Kingdom of Salt and Sirens

by J. A. Armitage

  “Wow. So, when Darya was shouting in her sleep she really did say Anna and they really did know each other.” Looking up at him, I’m shocked to see the puzzled look on his face. He turns yet another page. All I can see is the angry mermaid picture. His face is white.

  “What is it, Nix?”

  “This is Eva. And again, she has drawn her with such perfection. What I want to know is how your sister could draw her so well. She must have met her a few times or for a long period of time, unless she had a camera. The only thing that’s bugging me is that she has drawn the evil side of Eva. How did she see that side of her? I saw it when I broke things off with her and, believe me, it wasn’t nice. This picture is not as bad as the real thing.”

  “I can’t believe Anna knew your sister. What are the chances of that?”

  “I’ll have to ask Darya about her nightmare and also about your sister. I think the two are one and the same problem.”

  I take the book from him and put it back in the top drawer. Taking his hand, I lead him out and into my bedroom.

  “Wow, you have a great view from your window, Sophia.” He stands in front of my window, looking out over the sea. Standing next to him, I look out too. “Look, there’s the rock I took you to yesterday.” He points out to the little island and cove. “You can see us from here. What did you think they were jumping in and out of the water?”

  “I’ve always thought it was dolphins, to be honest. I didn’t realise I could see that far out. I might be able to see you when you’re in the sea.”

  “Yeah, you probably can.” He looks to the right and to the left at the landscape around us. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It really is. We love it here. There’s always so much to do. Let’s go back down there.”

  He takes my hand and we walk downstairs again.

  “Mam, I’m heading out. I’ll be back later.”

  “Thanks for lunch,” Nix says.

  “You’re welcome. Don’t be late home, Soph.”

  I roll my eyes at her treating me like a five-year-old, and Nix starts to chuckle. “I won’t be. Come on. Let’s go.” I grab his hand and we leave the house.

  He doesn’t let go of my hand until we’re standing on the rocks where we were earlier.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow, Sophia. I’m going to speak to Anna when I get home and then tomorrow I’m going to bring you to meet my parents. I’ll have to get some spare Rubins so you can take it when you’re at my place to keep you down underwater longer. Wish me luck!”

  He jumps back in the water after taking off the t-shirt and shoes I lent him. When he pops his head back up again, I see his tail has grown back. It’s amazing how cool I am with it all.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sophia. Perhaps I will have some answers for you.”

  “See ya.” I wave, watching him swim out to sea. Just as I think he’s gone, he pops back up and blows me a kiss.

  Blushing, I turn and make my way back up the beach.

  I can’t get my head around the fact that his sister knew Anna. I wonder what the story is there, and how did she know evil Eva?

  I feel uneasy for the rest of the evening and don’t want to sit with my family. I’m not ready to talk to them about it yet, so I sit looking out of my window and smiling when I see a mermaid jumping out of the sea by the small island. I wonder if it’s Nix.

  Sadness washes over me as I realise I’m falling for him. I’m falling for a merman. How stupid does that sound? How are we going to have a proper relationship?

  Maybe I shouldn’t pursue him anymore. Then I remember the time when I didn’t turn up and he came looking for me. Looks like he’s not ready to give up yet either.

  10

  Nix POV

  It’s getting harder and harder to leave Sophia on the beach. I just wish we could both come and go as we please. I’d love to take her on a date and take her to dinner. Not that I’m sure I’d eat much; the food today was a bit strange, but I managed to eat it all.

  Sighing, I come back up to the surface and blow her a kiss. I haven’t kissed her yet. I suppose I’m scared. I don’t know how humans date so I’m taking things slowly.

  Anyway, I need to get my head into gear. I need to confront Darya.

  Jumping out of the sea one more time, I dive deep down and swim down to the village. I bump into Eva on the way. Well, bump isn’t accurate. It’s like she was waiting behind a rock for me or something.

  “Nix, baby. Where’ve you been?” She swims next to me and tries to wrap her tail around mine. That’s a way for mermaids to express their love and affection. Unravelling her tail, I stop and turn to face her.

  “I’m not your baby. What do you want, Eva?” My tail is working hard to keep me in one place and calming me down at the same time.

  “Are we still fighting? I thought we would’ve been okay again by now. Why are you spending time with that… that human?” She spits the word out with contempt.

  “That human is my girlfriend, Sophia.”

  “Girlfriend?” She snarls and her features start to change. “Girlfriend? Well good luck taking her to meet your parents. Now that I would like to see.” She laughs manically as she swims away.

  How did I ever date her?

  I see the palace ahead of me and I can’t wait to get to see Darya. I need some answers.

  Heading straight to her bedroom, I knock before entering.

  “Come in,” I hear a small voice say.

  “Hey. Are you okay?” I swim over to her bed and sit down.

  “Yeah. I’m just feeling sad, that’s all.”

  “Why are you sad, Darya?”

  “I… I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

  Standing up from her bed, I look down at her and say, “Darya, something’s going on and I need to talk to you about it. I think I know why you’re sad and why you’re having nightmares.”

  Her eyes are wide open and a blush rises up her cheeks. “I doubt it, Nix.”

  “I heard you screaming last night. I’ve heard you lots of times, but never really understood what you were shouting. But last night I heard it and it was really clear.”

  “What… what did you hear?”

  Taking her hand, I try to calm her down because I can see she’s panicking.

  “I heard you shouting. Anna… No!”

  The colour drains from her face, but I haven’t finished talking yet.

  “That’s Sophia’s sister, isn’t it?”

  Tears flow down her face and she looks at me, showing how fragile she is.

  Taking her arm, I pull her into my body and rock her while she sobs. She’ll tell me when she’s ready. I just need to comfort her right now.

  It takes her a while to calm down and then she tells me the story.

  “I didn’t realise Sophia was Anna’s sister until I saw her. They look so alike. I panicked, thinking it was Anna.”

  “How did you know her, Darya?” I’m stern because I want her to get to the point, but I don’t want to frighten her either.

  “I met Anna about two years ago. She was always in the Lost Caves and I would always have to leave or stay underwater while she was there. She would spend hours in the caves and started drawing them. One day, she spotted a shadow under the water and started freaking out. I think she thought it was a shark or something.” She chuckles.

  “I had to come to the surface then to show her I wasn’t going to harm her. I knew it was wrong. I knew I could get into a lot of trouble, but we immediately bonded and became great friends. She would come down to the caves almost daily and we would talk about our lives. One day, she asked if she could come into the water and see where I lived. I panicked because I didn’t know that the Rubins could help her or that it was being guarded. I told her I would find out if I could make that happen.

  It took a week to discreetly ask the questions and then I had to steal some. It was okay though, because I could flirt with the guards and they didn’t realise I was stealing it under their noses.”<
br />
  “You were flirting?” Laughing, I nod to her to carry on.

  “When I came up to the cave with the Rubins, I said I would go first. It was an amazing feeling when I chewed it. I could feel the electrical pulses flowing through my blood. My gills closed over, and for a second, I thought I was going to drown until a new natural instinct kicked in and I opened my mouth and breathed in air. When I looked down, I had two legs and a bikini on.”

  “I can’t believe this was going on and I didn’t know about it.”

  “Yes. I went off the beach and she took me to places to show me what her world was like. It was so much fun. Then, the next day, I brought her down with me to show her my world. She would take photos on her underwater camera and use them to draw pictures. She showed me lots, but I could never keep any. They just wouldn’t have survived.”

  “I saw her sketchbook this morning.” Darya’s head shoots up at my words. “There were a few sketches of the Lost Caves and also one of you. It’s beautiful and I recognised you straight away. But what scares me is the next picture she drew was of an evil mermaid. One who looked terrifying. It was a picture of Eva.”

  I watch her reaction to my news and a shadow comes down over her face. It’s like the life behind her eyes just disappears.

  “Eva the diva? She’s a bitch and I hate her.” She shakes her head, as if to rid it of some dark thoughts.

  “She sure is. But I thought she was your best friend?”

  “She was. Until she got jealous of my friendship with Anna. She hated that I would rather spend time talking to Anna than watching her do nasty things to other mermaids.”

  “Why are you still friends with her then?” I can’t understand why they still hang around together if she hates her so much.

  Darya looks up at me and the tears are welling up, ready to overflow. “She’s scared that I’ll tell someone. She wants to keep close to me so I don’t tell. She said she would hurt me and you if I told anyone. I can’t tell you, Nix. I just can’t lose you too.” She jumps at me and wraps her arms around me tightly.

  Not wanting to let go, I let her sob until I feel her body relaxing, and then I pull away.

  “Darya, she can’t hurt you. I promise. We have the protection of the Royal Guard. She can’t get past that.” I don’t ask the one question I think I know the answer to.

  “I know, but she scares me. She makes me do horrible things to people, but I don’t want to do them anymore. It keeps me awake at night, and when I do eventually get to sleep, I have nightmares.”

  “I’m here to look after you, Darya. I know you have nightmares; I hear you most nights. Sometimes I come in and hold you until you fall back to sleep peacefully. But it can’t go on. Tell me what she doesn’t want you to tell anyone. I’m not just anyone, Darya. I’m your brother. You can trust me.” I know I’m not going to like what she has to say.

  She takes a deep breath and sits back from me. Quietly, she begins to speak.

  “Eva followed me to the caves one day. She wanted to know what I was doing for so long each day when I wasn’t with her. She has an awful jealous streak and I knew she wasn’t nice at this stage. When she saw Anna, she blew her top. She watched us and waited until Anna had left before she cornered me in the caves.”

  I see Darya drift off as if she’s taking her mind back to that day.

  * * *

  DARYA

  * * *

  “What the hell are you doing, Darya?” Eva is almost touching my nose with hers.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Who is she? Who is that human?” She hates humans so much, she finds it hard to say the word.

  “That’s Anna and she’s my new friend.”

  “New friend?” she shouts into my face.

  “Yes. We get on really well and I love meeting her here.”

  “You know you could be exiled and sent to The Deep Loop for showing your true form to a human? Are you that stupid? I’m surprised at you, Darya. I thought you had more sense than that.” She shakes her head at me.

  “I can introduce you to her, if you like. You’d like her.”

  “No, thanks. If she’s like you then definitely not. You’re weak. You don’t like doing things that are bad to other people so I’m surprised you’re meeting up with her. I don’t want to meet humans. I don’t want to be friends with humans. They’re lower than the bottom feeders in my eyes.”

  “I can’t believe you just said that. Anna is nice. I like her.”

  In a whiny voice, she says, “Oh, Anna this and Anna that.” She leans closer into my face. “I don’t want to hear about Anna. She has no right being down here. You have no right being friends with the humans.”

  “Eva, I can be friends with whoever I want. You don’t dictate who I’m friends with.”

  “Really? I don’t dictate who you’re friends with? We’ll see about that.”

  She swims away, leaving me in the caves, alone. I hate how she treats me and I sob. Why is she so mean to me? Just because I have another friend and not just her, that doesn’t give her the right to be nasty to me.

  There’s a storm starting and the waves are crashing in the caves. I dive underwater and swim back to the village. Eva jumps out from behind a rock. “Where are you going?” She’s aggressive and has hold of my arm.

  “I’m going home. I need to get away from you. You’re scaring me, Eva.”

  “You should be scared, Darya.” She lets go of my arm and I swim back home.

  The next day, I swim to the caves to see Anna. She meets me there every day. But as I get closer to the caves, I can see the waves are crashing against the cliffs. It’s really rough and I think that maybe Anna hasn’t come. When I get closer to the cave, I see Eva banging Anna’s head against the cave wall. I scream at her, “Eva, let her go!”

  Eva turns around and smiles at me as she holds Anna under the water until her body stops shaking.

  “Anna, no!” I swim over to the caves to pull her back up but Eva blocks me.

  “Eva, what did you do? Is she…?”

  “Dead? Yes she is. There’s no place for humans in our world, Darya, and the quicker you learn that, the better. You’d better not tell anyone about this or I will say that you killed her and you’ll get punished and sent to The Deep Loop.” She flings Anna’s body out from the cave and we both watch as her body crashes against all the rocks.

  Sobbing, I turn to leave and make my way back home. I just need to get into my room, close the door, hide from everyone and try to understand what just happened.

  Eva grabs hold of my arm. “Remember, Darya, no one is to know what happened. I’ll be keeping a close eye on you.” She rubs my arm with some of Anna’s blood as a reminder of what she is capable of.

  * * *

  NIX

  * * *

  “Darya. Darya, are you okay?” I pull my sister into my arms. I can’t believe she went through that and didn’t tell me anything. She knew Anna. This is all freaking me out.

  “Please don’t tell Sophia. Eva will kill her too. Or she’ll kill me. Maybe she’ll kill us both. Nix, what am I going to do?”

  “Darya, you need to calm down. Eva won’t kill anyone else. We’ll speak to our parents; they’ll protect you.”

  “No! They hate the humans too. They won’t let you see Sophia again if you tell them. You can’t, Nix.”

  “We’ll think of something. I promise you.”

  “How can we? How can I ever look at Sophia? You’ll push me away. I’m the reason her sister is dead!”

  11

  Sophia POV

  I can’t believe Anna knew about the mermaids and didn’t tell me. Then I think about it and wonder, would I have told her about Nix? Yes, I think I would have. I’d love someone to talk to about it all. I want to shout from the rooftops that we are together and that he’s a merman, but people might think I have a screw loose or something. It doesn’t sound real and I know if Anna had said it to me I would have thought she was hallu
cinating.

  I still can’t get my head around the fact that Darya knew Anna. It’s such a small world. I can’t wait to talk to her about Anna and find out how well she knew her.

  Nix wants me to meet his parents today. I won’t lie and say I’m not nervous, because I totally am. I feel a connection to Nix that I’ve never felt before. It makes me feel complete, like that something that has been missing for years isn’t missing any more. I don’t believe in love at first sight, soulmates, and all that crap, but I might be changing my mind. I know that there’s something between Nix and me that’s different to anything I’ve ever known.

  After breakfast, I head down to the beach. I’ve tied my hair up so it doesn’t get in my face when I’m swimming underwater.

  As I’m walking down the cliff steps, I look out to the island to see if I can see anyone jumping out of the sea, but there’s no one there. I’m disappointed. I want to bask in the knowledge that I know it’s not dolphins, which everyone else thinks it is.

  Smiling to myself, I get to the bottom of the steps and see Nix already leaning on the rocks to the left of the beach. I sit down. “Hey, fish boy.”

  “Morning, beautiful. Are you okay? You seem perplexed.”

  “I’m good, just nervous about meeting your parents and staying underwater for so long. I’d hate for the Rubins to run out while I’m down there. Will you make sure you get me back to the surface quickly if I need to?”

  “Of course I will. You’re my responsibility and I’ll look out for you. I promise.”

  “Thanks. Did you find Darya last night? Was she okay?”

  “Yeah, I did, and she was okay. She admitted that she knew Anna really well and was still sad about her death. She misses her. She left us yesterday because she said that you look so much like her, she panicked.”