Chapter Twenty-One
Alora stood inside the ground floor’s Door Eleven surrounded by bathing suits of all sizes.
Lennox selected one for herself and tossed another toward her.
Alora caught it, staring at the crimson garment like she’d never seen one.
Meanwhile, Lennox decided to forgo the changing rooms and stripped to nothing beside her.
“You might want to rush. Dusk isn’t far off.”
Quickly, Alora kicked off her shoes, loosening her skirt, and slipping the straps of her top from her shoulders.
She was all skittering nerves, her heart bounding away after her previous experience in one of Opulence’s many rooms. She tried to remember what Door Eleven entailed and couldn’t. Damn her failing mind.
She shimmied into the suit alongside Lennox, the garment the snuggest thing she’d ever worn. A robe appeared in her line of vision, and then slippers for her feet.
“Don’t forget the coat,” said Lennox.
Together, they left the room for the spiral stairs.
“Are there performers here?” Alora whispered, when they were at the top and yet to see anyone else.
“No. At least not of the kind you think. I wouldn’t endanger you like that, Alora, you’re my only friend!”
A warm feeling bloomed in her chest at those words, and a smile stretched her cheeks. “As are you.”
Lennox grinned back at her, though her gaze was somewhat off from Alora’s person, as she still wore her coat. Her hand rested upon the knob. “Ready to feel better?”
Am I ever. “Yes, please.”
The door swung in.
The floor was tiled in gold, the walls glittering beneath the sconces lining them. In the center of the extravagance was nestled the pool. The water rippled, a deep, dark blue. Iridescent steps led down into the depths.
“There’s a mermaid in here,” said Lennox, and finally Alora remembered. “Normally, they’d be dangerous, but Master has this one muzzled. Did you know their faces look different to every person? It’s like a lure, so they might bring you in and feast on your bones.”
“This isn’t making me feel better at all,” said Alora, horrified.
“Well, that part doesn’t,” agreed Lennox. “But mermaids are also capable of making you relive your happiest moments. I think so you’re distracted in your death. Sort of a kindness, isn’t it?”
“Sort of,” replied Alora, clutching her robe tighter.
Lennox tossed her slippers and her robe, ignoring the hooks and cubbies supplied for just that purpose. Alora watched her step into the water. “It’s warm. If that’s what is worrying you.”
Alora didn’t say that the temperature was the farthest thing from her mind in that moment. Instead, she hung up her coat and the borrowed robe. She took off her slippers and tucked them away. The tile was warm on her bare feet. “You’ve done this before?”
“Every day,” said Lennox, and with a deep inhale, dropped below the surface.
“Every day,” murmured Alora. Then she, too, stepped into the pool.
It was warm. Not luxuriantly warm, but comfortable, and Alora braved another step down. The water bubbled and rippled where Lennox had disappeared, and she waited and waited. Lennox surfaced. Her eyes were shining, her grin wider than Alora had ever seen.
“Don’t be scared.”
A deep breath, a final nod, and Alora stepped off the final stair and fell beneath the water.
She opened her eyes without preamble, wanting to see what swam in the depths with her.
She was surprised to find they didn’t sting in the slightest, and that Lennox had dropped in beside her, blinking at her and pointing.
Alora followed the gesture.
The mermaid floated placidly in the corner.
The creature was only half her size, the bottom half consisting of great fins in a pinkish hue the color of coral.
Its top half was a mixture of pale skin and turquoise scales, with arms similar to a human’s but with nails more akin to claws.
Alora couldn’t tell the creature’s sex from the body alone, but the mermaid’s hair was long and yellow, mouth a perfect rosebud red and eyes silver like a winter moon.
A face only she could see. But a golden cage broke up the mermaid’s features, bars over plump lips.
A flare of compassion overwhelmed Alora then.
Like most everyone else in Opulence Mansion, this creature was obviously entrapped.
Then the mermaid bared fangs of a kind she’d never seen, all bone-white needles, and she immediately shrieked a slurry of bubbles and flew to the surface.
Lennox sputtered beside her a second later. “Sorry! I should have warned you what they’re like. But don’t worry, the mermaid can’t bite you.”
“What is Merridon thinking! Capturing a creature like that?”
Lennox lifted a shoulder above the water. “Probably that it would add to the enchantment of the mansion.”
Alora kicked her feet beneath the water, hoping to deter the mermaid from latching on. “And nobody has ever been drowned?”
Lennox shook her head. “That isn’t their way.” She must have noticed Alora’s continued distrust, because she reached out and gripped her arm. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want. I just thought it would help. You only need to get a little closer to feel it.”
Alora released a shuddering breath. “You’re a brave thing, aren’t you? Fine. I’ll try.”
Lennox beamed and nodded, and she didn’t wait before sinking beneath once more.
This time, Alora followed her.
The muzzled mermaid remained in the corner, watching.
The creature turned its attention to Lennox first as she approached, but when Alora swam near, those silver eyes shifted to focus on her.
Alora swallowed, drawn in despite herself, and once the creature ensnared her within that wintry gaze, that was all it took.
Alora felt herself drifting, drifting, and then, quite impossibly, leaving the pool behind.
She laid now upon a sun-soaked, green hilltop covered in wildflowers and bees, and she recognized it at once.
The hill behind her childhood home. She’d returned to Eirian, when she never thought she could.
The sky was an impossible blue, wisps of clouds and a warm yellow sun to her right.
She felt it on the side of her face and smiled.
She spread her arms and was met with something shifting.
She turned her head to look. It was the doll, the one she’d imagined so long ago, and it nestled in the crook of her arm.
An arm that was child sized. Alora lifted her fingers to the sky, marveling at them.
She’d returned to her childhood.
Carefully, she picked up the doll around its waist and held it above her too.
The features were everything she’d wanted.
Yellow hair and silver eyes. Red lips. The doll wore a blue dress and little brown shoes, and her hair was braided and tied with ribbon.
Pride enveloped her. Pride and amazement and all of it in herself.
She’d done something extraordinary. She had an ability greater than anything she could have thought possible.
A giggle escaped her, and she hugged the doll to her chest until she thought she might burst. She’d keep the toy forever and use her enchantment freely.
Anything anyone wanted, she’d give them.
It would be simple and wonderful, and all would love her for it.
A butterfly landed on her arm, and she smiled in utter contentment before her eyes closed.
Alora blinked open her eyes to water and twin orbs like the moon.
The mermaid studied her still, but there was no drawing sensation as before.
Instead, the creature lifted its arms. The mermaid gripped the mask on either side, pulling at it with such force, Alora thought for sure it’d give way.
But it didn’t. It held, and one by one the mermaid’s fingers released until its arms hung, almost limply, at its side.
She knew what the creature wanted. Of course she did. And she could imagine it easily, the muzzle falling to the pool’s bottom. But even if she waited until Lennox was gone and herself safe at the pool’s edge, what would happen to the next person who stepped in?
An instant meal, she was sure.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t condemn someone innocent just to assuage the feeling coursing through her now. She shook her head at the mermaid, hoping her eyes conveyed what she yearned to say.
I’m sorry. Not yet.