“Seleska!” He sounded worried.
I’d just grab Nasataa and then I’d answer my father.
There he was! The little scamp had climbed up a barrel and was standing on it on his hind legs. How had no one noticed him? I grabbed him quickly, fighting his bucking kicks, and stuffed him back into the bag before cinching the leather straps tight. If he wanted to go free he could – on a safe beach somewhere. Here, someone would grab him and probably kill him.
“Stay in there!” I hissed. He was going to get us both in trouble.
“Seleska!”
I turned, searching for my father now that I had the dragon in hand, but before I could even call out, I was being dragged backward by my long hair.
“Oww!” I said as I stumbled back and then someone grabbed my arm, spinning me around and marching me forward toward the square. I clutched at my bag. Was Nasataa okay in there?
I received a mental image of the little dragon unhurt but irritated as he flamed at the sides of my leather bag.
I could still hear my father yelling in the distance as hands shoved me forward.
“This is the one – the outlander who came here years ago!” someone in the crowd called out.
“Wha – ” I began, but I was interrupted as more hands shoved me forward.
“If she’s what you came for, then take her and be gone!”
“Excuse me,” I tried again. “I’m not going anywhere!”
I didn’t recognize these faces. These weren’t people from my village. So how did they know about me? Why were they shoving me toward the grim-faced strangers?
One of the strangers grabbed my arm. I pulled against his grip, but he didn’t even seem to notice.
The leader of the group leapt down from his perch. His face was darkened from the sun, but his coloring was light – just like mine. And beneath the scar that ran from eyebrow to chin, was a face that was triumphant as he looked at me.
“Perfect. We’ll be taking her with us.”
Chapter Six
“You can’t take her!” my father bellowed, rushing through the crowd.
Acid swirled through my belly and I thought I might be sick. First, I was singled out and seized, now my father was putting himself in danger for me. And if anyone found the dragon, I would be in so much trouble!
“I’m afraid you are wrong about that,” the leader said. “This is Princess Seleska of Tambrel and she is coming with us.”
“I’m afraid you are mistaken,” my father said. “This is my daughter. And yes, her name is Seleska – a strange coincidence, I’m sure. But she isn’t going anywhere.”
His jaw clenched firm and he crossed his arms over his chest. He knew full well that I used to be a princess. But that didn’t mean that we needed to tell anyone else.
I bit my lip, looking around us. The crowd was drawing back. No one was going to side with my dad. And there were eight of these sailors in loose white shirts. Six strapping men and two bulky women, all with tattooed hands and wind-burned cheeks. They wore the same hardened expressions on their faces, like they had seen everything there was to see and weren’t impressed with any of it.
And they were all armed.
“It’s okay, Renny,” I said in a small voice. I didn’t want to see him hurt. This many strong men and women could kill him. And that would break my mama. She was already stained with sadness over the loss of her only daughter just before she adopted me. Losing my father, too, would break her. “I’ll be okay.”
“What are you going to do with her?” my father asked, fear tinging his words, so his voice came out husky and rough.
“Well,” the light-haired man said, “for starters, we’re going to be sure that we’re right about her. Haul that barrel over here!”
Two of the sailors grabbed one of the rain barrels along the boardwalk, hauling it to where we were. What did they think they could do with that?
“You’ll have to go through me first!” My father yelled, launching himself forward.
It was a crazy thing to do.
Amazing.
Loving.
Crazy as staring at the sun at noon. I loved him for it even as my heart ached when one of the sailors planted a fist in his belly and another one cracked him on the head.
“Dad!” I gasped. I almost never called my father that, but the shock of seeing him pummeled jarred it loose from my mouth.
He stumbled forward and a third sailor caught him, grabbing his arm and twisting it into a lock behind his back.
“Why don’t you watch with us, hmm? You might find this educational,” the sailor laughed.
The ones holding me jerked me forward toward the barrel. What were they going to do, give me a bath? Around us, the crowd was silent. No one had come forward to help my father. No one had said a word.
They were all silent spectators, waiting to see what would happen. How would they feel if I was their daughter or sister or friend? Would they still be so silent?
“Stop hurting my father!” I demanded, but no one even looked at me when I spoke.
“Now we see,” the leader said, as they shoved me to the edge of the barrel and leaned me over the water. He shrugged at me as I was pressed toward the water. “And we hope that we’re right and that this really is Princess Seleska. Because otherwise, she’s about to drown.”
I started to scream and then I realized I should be saving my breath. I gulped down as much as I could before a strong hand plunged my head beneath the surface, holding me there as I thrashed against the edge of the barrel.
Blind panic seized me, pushing all else from my mind. What were they trying to prove? That they could drown me in front of everyone? Well, they could! Good for them! They were bigger and stronger and oh – Skies and Stars!
My lungs were on fire, begging me to take a breath. Red danced across my closed eyelids. Please, please let me up!
I pushed against the hands, growing weak as I struggled. I tried to twist and jerk in unexpected ways to surprise them, but my head was spinning, my vision darkening.
I was going to die.
The pain was too much. I couldn’t fight anymore.
An image of swimming with Nasataa deep under the waves filled my mind, almost as if the little dragon was begging me to let go and just breathe the water.
If only I could do that! But that was madness.
I fought harder, the pain so intense now – the longing for oxygen so all-consuming – that thoughts were driven from my mind. I was about to die.
I couldn’t hold on any longer.
I sucked in a huge breath of water.
The blackness fled and the pain began to seep away.
Whoa. What? Was I really breathing water? My eyes were growing so big that I thought they might pop out of my head – but hey, maybe that was normal for me. After all, I was apparently half-fish.
And Nasataa knew that. How had he known?
Before I could think anymore, strong hands pulled me out of the barrel, jerking my arm to make me stand up straight, water streaming from my hair and down my face.
Around me, gasps filled the air. How long had he held me under? Long enough that these people thought I was dead. I looked for my father’s face in the crowd. He was still held by sailors, but the shock on his face was the same as everyone else’s. He hadn’t known about this, either.
“As we suspected,” the leader said. “She has her family’s little gift. You’re coming with us, Princess.”
“I’m not a princess,” I said, stepping with my metal-spiked boot as hard as I could on the instep of the man holding me.
Why hadn’t I thought of that before?
He cried out in pain and I leapt forward, climbing the railing of the boardwalk in one quick motion and leaping into the sea.
If they wanted me, they were going to have to breathe under water, too.
Chapter Seven
The water closed around me and I sunk into the murky waves around the boardwalk. There sure wasn’t mu
ch to see here. Seaweed climbed in patches around the supports of the boardwalk and shoals of small baitfish swam out from the shadows. Heaps of rock held crabs and other crawling creatures and rusty metal hooks, shards of pottery, and rotting rope lay in tangles on the bottom of the sea here.
Great. My first time underwater and I was swimming through a wet garbage heap. I shivered. This was so strange! Amazing and exciting, but strange.
I wanted to go back and save Renny, but wasn’t I the reason they’d grabbed him? Maybe with me gone, they’d just let him go?
I swam away from Abergande, those spiky heels doing nothing to help at all. Good thing I could breathe under water, because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to kick up high enough to get a breath otherwise!
There was a splash and then a body dove into the water behind me.
I whirled to see the sailor who had grabbed me from the ground diving through the water, bubbles streaking all around him as he kicked toward me.
Oh no! If he caught me, it wouldn’t matter how well I could breathe under water. I still wouldn’t be able to fight him off! I needed to get somewhere where it would be tough for him to fish me out easily. But where? Going further out to sea would be best, but he could just keep following, dipping under the water whenever he needed to. I needed to get somewhere deep – too deep for them to swim to. But where would that be?
Singing filled my mind, almost blocking out my thoughts.
Deep, deep, deep, it seemed to say through the wordless tune and my head whirled at the sound of it.
With difficulty, I kicked off my special spike-heeled boots, sad to see them drop to the floor of the sea. I couldn’t keep them – not when I had to swim to get away from these men – but I hated to lose them when Heron had gone to so much trouble to make them for me.
I leaned down and grabbed them, uncinching the leather strap on my bag so that I could stuff them inside.
The moment the cinch was opened, Nasataa leapt from the bag, scooting forward through the water.
Oh no! I’d never even thought to make sure he could breathe under water. Was he okay?
He seemed to be. He shot from the bag like lightning from the sky, but he didn’t shoot to the surface. Instead, he shot forward toward the open ocean, sending me mental images of me following him as we plunged out to sea.
The first sailor bobbed back up to the surface for air at the same moment as a second one plunged into the sea, bubbles boiling up all around him. There were too many of them for me to wait here and see how long it took them to catch me. I had to flee. And fast.
I felt a tug on my hand and looked down to see Nasataa pulling at it, his little wings flapping energetically in the water.
Okay, okay, little guy. I’ll follow you.
Hopefully, Renny would be okay up there. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be hurt.
I swam forward through the water, following Nasataa as he raced in front of me. Every time I looked over my shoulder, more sailors were in the water. They were gaining distance as they swam. They were faster than me. But I had an advantage. I just had to use it.
I sunk to the bottom of the bay. The water was growing clearer here, the plants fewer, and the garbage less plentiful. I swam along the bottom, trying to swim as fast as I could. I wasn’t a very fast swimmer. I’d never wanted to do more than just bob around on the top of the water and enjoy myself and this swim was not about enjoyment or slowly feeling the ripples of the water around you.
After a moment, I found a rhythm. If only Nasataa would wait for me! He was going too fast. He could swim more easily than I could walk. He stopped every few seconds, waiting for me, but never stopping long enough for me to catch up. He should go on without me and stop waiting for me. He’d be safer that way. He’d be protected from the people who were chasing me.
But no. He sent a picture in my mind of the two of us swimming and as I watched he grew larger and larger until he was the size of Ramariri, the golden dragon who had saved my life. Did that mean he meant that we should stay together forever? Did he realize that I was a terrible choice as a dragon mother?
But he didn’t seem to care. He’d chosen me – for whatever reason – and there was no way I was going to let him down. Not if I could help it.
The sailors were still too far away to catch me, but they were gaining fast. How could they catch up when they kept having to go up for air, but I didn’t?
Oh! A little way back, the hull of a small boat dipped into the water. This was not a fair chase!
I needed to dip down into some low place, and I needed to get there fast. But first, I had to check on my father. I couldn’t run away if he was still in trouble.
I swam upward to the surface and broke through into the air, surprised at how cold my face felt and how bright the sun was, as it popped up into the sunlight.
“There she is!” someone yelled from the nearby boat. It looked closer from above the surface. Three bodies leapt from the boat back into the water. I had only seconds before they’d be on top of me. Desperate, I looked toward the town beyond.
There! I saw my father on the boardwalk looking worriedly out to sea. Behind him, the blacksmith and Heron stood with big hammers in their hands and there was not a sailor to be seen still on the boardwalk. I risked a wave to him – a sign that I was alright – and then I plunged back under the waves.
All the sailors were chasing me. He should be safe from them as long I was distracting them.
I would have breathed a sigh of relief, but I felt a tug at my foot.
Chapter Eight
He had me by the foot!
I gasped, squirming at the hold on my foot, the song of the sea filling my ears again as my head plunged beneath the waves.
Something fast shot past me and I curled my body, trying to shake the hand on my foot. The grim-faced sailor holding me held on tight, his teeth gritted and bubbles pouring from his mouth.
A little burst of flame hit him right in the face as Nasataa blasted him with an underwater flame. My baby! He could flame under water! Was that magical?
I didn’t have time to be shocked or even pleased.
Aiming for his face, I kicked out with my other foot and planted a solid kick to his nose. He didn’t let go, so I pushed hard against his eyes, curling my toes to grind into his eyes as I shoved as hard as I could with my free foot. His hold on my foot faltered, shifting to my breeches until he only had a handful of fabric in his grip. Quickly, I grabbed the ties to my breeches and pulled them loose, kicking free of my breeches and diving down, down, down. I was faster without the material clinging to my legs, but I felt vulnerable in just my underthings, blouse and leather corset.
Even with my greater speed, Nasataa was still faster. He dove toward the sandy bottom of the sea and I felt almost as if he was following the sound of the ocean that I heard, too. The direction he was headed was becoming rocky. We were following the shoreline of the island toward the north of Abergande – a place I’d never seen above the water.
The rock here looked bubbly – huge craters and smaller holes filled the rocks as they piled up along the shore. How fascinating!
I stole a glance back. The boat was right overhead. One of the sailors was kicking up to it in a flurry of bubbles, but as I watched, another dove down with a heavy weight in his arms.
A burst of adrenaline filled me, kicking my heart to a faster pace and making my lungs work double time as I gulped down big breaths of water – water! That wasn’t right! – and hurried after Nasataa. I hoped he was going the right direction. I hoped that we could both trust the urgings of the song of the sea.
Despite the wordlessness of the call, I was certain it was leading us, steering us just by the feel of it, toward where the sand dropped off here to a rocky mass.
Bright sea plants waved in the calm of the ocean lullaby and swirls of colorful fish puffed up from them in startled clouds. We sliced through the first burst of yellow fish, losing sight of our pursuers as the water behind us filled w
ith yellow, flashing bodies.
I nearly breathed a sigh of relief when I turned back and lost sight of my pursuers.
Where was Nasataa? Was he okay?
I couldn’t see him anywhere.
Panicked, I spun in the water, looking in every direction. We had descended to a channel between rising clumps of coral and bright plants, to a narrow channel between them. I shivered as a silky plant washed against my bare leg. Another touch followed the first as I slid between the waving water-weeds, the sound of the sea singing hauntingly to my mind.
I’d lost him.
He was only a baby and I’d lost him.
I felt worse than I had on the docks when the sailors had seized my father. Worse than I had when Heron said he was leaving. A little creature had needed me and depended on me and I’d lost him. What if he starved out here without me? What if one of the sailors had grabbed him? What if a big fish ate him?
I spun again, peering between the weeds, but he was nowhere to be found.
My heart plummeted.
And then a little blue head darted out from a rock and I nearly laughed in relief.
He’d found a cave! I swam toward him, relief filling every pore of me. He was okay! He was here and he was safe!
I surged into the cave with him, looking over my shoulder for only a moment before I darted inside. A dark shape was moving through the crowd of yellow fish and the leaves of the waving plants. One of my pursuers wasn’t far behind.
I kicked into the hole in the rock, following Nasataa into the deep cave beyond. It was scary to go into the dark without being able to see more than shadows. Scarier still with enemies outside. The opening was narrow, and I had to squeeze my hips and push hard to kick through. Even so, the coral scratched up my legs and hips, scoring them where it broke through the skin. I winced at the feeling of salt-water on my wounds and sucked in a deep breath.
In the low water-filtered light, I could barely make out the interior of the little cave. It wasn’t really a cave, but more like a tunnel. I followed it, still too far behind Nasataa to catch him.
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