then, I doubted that she needed them. Her mount seemed perfectly in tune with the wishes of its mistress, moving one of its great fins aside so that her power could bring me closer, for inspection.
“What are you?” she demanded again, as I stared into the loveliest face I had ever seen.
“I . . . am Dorina,” I whispered.
“And what is that?”
“It is . . . my name?”
This answer did not seem to satisfy her. “I did not ask for your name; I asked what you are.” But, this time, she did not give me a chance to answer. Her beautiful brow knit. “Not human, although you speak their tongue. Not fey, not demon—”
“I am not a demon?” I asked hopefully.
The beautiful eyes narrowed. “You do not know?”
I shook my head.
“Well, you are not,” she said, frowning. “I know their stench, and it is not upon you.”
My body began slowly rotating, giving me a view of the flooded embankment and of Ray’s frozen, screaming face. I hoped that she would not remember him, as I did not yet know if she was a threat or not, and she did not seem to. Instead, she was glaring at me when I came back around again.
“You are in my waters—”
“I am very sorry—”
“Do not interrupt me!”
“I’m sorry—”
“That is an interruption!”
I closed my mouth.
“You have come here without permission, invading my lands, you and that vampire of yours!”
She looked at me challengingly.
I looked back. She was truly amazing to gaze upon. There appeared to be tiny, jeweled crabs in her hair that caught the light, twinkling like orange diamonds.
One moved slightly, adjusting its grip on a tendril.
Jewel-like, I corrected myself.
“Well?” she demanded. “Do you have nothing to say for yourself?”
“I . . . did not wish to interrupt.”
The waves around us became agitated enough to wet my feet again. “Do you mock me?”
“No, I—” I stopped myself, because this was not going well. Possibly because I couldn’t seem to think and look at her at the same time. “I beg forgiveness,” I said, and bowed my head.
“Hmmph.” And then something reached out and poked my dangling legs. It was almost without color, although prismatic, flashing with fire like a giant diamond.
Perhaps, I realized slowly, because it had been carved from a giant diamond.
I blinked at it.
“Do you want a fish tail?” the creature asked.
I looked up. I did not know how to respond to that. “I . . . have had dinner?”
She stared at me. It lasted a long time. Then, very slowly and very deliberately, she poked my legs again. “Would you . . .”
She paused and waited. “Yes?” I finally asked.
“Like to have . . .” she poked my legs again.
“Yes?”
“A fish’s tail.”
Poke.
I looked down. I looked up. “No?”
She frowned. “Are you sure? These things,” she prodded my legs again, “do not appear to function.”
“I . . . not at present, no.”
“The present is all we have! You could be dead by tomorrow!”
“Yes, but . . . I would still prefer to have all of my original parts.”
She did not seem to think much of that answer, but at least she did not poke me again.
“I do not know how you think to live through what awaits you with half a body,” she said.
“What awaits me?”
She ignored that. “But if you are what I think, you will manage. And if not . . . then you should not have come here at all, should you?”
“I did not trespass willingly,” I said. “I was brought by—”
“I know who brought you.” She smiled suddenly, but it was not very nice. There were some . . . very unusual teeth in that lovely mouth. “Yes, I know. Make them pay for it.”
Then she was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dorina, Faerie
“That was interesting,” I said, back at camp.
I was wrapped in the blanket, which was the only dry thing we had. Ray had found me sprawled on the rocks, soaking wet, which was how I knew that what I’d experienced had not been an illusion. Or if it had, something had wet me, the shore and our camp, leaving everything soaked except for the blanket I had thrown off earlier, which had landed just outside of the tideline.
My tunic had been laid flat to dry once more, although that would likely take a while as our fire was also out. Ray was attempting to get it going, with the little dry wood he’d been able to find, and I was talking some more. Not for any real reason;