Wet Magic
ularly marked, for their heads bent near together as they talked.
"Princess," he was saying, "tomorrow you will go back to your kingdom, and I shall never see you again."
The Princess could not think of anything to say, because it seemed to her that what he said was true.
"But," he went on, "I shall be glad all my life to have known and loved so dear and beautiful a Princess."
And again the Princess could think of nothing to say.
"Princess," he said, "tell me one thing. Do you know what I should say to you if I were a Prince?"
"Yes," said Freia; "I know what you would say and I know what I should answer, dear Ulfin, if you were only a commoner of Merland . . . I mean, you know, if your face were like ours. But since you are of the Under Folk and I am a Mermaid, I can only say that I will never forget you, and that I will never marry anyone else."
"Is it only my face then that prevents your marrying me?" he asked with abrupt eagerness, and she answered gently, "Of course."
Then Ulfin sprang to his feet. "Your Majesties," he cried, "and Lord High Astrologer, has not the moment come when, since we are at a banquet with friends, we may unmask?"
The strangers exchanged wondering glances.
The Sovereigns and the Astrologers made gestures of assent—then, with a rustling and a rattling, helmets were unlaced and corselets unbuckled, the Under Folk seemed to the Mer-people as though they were taking off their very skins. But really what they took off was but their thick scaly armor, and under it they were as softly and richly clad, and as personable people as the Mer Folk themselves.
"But," said Maia, "how splendid! We thought you were always in armor—that—that it grew on you, you know."
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