Mutante: Chapter 5
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
Robert glared at her. “Are you saying that chivalry is dead?”
“No. I’m saying that chivalry has been updated. You don’t have to use antique language to be chivalrous.”
“You are an unusual mermaid,” he said, studying her.
“So I’ve been told.” She took a bite of the reef apple, hoping to forestall further questions. Robert might expound on the virtues of politeness, but even polite people poked and prodded.
They swam in silence for some time, taking turns eating and holding the compass, and gradually shifting their heading to match the starfish’s arms. After a while, the darkness began to press in on her. Were it not for the movement of the light on the compass, Rosie would have thought they hadn’t moved at all. Her stomach tightened, and she scanned the area around them, eyes wide, trying to see past the dark. Maybe she oughtn’t to have eaten five reef apples.
Robert began to shift, trading back and forth between which hand he was using to hold the harness and huffing every time he glanced at the starfish, the bubbles loudly proclaiming his annoyance. Finally, after the fifth such occurrence, Rosie couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. He ought to be grateful for the compass, not annoyed by it!
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Robert blinked at her. “Uh, no.”
“You seem—frustrated.”
“How much longer is it until we reach this cave?” he burst out. “It feels like hours since we got up here.”
Rosie checked her timekeeper. “It’s only been an hour and a half. When I’m on the path, it usually takes me about three and a half hours to reach the center of the forest. I don’t know exactly where we were, but I’d imagine it can’t take longer than that to reach the cave, especially since we’re swimming through clear water rather than having to go around trenches or siren-plants.”
“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth, glaring at the compass again.
“It’s not the compass’s fault that it can’t take us there instantly,” Rosie pointed out.
“Huh?” he asked, his brow furrowing and his jaw relaxing. “Oh, no, it’s just—” He shifted again. “Well, I don’t much care for being in the dark, especially not when it’s this dark and for this long.”
“Oh.” She surveyed the area around them again, wondering if the tales of giant kraken that lived in the blackness might be true. “I don’t much like it either. Maybe—maybe it would go faster if we talked?”
Robert huffed again, but then nodded. “Won’t your family worry if we wait in the cave for too long?” he asked awkwardly.
“They might.”
“Yet you would put your job over duty to your family?”
Rosie snorted. “Says the kelp harvester who ventures deep into the forest, despite his mother’s worries.”
“I had a line!” he protested indignantly. “It broke when Waterdancer took off. It was—well, it was older, and it didn’t hold up as well as I thought it would.”
“Ah.”
“I’m not an idiot—I wouldn’t go past the first layer of kelp without a line.”
Rosie nodded. “I’m glad to hear that. The kelp forest can be dangerous,” she reminded him with a small smile.
“Tell me more about this path of yours,” Robert said abruptly.
“My—the witch enchanted it when she first cursed the forest. It’s a way for her to get supplies.”
Robert frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Why?”
“Why would she endanger her own supply line? Is what’s happening in the forest caused by someone else? I just thought the witch was changing something about the magic, but if it’s her path—”
Rosie groaned. “Then it’s probably Rina’s doing.” She threw her hands in the air and then grabbed for the harness. “Why can’t they resolve their feud some other way?”
“Who?”
“The forest witch and one of her daughters. They’ve been feuding for the past ten years.” Her heart sank. What if Grandma was actually injured and that’s why the path had failed? Or even—gone.
Robert shrugged. “Maybe Rina’s actually winning the fight then. If their feud ends, maybe the forest will stop being so dangerous.”
“I doubt it,” Rosie said sourly. She shook out a tired hand and then shifted her grip. “If either of them ‘wins’ the feud, she will be free to turn her attention to bothering everyone else. Well, Essie, the forest witch, just wants to be left alone, so little would change if she wins. Rina, though, loves mischief, and her idea of mischief is nasty. She could do serious damage, all in the name of fun.”
Robert inhaled sharply. “Well, I hope that neither of them wins, then. Or that they stop being so awful, if such a thing is possible.”
“They weren’t always awful,” Rosie said with a sigh. “About ten years ago, they were both kind merwomen who cared about all of Aquaria. Merfolk came from miles away to ask for their help.” She smiled, remembering how diligently her aunt and grandma had listened to those seekers, even when they had the most ridiculous requests. “They enjoyed helping people.” She sighed, guilt bubbling in her stomach as she wished those days hadn’t ended. “Did you know that they pioneered contract spells that kept anyone from requesting a spell on an unwilling party or from signing the contract when under coercion of any kind?”
Robert shook his head.
If only her mother had as clearly defined ethics. Somehow Mariya had learned politics and avoided Grandma Essie’s lessons about kindness and the responsibility to do what was best for others. At least Father cared about that to some degree, and Mother did the right thing whenever someone was there to see it—after all, the family reputation for benevolence had to be upheld.
It would have been nice, though, if her mother did so out of care for others rather than concern for the family name.
“Anyway, Essie loved the Ancients’ ruins and visited them regularly. She had even trained the people nearby to handle the artifacts very carefully—you never know if they’re fragile or magical and spelled to do who knows what.” Rosie’s throat grew tight. “One day, she was exposed to an artifact that had been spelled to curse anyone other than the owner. In her cursed state, she didn’t want Rina to free her from the curse, so she put the tiara on her daughter’s head.” Rosie’s fingers grew tight on the harness and her tail twitched. “It took the entire Witches’ Council to get the tiara away from them, and the council wasn’t able to reverse the curse. In the space of minutes, they went from being some of the nicest people you could ever meet to some of the nastiest.”
“Wow. I had no idea. I just thought the forest witch had always been evil and then moved to the forest when we were kids.”
Rosie shook her head. “No, she moved to the forest because merfolk still tried to convince her to help them with their problems, no matter how many of them she turned into electric eels.”
“Electric eels?” Robert shouted, his face paling.
She smiled. “Most of them are human now. Their family and friends helped them fulfill the terms of the spell.”
“And you still want to take supplies to her?”
“Yes,” Rosie said firmly.
While they talked, the light in the compass had been steadily creeping closer to the center of the star and now it stopped blinking, becoming a steady glow.
“We’re here,” she said, holding up the compass.
“Here?”
“Well, the compass doesn’t really show elevation, but the cave is down there somewhere. We just need to go straight down from here and find the entrance.”
“Ok.” His face grew stern, and he drew his sword. “Down, Waterdancer.”
A/N: Thanks for reading and engaging! As I said, we’re on short chapters until I get some of them beta-ed. If you’d like to beta, PM me! And for the rest of you, please let me know if you notice something amiss 🙂
See you on Saturday!
