Scales and Legends

by B. Kristin McMichael

  Whitney headed out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom to dress for the day. Sam was still out in the pool soaking. He really needed it, too. He had been growing crankier as the days went by and his time in the water was being cut down to minutes each day. Slipping on a summer dress and flip-flops, she was relieved to have time to dry her hair.

  As the warm wind of the blow-dryer blew on her head, Whitney closed her eyes and just listened to the world around her. The sound of the dryer was white noise and did nothing to cover up her night human sense of hearing. Her new senses had developed more as she had been on the island. Now her sight was perfect—she could actually see farther than she knew was possible—and her hearing was even better. She liked to practice picking out certain people on the island and seeing if she could hear them.

  It didn’t take much to hone in on the king. His voice always boomed when he was excited or agitated, and while she still didn’t have a connection to him, she could tell when he was mad or happy. Something made her mind wander to where he was.

  “And the second section?” he asked, his voice not yet yelling, but there was anger behind it.

  “Closed off. Two of the patrols were attacked, and only four siren made it back. This time it was the Caesg,” someone reported to him.

  Whitney didn’t have every voice on the island down, so she was unsure who it was.

  “The Caesg have joined the rebellion now, too?” The king seemed shocked. “First the Lara and Mavkas—I expected that much. Neither one has been happy for centuries. The Undine was a surprise. But the Rusalka, Melusine, and now the Caesg?”

  “Father, we knew this was coming. It was one of the predictions we’ve been working on,” a softer voice replied. That had to be Ken. He didn’t speak loudly.

  Whitney couldn’t be completely certain, but he was always the quiet one of Sam’s older brothers. While he didn’t say much, when he did he made it count. Actually, Whitney saw Ken as the smart brother of the group. He liked to think before acting, which was very out of character for Sam’s family.

  “Listening in on someone?” Sam asked as he wrapped his arms around Whitney’s waist.

  She snapped back to the bedroom and shut off the blow-dryer. Her hair was already dry, but she was so interested to know what was going on she hadn’t stopped.

  “Seems the Caesg have now joined in on blockading the island,” Whitney explained. She didn’t need to keep anything from Sam. He would be told anyway, and if he really wanted to know, he could always go into her mind.

  Sam shrugged as he pulled a shirt on. Whitney was only a little disappointed. The blue lines that shimmered up his torso were hidden from view. He might not have needed his singing career, but she was more than sure there were dozens of girls that longed to see him like this. One more perk of being on the island.

  “I expected no less,” he replied, not shocked.

  Sam was more of an “expect the worst and plan accordingly” type of guy. The old king might have been that way at one time, but now he had a more rose-colored view of the mer world. Sam claimed that came from being on top too long and never leaving the island, but Whitney wasn’t sure. His father seemed as sharp as ever, and she had a feeling it had more to do with his son, Tim—Sam’s evil older brother—joining the rebellion.

  “Apparently, they’ve blocked off sector two,” Whitney explained further. She wasn’t completely sure on all the details of protection, but she felt there couldn’t be much more left to close off. “So how long before they’ve completely closed off the island?”

  Sam paused as he was slipping into his shoes.

  “Not long. If I suspect right, they probably already have the Lobesta moving in to block the last.” Reaching down, Sam pulled his shoes on before standing and offering his hand to her. Whitney accepted. They didn’t go much of anywhere these days without touching each other.

  “Why the Lobesta, and not the Merrow or Selkie?”

  They began their walk across the island. Sam had purposely picked a house as far away from his father as possible, but now he had to hike across town every day to get to his new job. Whitney found it funnily ironic, but Sam didn’t quite see the humor in it.

  “The Selkie will stay out of it until they have no choice.”

  “But they helped us not even months ago,” Whitney interjected.

  “Because they owed me a favor. They repaid it, and now they will stay away. Their leader doesn’t want to be involved in too much as they like to stay isolated up at the north. In fact, I would be surprised if they even care about what’s going on. They like their ice water and hate the tropics, so I don’t see them coming back soon.”

  “And the Merrow?”

  Sam nodded to someone who bowed to them as they passed. “The Merrow won’t join either side. I’m sure of that. If needed, they will go inland and live in lakes and rivers to avoid it. They don’t fight. They didn’t in the night human wars, and I know they won’t now. Everyone pictures night humans as evil, blood-sucking monsters, but some are nothing like that. The Merrow are nothing like that.”

  Whitney nodded. She still had much to learn about all the different clans. They had been going over how to tell them apart, which she did think was the most important thing to know, but she didn’t know the specifics—like the Merrow loving peace. She never had heard of a kind night human race before. Night humans were supposed to be the monsters of kid’s nightmares coming to life, and pretty much every night human she had ever met could be scary if provoked.

  Walking across town went quicker than Whitney wanted it to. She had been planning to take a stroll, but the king’s plans had canceled that. As they neared, she felt dread in the bottom of her stomach. She didn’t know what it was from, but she knew there was something going on. It wasn’t until she moved to the island that she started to get feelings about things. She could tell when something good was about to happen, but more often than not these days, she could tell when things were getting worse. It was getting worse. She didn’t need to go into the house and see the expression on the king’s face. She already knew. Something more had gone wrong during their walk over. Whitney looked to Sam. He could feel what she was feeling, too. He had no explanation as to why she could predict things like she could now, but she was always right.

  The siren king turned to Sam and Whitney as they entered. Spaced around his room were Sam’s older brothers, Nic, Ken, Lee, Ace, and Ian. All of them except for the missing brother Tim were there. No one smiled as they entered, and the feelings of dread were confirmed.

  “What’s the problem now?” Sam asked, looking at his father and cutting to the chase.

  “They finished their blockade. We’re cut off from the rest of the world.” The king stared at Sam like there was a silent message passing between them. Whitney tapped into Sam’s mind to eavesdrop, as she knew they were doing it to keep her out of the loop. The king had yet to figure out that she could listen in to his son’s head, so she made sure to put on a blank face so that no one would notice.

  ‘And there are seven siren still on land, including the green friend of your mate, Trudy. We don’t have a way to protect them, and we can’t get them back on the island. They don’t stand a chance of surviving.’

  Whitney didn’t have to keep her new knowledge to herself; Sam immediately turned to his brothers.

  “How could you leave anyone on land? We knew this was going to happen eventually. Everyone should have been called back weeks ago,” he complained as he turned and scowled at each of them like they were personally responsible.

  “We didn’t know,” Ken said quietly. “This was only one of the possible outcomes we thought might happen, but we didn’t know how soon.”

  Sam turned his glare to Ken, and his brother immediately cast his gaze down. Ken wasn’t just quiet; he also avoided fighting, especially with Sam.

  “Sam, even you didn’t think it would happen this quick,” Whitney scolded him. Ken wasn’t the one he should be taking his ang
er out on. It should have been reserved for the king, who refused to call all the siren home. He was the only one responsible for the seven still on land.

  Sam seemed to agree with Whitney’s thoughts as he turned his anger to his father. “What are we going to do?”

  The king shrugged like it wasn’t much of a problem. “We wait it out like we planned. We’re fine here for years.”

  Whitney gave Sam a questioning look. How in the world were they fine? They were night humans that needed day human blood to live, and the siren required more than most. Sam gave Whitney a “we’ll talk about it later” look that told her everything. There must be humans on the island that she didn’t know about. With the population of siren, they must have had a lot of humans. She returned his look with her best, “you better believe we’ll talk about it” expression. She was too pissed to attempt to find out more mentally.

  “And the trapped siren?” Whitney asked, not giving away that she knew Trudy was there. “What can we do to get them home?”

  “They know how to fend for themselves. They will be fine also,” the king replied like it didn’t really matter. She had a feeling there were no blues, just greens on land, and to him they were disposable.

  “And what happens if any of the other mer go on land to hunt them? Will they be fine then?”

  Suddenly the men around the room appeared shocked, like that hadn’t crossed their minds. The king understood the circumstances, but no one else seemed to. Whitney rolled her eyes. It wasn’t just the king who had been on the island too much. It seemed like his sons weren’t in touch with reality, either.

  Whitney was in shock that the men were clueless. “Don’t you guys get that the other mer want to get rid of the siren? They aren’t just sitting around the island for sport. They want you dead. Why can’t you see that?”

  Whitney glanced at the king, but he seemed baffled. His one and only plan was to wait it out, and when the mer clans got bored, they would head back. He really didn’t understand that the other mer wanted the siren gone. No matter how many times Sam or Whitney explained, the king thought the clans were just having a little rebellion to get something more from him and would be done soon. He compared them to spoiled children who needed a time out. She turned to each brother, and again got confused expressions. Finally, Nic spoke.

  “They can want all they like, but they can’t defeat us. That’s why the siren have ruled so long. We’re the strongest. Even a handful of green siren are stronger than the few fighters they may send after them.” Nic didn’t seem too worried for the greens, but she could see that he was listening to her words.

  “And your older brothers. Were they undefeatable, too?” Whitney knew she was pushing it. They all held a fierce loyalty to their dead brothers.

  Sam stepped in front of her as Ace growled.

  “What Whitney is saying is that the siren are not infallible. We know it, but don’t ever admit it. If Tim has gone to their side, we have to assume he’s hatching a plan with them to kill us at least. He won’t want any of the royal family left alive. She’s right. The siren on land aren’t safe, and neither are we here unless we figure out how we plan to fight back.”

  Sam was always much more elegant with his words, and Whitney was sure glad to have him for that. His brothers seemed to now be listening and considering that it might be possible the others would attack. Even if the king wasn’t ready to believe the mer clans meant business, if his sons did, then that was a start.

  “But we can sing,” the shortest of the brothers—Ian, the one closest in age to Sam—replied, as he was still confused.

  “And what if they wear earplugs? Does your song go through that?” Whitney demanded.

  Ian shrugged like he didn’t know the answer.

  “Or how about if they damage their hearing? I wouldn’t put it past them to even remove their own eardrums if it meant getting rid of you guys,” she continued, pushing. The men in the room needed to wake up. Whitney had seen night human wars between clans before. They hadn’t.

  Now the men all gaped at her in horror. It must have never occurred to them that someone would damage themselves so badly, but it would make them able to get past the singing. The siren had always been on top. They couldn’t imagine a world where that wasn’t the way, but they were going to have to open their imaginations a little if everyone was going to make it out alive.

  “So how are we going to help those siren on land? It might not seem like much, but when it comes down to hand-to-hand combat, where we will be severely outnumbered, I’d rather have those seven back with us fighting.”

  And that was all it took to finally make it sink in. The brothers all turned to their father, whose face hadn’t changed one bit. He still needed to be convinced. Whitney glanced to Nic. He was currently running the guard around the island.

  “Is there no way off the island at all?”

  Nic didn’t look to his father before answering. “Not if you have a blue or green tail. They are attacking immediately and not asking questions. They don’t allow siren in or out, and they just closed off the last two sections we had been using.”

  “So there might be more siren outside the blockade?” Any more help was going to be useful at this point.

  “No. They’ve killed everyone that got through, and we got the bodies back.” Nic was somber about the situation, and Whitney could understand. He was technically responsible for the guard, and he let them patrol knowing what was coming.

  “So we need to find a way off the island to get the siren on land, and then find a way back to the island.” Whitney was thinking out loud, but she didn’t need the guys to respond. She could see by their grim faces that they knew it was an impossible task. Then again, Whitney didn’t believe in impossible. Sitting down on one of the couches, she placed her fingers together as she thought. Through the bond, she felt Sam having a silent conversation with someone, probably the king, because whoever it was, they were making him upset.

  “I might have one solution,” Ken said quietly.

  Whitney peered up at the soft-spoken brother.

  “No, he doesn’t,” Sam replied like that ended the conversation.

  ‘Sam, let him speak. We need to come up with ideas here, and no idea is too out there. Maybe it will lead to a better one.’ She didn’t need a reply to know Sam didn’t see it that way.

  “What did you think we could do?” Whitney asked Ken, and all eyes were on him.

  Glancing nervously at Sam, Ken shook his head of dark hair. All of the brothers had dark hair and looked like variations of each other. It was obvious that they all got their looks from their father and little from their various mothers.

  “Speak, son. Sam doesn’t get to stop every plan, no matter how much he doesn’t like it. Whitney is right. We will need every fighting body we have if we want to win the coming war.” The king’s voice was gentle, as if he knew Ken was scared as it was to talk and any more yelling would make him shut down.

  Ken kept his gaze on his father as he spoke. “They won’t let anyone through with a blue or green tail, but what about a pink tail?”

  “They aren’t going to let Whitney through, either. They attacked her on the beach. They know she’s my mate,” Sam answered in a tone that hinted the conversation was done. “She’s an even bigger prize than a blue or green siren.”

  “But not all of the mer know about her yet,” Nic added as he began to think. “We had yet to announce your mating or that your mate is different. This might actually be the way to go. Whitney’s been training since she got here, and she’s as good as, or better than any of the senior guard members. If we can be sure she gets past the mer around the island, she would be the perfect one to get everyone back home.”

  Sam glared at the same brother he was just being nice to the day before.

  “It doesn’t matter if she was announced or not. Tim knows, and I’m sure he shared the details with them. Sam’s mate is a blond-haired, pink-tailed mer, but still a siren.
Watch out and capture her if you can. She’s got a big target on her. We can’t send her out. If my loving her doesn’t matter to you guys, then how about since we’re linked, if she gets hurt or killed, so do I. Is it smart to send her out there?”

  Sam was good at swaying people, but Whitney also wasn’t about to leave the idea of letting her friend Trudy and the other siren on land be murdered for just being siren. They were teens and completely innocent. She had a very soft spot for the innocent and knew they faced enough persecution for being born to the wrong night humans. They were already pursued by hunters for just being mer, but now they were being hunted by the mer for being siren. It wasn’t fair, and she was going to do anything to help them.

  “So they will be looking for a blond-haired, pink-tailed siren, but what if they find a brunette, pink-tailed Oceanid instead?” Ken suggested, his plan still growing.

  “Oceanids are extinct,” Sam replied.

  Ken shrugged. “We suspect that, but what if one was in deep slumber and woken by all the mer world turmoil? We were each given our own part of the ocean to live in. Now all the mer are congregating in our part of the seas. What if an Oceanid came back to see what’s happening?”

  Whitney had no idea what an Oceanid was, but she liked his train of thought. It sounded like a believable story. If she didn’t have blond hair, would they know it was her? There were very few mer, outside of the siren, she had ever seen. It was more than likely no one would recognize her, and any forewarning from Tim wouldn’t help if she wasn’t what they expected to find. Ken was hatching a very interesting plan.