*** Skoliheighi is a captive mermaid in a palace pool. ***

"Were you attracted to any mermen?" Yuris asked, kicking his bare feet in the pool water.

"A few," Skoliheighi said. "But they only wanted me for my beauty. I never met one I wished to marry."

Yuris was her only regular visitor, now that the Prince had all but given up on her. Sometimes Yuris sat by the poolside and watched her swim, and sometimes he even jumped in and joined her in the water. Skoliheighi answered his questions about her home, but she could not summon any warmth for the man who had trapped her. At least he was curious. Unlike the Prince and his guardsmen, Yuris ignored the statues and paintings, and seemed fascinated by real mermaids.

"I've never found a woman I wanted to marry, either." Yuris studied his clasped hands. "You're more interesting than anyone in the royal palace."

This was the first time Yuris had offered any personal information. Despite herself, Skoliheighi was curious. "Have you ever left the royal palace?" she asked.

"Not since I was young," Yuris replied. "I'm not allowed to. The Prince keeps me here almost the way he keeps you. And the court ladies? They're not my type. They're playing a power game, so they all want the Prince."

Skoliheighi swam fitfully around the pool. Hunger gnawed at her, but she forced herself to ignore it. "How long have you been here?"

Yuris laughed without humor. "Years. Years and years."

"Why can't you just conjure yourself free?"

"I could," he admitted. "But then I'd be a hunted man. The Prince has a network of allies in every kingdom from here to the North Sea. I have enemies in the outside world--powerful sorcerers--who want me dead. As long as I obey the Prince, I'm safe. If I displease him, I might as well prepare my own grave."

Skoliheighi wondered if his enemies would think to look for him in the ocean. She eyed his lanky body. Despite his bony limbs, he was a graceful swimmer, for a legged man.

Yuris studied her, as well. "You shouldn't try to look like these statues and paintings."

"I'm not," she said, indignant. But in her heart, she wasn't so sure. The Prince and his guardsmen spoke about her as if she was a monster. She longed to hear words of admiration again. She longed for the vastness of the ocean, and her sisters and the rest of the merfolk. She'd never gone for so long without praise or love before. Now that she knew what she missed, she realized that she needed admiration in her life more than sustenance.

The Prince had promised to let her swim in the ocean if she became thin.

"The Prince is greedy." Yuris scooted forward, submerging his legs all the way into the pool, and lowered his voice. "Don't tell the guardsmen what I'm about to tell you, all right? It could mean death for both of us."

"All right," Skoliheighi said.

"He's obsessed with marrying royalty," Yuris said. "The only princess available to him is his withered old aunt, and he doesn't want her, so he's set his heart on marrying a non-human princess." Yuris smiled. "The first was the dryad. He eventually realized that he can't make love to a tree. Then he tried a banshee. She didn't take well to being told to shut up."

Skoliheighi laughed. She hadn't laughed since her imprisonment began, and it felt strange.

"He wants an exotic wife more than anything," Yuris said. "He's collected a succubus, a fairy, a genie ... but he's still thinking of you. You might be the one he chooses. His ornamental mermaid princess bride."

That seemed like a cruel taunt to Skoliheighi. The Prince would never love her. No legged man would ever find her attractive. She was just a monstrosity in a pool, ugly and pathetic and devoid of enchanting properties.

She swam past pictures of thin mermaids. "I used to be beautiful." Skoliheighi wasn't sure why she wanted to tell Yuris about her home, but it felt good to share something about herself. "I was praised by everyone," she went on. "I was called the Treasure of the North Sea."

Yuris was silent. Listening.

"I'm not real in this palace. These statues . . . they're real here." She turned to Yuris. "How can I make ground-folk see me with admiration?"

Yuris smiled sadly. "Don't. They're not worth it, Skoliheighi."

#

"Well, well," said the Prince. "Hmmm."

It had been six long months since her capture. Skoliheighi bobbed in the shallow end of the pool, desperate to look appealing. Her eyes felt heavy and hollow. Her stomach was cramped and empty. The ends of her hair brushed her tail flippers, seeming to have grown in length because her former bulk was gone. In the ocean of her home, she would have frozen to death. She was emaciated.

"Huh." The Prince sat back and framed his chin with his finger and thumb. He gave no sign of approval or disapproval. He just studied her.

Yuris looked mournful and guilty.

They both spoke at once. "She's improved," the Prince said, as Yuris began, "I should never have—"

The Prince silenced him with a hand flip. "She's not precisely ... pretty ... but she does look acceptable."

Yuris gave him an incredulous look.

Skoliheighi twisted, catching her reflection in the water's surface, desperate to see if there was any fat left. Her skin hung in loose flaps. Was that ugly? And what about her long torso? Were her bony hips too wide? Were her floppy breasts decently covered, or should she show more skin?

"She's prettier than my aunt," the Prince said in a considering tone. "And she is a princess."

"But ..." Yuris seemed unwilling to even look at her. "She looks starved, Your Grace."

Skoliheighi whimpered as if she'd suffered a physical blow. Yuris was the only legged man who had bothered to learn about her culture, and now he was disgusted. His tone said it all. She began to sink, so they wouldn't be able to see her cry.

"You've upset her!" The Prince sounded angry. "I gave her a goal and she respected it. She's not bad looking. Anyway, why should you care so much? It's my future bride, not yours."

Yuris stepped back and made a gesture of acquiescence.

The Prince knelt by the poolside. He would make an ugly merman, but Skoliheighi tried to smile for him. He wasn't awful. Not really. She had to build a relationship with this man in order to escape the prison of the pool.

The Prince nodded in approval at her long body. "Her fishtail makes up for her baggy skin. Won't she look beautiful dressed up in taffeta and lace? My mermaid queen! She'll be the envy of all the nations!" He leaned closer. "What is your name?"

Skoliheighi twirled with joy. She had waited months for the Prince to actually talk directly to her. She drew a deep breath to answer ... and her vision narrowed.

The Prince looked baffled. Skoliheighi was unable to catch her breath. Her heart fluttered.

"You've killed her," Yuris said. "She's starved herself to death. I told you, mermaids need to be bulky!"

As Skoliheighi descended, too weak to swim, she knew Yuris spoke the truth. She was no longer a mermaid but a carcass, a grotesque skeleton. Uneaten oysters floated below her. Oysters that would be her grave.

Yuris began to read from his spell-book. He spoke rapidly and without inflection.

"What are you doing?" the Prince demanded. "Another summoning?"

Yuris kept reading, his voice growing deep, and powerful enough to reverberate underwater.

"You don't read spells unless I order it!" the Prince said. "Shut up!"

Yuris kept reading. The Prince took a step back, and then, with all of his small strength, he shoved Yuris into the pool.

The last thing Skoliheighi saw before blackness took over was Yuris falling through water. The spell-book fell in with him.

#

Ocean currents tugged at Skoliheighi. The briny ocean surrounded her, vast and cold. It tasted like freedom. She was too thin, but she felt healthier than she had in months.

Yuris floated down towards the black depths. His eyes bulged in panic, and silvery bubbles trailed from his nose.

Skoliheighi dove and embraced Yuris. She swam upwards as fast as she could. Yuris went limp in her arms. This isn't his element, she knew. The Prince must have thought he was just pushing Yuris into the pool. He didn't realize that Yuris had completed the spell.

She broke the surface of the nighttime ocean, and lifted Yuris's head above the waves, holding him close to the warmth of her body. He remained corpse-like. She pressed her lips against his cool mouth and used her powerful mermaid lungs to revive him.

He stirred.

Encouraged, Skoliheighi breathed in and out for him. Yuris coughed. He coughed again, and this time threw up water.

"I wanted to see your home," he said weakly.

"Thank you, Yuris. I will forever be grateful." Skoliheighi embraced him to keep him warm. She laid a finger against his lips. "But you cannot come to my home. You know that. It would be deadly to you, just as your home was deadly to me."

Yuris gazed hopelessly at her. It was the way he'd looked at her that first day they'd met.

Skoliheighi swam southward, where ground-folk plied the ocean, to bring Yuris somewhere he'd be safe. Together, they would solve the problem of his enemies. She would help him build a new life in hiding.

Only then would she dive home, where she belonged.

***

The end!  Thank you so much for reading.

Although I enjoy shorts, my passion is novels. I'm currently posting my SFF novel "City of Slaves" here on Wattpad.