“You missed so much! We learned about the weird rituals they enact in Asbezouth. Did you know they used to deliberately drown two-leggers? Like, as a sport? Though now they just reenact it as part of celebrations,” Starla singsonged, practically dancing around me in her excitement.
I nodded, looking around nervously. I’d narrowly avoided my wraith as I swam toward my first class of the day. Students were milling and talking after breakfast, which I’d skipped.
I was hungry and I’d still skipped breakfast. Ravenous, really. After all, I’d slept for two days.
But I was only supposed to eat in the Royal kitchen, and I knew without a doubt that Dane would be there. I couldn’t face him. I hoped I wouldn’t have to.
Well, not until my second class of the day, anyway.
I exhaled, convinced that my mirror image had gone elsewhere. Annaruth said there was some sort of proximity safeguard in place. It all sounded very complicated to me.
“You look better,” Rip said with a wry grin as he slid onto the bench beside me. Starla took a seat on my other side as students started to settle.
“Better?”
“You were a little stressed out,” he said mildly.
“Frazzled,” Starla agreed. I glanced from one to the other and sighed dramatically, but I was smiling. Having friends who told me the truth was a gift. Lila had been like that, too, commiserating when things went wrong but letting me know when I was part of the problem I was complaining about.
Or the whole problem, once or twice.
I frowned, realizing I hadn’t seen Lila since right after the Trials. I had no idea how she was. My stepmother was out of favor with the Royals because of me. Had she taken that out on my sweet friend?
I made a note on my scroll to ask Annaruth about it.
In the end, I didn’t have to worry about an awkward encounter with the Prince. He swam in just after the professor and took a spot near the door. I had to try not to look at him. And I was pretty sure he wasn’t looking at me.
But when the class was over, he waited for me by the door. Just like he always did. Without a word, he started swimming down the hallway.
I took a deep breath and swam beside him.
Magical transformation was next.
“Are you ready?”
I nodded, feeling less confident than I looked. Or hoped I looked. The swim to the small classroom had been quietly awkward. But once the class began, Jonquar put us through our paces. And then he made his announcement.
Today, we were attempting to transform into two-leggers.
“I’ll wait to create the air bubble. Begin at will!”
For the first time, Dane and I looked at each other without remembering that horrible conversation. I nodded. He nodded back. We were about to do something dangerous. It was also the reason we were here.
I closed my eyes and imagined legs. I felt a ripple go through my body. I felt my fins wither and become part my scales, which were smoothing out. I felt my tail begin to divide.
It was, quite frankly, horrifying.
I’d felt it before, of course. I’d felt it in the Trials. It had been terrifying, but it had happened so fast. I hadn’t had time to think about it or dread it.
But this time, I was in control. I wanted this. And as unpleasant as it was to feel your flesh change, it didn’t hurt. It was just really weird. We didn’t just change our appearance with magic. We changed our very cells.
I forced myself to continue until I was sure I had legs. I wiggled them experimentally.
Uh-huh. They were there. I opened my eyes and looked down. Two pale appendages floated below my uniform. Just like my arms. But longer.
I glanced at Dane, and he had done it as well. He had a hand over his nose and mouth. I frowned at him. What in water was he doing?
An air bubble appeared around us both as we fell to the seabed. Dane took a great heaving gasp of air. And I . . . didn’t.
“Lungs! Don’t forget to transform your lungs!”
I gasped, my body searching for water and not air. I was reverse drowning until Dane shoved me out of the bubble, breaking the seal and flooding it with water.
I felt my gills working overtime as I watched Dane transform back to his Mer shape. I still had my legs. I was glad, if only because I wanted to kick something!
“Sorry!” I said, feeling like a jerk for cutting his transformation short. “You can go again. I’ll sit this one out.”
I plopped down, folding my legs.
Huh, these things were kind of handy.
“You both need to practice walking. Perhaps a half-transformation is best for now. But Tri, you must learn to create lungs!”
I nodded and watched as Dane grew legs a couple of times. He grimaced each time as if he also found it uncomfortable. I should have been ignoring him, but I couldn’t.
He was really good at magic, and I was impressed.
As for my pasty legs, I stretched them this way and that, staring at them. Of course, my legs have freckles too, I thought sourly.
“That’s enough for today,” Jonquar said a little while later. “Ah, Marcum, just in time.”
I smiled tentatively at Marcum. He’d been an ally in the Trials, but we hadn’t spoken much since then. I knew he was very powerful and that his abilities were beyond rare.
“Tri, its good to see you. In person,” he added with a chuckle.
“What do you . . .” I trailed off, realizing he must have seen through the wraiths’ performances. Or, did he mean premonitions?
He just shook his head, murmuring, “Not now.” Dane cleared his throat and I said goodbye, rolling my scroll and swimming hastily for the arched doorway. I was as jumpy as a teeger (I had learned in Human History and Etiquette that teegers were large cats and that cats were jumpy).
“Where are you going?” Dane said from beside me. I was swimming fast, faster than I should inside the Academy hallways. But not too fast for him.
“I need . . .” I stopped and stared at him. No one was around. “I need some . . . open space. Or something,” I finished lamely. “Rip showed me a place.”
“Let’s go.”
I nodded, and we took the less populated corridors toward the center of the Palace. In the great hall, we looked around. When no one was looking, we swam straight up. I folded myself into the alcove, my tail dangling over the edge.
“Better?”
“Yes,” I sighed. I needed to clear my mind. But we also had to talk.
“So, no lunch?” Dane cocked an eyebrow. “Batte will be hurt.”
I shook my head.
“That feeling . . . with the legs. I think I lost my appetite.”
“It’s like pulling the claw meat from the lobster,” he agreed.
“Yes, except we are the lobster.” I stared down at the ornate mosaic floor. You could see patterns from up here that weren’t visible from below. I squinted, really seeing it for the first time.
“Is that . . . a rose?”
Dane looked down and nodded.
“Yes, the stem is wrapped in seaweed.”
I frowned, momentarily distracted by the revelation. We had just learned about flowers in Human History and Etiquette. I’d seen them in paintings but nothing on this scale. They were fascinating to me. They weren’t squishy like seaweed. They weren’t edible, or very few of them were. They were just . . . pretty.
And apparently, they wouldn’t exist without bees, another animal humans were spraying out of existence with their pesticides and lawn fertilizers.
Stupid two-leggers.
“That’s odd.”
“You know, you’re right. It is odd. But they are everywhere, if you know where to look.”
“Really? Why a rose? Were your ancestors fascinated by two-leggers?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t know. But I know who to ask. We’ll go after Combat.”
“Okay.” I chewed my lip and exhaled. “I know it’s not your fault.”
I felt him go very still.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “I was so disgusted by the way they were talking about you.”
“It’s only going to get worse. Unless we just avoid each other completely.”
He stiffened beside me, then relaxed. I stared at our tails, dangling off the alcove side by side.
“That’s not what I want, Tri.”
“Well, me neither! You are one of my best friends! It’s not fair. But I think making me look like your . . . I don’t know what . . . well, that didn’t help at all!”
He looked at me, the muscle in his jaw ticking. He ran his hands through his hair in exasperation.
“So, we do what we want. I don’t want to live in fear, Tri.”
“I don’t know what I want!” I burst out, a little too loudly.
We stared at each other, both of us breathing a little hard.
“I know that,” he said carefully. “I just meant . . .”
“How did this get so mixed up?” I moaned, resting my face in my hands. “I just wanted to be a Spark.”
“Is that all?” Dane said dryly. It wasn’t a question. I looked at him for a split second before I started laughing. Dane looked a little bit alarmed. But then he was laughing too.
“Come on, we have time to grab something before Combat if we hurry.”
I nodded and we sped for the Royal kitchen. We hadn’t really settled anything, but somehow, I felt lighter. No matter what, we were friends. The rest of it would sort itself out.
I hoped it would, anyway. For the moment, we had enough to worry about with mysterious cloaked traitors and missing fathers and, you know, hopefully staying alive through finals.
So, not much.