"I am protected from your sorcery." Melcorka held up Defender in a second of triumph.
"She is not!" Eileen said quietly, pointing to Alva. "She will be my slave."
Alva"s shape began to alter. She grew a covering of sleek black skin; her body lengthened, her arms became flippers and her face elongated. "No!" Melcorka tried to cover Alva, hoping to shield her from the spell. She heard Eileen laugh and then writhed in sudden agony as the king raked his claws across her shoulders. Lifting Alva, Melcorka pressed the child"s little body against the blade of Defender and watched her transmogrify back into a human.
There were other selkies around her, a dozen or more rising from the water, baring their teeth, barking, altering from seals to humans, with some retaining their seal-faces or growin
