It took us another twenty minutes to get anywhere near the silvery light at the bottom. Cassa told me that Eli was being towed, the same as I was, towards the bottom, but his descent would be more gradual than mine, since humans were more susceptible to underwater pressure than Jotun. They had given him some sort of breathing device, apparently.

            So I let the mermaid tow me down and down, and tried not to think about how much time we were wasting. I was also trying to close my thoughts off to Cassa, who I could feel prodding at my defenses, like a faint tickle at the back of my mind.

            Stop that.

            She withdrew, and to my surprise I could feel her emotion, sullen and wounded. But soon I was too distracted by what lay below us to be caught up in the idea that I could sense what she was feeling, because below us was…a kingdom, exactly as Cassa had said.

            The lights I had seen from miles away were all from lanterns that housed what looked like tiny glowing pearls, thousands of them. As we drew nearer, the light grew brighter, and I could make out paths winding through the dark sand at the bottom. Between the paths were houses, each one made up of old wood covered in barnacles. The houses were a bizarre jumble of shapes, some of them long and rectangular, some of them short and square with oval shaped windows. There were a few that had long wooden poles stuck near the front entrances, like rickety pillars. A few had flags attached to them.

            It dawned on me that this was a village of sunken ships, a shipwreck town.

            “The king.” Cassa gestured to the path, which wound up a tall mountain of sand. The house on the top of the mountain was massive. A castle of creaking ship parts. Three masts jutted from the top, and tattered flags in a multitude of colors waved in the dark currents.

            For the first time I paused to consider what this King Aegir might be like. What did he want, anyways?

            “He wants to meet you, daughter of the sea.”

            I really had to get better at protecting my thoughts. Why? Why does he want to meet me? I’m not…I mean, I’m a Jotun. Not a mermaid.

            “Our king is not merman.” Cassa continued to tow me towards the castle as she spoke, and it was getting bigger and bigger, looming over us. A lump started to form in my throat. “He is of the sea, but he is not one of its creatures. He is what your people would call a god.”

            A god. For all that is good and holy. A god wants to see me.

            I felt faint. The Jotun were taught about gods growing up. We learned all the tales of them, sang about them, had our feasts and festivals around the days that were named for them. But it was very few Jotun that had ever actually met one. Judging from the stories I’d learned as I was growing up, this could either go well for me, or very very badly.

            Now that I knew he was a god, the name was staring to ring bells. Aegir, god of the sea. There was something I’d learned about him when I was little, wasn’t there? He liked parties or something…

            “He is fond of his festivals and drink.” Again, Cassa sounded amused in my head, and I tried to slam down a pair of iron gates to block her access to my thoughts. I could practically feel her pouting.

            “You’re no fun, Jotun.”

            I was about to return the slight, but we’d finally arrived, our feet…or my feet, that was, touching down on the bottom of the ocean. It was a strange feeling. I was still weightless, and if Cassa hadn’t been anchoring me, at the same time she was pulling me forward, I probably wouldn’t have made very good progress.

            As we approached the doors of the castle, they slowly creaked open, and Cassa pulled me inside. The shipwreck castle was lit by the same pearl lanterns as the streets were, and it was brighter inside, reflecting silver light off the walls, which I realized a minute later, were covered in silver and gold. There were tapestries painted in gold, and decorative silver plates, and jewelry strung from lantern to lantern that glittered and shone under the light.

            Every inch of the castle was decorated in treasure, no doubt discovered on the shipwrecks that now housed the entire town of mermaids.

            Now that I was inside the castle I tried to bring myself to a stop, tugging my arm out of the mermaid’s grip. My friend?

            “He is coming.”

            Narrowing my eyes, I studied the woman’s face, pale and pointed, her hair, impossibly red under the lamps, floated out around her head. Mermaids were liars. They were tricksters. Maybe Eli wasn’t here, maybe they’d ripped him apart back on the surface of the water. Maybe I’d been tricked into coming here.

            Cassa’s black eyes glittered, and she bared her pointed teeth. “I forgot how jumpy you people are. Very well, we will watch for him.”

            Before I could move she snaked out a hand and grabbed my wrist again, this time towing me back towards the door. I stumbled over the doorstep, half floating, half walking, and then we stood just outside the shipwreck castle, and Cassa pointed up into the water.

            “There, do you see?”

           High above us, faint shapes moved in the water, not yet revealed by the glow of the lanterns. Shadows flashed just out of sight.

            I don’t see anything.

            “Wait.”

            Another few seconds and the shapes became clearer. A pair of  mermaids, making their way down and down. They were both reaching back as they swam, both grasping the hand of the still form behind them.

            Eli.

            What’s the matter with him? The thought came out sharp, and Cassa glanced over at me, brows furrowed. Why doesn’t he move? Eli?

            I started to push off from the ground, meaning to swim up to him to see if he was okay, but the mermaid tightened her grip on my wrist.

            “They will bring him down. He is all right. He has been instructed not to move too much, it makes it easier on them….on humans.”

            The pressure?

            Cassa nodded, hair fanning out behind her. “The pressure on their ears is bad especially, but he will adjust…slowly. Why do you have this one with you?”

            I blinked at her, the motion slower than usual underwater. If I was honest with myself, I didn’t really have a good answer. I needed him to help drive the boat. He helped me get away.

            She bared her teeth in a smile, a grotesque expression that was startling on her beautiful face. “You do not need him anymore?”

            I narrowed my eyes at her. He is my friend. If you touch him…I let the thought trail off. Cassa had water in her body too, at least…in the human part of her body. I could feel it. I could also feel the water all around me, responding to me, washing around my limbs and brushing past my face. If I wanted to, I could command it. I could make it invade Cassa’s lungs, the way I thought it would invade mine.

            My thoughts must have been transparent in that moment, because Cassa flinched.

            “We will not hurt the human. We have orders from Aegir that you are to be kept happy.”

            Well, that was good news. At least, I thought it was.

            After what seemed like forever, the mermaids were low enough that I could make out Eli’s face. His eyes were wide, and there was something covering his nose and mouth, something that looked like a plastic mask.

            I knew he couldn’t hear anyone’s thoughts - it must have been some kind of weird link the mermaids had with me - so I settled on giving him a thumbs up and raising my eyebrows, hoping he would realize I was asking if he was okay. Eli nodded and returned the thumbs up, though his eyes remained wide and scared.

            I could hardly blame him. Being hundreds of miles beneath the ocean was not a natural habitat for my people, and it was most certainly not natural for his. We were both out of our depth completely, metaphorically and physically speaking.

            Now that Eli was on the ground, so to speak, he blinked, and his eyes looked a little less frightened. He tugged his arms out of the mermaid’s grips, and glanced back at them nervously. Cassa was beckoning at both of us to follow her back inside the castle, so I gave Eli a careful nod and then followed her.

            When we rounded the corner she surprised me by yanking me into a separate room, a wide, spacious one that housed an array of gold and silver furniture, and a huge wooden sea chest that sat in the center of it all. Overhead, a chandelier of the same glowing pearls swung briefly as we walked in, pushed by the movement of the water when Cassa shoved the door open.

            “Why are we in here?” I turned around to see her shutting the door, and alarm spiked through me. “Don’t shut Eli out.’

            “You don’t want him here for this.”

            My hands balled into fists at my sides. What exactly was she planning to do?

            “You can’t go to the king looking like this.” She gestured at me, and I glanced down at the oversized clothing that Eli had given me. They were soaked, dragging down on my arms and legs. The fabric wasn’t made for water.

            “I will give you something more appropriate for an audience with the king.”

            Calla bent over the old sea chest in the center of the room, lifting the lid. She pulled out a piece of silk, a thin, gossamer thing that shimmered in her hands when she moved it. It seemed to flow the way the water did, and I noticed that the water didn’t soak into it or effect it.

            “This will be much better.”

            It was beautiful too. When Cassa reached out and draped it over my arms I didn’t argue. I couldn’t resist stroking a finger across the fabric. I’d worked with a lot of different clothing, cleaning it for the nobles in the palace. I’d seen the finest silks and satins, but I’d never seen anything like this. The way it rippled and shimmered when it moved, how soft and buttery it felt under my touch.

            When I looked up, Cassa was looking at me expectantly. “Well, are you going to put it on or stare at it?”

            I glared at her. “Turn around! I’m not taking my clothing off with you standing there gawking at me.”

            She snorted and folded her arms over her chest, but she turned away all the same, and once I had that small amount of privacy I didn’t hesitate to peel the heavy clothing off and slip into the silky fabric she’d given me.

            The design wasn’t fancy. It was just a simple shift that went down to my knees, but it was very comfortable. I could feel it clinging here and there, and when I moved it glided over my skin with a feather light touch. There was no doubt it was the finest thing I’d ever worn.

            When Cassa and I re-emerged into the hallway, I was pleased to see Eli’s eyes go round at the sight of the dress, then he glanced away, his cheeks colouring. I ducked my head just as fast, hoping that neither of the mermaids beside us had seen my blush. A shame there were no mirrors, I was curious to see if it looked as wonderful as it felt.

            “Come now.” Cassa must have spoke into both of our heads, because beside me, Eli jumped. It was time to go.

            Now we would meet this so-called Sea God.

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