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

with it the magic. It becomes yet another stone upon the sand.”
    Kae looked down at the kelp bed, unable to meet her father’s eye as guilt swept through her. “I should confess… I lost my transmutare while gathering scallop shells. The one I wear now is from the King’s storeroom.”
    She peeked up as Lybio exhaled forcefully, sending a burst of bubbles streaming upward from both his mouth and the gills behind his ears. “Tomorrow you will go back and search for your stone. As for the humans, the less said about them the better. Especially once the King and the Adluo delegation have arrived.”
    Kae nodded, again casting her head downward and picking up her trowel. She watched as her father swam back over to where his fishing net lay on the ground next to Kira. Though they were on the far side of the grounds, the current carried their words back to Kae’s ears.
    “What?” Lybio’s voice sounded gruff. Kae watched her father lift the fishing net he’d already filled with debris and swing it over his shoulder. Kae knew her father liked to dump the human garbage back onto the shore, where it belonged. It had always bothered her to see it among the seaweed at the strandline. She felt better knowing Shea was there, to finish the job.
    Kira’s hands were on her hips. “Do you not feel the least bit of guilt in lying to our daughter about your own father? You know he loved your mother, you told me so many times over the years. He did not run screaming from her because she was a mermaid.”
    Kae quickly turned her head away. They don’t know their words are floating down current and I can still hear them talking!
    “The truth is too scary,” Lybio was saying. “Humans are frightening creatures.”
    “You are half-human,” Kira reminded him. “I’ve never had reason to fear you.”
    “So you think I should tell her how the townspeople killed my father and tried to drown my mother and myself as witches? That I had no idea of my mermaid blood until that fateful night when they threw me off a cliff?”
    Kae gasped, clutching at the kelp seedling until the fragile stem broke in two. No wonder her father kept his past a secret!
    “The truth is that humans can be every bit as cruel as those Adluo fear mongers who stir the clans against the drylanders. All of us fear what we do not understand.”
    “I still think it’s always best to tell the truth,” Kira replied.
    Derisive laughter filled the castle’s courtyard. “You? Tell the truth? You always tell the truth which best suits your friend, the Princess.”
    “You keep the King’s counsel and do not enlighten me as to your secret missions,” Kira countered quickly.
    “Those tasks I perform for His Majesty have nothing to do with you. And the clans are still at war until the treaties are signed and sealed.”
    There was silence, and Kae dared to look over at her parents again. Kira had her arms crossed over her chest and Lybio was leaving the court, dragging the fishing net in his wake.
    Kae looked down at the crushed seedling in her hand. Her parents seemed to have more secrets than she’d ever imagined. Bigger secrets than talking to a human boy along the shoreline.
    Kae’s world suddenly seemed a lot more complicated than it had been. And more than a little dangerous.

Chapter Nine
     
    Four empty water bottles, three green shotgun shell casings, a green plastic shovel, two green plastic army men, three apple flavored NutriGrain wrappers, and a length of green plastic rope.
    “Not a lot of trash, Lucky,” Shea said as the pair trudged along the shoreline. “Not like yesterday. But today’s theme seems to be ‘green.’ Even the water bottles are green from the algae growing inside them.” Shea swung the plastic garbage bag alongside him, the wide arcs keeping time with his slow strides. He decided to keep one of the army men. The second plastic soldier had already lost its head and one arm, so he tossed it in the bag with the rest of the day’s