I reached the portal room, which was nothing more than a cave with sconces high on the walls. It looked like a dead end until I walked to the left side and found the slab of rock that Aedhna had told me about. It blended with the wall unless you were standing beside it, and behind it was a space so narrow I wasn’t sure I would fit inside.
Squeezing behind the slab, I had to contort my body to get through the cramped space. Six feet in, it opened up into a tiny cave with water dribbling down the sides. I sniffed the air and picked up the smell of seaweed and brine. I was under the ocean.
I went to the dry section of wall and touched the ke’tain to it. The wall rippled, and the outline of a doorway appeared in it with steps leading down into the darkness. I shook my head in wonder. No matter how many times I witnessed magic like this, I would never get used to it.
Here I go. I took out my laevik crystal and descended the long flight of stairs. At the bottom, wind whistled, and there was enough light to see without my crystal. I was in what appeared to be a tall rock crevice inside a mountain. The air was warm, so I ruled out the Duergar Mountains, but I was definitely no longer on the island.
I walked toward a sliver of daylight up ahead. A few minutes later, I emerged in a place so beautiful I wasn’t sure I could find the words to do it justice.
I was in a small green valley beneath a sky so blue, it hurt my eyes to look at it after the gloom of the tunnel. The valley was ringed with snow-capped mountains, but here it was warm and smelled of flowers, fruit, and sunshine.
Shielding my eyes, I looked toward a lake sparkling in the sun, and I did a double take at the sight of a small herd of kelpies grazing beside it. Closer to me, a pair of fluffy, white hamas romped in the grass, and a nixie began to sing from her perch in a tree.
I turned in a half circle to take in my surroundings and stopped when my gaze landed on a pristine, white stone building with thick columns that reminded me of an ancient Greek temple. I walked toward the building, and as I drew closer, I could make out some of the interior through the wide arched entrance. The building appeared to have only one room with tall windows and a raised dais at the far end on which stood a throne.
A ninny drew my gaze back to the lake where a white kelpie stood slightly apart from the rest, looking at me. As I walked toward it, I remembered the night in the East River when I’d nearly been drowned by a kelpie before I’d grabbed the goddess stone from her mane. That night felt like a decade ago.
The kelpie walked out to meet me when I neared the lake. It was smaller than the rest of the herd, which told me it was still a foal. For a second, I wondered if it might be the same foal that had lain beside me and kept me warm through the night on North Brother Island. There was no way to know, but wouldn’t that be something?
I stripped down to my underthings and walked to the water with the ke’tain in my hand and the foal beside me. At the water’s edge, I grabbed a handful of the kelpie’s mane, and we entered the water. I held on while the kelpie swam to the center of the lake.
The lake wasn’t wide, but it was deep, and the water was so clear I could see all the way to the bottom. We stopped at the deepest part of the lake, and far below was a dim yellow glow.
I looked at the kelpie. “I’m ready if you are.”
He sank below the surface, and I sucked in a deep breath before he took me down with him. It was a reflex action because Aedhna had said the goddess stone would help me breathe in this lake. Even so, I held the air in my lungs as long as I could before I had to let it out.
Down, down we went into the eerie underwater world where schools of colorful fishes darted away from us. Once, I thought I saw the flash of a large silver tail, but whatever it was disappeared before I got a better look.
The ke’tain began to pulse, and it grew stronger the deeper we went. By the time we reached the bottom, it was emitting a soft blue glow, and it thrummed with so much energy my fingers started to feel numb.
The yellow glow came from below the surface of the soft mud. I let go of the kelpie, and it swam away as if it knew what was about to happen. I wished I could go with it because I had a feeling this last pairing was going to hurt a lot.
Bracing myself, I lowered my hand until it hovered a few inches above the glow. Then I laid the ke’tain on top of the one in the mud.
A bright green flash lit up the lake bed a second before a shockwave slammed into me. Excruciating pain enveloped me, and it felt like every bone in my body had been crushed. I welcomed the blessed oblivion that followed.
When I came to, I was floating on my back on the surface of the lake with the kelpie beside me. My body no longer hurt, and I moved my arms and legs to make sure everything worked. I stared at the sky, still dazed. That blast should have killed me.
It took me a minute to notice the strange glow surrounding me. I looked down and sucked in a mouthful of water. The entire lake glowed bright green, and I could no longer see the bottom or the ke’tain. I hoped that meant it was doing what it was supposed to, and I hadn’t accidently turned the lake radioactive.
The shockwave hadn’t killed me, but I felt weaker, and I soon grew tired treading water. The kelpie must have sensed it because he nudged me until I wrapped an arm around his neck. Eventually, I nodded off.
His ninny woke me, and the first thing I noticed was that the green glow was gone except for one spot far below. I watched it until it faded away to a soft blue.
The kelpie turned his head toward me in a silent question. I let go of his neck and took hold of his mane. “Let’s go.”
This time, I didn’t take in a gulp of air first. We dived down, and my eyes were too focused on the blue glow to enjoy the view. My feet hit the bottom, and I wasted no time reaching for the ke’tain without stopping to wonder if it might be too powerful for me to touch now.
A painful tingle rushed from my fingertips to my shoulder, and I almost dropped the ke’tain. I held the stone tightly in my fist until the pain lessened to a dull ache. It was then that I felt a faint vibration at the back of my head. I reached up with my other hand to touch the quivering goddess stone. It had to be somehow absorbing the power from the ke’tain to protect me.
I turned to where I’d left the kelpie, and let out a small scream. Floating a dozen feet away from me were two sirens. Their long hair swirled around them to below their waist where their tails began, and their large eyes resembled those of a Disney princess. Their features were beautiful but so sharp they looked cruel. One had silver hair, and the other’s hair was a darker shade of red than mine.
The red-haired siren motioned at my braid with her webbed hand. Realizing what she wanted, I unraveled my braid so my hair flowed free like theirs. I didn’t move when she swam over and ran her fingers through my hair. She spoke to her friend, and it sounded like dolphin speech. Her friend responded, and I shivered when I saw pointed teeth like those of a shark.
The kelpie was suddenly beside me even though neither of the sirens had shown aggression. I didn’t know if he was being protective or possessive, but his bared teeth were enough to send the sirens racing away through the water.
We rose to the surface, and on the way back to the shore, I couldn’t stop thinking about the sirens’ behavior. It wasn’t until my feet touched the rocky bottom that it occurred to me the sirens had never seen a red-haired faerie. They must have wondered what the heck this creature was with red hair and the legs of a land walker. I smiled to myself. I couldn’t wait to tell Mom and Dad about this.