Phoryne Rose's Arc

Chapter 11 of 5

Phoryne walked back the way she came. The lake fell behind her. The trees closed in again, and the guarded path led her to the clearing where Taio and Koot waited. The tree god stood with his arms crossed, leaves trailing from his cuffs. The tiny fairy sat on a low branch, kicking her bare feet. Phoryne stopped in front of them, empty-handed once more. "The mermaid won't let me cross," Phoryne said. "Not with water. Not with promises." She looked at Koot. "She wants your apology. She said your name like a wound." Koot's pink eyes went wide, then narrow. She shot off the branch and buzzed in the air. "No. No, no, no. I won't go near that spiteful fish." Her wings snapped fast and hard. "Whatever she told you, she's lying. She always lies." "She named you," Phoryne said. "She tasted your water and knew your hand. That's not a lie." Koot dropped to the branch and turned her back. "I did nothing to her." Her voice cracked on the last word. "I got everyone else killed. The fire took my whole family. I ran and they burned. Is that what she wants me to say?" She wrapped her thin arms around herself. "I left. I always leave. That's what I do." Taio knelt. His deep voice filled the clearing like water in a low place. "You left her too," he said. "When the flames came, you woke the ones you could. You left one behind. The lake keeps her now. She was your kin." Phoryne stared. The mermaid's cold face made sudden sense. Not a stranger's spite. A sister's grief. Koot shook. "I couldn't reach her. The smoke—" She pressed her small hands over her face. "I told myself she died. It was easier than knowing she lived and I flew off." "She lives," Taio said. "She guards for me. She waits for one word." Phoryne crouched close to the branch. "Then give it to her. Not for me. For you both." She held out her open palm. "I'll carry you there. You don't have to touch the water. Just speak." Koot looked at the hand. She looked at the trees. For a long moment she said nothing. Then she flew to Phoryne's shoulder and gripped a lock of her hair. "If she screams at me, I'm biting your ear," she muttered. They walked to the lake together. The mermaid rose from the shallows, purple eyes sharp, then still. Koot's wings drooped. "I'm sorry," the fairy whispered. "I should have come back for you. I'm sorry." The mermaid's face broke. She reached out one wet hand. Koot flew into it. For the first time, the guardian smiled. "Cross," the mermaid said to Phoryne. "The bloom waits past the far shore." She sank low and cleared the water. The path across lay open at last.