A Kelpie of Rowan

Chapter 51

Sìle shakes her head, smiling. "Come. Enough talk of the prophecy. Let me lead you to your room."

Rowan's eyes widen. "My what?!"

"Your room. You shall stay here until the time of the prophecy comes to pass. You will also make a lovely wife for one of my children."

Rowan gulps. She had forgotten that part of the story, how stupid of her! Finfolk abduct young humans to make them their husbands or wives. Rowan moves away from Sìle, backing against one of the walls.

"You said you wouldn't harm me!"

Sìle frowns. "And we won't. Why would we harm you? You are to be a bride."

"But that is harming me!"

"Nonsense! You have nothing to fear from us finfolk."

Rowan scoffs. "I beg to differ. Let me go!"

Sìle scowls. "Why would we do that? Enough of this." She motions to the other men in the room. "Take her to her room."

Rowan backs further against the wall, but she isn't very acclimated to moving in water. The men in the room dart toward her with a single flick of their tails and grab onto her shoulders, holding so tightly that her skin pales and dents beneath their fingers. She screams in pain as the bones of her left shoulder shift between the man's hands. She had forgotten that she had injured her shoulder, adrenaline was dulling the pain.

But adrenaline can't dull this. The pain is too intense. The man releases her shoulder at once and the pain dulls a bit now that the cause of it has disappeared, if not the source. Rowan cradles her arm against her chest and he grabs onto her again, in the spot between her shoulder and her neck. Rowan looks back at Sìle, tears streaming down her face and mixing with the water of the loch.

"Please, let me go."

Sìle just shakes her head. "No, Child of Two Peoples. You belong with us now." She looks at the men holding onto Rowan. Take her now. And . . . bring her a healer for that arm."

The men nod and pull Rowan from the room. They carry her down the tower to the small buildings crowding its base. At the very bottom of the tower, almost touching its metallic surface, is a tiny building. It's about the size of what Rowan would think of as a studio apartment. This building has a door, unlike the tower. They shove her through it and close the door behind her, latching it shut.

Rowan cradles her arm to her chest and spins, looking around. Maybe she can still escape? The building isn't just similar to a studio apartment, it seems to be the finfolk equivalent to one. There is a kitchen area, a sitting area, a washroom, and a single bed. Rowan sighs and moves towards the back of the apartment, looking for another way out. There is a window, big enough for her to fit through.

It's open to the water outside as well. But there is one big problem. There are metal bars covering it. If she was up on the surface, she could use her fire. But down here, where everything is water? She can't. Fire needs air to exist. So what can she do? Rowan pauses. She can summon fire to her hand, yes. But that doesn't work here. She can control plants, kind of. She can't control her gift yet, but she has that capability.

Besides, there are no forest plants down here, just seaweed, so its pretty useless. The last thing she has is her bag and its contents. Rowan pauses and rushes for the bed. Well, as fast as she can. She can't really move in the water very well. Rowan dumps the contents of her bag onto her bed with one hand, then scoops everything out of her pockets. In her pockets, she had a waterlogged bag of salt, an iron cuff, and iron nails. In her bag, she had more salt, more iron, and the bag of runes.

Rowan's eyes widen. The runes! She could use them! She sags again just as quickly. Yes, she could use the runes, if she knew them. But she only knows two. The freeze rune and the protection rune. She pauses again. She may only know those two, but what can she do with them? Rowan shakes her head. She needs a plan first. Could she use her fire if it was beneath her skin?

She tries to summon it and a flame flickers to life in her palm before being quenched by the water. Rowan tries again, hoping that it will appear beneath her skin. It surfaces again above her skin and flickers out. She sighs. Please, please let this work. The next time, instead of appearing in her palm, her skin glows cherry-red. It looks like she is shining a flashlight behind her hand but it is fire instead.

Rowan grins and turns to the window, placing a hand on the bars. The silvery metal brightens an begins to glow almost immediately. Interesting. It has a low melting point. Rowan almost laughs. Not surprising; they don't expect fire to be underwater, so why choose a metal that doesn't melt easily? It's good for her. She can melt the bars faster this way, and she won't use as much of her energy. So what can she do with her runes? Rowan smiles, an idea starting to form in her head.
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Yeah, don't trust the finfolk guys! What do you think Rowan's plan is? Will it work? What's going to happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.