Submerging (Swans Landing)

by Norris, Shana

  Josh and I exchanged glances. We needed to leave Hether Blether before Domnall did. Time was running out.

  “Okay,” Josh said, surprising me with his acceptance. “Give us a moment to get dressed and...presentable.”

  He sounded so formal and awkward, but this place was different from the world we’d always known.

  Domnall nodded. “Very well, I will expect you in the dining hall shortly.”

  He turned to leave, but I called out, “Wait!”

  When Domnall stopped and looked back at me, his eyebrows raised, I said, “Do you...Have you seen Callum?”

  Only a slight expression of surprise passed across Domnall’s face. “Callum? I thought you knew. He left Hether Blether last night.”

  My stomach plummeted to my toes. “He what?”

  Josh stepped to my side. “When did he leave?”

  Domnall waved a hand vaguely. “He came to me last night and requested a boat. He vowed to abide by his banishment and leave the island for good.” He shrugged, giving me an apologetic look. “I assumed you knew he was going.”

  I shook my head. Callum was gone? Without even saying good-bye?

  “Why would he leave?” I asked.

  Domnall held out his hands, palms up. “I do not know. He seemed rather insistent on leaving right away, however. I must admit I was surprised to see him go, but perhaps he realized his error in returning here.”

  Josh put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close to him. “Thanks for letting us know,” he said. “We’ll be at breakfast soon.”

  Domnall gave us one last smile and then left, closing the door behind him.

  “I can’t go to breakfast,” I told Josh. If I ate anything, the queasy feeling in my stomach might make me throw up.

  “We’re not going to breakfast,” Josh said. “We’re leaving.”

  “We are?”

  Josh’s expression was grim. “If you’re right and Domnall suspects we’re not fully finfolk, this place is too dangerous for us, especially now that Callum is gone. We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

  Josh was right, as always. Callum had made his decision and apparently, it didn’t involve me. I pushed aside my sorrow over Callum, but another problem still remained.

  “What about my mama?” I asked.

  “Grab what things you can.” Josh walked over to the cabinet where he had hidden the bag of tools he’d packed last night. He pulled out a small knife and belted it to his waist, then handed another one to me. “We’re going to get her now.”

  We had no boat to take us to the peninsula, so we ran along the shoreline, our feet slipping in the soft sand. My lungs felt as if they would burst at the effort of our run, but we couldn’t stop. The sooner we were swimming away from here, the better.

  I didn’t knock before entering the cottage with the lily-carved door. Mama sat at her desk again, bent over her drawings.

  “Mama,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “Come on, we’re going home.”

  Mama didn’t look up, but continued scratching at the paper with her charcoal.

  “Grab some of her things,” I told Josh. “Whatever you think will be useful.”

  As Josh headed toward the tables to inspect the items scattered there, I went to my mother and put a hand on her arm.

  “Mama,” I said softly. “I’ve come to take you back to Swans Landing. We need to hurry.”

  She had a smudge of charcoal on her chin and it made her look like a child. “Home?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Yes, home. We’re going home, but we have to leave right now.”

  She shook her head, bending back over her drawing. “I need to find the key.”

  “Mama.” I fought against the impatience rising inside me. “Please. I can’t leave without you.”

  I glanced at the paper in front of her. She was drawing Moody’s Variety Store. It was perfectly detailed, as if she were looking at the image right in front of her.

  I pointed at the drawing. “Do you remember this store?”

  She nodded. “Daddy’s store,” she said.

  Tears stung my eyes. “Yes, it is. Your daddy still works there. So does your mama. My grandparents. We have to go home to help them. Something bad is coming to Swans Landing, and if we don’t get there in time, Grandaddy won’t be able to fight back. His store might not be there anymore. He might not be there.”

  She looked at me with glassy blue eyes. “Daddy?” she asked.

  “We have to go help him,” I said. “We have to go now.”

  “We need the key,” she told me.

  She let me pull her to her feet and I led her out of the cottage. Josh followed, carrying the bags of tools and food. Mama had that glazed look on her face, already beginning to slip back into her thoughts. I wished I could get a reaction from her again. I wished she would think Josh was his dad. Something. Anything other than this blank stare.

  We ran toward the water’s edge, where white waves crashed against rocks in the surf. As we stepped onto the wet sand, Mama pulled back, yanking her arm free of my grip.

  “No!” she shrieked and ran away from the water.

  I chased after her, grabbing her arm and pulling her to a stop. She fought back against me, but she was so thin and small I could easily hold her in place despite her thrashing.

  “No!” she shrieked again, her voice echoing into the distance. “I need the key!”

  “Mama!” I said. “Mama, it’s okay! We’re going home.”

  “He told me to get the key.”

  “What key?” Josh asked, kneeling next to us.

  Mama’s eyes grew wide. “Oliver,” she panted, reaching toward him. “I tried to find it. I went where you told me to go.”

  “That’s good,” Josh said, rubbing his hand over hers. “Where is the key? What is it?”

  “The key,” she said.

  I gasped, my gaze darting to Josh. “The key,” I repeated. “What if she means the key Callum had? The one that brought us here.”

  Josh looked as if the pieces had clicked in his head too. “Ms. Mooring,” he said gently. “Do you mean the finfolk key?”

  She nodded, still breathing heavily. “We need the key.”

  Josh gave me a helpless look. “But where is it? What happened to it after we got here?”

  “Domnall has it,” I said. “In his suite. I saw it there, in a drawer.”

  Josh groaned, rolling his head back. “How are we supposed to get it without him noticing?”

  We were very late for breakfast by this point. Maybe Domnall had given up waiting for us. Maybe he had already realized we were gone. It would be a risk to go back to the palace now, but something about Mama’s insistence on getting the key made me reluctant to leave without it. What did she know about the key that I didn’t?

  “We’ll have to split up,” I said. “You distract Domnall while I take Mama with me to get the key.”

  Josh shook his head. “No way.”

  “It’s the only option we have, Josh,” I told him. “We’ll meet you at the beach under our suite. Distract Domnall for a few minutes, that’ll be long enough.”

  Josh let out a deep breath. “I don’t like this,” he said grimly. “But let’s get it over with.”

  Chapter Thirty

  “Shh,” I whispered to Mama as we slipped along the hall that led to Domnall’s suite.

  But I didn’t have to say anything. She followed behind me, her bony hand clasped in mine, as I led us toward the double doors. We had spotted Domnall near the dining hall with Artair, and Josh had gone off to distract them while Mama and I went to get the key. My gaze darted back and forth as we moved, but there was no one else nearby. The only sound was our feet shuffling across the sandy floor.

  I held my breath as I turned the iron knob, hoping it wasn’t locked. The door creaked open and I slipped inside, pulling Mama along with me.

  The suite was empty, the shutters over the windows closed tightly. Even the door in the floor ove
r the beach was closed, as were the doors leading to the bedrooms. The main room was dark and shadowy without the light streaming in the windows. I shivered in the cool air.

  “Over here,” I told Mama, whose gaze was unfocused. I made my way around the furniture to the table where I had seen Domnall pull the key from a drawer. I bumped into a chair in the dim light, banging my knee.

  I bit my lip to hold back a curse and then paused, waiting to see if anyone outside the room had heard the thump. I thought I heard a soft shuffling and I turned my head, straining to figure out where it came from. To my right? There were two doors on one wall, which I assumed led to bedrooms like in my suite.

  My pulse pounded in my ears. Relax, I told myself. Domnall isn’t here.

  I tiptoed toward the table and pulled the drawer open.

  There was no key.

  The only thing inside the drawer was a small gold locket, engraved with seashells. I picked it up, letting the locket swing back and forth on the chain.

  “Where’s the key?” I asked out loud.

  I heard a shuffling again and I spun around, facing the doors.

  “Mama,” I said, reaching for her hand. “Stay with me.”

  She took the locket from my hand and then slipped it over her head, humming softly to herself as I pulled her across the room. I pulled open every drawer and cabinet I could find, working my way around the room as the minutes ticked by. I had told Josh I only needed five minutes. How long had we been here already?

  I pulled open a cabinet in a large wooden wardrobe and spotted a silver box on a shelf. I eyed the box for a moment, then reached up and took it down from the shelf.

  When I opened the lid, there it was. The twisted piece of black metal.

  “The key,” Mama said, looking down at the box.

  I nodded. “This is what you came to find, isn’t it? Did Oliver tell you to find this?”

  Mama smiled. “Oliver...”

  A thump behind one of the doors to my right made me jump. I dropped the silver box, letting it crash to the floor at my feet. I tucked the key into the belt of my robe and then placed my fingertips on the knife Josh had given me.

  “Sailor?” a familiar voice called, muffled through the closed door. “Sailor, is that you?”

  “Callum!” I rushed toward the door and turned the knob, but it wouldn’t open. I pounded on the wood. “Callum! What are you doing here?”

  “Domnall locked me in,” Callum said. “Last night, when I came to talk to him after I left the suite.”

  “He told us you had left the island,” I said. Tears blurred my vision. He wasn’t gone. He had been here the whole time, and I had almost left without him.

  “I would never do that,” Callum said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my title. But I would never leave you here.”

  I pressed my palm to the door, as if I could feel him through it. “We have to get you out of there.”

  “Domnall has a key somewhere,” Callum said. “I saw it before he closed the door and locked me in.”

  I scrambled around the room, searching the drawers and cabinets I had already looked through. But I couldn’t find any keys other than the one that led us to Hether Blether. It didn’t look as though it would fit the old fashioned lock on the door.

  “Let me try something,” I said, kneeling in front of the door, my knife in hand. I stuck the tip into the keyhole. It was a small, slender knife, the right size to hide in someone’s hand. A girly knife, I thought with a smirk. Of course Josh would keep the big knives for himself.

  I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Mama hadn’t run off. She stood near a small bronze statue of a mermaid on a table, running her fingers over the tail. “We’ll be going soon, Mama,” I told her. “I have to get this door open.”

  “Sailor,” Callum said through the door, “you should get out of here. Go before Domnall catches you.”

  “No.” I dug the knife into the lock hard, blinking away a bead of sweat that fell into my eye. “Not without you.”

  Something inside the lock clicked. The door swung open and Callum stood there, looking down at me with amazement in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight embrace and lifting me off the ground.

  “This is a touching reunion,” said a voice behind me.

  Callum dropped me back to my feet. My stomach plummeted as I faced Domnall, Artair, and two other guards, their spears sharpened to fierce points. One of them held Josh’s hands behind his back, a spear pointed at his throat.

  The door to the beach was right behind us. A few steps and I could pull it open and jump down into the water below.

  But Mama stood on the other side of the room, still admiring the small mermaid. And Domnall’s men had Josh.

  Callum stepped in front of me. “Let them go.”

  “I cannot do that,” Domnall said. “I have caught her in the act of helping a condemned criminal escape. That makes her as guilty as you.”

  Josh’s eyes met mine. I saw something there, a look of defiance before he acted.

  I stepped forward, calling out, “No—”

  But Josh lunged at the guard holding him, shoving his shoulder into the man’s chest. Taken by surprise, the guard fell backward, dropping his spear and sending it rolling across the floor.

  Josh started toward us, but Artair swung his spear at him. The blunt end whacked Josh in the side, making him stagger backward, coughing and gasping. Josh collected himself and lunged at Artair again, only narrowly avoiding being pierced by the end of his spear.

  I turned away from the sight, not wanting to see Josh hurt or killed. It would be my fault if he died here, four thousand miles away from Swans Landing. He needed to go home. I didn’t even mind if he went straight to Mara, as long as he was safe.

  Callum pushed me away from him as he too lunged into the fight.

  I stumbled before catching myself on the edge of a chair. Mama still stood by the statue. I had to get her out of here. I had to get her back home.

  I started toward her. “Mama,” I called. “We have to go.”

  I didn’t notice the other guard who had broken past Callum and Josh. I didn’t hear him over the sounds of the fight behind me. But the sudden impact of his spear against the back of my head cracked loud inside my own ears. The world went black for a moment and I stumbled to the floor.

  Mama’s humming grew loud in my head, causing golden sparks to burst at the corners of my eyes. I squeezed my eyes shut, silently begging my head to stop spinning so I could focus.

  I rolled over, opening my eyes slowly, to face the sharp end of a spear pointed directly at my chest.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I raised my arms over my face, as if flesh and bone could protect me from the sharp end of the spear. I squeezed my eyes shut, holding back the scream building inside me.

  A grunt made my eyes snap back open. The guard wavered a moment, then fell, collapsing onto the floor next to me. In his place stood my mother, her hair wild and whipping around her head, the bronze mermaid clutched in her hands. A trickle of blood oozed from the back of the guard’s scalp and puddled on the floor.

  Mama’s gaze moved toward me and her face paled. “Sailor,” she said.

  I leaped to my feet, throwing my arms around her tiny frame. “Mama,” I whispered, hugging her tight.

  “Sailor,” she said again. When I pulled back, I could see the blankness was already returning to her eyes. The clarity that had existed in them was so brief, so quickly erased.

  I choked back a sob. “Mama, no, stay with me. Please.”

  “She will never be well,” said a voice at my side. Domnall stood over us, the lines in his face deep. Josh and Callum struggled with Artair and the other guard. Domnall’s cheek was bruised across the jagged scar. He hadn’t escaped the fight unharmed. “As long as humans taint the earth, your mother will never be well.”

  “I’m taking her home,” I told him. “Let us go. You got what you want, you don’t need
us anymore.”

  Domnall laughed. “Do you think I trust you? You will return to warn your people about me. I will not let you leave this island until I have what I want.”

  I stepped away from him, pushing my mother behind me. “We want to go home.”

  Domnall moved toward us. “Whether you stay or go, I will still be free to do what I want. But you will be less trouble to me if you stay here.”

  I grabbed the knife from my belt, holding it awkwardly toward Domnall. I had never held anyone at knife point before and felt a bit silly now. But I tried to hold my hand steady and glared at Domnall.

  “Wee girls should not play with sharp objects,” Domnall growled. He extended his hand toward me. “Hand it over before you hurt yourself.”

  I swiped at the air between us. “Leave us alone or else I’ll hurt you. I swear.”

  He tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. “I do not think you will. Have you forgotten the consequences of harming another finfolk? Do you want to end up like your beloved Callum? Could you endure a life with one leg?”

  I pushed Mama backward toward the door in the floor. I could feel her shaking, and I prayed she wasn’t about to have another panic attack. Hold on, Mama, I said silently. We’re almost there. Once we were in the water, we could change and swim away.

  I couldn’t leave Josh and Callum, but I didn’t see how I could save them and Mama and myself.

  “We can talk about this, Sailor,” Domnall said. “You could be happy here. You would be where you belong. You could have everything you have ever wanted.”

  My gaze had been so focused on Domnall that I didn’t notice the shape moving behind him until Callum suddenly rose up, like a part of the shadows. Behind him, the second sentry was out cold like the first.

  “Your fight isn’t with her,” Callum said, his nostrils flared.

  “My fight is not with you either,” Domnall growled. “You are nothing to me or to Hether Blether.”

  “I’m the rightful king,” Callum said. “You are the imposter.”

  Domnall laughed. “You gave up your rights when you killed my wife.”

  “You are unfit to be king. I’m taking my claim back.”