The Mermaid's Knight

Chapter One

Leah Sunderland stared at her body, sprawled over the hood of her car, and all she could feel was numb. It didn’t feel like her body, seeing as how she stood on the curb a few feet away, though it was definitely her face spattered with blood under the mess of long brown hair.

Beside her, an elderly woman patted her on the arm. “Drunk drivers are the worst, aren’t they, my dear? You were so young.”

Leah pushed her thick, overlong bangs out of her eyes and just shook her head, still staring. “I don’t understand. What just happened?”

The woman cocked her head, gray curls bobbing. “Well, I’m no expert on traffic, but it looks like you had the green light, and he went ahead and plowed through anyhow. He hit you on the driver’s side at sixty miles per hour, and you not wearing your seatbelt….” The woman tsked at her.

“It was broken,” Leah mumbled, moving around her car. “I was going to get it fixed tomorrow.” It was an incredible streak of bad luck that Leah had, and the whole seatbelt thing seemed to be the icing on the cake, the latest in a long stream of things constantly going wrong in her life. “I guess it doesn’t matter now, does it?” She turned away from her sprawled body and mangled car, only to find she was facing the other mangled vehicle. Sad to say, the driver appeared to be fine, if not firmly drunk. The man staggered out of his car and shouted into a cell phone, his free hand pressed to his forehead.

Tears threatened in Leah’s eyes, and she blinked them away, suddenly furious. “It’s not fair. Why does he get to live?”

“That’s just the way things work, I’m afraid.” The lady patted her on the arm soothingly.

“Sometimes we walk away and sometimes we don’t.”

Leah eyed her new companion, something not adding up. “Who are you, anyhow? And how is it that you can see me if I’m dead?” Her eyes widened in horror. “Am I a ghost?” Her hands went to her face, feeling it with alarm. It felt like a normal face, nothing ghostly.

The woman shook her head. “No, no, dear. Don’t get upset. You’re not a ghost, nothing of the sort.” She chuckled, holding a hand to her breast as if tickled by the thought. “A ghost, indeed. How funny.” When she saw Leah’s mouth quiver, she cleared her throat. “As for me, why, you can call me Muffin.”

Er, okay. “If I’m dead, does that make you some sort of angel?” Muffin blushed and shook her gray head. “Well, no. I’m actually your fairy godmother.” She did look like a fairy godmother, Leah had to admit. The woman was dressed in a bizarre ensemble of tulle and glitter, with lemon-yellow skirts and a fluffy green top. Her gray hair danced around her head in little fat sausage curls, and she had an ever-present bright smile on her lined face, even at the scene of a grisly car accident.

Plus, she could see Leah, who was dead by all accounts. So she was inclined to believe the woman, as odd as her story might be. “I have a fairy godmother?” Dumbfounded by that concept, she shook her head. “But I don’t understand. I’m the unluckiest person I know.” All her life, she’d had a streak of bad luck following her around. There was that time she’d gotten shot by a BB gun while walking home from school. And the time she’d caught on fire at the family cookout, not to mention a string of accidents that would make a Hollywood stuntman cringe.

Muffin had the grace to look embarrassed. “Yes, well, I didn’t say I was the
best
fairy godmother, child.” She cleared her throat. “To be honest, my dear, this is all my fault.” She

waved her hand at the two cars that resembled nothing more than kissing accordions. “I should have been paying closer attention, but I’m told these things happen to everyone.” She gave a dramatic sigh.

“Well, it may happen to everyone, but it’s
my
life and it’s over now. I’m the one that has to pay for this.”

Muffin grimaced and patted Leah on the arm again. “And I assure you, this will all be taken care of quite speedily. We’ll set this to rights, don’t you worry.” She pursed her lips, thinking hard. “Unless you want to go to Heaven right now? Did you want to go ahead and start your afterlife?” The fairy godmother looked hopeful.

“No!” Leah protested, stung by the offer. “I want to finish living out my regular life.”

“Of course, of course,” Muffin agreed, her hands fluttering. “What was I thinking? It’s just that it would solve all my problems if you
did
happen to want to go to Heaven now.” At Leah’s dark look, she smiled again. “But of course not. You’re young, and you’re pretty.

Naturally you want to do all the things that young people like to do.” She winked at Leah reassuringly. “We’ll fix this. Not to worry.”

Leah couldn’t help
but
worry, of course. After all, it was her body sprawled on the car, and it looked rather broken. In addition to the glass that was sticking out of her forehead, her neck and back were bent at a rather odd angle that didn’t seem like a fixable one. She sat back down on the curbside and waited for Muffin to come up with something feasible and tried not to panic too much about what had just happened. Shock had numbed her mind; all of this seemed like it was happening to someone rather far away, not to her. The woman on the car hood was a stranger, not a young woman two days away from receiving her degree in fashion design, ready to take on the world.

Minutes ticked by, and Leah watched Muffin with expectant eyes. The fairy godmother wouldn’t meet her gaze, however, and paced up and down the street that had now filled with cop cars and ambulances, and paramedics swarming over her car.

“I can’t think with all this noise,” Muffin muttered, reaching into her purse. She pulled out a thin, glowing wand and shook it in the air.

Time stopped around them. The paramedics froze in place, the lights on the ambulance stopped flashing, and even the wind stopped whipping Leah’s long hair into her face. The world was silent.

Muffin beamed. “Isn’t that much better? Now I can think.” She dug around in her purse again and pulled out a small book -
Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales
. Muffin licked one finger and began flipping through the pages, her lips moving as she scanned them. “I’m sure there’s something in here that will fit our situation.”

“That’s a book of fairy tales,” Leah pointed out. “I don’t think there are many car crashes in those.”

The fairy godmother tsked at her again. “Ye of little faith,” she chided. “While your particular scenario might not be ideal, I’m sure we can find the perfect solution in this handy little guide.” She patted the book.

“But they’re
fairy tales
,” Leah protested, feeling that she had to restate the obvious.

“My dear,” Muffin said, looking over the rims of her oversized glasses. “I am a fairy godmother. Fairy tales are my area of expertise.”

Leah fell silent again, positive that any argument she made at this moment would fall on deaf ears. Instead, she looked down at her dirty white sneakers and ground a pebble underneath the sole. Would her family be upset that she was dead? She doubted it. Her father lived halfway

across the country and she hadn’t seen him in a decade. Her mother was long dead, and her only brother had lost contact with her years ago, right after she’d refused to let him borrow her college money. She doubted anyone would miss her at all. The thought was a sad one.

“Ah,” Muffin exclaimed at last. “Here we go. An old personal favorite of mine.” She hugged the book to her breast and looked excited. “Now tell me, do you like the water?” Wary, Leah nodded. “I like the beach, if that’s what you mean.” Muffin did a little dance in place. “That’s perfect! Now to pick the setting.”

“Setting? I’m not sure—”

“Fiddlesticks.” Muffin waved a hand in Leah’s face, shushing her. “I will hear no protests from you, young lady. I made this mess, and now I’m going to fix it. Tell me, do you prefer an Arabian prince, a French lieutenant, or an English baron?” Huh? What was she talking about? “I don’t care,” Leah said. “I just want to know what it is that we’re going to be doing.”

“It’s a surprise, but you’ll like it. I promise. Now pick something.”

“You pick it. I just want to go home.” Go home, curl up in her pajamas and hope that she never met another fairy godmother… or another drunk driver, for that matter.

Muffin looked disappointed that Leah didn’t share her enthusiasm. “My dear, you can’t go home. You’re dead in this time and place.” When a look of panic crossed Leah’s face, she hastened to add, “Which is why we’ll just place you in a different time and place. Now, if you’re not going to pick, I suppose I’ll pick something for you.” She rushed through her words with a breezy smile and took Leah by the arm. “Now close your eyes.”

“But, Muffin,” Leah protested. “I don’t know that I want to go to another time—”

“Nonsense. It beats being dead, doesn’t it? Don’t worry. I’ve got a lovely place picked out for you. Now close your eyes and count to ten or this could get ugly.” The look on her warm, grandmotherly face became stern and serious.

Disturbed, Leah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “One Mississippi,” she began, and counted all the way up to nine. The world around her was silent, the only sounds were Muffin’s nervous breathing and the rustle of pages flipping.

When she hit ten, the world became silent. Her nostrils filled with water and she suddenly began to choke. Her eyes flew open and she screamed.

Chapter Two

The world around her was water. Water filled her nose and her screaming mouth, and she felt it flood into her lungs. Her hands thrashed in the cold depths and she panicked, looking for anything to hold onto in the darkness. What had happened?

A burning sensation took over her legs and they cramped and seized, pulling together despite her struggles. The burning pain flashed on her ribs as well, and she put her hands to her head, writhing in the surprising pain. Her legs stiffened, and then there was a blessed numbness.

Leah curled up around herself and waited for death… again.

Nothing happened, though. Not for long, long moments. She floated in the silent brine, waiting, but all she felt was the in and out flex of her chest as she breathed.

She was breathing.
Underwater.

Startled, she uncurled slightly and her hands flew to her abdomen. Thin slits rippled just under her breasts, and when she experimentally tried to inhale, she felt her lungs fill with water again, but it didn’t hurt. She could breathe it, and it felt as natural as air. Her hands slid over the rest of her body, exploring for any new and sudden changes.

Her clothes were gone. That was the first thing she noticed as she brushed her hands over her breasts and then her bare arms. No shirt, no bra, no nothing. Her searching hands slid down to her legs and she stopped short. Something warm and scaly covered her pelvis and her thighs, and she slid her fingers down further, feeling out the situation.

Good God, she had a tail!

A panicked scream ripped from her throat, but it only came out as bubbles under the water. She tried to thrash her legs and found that they refused to part or do anything other than flip her fins – like it or not, she was stuck with a tail. Frustrated, she gave it a sharp slap against the waves and was surprised to feel it propel her forward.

Well now, that was kind of neat. She experimented with flapping her tail again, and found a good method of swimming, even if it was a bit awkward. If she thrust her entire body forward and then moved in an undulating fashion, she managed to swim at a fairly rapid pace.

The taste against her lips was salty, and the water deep and cold, so she assumed it must be the ocean. But where and when?

And where was Muffin?

Instinct told her that heading ‘up’ in the water would lead her to the surface, and that was what she did. She realized that the waves were growing rougher and the sea around her brighter as she headed to the top. Her head surfaced a few scant moments later, straight into a rainstorm.

Cold, icy rain pelted her from above, and she stared around her in surprise as the rough sea slapped her in the face.

It was nighttime, and thick clouds roiled overhead, threaded with lightning. Nothing but open sea lay in front of her, but when she turned around, she spotted a thread of shore behind her. Encouraged, she dove back underwater and began to swim in that direction, purpose in mind. She had to find Muffin and find out what was going on.

And why, of all things, had the woman turned her into a mermaid?