Page 12 of Mermaid on Heels
“Wait, Liriya, but you said… you said that the brother of Luke—Ceedric?—told him something like… he should do something else next time if he is so keen to get into trouble, somethinghecan do as well.”
“That is right!” Sessa gasped and turned to Liriya. “You did say that!”
“He probably meant swimming underwater. So, does not that mean perhaps hisbrothercannot breathe underwater like him?” Ella wondered aloud.
“That cannot be possible…” Liriya murmured, deep in thought.
Cedric did say that, yes. But,whywould he say that? Perhaps he didn’t like the sea like Luke? After all, he did mention that Luke had a love of the sea.
The thought made her smile but it didn’t answer her questions.
Did that mean what Luke did Cedric couldn’t?
Did her sisters just catch something that she had missed?
“Nonetheless, how do you think it is possible for Luke to breathe underwater if it is something his fellow humans cannot?” Liriya asked her sisters as much as she knew they didn’t have the answer she sought.
“I do not know.” Ella shrugged and shook her head. “WhatIwonder the most is, why does he want to marry amermaid? How in the sea can a human marry a mermaid?”
“Well,” Sessa began. “Since he can breathe underwater, maybe he is planning to live with his mermaid down here.”
“He is a soon-to-be king, Sessa!”
Sessa narrowed her eyes on Ella. “Well, do you have a practical supposition?”
When Ella narrowed her eyes back and almost opened her mouth to retort, Liriya decided it was time to distract them from this discussion. She would be torn between if they got into an argument.
“Alright, alright. Presuming an unsolvable mystery is not going to help us, so let us halt for now.”
“Right,” Sessa agreed immediately. “But that does not mean I do not want to solve it.”
“We shall figure a way, or something.” Liriya assured her, and her inner-self proddedhowshe was going to do it.
Ella prodded the same question. “How so?”
Liriya shrugged uncertainly.
“This Luke is a human who can breathe underwater while we assume the other humans, even his brother, cannot,” Ella began seriously. “He is going to be a king soon and has to pick a bride; he wants that to be amermaid—which is totally weird. And his brother says that their people believe Merfolk are a myth except themselves.That,Liriya, is the total riddle we have, and I am not sure how we are ever going to solve it, orifwe would.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” Liriya trailed off and tried not to ponder further. Her head would explode if she did so once more. This was a lot to take in for a day, let alone in a single hour.
Then she remembered she had something else to tell them.
“Well, I do know one thing though.”
“What?” her sisters asked together.
A small smile pulled at the corner of Liriya’s lips. “I am taking you to the surface tonight.”
Chapter 4
“Are you sure this is safe?” Sessa asked for the hundredth time that day, since Liriya dropped the idea of bringing them to the surface.
“You are free to swim back if you are not sure this is safe,” an annoyed Ella answered her. “And stay there until we come back and tell you ourepicadventures. Perhaps we can bring you up some other night when you aresureit will be safe.”
Sessa glared at her and pursed her lips, speaking no more of it.
“We are almost there,” Liriya announced quietly, mesmerized as she looked up at the dancing full moon from the water.