Just then, as if the lagoon had heard me, bright yellow flowers opened up from the watery beds below. I wanted to squeal in delight. They weren’t the usual buttercups that grew on land, but they certainly resembled them enough to satiate my ever-present need for them. Their petals were scalloped on the edges, like a seashell, the plain green leaves that usually adorned the simple bloom replaced with something closer to a lily pad.
“What kind of flower are those?” I asked Marielle. Perhaps I could get Patti to grow some at her shoppe if I returned home.
I met Marielle’s eyes and almost gulped down water. She was staring at me so severely, her eyes narrowed, her brows pinched. Had I done something wrong?
“I know not,” she said, her tone wary.
Strange.But dared not ask more. Besides, I soon became too distracted by the nymphs peeping out of nooks and crannies. Despite how magical they all looked, none of them had the same essence as Marielle. Shewassomething more.
Marielle gave a slight nod of her head, and everyone fully emerged from their hiding places. They all resumed what they must have been doing when Hesper and I’d interrupted their daily activities. Some chased each other through the green flowers, others carved art into the stones below with bits of seashell, and several lounged on the flowery beds below, flipping through what looked to be books made from water plants. Only those at the cave mouth stood—or swam—their ground.
“Marielle, would you be so kind as to give us safe passage into Lore Isles? We are on a quest given to us by Eldrene—”
“Eldrene told me of such things. And more, too,” Marielle cut off Hesper and then surveyed me up and down. “You are what they say. But—” She cocked her head to the side, her black eyes narrowing. “It has not yet come to pass.”
Her words betrayed nothing, and I didn’t care to question her about it. I’d heard enough of what was coming from Eldrene and seen enough from Margast. I didn’t want to know what would come to pass unless it resulted in me going back to Moss when all was said and done.
Hesper held out coins in offering, but Marielle shook her head no.
“We are in great debt to you, Hesper Altanfall. Come.” She swam into the abyss ahead, and we followed. The cave looked like living darkness, and Marielle’s tail became the only beacon as we followed her into the unknown.
Despite what your parents tell you, you can become a mermaid if you try hard enough.
—opening line attempt 82
The impossibly dark cave, lit only by a water nymph’s tail, wasn’t as eerie, unpleasant, and harrowing as I’d thought it would be. We swam for hours, our eyes never leaving the swishing pink tail ahead of us.
My mind reeled with so many questions, I felt like my brain actively expanded in my skull. Who was Marielle, how did Hesper know her, what debt did the nymphs owe Hesper, why did she seem to know of me, and how was I able to breathe underwater?
“Hesper?” I whispered. I couldn’t see her, but I could feel her right beside me.
“Yes?”
“Why are we able to breathe underwater?” One question had to be answered at least.
“These are the enchanted pools—remnants of Starfall. Marielle and her people are stewards of the ancient waterwaysand have magicked them so that anyone who wishes to can live with them—water nymph or not. But if you mean them or the world harm, a death by drowning is probable.”
Hesper didn’t push me in the water to exasperate me. She did it to test me. If I’d had any intent of evil, even a hint of it in my heart, she would’ve known. That’s why she never told me where we were going today. She couldn’t risk someone knowing that information without fully trusting them first.
But how could remnants of Starfall still exist? Perhaps before the land fell into ruin, bits of it escaped before the fall happened? That was not unheard of. Lore Isles existed only because a dragon fire ravaged the southernmost part of the Golden Isles centuries ago. Legend said that a bit of the land broke off, sprouted legs, and walked somewhere no fire could ever reach it. Lore Isles—surrounded by the sea and filled with glimmering pools within.
“You can ask your questions, Clara. I know you have them,” Hesper said.
“Am I allowed to speak in here?”
“Of course,” Marielle answered far ahead of us.
“How, uh, how do you two know each other?” I sounded so pathetic. But I simply had to know.
“Care to tell that tale, Hesper? You will tell it better than I,” Marielle said.
“It’s not that great of a story,” Hesper replied in a low voice.
Something cold settled into my stomach.
“We cannot run from the stars,” Marielle sang through the nothingness.
Hesper sucked in a breath beside me and began.
