THE APPLE OF SNAKES

xxxviii. fish king's heart

When the ax fell, Nerluce wasn't there.

Ethera was a sacred place and its laws were absolute. There would be no exceptions. Not for anyone and especially not when the Chosen Light was involved. But there was no law that stated that Nerluce had to watch and, like a coward, he didn't. He claimed to still be weak from the fight but even Aristide managed to limp out of bed so it wasn't like anyone believed Nerluce to begin with.

The Chosen Light didn't have to be there either and with most everyone occupied that morning, Nerluce spent it with Kierli, skipping rocks in the pond. She giggled as the water spirits made the stone skip more times than Nerluce would have been able to do so on his own. 

"Again! Again!" Kierli cheered.

"Here," Nerluce said, handing the girl a flat stone. "Why don't you give it a try?"

Kierli looked at the rock with wide, dark eyes before squatting down like Nerluce was. She was very still for a moment and then she flung the stone with all the might in her chubby child arms. The rock, expectedly, splashed into the water, startling the spirits beneath the surface. Nerluce laughed and pushed Kierli's pouting lower lip back in.

"Why didn' it hop hop?" Kierli asked.

"It takes practice," Nerluce said, handing her another rock. "Flick your wrist. See?" Taking his own stone, he demonstrated a toss. Without the spirit's help, the rock only skipped once. 

Kierli nodded slowly and the pair continued to toss rocks into the pond. The earth spirits were plenty helpful in collecting flat stones for them. As the sun crested the mountains and the sky faded from red to blue they kept practicing and Kierli, being the Chosen Light - reincarnated or just naturally good at everything - was nearly better than Nerluce at skipping stones when she was barely two years old.

Nerluce collapsed onto the ground after their third tie. "I can't keep going. If you beat me, I won't be able to bear the shame."

"But I wanna be as good as Luce at rock hopping," Kierli said. "Again? Please?"

Looking down at her small, begging face, Nerluce felt his heart soften. She was still ugly as an old man with too-large eyes like black beetles and a piggy nose often dripping with snot and lines all over her face making her every thought apparent. And Nerluce had almost never seen her again. He'd almost lost Kierli and her every ugly appearance forever.

"Okay," Nerluce relented. "Just once more."

They went once more. Nerluce's stone skipped three times and Kierli's skipped four.

"I win!" Kierli squeaked.

"You must've bribed the water spirits," Nerluce said, ruffling her hair. "Like that fish. I told you about the fish who bribed the water spirits, right?"

Kierli shook her head.

Of course, Nerluce hadn't because he'd just made the story up right now. His eyes widened with delight as he grinned. "Oh well, it's a good one. Once there was a fish, bigger than all of the other fish and with beautiful golden scales. This fish was the king and all of the little fish wondered how he'd gotten so big and beautiful."

"He... bw... bye... bed..." Kierli frowned, clearly trying to recall the word Nerluce had used.

"Bribed," Nerluce said. "It means... to give something to someone else so they'll do something for you."

"Oh..." Kierli said. "So... he bye-bed the spirits?"

"Exactly but listen," Nerluce said, tapping her nose. "One day a little fish worked up the courage to swim up to the King Fish and ask how he had become so big and beautiful. She was really little, no bigger than this." Nerluce held up his fingers to the size of a coin.