by Alyssa Breck
The man grunted. “That’s Roger and his partner, Finn. Harmless drunks, those two.”
At the landing, the man stood before a wooden door.
“Here we are.” He opened his palm. “Payment?”
Alayah pushed past him into a brightly lit room. There were two single beds near the only window and a mattress opposite to them. Besides that, the room was empty, and there were no bedsheets only old looking quilts with holes.
“Poor but comfy,” the man said with a goofy smile, still with his hand out. “No rats.”
Alayah looked at the other three warriors, they gave a nod, and Marina opened her brown hold-all and extracted two pearls.
The barman licked his lips once the pearls touched his palm. “Now, you fine ladies have a good night. Daybreak arrives in the town of Rheyn early so might wanna turn in soon. And if you decide that you want company, I won’t charge you more.”
The ladies returned his inquiring eyes with a blank one.
Marina was the one who grumbled, “No, we are not in the mood, but have a good night.”
He waved and walked out quietly.
“Nighty night!” he called from the bottom of the stairs.
After inspecting the beds, the four warriors sat in a circle in the room.
Keeping her voice low, Alayah said, “Anyone else feels as if they are being watched?”
“The men downstairs seemed tense,” Marina mumbled. “The inn is too bare for this time of the year.”
“This is the only place where we found shelter, but now I’m questioning my decision on stopping here,” the commander said.
“We need to soak in water. Our bodies are beginning to dry with the constant heat,” Lyra chimed.
“I know. I’ll go outside to the restroom and see if there’s plenty of water for us.” Alayah moved to the door and cracked it open.
“There’s a door at the far end of this bedroom. It might be the restroom,” Lyra observed. “Do you want me to check it?”
Alayah peeked outside into the corridor before replying. “Sure. There are also a lot of other doors here, but I don’t hear any sounds. One of us should use our powers to see if there’s any danger.”
“I can do that,” Marina volunteered. “Rose will join us soon after securing the horses in the stable. She’ll tell us if there’s anyone hiding outside.”
The commander closed the door and walked to one of the single beds. Falling back, she yawned. “The horse riding is killing me. I miss swimming.”
“We are here now, and soon we’ll find a mage to help us with our quest,” Kiera voiced. “This is just a small setback.”
Nodding, Alayah played with the chain around her neck. Omin, her sweet boyfriend, had fixed it for her. Touching it now reminded her as much of him as her mother.
Lyra moved closer and sat beside her. “The restroom is empty and doesn’t have any buckets with water.”
“Maybe we need to pay extra for water,” Alayah assumed, her eyes on the red rock of her necklace.
“That’s a pretty jewel. Who gave it to you?” Lyra asked.
“It was my mother’s,” Alayah replied, tucking the chain inside her shirt and facing the siren warrior. “It’s just a trinket with sentimental value.”
Lyra nodded and stretched her arms. “I wonder why Rose is taking so long.”
Alayah stood and went to the window. Marina remained by the door, using her powers to spy on the other bedrooms. Meanwhile, the commander saw Rose’s figure in the low lights of the street. Her shoulder a horizontal square of resolve.
She called out to her telepathically. The siren swept her eyes one final time before walking into the inn. Through her eyes, Alayah saw the innkeeper in an animated conversation with the men, Roger and Finn.
They froze when they saw Rose pass by on her way to the stairway.
“The men downstairs; the owner and those two. We must expect trouble soon,” Alayah said.
The commander looked at the door when Rose walked in and shared her fears. “It’s too quiet for my liking.”
Marina moved and looked at her fellow companions. “There’s nobody else in this inn. Which is strange since the other ones seemed to be fully occupied.”
“A trap?” Rose asked with widened eyes.
Alayah frowned. “Who would know that we were coming here? And what would they want from us?”
“They might be after the Legacy Stone, too,” Rose voiced, taking a seat on the single bed to her right. “My body is sore. I was looking forward to sleeping today after a long-deserved bath.”
Alay folded her arms. “It seems we’ll have to wait for our bath and rest. Meanwhile, lets drink and restore forces while we are safe here.”
“What do you think they are doing? Waiting for us to sleep?” Lyra asked.
“I have no idea. We’ll use our powers to spy on them. Meanwhile, be prepared and don’t be afraid to use extreme force,” Alayah said.
“Yes, Commander,” the siren warriors acknowledged.
Alayah and her team sat very still. A sphere-shaped device hovered just half an inch off the surface of the floor. It was some sort of transponder. Its low-frequency hum could only be heard by a siren. It was called the Infinite Ear.
In deep concentration, they descended a level down into telepathic awareness. It was a place where it was possible to eavesdrop on any conversation for about a mile in all directions.
Below the room, but not precisely underneath them, the three men debated in hushed tones.
“Once again, I say this discussion ought to be taking place outside.” The one called Roger gritted his teeth. His tin cup, which had actually been empty when Alayah and her crew came in earlier, was now off his face and half-filled with beer that he had not touched.
“They are girls, for crying out loud!” said the innkeeper. He pronounced ‘girls’ as gurrls. “We go in there, knock them around a bit, tie 'em up and call Glenn. What do you say?”
One of the chairs moved, it made a dull scraping sound on the floor of the inn. The heavy thud of boots drifted up through the conduit in the Infinite Ear. It was pacing.
“Don’t be a fool, Vern.” It was Finn, Alayah supposed, the one with the ponytail.
“Those women up there are sirens,” Finn warned.
The innkeeper, Vern, gasped. “What?”
“Yes.”
“But … they walk ...”
“Now shut up and listen, you fool!” A fist came down on a table. “We do this our way or … we do it our way! My partner here and I are going up there blasting away. We aren’t taking any chances. Sirens are not to be messed with. Whatever you do, stay away from water.”
“Water!?”
“Yes, you fool! Or any fluid. And if you let your trap open wide the way it is this minute when you meet them again, you might as well drown in your own stinking spit.”
Alayah and her warrior sisters heard a chuckling sound. Below, Roger had taken a leather bag from somewhere behind him and placed it on the table. It made a heavy thump. Alayah frowned. The girls shared a confused look.
Alayah felt a strange sensation transmit through the tiny molecules in the air from the objects now placed on the table.
Roger took a large gun of uncertain make out of the bag. It had a grenade launcher and a slot for rounds. Vern asked if they were expecting other Sirens tonight. Wasn’t this overkill?
Roger patted the big gun. “Insurance.” He grinned, his teeth were like large bricks.
The girls felt another thud on the table. Finn took the gun off the table. He aimed at the bar. Vern’s mouth worked in protest.
“Look,” said Finn, “after this, you can finally afford something better than this pit.”
Vern grimaced. “Fellows, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, okay? The gurrls first, all right?”
Chapter 17
“Lyra, did you see any other way for us to leave this place, besides the main entrance?”
Lyra shook her head. “We can
use the windows but might hurt ourselves with the fall. We aren’t used to walking and jumping as well as swimming.”
Everybody nodded.
Alayah folded her arms. “You heard them as well as I did. I also used my astral projection to see what they were doing. They are armed, and this will be messy if we stay and fight.”
“They will chase us if we run. At least here we have the element of surprise. They don’t know that we know they are coming.”
“Well then,”—Alayah faced the other girls—”we stay and fight. They seem to know Glenn, the man we came hunting for. We can’t kill them all in battle, we need information. Grab your weapons.”
Alayah walked to her satchel and took her disguised sword out. The Trident remained cloaked as a hairpin stuck in her hair. She wouldn’t use it unless it was indispensable. That kind of power display would attract too much unwanted attention.
Alayah blew a sprinkle of silvery dust from her armband, it floated around the lamp and put the flame out.
“Warriors, formation,” she muttered.
Outside the door, the stairs creaked from the weight of heavy boots.
Alayah blew some more silvery dust in the direction of the door as it opened slowly on its hinges.
The muzzle of the gun came in first. Then Roger, his face red and blistering. His boot followed. He paused.
“Lights are out,” he whispered, looking back.
A match struck the wall outside, and a tiny light flickered from a small stick floating between his thumb and index finger. He stepped into the room, and the other two followed. Finn had his gun up on his shoulder and his finger a hairsbreadth from depressing the trigger. The innkeeper, Vern, had a large blade glistening in the feeble light of the matchstick.
The girls watched, unseen.
“It’s empty,” croaked Vern.
Finn pushed past him. “Shut up! It’s a trick.”
The three men stood in a tight circle in the middle of the room. Vern’s teeth clattered.
The invisibility powers of the silvery dust would wear out any second. Alayah looked at her friends and knew they were ready for the fight.
“Oh, cripes!” shouted Vern as the air around them shimmered, revealing four women standing in the four corners of the room, weapons drawn.
Alayah sneered. “Hello.”
Vern’s jaw dropped open in horror. It seemed that Finn’s warning about the Siren magic had been forgotten.
Alayah’s senses took in the whole scene, taking a quick inventory, just before the little light from the matchstick went out. Her team of warriors knew what they had to do.
Vern’s open mouth was his first mistake. Alayah used her water controlling powers, twisting her wrist, and Vern’s body jerked as fluid left his extremities.
Meanwhile, Roger was shooting everywhere, his mouth tight in a muffled scream. Bullets flew at Lyra’s head where she stood, wielding her sword. The warrior ducked and slid through the floor with her sword. Holding her weapon, she sliced through Roger’s hamstring. He yelled, and his gun went off involuntarily, bullets spraying the walls a few inches from Kiera’s head.
Alayah took fluid from Vern, morphing it into a small but powerful current of rope and aimed it at the muzzle of Roger’s gun. Writhing in the middle of the room, Vern floated under Alayah’s spell.
There was a loud, final bang that rent the silent night in two. It was followed seconds after by an explosion that sent half of the room flying into the street in dust and wood.
Moonlight bathed the room. With it, Alayah saw Kiera’s body in the street, unconscious. Finn’s gun had been replaced by a blade at Marina’s throat, and he had her in a chokehold.
“Drop your weapons!” he shouted. Finn pressed the large knife under the siren’s neck. “I’ll slice her fishy neck open! Drop your swords, I say!”
Alayah slowly dropped her sword. Lyra did the same. Vern’s body flopped to the floor in a sick thud. His skin had gone pale. Roger was holding his bloody leg with wild eyes and pained cries. Alayah knew he would die of blood loss soon enough if no one stopped the bleeding.
“I won’t let you take me too,” Finn spoke rapidly. “We want the Trident, and that’s all. Just give it to us.”
Alayah tried to twist her wrist, but Finn quickly shut his mouth with a snap.
“Uhn uhn,” he mumbled and tightened his hold on Marina. She choked.
“I’ll cut her open. I swear I will!” Finn quickly said and shut his mouth again, as fast as a mousetrap coming down on a rodent. His eyes searched the sirens, first Alayah, then Lyra.
“Where is it?” he screamed.
“Let her go.”
“No. The necklace for her life!”
“Necklace? What necklace?”
“Don’t play dumb.”
She shrugged.
He sucked a breath. “The trident, then. Give it to me, and I’ll let you live.”
Alayah growled and squinted.
“Don’t do anything stupid. I’ll cut your friend before you can invoke a spell!”
“Maybe,” Alay muttered. “But you are outnumbered now. Let her go, and I’ll let you and your friend live.”
Outside in the street, Kiera’s body moved. Glancing back at Finn, she saw a bead of sweat trickling down his temple.
“Last chance,” Alayah warned.
“Trident!” Finn pressed the blade down.
Then just as Alayah twisted her wrist to take fluid through his pores, a dark figure dropped into the room through the blown-out side of the house. As if by some ancient magic Alayah had only ever heard about, Finn was thrown off his feet and into the air where he hung suspended, mouth wide open, teeth bared in a silent scream. The veins bulged in his forehead like the blood was pumping against itself from both sides of his heart.
Moonlight caught the stranger’s face, and Alayah saw that it was a young man, about her age or a little older. His eyes were different from those of the other humans like Finn and his friends.
His wrists were glowing with magic, and they twisted delicately in rhythmic movements. He was casting a powerful spell on their attacker.
He tossed his dark eyes at Alayah but spoke gently, “Help your friend.”
Marina was back on her feet. She and Lyra jumped through the hole in the wall and onto the street. Kiera was trying to get off the dirt when they reached her.
Alayah looked at the strange man who had helped them. “Who are you?”
He looked at Alayah, a cunning little smile danced briefly on his plump lips. “I’ll answer you in a bit.”
He lowered Finn on the edge of the bed which had surprisingly remained untouched in the explosion just a little above it. Finn lay dazed in a heap.
Roger crawled into a corner of the room, the bemused look of fear still in his eyes.
Turning around, the stranger stepped over Vern’s crumpled body.
“Quite a thing you had going on,” he praised with a wide grin.
Alayah ignored him and went down the broken wall. Kiera seemed okay.
“Marina, get our horses,” Alayah ordered. “We move at once before word gets out about what happened here.”
Marina went off to the stables in front of the inn.
“Lyra, bind Finn. We’ll interrogate him once we are in a safe place,” Alayah instructed.
Lyra nodded. “He’ll be answering a lot of questions.”
The stranger came down from the house, too. His thick robe spread around him in the early morning breeze. A fowl crowed in the distance, and a horse made flapping noises with its mouth.
Rose squinted her eyes at him and then looked at Alayah. “Who is he?”
Alayah shrugged. “He seems to be on our side.”
The young man bowed his head to the women warriors. “I’m Silver Wind.” He stretched out his hand, and Alayah took it.
He had strong hands, and her stomach twisted and turned when she noticed his kind smile and his perfect, white skin and plump lips. He was handsome and p
owerful. Tall with a slim figure, wearing expensive black clothes embroidered in gold. Just like a prince.
She clenched her teeth, upset that she gazed at him for so long. “That’s just your name, but it still doesn’t tell me who you are.”
Waving his hand, he bowed again. “Beautiful warrior, I’m the Prince of The Depths, and I’m here to offer you my help.”
Hell no!
“A prince,” Lyra gasped.
Marina grumbled, “As far as you know, we could be princesses, too. Why should we believe you?”
The prince grinned. “Have you not heard about my kingdom?”
Alayah looked at Marina when she talked. “Only rumors of the strong warriors who live there and the community of sirens who also joined your empire when you moved to another place coming from a far away and mystic land.”
“Ancient Japan, but there’s nothing mystical about that,” Silver Wind said. “When the Big Crash occurred, a few members of my family decided to travel the world to help those in need. We’ve been using our powers for good.”
“Why are you here?” Alayah asked.
Silver looked at her and smiled again. “I want to help you on your quest.”
“We aren’t on a quest,” she muttered, folding her arms.
“Then I want to help you in whatever you are doing.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Our destinies are entwined, beautiful lady.” Lowering his eyes, he added with a husky voice, “Plus, I have nothing else to do.”
Rose, Kiera, and Marina snorted.
“You have an admirer, Alay,” Lyra chimed.
Kiera tapped her boot. “We need to leave. It’s not safe to remain here. Someone might have reported the gunshots and the fight.”
“Fights are common,” Silver said. “But I agree that we need to move. I can provide you with shelter. If you trust me.”
Alayah endured his gaze on hers and tried to understand why he was so adamant in staring at her and had that constant grin when he spoke. An Asian. She had never seen one before, though she’d read about them and saw ancient drawings. Were all of them that handsome and charismatic? His eyes were like dark pools in the moonlight. Narrowed like hers. Though hers were slightly rounder.