When Water Sang Fire

Ulla is a sildroher — one of the singing, spell-working mer-people native to the Grishaverse's northern seas — and an outcast among her own kind for her mixed blood. When she and her partner Signy are asked to perform for the royal court, the human prince Rolph takes a special interest, and Ulla trades her tail for legs on borrowed magic to follow him onto land, drawn into a bargain that will cost far more than she expects. A retelling of "The Little Mermaid," collected in The Language of Thorns.