“I trust you won’t lose my head,” she says wryly, then she reaches up toward me with her arms. “Now let’s get going while the Moon Goddess is still out.”
I still don’t feel comfortable holding her, especially since she’s part fish and probably very slippery, so I go and grab my boot and then hold it to the edge of the fish tank.
“Climb in there,” I tell her.
She gives me a look of annoyance but pulls herself up over the top of the boot and slides on in. I have big feet, size nine and a half, so luckily she looks pretty comfortable in it—and photogenic. If I had the artistic ability of my dad, I think I’d try and paint her in it.
With Bell in my boot in one hand and the candlestick in the other, I creep toward the door and carefully open it. I don’t know what time it is in this clockless palace, but the halls feel hushed and still. Death’s sleeping quarters are on the same floor as the entrance to Stargaze Tower, so I have to be extra quiet when going along his floor, especially since his guards are stationed outside his room, doing the night’s watch. I don’t really know why Death has so much security, since I don’t think he’s easy to kill, but maybe it just helps boost his ego.
Sometimes I think that’s why I’m here, an ego boost. Who doesn’t want a woman screaming “oh God” every night at your touch?
The entrance to the tower is on the opposite side of the floor, away from sleeping Death, and once I’m on the spiral staircase, I hurry to the top, taking the steps two at a time, careful not to trip.
I gasp. The room looks completely different than when I was here the other day. All the paintings and charts of the stars on the wall gleam and sparkle like the stars outside. There are crystals placed around the room, on shelves and desks and stands, that I hadn’t even noticed before. Now they’re all bathed in moonlight and glowing different colors. Jagged chunks of amethyst, spears of clear quartz, glowing towers of translucent teal, and wands of what look like selenite, glowing a faint silvery gold that matches the shine of the moon.
Because the moon is the real deal here. I’ve seen the moon before at night in Tuonela, quick glances out my window if I happen to wake up early, and while it’s always been gorgeous, it’s looked more or less like the moon back home.
But tonight, it’s full, so full it seems to take up all the space in the sky. Before, if you raised your hand to the heavens, your pinky fingernail might block out the moon. Tonight, I’m not even sure my fist would block it out. I can see every single crater with such clarity that it’s making me anxious and dizzy.
I’m speechless.
“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Bell says breathlessly, gazing up with entranced eyes. I must look the same.
“Is that…Kuutar?” I ask.
“Kuutar is in the moon,” she says. “That’s where she lives. Look through the telescope.”
I put the boot down on the table beside a glowing cluster of rainbow quartz, and go over to the biggest telescope that Bell is gesturing to. I peer through it and somewhere in the back of my mind I am just in total disbelief over what’s happening. Am I seriously going to help this little mermaid escape the wicked castle by looking through a telescope for a woman on the moon to appear? It’s amazing what your mind gets accustomed to, whether the harshest conditions or the most fantastical situations, because I’m actually getting so used to dealing with this new world that I have to step back every now and then and go what the fuck, is this really my life right now?
And so, when I’m looking through the telescope, I’m not even surprised to see white sand dunes. They sparkle, like each grain of sand is made of a star, and they shift under unseen winds. I have to pause and take my eye off the viewfinder and look back at the moon with my naked eye, because what I’m seeing isn’t matching up.
This time when I look back through the telescope, the stardunes have shifted even more and something is starting to rise out of them, the sand moving around in a circle of sparkles.
A tall, muscular woman slides out from the sand. She has long silver hair and white skin and pale purple eyes, and has on a gauzy thin dress of shimmering stars. She’s beyond stunning, and is wearing the most serene smile.
“I see someone,” I tell Bell, describing her.
“That’s Kuutar!” she says excitedly.
“Aren’t I supposed to chant some spell or something?”
She shakes her head. “It will be fine since she knows I’m here. Bring me to the window.”