Free Son of a Mermaid by Katie O'Sullivan Page A

for all the tribes and the High Council’s seat of power. If she was allowed to make any Journey at all.
    “My mother fell in love with a Gaelic fisherman across the Atlantic,” Lybio continued. “When I was but a small child, she decided to tell him the truth of her being a mermaid, and not of the land as he thought. He ran from her, and she never saw him again.”
    Kae stared, waiting for her father to continue. He seemed lost in some memory, so she prodded. “If he was human, how is it that you a merman?”
    “Mermaid’s blood,” Lybio explained. “Many mixed offspring never grow gills, which is why their mothers choose to stay with them on dry land. Mermaid’s blood is a tricky thing. Poseidon, god of the seas, creator of us all, chooses who shall serve him and in what form. After my transformation, my mother went before the Aequorean king. In exchange for her return to the clan, she pledged me into his service. Her pledge binds me to the new king as well.”
    “I’d hardly call King Koios new, Father,” Kae said, crossing her arms and tossing her blonde hair with the current. “He’s got to be as old as you are.”
    “He was crowned king less than a hundred years ago when his father died, gods rest his soul. Even a century is barely a drop in the oceans of time.” Lybio’s expression was stern. “King Koios has found it much harder to govern than his father ever did, with all the problems arising between ourselves and the humans. And with the bloodthirsty Adluos always anxious to battle.”
    “Problems with humans?” Kae’s mind flashed to the boy on the beach. Shea wouldn’t ever cause any problems.
    “Humans have mastered many forms of technology, but not the wisdom or self-control to govern it properly.” Lybio shook his head. “They create too much waste, spilling it into the seas without thought to the consequences. They turn from the easily renewable powers of sun and wind, choosing to burn carbon fuels that pollute the air and seas. This leaves the ocean’s inhabitants to fight for what remains…”
    “Yeah, yeah, I know.” Kae rolled her eyes, having endured this same rant against pollution several times during their long swim northward. Everyone knew pollution was getting worse and that humans were to blame. Personally, Kae thought if the merfolk explained the situation to the drylanders, they would stop dumping in the oceans.
    “No, my daughter, you do not know,” Lybio said, his bushy eyebrows lowering over his steel blue eyes. “When I was a boy making my Journey, we had nothing to fear from the humans or the other clans. The few boats upon the surface were powered by the wind alone, and posed no threat to our way of life.”
    “But why do they teach courses about drylanders at the University if we are never to interact with them?” Kae asked. She reached up to touch the black stone hanging at her neck. “Why wear the transmutare medallions if we are not supposed to travel above the surface?”
    Lybio explained that the transmutare stone held very old magic, mined from the deepest part of the ocean’s floor where Poseidon himself had buried it. “The stone channels the power and magic of the sea to do your bidding,” he said, “allowing you freedoms such as passing a fishing boat unseen, or traveling upon land in human form, or staying in touch with your family when you are oceans away.”
    “I know these things,” Kae said impatiently. Her tailfin fluttered more quickly, stirring the sand and knocking down one of the freshly planted seedlings.
    “Only a finite number of these stones remain. Some clans hoard them for their magical powers, seeking to use them to harness the weather, although I don’t truly know whether such endeavors are fruitful. Many more have simply been lost over time.”
    “Lost?” Kae echoed, her tail frozen mid-flutter.
    “The magic fades if the medallion washes ashore. Without a mermaid’s touch the hole disappears in the drying air, and