Chapter 47

Rory gazed through the bars of the prison. The moon was full, a huge glowing orb. Never before had Rory stared so much at it, the beautiful celestial eye, watching over the night. This was it, the last night of his bargain with Skelmis. He had tried to make his escape and failed. The shame of it prickled his skin and made him feel sick in his stomach.

He had tried pulling the bars apart, but human-forged iron did not budge. He had tried screaming through the window, but only received a kick to the bars from a passerby.

As he sat with his back against the rough brick wall, his mind cycled through all that he would lose, had already lost: his home, devasted by the black sludge; the beautiful caves, with the thousands of drawing depicting the history of his kind; his mother, queen regent of the ocean, granddaughter of one of the most powerful nymphs to ever live, now reduced to wasting away in a freshwater river.