fuonlyknew

.

Enjoy the Excerpt

The library doors are my favorite in the castle. Unlike all the other
doors, made of sculpted sea glass in colors ranging from pastels to deep
jewel tones, the doors to the varellska (Mermese for library) are made
of the coated wood of a sunken Victorian ship. Mounted to the frame
between the double doors is a handcrafted mermaid from the ship’s
prow, her wooden hair blowing around her in carved curls, her face
proud. She puts a smile on my own face as I open one of the doors and
swim into the room that may hold the answer I need among its secrets.
Shelves stretch up the walls high above my head, each lined with
shells of every conceivable size and pattern, from short volumes
of poetry in tiny sundial shells to hours-long research tomes in
giant diadema shells. Between the shells stand various treasures for
decoration: an antique spyglass, a bronze-rimmed compass, an old
brass lantern. I inhale the scent of shell polish and whalebone styluses.
I’ve come on the librarian’s day off and have the whole place to
myself. I swim up to the highest shelves, where there rests a large,
gilded starfish, the symbol of balanced justice. What’s happened to
Clay at the hands and fins of Merkind has been anything but just.
I’m hoping that means justice is on our side throughout our quest to
make him a Merman. I rub the starfish for luck. “Help me find a way,”
I murmur into the varellska’s quiet stillness.