by Shea Berkley
Nari’s father cast a quick glance at the new wife. “I’ve heard rumors …”
My stomach tightened uncomfortably. “I can’t stop people from talking.”
“I suspect–can only imagine–’tis a painful condition you’ve been forced to endure.”
“At times…” I frowned. What was he getting at?
His gaze intensified, narrowing to peer at me through the veil of pipe smoke. “And do you believe your father?”
“He…”
What could I say? I would never disgrace my father to anyone. He was a good man. The best of men. My jaw grew stiff; my tongue thick. I looked down at my hands. My knuckles had turned white as they gripped my knees painfully. “My-my father would never lie.”
“It is what I believe…”
I glanced up at Nari’s father. The smoke from his pipe curled lazily around his head, drawing my gaze to the taut skin around his eyes. When I wasn’t looking, he had taken hold of Nari’s hand, a simple enough gesture, but there seemed to be a deeper meaning to it–a protective act.
I straightened in my chair, squaring my shoulders and looking him in the eye. “I would love and honor Nari for the rest of my life.”
“I know you would, but what kind of life would that be? One filled with ridicule? You can’t pretend not to know. Gossip follows you everywhere. If she married you…well…”
My heart skittered roughly in my chest and my lungs ached as my breathing suddenly stilled. I saw my once full future spin back in time to the moment of my birth and my father’s fantastical tale of a beautiful yet vengeful nix who lived in the lake. I’d never stood a chance at a normal life. Never.
Within the horror of the moment, a seed of anger burst forth. Yet again, I was being defined by a tale that held no truth. Everyone thought they knew me. Everyone had their own opinions about me and my family. I had tried to defy the superstition that determined my place in the village, but it hadn’t mattered. I was and would always be doomed.
I quickly stood and executed a quick bow. My throat convulsed as I gazed down at my feet. I’d tried to place them in a world of reality, but no one wished to see me there. I was a living myth. Cursed by God. A danger. Unwanted.
And he was right. I could not subject Nari to that kind of life.
“Thank you for your time,” I managed to say.
I headed for the door, passing the new wife and her gaping visage, outpacing Nari and her pained expression and soft pleas to stay. But I could not remain here. How did she expect me to look at her and be content knowing she could never be mine?
Flinging myself out of the house, I came up short. The neighbors, who were drawn by that horrible keening, had collected around the door and were debating on whether they should intrude on the sorrow within. I pushed through them just as the new wife burst out. Her tale of woe rose from her lips to encompass the whole village. “Safe, my friends. We are safe, though only by a hairsbreadth did we find our luck.”
I lengthened my stride, focusing on the shadows of the forest. Only there would I find peace. Only there could I lick my wounded pride.
“What disaster did you escape?” I heard a woman ask.
The new wife laughed. A laugh of the nervous. A laugh of the disbelieving. “A disastrous marriage.”
I plunged into the night, ignoring my name quivering on Nari’s raised voice. The plaintive cry caused me to shudder. She could not want me. Not now. Not after her father made it clear how horrible our life together would be. I didn’t expect her to follow. Truthfully, I believed her father would have stopped her. I should have known better. On the surface Nari was a beautiful woman, but beneath the skin, in the depths of her soul, she was and would always be the dirt encrusted lad I’d known in my youth. A fighter. A rebel. But not a redeemer. Her family would not allow her that role, and I could not blame them.
I thundered through the woods in a random pattern. I’d forgotten who was tracking me. I expected the darkness to defeat her. It didn’t. The moon shone bright, almost as if to point a silvery finger at my progress. I moved faster, quieter. I climbed over fallen trees and pushed through heavy brush that scratched my skin and tore at my hair.
When I finally made it to the pool, I collapsed in a gasping heap. No one knew of this place. Nari would never find me.
What a mess. What a hopeless endeavor. I’d been warned repeatedly, but I’d hoped. I’d dared to reach beyond what was acceptable. I’d wanted what could never be. I stared at the water, thinking of the nix and hating her more than ever before. “I’m never going to be done with you, am I? Even though you don’t exist, you do to everyone else, and because of that, I’ll never really be free.”
The water held no answers for me. It lapped quietly at the bank, its cool, dark waters tempting yet deceitful. As the moon lost its luster to a bevy of clouds, its light muted to a soft shimmer and the sound of Nari’s approach shattered the isolation I’d found. I wasn’t surprised, but my heart was too broken to face her.
In a moment of weakness, I almost wished the nix were real. At least then I’d have a place. A purpose. To sacrifice oneself for the entertainment of others had to be better than living with this dull, deep pain of constant ridicule.
The water stirred as the mist swirled to life and began its journey over the gentle swells toward land. I could always count on the mist to infiltrate the forest. As soon as it did, I would do the most painful thing possible, something my father could never do. I would escape. I’d leave the village for someplace new, where no one knew me or the tale of the nix.
“Hide me,” I whispered to the rising mist mournfully. Pathetically.
As if by magic, the mist rushed forward and engulfed the pool and the ground where I stood.
10
“R
yne.” Nari’s voice held a muffled quality to it as if she pressed a wad of cotton in front of her mouth. She pushed further into the fog. “Are you here? Please, Ryne. I know you are.” A sob caught on the last word, but she continued forward. “You have to be here.”
I inched around the spot where she stood, barely making out her form in the heavy mist.
She took a step forward. “Why did you leave? Why did you let them scare you away?”
I held my tongue. It was best I melt into the forest like the myth I’d become. Over time, she’d forget all about me.
“Don’t do this,” she cried, moving dangerously close to the pool. “I love you. Only you. If I don’t care what anyone says, why do you?”
I hesitated. I fought back the words that sprang to my tongue. She didn’t know how hard life would be. People would always be staring. Always asking. Always laughing. The new wife was right. That wasn’t any way to show someone love, by subjecting them to that kind of life.
Just as I turned my back to go, I heard a sharp gasp and a loud splash. Nari had fallen into the pool. I shouldn’t have worried. She knew how to swim, but I listened for the telltale sign of her climbing free of the water.
I heard nothing. No sputter. No drip of water from drenched clothes.
“Nari?”
I moved closer to the pool, blindly feeling my way. The mist was so thick, I had to get on my hands and knees and feel my way to the edge.
“Nari?” I called louder, more forcefully. At the continued silence, my heart surged. “Nari.”
If she didn’t surface…
I couldn’t wait. I dove into the water and clawed my way to the bottom. I’d never before given a thought to how large the pool was, but now it felt never-ending as I pushed my hands out to search for Nari like a blind man would use his cane. My lungs burned, but I refused to give up. The very next moment, I found her trapped against the rocks, as if she’d been stuffed between two boulders. How had she managed it? I took hold of her face and clamped my lips to hers and blew air into her lungs. I bolted to the surface, my mind in a fog of terror, took a deep breath and dove back down. When I returned to where I’d found her, only her dress was left floating in the c
urrent. I made a quick search of the area before bolting back to the surface. When I crested, the moon had reappeared and cut a silvery beam through the mist. The play of silver light lent an eeriness to the pool, but it was the scream that sent chills down my spine.
Fear spiked through me. “Nari.” I cried, twisting this way and that as I treaded water. Where was the sound coming from? It echoed again and again, ripping into my ears and into my heart. “Nari.”
A deep rush of water pushed against me, and in the next instant, I was jerked beneath the surface, hurling toward the opposite side of the pool at an incredible speed. I curled toward the hands that held me, instinctively wanting to pry myself free, but as my hands touched my captor, I immediately knew the curve of that wrist. A quick glance up showed me Nari’s terrified face. I didn’t have time to wonder at what was going on. Our momentum suddenly slammed us into the far bank. I tried to protect her, but I wasn’t quick enough. Nari hit the solid rock, and then her head lolled to the side as her grip loosed my leg. Bubbles rushed from her mouth, and she began to sink. I grabbed her with one arm and with a powerful push, I shot us toward the surface.
I sucked in air and tenderly held Nari’s head above water as I clamored toward the bank. “Wake up, Nari,” I begged. “I need you to wake up.” I again blew air into her mouth and was quickly rewarded with her violent fit of coughing. She suddenly stiffened in my arms and began to fight me.
“It’s me. Ryne,” I shouted, and gave her a quick shake.
When she finally managed to recognize me, she burst into tears. When we reached the bank, I barely had to help her as she launched herself toward dry land. When she made it to her feet, she whirled around and shouted, “Hurry, Ryne. Get out of the water.”
Exhausted, I pulled myself free and knelt on the bank, my head drooping between my shoulders, too tired to move another inch.
Nari knelt before me in her thin, sodden shift and stiff corset. She soon began to shiver from cold and shock. Water streaked her face and her hair stuck wetly to her neck and shoulders. She raised her quaking arms and wrapped them around my neck, molding herself to my body. I held her close, still fearing she would go limp, and sickened by the thought of her near drowning. “It’s all right,” I cooed soothingly. “You’re safe now.”
“Don’t ever leave me again.”
I kissed her neck, her hair and the small shell of her ear and whispered fervently, “Never. I love you, and I always will.”
She hugged me tighter, whispering over and over again how much she loved me.
I rubbed her back, heating her skin with the friction of my hands and after a while, I nudged her gently away. The look in her eyes held a wildness that unsettled me and I immediately wanted to pull her close again, but I had to know. “What happened?”
“Dear God, Ryne.” The shock of her voice matched that of her face. “She’s real.”
“Who is real?”
Her full lips thinned with alarm. “Your father was right. The tale is true.”
I shook my head. “No. Listen to what are you saying.” There had to be another explanation.
She took my head in her hands and forced me to look at her. “The nix is real.”
The truth in her deep blue gaze scared me more than I was willing to admit.
Yet, when I opened my mouth to deny what she claimed, a pair of arms shot out from behind me and snatched me back into the pool.
The water rushed over me as Nari fell to the bank, screaming. Her arms stretched out toward where I had disappeared, her face wreathed in horror as I was pulled deeper into the water and out of sight.
11
I am the nix. I have been since the beginning, placed here by an unseen hand to tend to this lake and protect it from harm. I take what I need, surviving off the generous portions given into my care. For many, many years, in which time did not matter, the lake flourished, and I was happy living in my crystal clear, underwater playground. Not once did I wish for what I could not have. The decree that I stay in the lake and never leave was not a hardship, for I loved my world.
Then man came.
The unseen hand placed him on my shore, and I grew curious. Hiding in the thick forests of cattails and yellow iris, amid a thin wisp of mist, I watched. The man was told to tend to the earth. Day after day he toiled, back bent under the strain as sweat glistened on his skin–skin that barely changed colors. His was either pale peach in the cool morning or bright pink in the hot sun. He didn’t have the array of brilliant hues I had to choose from. Even so, there was something appealing about him. Pity washed over me like the tug of the tide. It pulled ever stronger at my heart. He worked so hard for the little he harvested. Surely there was something I could do?
One day, when the man drew near the water to cleanse his hands, I acted on impulse. With a flick of my body, I gathered a small school of fish and drove them toward shore. As the wave grew, the man stood and backed away. Just when the man was about to turn and run, the wave crashed, and to his delight, fish flew from the lake and landed far ashore, flopping and flipping as they gasped in vain at the receding waters. The loss of life was great, but my love for the man had grown greater.
Far offshore, I poked my head from the water, eager to see if the man would accept my gift. Long moments passed as he surveyed the dying fish. He appeared confused, even disturbed by the unsolicited gift. Had I thought wrong? Did man not eat what nourished me? My fears were soon laid to rest as he quickly scooped up the fish and built a fire. What he did not eat, he smoked and packed away for a future meal.
The man grew healthy and strong under my care. I continued to sacrifice the fish whenever I saw him gaze longingly into the lake. But my gift was not enough. I wished to touch this man. To speak with him as others did. Yet bound by water, I could do nothing. Then one day as the mist hung close, I lingered near the shore and hid amid the tree roots, watching him, longing for him…
He saw me. It was the briefest glimpse, but that was all it took. In a panic, I dove beneath the water.
As if in a dream, he came after me, flailing against the crests, shouting for me to come back. I glanced over my shoulder. Should I? It was my heart’s desire, but was it wise? I had watched him for so long…tended to his needs with a lover’s care. Could he feel the same for me?
I turned toward shore. He had made it beyond the shallows. I giggled as I watched his graceless swim. Did he think to find me up there? As if reading my mind, he sank beneath the waves, and down toward me, his limbs still batting erratically at the water. I waited, circling below him. In my excitement, my skin flashed from blue to yellow to a burnt red. It had begun the change to purple when he reached me. I circled around to face him, a smile of welcome on my face and came up short. He did not look as I expected. His cheeks were ruby red and puffed; his eyes bulging. As soon as he saw me, air rushed from his mouth in a gurgle of panic, and his thrashing grew even more volatile.
He could not breathe. He would die. I immediately clasped my arms around his chest and pulled him to the surface. It wasn’t enough. He had grown limp. A being of the land, he could not stay in the water. I had to get him to shore, yet I could not leave the water. A thought grew and crystallized. Closing my eyes, I called forth a heavy mist–so heavy that it shrouded the woods.
With the moisture rising thickly from the lake, I carried him to shore and laid him on his side in the gentle surge of water and foam, careful to keep my own feet planted firmly in the lake.
Water bubbled from his mouth as he sought air. With a twist of his body, he spat, and when he had expelled all the water from his lungs, he turned toward me. Unsure and with a hint of disbelief, he stared, his eyes a clear blue, like the edges of my lake on a new spring day.
I had matched my skin tone to his–a beautiful dusty rose. Regretfully, I had no control over my hair. It dried quickly in the air, and with a self-conscious nudge, I pushed the bulk of it behind my back where it tumbled past my hips like a lustrous blue black wave.
�
��Who are you?” he asked, his gaze roaming my form from head to toe.
Could he not guess? I smiled and dropped to my knees beside him. He startled as I touched his skin along his jaw. “Warm,” I murmured, “like the water near the surface.” My fingers swept up his temple to his hair. “Soft, like the fins of angelfish.”
As I continued to touch his neck and then his clothes, exploring as much of him as I dared, his skin turned a mottle pink and blue, and he began to shiver.
So his skin could change to more than two colors. I again matched my skin tone to his...though not as beautiful as the rosy hue. I only wanted to please him. When my fingers traced back up to his temple, I noticed how dry my skin had become. The mist was not heavy enough. I had to return to the lake. But not before I satisfied my longing.
I bent forward, hovering a hairsbreadth from him, drinking in every detail of his face before I bestowed on him a kiss. He immediately stopped shivering. When I pulled away, my blood sang a song of longing to him, and his lips clung to mine.
“No. Don’t go,” he breathed sweetly.
His skin was again the dusty rose I admired so much. I smiled and backed away.
“Will you come again? Say you will. You must.”
I nodded. And with that silent promise, I slipped into the waves, and swam back to my home, rapture making my bones join my new song.
I came to him in the mist, again and again. I found it was much easier to conjure it at night when the sun did not fight my magic. We rarely talked, but when we did, he seemed perplexed, even irritated.
His hands tightened on my shoulders. “Let me come to you tomorrow. Let me meet your family.”
“You cannot.”
My denial wasn’t meant to be cruel, though it seemed to hurt him. I touched his face. “I have no family.”
His countenance lifted. “Then you must live with me.”
I shook my head.
