Page 13 of Entangled

“My age is one hundred and fifty. Years,” she added when he acted like he didn’t understand. “Although to humans, I look to be about the same age as you.”

“Nay. You can’t be.” He shook his head in disbelief and walked closer. “You don’t look that old at all.” He actually had the nerve to get close to her and bend over and peruse her face. He was probably looking for wrinkles.

“For an undine, that isn’t old,” she explained.“My kind can live up to two hundred and fifty years of age.”

“You’ve got to be jesting!”

“Nay. Not at all.” She picked up her necklace and played with it. “I, however, am one of the eldest siblings.”

“By siblings, you’re talking about those two sisters you’re looking for. Right?”

“Yes. Them, and others.”

“How many others?” He walked over and poured himself a goblet of wine from a nearby table. “And do you have both brothers and sisters? I am an only child.” He brought the goblet to his mouth.

“Yes,” she answered. “I have one brother. And forty-nine sisters.”

Sebastian spit a stream of wine across the room. Then he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before he managed to speak. “Did you say…forty-nine? Or was it four? Or nine?”

“You heard me correctly the first time. I have forty-nine sisters, my lord.”

“That’s preposterous.You’ve got to be jesting.”

“Well, mayhap you’re right. I might have the count a little off,” she said, thinking and looking into the air above her head. “Actually, my father has some daughters who are bastard children, so add about another dozen to that number of forty-nine, and that would be more accurate, I suppose.”

He stood there with the goblet dangling from his fingers and his mouth hanging open. “I’d like to meet this mighty man someday. He must have an entire harem at his fingertips.”

“Nay, you don’t want to meet him. And what do you mean by harem?”

“I’m saying, he must have a lot of wives.”

“Oh, that. Nay. Just one.” She shook her head. “Except for a few mistresses through the years who produced the dozen bastard children. But otherwise, all of my true siblings come from the same woman.”

“She, I wouldn’t want to meet,” he commented under his breath. “So all those sisters and only one brother? That’s odd.”

“Not really. It is more common for a sea nymph to birth girls. Nerites is the only boy in my family, besides my father, of course. My brother is very protective of all his sisters.”

“I feel pity for the poor woman who had to bear all those children,” he mumbled into his cup.

“My mother, Doris, disappeared years ago.” Merrow jumped off the bed. “I think she might have been swallowed up by a portal like I was. Are you sure she isn’t here?” She looked at him from the corner of her eye.

“Believe me. If there had been anyone like you here on Mura before, I wouldn’t have forgotten about it. You are the first of your kind to walk this land…or swim this sea.”

There came a knock at the door.

“Enter!” shouted Sebastian, doing nothing to open it himself.

“My lord?” His steward stuck his head into the room. “I’ve brought the handmaid and she has a gown for the nymph to wear.”

“Good. Bring her in.”

The handmaid walked in right behind the steward, and Merrow couldn’t get a good look at her.

“The handmaid’s name is Dee,” said Jocet. “She’ll be here to tend to the sea nymph’s every need.”

“That’s not necessary. I’ll just—oh!” Merrow almost fell over when the handmaid stepped forward holding the gown. This woman named Dee was anything but a servant of the King of Macada Castle. This woman was so much more. This handmaid was her missing mother.