senses for any trace of him, but the sea is only conscious of the Seamother’s mind and will. Its voice is dull and droning. The currents whisper fear and despair to my mind.
On and on I swim, lost in a nightmare haze. I plead with the waters for a hint, but hear only silence. I call my elf’s name again and again, but my voice echoes back at me. The Seamother has taken hold of the sea so completely that not a sound can get through.
Muffled cries reach me through the gloom. I swim on, veering farther from the shore as I follow the faint sounds. The shark flits in and out of my vision, its shimmering light guiding me. Taunting me.
Then I see two shadowy forms grasping at its tail. One is Keliveth. His attention is fixed firmly on his prize. He comes close enough to the shark to brush its fins with his fingertips.
But behind him—my heart leaps to my throat as I recognize the stocky form and shaved head of Chieftain Veltuk. A metal blade flashes in his outstretched hand.
I rush forward, but not fast enough.
Not before Veltuk catches hold of Keliveth and plunges the knife into his side.
My wild cry shatters the silence of the sea. Keliveth strikes desperately at his attacker, but Veltuk’s weapon finds its mark again.
By the time I reach them the water is filled with blood and pain.
I turn on Veltuk and slam my fist into his jaw, then hurl him backward. I catch Keliveth as he sinks toward the sandy floor, holding him tightly in case my mother’s currents should try to tear him away from me. His eyes blink open and shut as he fights for consciousness.
“Stay with me!” I whisper the useless plea over and over as I press my palm to his wounds. Blood spills out from the deep gashes, slipping through my fingers no matter how I try to staunch it. Thinking fast, I pluck the longest fronds of seaweed that sway around us and bind them around his torso as tightly as I dare. Two deep wounds, in just the right places to give someone a painful, drawn-out death. Angry tears burn in my eyes as I hold Keliveth close and swim to the surface.
Heal him!My command doesn’t reach the ocean. Water filled with so much anger and pain cannot heal. I need to get Keliveth back to the shore, to the healers among the tribes ...
The reality slams into me like a breaker. Wounds this bad might not mend without magic, and none of us know healing runes. The water is filled with too much rage to be useful. Keliveth will be dead by sunrise.
An anguished cry rips from my throat and carries across the water. I see my mother striding into the shallows, a smug look on her face. Behind her, the people of the tribes line the shore and watch us with stunned expressions.
“The elf does not belong among us.” The Seamother’s voice is a death knell. “No healer of ours could mend those wounds, nor would I allow them to try. Let his blood fill the waters, and let your soul remember what you are, daughter.”
“Shame falls on your head for this.” I turn my gaze from my mother and look to the faces of my people. “Will none of you help him?”
They look back at me with expressions drained of the joy and life that filled us just a few minutes ago. They, too, are caught in my mother’s sway, not powerful enough to resist her magic even if they wished to. My people, the ones who are supposed to heal and shelter, are instead bound so tightly in the shackles of the Seamother’s fear that all they can do is watch as a man bleeds out for no reason.
What price will you pay for him, Seamother’s daughter?I feel the sea’s voice resonate through me again, its voice strained as if pushing against the Seamother’s commands.
This time, I know my answer.
I look my mother in the eyes one last time and raise my voice so that it rings out across the beach. “My soul has already remembered. It is you who has forgotten what you are.”
Before she can answer, I dive down into the water and speed away as quickly as I can, carrying Keliveth with me. The currents buffet me on every side. The sea is at war with itself. I set my face toward the distant mainland and send out a plea, praying the ocean has enough awareness left to hear me.
Keliveth’s blood is in my keeping, as you said. Let me save him.I hesitate only a moment before I speak the most desperate, terrifying words I’ve ever spoken.Take us to Kara Davonashi. Take us to the elves.
