by Nancy Gray
He kept giving her breath after breath until her lungs started to feel better and all of the water in her chest was gone. The air had a sobering effect on her thoughts. The water around her was indeed darker, meaning that the shark was diving. She needed to let go of the fin before it took her so deep into its dark abyss that there would be no hope of reaching the surface again.
Mercy pulled the knives free from the fin. The shark disappeared below her, white lights leaving streaks behind it in its haste to free itself, but she knew it would be back. Beryl seemed to know it as well. He pulled her towards the surface so quickly that felt as if she was flying, soaring towards the surface as swiftly as the shark had dived beneath them. They both erupted out of the water at the same time, like dolphins cresting the waves.
Beryl said in a frantic whisper, “We need to get on the ship, or it’ll breach and swallow us both whole.”
Mercy couldn’t respond. She just nodded and swam towards the ship, but every motion she made felt painfully slow. Beryl grabbed her and looked at the wound on her chest for a moment, concern clouding his features. He gripped her tightly with one arm and pulled her towards the hull. She could hear someone calling to her, but she couldn’t concentrate long enough to figure out who it was or what they said. She saw the concerned faces of her friends and felt the mixture of relief and worry that they were experiencing as they looked down at her.
Everything seemed distant, but Mercy fought against the tired, sluggish sensation that made her eyelids heavy and her body numb. It was the same feeling she had when Erebus took too much of her blood. She knew that if she didn’t fight and rage against it, then she wouldn’t be able to open her eyes again. Without even meaning to, she tapped into her power and felt the wound on her chest starting to close. Beryl pressed her against the side of the boat and called for someone to toss her a rope ladder.
Mercy sensed a burning hatred approaching from beneath the waves with the force of an underwater fissure spraying scalding water to the surface. She cried out, trying to warn Beryl, but it was too late. For a moment, she saw the massive maw opening up beneath him. Beryl seemed to realize it too. His eyes became wide and his mouth gaped open for a moment in horrified shock. Then, the jaws breached the waves around him. Beryl’s entire body was enclosed by the muscular creature’s throat, and its jaws came down around his outstretched arm, the one holding Mercy to the side of the ship. The arm fell away from her, floating on the water like a dead fish with a stream of blood floating behind it, and then the shark dove beneath the waves again and was gone.
“No,” Mercy began in a stunned whisper that became a war chant as she began to bellow the word over and over again, louder with every recitation, “No! No! No! NOOOO!”
Mercy dove beneath the waves. Everything was gray shadows around her except for the trail and scent of blood that led her further and further down like a curling, twisted fishing line. She didn’t know how she was swimming so fast or why she didn’t feel the need to breath. She was somehow breathing the water as easily as she could the air. She gripped her knife like it was an extension of her own arm. Her eyes began to roll upward in ecstasy as some of Beryl’s blood filtered into her mouth. The more blood that she tasted the more energy she felt she had. Warmth spread throughout her body, and she swam until she could see dim, white lights beneath her. She was above the shark and it was not yet aware of her presence. A predatory smile flitted across her face for a moment as she closed the distance knife first.
The creature turned in her direction a moment and she keenly felt its surprise and pain as she plunged the knife into one of its eyes, then another. It snapped unsuccessfully in her direction, as she continued to plunge the knife into every one of its eyes. Without its eyes on the side she was clinging to, it couldn’t see her to clamp its jaws around her body. The white lights on its body began to flash red, and the color seemed to spur her on, making her perception stronger, her movements more precise.
She grabbed its dorsal fin and then kicked off of it, propelling her towards its multiple eyes on the other side; she didn’t miss her mark! The shark’s surprise turned to something like a primal fear. It snapped its jaws and twisted around trying to use its other senses to locate her, but it was always a moment or too late. Even when she finished gouging out its eyes, she knew that the fight wasn’t over yet. She grabbed its lower fins and held on tightly with one hand while slashing a line into the soft flesh of its underbelly with the knife in the other hand.
The shark’s blood filled her mouth and she suddenly couldn’t see as her eyes rolled back entirely. For a moment, she began to lose herself in pleasure of tasting the blood, but she managed to push the thought from her mind and changed her focus on what she had to do. Her hand sawed away with a savagery of its own, splitting the creature open from throat to tail. The dead shark sank slowly into the darkness below her.
Beryl’s body, along with several other bodies, floated in front of her. He was curled up in a fetal position clutching the stub at the end of his other arm with his remaining hand. His tail was curled around him like the coiled body of a snake. It seemed he had managed to stop the bleeding from his missing arm by putting pressure on the wound. She couldn’t tell if he was alive or not, but his body was uninjured except for his right arm which was cut off at the elbow.
For a moment, her bloodlust nearly overcame her, and she had the urge to bite into his throat. The thought disgusted her and instead she grabbed him into a tight embrace. He began to tremble, gasping. Even in the murky water, she could see him clearly. He looked as though he didn’t recognize her for a moment, but then he mouthed her name. She nodded and started kicking her legs in a slow ascent towards the surface with one arm around his waist and the other gripping the flesh above his wounded arm, trying to keep the blood from flowing.
Oddly, even though she didn’t have her hand wrapped entirely around his arm, she could already tell that her efforts were stemming the blood flow, and she realized it wasn’t the pressure she was putting on the wound that was stopping it as much as the force of her will. She was exerting control over the wound with just the impact of her desire for him to live.
She heard a strange woman’s voice in her mind that seemed to overlap with her own as it chided her, “You’ll be lucky not to collapse dead on the deck the moment you set foot on it, foolish girl.”
Mercy didn’t care. At that moment, she couldn’t care less if she died or slept for three days straight. She had saved Beryl’s life. She had somehow killed the siren shark, and if the power that Erebus’ shadow gave to her allowed her to do that, then it couldn’t be all bad. It wasn’t the power itself that was evil, but the way it was used, and if she used it to protect those she loved, then she wouldn’t succumb to it.
She rode the wave of euphoria all the way to the surface and emerged right next to the rope ladder, where this time no faces were greeting her. All she sensed was despair and misery from within the ship. It seemed that the fight was over but the losses must have been heavy.
The strange, echoing voice said, “Of course they think the losses are heavy, idiot. They think you and Beryl are dead. All they saw was the shark swallowing him whole and then you dove after it and didn’t come back up. They couldn’t know about the gills that I gave to you.”
Mercy gasped and touched the skin on the sides of her neck. There were no gills, but she could feel the raw skin where they had been only a short time ago. That was why she could breathe in the water! Somehow she had changed her own body so that she could filter breath from the sea just like Beryl.
The voice that was talking to her, while it was a part of her, it wasn’t her entirely. There was something about the source of that voice that was cynical and cruel. There was something about it that was cowardly and thought she was foolish to risk her own life to save someone else’s. It was the part of her that she was trying to overcome, and by using the magic she had somehow made it stronger.
She remembered Erebus’ warning. �
��Did you think that you really could gain that much power without any cost? If you’re not careful, you’re going to develop your own shadow,” And with the chilling realization that the voice had to have come from her own shadow demon, the euphoria drained away, leaving her feeling weak and, indeed, foolish.
Mercy used her remaining energy to pull herself and Beryl over the side of the ship. She glanced around the deck. Dead bodies littered the wooden boards, but nearly all of them were those of the enemy sailors. Their throats were torn open but there was very little blood on the deck. She knew it was the result of Erebus drinking them dry.
There were many sailors sitting down tending to their wounds. Mercy felt ill as she saw one body that was covered by a sheet off by itself. Even though she couldn’t see the face, she knew that it was Ailfrius. The captain was kneeling next to the body with a hand covering his face. His grief was as a cold rain, and Mercy couldn’t stare in his direction for long without feeling as though the emotion was permeating her, as well, chilling her to the bone.
Pyron was standing over Nicomedes muttering something murderous that Mercy couldn’t hear, but Nicomedes looked oddly happy for a man chained up like a circus animal. There were three other enemy sailors chained up next to him, and it looked like Lavirin was escorting them below deck in the direction of the brig. When Nicomedes saw her, his face fell for a moment. Clearly, he had been gloating to Pyron about killing his friends. Mercy managed to meet his gaze with the infuriating smile that she had learned from Mirilee. It took a moment for anyone to register that Mercy and Beryl were there, but when they did, every eye was on them.
Erebus jumped from the quarterdeck and swept her into an embrace. Her knees buckled as she allowed herself to be held up by him. Pyron ran across the deck and assisted Erebus in holding her up. Before Mercy could tell them to tend to Beryl first, Mirilee put an arm around his waist, and Kylas grabbed his other side.
They were speaking so quickly that Mercy couldn’t make out everything that was being said, but she didn’t need to. She could feel a flood of emotion from her friends consisting mostly of relief and love, mingled with stunned disbelief. They helped her and Beryl prop themselves up against the entrance to the lower deck while Pyron and Erebus set about tending their wounds.
Erebus was tying Beryl’s tunic sleeve around the hole at the end of his elbow and was using a belt to stop the bleeding entirely as he said in an urgent whisper, “Hang in there, Beryl. Just keep your eyes open. I’m going to do what I can to stop the bleeding, but you’ve lost a lot of blood. You’re lucky to be alive.”
Beryl said in a voice slurred with exhaustion, “Luck had nothing to do with it. Mercy saved my life.”
Mirilee was crying and said in an awed whisper, “I’m just so thankful that both of you are okay. My prayers were answered. Thank you so much!”
Kylas frowned a little and looked at Mercy for a moment. She wanted to shrink away from the look on his face. He clearly had an idea of how Mercy had saved Beryl, and he didn’t approve. He nodded at Mirilee and assisted Erebus with tying off the stump in silence.
Erebus gave Beryl a look that told him to continue to be silent and then glanced at Mercy with a knowing expression. She felt embarrassed. Erebus knew exactly what she had done to save Beryl’s life, and he probably knew the consequences of her actions better than she did. At least, she didn’t feel any resentment or anger from him at the moment, and she was glad for it.
Pyron frowned. “How is that possible? She was underwater for ten minutes.”
“I couldn’t have been underwater for that long. It’s kind of a long story, but I don’t feel like talking about it right now.”
Erebus quickly interrupted, “I don’t think Mercy or Beryl should be talking right now anyway. Once we get them bandaged, they need to rest.”
Pyron grunted assent, but Mercy heard him whisper in a voice that she clearly wasn’t meant to hear as he examined the wound on her chest, “I could’ve sworn that gash was all the way to the bone.”
He shrugged and stayed silent, working to carefully bandage all of Mercy’s injuries. Mercy glanced at Beryl. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing deeply and slowly. His skin was cadaverous and, even though she had managed to save him from the belly of the shark, she wasn’t sure if he was going to make it. Deep down, she was afraid that she wouldn’t make it as well. She knew that the parasitic shadow would do everything in its power to help her survive, but then, if using magic drained her, it probably wouldn’t be able to do much more to help her recover. If she died, she probably would die in her sleep.
Mercy was suddenly conscious of the fact that she was being carried, and she heard Erebus whisper gently in her ear, “It’s going to be alright, Mercy. You need to rest.”
Mercy shook her head. “If I rest I won’t wake up. I have to stay awake.”
“No. You lost a good deal of blood. But you need to sleep or you’re not going to get any better. Let your body take care of itself.”
The way he said the last sentence made her shiver. He had to know about the shadow. Again, she didn’t feel any bitterness from him as he made the statement. If anything he felt worry, and something she didn’t expect, a sort of deep respect. It seemed that he felt some degree of amazed admiration towards her instead of anger. Was it because she had learned to use magic so quickly? Or was it simply because he was glad that she had saved Beryl’s life?
Mercy managed to stammer, “Beryl? Will he be okay?”
Erebus sighed. “I don’t know. But, he has a chance now. Sleep, Mercy.”
Mercy tried to fight against her exhaustion, but she knew it was a losing battle. The only thing that kept her awake before was adrenaline from her worry over Beryl and the flood of positive emotions from all of her friends. Now that she was being ushered into her hammock, she felt like her eyelids were leaden.
When Erebus said the word “sleep” she found herself unable to fight anymore. Every muscle in her body seemed to go limp at once, and she felt a soothing, blissful release.
Suddenly, a coppery taste in her mouth made her wish she could wake up again. She felt a cup being pressed to her lips, but she was unable to spit out the liquid within it. With the taste of blood on her tongue, she knew she wouldn’t have even one pleasant dream, and she had a terrible feeling that she was about to meet her shadow.
17
Mercy heard the sound of a heart beating. She was pretty sure that it was her own. At first there was nothing but darkness, but then she saw a sickly-yellow light in the distance. She followed the light but then stopped like a prey animal sensing danger as she realized that what she was seeing wasn’t light but the eye shine of a predatory creature. Two yellow orbs looked at her, and she heard a woman’s amused chuckle. Suddenly, the landscape and the creature in front of her became illuminated by an eerie red light, like the crimson lights that flashed on the siren shark when it felt some primal emotion.
She was standing in the forest, but everything around her was decayed with some sort of blight. The leaves were dying, and instead of the normal autumn colors like red or orange, the leaves were yellow and black, oozing with black ichors. The ground beneath her feet was moist with decay and, even though there was a pool of water nearby, the water was red and smelled like blood. Mercy felt a little ill as she remembered the taste of blood in her mouth.
She wished that the water wasn’t tainted, that she could drink something, anything clean, but she didn’t dare approach the pond. She also realized that it was the same pond from her previous vision, the one inside of Erebus’ mind. And, once again, she could see the temptation to drink and the disgust that it brought. She suddenly recognized where she was. This section of forest was the area close to the lighthouse, the place where she was bitten by one of the beast men, and the place where she had first met Erebus.
Standing by the pond were two figures. One looked like Erebus, only his skin was too dark and his eyes were totally red. He was wearing the long scarlet and black
robe that marked him as a shadow weaver, and his features were slightly bestial. His ears were pointed, he had long fangs hanging over his lower lip, and his hair seemed like a mane around his neck. There were shackles on his arms and legs and heavy weights securing him to the ground only allowing him to move a few feet without a tremendous amount of effort. He seemed content to stay where he was, staring in adoration and the young woman next to him. When Mercy saw her, she wanted to scream.
The woman looked like Mercy, but her skin was brownish-gray like that of a dying tree or a decaying mushroom. She was wearing the traditional tribal garments of her people, but all of the fur she wore was black, gray, sickly-yellow, or blood-red, and to Mercy’s disgust, she seemed to be wearing Nightsong’s carapace as body armor. Her hair was the same color as Mercy’s except that there were blood-red streaks running through the auburn, as though stained by the blood rain.
There were three antlers coming up from the top of her head, the kind that she only saw in ceremonies depicting the lover of the green man, the forest goddess. Still, these horn-like antlers were as black as obsidian and spiraled in chaotic patterns that didn’t look natural. This woman was a mockery of her people and their traditions, and she seemed proud of the fact.
She stared at Mercy’s appalled reaction and grinned. Blood dripped slightly from the side of her mouth, and her eyes glowed yellow for a moment before Mercy noticed that dull yellow seemed to be their natural color, in contrast to Mercy’s vibrant green. Her grin was more like a sneer than a smile, and her long fangs seemed ill-suited for such a petite mouth. Her ears were also pointed and pronounced, but they didn’t look like the features of a Blood Wing. In fact, nothing about her seemed bat-like at all. She walked over to Erebus’ shadow and gently ran long, sharp-looking fingernails along the side of his face. He released a raspy, purring sound.