Mermaid_ A Twist on the Classic Tale - Carolyn Turgeon [44]
“You must not let yourself be fooled by Southern tricks,” he said. “Remember the horse the Greeks used to win the Trojan War. I would hope your studies could serve you better than this.”
She was startled by her father’s reference to the old tale and could not help raising her voice. “I am the one who found him. He was not tricking me by dying! I should never have been standing there watching the sea in the first place. At any other time, he would have just died there, on the rocks. How else can you explain what happened?”
To her surprise, her father’s face softened, and his eyes filled with tears. She almost gasped, it was so unexpected. For a moment she thought she’d convinced him.
“Sometimes you are so like your mother,” he said.
“I am?” She was shocked to hear him speak of her.
He smiled, and looked far away, remembering. “She was always passionate. Never afraid to speak her mind to me, even when almost no one else would. It is why I trust Gregor. I know he is never afraid to say the truth.”
She smiled at his memory. Her mother had been strong, though it was a quiet strength she’d had. It had made her a good match for him. “I can only hope to become as brave as she was,” she said.
“I have no doubt. Bravery and passion, these are not things you lack, Margrethe.”
“Thank you,” she said, feeling her own eyes fill with tears. “I miss her so much.”
“I miss her, too,” he said. “And it is for her that we must defeat the South, our enemy.”
“Wait. I don’t understand.”
“You remember when your mother fell ill? She insisted on visiting her cousin in the South. When she came back, the sickness had entered her. That was a sign from God. That land is ours, Margrethe. We should never have been divided.”
“But it happened so long ago, Father. Why can’t we just live peacefully, side by side?”
He raised his hand. “Enough, Margrethe. We are not a weak kingdom. I will not stand by and watch my enemy kill my queen, and attempt to kill my daughter.”
“But so many people will die!”
“They will die for their kingdom. It is the best reason to die.”
CHAPTER TEN
The Mermaid
LENIA TOOK HER TIME SWIMMING BACK TO THE PALACE, letting the water soothe her. A school of tiny, translucent fish drifted past, and she watched them, how the light from a nearby medusa caught them, making them flare up like stars in the night sky. Like tiny souls. Euphoria moved to sadness, and then back again. She didn’t know how she could leave her family, her world, her very own body, and yet, at the same time, how could she say no to what had now been offered to her? She wished she could bring her sisters with her, and her parents, and her sisters’ children. She wished she could bring everyone with her, every single creature in the sea, and they could all have souls that would shine together eternally.
When she returned to the palace, all the others were sleeping, tucked against rocks, inside giant shells, and among the lush sea plants that flourished at the bottom of the ocean. She swam to the royal chamber and peered in at her mother and father, twisted together upon their bed of pearls, a gift from her grandfather to her grandmother many years before. Her mother’s hair was long and white now, but she was every bit as beautiful as she’d been when Lenia’s grandmother had stepped down from the throne, as Lenia’s mother would do one day soon so that Thilla could take her place. And her father, the king: as she watched him sleep, she thought about all the swims he had taken her on when she was a child, the two of them holding hands, the way he’d tossed her through the water and then swooped down to catch her, how he’d shown her the wonders of the ocean while her mother stayed in the palace and dealt with the court.
She had already made her decision, she realized. Of course she had, the moment Sybil told her that everything she’d ever wanted was possible.
She left her parents’ doorway and drifted