Dancing On Ice

Meeting with Monsters

Past midnight, after the palace had bid goodbye to Cynthia and Jazz who departed, like Mai and her sisters, to attend the houses of dignitaries within the kingdom, after Dalton had shaken off courtiers and escaped to his quarters, after Kazimir had successfully avoided Cole by shamelessly begging Perry for help one last time – Perry had the grace to not ask why and just said that the captain was needed in town.

After the last of the courtiers had gone to bed with a lot of wine in their heads, Kazimir helped Aeralie slip from her room and they stole through the palace, through the gardens and down the cliff, racing across the beach, sticking to the shadows and towards the sea.

Stopping at the edge, they removed shoes and slippers and socks and watched the calm water for any sign of Icadora.

She arrived soon after then.

A pool of light, like frozen moonlight, preceded her just beyond the breakers before she rose from the water, icy golden hair glowing in moonlight, swimming to meet them, gliding smoothly across the water, the sea stilling before her to allow her easy passage to the shore.

"Time to go," she said gently as she knelt in the shallows.

"Wait, we need to talk about something," Kazimir said.

"Not in the shallows," Icadora cut in, "You don't know who might be awake. Aeralie, here. Swallow this."

She delicately pulled something from the little pouch she wore around her hips and placed it in Aeralie's hand. It was a glowing, pale violet pearl. Aeralie glanced at her aunt, then swallowed it.

She felt it shatter the moment it hit her voice box but there wasn't pain. It was just like the reverse of when her voice had been taken, like someone was gently stitching it back into place, tightening the loose strings and clipping away fraying edges.

She sat down hard as she felt her knees give way.

Like a seam being drawn together, her thighs, knees, calves and feet zipped up into one. She felt her scales re-growing. Her hair flared back to its true length, streaks of purple blazing the locks. The lavender returned to her eyes, pushing aside the blue, and she could feel the markings along her torso shining through again in their true colours, her Heart glittering in the moonlight as her huge, graceful fins poured from the end of her tail, powerful and comfortable.

Icadora helped her out of her nightdress and handed over a top for her to pull on as Kazimir walked into the water, pulling off his clothes once he was submerged and transforming, white hair, pale skin and silver marks glowing in the moonlight as his kaleidoscope eyes whirled through their colours once more.

They handed their clothes off to the sea, who promised to wash them up on shore somewhere else in the kingdom then all three dove, vanishing into the darkness of the waves, Icadora racing back in the direction of The Rip Tide.

"Wait," Kazimir said, catching his mother's arm and pulling her back.

She looked back at them. "What?"

"It's about Dalton."

"The prince? Aeralie, I thought you were done with this."

"It's not about that," Aeralie said and her voice came out as a croak. She had to clear it and hummed for a moment to warm her unused throat muscles before saying, "It's not like that. It's about him himself."

"What about him?"

Kazimir and Aeralie glanced at each other.

"We think he's a merman," Kazimir said.