Magic Three of Solatia Read Online Free Page A

and took the tail from Sianna. Their hands touched briefly, the girl’s warm and soft, the mermaid’s cold and rough. Sianna looked deeply into the mermaid’s black eyes. They were fathomless, they were ageless. The mermaid smiled again as she slipped into the tail. Then she dove back into the sea.

8. A Strange Pact
    I N THE MORNING WHEN Sianna woke, though it was nearer noon according to the sun, she ate and drank what Mary had left. It was then she found the three small buttons at the bottom of her cup.
    “Thank you,” she called out to the sea. “Thank you for everything.”
    There was no sign that she had been heard, so Sianna rose and went down to the water’s edge. She slipped out of her skirt and jacket and left them lying neatly folded on the shore. Then she waded into the water and swam with strong strokes out to the middle of the cove. The Gard-lann, the golden king-lark, circled her head as she swam. Playfully she splashed water up at it, and it turned indignantly and flew back to shore.
    Sianna took a deep breath and dived. As she went down, down, down to the bottom of the sea, she began to feel the wonder of it again. Little spotted fish and big bloated groupers swam by. A many-legged squid pulsed along near the bottom. And ahead Sianna saw the galleon which Dread Mary called home.
    She circled around the galleon half looking for the bones of the fishermen and half fearful lest she find them. But bones and dead fishermen were as much part of the storyteller’s art as was Mary’s wickedness. At least that was how it seemed under the sea to Sianna. She rose for a quick breath, then dove again.
    This time Sianna swam directly to the ship and, pulling herself along the rail, came to the forecastle. Hoping that at least that part of the legend was true, she knocked three times upon the wood. But there was no answering knock. The last bits of air in her chest were aching for release, and so Sianna swam quickly to the top. Gasping for breath, she was just deciding whether she was strong enough to go down again when there was a loud splash behind her. Sianna turned and there was the seawitch smiling at her and holding out her webbed hands.
    Without a word, Sianna took the hands in hers. Then Dread Mary drew her down under the waves and together they searched out the hidden caves and grottos of the deep, played with schools of flying fish, rode on rays, and even straddled porpoises for a race across the cove. Whenever the girl tired, the mermaid would hold her up. Whenever the girl grew short of breath, the mermaid would bring her to the surface.
    Later, when they were both exhausted from the swim, they came ashore. The mermaid doffed her tail, and the two played a game of tosses with an ivory shell.
    While they were resting, Sianna made up a song for the seawitch that went like this:
    My mother is the sea,
    And from her I have come.
    She feeds and comforts me.
    Her water is my home.
    She rocks me when I sleep,
    She holds me when I ail.
    She’s big and wide and deep
    And never shall she fail
    To comfort me, to come to me,
    Drifting down, derry derry down.
    My mother is the sea,
    And to her I shall go
    When aught shall trouble me,
    Seamother she will know.
    She holds me when I drift,
    And cushions every fall.
    For giving is her gift,
    Forgiving is her all.
    She comforts me, she comes to me,
    Drifting down, derry derry down.
    When Sianna had finished, the mermaid clapped her hands with delight. “Another trade, dear child.”
    Sianna was silent for a moment. She feared the witch might want the buttons back.
    But Mary, sensing her fear, said, “No, no. Here is my trade. You will teach me the songs of the shore, and I will teach you the spells of the sea. For ever, it seems to me, I have loved singing.”
    Sianna said, “But how long shall such an exchange take? I fear that my father’s poor heart is breaking while he waits for me on the land.”
    The seawitch looked away. “Let the man be unhappy then. For it