Page 48 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
No. The light was underwater, illuminating the sand and shells and everything above me. Above me, because I was upside down.
Someone grabbed me. Spun me until I was upright. Then we were ascending at a speed that felt impossible.
Finally, the warm evening air hit my face.
Someone continued to hold me as I choked and gagged, salty sea water spewing from my throat. I coughed and gulped air, coughed and gulped air. Over and over until the coughing slowly subsided, my breathing becoming more regular.
My breathing. My lungs still ached, and my throat felt raw, as if pure flame and singed it, but I couldbreathe.
Then the air left me again. For a different reason.
The waters were still. The Leviathan’s tail, half a mile away now, was dipping under. Retreating into the distance.
And the arms that held me, like the eyes that stared back at me, were not human.
CHAPTER TEN
The face was oblong, with the barest hint of a nose and mouth. Like the Leviathan, it had large opaque eyes and fins protruding from its head and jawline. But unlike the Leviathan, its eyes were centered on its face, giving it a less fish-like appearance, and its translucent fins appeared delicate rather than intimidating.
It was clearly an aquatic being of some kind, but there was also something human about the way its head sat atop a graceful neck, which swooped into the smooth shoulders and arms that held me.
What entranced me the most, though, was its magnificent skin. Like the luminous surface of an opal, it glowed in overtones of turquoise and lilac, mint and watermelon. With even the subtlest movement, the colors would shift into an entirely new palette.
I couldn’t say if it was fear or wonder that kept me from screaming.
The creature opened what looked to be a small mouth. “This is the tongue in which you speak, yes?”
Their voice was masculine and feminine, thunderous and soft, gravelly and musical. It was as if the moment they finished speaking, I had already forgotten what their voice sounded like.
After a beat, I remembered they had asked a question. “Yes,” I answered hoarsely.
Their face was devoid of expression. “Are you sufficiently recovered?”
“Yes,” I repeated. Then added, “Thank you for rescuing me.”
There was a subtle sensation of movement, and I became aware that we were gliding along the surface, toward the shore. It was only then that I saw just how far out the current had carried me.
And that the ocean was as still as a pond. No waves in sight. Not even a ripple.
I felt the slightest drag against the hands that held me upright. Then I realized they were not hands at all, but some sort of fin-like protrusions, as delicate as the fins encircling the being’s face.
“You are the leader of your group, yes?”
If I weren’t still recovering from a brush with death, I would have laughed. “No, not at all. The leader is—” I paused. Who was the leader? Cecil? Kieran? Did the Strangers even have a leader? I said finally, “The leader is someone else.”
“I see.”
As we drifted soundlessly inland, another realization hit me. Where was everyone?
I wanted to twist to look behind me. But even though I felt confident that this being wouldn’t have saved my life if they had wanted me dead, something told me I should keep my eyes trained on their face.
They spoke again. “You must communicate to the rest of your group that my ‘Leviathan,’ as you have named it, is to be left alone.”
At least a dozen questions began to form in my mind. But since I still had no idea what sort of being I was speaking to, I said simply, “I apologize that we disturbed the—I mean,yourLeviathan. I’ll share your message with the others.”
“The misstep is understandable,” the being replied. “You may fish from my waters. You may take what you need to sustain yourselves. But you are not to involve the inhabitants of my waters in your human conflicts, indirectly or otherwise.”
Something struck me as odd about that phrasing, “indirectly or otherwise.” I couldn’t imagine anything more patently direct than attacking something with a spear. But my head was a muddled, murky mess. How many times could I escape death in this life before it finally claimed me?
