Kingdom of Salt and Sirens

by J. A. Armitage

  I raised my eyebrows. “You mean to tell me that the admiral hasn’t been seen for three days?” The exact same three days that Hayden and Ari have been missing. Interesting!

  “That’s right.” He turned to Astrid. “Oh, I love your new do. Very fetching. It almost looks like you’ve got the ocean on your head.”

  Astrid beamed. I grabbed her hand again and pulled her back through the crowd, ignoring the microphones thrust in our faces and the questions the reporters were throwing at us.

  “Where are we going?” asked Astrid as I pulled her through the front door of the palace and ran down the long driveway.

  “We are going to find out where Hayden and Ari are. I think Hayden’s father might know. I just hope he isn’t with them because if he is, I’m out of ideas of where to look.”

  There were no reporters by the front gates. They were all inside, but there were still plenty members of the public waiting there to get a photo of the palace or one of the members of the royal family. They were going to have a field day today because I planned to go through the gates.

  The guards on the gates weren’t too happy about me having them open the gates, but they had to do what I asked them. As an afterthought, I had one of them accompany us across the street. I’d been in Hayden’s home many times over the years and had always been welcome, but now, when Hayden’s father answered the door, he all but slammed it in my face.

  “I’m looking for Hayden,” I began. “I was wondering if he was home.”

  I knew full well he wasn’t home, but I wanted the admiral to acknowledge the fact.

  “I’m afraid he isn’t,” the admiral sniffed, trying to shut the door. The palace guard I’d asked to come with us wedged his foot in the door to stop it from closing entirely.

  “Can you tell us where he is?” I asked again, this time trying to sound more confident. The truth was I’d always been a little scared of him, but I wasn’t about to back down.

  “No,” he blustered. “I don’t know where he is. I’ve not seen him for days, now if you wouldn’t mind.” He looked pointedly at the guard who looked to me for guidance. I shook my head.

  “Admiral Harrington-Smyth,” I started again, filling my voice with steel. “I think you do know where Hayden is. I think you just don’t want to tell us. I’m not planning on leaving here until I get some answers!”

  His face fell as he opened the door wider. “You’d better come in.”

  He shuffled to the living room where he called for his wife.

  “Evaine, darling. Could you be a dear and get some tea for our guests?” Evaine Harrington-Blythe looked surprised to see us as she came into the room. “Erica, Astrid, how wonderful to see you both. If you are here to see Hayden, I’m afraid you are out of luck. He hasn’t been home for days. Goodness only knows where he’s taken himself off to.”

  “Yes, yes,” said Henry impatiently. “Would you bring the tea for us and some of those wonderful cakes you made this morning.”

  She smiled and left the room. I had a feeling that wherever Hayden was, his mother knew nothing about it. His father on the other hand...

  “You know where Hayden is?”

  The Admiral shook his head. “Not exactly. He didn’t tell me where he was going, but three days ago one of your father’s naval ships was stolen. One of my senior men told me that they’d seen Hayden commandeering it.”

  “Commandeering?” asked Astrid.

  “Stealing, hijacking, whatever you call it. He took the ship without my permission. That’s why I’ve not been to work. I can’t begin to think of a way to explain to your father, the king, why my son would steal one of his majesty’s fleet.”

  “How did he manage to steal a ship?” I asked.

  Henry raised his hands to the sides of his face and began to massage his temples. “He told the crew that he was there on my orders. It was one of the smaller vessels, but even so, sailing it on his own would be incredibly difficult. Almost impossible, I’d say.”

  “Do you think he might have someone with him?” I asked, thinking of Ari.

  “It would make more sense for him to have another member of the crew on board, but all of the Oceanis crew...that’s the name of the vessel, are accounted for. I’ve asked them to keep this quiet for now, but I knew it would get out eventually. I’ll go and tell His Majesty this afternoon.”

  “Don’t!” I replied quickly as he began to rise from his chair. He sat back down with a thump.

  “My father is busy enough with the press, and I have no intention of telling him about this.”

  The admiral’s face lit up, and he let out a long breath. “You won’t?”

  “No, but I do need to know where he is, so I can find him and bring him home. I’m also going to need a ship.”

  He looked at me in surprise. “I can’t give you a ship. I’ve already managed to lose one, but I can lend you Hayden’s boat. It’s docked at the marina.”

  “Will you help me sail it?” Help was a loose term. I’d never sailed a ship before, and neither to my knowledge had Astrid. If he came with us, he’d be doing all the sailing.

  “Of course,” he replied, standing up. This time I let him.

  We made a funny trio, running through the streets down to the dock. The palace guard was sent back to the palace to let my parents know what was going on. I’d be going out on the ocean again, but this time, with the sea witch being dead and with everything going on at the palace, I figured my mother would be ok with it.

  Hayden’s boat was really no more than a boat for day sailing. It did have a small bunk below deck, but I don’t think Hayden had ever used it for anything other than storage. The sea was calm, although the clouds in the sky above made it dull. Not that it mattered. This was no sightseeing trip.

  “Which way?” asked Henry as we cast off from the dock.

  “I don’t know, let’s just get out to sea and take it from there.”

  I waited for either Henry or Astrid to tell me what a large place the ocean was, but neither did. Henry let the sails out, and Astrid sat near the front, peering out to sea. She was just as desperate to find Hayden as I was to find Ari. We sailed for hours with the wind at our backs. Hayden’s boat might have been small, but it could move. Every time I saw a ship, my heart raced, but none of them were as large or majestic as the one Hayden stole from my father. As the light dimmed and the afternoon turned to evening, I had to make the decision to turn around. We were already going to be home way past dark. We’d survived the day on bottled water and a few provisions Hayden had left below deck, but there wasn’t enough for another day.

  I looked over at Astrid, feeling sad that I’d have to tell her that we were going to head home when her whole face lit up. She turned to me with a sparkle in her eyes and a smile on her face. She pointed outward toward the horizon. I followed the line of her finger and saw in the distance the outline of my father’s missing ship.

  “Henry!” I called back. “Head that way.” He popped his head around the corner and peered out to where both Astrid and I were pointing. We had to hold on tightly while the boat lunged as it turned, almost spilling us over the side.

  I fingered the ruby around my neck as we headed closer to the dark shape. If I was right, and I really hoped I was, it would save all of us and hopefully put things back to normal. The ship itself looked eerie, floating as it was in the purple dusk. There was no sign of life, which was to be expected as there were only two of them aboard, and they were more than likely inside. Even so, the sight of the massive ship looking empty, had me feeling a chill in my heart. Whatever it was that Hayden planned to do, I prayed that he’d not already gone ahead with it.

  Henry docked alongside the great ship and tied Hayden’s boat to it. There was no ladder for us to climb, but there were enough ropes for us to pull ourselves up onto the main deck.

  “What now?” asked Astrid, looking as scared as I felt.

  “Now we find them.”

  Finding them was not as d
ifficult as I thought it would be, or at least, finding Ari wasn’t. He was tied up in the captain’s suite, a gag in his mouth.

  His pupils dilated as he took the three of us in and he made a noise through the gag. I ran to him and untied the rag from around his face.

  “Watch out!” he shouted, but it was too late. I turned to where he was looking to find Hayden standing in the corner with a gun pointing at us.

  “Hayden!” Astrid, gushed, running toward him, but she stopped suddenly as the gun pointed at her.

  “I wasn’t expecting company,” Hayden sneered. “Never mind, you can watch me push this guy overboard. It will be nice to have an audience.”

  “Pushing him overboard won’t kill him,” I pointed out, putting my body between Ari and the gun. “He can breathe underwater.”

  “No, you are right. A hole in the head before I send him to be fish food ought to do it, though, don’t you think? I’ve been trying to muster up the courage to do this for three days, but now that you are here, I realize it’s not courage I lack. I wanted someone to see me defeat him. I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am that it’s you.”

  I caught Henry’s expression harden as he saw what his son was capable of.

  “Hayden. What are you doing?”

  Henry was rewarded with the gun moving from Astrid to him. None of us would be able to get close to him, not without gaining a hole in ourselves in the process.

  “Hayden. This isn’t you. I’ve figured it all out,” I began. “I’ve come here to save you.”

  Hayden sneered “Save me? I think you’ve got it all wrong. It’s your boyfriend you should be worried about. He’s the one that’s going to die, and maybe one of you if you try and get in my way.” He spat the word boyfriend out.

  “Hayden!” Astrid shouted out in shock, but he ignored her.

  “It’s not Hayden,” I said. Astrid’s eyes went wide as comprehension dawned on her face.

  “Of course, it’s me, you idiots. Who else would I be?”

  “Let me rephrase then,” I said, stepping slowly closer to him. “It is you, but you are under a spell. You’ve been behaving strangely for a while, and a few hours ago, I remembered when your personality change started. You were perfectly happy with Astrid before we went to visit the sea witch the first time. It was only afterward that you became angry. You claimed you were in love with me and were using Astrid, but that wasn’t the case at all.”

  “Shut up. I asked Astrid to marry me. You have no idea what you are talking about.” I could see him wavering as I spoke. His hand began to shake.

  “But you think you love me, don’t you? You only asked Astrid to get her off your back. You had no intention of marrying her. Isn’t that right?”

  I could see Astrid’s resolve begin to crumble at this change of direction. I just needed her to be strong for a few more minutes.

  “Untie Ari,” I whispered to her as I walked past, getting closer to Hayden.

  I heard her move behind me, but Hayden’s eyes were right where I wanted them—on me.

  “You are in love with me, aren’t you? The girl who you pined after for years.” I was so close to him now. If I wanted to, I could reach out and touch him. I could see his resolve begin to crack.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “I’ve always loved you. I never wanted Astrid. It was always you.”

  Behind me, I heard a scream, but it was not Astrid’s voice I heard. It was Ari. I turned to see the look of agony on his face as Astrid untied his legs. The skin on his exposed ankles was almost raw, red and wet with patches of black.

  My heart went into overdrive. The witch had lied to me. I don’t even know why I was surprised, but it left me with a dilemma. The ruby had only enough magic to save one of them. I had to make the decision between Ari and Hayden, and I had to make it quickly.

  “You don’t love me, though. You love that bastard.”

  I turned back to Hayden to see him putting the gun up to his temple. With the speed of a cheetah, I grabbed the Havfrue ruby from around my neck and held it to Hayden’s face. Red light shone out from him as his piercing screams drowned out all other sounds. The gun dropped to the floor, and purple smoke began flowing from Hayden’s ears, eyes, and pores. Seconds later, it was all over. Hayden fell to the floor in a heap. I kicked the gun away from him, although I knew he was no longer a threat. The spell was broken. Hayden was free. Astrid came running over and fell beside him, smothering him with a hug.

  “What just happened?” asked Henry, a look of shock on his face. I probably should have warned him about my theory before we boarded the ship.

  “He’ll be fine,” I said with a small smile. “Astrid, I’m sorry about all that. I just had to keep him talking while I got close enough to him. I think you’ll find he’ll be back to normal and completely in love with you just as he was before our first encounter with the witch.”

  Behind me, I heard a low moan. I turned back to Ari.

  He no longer had ropes tying him to the chair, but he was, nevertheless, incapable of getting up from it. Blood seeped through his trousers, leaving sticky wet patches.

  “Help me,” I shouted at Henry, who still appeared dumbstruck with the turn of events. Between us, we managed to pull Ari’s trousers from his legs and hurl him into the sea. In less than a minute he reappeared at the surface, his face no longer ashen, his tail appearing healthy behind him.

  “Henry, can you get this ship turned around? We need to get everyone home.”

  He nodded and left me to steer the ship. Hopefully, Hayden’s boat would be tied tightly enough, so it would float alongside.

  I waved down at Ari, desperate to be in the water with him, but I had to see if Hayden was okay first.

  “I’ll be with you in a minute,” I called down to him. He nodded and disappeared underwater.

  Back in the captain’s room, Astrid and Hayden were still crumpled on the floor, wrapped in each other’s arms. I could hear one of them sobbing, although it was hard to tell which one.

  “Henry is taking us home,” I announced.

  Hayden untangled himself and first pulled himself and then Astrid up. He walked over to me and hugged me tightly.

  “Just so you know, this is just a hug of friendship,” he grinned as he pulled away. Indeed, he did have tears in his eyes. They both did.

  “I’m so sorry,” he began, but I shushed him.

  “It wasn’t you. It was the spell.”

  “I do love you. You are my best friend, but...”

  He turned and took Astrid’s hand. She beamed.

  “But you are in love with Astrid,” I finished for him.

  “I am.” He turned to her. “I really am.”

  They kissed, absorbed only in each other. I was the gooseberry in this scenario. Quietly, I tiptoed for the door. There was somewhere I wanted to be more than with my two best friends anyway. I pulled off my shoes and ran to the deck. Without pausing, I climbed onto the railing and hurled myself into the dark water.

  A warm hand took mine. We swam beside each other for hours, keeping the ship in our sights. As it pulled into the dock, Ari pulled me to the surface. The moon had come out lacing the ocean with a million sparkles. We’d not said a word to each other the whole trip back. We’d been too caught up with the freedom of the ocean, with each other, but now that we were back at the rocks, we had to talk.

  “I don’t know why I believed her,” I said sadly, meaning the sea witch. “She told me that your legs would be better.”

  Ari took my face in his hands. It amazed me how warm he felt even though the water around us was freezing.

  “She gave me my voice back,” he said.

  “It’s not enough.”

  “It doesn’t matter what she said or did. I’m just happy that you are alive. In my whole life, no one has ever done anything for me, and you gave your life for me.”

  As I gazed into his eyes, I knew I’d done the right thing. The outcome was not how I’d imagined it, but I’d do it al
l again in an instant to stop his pain.

  “I wish I could have done more. I had one wish, and I used it on Hayden.”

  He traced a hand down my cheek, wetting his fingers with my tears.

  “Erica, it was everything.” As he leaned forward to kiss me, I wished I could believe his words, but the truth of the matter was, he was still hurting while on land, and nothing I had done could help him with that.

  “The doctors said that they should be able to manage the pain with medication,” he said lightly as he pulled away from me.

  “The same medication that knocked you out? If you stay on land, you’ll either be in pain or asleep”

  My heart broke as I thought of the next words to come out of my mouth. I wanted to be selfish, to be greedy, and keep him with me always, but to do that would cause him more suffering.

  “You have to go home.”

  He drew his lower lip between his teeth. “We are bonded. We can’t be apart. I don’t want to go home without you.”

  I could feel my heart tearing in two at his words. If he said much more, I’d tell him to forget the whole thing, but looking at him, I knew I couldn’t. The sea witch could have made it possible for us to be together, just as she had for my parents, but the sea witch was dead along with her magic. Her final act had been to make our lives completely impossible. Destined to be together, but forced to live apart. We couldn’t be on land because of the pain, I couldn’t live under the sea because I’d have to be touching him to be able to breathe. We’d never be able to be apart for more than a few seconds at a time.

  I kissed him then. A farewell kiss full of sadness and pain. Leaving him was going to kill me, but as with many things in life, I had no choice.

  The walk back across the rocks was excruciating. I didn’t look back as I walked. I couldn’t bear to see that look on his face.

  I saw the ship at the docks and three figures stepping off in the dark, two of which were holding hands. At least, something good had come of all this. Hayden and Astrid were now able to be together without anyone forcing them apart. My mother had been reunited with her father and would probably go and see her sisters soon, and the kingdoms of Havfrue and Trifork were now no longer mortal enemies. To top it all off, the witch who had terrorized the underwater world was dead. If I looked back at the events of the past few weeks, a lot of good had happened, and yet, my own life had derailed. I’d met the man I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with, and circumstances made it impossible for us to be together.