“Tell me what happened,” Josh demanded. “I want to know everything from the time you left to see Domnall until we ended up here.”
“I told you, nothing happened.” I walked over to a cabinet and pulled it open. Inside, dishes sat in neat stacks. They were old metal plates, etched with swirling designs. Silver cups rimmed with flaking gold lined an upper shelf. I pulled a cup down and inspected it. It looked like something from an old movie. A cup a king in an ancient castle may have used.
Josh crossed his arms. “Something must have, or else we’d still be in that room with Callum. What did Domnall want?”
“He asked a few questions,” I said. “He wanted to know where we had come from.”
Josh’s eyes narrowed. “What did you tell him?”
“I didn’t tell him about Swans Landing,” I said. “I told him we came from across the ocean, that’s all.”
“And?”
I scowled. “And what?”
“And how exactly did you earn his goodwill and get us into this suite?”
I gripped the back of a chair, digging my nails into the wood. “What exactly are you implying, Josh?”
“I’ve seen the way you constantly throw yourself at Dylan Waverly to get what you want. For all I know, that’s how you convinced Callum to bring us here. So what exactly did Domnall get from you that made him release us?”
I darted across the room, my hand smacking across Josh’s cheek with a loud crack. “I haven’t done anything except save your life,” I said through clenched teeth.
“What about Callum’s life?” Josh asked. His cheek was already beginning to turn bright red, but he stared back at me unflinching. “Can you live with yourself in this cozy little suite while he sits in that room alone?”
“I tried to get him out,” I said. “Domnall wouldn’t agree to it! For all we know, Callum did kill someone. We don’t know him any better than anyone else here. How can we be sure we can trust him?”
“He hasn’t given us a reason not to,” Josh said.
I turned away from him, blinking back the tears that stung my eyes. I had tried to get Callum out of there. It wasn’t my fault Domnall wouldn’t listen to my arguments. What else was I supposed to do?
“I’m going to take a nap,” I said. “Tomorrow I have to meet with Domnall again.”
“Why?” Josh asked.
I leaned back against the wall, sighing as the little energy left in my body drained away. I almost couldn’t say the words, couldn’t believe they might be real
“Because he’s going to take me to my mama.”
Chapter Seventeen
Josh’s snores drifted to me through the wall separating our rooms. At least someone was getting some sleep. I rolled over again, staring at the faint slivers of moonlight spilled across the bed. The mattress was too firm, the sheet too scratchy, and my room too cold.
But I knew all of that wasn’t what kept me up. My body bordered on exhaustion, but my mind was wide awake.
Was I wrong to leave Callum locked in that room? Was he okay? And where exactly was my mother? Domnall hadn’t told me anything except that he could take me to her. Part of me was terrified Domnall would take me to a grave. I didn’t even know if finfolk buried their dead or tossed them out to sea, but I prayed I wouldn’t find out anytime soon.
Early the next morning, a knock sounded on the door of the suite before it opened. Artair stepped back to allow Domnall passage into the room. He looked as towering and imposing as he had the day before, though he had tied his wild blonde hair back.
His eyes scanned the room, before settling on Josh and me. We sat at the table, eating fruits Josh had taken from the kitchen. Well, Josh was eating. I hadn’t managed more than a couple of bites of berries.
“Come,” Domnall said, gesturing toward me.
Josh stood with me and Domnall paused to look back at him. “I made my deal with your sister only,” he said. “You may wait here if you wish.”
Josh set his jaw and stared back at the older man. “Where Sailor goes, I go.”
Irritation flashed across Domnall’s face. “I assure you, your sister will not be harmed. You have my word.”
Josh laughed. “Your word doesn’t mean much to me.”
I didn’t want Josh to say anything else that would get him into trouble, so I stepped between them. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said in a low voice. “I’ll tell you everything that happens.”
He scowled and then turned away. “Fine. Do what you want.”
I followed Domnall without looking back at Josh. He would be angry for a while, but he’d get over it.
To my surprise, Domnall led me away from the village. We followed the shoreline through brush and rolling hills, until we reached a narrow strip of beach. The water was calmer here than it had been where we’d come ashore a few days ago. A long, slender boat made of a pale wood bobbed on the surface.
Domnall gestured toward the boat. “After you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Where are you taking me?”
“Not far.” He pointed into the distance to our left, where I could see the shape of land. “It is a peninsula that juts off from the island. We could walk there, but the bay is quicker.”
I let him help me into the boat and then he followed, sitting down on a wooden seat near the bow. I sat on the seat behind him, and then Artair pushed us off from the shore. He expertly jumped into the boat, not even rocking it slightly. Then he rested his spear in the floor and replaced it with a long, slender double-sided oar.
The breeze lifted my hair around my head and I had to keep pushing it out of the way so I could see the peninsula as we drew across the water. The bay was clear here, almost a brilliant green. I could see fish and small sharks, even crabs and starfish moving across the sand under the boat. The water was so shallow I could reach down to touch the bottom if I wanted. It felt peaceful here.
It took me a moment to realize the peace I felt was because my body didn’t feel pulled between land and sea. We floated several yards offshore and yet I could feel both the water and the earth vibrating evenly inside me. I had never felt this kind of peace in my life.
When we reached the peninsula, Artair expertly guided the boat to a small dock that jutted into the water. He helped Domnall and me onto the dock, then he returned to the boat. Domnall offered me his arm and led me up the cobblestone path to a group of wooden homes.
I glanced over my shoulder at Artair, who sat in the boat with his face turned toward the water. “Isn’t he coming?” I asked.
“He will stay with the boat,” Domnall said. “I asked him for privacy.”
A chill prickled across my scalp at the idea of being alone with Domnall, far from Josh. He must have sensed my anxiety because he added, “As I said, your safety is assured.”
A miniature village sat along the peninsula, a group of seven homes all situated in a semi-circle. Behind the homes, the water sparkled in the morning sun.
But the tranquility of the scenery didn’t extend to the village itself. The peninsula seemed abandoned. Some cottages sat half-buried in the surf that lapped against the shore, the wood wet and crumbling under a coating of sea lichen. Black windows stared at us and doors gaped open in a silent scream.
I shivered. “What is this place?”
“It was once another village on the island,” Domnall said. At my surprised look, he smiled slightly. “The main village was not always the only inhabited place here. Once we lived all over the island, and others around it. But now...” He let his words hang in the air, unspoken.
No one came out to greet us as we approached the homes, but Domnall seemed to know exactly where he wanted to go. He passed by a few empty houses, until finally, he paused at one and nodded to me.
The house looked the same as the others, except this one had something carved into the wood of the door. I stepped closer and lifted my fingers to trace the image. A lily. Lily was my mama’s middle name, and mine as well. I placed my
hand on the knob and sucked in a deep breath, trying to prepare myself for what I would see on the other side.
The room was small, the walls a pale sandstone. A simple bed took up most of the room, covered with a frayed blue quilt. In front of the window stood a table that served as a desk, covered with books and papers.
And in a chair at the desk sat a woman. She was too thin. I could see the bones of her shoulder blades poking through her robe, which hung off her, threatening to slip down one skeletal shoulder. She was bent over the desk, concentrating on the lines she drew on the paper in front of her. Her hair wasn’t the brilliant gold it was in Grandma’s photo albums, but a dull shade of graying blonde that fell in greasy locks around her shoulders.
My mouth had gone dry. I swallowed, scraping my sandpaper tongue against my teeth. “Mama?” I asked, my voice almost a squeak.
For a moment, she didn’t acknowledge me. Then she turned, looking over her shoulder. Her face was hollow, her eyes sunken and lined with dark circles. Lines etched the skin around her tight mouth and her cheeks hung from her bones. There was no spark of recognition in her eyes.
I tried to fight the urge to run to her, to throw my arms around her and burst into tears. Here she was at last. My mama and I were in the same room, she was so close I could reach out and touch her.
“I don’t want anything to eat right now,” she said after a moment. Then she turned back to her papers.
I stood there, trying to make sense of her words. Hadn’t she heard what I’d said?
I stepped closer, reaching out a trembling arm to touch her shoulder, but then pulled it back before I did.
“Mama?” I said again. “It’s me. It’s Sailor.”
She blinked at me. I stared into her blue eyes, searching for anything that would let me know she knew who I was.
Her eyes lit up and my heart skipped a beat. “My Sailor. So small, so perfect. He would have loved her.” Her smile faded and her chin quivered.
Was she talking about Oliver Canavan, Josh’s and my father?
“Mama?” I said again. “I’m here. It’s Sailor. I came to find you.”
Mama shook her head, but her expression still had a faraway look, as if she didn’t hear me. “Sailor is at home, with her grandmother,” she said. “It’s better this way. It will all be better.”
“Mama,” I said again, trying to keep my voice even, “I’m here. It’s time to come home. I’ll take you back.” I was aware of Domnall’s presence in the doorway and I sucked in a steadying breath. I didn’t want him to know how I was crumbling inside.
Mama turned back to her drawings. “I have to leave the island,” she said. She shuffled the papers together into a messy stack. “I have to go. I have to save them.”
“Save who?” I asked.
But my mother kept stacking her papers, not even paying attention to me. “I have to find it,” she said. Her voice rose higher and higher as she spoke. “I promised. It will all be better when I go.”
Suddenly she reached out, grasping my hand tight in hers. Her eyes were wide and panicked. “Everything will be okay. Right?”
She looked so lost, so scared. Tears burned in my eyes, but I nodded. “Everything will be okay,” I said.
She relaxed, letting go of my hand and turning back to her desk. She unstacked her papers and set them in front of her. “Everything will be okay,” she echoed.
It felt like the conversation had come to an end. My mother turned her attention back to her drawings, leaving me to look at her sloping back.
I backed out of the room, pulling the door shut. My hands clenched into fists at my sides and I shuddered as I took a deep breath.
“You knew?” I asked in a hoarse whisper. I didn’t turn to look at Domnall. “You knew she was...like that?”
“She has been like that since I found her on the beach sixteen years ago,” he said.
Something lodged deep in my throat, a burning ache that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times I swallowed. “And you didn’t think to tell me before I...” I paused, trying to regain my composure. “You didn’t think I should know before I walked in there?”
I glared up at him. He didn’t look surprised or concerned. The scar on his face cut across his skin, leaving a jagged line that never moved.
“Would you have still wanted to see her if you had known what would be waiting for you in there?” he asked.
“She’s my mother,” I said.
“She is broken,” Domnall told me. “We keep her here to protect her.”
“She needs help. She doesn’t need to be hidden away in this ghost town. Does anyone else know she’s here?”
Domnall took a few steps, his gaze roaming over the decrepit homes. “This was once a beautiful village.” He reached out to pull a young bud from a tree, twirling the green leaves between his fingers. “Not only finfolk lived here. There were humans, as well.”
My eyes widened. “You have humans here?”
Domnall sneered as he shook his head. “Not anymore. The last of them died many years ago. Now this is a home for those who are lost.”
“How many others like her have there been?”
“A few, here and there over the years,” Domnall told me. “All of them sick in some way. They stay here until they pass on or return to the sea. We keep them away from the rest of the people here because their presence would only raise questions for which we do not yet have the answers. Your mother is the only one still here. I was not certain the woman we had here was your mother, until I came to see her myself two days ago. When I mentioned your name to her, she became agitated, like she did today.”
There was still so much I needed to know. I had come so far, only to find her like this.
“What happened to her?” I asked.
Domnall stepped closer, leaning down slightly so we were more at eye level. “Humans did this,” he said in a soft voice. “This is the effect they have on our people.”
I swallowed, clenching my fists tight at my sides.
“They destroy what makes us finfolk. They make us live in fear, ashamed of who we are. You know this. You have seen it.”
Memories flashed before my eyes. Elizabeth Connors and her friends, laughing as they tormented me again and again. Sneers shot my way in the hall, being pushed into lockers, mashed potatoes crushed into my hair in the cafeteria. Dylan at my side, continually telling me to ignore it all, even though I wanted to explode and make them all as miserable as they tried to make me.
Yes, I knew what humans were capable of doing to us.
But I was also part human and the two sides of me battled for control of my thoughts.
“They are killing our people,” Domnall told me. “We once thought they were good for us. We kept some of them here as toys, trinkets from the outside world. But they poisoned our land. When they mated with our people, they introduced a weakness we had not expected. We learned our lesson too late. Their influence is spreading and killing the mists that keep us from their sight. Soon, we will no longer remain hidden. They will find us and they will take this island as they have taken our homes before.”
Domnall’s blue eyes looked back at me, his face soft and open. “I need your help to save us. To keep everyone from becoming like your mother.”
“How?” I asked.
“Hether Blether needs its people back in order to survive. Tell me where your people are,” he said in a soothing tone. “I can bring them home.”
“What good can we do? My people don’t even know for sure that this place exists.”
Domnall ran a hand over my head, smiling tenderly. “You have more magic inside you than you know, Sailor Mooring.”
“Finfolk aren’t magical,” I said.
He laughed. “Do you think the song is only meant to call us home? We speak the essence of the water and earth. We can manipulate them and the beings created from them to our will.”
I couldn’t imagine Grandma ever willingly leaving Swans Landing. Even a pa
rt of me missed the island and wanted to go back.
“No,” I said in a firm voice. “I’m not telling you where the others are.”
Domnall’s expression was kind and gentle as he reached for my hand. “Sailor, please understand we are only trying to help you. Help all of you. We want everyone to live healthy, peaceful lives. You can do that here. This is a safe place.”
His fingers were icy cold when they touched mine and I jerked back from his grasp. Despite his reassuring words, something about this place didn’t feel safe at all.
“Thank you for bringing me to my mother,” I told him.
I pushed past him and hurried down the path, back toward the dock where Artair waited.
If my mama was the only living lost finfolk here besides Josh and me, what exactly had happened to the others who’d left Swans Landing?
Chapter Eighteen
“Maybe I should talk to her,” Josh said. He squatted in the sand on the part of the beach directly under our suite. The large door in the floor gaped open above us, and a rope ladder hung down to allow us access in and out. Josh kept his gaze focused on the approaching water as he spoke. His hand shot out as the tide rolled in, sending a splash up around him. “Damn,” he muttered when he came up empty-handed.
Josh had been trying to catch small fish that became trapped in the tide pool he had created, which he would then use as bait for larger fish. While I’d been visiting my mother, he had spent the morning carving a homemade fishing pole from a long stick and an old piece of string he’d found in the cabin.
Josh didn’t like being indebted to Domnall for food, and so he had come up with a plan to catch food for us. Apparently, this involved the human way of catching fish with a pole and bait.
“She doesn’t know where she is,” I reminded him. Mama had seemed so empty, so hollow and unfocused. A part of me wished I had never come here and had never found her. Shame flooded through me at those thoughts. She was my mother, and I couldn’t leave her here for the rest of her life.
Submerging (Swans Landing) Page 10
