winced.
“Steady, angelfish,” Jorie’s voice could be heard above me. “We talked about this. Just breathe through it, Silence.”
We had talked about it.
But faith, the pain of the split was blinding, and each scale reentering my skin felt like thousands of little cuts.
“I do not like this,” Mars stated on a rumble, and I knew I was not hiding the unpleasantness of the sensations.
“It will be over in moments, and eventually she’ll get so used to it, she’ll barely feel it,” Jorie assured.
“She’s feeling it now,” Mars noted in a threatening tone.
I had been.
But suddenly, I wasn’t.
I looked down to my legs which looked like naught but my legs. No marks from where the scales had pushed through. Not even a whisper of my lovely caudal left.
I missed it, and I cuddled closer to the warmth of Mars, for I didn’t feel the cold in The Deep, but I felt it on the deck.
I looked up to my brother.
“Can we do that again soon?” I requested.
He burst with laughter.
I decided, and was delighted, that meant yes.
“And this weariness?” I heard Mars ask as I rode before him, in his arms, atop Hephaestus, on our way back to the Citadel.
And I did it with my eyelids drooping.
“She has had much activity. It doesn’t seem thus, for in the doing, it seems easy. But in truth, swimming requires the use of your whole body at all times you’re doing it, and she is not accustomed to this. She will become so, my brother, and this weariness after a swim will fade,” Jorie explained.
As I was, indeed, weary, I did not take issue with my husband and brother speaking about me when I was right there.
Instead, I peeked through my flagging eyes and noted with great relief that we’d made the bottom of the lane to the Citadel. I was gladdened by the seeing of it, for all I wished to do was find our bed, crawl into it and take a nap that would last until supper.
I was so tired, along the way, I hadn’t even glanced around to enjoy the cheerful hustle and bustle of Sky Bay that always so heartened me when we rode through it.
Indeed, I nearly fell asleep riding the long lane up to the Citadel.
We were almost there when I heard Jorie say, “If I did not like him so, his overprotection would be irksome.”
“His sister is my wife and his wife is my sister. This is the man you would wish for both, no?” Mars replied, and I knew they were talking about True.
Thus, suddenly excited to share with my cousin about my day, I forced my eyes open, raised my head, looked forward and saw True striding purposefully around the large fire that rose in the courtyard in front of the Citadel.
It was then I found that my adventure had been so delightful, my desire to share about it beat back the fatigue and I aimed a beaming smile to my cousin.
“True, it was glorious!” I called.
His return smile was oddly tight as Mars reined in Hephaestus close to True.
“This makes me happy for you,” he replied.
Then his gaze went direct to Mars.
Oh no.
“What is it?” Mars clipped, noting what I had noted.
True was not greeting us upon our return from my first swim as a mermaid, keen to know how it went.
Something was amiss.
His jaw hardened, his gaze bore into Mars’s, then it came to me and it softened.
“Silence,” he said like he was trying not to talk through his teeth, “your mother is here.”
I shot straight in my husband’s arms.
“Fuck,” I heard Jorie mutter.
“Where is she?” Mars bit off.
“I demanded she remain behind in the red room so that she did not surprise Silence with her appearance as she did me,” True told him.
“Thank you,” I said, cutting into their conversation. “Now, if I could ask you to have the servants delay for fifteen minutes so I can see to my state and make my way to the throne room. After that time, they can escort her there, and I will grant her an audience.”
True’s brows rose at my words and my tone in saying them
My husband’s arm tightened about me, and he called, “Silence.”
I looked up to Mars.
“I am not her queen, but I am a queen, and when you wish to speak to a queen, and that wish is granted, she provides you an audience, which shortly, I will do,” I stated. “Now, will you let me down, husband?”
He gazed at my