The Evenstar Serial

The Sea King's Daughter - Part 4

The former Sea Queen would say nothing about why she had left the Sea Kingdom, save for an airy, "Oh, people quarrel, you know!" She seemed pleased to have found Neria, and to count little for the years in between. On one thing she was determined, that Neria should stay with her for a while, and not bother her head about her seal man Guardians.

"I'm just as fit as they are to look after you!" she declared imperiously, her dark eyes flashing. "More so, since I'm your mother! They can go back and tell the King you're safe, or wait for you to finish your visit here, if that's what they choose. No, I shan't ask them in: it would upset the dogs. It's not that I'm unfriendly, you understand, but I never mixed much with my relations, after I was queen. They're harmless, but boring!"

But harmless or not, Neria noticed she kept the dogs by the gate night and day, and always made sure at least one of them was loose in the garden. From the fierce barking and snarling the animals set up from time to time she guessed that one or other of the seal men had approached the gate. After a while she found herself forgetting about them unless something reminded her. It was too intriguing to meet the mother about whom she had so often wondered in her childhood.

She was a fascinating lady, there was no doubt of that, and as changeable in her moods as moving water. She would be laughing one minute, fly into a temper the next, be contrite, then laugh again. "Oh, I was so bored until you came," she cried, "but now we'll give a party! What fun it is to have a grown-up daughter. We'll buy new dresses - though you can wear any of mine, for we're much the same size, and you've so few things of your own!"

She had sent her manservant over to the hotel for Neria's suitcase straight away: he was a surly-seeming man, though he and his wife, who ran the house between them, seemed efficient. They called the Sea Queen 'Ma'am' deferentially, and hid any curiosity they might have felt over Neria's sudden arrival. Neria herself was instructed to call the Sea Queen 'Stella' rather than 'Mother'. "You can't keep calling me Mother when we look more like sisters, now can you?"

In truth she didn't look old enough to be Neria's mother. Her skin was as smooth as a young girl's and her hair was thick, dark, and shining. "My seal-name was Skyla," she went on airily, "but I changed it when I came to the Land. Skyro is my half-brother, you know, though I'm part human, which he isn't. Almost all seal, that one!" She looked at Neria's surprised face, and let out one of her laughs, though with little humour in it. "Dear me, did no-one tell you Skyro was your uncle? Well, one can't help one's relations. And how like your father to let you go on land and then have you guarded so closely that you can't do anything. He would give with one hand and take away with the other. What is it now?" Stella asked impatiently, her foot beginning to tap. "I mustn't criticise your father, is that it? Since he is your father, and he is the King? Well, how do you think it feels to know that you've never even heard my name spoken, and that you thought I was dead? La, la, so they never mentioned me at all, as if I was so wicked it might be catching!"

"No-one ever said you were wicked."

"Didn't they?" There was an odd expression on Stella's face for a moment, as she added very low, "I can't imagine him forgiving me...Tell me," she went on unexpectedly, "does your father the King still shake the Palace walls when he laughs?"

"I've never heard him laugh. Nor even seen him smile, for as long as I can remember!"

The Sea Queen's eyes flickered as if the words startled her (as much as the question had startled Neria) but a moment later she was laughing again, high and silvery. "Then it's no wonder you're such a solemn girl! Never mind, it will be different now. Let's plan our party. It shall be a really good one, with music and dancing. It really is time I took you in hand, my daughter!"

Stella seemed determined that Neria should enjoy herself. In spite of all her mother's questionings Neria had not, somehow, mentioned Michael; and if she sometimes looked at the silver buckle when she was alone, she told herself that very little time had yet passed since she came to her mother's. When this visit was over she would still have time to go back to the little town and see him again, on her way back to the Sea.

She had not forgotten her promise to her father, and she would, of course, go back to the Sea Kingdom when the time came. However, perhaps now he would let her come to the Land from time to time to visit her mother. Perhaps (though she scarcely dared frame the thought) her mother would come back under the sea and forget that long ago quarrel...? For all her mother's gaiety of manner, Neria sensed that Stella did not find her life happy. Perhaps she missed the sea, and her husband too, even if she would not admit it.

However, Neria quickly learned that if she mentioned her father too often, Stella would become angry and assume her daughter was ungrateful for all she was doing for her. And they certainly were busy. First of all there was the party Stella gave, to which she invited a host of acquaintances (for oddly enough she seemed to have no real friends); and then invitations came in to parties at other people's houses. At first whenever they went out Neria would look round warily to see if Skyro or Varten was anywhere about - though one of the dogs always travelled in the car with them, and sat in it all evening in the charge of Stella's manservant who also acted as her chauffeur. After a while, in a whirl of gaiety, and entertainments, and new clothes, and compliments from the young men she met, Neria forgot to be afraid that she would suddenly find herself face to face with a seal man. Instead she let the Guardians drift out of her mind, and simply enjoyed all the attention her new friends were giving her.

One morning when she was in the garden, she had a fright. She was picking a ripe pear from a tree against the wall beside the gate when a hand came through the bars and plucked at her sleeve. She jumped back quickly and the dog who was with her gave such a snarl that she caught at its collar. She said sharply, "Go away, whoever you are, or I'll let the dog out!"

"Princess - "

The word was pleading and brought a sharp memory with it. As her eyes cleared she saw that the bent figure she had taken for a tramp beyond the gate was Varten. "Princess," he said again, trembling but standing his ground.

"Oh do go away! Must you try to spoil everything? Be off with you, or I'll open the gate and let the dog chase you!"

He vanished at once with a despairing glance at her - one which struck home as soon as he was out of her sight. Varten, who had been her companion for so many weeks - looking very sealish, but worn and shabby and desperate with worry. Neria made a move to run after him, suddenly horrified that she should have threatened to set the dog on him - her own cousin, too, even if she hadn't known it!

Well, but it was as Stella said: they had guarded her far too closely, he and Skyro, and never let her have any fun!

She walked away from the gate, feeling a little guilty but defiant. She had hardly been here any time yet, and there was no need for the Seal Men to fuss so!

When she saw Stella a little time later, there was news of another party, an invitation to a dance at a house some twenty miles away. They must have new dresses for it again, even more striking ones. And Neria should wear some more of Stella's jewels. Stella's jewels were just as fine as those in the Sea King's Treasure House, and Neria realised all at once that they had probably come from there: gleaming pearls from the sea-bed, shining diamonds and rubies and emeralds from wrecked ships. But as Sea Queen, didn't her mother have a right to them, after all?

The dance was a big one, and Neria soon had her usual large crowd of admirers around her. There was to be an entertainment: a singer who was growing fashionable had been booked to appear. He sang a kind of modern folk music, apparently. Folk songs stirred a memory somewhere, she thought idly...

The singer was Michael.

Seeing him was like waking up out of a dream. All at once she remembered him so vividly she couldn't think how his face could have faded from her mind - though he looked graver and somehow less light-hearted. His voice was as clear and true as ever, his songs as sweet. At the end everyone crowded round him. Neria was afraid that he would have gone before she could reach him and speak to him; and knew abruptly that she could not bear it if that happened. She saw his dark-bright head moving through the crowd towards the door, and pushed her way through, not caring if she seemed rude.

"Michael!"

She had thought he would be surprised, but he seemed not to be. He turned politely and looked at her gravely. "Hallo, Neria. I saw you earlier, when I first came. You've - changed, but I recognized you, of course."

"Michael - stay and talk to me!"

"You're a guest, and I'm the paid entertainer. Still a poor man making my way." She saw his glance go to the diamonds Stella had put round her neck; and was aware suddenly of her well-cut dress and the expensive new silver sandals on her feet. Oh, but it was all so meaningless!

"I've still got your buckle," she blurted out. His expression began to change, to lighten just a little, but before either of them could say more, Stella was beside her.

"Ah, Neria, there you are!"

"Stella, this is Michael. Michael, this is my mother. I've been staying with her - "

"Is that why you never came back?"

"I wasn't sure if you'd be home again yet!"

He opened his mouth to say something, but Stella was holding out her hand to him. "I didn't realize you were a friend of my daughter's," she said with sudden charm - after a swift glance at Neria's face, and at his. She smiled widely. "You sing beautifully," she told him, "I'm sure you're going to be a great success. You must come and visit us. Do come! Neria, persuade him!"

"Please come, Michael," Neria begged - and he smiled suddenly, and agreed that he would.

He came, and at Stella's insistence, stayed at the Manor House, since he had no more engagements just at the moment. Stella had a piano moved from a back room into a study to make a Music Room for him - to encourage him, she said, to write more of his beautiful songs. She even told him laughingly that she was getting tired of escorting her daughter to a round of parties so she would be grateful if he would stay and amuse her. It was time both of them had a spell of staying at home and having a quieter life. It seemed a little strange that she should lose her restlessness all at once - but Neria didn't care, if it meant being allowed to have Michael as her constant companion. In fact, Stella seemed happy to leave them alone. The only rule she made was that they should stay within the house and grounds.

So Michael and Neria spent all their time together, finding plenty to enjoy in each other's company. He wrote some new songs, and Neria taught him one of the sea lullabies she had known as a child, which intrigued him with its simple yet complex tune and harmonies. He made up some words for it (since she couldn't, and wouldn't have attempted to, teach him the Sea Speech). When he found that she could only read slowly he searched out books and taught her to read properly. She told him (it was Stella's idea) that she had been brought up in 'a foreign country' where her father still was; and that her parents had parted when she was a baby. Michael listened, and nodded gravely. He had seen glimpses of the Guardians even outside here, and there was some family quarrel, obviously...

He did not ask, and Neria did not try to make any explanation. They were too happy, and life was too sweet.

The only cloud was the knowledge that time must be passing, even though the days went slowly with joy and the sun seemed always to be shining. Neria too had seen glimpses of the Guardians outside the gate, more present than they had been for weeks. Sometimes, Michael thought, she looked so sad that he longed to ask her what was the matter. He could not know that she was remembering her promise to her father. When a cloud in the sky took on the shape of a fish or a wave, she would remember. The Sea was her home, not the Land: the depths of the Sea where no mortal could come...

One day she said to him, out of a silence, "I'll have to go soon."

"Must you? Can't you stay?"

"No, I have to go, I promised my father!"

"He'll let you come again, won't he? To visit your mother?"

"I - I don't know..."

"Supposing I come and find you, then?"

"You wouldn't be able to. Please, don't talk about it any more!" She couldn't bear it - but in her dreams, when she saw her father's face and felt as if he were calling her, there was no feeling that he would ever let her come back, however hard she tried to hope...

"You know the silver buckle?" Michael asked abruptly. "Will you give it back to me?"

She was desperately hurt that he should ask for it, for she treasured it more than anything she had ever had. However, "Yes, of course, if you want me to," she answered coldly, "I'll fetch it now!" And she jumped up, blinking her eyes hard so as not to cry. She had always taken the greatest care not to cry on Land, since her mother-of-pearl Atlantean tears would give her away sooner than anything.

As Michael took his gift back from her she heard the dogs barking at the gate and shivered - but if Michael had grown tired of her being a mystery, there was really nothing to stay for. She knew that was true when Michael said he must leave - 'for a few days' he said politely to Stella, but Neria knew he meant more than that. He went, and it felt like the end of the world. Her quietness made Stella impatient with her after weeks of good temper. There were, Stella said (with a very bad choice of metaphor) 'many more fish in the sea'.

"Yes," Neria answered, wincing, "and I'm one of them."

"Nonsense! You can stay on Land - you're like me, you can live in either!"

"I promised my father I would go back to him. I told you - a year-and-a-day was the time he gave me."

"Oh, I should think you're over that already!" Stella said airily. She looked at Neria's startled face. "Oh come now, surely you know that where the Stone of Renewal is, time goes differently! You can't be as ignorant as that!"

"The Stone of Renewal? It's here?"

"Of course it is, isn't that what your father sent you for? Even if you've been having too much fun to remember? I don't really know why I bothered to take it," Stella said pettishly, "it isn't much use to me, except to keep me young, and make my garden grow! But I always thought somehow that he'd come after it, and find me..."

"Mother - Stella - the sea is dying for lack of the Stone! You can't have had it all this time!"

"Oh, Time.... I don't know, it's never seemed that long...Stop looking at me with those great green eyes, Neria, you look just like your father when you do that!" Stella was working herself up into a temper. "I never meant to keep it! It was just - I don't know! He was being so boring about things, and I thought it might teach him a lesson!"

"Come with me, and give it back!" Neria begged. "It's needed, don't you see?"

"No indeed, and you shan't go either! He's had you all these years, and now you're going to stay with me and stop me being lonely! I suppose," Stella said, in a fine rage, "he will do something about it to get you back, his darling daughter! Even if he wouldn't..."

"He looked for you! Nurse told me so, even if she didn't mean to! He looked for years! Mother - "

"I hoped you'd marry that boy. You seemed keen enough: why did you have to quarrel?"

"You knew I'd promised my father I'd go back. Even if Michael - " Neria stopped on a gulp. "A year-and-a-day was a promise, you knew I had to keep it! Oh, no wonder Skyro looked so anxious last time I caught a glimpse of him - have I really gone over the time...?"

"I told you, Time changes where the Stone is. I don't know how much of it's gone by! All I know is -"

"Oh, has your goodness to me been nothing but a trick?" Neria burst out. "Were you just trying to hurt my father all over again? How could you?"

"Neria, child, I'll fetch your Michael back for you! He said he was only going for a few days anyway!" Stella's coaxing having no effect on Neria, her mouth twisted. "I shan't let you go! I'll keep you here!"

"Can you?" Neria asked steadily - and saw her mother's gaze flicker and fall.

"If you stay I'll give you the Stone, to be yours!"

"Will you give it to me to take back under the Sea? Will you come with me and bring it back?"

"Me? Never! Never unless he begs me!" Stella's mouth twisted again. "And 'Kings don't beg', oh yes, I know! But you're right, I can't keep you, he's the one with all the spells...Oh, very well, then, take his damned Stone, and go! Or - or maybe I'll keep it after all. It stops time from hurting me..."

Neria stared at her. "You were the Sea Queen once," she said quietly. "You were the Sea Queen, and my father loved you so much that he's never so much as smiled since you left him. But perhaps you've never loved anyone or anything except yourself - if you can let the Sea Kingdom die slowly, just so that you can look young!"

She turned on her heel and left, though Stella screamed something after her, in the guttural Seal speech. She went straight to the gate, to look for Skyro. And he was there, stepping out of the shadows when she called him - bent and shabby and worried but still Skyro. He told her, to her deep relief, that the year-and-a-day was not quite up: there was a week left. But it would take three days to reach the sea, even if they travelled without stopping. Neria told him she would be ready to go in time, but that she must spend every minute she could in persuading her mother to let her bring the Stone with her. It would be worth the risk of delay, if only she could do that.

She spent the last remaining days in an uneasy truce with Stella - though asking her, over and over again, to release the Stone. Sometimes Stella would say she would, other times not...And then, on the last day, Michael came back.

He came so unexpectedly that her face gave her away when she saw him, and they looked at each other for a long moment. Then he held out his hand with a small package in it.

"I've brought your buckle back. Please look at it."

She unwrapped it and looked. There had been a space on each half of the buckle. Now, a letter was engraved there: an M on one side, an N on the other.

"We belong together, like these two halves," Michael said. "If you must go away, keep this to remind you. When I've made my name and enough money to take care of you properly, I shall find you, wherever you are!"

"Perhaps I shall have to find you..."

"That will do just as well," he said, and gave her his brilliant smile.

On impulse she unclipped the buckle so that it lay in two shining halves. She held one out to him, the one with her initial on it. "You keep my half, and I'll keep yours. It can be a promise between us - that I will come back to you, if I can!"

There was no more to say, and they parted on a long embrace. But now she had two things to take back under the sea with her: Michael's gift, and the Stone of Renewal, which her mother gave her at the last. Stella brought it to her when everything else was ready - though Neria had still been half afraid she would refuse. She unwrapped it for Neria to see, and said sulkily,

"There, it doesn't look much to make such a fuss about, does it? Just an old stone with some worn carvings on it!" She closed the wrappings abruptly and thrust it into Neria's hands. "Take it, I don't want the wretched thing any more!" And she turned on her heel without saying goodbye, and went back into the house.

All along the hurried journey Neria tried not to think of the things she was leaving behind: her mother, so strange and mixed and - perhaps - more unhappy than wicked; the land-life she had grown used to; and Michael. But she did not dare think too much about Michael. She held the Stone in its sailcloth wrapping, and felt it grow lighter and lighter as the seashore approached. It seemed to know it was going home.

Just a year-and-a-day from the time she had set out, with only minutes to spare, she, with Skyro and Varten beside her, slipped back into the Sea.