*** This story was originally published in a print-only anthology, "When Dreams Come True" (2013), with John Marco, Laura Resnick, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and other authors. ***

*** Mermaid illustration by Brianne Drouhard. ***

Voices filtered down to the mermaid as she swam back and forth in agitation. Everywhere she turned, she encountered a wall. The watery syllables of her name came back to her: Skoliheighi.

"... Doesn't look like a mermaid."

Skoliheighi had never heard the crisp voices of ground-folk until now. She lifted her head above water to get a better look at the two men who stood beyond the pool's edge. Water streamed over her hair and down her fat jowls.

"That can't be a mermaid," the shorter man said in disgust. "Idiot! You summoned a whale." He wore a cape lined with trim that made Skoliheighi think of striped eels.

The tall, skinny man flipped the pages of an object that Skoliheighi suspected was a book. Like most merfolk, she had learned all she could about the world above, studying the contents of sunken ships.

"I'm pretty sure I summoned a mermaid, Your Grace." He flipped more pages. "I might have mispronounced a word in the ninth incantation of the conjuring spell, but that's a mere technicality that shouldn't affect the way--"

"Idiot!" The short man reached over and slammed the book shut. "Everyone knows mermaids lure sailors into the ocean with their unspeakable beauty. The key word is beauty."

Skoliheighi was baffled. She was beautiful. Mermen composed poetry about her huge endowments. Other mermaids sang about her fair skin and massive bulk. No one had ever spoken of her with disgust.

"You're supposed to be the wisest conjuror in seven kingdoms," the short man said. "Is this the best you can do?"

"I'm sorry, Your Grace." The tall man hung his head in shame.

"Well," said the short one, "get rid of it and summon a real mermaid."

Skoliheighi looked from one to the other. "Why am I here?" Minutes ago, she'd been swimming through the indigo depths of her undersea grotto. As she and her sisters harvested oysters for a feast, they'd composed songs about their suitors. Skoliheighi had wanted a break from the teasing songs, so she'd swum upwards until she was completely alone. She hadn't realized how far she'd swum away.

And now she was trapped in a pool of warm, sticky, foul water.

"Send me home," she pleaded to the tall one, the conjuror.

He looked doubtful. "Are you a mermaid?"

"Of course," Skoliheighi replied, flipping her tail in annoyance. Water slopped over the rim of the pool. She rolled to display her obese body, her lack of neck, and her beautiful hair, which was the color of red kelp. "Don't I look like a mermaid?" she asked, surfacing again.

The short man winced in disgust. "You're fat!"

Skoliheighi laughed at his ignorance. "How do you think we stay warm in the ocean? Of course I'm big. Does the whale long for a thinner body? Does the seal want to starve? No, and neither do we."

He struggled to come up with a response.

"I suppose you think selkies are thin, too?" Skoliheighi asked with contempt.

"There you have it," the conjuror said, tucking his book under his arm. "I summoned a mermaid."

"I don't appreciate your sense of humor, Yuris," the short man said. "She has a nice voice, but she needs to lose about a ton before she'll be beautiful. You've failed me again." He whirled on his heel and stalked away. "I have enough worthless treasures."

"Set me free!" Skoliheighi called.

He ignored her, stomping across the polished stone floor and out through a pair of ornate double doors. Armed guardsmen stood to either side of the doors.

Skoliheighi heaved herself onto the floor in a tidal wave of water. She slid and came to rest on her own flesh. Her girth was wider than what a man's arms could encompass, her fish-skin as white as pearls. She was more whale-shaped than human. Her muscular fishtail shimmered with luminescent green scales.

One of the guards groaned in disgust. "Get back in the water, you sea-cow."

Skoliheighi was so distressed, she almost obeyed. But she wanted to face these ground-folk in their element. "Please." She dared to use the conjuror's name. "Please, Yuris."

Yuris paused on his way out the door. "You're one of the Prince's royal treasures, now." He hunched his thin shoulders. "I'm sorry. If I displease him, I'll lose my job. And my life."

"Please." Skoliheighi had no better argument.

Yuris hurried out of the pool chamber.

Skoliheighi slid back into the water. The pool tasted like poison, but she had nowhere better to go. Strange land plants populated the landside portion of the enclosure. She had never seen so many fragrant flowers, or green, leafy trees. There were plenty of oysters to eat.

But the walls were stone.

She rippled back and forth for hours without sleep, dreaming only of going home.

#

Vibrations through the water woke Skoliheighi. She poked the top of her head above the surface.

A group of guardsmen were dragging some sort of stone edifice across the floor. They grunted and strained with the effort. Skoliheighi realized that the statue was a grotesquely thin mermaid, with a pinched-in waist that made her look frail. The skinny mermaid rested on a rock, as if too weak to swim.

Skoliheighi swam closer to look at it. The guardsmen stared at her and muttered something she couldn't hear.

She rose higher out of the water, proud to show them what a real mermaid looked like. Not delicate or weak. She was strong like the dolphin, energetic like the seal, colorful and playful, like all sea creatures. Water streamed off her white rolls of blubber. She twisted so that her hair wrapped her streamlined bulk.

"Ugh," said one of the men.

The Prince strode through the open doors, followed by more guardsmen in shining armor. "Ah, good," he announced. "She sees it. Let her study and learn how a real mermaid should look."
Skoliheighi fell back in the water. Did these ground-folk truly believe the thin mermaid statue was beautiful? They were the ugly ones. They looked pathetic to her.

She churned water into a whirlpool, and had to stop to let the force of it dissipate.

"Hey, fat mermaid," called the Prince. "Here's the deal. My useless conjuror talked me into giving you a chance. If you can look like her--" he patted the statue's fishtail-- "I'll talk to you." He grinned with mad overconfidence. "I might even marry you."

The idea of marrying a puny man with legs made Skoliheighi feel nauseated. "Please, set me free."

"Become beautiful," the Prince replied, "and we'll talk about granting your wish."

Skoliheighi dove. She couldn't look at him or the emaciated statue for a moment longer. She swam in circles, desperate for another option.

#

Guardsmen dumped fresh oysters and sardines into the pool every so often. Skoliheighi ate them. But as the hours and days passed, the unchanging meals and stagnant water became boring to her. The only thing she wanted was to go home.

The statue taunted her at the edge of the pool. I am what legged men want. I am the real mermaid, in their eyes.

A morbid curiosity began to take hold of Skoliheighi. She hauled out of the water to study the idealized mermaid statue. She searched for beauty in its curves. No mermaid had ever looked like that, in her experience. Such a thin mermaid would be considered fatally ill.

The Prince ordered more artwork installed in her prison. Paintings and sculptures portrayed delicate, skinny mermaids. They smiled with human faces on human necks. Their breasts were small enough to be engulfed by starfish or clam shells. Their pinched waists looked awkward for streamlined swimming.

"If I marry a mermaid," the Prince told Skoliheighi, "I would let her swim beside my ship. She'd have the ocean for her playground." He cupped his hand around the curve of one statue's waist and looked at Skoliheighi with disappointment.

Skoliheighi had never seen such detailed work, or so many references to the same thing. In her undersea home, paintings did not exist.

She twisted around to look at her own body and saw it the way ground-folk must see it. Ungainly. Excessive.

She didn't reply to the Prince's taunts, and he finally left her alone.

*** This story is concluded in the next part. ***