Severed Read online

  “Huge man-eating fish with thousands of really sharp teeth,” I explained.

  “Oh, predators. No, the Half-Folk keep their area mostly clear of dangerous animals,” Drace said. “Feel better now?”

  “No,” I said. “Because I don’t like the idea of breathing water. I mean, I really don’t like it. I know you said this little pill stuck under my tongue is supposed to make it possible but it just sounds weird and completely impossible.”

  “It does take some getting used to,” Lucian admitted. “Would you like Drace and I to demonstrate how it’s done first?”

  “Yes, please.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Because I honestly don’t see how it’s possible.”

  “You’re not actually going to be taking the water down into your lungs,” Drace explained as he and Lucian scrunched down so they were also neck deep in the surprisingly calm sea on either side of me.

  “The moment the water touches your face, the breath-weed will form a microscopically thin filter-membrane that covers the opening to your throat and nostrils,” Lucian said. “You won’t see it or feel it but it will be there.”

  “Water will enter your mouth but it won’t be able to get down into your lungs,” Drace went on, picking up the explanation. “The filter extracts the oxygen you need to breathe and keeps the liquid out.”

  “It’s an odd sensation at first, talking and breathing with a mouthful of water,” Lucian said. “But you get used to it fairly quickly.”

  “All right,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest—my pretty red dress was, of course, completely soaked and billowing around me in the waves. “Show me.”

  “Gladly.” Lucian ducked his head underwater and looked up at us from under the blue waves. He said something but of course I couldn’t hear him.

  “What was that? What did he say?” I asked, looking anxiously at Lucian’s black hair, floating like seaweed in the gentle current.

  Drace grinned a little. “I think he said ‘come on in, the water’s fine.’”

  “And…he’s really able to breathe down there?” I asked, still watching him worriedly. With his pale olive green skin, he blended in with the light blue water surprisingly well—almost as well as Drace with his dark blue skin tones.

  “You can see for yourself,” Drace motioned to him and Lucian gave me a little wave. He was sitting cross-legged on the ocean floor now, reminding me of a game I used to play with my cousins when we went swimming. It was called “tea party” and the object was to hold your breath and sit on the bottom of the swimming pool long enough to pretend you were eating some cookies and drinking a cup of tea.

  Lucian, however, wasn’t holding his breath. Watching carefully, I could see his broad chest rising and falling—(he and Drace were both shirtless and completely mouthwatering, I think I forgot to mention that)—so it was easy to see.

  “Okay,” I said at last. “So you just…dunk your head under and start breathing?”

  “That’s right, baby.” Drace smiled at me. “You want to try it? Or are you scared?”

  I think it was meant as an honest question but I took it as a dare. Lifting my chin, I frowned at him.

  “I’m not afraid,” I said and ducked my head under the water.

  At first I held my breath out of habit. I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s surprisingly hard to do something—such as trying to breathe underwater—that your brain insists will kill you. Finally, though, when my lungs felt like they were going to burst, I parted my lips and sucked in just the tiniest bit.

  My mouth filled with briny water but it didn’t taste like the ocean back home. It was less salty for one thing and it had an almost sweet aftertaste. It filled my mouth but didn’t go down my throat, or up my nose for that matter.

  I got brave and sucked in a little more. I felt my lungs expanding and realized I was doing it—I was breathing underwater! I could see too—thanks to the vision drops we’d all squirted into our eyes, everything was crystal clear.

  It was bizarre and exhilarating like a waking dream. We continued our journey, but this time under the water. Of course, I felt a little like I was moving in slow motion and the salty taste of water in my mouth did take some getting used to, as Drace had said, but other than that I was perfectly fine. It was amazing.

  When we talked, the sounds were strangely distorted until Drace pulled out some small, porous stones and put two in his ears like earplugs. He handed some to me and Lucian too.

  “Sorry,” he said as I pushed them carefully into my ear canals, making sure they weren’t so far in they wouldn’t come out again. “Almost forgot about the sound-wave plugs. Good thing I had extras.”

  “They help,” I said, once I had the small stones seated comfortably in my ears. “I can’t believe I’m hearing and seeing and breathing underwater! I feel like I’m in a dream.”

  “No dream, ma 'frela,” Lucian said. He was on my right side and Drace was on my left. “This is the only way to visit the Half-Folk in their own world.”

  “Who are they?” I asked, looking around to see if I could spot any of them. To my disappointment, there was nothing but crystal clear water and silvery sand as far as my eyes could see. Well, except for a dark cloud over on our right. I wondered if it was a shoal of fish.

  “They are one of the Twelve Peoples,” Lucian said. “Those intelligent beings descended from the Ancient Ones who were given the seeds of life by the Goddess of Mercy.”

  “Um, okay,” I said. “But what are they like?”

  “Mostly peaceful,” Drace said, sounding thoughtful. “There’s never been much trouble between the land-living Denarins and the Half-Folk or Wave-Dwellers as they call themselves. We keep to the land and, for the most part, they keep to the sea. We share a lot of resources so we have to cooperate.”

  “That doesn’t sound like how it would go on Earth,” I said grimly, thinking of the way we’d polluted our oceans back home. Also, we were so not good at sharing resources. It was probably a good thing we didn’t have to share our planet with a whole other sentient species.

  We were getting closer to the big dark cloud and I could see now it wasn’t a cloud at all—it was a kind of forest. A kelp forest with impossibly tall strands of dark kelp, purple on one side and deep green on the other, floating far over our heads.

  “Do you have Half-Folk on your planet?” Lucian asked. “I thought humans were the only race on the planet—it’s the reason you’re Pure Ones.”

  “No, we’re the only people there—that isn’t what I meant,” I said. “But look, you guys still haven’t answered my question. What do these Half-Folk people look like?”

  Suddenly, as if in answer to my question, two huge people came out of the kelp forest.

  I say “people” but that was only half right. They were both men—or male, anyway—and from the waist up, they were as massive as Drace and Lucian with broad, muscular chests and shoulders and blond hair that floated around their faces. But from the waist down, well…

  “They’re lobsters,” I whispered faintly, staring at the long, segmented bodies and chitinous, many jointed legs that ended in claw-like points instead of feet. “Oh my God, they’re lobster people.”

  “Hail, surface dwellers,” one of the lobster guys said in a deep, sonorous voice. (Actually, he looked more like a lobster-centaur to me, only his bottom part was a lobster instead of a horse. Can you imagine a lobster the size of a horse? Don’t—it’ll give you nightmares.) “Why have you come to the domain of the Wave-dwellers?” he asked.

  Lucian stepped forward. “We have come to consult with Tanta Loro,” he said clearly. “Concerning some advice she gave us earlier. We need clarification.”

  “Once Tanta Loro advises, she does not speak on a matter again,” said the other lobster-centaur guy. “Best you should be on your way.” He yanked suddenly on a chain he was holding in one hand and a huge fish came swimming out of the kelp forest, apparently attached to the end of the chain like it was a leash.

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