Surrendering (Swans Landing)

by Norris, Shana

  The man and woman who had found us approached a stone circle where four men and women floated together. They were older than most of the finfolk there, with long white streams of hair floating around their heads. They wore necklaces made of seashells, large conch shells in front.

  “We found visitors who came through the door,” the woman said.

  The men and women turned to us, their eyes looking us up and down. I knew how dangerous finfolk could be, but I didn’t feel afraid. The song in the water had eased all of my worries. Everything was all right. We were safe here.

  “Welcome to Finfolkaheem,” one of the men said, smiling at us. “We are the council, the judges here in the city. I am Finlay. These are my companions, Iomhar, Mairead, and Sorcha.”

  Finlay looked at us expectantly, as if waiting for our introductions. I opened my mouth, letting out a stream of bubbles and shaking my head as I pointed to my throat.

  The woman called Mairead nodded. “Ah, you cannot speak underwater. You are not the first to come here with that problem. You have human blood, aye? It is one of the weaknesses the human part of you introduces into the finfolk form. We can repair you.”

  The four men and women closed their eyes, and a hum drifted toward us. My body tingled and my throat warmed. I touched my neck, expecting it to be hot, but the skin felt cool in the tepid water around me.

  When the humming stopped, the council looked at us, expectant smiles on their faces.

  Mara, Dylan, and Sailor looked back at me with blank faces. What had the finfolk done to us?

  Mara coughed. “Can we talk now?” she asked. Her voice sounded different, more musical and lower, but she spoke clearly, just as the finfolk did. Her eyes widened.

  “You changed us,” I said to the council.

  Mairead inclined her head. “I am sorry if it was unwanted. We have met others with your condition and assumed that you would want the change.”

  “What did you do?” Sailor asked, rubbing her throat.

  “The song can be used to change the way your body works in connection with your mind,” Finlay said. “You had the ability to speak underwater all along, but your human heritage did not allow you to remember how to do it. We merely told the finfolk genes inside you how to override the humanness in your vocal chords.”

  “Like how Domnall kept Callum from changing form,” I said to Sailor.

  Iomhar nodded. “That is one of the ways the song can be used, though it is not used often. It is considered the ultimate punishment for a finfolk to be unable to change form.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at us. “Who among your people has been doing this?”

  “Not our people,” Dylan said quickly. “Domnall is from Hether Blether.”

  A murmur spread through the crowd in the square at his words.

  Sorcha’s eyebrows rose. “We lost contact with the vanishing isle long ago,” she said. “The door closed there, but one opens at another location from time to time.”

  “In Swans Landing,” I said. “That’s where we came from. You said we’re not the first finfolk you’ve met with human blood. Are there others from our island here?”

  Mairead gestured toward the city around us. “There are others of your kind here. Ones who found their way home, though it has been a while since anyone has come here from your island. But you are welcome. All finfolk are welcome in our city.”

  We wouldn’t be thrown into a prison like we had been in Hether Blether upon our arrival there. I could see relief and contentment in the faces of my friends as well. Sailor smiled as she floated in the water next to me. The song whispered through my body, erasing my fears. Why had I been afraid? Everything here was good. We could be happy here, no one could ever hurt us.

  Finlay smiled, as if he understood everything going through my head. “Welcome home, young ones.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  I let myself float along with the gentle current that flowed through Finfolkaheem. I felt so relaxed, in a way I never had before. Why had I been so tense? Whatever it was, it didn’t matter now. I was safe. Mara and Sailor were safe.

  Mara floated at my side, her eyes closed and a soft smile on her face. Her black curls drifted in the water around her head. She looked so beautiful, so peaceful. I moved toward her, slipping my arms around her waist. She opened her eyes and her smile stretched wider when she saw it was me.

  “Hey, you,” she said, laughing a little.

  “Hey.” I pressed my lips on hers and she kissed me back, wrapping her arms around my neck. The finfolk council had given us a room—a suite, really. A collection of rooms all to ourselves, decorated in brightly colored sea anemones and fluorescent algae that grew in swirling patterns on the rock walls. We had everything we could need in these rooms, including food. All given to us freely. The finfolk here were so nice, so much nicer than…

  Than who? Who was it I was trying to think of?

  “What’s wrong?” Mara asked when I pulled away from her.

  I furrowed my brow as I tried to focus on the thought that was already slipping away into the recesses of my mind. I couldn’t remember who wasn’t as nice as the finfolk here.

  “Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. It didn’t matter anyway, whatever it was. It couldn’t have been important.

  I kissed Mara again, flicking my tail to pull her toward the collection of sea sponges that served as a kind of bed. We floated just above the sponges, my hands roaming over the curve of her hip and the slickness of her golden brown scales. I didn’t know where Sailor and Dylan had gotten off to, and at the moment, I didn’t care.

  “I love you, Josh,” she whispered in my ear, letting out a stream of bubbles that tickled my skin.

  Her words and the constant humming song that hung in the air around us filled me with a swell of happiness. “I love you too,” I told her, knowing it was true. I had loved her from the moment I met her, swimming at Pirate’s Cove.

  No, wait. Not swimming. We’d had…What were they called? Legs? We’d been standing on the beach when we first met, hadn’t we? It seemed impossible to think of myself ever having legs. I looked down at my silver tail, flicking it back and forth.

  “Josh?” Mara’s forehead was creased into a frown as she studied me. “Are you okay?”

  “Did we…” The question seemed ridiculous, but I had to ask it. “Did we walk on land? With…legs?”

  My head felt so fuzzy. I couldn’t focus on anything. Already, the thought was slipping away again, and I laughed at myself, at the ridiculousness of my question.

  But Mara wasn’t laughing. She bit her lip, her eyes narrowed. “Walking?” she asked. “I think…I remember something. Sand. And…trees?”

  But even as she spoke the words, her expression relaxed and her eyes took on the distant, contented look they had before. She reached for me again, pressing her lips to mine. Part of me was still a little tense, but I kissed her back, letting myself relax into her embrace.

  This was good. This was the way it was supposed to be, the two of us together, happy and safe.

  Safe from what?

  I kissed Mara harder, driving the thoughts out of my head. It didn’t matter. I was with Mara and I loved her and we would be together here in Finfolkaheem forever. We would get married one day. Have a few kids. I could be a father.

  A father.

  My father.

  My father…

  No. The image that flashed into my head wasn’t my father.

  It was my mother.

  I jerked backward, crashing into the rock wall. Mara stared wide-eyed at me, her lips swollen and red.

  “Josh?” she asked, reaching toward me. “What’s wrong?”

  The song filled my head and I felt myself relaxing. No. I didn’t want to relax. I had to hang onto the thought. My mother…my mother in trouble.

  My mother trapped by…Domnall.

  “The song,” I said, pressing the heels of my palms into my forehead. “We have to fight against the song. It’s making us forget.
”

  “Forget what?” Mara asked. She laughed as she swam toward me. “Josh, you’re acting weird. Come back to bed with me. Everything is all right.”

  I shook my head. “No, it’s not! We’re forgetting why we came here.” I grabbed her arms, squeezing my fingers into her skin as I fought against the haziness that licked at my mind. “Mara, think! Remember Swans Landing. Remember the finfolk there. Remember your dad and Miss Gale.”

  I didn’t know how, but the city and the song were making it hard for us to remember anything above the surface. I struggled to hold onto the thoughts of Swans Landing. We had to find help and get back to the island.

  Mara looked confused, but she said, “Lake?”

  I nodded. “Right. Remember why we’re here. We need to get help.” Everything was coming back to me, fighting through the haze the song had settled over my mind.

  Mara’s eyes became clear with understanding. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Let’s find Sailor and Dylan,” I said, hoping we could fight off the song’s effects long enough to find the help we needed.

  * * *

  Silence fell over the square after we had finished explaining everything that was happening in Swans Landing. Mara and I had found Sailor and Dylan, swimming aimlessly through the alleys of Finfolkaheem. It had taken a lot of talking to get them to remember who they were and why we were here, but the four of us continued to fight against the effects of the song. All around us, I could now see how the people of Finfolkaheem moved with glazed, contented expressions on their faces. It was no wonder that no one who had left Swans Landing in the past had ever returned. If they had found their way here to Finfolkaheem, the song probably had them under its spell. It would be so easy to be like them, to let the song soothe away all of my worries and just forget about life above the surface. But we couldn’t do that, we couldn’t leave Swans Landing to Domnall.

  I had told about what I’d learned from my dad’s papers, and Sailor and I had told about our journey to Hether Blether, while Mara and Dylan talked about the changes in Swans Landing’s weather and how the ferry had stopped coming. Then we spoke about Domnall and the Hether Blether finfolk.

  It was a long story, and it was hard to keep track of time. The song still made my thoughts fuzzy and every now and then one of us would trail off, blinking in confusion, until someone else reminded them of where we were. Each minute that we remained underwater was another minute things could go terribly wrong above the surface. Another minute for Elizabeth to be found and taken like the other humans. Another minute for us to lose any chance we might have. We had already lost too much time.

  The crowd assembled around us seemed to be holding their breath, all eyes on the four men and women of the council. But even they didn’t speak.

  I flicked my tail back and forth. “We need your help,” I said again. “We don’t know how to defeat Domnall when he can use the song against us. Please. Come back to Swans Landing with us. You can do something.”

  The four exchanged long looks. Then Finlay spoke. “We will not leave Finfolkaheem.”

  “Why not?” Mara asked, her voice tinged with defeat.

  “Our people do not walk on land any longer,” Mairead said. “We saw how the human world corrupted our people and killed our lands. When we left Hildaland for the last time, we left for good to save ourselves. Finfolkaheem is connected to both land and water, and we can satisfy our urges for them here on the ocean floor. We no longer visit your world. We will not leave Finfolkaheem.”

  An icy chill spread down my spine. Without their help, we didn’t have much of a chance of defeating Domnall.

  “You have to come with us,” I said. “We can’t let Domnall take our home. He’s controlling humans. Our friends and family.”

  “We are sorry,” Sorcha said. “But we cannot go. If there are others here who would be willing to return to the surface with you, you may ask them.”

  I felt the eyes of hundreds of finfolk watching us from all around the cliff walls. Even the children had stopped playing and studied us with blank faces.

  “Please!” Sailor shouted, her face crinkled into a deep frown. “We need your help!”

  But no one came forward. No one spoke.

  “Your people are welcome to seek refuge here with us,” Finlay said. “We welcome all of our kind, even those who are lost.”

  “What about the humans?” Dylan asked. “We’re supposed to leave them behind with these other finfolk controlling them?”

  Mairead shrugged. “The humans have never shown concern for our kind, so we have no concern for them either. We know you carry human blood, and it is through no fault of your own that your people mingled with the humans. But we do not involve ourselves in the affairs of the surface walkers.”

  “It’s our home,” I said. “How do you expect us to leave it?”

  “We left our home,” Sorcha said. “We gave Hildaland to the humans. You will learn to call Finfolkaheem home, just as our people have.”

  “We’re not leaving our friends behind,” Dylan said through clenched teeth.

  I shook my head at the council. “I’m sorry, but we can’t give up our island so easily.”

  “I remember that island,” a voice in the crowd said.

  A woman swam forward, her silver scales sparkling in the light of the algae as she passed. Her face was lined with wrinkles that even the water couldn’t smooth away, and even though everyone else kept their hair unbound, she had hers in a dark braid that trailed behind her in the water.

  Her face was familiar, though I couldn’t figure out why.

  “The humans control that island,” she said. “They berate us and treat us like we’re not even people. You know that. All of you should know that.”

  “You’re Nora Moray,” Dylan said, his eyes widening as he looked at the woman.

  My head whipped back to her and I studied her face closer. I had only a vague memory of the woman swimming before us. She had left Swans Landing when I was young. She was a cousin of mine through my father’s grandmother. No one had ever heard from her again. We hadn’t found her in Hether Blether either. We hadn’t found anyone that had left our island there except for Sailor’s mom.

  “Yes, I am,” she answered. “I left your island because I was tired of being treated like I was nothing. Think about everything the humans have put you through. You can save the rest of the finfolk by bringing them here, where they’ll be happy and can live with their own kind. Leave the humans to whatever fate awaits them. Finfolkaheem is where you belong, where you can be happy.”

  She made it sound so simple. The humans had mistreated the finfolk for a long time. Maybe it was just the way humans were. It was what they had always done to each other all throughout history, so why should we expect them to treat us any differently?

  The Hether Blether finfolk called the mixed human blood a weakness. Finfolk belonged with each other. We could protect each other and be happy. We could be safe.

  But I had to go back to Swans Landing….Didn’t I?

  “We can’t do that,” I told her, shaking away the haziness that had filled my head. “Yes, the humans have been unfair to the finfolk. But this isn’t simply a matter of finfolk versus human. We—” I gestured between myself and Mara and Dylan and Sailor. “—are not just finfolk. We’re human too. And some of the humans up there are our friends and family. We have to help them.”

  Nora shook her head. “Then you will do it on your own. Those of us who left have no intentions of ever going back.”

  She swam past us, disappearing into the alley between two rows of homes.

  The last bit of hope I’d had disappeared as Nora swam out of sight.

  “I guess that’s it then,” Mara said, reaching for my hand.

  I nodded. “We have to go back. Maybe it’s not too late.”

  The fourth council member, Iomhar, who had been silent while the others spoke to us, cleared his throat.

  “There may be a w
ay that you can save your people,” Iomhar said.

  I didn’t dare hope. I didn’t want to be disappointed again. “How?” I asked.

  “These finfolk from Hether Blether, they are resistant to the song because they have no human blood,” Iomhar said. “Your people are of mixed heritage and therefore, are vulnerable to the song’s effects in the way that humans are.”

  I nodded. “Right. So how do we defeat them when they can use the song against us?”

  “You cannot,” Iomhar said.

  Mara started to swim toward the older finfolk, her face contorted into a scowl, but I held her back. “If you can’t help us, don’t pretend you can,” she snapped.

  Iomhar shook his head. “I mean, you cannot defeat them as you are now. But you could, if you were fully finfolk.”

  I frowned. “How can we do that?”

  “You need to be immune to the song’s effects,” Iomhar said. “You need pure finfolk blood. You need to be remade.”

  Sorcha looked sharply at Iomhar. “No one has attempted that in a long time. We have never sung that song.”

  “It will take a lot of effort,” Finlay added.

  Iomhar gestured around the square. “We have plenty of energy to help us do it.”

  “Do what exactly?” Sailor asked. “Is it like when my friend Callum couldn’t change to finfolk form? Domnall used a song to keep him human.”

  Iomhar tilted his head. “That is only a surface change, and takes less energy than what I am proposing. What your friend went through is only a block in the mind that would keep the body in one form. This, however, would be a complete rebirth of your entire body and mind. The song recreates the structure of your body from the inside, erasing the human parts and turning them finfolk.”

  “So Domnall wouldn’t be able to use the song against us,” I said. “It wouldn’t manipulate our minds the way it does now.”