My Voice for My Heart

Chapter 25- A Visit

A/N Thank you to SilasAggeleMou and TheonaRae for beta reading this chapter. Please let me know what you think... and thank you so so much for reading!
Keela
I hoped they would still be at the lake. I hoped I hadn't dreamed them. I barely slept.
After returning to the house, Phillip had come to my room with a basket for me. I almost cried out, seeing my thread and thistle. I covered my mouth with my hand, and Phillip cocked his head to the side. .
"I think I'm starting to understand you much better," he told me darkly, before nodding once and leaving me.
In the evening light, I counted my skeins of thread and sifted through the thistle. Some of it had been ruined, and would have to be thrown out. The salt had dried it so it crumbled in my hands. It seemed that the oil in the wool of my shawl had shielded most of my work, repelling the water.
I watched the moon rise. It was almost full. A few days, maybe a week, and it would be full. There was every possibility that the swans' transformation had been a one-time event. They hadn't returned at the second full moon, and the last one... I shivered. The last one had seen me crossing the ocean.
Why had those men brought me here? What was the point? They could have left me in that field. I certainly wasn't worth the food they were feeding me, or the space I was taking up. I shook my head, watching the clouds pass in front of the moon. It didn't matter. I was here now, and my family had found me.
The light from the moon was bright enough that with one candle, I could work separating the thistle fibers.
By the time I stopped, my joints were swollen, and my hands were on fire. I felt a strange sort of relief at the pain. It reminded me that I was working toward something, accomplishing something.
After a quick trip to courtyard and well, I collapsed into bed, sleeping dreamlessly through the rest of the night.
*********
I bounded down the stairs, my basket packed full of everything I would need for the day.
"Running off?" Phillip asked me as I flew by his tiny cottage.
I nodded quickly.
He looked at my hands, frowning. "Wait!" he said when I would have run on. He disappeared inside while I shifted from foot to foot, anxious to get to the lake.
"Here," he said, dropping a jar of something into my basket. "It's for your hands. It should help with the swelling and burning."
I nodded, trying to convey my thanks with my eyes. He must have understood because he smiled. "Go on."
One bounce, and I was on my way. I emerged from the woods and slowed as I approached the banks of the lake. I didn't see the swans anywhere. My eyes scanned the horizon as I lowered myself to sit in the sand and grass. I refused to believe they'd left. They were probably just... looking for fish, or flying through clouds, or doing whatever it was that swans did. I pulled out the fibers I'd separated the night before and began to spin. I watched my fingers, and then the water. Each time I heard a splash, or a swish of movement, my head shot up. The sun rose higher and the day got hotter. I peeled off my stockings and shoes and put my feet in the water. It was tepid, not ice cold like the water in the river near my cave.
"Hello, Girl."
My eyes lifted slowly, meeting the eyes of the undine. What was she doing here?
"I'm part of all water. I am everywhere," she answered, as if she could read my mind.
She laughed and it sounded like a thunderstorm, dark and ominous. She looked at my basket sitting on the sand and then back at me.
"You're doing well, but you're not fast enough."
I looked at the yards and yards of thread and my shoulders slumped. Droplets of water fell on my hands and I looked up. The undine held my hands in hers. They were translucent, and where they touched my skin, they separated and reformed like a river around stones.
"You have six months left, and nothing to show for the three that have passed."
I wanted to argue with her. I worked every moment I was awake. It wasn't my fault that I'd been brought to this place and hadn't been able to spin.
She laughed at me. "You'll need that spirit for what's to come, Keela." She took a step into the deeper water. "Don't forget what I said. Don't speak a word. Tell no one of the curse. Just because you haven't seen your stepmother, doesn't mean she isn't looking for you."
My hand went involuntarily to my heart.
Her voice was just a whisper on a breeze. "Work faster, Keela. You're running out of time."
She disappeared and my knees went weak. I sat down in the shallow water, breathing heavily like I'd swum across the lake, and not just gotten soggy in it.
I heard a squawk and looked up. The swans seemed to appear from nowhere, gliding toward me and then away. I let the water lap over my knees.
Come closer, I begged. Please.
Like he'd heard me, a steely eyed swan floated closer. I could see the individual barbs on each feather. I tried to make myself as nonthreatening as possible, but I could see that Balthair was afraid of me. My hands ghosted over the water, and he watched them. He faced me, his bird head cocking from side to side, waiting to see what I would do.
I didn't do anything. I just watched him.
I heard the sound of water being pushed aside and met Coíseam's leaf green eyes. My fingertips lifted slightly, a greeting. The other swans swam back and forth. Every once in a while, someone would flap their wings in agitation. Coíseam and Balthair seemed unfazed by them, and continued to watch me.
The undine's words echoed through my mind, and as much as I wanted to stare at them, I had more work than apparently I had time to finish it. I moved slowly, my hands dipping under the water until they met the bottom of the lake, and then pushed myself back. Soon I was sitting back on the shore, my sopping dress tangled around my feet.
But the swans stayed. I let myself look away, located my work, and gathered it closer. I spun all day. Sometimes Balthair and Coíseam swam away, replacing by the other men. One time I looked up to meet Ciaran's eyes. He watched my hands spin and twist. I sucked in a breath when a nettle pierced along my fingernail, and I swore he scowled. How a swan could manage such a look was beyond me, but Ciaran had it.
I shook my head, I'm fine, I thought. Don't worry about me.
Maybe he could read my mind like the undine, because he squawked and dipped his head beneath the water before arching up and flapping his wings angrily. He settled in again, floating closer. His nearly black eyes watching each movement I made, tracking my progress, and flickering up to my face as if to gauge my emotions.
I smiled at him, my heart filled with hope and happiness. Maybe this was the purpose of my kidnapping. I knew forces greater than myself existed, and maybe they'd managed to bring me here, where I could see my family everyday. Where they could keep me company while I completed this task, and they could offer me hope and keep me going. Whatever it was that brought me here, as long as we were together, I would be grateful.