Wickedly Ever After: A Baba Yaga Novella(9)
“Really?” Liam said. “You know someone who can do that? Who?”
***
The King of the Selkies walked out of the waves as the sun was sinking below the horizon. Four tall Selkie men followed him, an honor guard more than an actual one, although they looked fit and alert enough to take on anything that came. All the Selkies had straight dark hair and brown eyes and smooth, pale skin that gleamed like the inside of an abalone. The King wore muted browns and grays like his men but his bearing and piercing glance would have made his rank clear, even if the scepter he carried did not.
The two Baba Yagas and their dragon-dogs walked down to meet the Selkies; Liam had stayed at the bus with Beka’s new husband, Marcus, and Babs, who had nodded off over her dinner after a day spent playing in the water, despite her eagerness to meet the King. The women bowed slightly to the King, who tilted his head in return. The Baba Yagas had always been held in great esteem by the sea peoples, the Selkies and the Mer, but after Beka had saved their underwater home from destruction and cured the folks who had been poisoned by the same source that had contaminated their refuge deep under the sea, the King treated her almost as an equal.
“Baba Yaga,” he said to her in his resonant voice. “You sent a message that you needed me and so I have come. We owe you a great debt and if there is anything at all I can do to repay it, such a thing is yours to command.”
“I would not command,” Beka said, a quiet dignity changing her from the hippy surfer chick she normally seemed to be into the powerful witch she actually was. “But I do ask most humbly if perhaps you can somehow help my friends. You promised me a boon, once, if I ever needed one. Their need is great, and if you can do the thing they require, it would repay the debt between us in full.”
The King looked thoughtful. Those of the Otherworld, even the few paranormal races who had been forced to stay behind when all the others retreated to the greater safety of the place far from Humans, truly disliked owing favors to anyone. Even those they liked and respected.
“If it is within my power, Baba Yaga, you may consider your wish granted. What is this boon you need for your sister Baba?”
Barbara took a step forward. “The High Queen has given me three impossible tasks to fulfill if I am to be allowed to wed my mate, Liam, in the eyes of the court and share with him the Water of Life and Death, which Beka once used to save your people.”
The King, a wise and long-lived creature who had ruled his people for many, many years, gave Beka a keen-eyed look. “This would affect you and your mate as well, would it not? Since he, too, is Human, I assume that your need for the Water would be the same.”
Beka nodded, a trifle grimly. “Indeed, we suspect that the success or failure of Barbara’s mission may well decide Marcus’s fate as well—although the Queen has not given me the same ultimatum, so we can’t know for sure.”
“Ah,” he said. “So we might be able to give you a gift almost as great as the one you gave to my people. That would be a right and fitting thing. What is it you need, exactly?”
Barbara took a deep breath. “The first task is this: to catch the song of the ocean in a bottle. Is such a thing even possible?”
To Beka’s and Barbara’s surprise, the King threw back his head and laughed, a sound a bit like the barking of a seal. They exchanged glances.
“This is amusing to you, Your Highness?” Beka asked.
“I beg your pardon, Babas,” the King said, amusement still coloring his face. “I do not mean to make light of your request; I am aware of its importance. But I must tell you, this boon you ask, it is too small. It cannot even begin to pay off our debt to you, although of course I am happy to be able to grant it.”
Barbara leaned forward eagerly. “You can do this? Really? I didn’t even realize the ocean had a song, nonetheless that you could actually catch it somehow.”
The King gestured at one of his guards; the two spoke briefly in low tones, and then the man dove cleanly into the water, vanishing beneath the waves. When Beka started to ask a question, the King just held up one hand. Wait.
They stood on the beach in silence for about a half hour, watching the moon rise to glisten off the water. Finally, a dark head surfaced with a splash and the Selkie waded back ashore, something clutched in one pale hand.
He handed it to the King, who in turn handed it to Beka. She held it up so Barbara could see too. It was a large beautiful shell, its peach and pink interior peeking out from a creamy exterior. In the bright moonlight it seemed to shimmer with an opalescent gleam.
“It’s lovely,” Beka said. “But how is this the song of the ocean?”
The King chuckled. “Among the Humans, they have a myth that if you put your ear to certain shells, you can hear the sound of the waves inside. It was shells like this one from which that story sprang. In our kingdom under the sea, our wizards capture the singing of the whales and the melody of the waves and all the other myriad sounds that make up the background harmony of our world, and they attach it to these shells. Every once in a while one of them would wash up upon the shore and be found. Here, listen.”
Beka put the shell up to her ear and a look of pure delight crossed her face, her eyes closing and a dreamy smile lingering on her lips. “That’s amazing,” she whispered.
Barbara was dubious. She, like most other people, had tried once or twice to listen to a shell, but all she ever heard was a faint whooshing sound. So when Beka handed over the gleaming, slightly pointed object, she didn’t have very high expectations.