“I understand,” Elyssa said. Boy, did she.

Kadir nodded once and then he was gone.

She remained in the heart chamber for the rest of the…what, afternoon? It was impossible to say now that she had been reminded of the strange passage of time. She joined Kadir and the other warriors for meals. Tension had increased in the waters. The easy camaraderie she’d experienced in the first few meals was gone. Her selection of Tial changed the tone permanently. The others treated her with more distance.

But also more respect.

She rubbed her elbows. Was this how Aya felt? Doing the right thing and standing firm against strong opposition was harder than getting along.

That wasn’t the only reason for less boisterousness and dwindled laughter. Warriors went on triple patrols, returned exhausted, and barely shoveled in food before they collapse in the courtyard gardens, asleep. The mer who were not patrolling or sleeping worked feverishly to excavate the Sea Opals locked in the ancient city.

Once they paid the debt for Elyssa, then they could get another bride. More warriors would join their city. Life would become easier.

Something had to be done…

Elyssa focused on growing fins with all her might. Nothing happened. Actually, she got sweaty and irritated, and the tiny blossom in her hair wilted. Forcing her fins was a bust.

She’d been concentrating on the Life Tree when Kadir limped into the heart chamber. She’d seen him and her heart had swelled with joy. He was alive! Tears had come into her eyes. Thank you. She raced to him and her fins had unfurled.

Tears sparkled behind her eyes just remembering it.

Elyssa scrubbed her face, gathered up her rinds from the latest meal that she finished after Kadir led another group to excavate the ruins, and pushed off the green castle wall.

Gailen shouted from the gardens below. “Queen Elyssa! Your fins!”

She looked back. Long pink streamers trailed behind her toes.

There they were!

She kicked. Her fins swished, shooting her across the courtyard into the opposite wall. Oof. It was softer than the granite petals sheltering the Life Tree, but it still didn’t have a lot of give. She rubbed her bruised nose.

The fins sucked back in and became human feet again.

No! Come back. She grabbed her foot and flexed every which way. Angry sweat leaked from her pores. They were gone.

But…wait a minute. What the heck was she doing? The secret was to be calm, meditate, and fill with joy. She kicked and — yes, fins! — she flew.

“Very fine.” Gailen popped up from gardening duty and floated alongside her. “You are no longer a confined young fry.”

She had done it.

Elyssa kicked toward the entrance.

Gailen turned effortlessly. “Where are you going? The Life Tree?”

“The old ruin.”

He darted in front of her. “You cannot.”

“I made my fins.”

“It is a long distance to the ruin.”

“I don’t mind.”

“No?”

She tried to stop. But she couldn’t. She flailed and braced for the crash.

Gailen floated effortlessly out of her path. Confusion made him tip his head as she sailed past. “What are you doing now?”

She bounced against the green wall. Near the exit, it was hard as marble. At least she wasn’t going fast.

Elyssa pushed off again and kicked to the tunnel. She almost said, “Failing,” but instead she took a moment to think harder. What was she really doing? “Practicing.”

He accepted it without comment.

See? He didn’t even question her. “Where’s Tial?”

“Resting. I will awaken him.” Gailen pivoted.

“Wait a minute.” She brought up her knees and focused on slowing. The motion made her somersault gently. The castle rotated around her.

If anyone complained about pulling endless patrols with no sleep, it ought to be Tial. He had guarded her from Kadir’s appointment onward. He waited in the corridor while she was in the heart chamber. Kadir finally told him to rest for the first time during today’s meal, and he had nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

“Tial should rest,” she decided finally. “But I do need a guard outside. Would you mind?”

Gailen’s face blanked. “Me? As your guard?”

“Tial can’t guard me all alone. I need at least four or five warriors I can rely on so you can get in breaks. And you’ve always listened to what I say.” For better or for worse, like during the wedding feast, when her tossed-off comments had fired him up and almost started a mass exodus to claim brides.

His shoulders went back and his pepper-orange chest puffed out. “I accept this great honor.”

Great honor? She laughed softly. “I’m so glad to hear that. But I don’t want to cause you problems. You have to tell me if I’m making impossible orders that are going to cause discord with the other warriors.”

“The other warriors whine like tired young fry.”

“You have to tell me,” she emphasized. “I’m trusting you.”

His chest puffed. “I will tell you anything you wish to know.”

That was kind of reassuring, actually. “Is there any reason not to go outside and practice right now?”

“Some warriors will think it is untraditional,” he said immediately. “If there are predators, you must return inside.”

That sounded realistic. “Let’s go.”

Gailen told Balim about the change of guard and their destination. The healer looked up from the ancient city’s diagrams and squinted his acknowledgment. If Elyssa wanted an excited cheerleader celebrating her fins, skeptical Balim was not her best choice.

Swimming with fins was fun and weird. It felt like she was learning to drive a stick shift for the first time. If she kicked too hard, she’d slam into the wall, but if she moved too cautiously, her fins would roll up into her feet and she’d be stuck with the doggy paddle.

Gailen trailed Elyssa out of the castle so she had more room to practice. In the open, she zoomed across the city, around the Life Tree, and down the stem column to the rocky ground where it anchored. Coral exploded in a thousand spiny colors. Small fish fluttered like butterflies and larger ones flapped like birds. She lost her fins and recovered them, practicing the transitions.

At her request, Gailen gave her pointers on how to move faster and control her direction.

“You never stop,” he said, as she crashed again into the warm, black sand where the Life Tree root anchored. “That strange pose you make, with your arms and feet in front, will not stop your forward momentum. You must kick harder to change to the opposite direction.”

She bounced on her human feet off the sandy bottom. “That’s like saying ‘I never fail, I only succeed in the wrong direction.’”

“Exactly.” Gailen did not appear to understand why it tickled her funny bone.

She relaxed and rested her back against the thick cable that anchored the Life Tree. It was curved, but so thick it would take at least her and Kadir and Soren to wrap their arms around it, and they might not touch fingers. Long green streamers floated in the current. Her toes dug into the warm sand. The thick roots bulged close to the surface. It was as peaceful as the ocean shore near her parents’ home.

She wanted to bring Kadir here.

Gailen picked up a sharp piece of chert from the sand, nicked the column, and began feeding the long, green streamers back into to the thick stem. The Life Tree glowed brighter as he did it.

That chert must be raw adamantium, or else the cut would have poisoned the stem. “What are you doing?”

“The Life Tree puts out feelers searching for stronger anchors. There are no boulders or cliffs nearby. The Life Tree is strongest. I am anchoring its feelers to itself.”

What a strange and beautiful concept. Now that she looked, there were small loops all over the stem. Little knots where the streamers had sought for a more powerful external rock, and the mer redirected its strength inward.

“You have a green thumb,” she said.

He looked at his thumbs. They were bent slightly crooked, as though he were double-jointed.

“It means you like to garden.”

“Ah. Yes. Gardening makes it easier.” His expression set into something less pleasant. He finished feeding the vine in and started another.

She pushed. “Easier?”

“To wait.” He frowned. “I cannot resonate with the Life Tree. I cannot make it bring forth blossoms or seeds or castles to secure brides. Only you and King Kadir can do that. And I know you will. It takes time.”

Her heart swelled. Like Tial — like all of them — Gailen only wanted the chance to meet the right person and fall in love. Start his family and thrive.

“It will happen,” she promised.

“I know.” He glanced at her from the side. “When I left my old city to come here, a raiding party caught me twice. They broke my hands so I could not escape. They told me I would never see a bride.”

He stared at his crooked thumbs for a long moment. Lost in thought.

It was suddenly hard for her to swallow. She got past the painful lump and focused. “But you did escape.”

He glanced at her. His brows relaxed and he was young Chris O’Donnell again, sunny and grinning. “And I am also seeing, and speaking to, and honored as the personal guard of my king’s bride.”

She wasn’t the only one trying so hard.

Making a good impression, trying not to cause disruptions, wanting to help Kadir — the other warriors felt the same way about her.

She was their queen.

Rather than a representative of Van Cartier Cosmetics who was supposed to secure a trade deal for Sea Opals so she and Aya and countless other would-be mermaids could live their dreams, Elyssa needed to be a representative of her warriors, securing the chance for them to live theirs.

“Right,” she said, making a fist of encouragement. “We’ll raise the old city, start a sushi restaurant, and meet a hundred brides.”

He laughed, a genuine bubbling vibration in his wide, pepper-orange tattooed chest. “We will need more warriors for a hundred brides.”

“They’ll flock here once they see how great it is.”

Behind her, the stem seemed to glow. The Life Tree, too, shared her vision.

Yapping up above caught her attention. Her small, orange octopus was flying down the stem toward her.

Gailen cocked his brow. “That is amusing. House guardians do not usually leave their castle.”

It reminded Elyssa of one of her stepdad’s terriers, small and fierce and bright. “Benji.”

Quickly overtaking the orange octopus swam Lotar, Iyen, and Tial.

“Queen Elyssa.” Tial spoke formally. The dark hollows beneath his eyes looked better; he had needed his rest. “It is time to go to the surface.”

Time to see Aya, then.

Maybe they could avoid Chastity Angel. Elyssa couldn’t wait to tell Aya all about her future life. She would be on their side for saving the mer race and finding her warriors brides.