“This is it then,” he nodded somberly, finding it hard to hold the smile.
“It?”
“That place where you belong,” he nodded, recalling their stories from their time on the flat. “You really were meant to come to the west.”
Her jaw dropping, she stared at him in surprise. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she gasped, ashamed that he had read her so easily. “I mean, it felt so comfortable. It’s like a worn pair of shoes when you really need a new pair. Something you love so much, you hate to give it up, and hang onto it because it’s familiar…”
“And you just can’t bring yourself to say goodbye,” he finished for her. “Exactly. I think you’re home, Ami,” he said with a grin he didn’t feel. If this were the place where she belonged, where did that leave him?
To Walk in Moonlight
Piers sat on the ground a few feet from the gentle lap of the waves. The sun hung heavy in the sky to his right, where it would soon disappear behind the land of the western coast. To his left sat what remained of their flat, his clothing draped over the sides. The air warm around him, he lay back against the rough sand and stretched, the breeze drying his flesh and leaving a salty film.
“Is it time for supper?” Baldwin asked, dropping down onto a section of sand a few feet away.
“Are the tools hidden?”
“Aye, sir,” Bally informed him, covering his face with his hands and drinking in the golden rays.
“Then supper it is,” the older man agreed. Rolling over to his knees, he knelt in the soft earth for a moment before pushing up to stand. “My old bones,” he chuckled, retrieving his shirt and pants before following, as Bally had already disappeared into the trees.
Arriving at their camp a few minutes later, the smell of stew greeted him. “Aye, lassie,” he laughed, spying the girl in the center of the circle, stirring the pot he had provided her a few nights before. “Decided to give it a try then?” he grinned.
Smiling as she bounced over to him, obviously happy at his return, she turned her face up to him and waited. Grasping her arms firmly, he held her, lowering his lips to brush softly against hers. “Sweet Ami,” he breathed, catching her hair with his left hand as bits of it floated around her. Tugging it gently out of her face before releasing her, he greeted the other man. “So, did you enjoy your tour?”
“It was magical,” Rey replied, laughing at his use of what appeared to be the word of the day. “I can’t believe we found this place,” he sighed.
Piers studied him, his dark eyes squinted slightly, as if he wished to look inside his very thoughts. “Well, I’m glad you found it so,” he stated calmly, taking a seat at the table on the far end so that he faced the opening in their perimeter and the majority of the room lay at his right hand. “Thank you, love,” he sang, accepting the bowl as Amicia placed it before him.
“Yes, Ami says you’ve found an old settlement that you’ve been raiding,” Rey grinned, indicating the caldron that hung over the fire and the setting for the table. “It’s nice to have a few comforts here in the wilderness.”
“Aye,” Bally chimed in. “We go every day and see what else we can dig up.”
“What about the people?” Reynard asked between bites. “If there was a settlement, there had to be people.”
“They’ve been gone for some time,” the Mate countered evenly. “It’s deserted now, so we take whatever we want.”
In her seat, Ami sipped at her broth, then picked out a few of the vegetables to eat. “Isn’t it beautiful here?” she said airily.
“Heavenly, love,” Piers replied, earning a surprised stare from the newcomer. Giving him a quick scowl, as if to silence the words before he spoke them, his face instantly morphed into a wide grin.
“I shall be in the village this evening,” the girl continued. “I wish to know more of Riran, and Olirassa has agreed to share it with me.”
“Oh,” Piers held the smile, “to walk in the moonlight, then?”
“Yes,” she agreed, finishing her last few bites in haste. “You will miss me?”
“With all my heart,” Piers replied, laying his right hand against his chest and providing his happiest face yet.
“Good,” she agreed, putting on her sweater and kissing him quickly on the cheek as he ate. “I’ll be back before the dawn,” she called over her shoulder as she disappeared through the narrow path that served as their entrance.
As soon as she had gone, the Mate’s grin disappeared, and he used the back of his hand to remove the feel of her lips from his face. “Get the tools. We only have a few hours,” he commanded to Bally.
Quickly finishing off his meal, the youngest male exited by the same path as the girl. An adequate amount of time had passed for her to have reached the beach herself and be gone, and it would be safe for him to do so.
“What the hell is going on?” Rey snapped, keenly aware of the instant shift in his leader’s mood.
“We have to talk,” Piers replied, standing and leaving his meal unfinished. Fishing a long stick out of the tree limbs above him, he set to work on it, assessing his progress and then laying it across the table. “And we have to work fast. Everything must be hidden before she returns.”
“Ok, so what’s going on?” the younger man repeated.
“Ami is spending the night in the siren’s city, with the queen.”
“I gathered that,” Rey growled, growing weary with repeating himself. “But what are we doing?”
Piers finished gathering his supplies, placing remnants of a sword and a machete on the table alongside the handle he’d been constructing. Turning abruptly, he sat down with an iron file in his hand and stared the other man in the eye. “I need your word, Rey. I need to know you’ve got my back. Bally’s just a kid. He follows orders, but he isn’t a warrior. I need to know when things come to blows, you’ll stand with me in the fight.”
Glaring at him with wide eyes, his mouth hung open for a minute, and he stammered, “Of course I’ve got your back! You’re my captain, or as good as, so just tell me what this is all about.”
“She showed you around, correct?” Piers picked up the machete, inspecting it before he used the file against the blade, removing the thick black corrosion that covered it with heavy scrapes.
“Yeah, she took me around. We saw the waterfall and the pool, along with their sacred healing flowers. And Riran, only there weren’t any mermaids that I saw,” he informed him.
“They stay out in the water during the day,” Piers stated confidently. “They come on shore as the sun sets, for the most part, and hang out on land during the night. What else?”
“I don’t know,” Rey shrugged, “a bit of the forest, and along the beach there in the lagoon, where the brook empties. It’s really beautiful, like a paradise.”
“Paradise is a prison, Rey,” the Mate put it bluntly. “All this,” he wafted his file around at the trees above him. “None of this is real.”
His brow furrowed, Reynard prepared to argue, but Bally returned with his arms full of old tarnished bits of metal and dropped them on the ground next to the fire. “What are you doing about it, then?” he asked instead.
“I have the sword, but it’s only one. I’m going to build us another, a few spears, and an axe, if I can manage it.”
Moving over to inspect their haul, the crewman recognized barnacles when he saw them. “These aren’t from a settlement,” he accused. “Where the hell did they come from?”
“There’s a ship about half a mile from shore,” Bally pointed, “about eight or ten fathoms deep. We passed over it when we came in, and the Mate saw it on the bottom.”
“You’re scavenging from a sunken vessel,” he surmised. “You take the flat out and fill it up?”
“No,” Piers clipped, still scraping the metal. “The raft won’t leave the shore. The current’s too strong. You can’t pull it out more than a few feet. As soon as you let go, it floats right back up onto the land. We tried.”
&nb
sp; “Could you just stop what you’re doing and talk to me?” Rey demanded, shaking his dark ringlets in anger.
Pausing his hands, his commander stared at him. “What do you want to know?”
“Why is this place a prison?”
“Because there’s no crew left from that ship!” Piers shouted, smacking his fist against the table. Ratcheting his voice down, he continued, “The queen is all sweet as honey, as far as Ami is concerned. All the sirens are.”
“Yeah, they rescued us,” Rey pointed out, reclaiming his seat.
“They didn’t rescue us, they rescued Amicia. They only helped us because she desired it. The queen will barely even speak to me, even with that little trinket she gave to Ami. It’s no wonder it only works for her,” he bit angrily.
“You’re saying they would have let us die.”
“Aye, they have no need of us. And when I asked about the ship, they pretended not to know anything about it.”
“And how do you know that they do?”
“There’s no bodies,” Bally cut in, taking the file and the machete so he could continue the work over by the fire.
“Nope, not a single one,” the Mate informed him, leaning onto his knees with his arms folded. “We’ve made five trips out so far, gathering these few things that we could carry. Not a single set of bones to be found among the rubble.”
“And you’re going to do what, attack the mermaids?” Rey asked quietly, confused by their plans and suppositions.
“No, we’re getting out of here. As soon as we have some weapons, we’re going to move down the coast and look for a better place to build a shelter until we can construct a boat and get off this rock,” Piers stipulated, lifting a few of their latest finds to inspect them. “If we can get Ami to go with us.”
“Why wouldn’t she go?” Rey asked with wide eyes. “She’s your wife or as good as, shouldn’t she do as you say?”
Cutting his eyes over at him, Piers stared at him in surprise. “She isn’t my wife. I have taken no vow with her, and I don’t plan to.”
“Oh, man,” Rey whined, hunching over and placing his hands over his face. “I saw the two of you when I came in last night. You can’t tell me you haven’t consummated your marriage.”
“I haven’t touched that girl,” the Mate hissed. “She’s consumed by something, some power. She sees me as her lover, and I allow it, but I assure you I have consummated nothing and would never as long as she is under this dark spell.”
“So what’s with all the ‘heavenly, love,’ and all that shit?” Rey hollered back, angry that Ami appeared to be his toy.
“I have to keep up appearances,” Piers confessed. “As long as she’s happy, we can work on our plans, out of sight, mind you. When the time comes, we’ll figure out how to get her away.”
“So you’re saying you two aren’t really together?” Peeking out of his hands, Rey caught the small grin on the first mate’s face, a feeling of relief washing over him. “Oh my God, I thought you two were really in love or something!” He laughed anxiously, recalling the other man had professed exactly that just before they swam for shore.
“No,” Piers stated flatly. “The long and the short of it is, that ship sailed for me long ago. I’m old enough to be the father of every one of you, and with Ami not knowing her parentage, don’t think that thought hasn’t crossed my mind,” he stated with a chuckle.
Listening to the conversation, but having stayed out for the most part, Bally began to cackle, “Wouldn’t that be awful to discover, Mate.”
“To say the least,” he agreed, grinning himself. “She will be yours one day, Rey, if you desire it. I’m almost certain of it. But that could be many months, or even years from now, so you must be patient if that is ever to be.”
“I understand,” Rey nodded firmly, his features stoic. Setting his jaw, he dared one last question. “What are we going to do if she won’t leave? She believes this is the place in the west, the one her heart has been drawing her towards.”
“I know,” Piers sighed, “but it isn’t. This is a wilderness full of magical creatures, not meant for the likes of man. If we don’t get away from here, we will all die.”
“Ok,” Rey agreed, finally lifting one of the broken swords to give it a once over, now that he understood their purpose. “I’ll help with what ever I can, but I don’t see how we’re going to make useful weapons out of any of this.”
“I’m a blacksmith, remember?” the Mate grinned deviously. “We’ve gotten enough from the ship. Now we hunt for a place to build our forge and these can be remade.”
Smiling, Rey nodded, “All right. I’ll get to work knocking these barnacles off, and we’ll get it all put away before we get some sleep. We can hunt for that tomorrow.”
“Me and Bally will take care of the forge. Ami’s been wrapped up in you since we landed, worried over whether or not you would survive. I think if you can keep her occupied during the day, we’ll do the rest.”
“Fine by me,” Rey grinned. He had already spent days with her on the ship when he was her protector, so a few more walking through the forest and talking to butterflies would be easy as plum pie.
Sleepless Nights
“Here,” Ami instructed, offering Rey a small shell.
Accepting it, he studied the inside. “Aye, I think this one is nice.” Placing it on the end of his finger, it covered just the tip. The outside a bright, bleached white, the inside held the colorful rainbow of her merdoe. “But this one isn’t magic?”
“No,” she grinned, taking it back and placing it in the pouch, along with the rest of her collection. She had been picking out pieces for over a week and intended to build a necklace for Olirassa. Her ninety-first birthday celebration would take place in a few days, and the girl wanted very much to be a part of the sirens and share in their traditions through the event.
“My shell is enchanted. The magic was added,” she explained. Over her shoulder, she heard the splash of small feet as they approached. “That’s Oldrilin, isn’t it?” she asked without turning around.
“Aye,” he grinned, his tiny admirer stopping behind her.
Pulling the merdoe from her pocket, she placed it in her right palm and held the hand up. Laying his left over it, his fingers curled around the back of her warm skin, sandwiching the small device between them. They had become practiced at the procedure, as it allowed the tiny siren to communicate with him through the stone.
“Rey,” her small voice sang joyously.
“Oldrilin,” he replied, grinning down at her.
“I’ve been given permission to ask you your presence at the celebration,” she announced, bouncing in place while rocking side to side with anticipation.
“And I would be happy to attend,” he said with a firm nod.
Splashing into the water, she offered him her hand, and he took it with his right, so they could amble down the beach with him between them. “What shall I wear to the occasion?” he teased.
“What you always wear is fine,” Oldrilin replied with a giggle.
“Good,” he laughed, not having anything else to put on anyway. “You know, Oldrilin, I’m surprised that you would ask me to the party, though. I would have thought after a couple of moons, you would have gotten tired of me by now.”
“Oh, no, Reynard!” she squealed. “Love Rey Daye. Keep him always be my friend.”
He swung the small fingers, his heart warmed by the sentiment, despite the Mate’s dark warning about the mermaids. In the two months since he had been well enough to rejoin the others, things had been rather uneventful on that front, and he had come to consider if the other man had been flat wrong about their intentions.
Nonetheless, he spent most of his days being paraded around by Amicia. She treated him as a brother, which he didn’t mind, and he served as her protector, not that she had needed any. The forest and lagoon were a paradise, regardless of what the Mate said about them.
They visited the pool and the water
fall almost every morning, where they drank the delicious water and strolled through the grass. The flowers in the back provided the sweetest nectar, and they enjoyed the company of the butterflies on a regular basis.
In addition, they had regular moonlight strolls with Olirassa, their queen. He had to admit, she seemed harmless enough. She shared bits and pieces of the history of Eriden, and in return, they provided news about the east and the mortals of the rim, as their species was referred to. Even Rey was allowed to speak, and the queen seemed quite taken with his tales. He could hardly see her as a threat to them, now or in the days to come.
Stroking Lin’s fingers gently with his thumb, they reached the part of the beach where the flat had once stood. After the Mate and Bally had finished searching the scuttled ship, it had been dismantled to prevent drawing attention to the path that led to their sanctuary in the woods. Passing at their slow pace, he realized one must know exactly which tree to look for if you were to locate the trail at all.
Arriving at the far end, before the peninsula that jutted out abruptly and formed the western borders of their space, Ami spied another collection of shells in the shallow surf.
“Here,” she commanded gleefully. “Let’s see if we can find a few more to add to the necklace.” Dropping Rey’s hand, he would no longer be able to speak to Lin, but they would manage. They had learned to get along pretty well with or without her help.
As soon as they had added a few more to the pouch, the trio sloshed up to the edge of the water and took seats in the moist sand, where the sun shone down upon them from straight above. “It will be afternoon and eve soon,” Rey observed, glancing at his siren as she played with the bubbles in the water next to him, a long stick in her hand as she poked them.
Offering his hand to Ami, he waited for her to place the shell between them so he could converse with their small friend. “Is that the only reason you forgo the sea today, to invite me to the ball?”
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