Between the Sea and Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

fault.”
    “Dosia and Esmerine always wanted to go be humans,” Tormy said, her eyes flashing at Esmerine. “They were always putting on legs and showing off around the islands.”
    “You think this is my fault?” Esmerine cried. “Dosia didn’t even tell me she was talking to humans!”
    “Be silent, Tormaline!” Esmerine’s mother shouted. “You could display at least one iota of pity for poor Dosia. It’s one thing to walk about on an island as a child, and another to be kidnapped by a human man.”
    Tormy slashed the water with her tail. “Pity her? She should have known better! I miss her, but she’s gone because she always liked humans better than anything else!” She fled the room.
    Esmerine, too, returned to her sleep room and curled against the floor, clutching the winged statue to her chest. Her despair felt bottomless. There was no balm for Dosia’s disappearance. She didn’t even want to talk to her parents. She did feel guilty in some way—should she have tried harder to stop Dosia? If only Dosia hadn’t gone to the human house without Esmerine in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. She still couldn’t believe Dosia had done all this without her.
    Esmerine kept replaying again and again the vision of Dosia being taken by human men, the gruff hand tearing Dosia’s belt from her waist, the terror Dosia must have felt, knowing she’d been wrong about the humans and no one from home could help her.
    Of course, everyone in the village knew Dosia was gone by day’s end. Friends called, bearing gifts of sympathy. When Lalia Tembel and her mother came by, Esmerine said she was sick and hid in her room. Every time Esmerine passed one of Dosia’s friends they would embrace her, and the tears would begin again. For a week, they had no theatricals, only songs of blessing for Dosia and mourning for themselves.
    Esmerine continued her work as a siren, but Dosia’s departure had drained the joy she should have felt. Fear for her sister twisted to anger and back again as she sat on the rocks with the other sirens.
    Sometimes Esmerine found a solitary rock and watched birds fly overhead. She glimpsed winged people gliding on the western sky, near the mountainous cliffs they called the Floating City. She remembered how Dosia used to yell at Lalia Tembel for her, defending Esmerine’s friendship with Alander. Now Dosia was experiencing things Esmerine couldn’t even fathom, and worse, she didn’t know if Dosia was all right.
    For all that Esmerine and Dosia had dreamed of changing their legs to tails and exploring the human world, Esmerine was sickened at the thought of her sister living the rest of her life with legs, sleeping close to a human man, talking only to humans and never again to her own people.
    They would never be traders. They would never go looking for Alander together. They would never even be sirens together.
    The world couldn’t stop just because Dosia was gone. The other sirens urged Esmerine to go to a dance with them. Esmerine had always loved to sing and dance, and she had just begun to miss it, but it still felt wrong to enjoy herself. She lingered by the walls.
    She noticed Jarra looking at her. He had always been nice to her, and he had bright black eyes and a quick smile. She lifted her face as he swam nearer.
    “I was wondering … er … did Dosia say anything about me before she left?” he asked.
    “Well … I know she liked your company.”
    “I really thought we might have a future together.” He curled one hand into a loose fist. “I can’t believe everyone’s just sitting around when she’s been kidnapped. Someone should go after her.”
    Esmerine agreed, but few merfolk could stand the pain in their transformed feet for long, and it was even more unlikely they would confront the humans, who would surely have hidden her belt well. Her sister was as good as a slave. Esmerine couldn’t think about it. She wished Jarra would just leave her alone if he