She told him that she had met her mother. She said (greatly daring) that she had asked her mother to come back with them. "She said no. But -"

"Enough." He would not let her mother be mentioned even now; though she had felt his eyes fix on her with an extra intensity as soon as she spoke of the Sea Queen.

She told him about Michael then - and he flew into a rage.

"You promised to return and settle down and marry anyone I chose!" he thundered. "Do you think I would let you go to a Mortal? Does this - this Human know what he dares? Does he know who you are?"

"No, father. But -"

"Good, then at least he will not come bothering my shores! Forget him. You will stay here now, and help me. There will be much work to be done, now that we have the Stone."

Perhaps, remembering that it was she who had brought it back, he would soften later. Neria could only hope so. It was no use going on arguing with him when he was angry, anyway; she had better wait until a gentler time. So she kept her counsel. She had Michael's token...and had hung it on a chain so that she could wear it around her neck and have it always with her; though she let it lie hidden so as not to anger her father further. She would have to wear him down.

She was with him a great deal now, since he took her out with him on his rounds. He seemed to acknowledge that his daughter was grown up at last and could help him with the kingdom. Neria was pleased to be out of the palace, since old Nurse had died while she was away - a great sadness - and the new Palace Housekeeper, much younger, and even more Fish than Nurse had been, had pretensions of her own importance. It was obvious (though she tried to hide it) that she resented Neria, and was watching for the Sea Princess to be critical.

So it was additionally good for Neria to be out with her father and help him set things to rights, using the Stone with its healing powers. There were places where whole beds of seaweed were dying because of something men had thrown away in the sea; other places where the seabed was barren and cracked and new colonies must be planted and tended; and creatures who lived so deep that even Neria had rarely seen them, who were gradually pining away and dwindling. In each place the Sea King placed the Stone, and touched whatever was sick, and spoke gentle words. And gradually things began to flourish again, and look cleaner and healthier.

Sometimes he would sit in judgement on an argument and let Neria sit with him then, too. She learned a great deal. In between, if things had gone well and her father seemed in a good mood, she would raise the subject of Michael again. But it always made him angry, and produced the same, "No, you shall not! I shall find someone else for you in time, so forget him!"

He swam away before she could remind him that he had not found anyone else, nor ever shown signs of wanting to. Nor did she remind him of his promise never to marry her to anyone against her will, for she knew that he would not. He was fair about keeping his word. Fair, and mighty - if inflexible. She sighed.

With any direct approach failing, she took to talking about her mother instead, ignoring the fact that he would not answer her. She would mention that her mother lived alone and seemed always to have remained so. She would describe her mother's house, and then say casually that she had not thought the Sea Queen happy, even if she pretended to be. Her father listened, and looked at her broodingly. Once she dared to say,

"I think she wanted you to find her, and did not mean to be so well-hidden! If you had known where she was, would you have sent to ask her to come back?"

His rumbling voice answered her unexpectedly. "Are you trying to nag me with memories, daughter? No, you may not marry your Mortal! I have said it, and I mean it!"

Neria often held the buckle when she was alone, tracing Michael's initial with her finger. He could not come and find her as he had sworn to do, for even if he had known where to look, there was no entry for him into the Sea World. She tried to look cheerful and diligent to see if that would soften her father. And she tried to be patient - in spite of small irritations like the fact that the tidiers must be coming into her room and jumbling things about, though she had told the housekeeper quite clearly that she would deal with her own quarters herself. They had even been into the big shell in which she kept her necklaces and trinkets. She found a seahorse in her room one day too: he turned bright vermilion and muttered that he had "lost his way" before diving out through the doorway. Since seahorses were the King's especial creatures he could not possibly have lost his way around the Palace, and she thought exasperatedly that he must have Spring madness.

Her father seemed disturbed. He looked as if he could not rest, so Neria asked,

"What's the matter, Father?"

"Why aren't you happy here? Don't I give you everything?"

"Everything you can."

"I knew no good would come of letting you go on the Land! What is that chain round your neck?" he asked suddenly. "What do you have on it? Show me!"

She lifted the half-buckle out to show him, since he asked it. He said, "Is it something your Mortal gave you?"

"Yes, it is."

He peered as if he could not see it properly and held out his hand - but she let the silver ornament fall back on its chain, shaking her head. "No, Father, I won't give it to you, for I wear it always. It's all I have from Michael and it's too small for you to want amongst your Treasure. It's no use you're being angry!"

"What promise did you make to him, then, this Mortal of yours? Did you swear any oaths to him?"

"How could I, when I was already bound by my word to come back to you? I promised only that I would come back to him if I could. And you say always that I can't," Neria cried, biting her lip against sudden tears, "so why bother to ask me? I have no wish to quarrel with you, when I know how hard you work and that you always try to do what is right and just and keep the Law for everyone in the Kingdom!"

He gave her a look and swam away, with an air so stricken that she almost regretted her words. She had grown much closer to him since she came back, and if she no longer feared him, she loved him, perhaps, more. She was too much his child to run away from him as her mother had done, and she understood him more, having seen his endless care for all the creatures in the Sea Kingdom. But she acknowledged at last that he would not let her go, and her tears fell in a shower of mother-of-pearl around her.

An unexpected summons came, a seahorse flitting up to call her to the Throne Room. She calmed herself and obeyed. The King was sitting on his throne in lonely state, and she understood that although this was a private interview, it was intended to be a formal one.

"There's no need for a judgement, Father," she said gently. "I will leave with your permission, or not at all - you know me well enough for that, I think!"

"Show me that trinket again."

"What for? Oh very well, if you wish it." She lifted the half-buckle and let it hang outside her dress. Her father stared at it in silence. At last he said,

"You made a promise."

"I promised to come back to you, and I did. We've already said all this, Father!"

"But you reminded me just now that even Kings must keep the Law. I was afraid you had brought something back with you," his voice rumbled, a note of deep frustration in it, "even though it couldn't be found! I cannot keep you here. You made a promise to your Mortal as well as to me, and I am forced to give you the right to choose. And all because you have kept the love-token which you would not give up to me - so the Law says, and - and although I would not have told you, if I had not been forced to -"

"You mean, I can go back?"

"I've told you, the Law gives you the choice. Go to your Mortal if you must, and I cannot stop you! But you must know," he said fiercely as she opened her mouth, "what the choice is, before you decide. If you go, you are forbidden to come back! You will have chosen the Land to be your home. And if you find this man you say you love has not waited for you, but has another love now or another wife - then you still cannot come back under the Sea. I think - " his voice in her head was all at once very sad, "that you are too much Atlantean to love a second time. So if this - Michael - has not waited for you, then you will have to live alone all your days, without even the undersea world to comfort you. Think carefully, my daughter, before you make your choice!"

"You know how I will choose." She could not help the sudden joy in her voice, in spite of the pain in her father's face. "It was a promise, Father - to go back to him if I could. So if I can, I must! He will have waited for me, I know he will. May I have your blessing?"

"Not that, when you know I have had to give you justice against my will!" All at once he seemed to draw a mantle of power round him, hiding everything from her except his kingliness. His voice was grave and cold. "You are now outcast from the Sea Kingdom - and must leave at once; the Law says that too, once a choice is made!"

It was happening so suddenly that she could barely take it in. However, it was happening, and now: he had spoken, and so it was. She understood that she was not even allowed to kiss him goodbye, his power holding her away from him. It was like being torn in two to back away from him, from the father she had known all her life; and from the world she had known all her life. She looked back at him from the doorway - and as she did so, his voice sounded suddenly inside her head, deep and icy; the King's voice.

"One more thing. If you and your Mortal have children, never let them near the Sea. For if they touch the waters of my Kingdom, I will take them, and they will be mine. That is my right, and that is my judgement, for now and always. Remember it, Neria!"

His voice seemed to ring through the water as she began the long swim up out of the Palace deeps, towards her future home.

***********************************************************************

They married and were joyful with each other's company. Neria never told Michael about the Sea Kingdom, for she could not see how he could possibly understand. She said only that her father had made her choose, himself or Michael, with no going back. After a while she wrote a letter to her mother - but it came back unopened with 'Gone Away' on the envelope. She supposed Stella must have grown restless again and taken to travelling.

Sometimes when she was alone Neria would stare at herself in the mirror and remember the Sea Kingdom and be caught by an involuntary grief - though she never let Michael see that she was ever anything but content. And she always took care not to cry, ever, about anything, for her tears were still Atlantean tears, made of bright pieces of mother-of-pearl; despite the fact that she had chosen the Mortal world. It was the only thing about her, she supposed, which was still foreign - besides her memories.

After just over a year of marriage twins were born to them, a boy and a girl. They named them Declan and Leonora. Michael gave her a pair of ruby earrings to celebrate the twins' birth, for he was growing very successful now. Neria wore them often, as she always wore the heart-shaped silver locket Michael had given her on their wedding day. The silver buckle, its two halves joined again, she fixed to a silk belt and wore it for special occasions.

Neria had everything to content her now - a husband who was happy and growing famous and who loved her; and her two beautiful babies, whom they both adored. The only shadow on Neria's life was her fear of letting the twins go anywhere near the sea, with her father's threat coming back to haunt her. Michael was puzzled, but decided she must have a phobia, since she seemed not to be afraid of rivers or inland lakes. As the twins grew out of babyhood she even let him take them to a swimming pool and teach them to swim. She refused to go into the water herself for fear of showing too much skill, though she sometimes longed to. She let Michael tease her for being a determined non-swimmer, and simply smiled.

Now that he had a family Michael was less willing to go off touring, but was just as successful writing songs for others to sing. He would still appear for charity concerts, however; and once the twins had got beyond toddler stage, Neria would bring them to watch him perform, giving them the treat of staying up late. There was nothing which made them prouder than sitting in the front row while their father sang, and nothing which made him prouder than seeing Declan's red head, and Leonora's blonde one, either side of their beautiful mother, and feeling three pairs of green eyes fixed on him.

Neria and Michael had their fifth wedding anniversary, and the twins were coming up to four years old. There was a big charity concert given in a country mansion, and they all went. Afterwards, they were at their happiest: it had gone well, had raised a lot of money for good causes, and Michael had sung several new songs to great applause. As he drove away from the late finish of the concert, Michael must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. He didn't notice at first, among all the cheerfulness and laughter in the car, but after an hour they still hadn't reached the nearby town where they were booked into a hotel, although it should have been quite close. The roads had turned into lanes, and everywhere looked unfamiliar. At last, thankfully, they came upon a village. It even had a hotel, a surprisingly large one. The twins were tired and fractious by now, so they decided to stay the night here and find their way back in the morning. It would do well enough, if there were rooms to be had.

There were, and they spent a very comfortable night. In the morning, however, Neria awoke feeling strange and shivery and sick, and with such a headache that she could barely lift her head from the pillow.

"Poor love," Michael said sympathetically. "I know - I'll get some pills for you from the hotel manager, and then you can go back to sleep while I amuse the twins. I'm sure I can find something to do with them round here. We're not in any hurry, after all!"

Neria closed her eyes again and tried to tell herself she would feel better soon. She was so rarely ill that it was hard to understand what could have seized on her now. Perhaps Michael was right and she would feel better if she did go back to sleep. The pills he had fetched for her were quite strong...

She woke with a start, wondering how much time had passed. And what had woken her. She thought - or had she dreamed? - that she had heard a cry.

It came again, a harsh high curling sound - and her heart went cold.

A seagull calling...

They were near the sea. Suddenly she knew it - could taste it in the air; feel it in her bones. That was why she had woken with a headache; that was why she felt a sense of doom now, so strong that she had to bite her lip not to cry out. Somewhere near at hand, waves were breaking on a beach; she knew it in her blood, whether or not she could hear it with her ears.

Where were Michael and the children?