Inside the sea cavern, surrounded by soft sponges, the kelpie and the kidnapped witch sat upon a bed of sea grass and seaweed, the kelpie was lying down, just like a horse resting, and Katie was leaning against his side. The enchantment to keep her breathing water worked so long as she was touching some part of the satiny hide. He had told her that straight off, so she did not attempt to escape as soon as they had reached the grotto.
She had looked at him then, scared and angry, and asked, “Why are you doing this? Playing this game? Why not just drown me and eat me and be done with it? That’s what a kelpie does, isn’t it? I know the old tales.”
He had breathed on her, calming her somewhat, and then he spoke. “Not all old tales are true, little sorceress. In fact, only a quarter have even a grain of truth in them. The rest is invented.” He tossed his head, so his long forelock was swept back from his eyes, which were no longer crimson, but a blue as deep as the sea.
“What are you saying? That kelpies don’t really kill people and eat them?” She had slid off his back then and was resting her hand upon his withers.
“Oh some of my more uncivilized wicked barbaric cousins do, to be sure,” he admitted. “Those who have pledged their souls to the Dark Court.” His lips wrinkled back in a sort of sneer. “But I am not like them.”
“No, you just kidnapped me for a lark,” Katie sniffed. “And threaten to keep me prisoner here for the rest of my life if Harry can’t find me. It’s all a big joke. Trick or treat, right?”
He studied her for a moment, then snorted. “You have spirit. I like that in a maid. Never could stand girls who cried and wailed and begged God to save them from the devil horse. Silly fools didn’t even realize I was taking them to a better place.”
“What better place? Heaven, beyond the Veil?”
The kelpie laughed, and it was odd, a high pitched sound ending in a snort, just as she would have imagined a horse would sound if it could laugh. “Please, milady! What do you think I am? Pay attention! I took them away to live in the Other World, the one that dwells but a hop, skip, and a Gate beyond your own. My world, the world of Faerie. And there they live still, never to grow old and never to die, a far better life than the one they had as a milkmaid or a farmer’s daughter or a sailor’s forgotten bride.”
“You let them live?”
The kelpie’s eyes rolled. “Have I not just said it? Something wrong with your ears, little mage? Killing maids is not my style and eating them even less. I much prefer a good bunch of sea cucumbers and shrimp. Or a bit o’mutton and potatoes.”
“You eat mutton and potatoes?”
“When I can get it.”
“I’ve never seen a horse eat anything except hay and oats and grass.”
“I’m not always a horse, lass. And even so, I am not mortal.” He sighed. “But all of those girls, bonny as they were, never stayed. Not one. Not like her.”
“Her?”
“Shall I tell you a story, sorceress mine? Or better yet sing it, for I’ve a fine set o’pipes, there’s no denying. A true tale, I promise, true and sad.”
The water horse settled to the cavern floor upon the thick bed of sea grass and Katie sat next to him.
“A long, long time ago,
I can still remember,
Sunny days in a purple haze,
And the way my music made her smile.
Down by the sea, she’d wait for me
On the place where the waves met the shore.”
His voice was beautiful, the deep rich tenor that put any opera singer to shame. Then he paused and whispered, “So long ago that this island was but a place where seals stopped upon the way to the Arctic, I knew a girl of a seafaring folk, with hair like ebony and eyes like the sea after a storm. Fair skin like the froth on the waves, she had, and a voice as sweet and clear as a rock dove.”
“What was her name?”
There was a long pause, and then the kelpie answered.
“Albia. Her name was Albia—the fair white maid, she loved horses and the sea, and she loved me.” He began to sing again, his voice filling the cave.
“Come away wi’ me and be my love,
She sang all on a summer’s day.
‘Twas folly to love a mortal,
But a folly I’d gladly pay.
Come away, come away
To the high wild hills that o’erlook sea
An’ there shall we dwell contentedly
Upon the land and the sea.
Come away, come away,
My heart longs for thee, horse of the sea,
I love thee more than any I’ve known.
I love thee more,
I love thee more,
Than all o’ the rest,
My heart to yours, will always be true.”
The kelpie stopped singing abruptly and shook his head. “I was enchanted by her—me, the water horse, who had seen a century come and go! Who knew, none better, how ill it was for a fae to love a mortal. Such was forbidden, for it led only to a broken heart, and our hearts, once broken, do not mend easily . . .if at all. But I could not help myself. And so I loved her, my Albia, and for her I gave up the sea for a time, and dwelled on the land, as husband to her wife, like a mortal man. Though each week’s end, I returned to the waves and the sea, and she rode upon my back.”
“Why didn’t you take her to the Other Land?”
“Because she would not go. I begged and pleaded, as the years passed, I remained young, as perfect as I had been when I first saw her, and time’s hand touched me not. I had thought . . .being with me might give her some of my magic. . . but it was not so . . .She aged, slower than most, but she aged . . .Over a hundred of your years she lived and yet it was but the blink of an eye to me . . .A thousand years it has been, since she danced upon the shore, a thousand years and more, and still I have not forgotten . . .”
There was a terrible longing in the ancient eyes now, a terrible sorrow that somehow would never be fulfilled.
“That is the curse of my kind. To remember always and to never ever forget. You ask me why I do what I do? Every night upon Samhain I search, search for the one who reminds me of her . . .in looks and spirit, in the sound of her voice, and I hope that someday . . .there will be one who will stay with me forever . . .When you summoned me I was annoyed, for I was just about to begin my eternal search, and then there you were . . .and you are very like her, so very like . . .”
Katie gaped at him. “You mean, you kidnapped me because I look like your dead wife?”
“Not merely look, you have her courage as well . . .She did not flinch from marrying a fae creature, and neither would you, I’d wager.” He blew softly into her hair.
“No, but . . .I love another.”
His eyes flashed. “Aye, I know! The half-fae stripling I challenged. But does he love you enough, fair one? Enough to brave the depths and come for you? For if not, then it was a mistake and you should consider it lucky I stole you away.”
“That’s what this is then? A test to see if Harry loves me?”
“Aye, and if not, then might you consider me as an alternative? For I will never abandon you.”
She looked up at him then and felt her heart swell with pity. “But I don’t love you. I love Harry.”
“You say that now. But wait till midnight. Then we shall see.”
He began to sing again, old songs of the sea, sailor chanties and ballads, all the songs gathered from several lifetimes of watching and listening to mortals in their ships and among the taverns upon the docks.
Katie found herself laughing and clapping along in spite of herself, while leaning against the warm hide, and the kelpie smiled to himself.
“Bring back, bring back
O bring back my Bonnie to me
To me!”
He sang till the walls echoed and that was the sound the two wizards heard as they entered the cavern, the kelpie’s brilliant voice and a girl’s soft laughter.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Katie learns some interesting things about her captor
The Kelpie's Lament
Chapter End Notes:
A/N: So what do you think of our horsey friend now? Also, the songs in this chapter are my own inventions, save for the last one, which is "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" a traditional Scottish folk song, maybe referencing Charles Stuart, AKA "Bonnie Prince Charlie".