The Seal Queen by Saidak Sandra

Author:Saidak, Sandra [Saidak, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Uffington Horse Press
Published: 2013-05-14T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

“So. You decided to let me see you,” said Briah calmly. “And you really can speak my language.” Her mind spun with stories of animals in human form. But hows and whys were not important now. Only one thing was. “Will you tell me where my son is?”

“I can’t,” sobbed the boy. He was, she realized, older than Kamin. Probably five or six in human years.

Briah’s maternal instinct surfaced again. “Are you hurt?” she asked. “Your skin looks...”

“It will heal in a moment,” said the boy. Even as he spoke the red faded, leaving normal, if pale, skin. “I’ve never changed before. They say it’s always hard the first time.”

“Who are you?”

The boy’s lips tried to form a word. Finally, he shook his head. “You could not pronounce my name. But my people are the roane.”

“Mermen?” she asked eagerly, thinking that if the strange creature she had come to love were part of this, perhaps all would still be well.

“No, those are different. Roane are seal folk. In the sea, we are seals. On land, we can shed our fur, and live as humans—for a short time. If one of your kind steal our fur, we are trapped to live as a human. Some of your men have gotten wives from us that way.”

“That I can well believe,” said Briah, deciding not to ask herself how she could believe any of this. But, somehow, it made sense. “Did your people take my son?”

“We had to,” said the roane.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I just know it’s important.”

“But why are you here?”

Very human looking tears welled up in the boy’s eyes. “Both my parents are dead.”

“Seal hunters?” asked Briah.

The boy nodded.

“And your people sent you here? To another human?”

“You wouldn’t stop calling for your son! We—they thought you’d give up! Any other woman would have!” He looked at her accusingly, but with longing. “I had no close kin. I needed a mother; you needed a child. They sent me, and hoped you’d be content. So did I.” Now he looked at Briah with a child’s sense of betrayal, and the tears spilled from his eyes.

“No, don’t!” Briah pulled the boy to her and held him close. “It wasn’t your fault that I couldn’t forget my son!” Suddenly, anger welled up inside her. “What’s the matter with your people? They steal a baby from his mother? Send an orphan into an alien world? Then convince him he’s a failure if a grieving mother can’t simply substitute one child for another like a pair of shoes!

The boy pulled away and stared up at Briah in amazement. “No!” he said, shaking his head, causing Briah to wonder if the gesture was universal. “They’re not like that! I don’t know what shoes are, but my people are good. They love me, and they were trying to ease your suffering!”

“I wouldn’t be suffering if it weren’t for them!”

“We can’t help that!”

“Prove it!” snapped Briah.

“How?”

“Take me to your world. Let me see that my son is safe. Let your people explain their good deeds to me.

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