Sword and Sorceress XXVII by Unknown Page A

Elused,
shocked.
    The seal shook her head, and Grandma
Seeley’s face showed through. “Now do you see? I married a trapper, a
seal-killer, and I got old. Some things can’t be undone. And there’s never been
a selkie man on this good green earth who could think beyond his own pleasure.
Now leave us both alone.”
    She dove, deep into the green-gold
waters of the lake. Fish flashed away from her. Weeds brushed against her.
Water throbbed in her ears.
    No one swam to greet her, or to threaten
her. Elused had spoken the truth- he was the only other selkie in these waters,
so far from home. The waters were the only thing there to welcome her back to
herself.
     Her seal body, old though it was, felt
better than her woman’s body had in decades. She could swim without stopping,
for miles and miles…
    She surfaced, and blinked. She’d
forgotten just how long a selkie could stay underwater. Kim’s father was
already there, on the beach. So was Kim. And so was Elused, stark naked and
grinning his most suggestive grin.
    Kim’s father swept his daughter up in
his arms and swung her into the boat. The motorboat roared away. Grandma Seeley
shook off her skin and ran to Elused.
    “Did you see the mortal man, Fiedlimid
my love?” the selkie said, bent over with laughter. “Such a look he gave me! He’ll
be nothing but gentle with Kim now, for all the fault will be mine. All’s well.
Now, come with me. Teach me the feel of these waters.”
    “Do you never think?” Grandma Seeley
shouted. “Now this place will be swarming with policemen, and how will we be
explaining ourselves? You’ve turned my home into a crime scene, Elused!”
    He reeled back, shocked. “But I did
nothing to Kim. T’was only a trick.”
    “That won’t matter.” Grandma Seeley
glared at him. “And it was a trick. A childish trick.”
    Elused hung his head. Every line of his
sleek body expressed remorse. He probably felt it, too. For now. Something
would come along to distract him. Something always did.
    “You’re a rogue, Elused. The same as
always.”
    Sensing forgiveness, he raised his head
and grinned.
    “But I’m not the same, Elused. I’m not
the selkie maid you knew. I’m Grandma Seeley too. And Felicienne.”
    “And Fiedlimid? Or is she truly dead?”
    “She’s grown up, Elused. As you never
can.”
    “Fiedlimid, my love! Did I not swim the
seas over to find you?”
    “You did. But I’d be a fool to think you
swam alone the whole time.”
    “Well, it would have done you no good to
have me pining away of loneliness before I reached you, now would it?” He
turned the smile she remembered on her: brilliant with a selkie male’s
enthralling charm. “Come back with me.”
    She shook her head. “This is my home
now.”
    “Then we’ll claim the waters of this
place for ourselves. You and I, swimming where we please.” He grinned, pulled
his sealskin around himself, and slipped into the water.
    Grandma Seeley looked back at her house,
so carefully hidden, holding so much of her mortal life. Armel had built it to
last for more decades than any human could live to see. For her. For them.
Forever. How strange, that a mortal’s promise could make “forever” mean more
than any immortal selkie ever had.
    Elused was already swimming away, a
distant dot in the water. Grandma Seeley smiled, shook her head, and went to
pick up her sealskin.
    “Make yourself at home in my lake, old
friend. But I won’t be crying seven tears into it.”
    She stroked the soft hide. The lake
called to her. But policemen would be wanting to talk to Grandma Seeley very
shortly. Her seal-self would have to wait.
    At least for now.
    They That Watch
    by
Michael Spence and Elisabeth Waters
     
    In the
introduction to last year’s story we said that Michael and his wife lived with
a “canine Guardian” and continued “Hmm, now what can we do with a Guardian who
is a canine?” Once I had posed that question, both our minds started working on
it, and thus