The Seelie Curse

Chapter 21

Kyma's legs are killing her. Her feet ache and her calves are sore. How long have they been walking? She grimaces as a pulse of pain runs up her leg. The forest lightens ahead of her, they're getting closer to its edge. She sighs in relief. Beside her, Astrila picks up her pace. Kyma has to restrain her grimace. Astrila doesn't seem tired at all. Astrila glances over at Kyma, causing Kyma to quickly look away.

Astrila makes a sound in the back of her throat but she doesn't speak. Kyma continues walking, but she stops in her tracks when the sounds around her change. She can hear crashing now, the crashing of waves. Have they walked so far that they've reached the sea? She breaks into a run, ignoring the throbbing of her legs for the delight of the ocean. She breaks out of the forest onto a rocky beach, the water dark beneath the overcast sky.

Kyma splashes into the water and lets out a delighted cry, the water soothing her aching muscles. She can hear Astrila enter the water behind her, but her cousin is far more graceful about it than Kyma is. Kyma wades deeper into the water and shifts, sinking into the water. She looks out at the sea as a wave crests and spills over her, sending her tumbling through the water.

She comes up laughing, salt water dripping from her hair. She twists around and swims backward, past where the wave broke. From the shore, she can see Astrila smiling broadly. Kyma beckons. Astrila comes wading through the water towards Kyma. When she reaches her, Astrila is up to her chest in the sea. Kyma laughs.

"Shall you shift and we go find the Eastern Merrow Kingdom?"

Astrila smiles. "We shall."

Astrila's form ripples until she's a seal once again, her dark coat already sleek and shiny with its coat of water. She nudges Kyma, her dark eyes staring up at the girl from beneath the two gray dots. Kyma smiles and dives, her tail breaking through the surface for a moment, looking just like a splash of seafoam on the ocean swells. Beneath the waves the sea is full of life, vibrant and rich, even with creatures so tiny as hermit crabs being all that is scattered over the seabed. Kyma looks down at her pendant.

The glow is still bright, but not as much as it was. She slightly turns to the right and smiles when the glow brightens. With the slightest flick of her fins, she darts forward into the murky water, chasing the glow of the pendant into the sea. It leads her past the farthest breakers, where the seafloor pushes up before it goes down again and slopes gently up the beach.

She follows it almost to the edge of the continental shelf, where the water drops down to the unknown abyss below, an inky pool of darkness. But the pendant doesn't lead them that far, it instead begins to direct them down at the beginning of the slop to the shelf, while the water is still shallow enough to support the life of merrows. They may be creatures of the sea and they may be magical, but there is still a limit to the pressure they can withstand.

More than humans, but they can't go past the continental shelf. That is their farthest limit, two hundred meters. Selkies are able to withstand that depth too, but it may be uncomfortable. Kyma doesn't know, she doesn't think Astrila has ever gone this deep. But her mother told her that they are as resilient to pressure as merrows are, so if Kyma can safely handle it, so can Astrila. Kyma spirals down and down, towards the seabed a hundred meters below the surface.

They must be right on top of the city, far enough out to sea that there is no risk to the merrows from human fishing. This city must be more open than the one in the Western Merrow Kingdom, otherwise Kyma doesn't think it would be this far out here. A school of small silver fish zips by Kyma, darting around her like she's a rock in a river. A darker shape looms past them. Kyma gulps. It's moving, it's something alive. Maybe a whale?

It surges forward, chasing the fish. Kyma spins upright, prepared to dart to the side, up, or down. One of her hands goes up to the pins in her hair, ready to pull them away and send her hair flying out in a cloud around her. The animal moves through the fish toward her, something moving from side to side behind it.

Kyma almost gasps when it comes into view. It's a lovely fish, large and streamlined. Its eyes are dark and shining, the texture of its gray skin clearly visible. It keeps swimming toward her and she jerks, pulling the pins free of her hair. Her hair slips out of its bun at once, clouding the water around her. the shark jerks away, glancing off of her.

Kyma watches it pass, feeling Astrila huddle close to her back, hidden by Kyma's hair. Mako sharks eat seals, and that's what Astrila will look like to it for now. The shark circles them, investigating her. Kyma reaches out to it, using her ill-used gift of speaking with marine life. She sends a greeting into its head and the shark moves closer, almost whacking her with its tail as it swims past.

It sends a thought back, a probing question. It wants to know who she is, why she's interrupting its hunt. She frowns in confusion. It sends her an image of the fish and then a seal. It saw Astrila, but it seems to not want to hurt Kyma to get to her cousin. Kyma responds, showing the shark how Astrila shifts, showing it that she isn't a seal.

The shark presses closer, against Kyma's side. She jerks slightly in surprise. Is the shark . . . hugging her? She reaches out a hand to it and strokes the shark's rough skin. It swims away after a moment, following the school of fish. Kyma smiles and begins to swim down again. She can see the shadow of the city below, the towers reaching up towards the surface. They're almost there.
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Nice shark, isn't she? What did you think of Kyma's conversation with the shark? What do you think the merrow city will be like? What's going to happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.