Zedek and the Water Sprites: A Fairy Tale

Part 4

Zedek camped for more than a month on the shores of the Clorin Sea. He spent hours staring out over the water, squinting against the glare, straining to see across its whole vast distance until his eyes watered and his head ached. He left the waterside as infrequently as possible, only drifting away when dwindling supplies demanded it and returning as soon as he could.

His brothers often came to visit him, alone and in groups. They brought food and told him how things were at the palace. They asked him questions which he did not answer. In the end, they would return home to report to their father, who shook his head, frowning and pacing back and forth in his throne room. Rumors traveled faster and faster throughout the kingdom: the prince had gone mad. The prince had renounced his crown and sought to become a seaside hermit. The prince had lost his heart to some fickle water creature and was hopelessly, senselessly trying to catch sight of it again. 

Prema came to visit him, too. 

The first time, he turned away from the water, rubbing his tired eyes, and opened them to find her standing before him, smiling triumphantly. "I knew you wouldn't keep me waiting long," she said. 

He leaned back with a sigh, resting on his elbows and looking up into her face. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Prema," he said, "but I'm not here to see you."

"What's this?" she asked. "Playing hard-to-get? I do like games, but I'm not much of a fan of suspense."

"This is neither," Zedek said. "I mean what I say. I am not here for you."

Prema sniffed. Her old malicious smile was still lurking around her mouth. "Well then, why don't you tell me who you are here for, so that I may go under the water and fetch her for you?"

For once, Zedek's smile matched hers. "You needn't go that far," he said. "Simply spread the word that I'm waiting for someone. She'll know who she is without you having to tell her."

"If you insist," Prema said. She disappeared with a splash.

She returned two days later. "No one seems to have taken you up," she said, clearly pleased to be delivering such news.

"Then I'll keep waiting," Zedek said. 

She persisted longer than he'd expected she would. She continued to appear, first taunting, then wheedling, then threatening. "This is the last time you'll see me," she said more than once. "Your last chance to change your mind." Zedek said nothing.

On Prema's last visit, she stood by the water, casting her hair over her shoulder and refusing to look at the prince. "You are less of a man than I took you for," she said grandly. "I see that the danger was too much for you after all." She waited a moment to see if he would respond. He didn't. She descended into the sea without another look back.

Zedek smiled when she was gone. "Farewell, Prema," he said. So resumed his patient watching. 

In the time he spent there, he once or twice observed the strange phenomenon that Elneida had described to him; far out on the sea, a sprite that he saw swimming and leaping would suddenly go still, and she would lie motionless in the water until a fisherman's boat pulled up alongside her. Zedek found himself wondering how many of the men laid their nets for that very purpose.

One day, when despair was at last starting to sink into his mind, he saw the beginning of the story play out again out near the horizon. He could just discern a figure, its movement fast and wild until it was caught on something that had been hidden by the waves. But instead of lying still like the others, this one immediately began pushing back against the sharp, cruel thing that held it. 

Almost before he'd had time to think, Zedek was in the water, swimming with all his strength. He had not planned for this, and the distance was long, with currents that fought against him all the way. But he pressed forward as quickly as possible, motivated by the fear that she would free herself and rush away again before he could reach her. 

She was focused so intently on getting away from the net that she didn't see him coming. There were thin trails of blood in the water surrounding her, and her thoughts were scattered by the all-too-familiar, stinging pain, when she felt a strong arm slip around her waist and saw a hand grasp the net, steadying both. 

"Zedek," she said, startled.

"Elneida," he replied. "I must say, the sound of that was worth all this trouble."

"The sound of what?"

"Of you saying my name for the first time." 

He cast the net away with what seemed to her like amazingly little trouble, then pulled her gently into clear water. Needing rest, he let the swell hold them up for a moment. She lowered her head onto his shoulder. 

"Don't you like being called by your title?" she asked, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Not especially. Or at least, not by you," he said. "So? What did you think of your first ever rescue?"

"It was quite heroic," Elneida said. 

"Good. But let's not make a habit of it."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Pr - Zedek."

Zedek smiled, lazily treading water and savoring the feel of her. "Is it true that a sprite can leave the water and live on land, if she chooses?"

"It's true," Elneida said. "But it happens very rarely. She has to have an awfully good reason for doing it."

"Well?" he asked. "Do you trust me yet?"

"After one rescue? You would have me be as changeable as you."

He heard the smile in her voice, and he sighed with relief. 

***

Here the historians tend to disagree; some say she took more convincing than that, others that she went onto the land and home with him that very day. She was known in later days for her stubbornness, and many poets have remarked on how much she reveled in teasing him. But then again, she had loved him from the beginning, and there's only so long that anyone - even a sprite - can hold out against charms such as he had. 

Regardless of how it came about, it is a matter of record that the Lady Elneida did leave the water for her prince, and that she lived a long and eventful mortal life alongside him. As a ninth son, he was far from the possibility of succession, and therefore free to continue exploring and adventuring as he had been accustomed to, only now with her to accompany him. Despite her initial worries, she soon grew to be as lauded and admired as he was, both by his family and by his people, and no one who saw the way they were together could possibly doubt that he had bestowed his love well. Many stories have been written and told of their days and deeds, but none have become so beloved by the people as Fyr as this, the tale of their meeting.

Other stories have also been written about the sprite Prema, who continued to appear in the lives of mortal men long after Zedek and Elneida passed out of the world. Few other men were as able to resist her enticements as Prince Zedek proved, and she wreaked no small share of her havoc among them. Yet it was often observed that her beautiful face bore a trace of puzzlement and dissatisfaction, for she was never able to understand why Elneida, the sprite she had dismissed and scorned, had gotten to be so much happier with the love of only one man than Prema was with all her countless conquests.         

Perhaps there is some moral in this; but that is not for me to say.

The End