I was pleased to discover that the same music that was playing in my mind was playing in the club. Apparently, all the public music in Azkelon was from the same siren orchestra we saw earlier. The interesting thing was that it was affected by everyone’s emotions.
I noticed that when another teen mermaid got vehemently angry at her friend, the rhythms of the music varied slightly and the vocals changed course apparently reflecting her thoughts. It seemed as if whoever had the most intense feeling, his or her emotions were projected the strongest. Everyone’s thoughts and feelings were combined in the music, but the most passionate became the most apparent.
“Come, let’s go to the bar and get drinks,” Aver said to the group.
“Go on ahead,” Amadathan said as she draped her long blonde curls over her shoulders. “I’ll catch up with you all. I need to go to the ladies room.” She turned and looked at me. “Why don’t you come with me, Cordellia?”
I was more than surprised that she chose me to go with her. In the past, I was always the girl off to the side by myself. Girls were always doing things in groups and though I wanted to be like that, I never knew how. I looked at Aver.
“Sure, go with Amadathan. You know where to find me.” He winked which made me laugh.
“Come, come.” Amadathan took my hand and we swam together to the bathroom.
The restroom was more like a palace than toilet room. The walls were of rose colored brocade and there were all sorts of the same color cushions and pillows giving the room a luxurious feel.
“Here, come sit down.” She took me over to a big intricately designed mirror and had me sit upon a plush stool. “I want to do your makeup.”
I laughed. I wasn’t the type to where makeup so the thought seemed absurd. “Oh, that’s Ok,” I said. “I don’t really wear it.”
Now she laughed. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“What do you mean?”
“All mermaids where makeup. It’s their trademark, like wearing shells in their hair.”
“Oh, I never really thought about that.”
“You never really thought about it?” She looked at me with a perplexed expression on her face. “Where are you from?” Her beautiful blue eyes were filled with shock.
Now that she was bringing it to my attention, the mermaids I had seen in fairy tales were often depicted holding hand mirrors and were very finely decorated with jewels and shells. I decided I shouldn’t draw attention to myself so I agreed. “It’s fine. You can put makeup on me. I just didn’t have time to do it before we left.”
She smiled and her soft demeanor came back. “This won’t take long. I’m very good.” Her voice was like a lullaby. I just wanted to listen to her talk.
Immediately she went to work on me. The brushes tickled my face, but I tried not to laugh. I didn’t want her to see how utterly inexperienced I was at this sort of thing. After she had apparently finished decorating my face, she started pulling jewels out of her satin purse.
She placed some blue stones around my neck. “These sapphires really look beautiful in contrast to your red tale. You’re so lucky to have a red tale. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”
Her tale was a lovely mixture of black, pink, and lavender. In my opinion it was much more beautiful than mine, but what did I know about fashion?
“Your whole look is so different than other mermaids. You can use that to your advantage.”
I didn’t know how to respond so I just kept quiet. I enjoyed the personal attention though. Thinking upon it, I realized I could get used to having girl friends. I liked this female interaction.
If anything, Amadathan was appealing to watch. Her movements were so languid like she was entirely relaxed and at ease with herself and her surroundings.
“Ok, I’m done,” she said in her musical voice. At that, she spun me around to face the mirror.
I couldn’t help it—I burst out laughing.
“What?” she asked. Her expression was more than confused.
“I can’t believe what I look like.” I was in shock.
“Don’t you like it?” Agitated, she fluffed my hair a little.
“I just can’t believe it’s me.” I looked like some sort of goddess. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me. There was no way I could look this good. “You must be a supreme artist.” I really didn’t know what to say and that was all that came out of my mouth.
She smiled now. “You do look stunning. I’ve never seen anyone quite as beautiful as you.”
I burst out laughing.
She appeared confused. “Maybe that is why you weren’t wearing makeup? You don’t want to look better than everyone else?”
This time I started laughing even harder. In my awkwardness, I fell out of my chair. I looked up at her from the floor.
She was laughing now too. “You’re so funny, Cordellia. I bet that’s why Aver likes you aside from being beautiful.”
We continued laughing, but eventually I got up off the floor and we made our way over to a table near the bar where we joined the others.
Aver’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw me. “Hello wild child!” He was blushing.
Amadathan and I laughed. I actually felt uncomfortable drawing so much attention to myself. I noticed mermen in the club looking at me now. It was a really weird feeling, but I decided to just go with it for the night. Why not be like a dome cinema star once in my life, right?!
“What would you like to drink?” Aver asked as he grinned at me.
“Oh, I don’t get high,” I said. Losing control of my senses seemed like the last thing I wanted to do.
“Good for you.” A crooked grin formed on his gorgeous face. And then he gulped down a whole bottle of X. He shook his head side to side. His eyes were wide with a flicker of madness in them. “Mmmn, mmmn. That was good!”
The others laughed as we watched him start on his next bottle. Nobody else in the group was drinking anything very intoxicating. Renena ordered a vile of wine and exotic appetizers that were served in beautiful abalone shells. Amadathan nibbled on colorful sea plants and drank bubbly water. Ailey had whale blubber with a spicy sauce that he said burned his tongue with pleasurable sensations. And Hark ordered an individual fountain of water to drink and then ate buckets of raw shrimp with orange seaweed.
I was surprised at what a great time I was having socializing with this new group. Everybody was telling stories and even jokes. Sometimes the conversations got metaphysical and even spiritual which elevated my senses further. As I got to know them I was stunned how well I seemed to fit in.
A merman with a striped tie around his neck came by the table with a digitized ray box. He was taking bets on the shark fights down stairs.
Aver got excited. “Hey, everybody. Let’s go watch the fights.”
“I don’t want to watch a bunch of predators tear up mers,” Renena said adamantly. “I’m not in the mood for that tonight.”
“Come on, come on,” Aver insisted. He turned to the bet taker. “Put a thousand down on Aver Hainsworth.”
“What?” Amadathan exclaimed. “You can’t fight!” She grabbed Aver by the shoulders. “You’re not thinking clearly. You could die!”
“Hey, Aver,” Ailey said looking at him with his dark eyes. “That’s just suicide. Mers only have less than a one percent chance against a cage of hungry great whites.”
“What’s this all about?” I asked Aver. The whole thing sounded so barbaric like the ancient games from the Roman Coliseum times.
He gulped down another bottle of X and laughed. “It’ll be fun! One mer gets put in a cage with three sharks set before a live audience. The mer has to kill all the sharks to win, but he can’t take any weapons with him.”
My eyes widened. A lot of thoughts rushed through my mind. I whispered in his ear so the others couldn’t hear, “Can the devil die?”
Apparently, he thought that was exorbitantly funny because he burst out laughing u
ncontrollably. He turned to me with an ironic expression on his face and said, “Yes, he can.” And then he whispered in my ear, “If both halves of the devil die, then God will just create another.”
I looked out on the dance floor at the mers grooving to the hypnotic beat that was pounding fast like my heart. The lights were flashing against their bodies. I just wanted to run away and not deal with this or anything else. A part of me thought Aver should die. He was the devil. But, another part of me desperately didn’t want him to die and that part scared the hell out of me.
I turned back to Aver and said in a serious tone, “I don’t want you to fight.”
To my surprise, he smiled softly at me and said, “Ok, I won’t then. I would do anything for you.” He signaled the bet taker to come back over to us.
“Hey, what is it, buddy?” The bet taker asked as he typed into the digitized ray box.
“Cancel me out of the fight. My girl loves me.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes.
“Look buddy. You can’t withdraw once I placed your entry. You ought to know the rules.”
My heart sank.
The bet taker straightened his tie. “The only way to withdraw is if you get someone else to take your place. The bets have already started.”
Aver turned to me. “I tried, but it looks like there’s no turning back now. Sorry, wild child. Don’t worry it’ll be fun fighting those sharks.”
“Go wait with your friends in the audience,” the bet taker said. “We’ll call you when your turn is up. It should be quick. There’s a fight up now. The guy’s a goner for sure. He already lost his arms. Then we’re throwing in one of the criminals who’s taking an exchange for freedom if he wins. And you’ll fight next. If you’re the victor, you’ll get the usual—royal status with a chateau beside the king’s palace.”
“What about my bet, chief?” Aver asked.
The guy smiled as he shook his head. “If you’re victorious, you’ll get ten to one on your bet—quite a lot of gold because—sorry buddy—the odds just aren’t in your favor. Good luck!”
16
Aver was pumped up for the fight with the great whites. He said he loved challenges. And the fact that he was not allowed to use any weapons made it even more exciting to him.
“A round of drinks for the whole club,” he said to the waiter as we all got up ready to swim to the other room where the fights were held. “Tonight’s my night!” he chuckled as he paid the waiter in gold coins.
“I can’t believe how stupid you are,” Amadathan said with tears in her eyes. “This isn’t funny at all, Aver. We love you—what are we going to do now?”
“Join me at my chateau,” he grinned. “We’ll have a wild bash after.” He looked really blitzed from all the drinking.
“This is just wrong,” Hark said to Aver, staring at him with his wide green eyes. “Why don’t you try to escape through the back door? You can leave Azkelon and find some other place to live. It’s better than being eaten alive by sharks.”
“I’m going to eat the sharks,” Aver said with a wry smile.
“This isn’t funny,” Ailey interjected. He ran his fingers through his black curly hair. “I’ll escape with you. We can find another life, buddy.”
“We’ll all go,” Renena said, wiping her light blue eyes. She started crying.
“Yeah, we’ll all go,” Amadathan said.
Hark looked really anxious. “We can’t escape. They have security at the doors and they’ll be hot on our tales in no time. “I’ll take your place, Aver.”
Renena threw herself on Hark. “No, you can’t leave me.” Her long red hair was getting all tangled up against his chest.
“Come on guys,” He hiccupped and sort of swayed drunkenly. “I want to do this. Had I known it would have gotten you all so upset I wouldn’t have volunteered. Or maybe I would have.” He laughed and those sexy dimples formed on his cheeks. “I’m just selfish through and through. I want that chateau and the royal position on the king’s court. And I want Cordellia there with me.” He looked at me through his thick lashes and then fell over.
Right then, a group of mermen in official jackets swam over. “Is this Aver Hainsworth?” one of them asked.
We all didn’t say anything. But, the bid taker called over from near the bar. “That’s Hainsworth.”
They scooped up Aver into their arms and carried him through some doors. We all swam after him. Aver was fast asleep.
“What are you going to do?” Renena called out to the mermen who were carrying Aver. “Are you just going to throw him into the shark cage while he’s asleep?”
“If we have to, then yes,” the tallest of the men said. He had a baseball cap on his head facing backwards.
It was all Aver’s fault. I knew that. But, this land of paradise was turning out to be hell.
We entered the arena at the end of a fight. There was a huge cage in the center of the room where the matches took place. It was set up in a way where it was easy to see the action from the stadium seating around it. But, for those who wanted a closer look, there were huge cinema screens elevated by posts that played the footage as it occurred.
The room was full with a lively audience. “All right! Eat him up,” one merman with a silly smile yelled. “Go, go, go,” another merman clad in a lot of gold jewelry called out. Others were stomping their feet in excitement.
I was horrified by what I saw on the screens. The directors were showing a close up of an arm floating in the water within the cage. Then they cut to another close up of two sharks tearing a merman’s torso in two. The crowd screamed at that. There was a loud roar of excitement in the room now. It was just disgusting and terrible. I had to turn away.
As we followed the officials to our seats, I observed the setting more carefully and saw that there were three other smaller cages connected to the main cage where they kept other sharks in waiting. It was my guess that they rotated the sharks to make sure they were hungry for each fight.
The officials set Aver down on one of the stadium seats. He slouched over upon the chair and was snoring lightly. “You can all take a seat. We’ll call Aver Hainsworth when it’s his turn to fight,” said the merman with the backward baseball cap.
With that, the officials swam back to their positions at the doors. I saw one of them speak into a miniature talker. He was probably relaying to whoever was in charge that Aver was in the audience now.
“Has anyone ever won one of these fights?” I asked the group.
“About one in every five hundred kill all three great whites and assume the victory,” Aily said as he glanced around the room. He looked like he was trying to figure out an escape plan for Aver.
“But, those winners were awake and they had well thought out plans,” Hark said.
“Like what?” I asked.
Renena looked really frightened, but she answered, “One mer grew unusually long, thick fingernails and used them like knives to kill the sharks.”
“Aren’t fingernails weapons?”
“You just can’t bring weapons with you, but if they are a part of your body, they can’t stop you from using them.”
“Oh, wasn’t there that guy who killed the sharks with his protruding arm bone after the flesh got torn away?” Amadathan asked. “He used it like a knife and went ballistic. The mers who win get really famous and receive a lot of public honor.”
“We have got to figure out how to get Aver out of this,” Hark whispered. “We can’t just let them throw him into the shark cage while he’s sleeping.”
“You’re not taking his place, so don’t even think about it,” Renena said.
Ailey started to get up out of his seat, but Amadathan pushed him down. “You either. I’m not letting you kill yourself in that shark cage for Aver. I love Aver, but he was the one with the death wish.”
It didn’t seem like anyone knew what to do. There were guards at every exit. And Aver couldn’t even help one bit because he was asleep
. At least if he was awake maybe he might have a chance even if it was a slim one. Maybe he could do some sort of magic trick to get himself out of this one.
For a moment, Ailey was just staring at Aver with his intense dark eyes. Then he got out of his seat and swam over to him. He shook him on the shoulder. “Hey, come on buddy. You’ve gotta wake up.”
But, Aver didn’t move. No matter how much Ailey shook him, Aver just kept snoring.
Now that the great whites had eaten the last of the body in the show cage, the shark keepers opened the gate and threw a bloody calf into the holding cage that they wanted the savages to swim into. With the scent of blood in the water, the great whites swam out of the show cage and into the attached cage. The three predators attacked the carcass hungrily.
“Next up is Rodego Zay,” the speaker sounded. “If Zay kills all three sharks, he will be released from prison as charged for murder in the first degree.”
The crowd cheered and stomped their feet. Officials unlocked the fighter with dark eyes and dark hair from his seat and took off his handcuffs. A middle aged mermaid who I assumed was Zay’s mother stood up from the seat beside him. She was crying and kissing him on the face.
“Don’t leave me Rodego. Don’t leave me my son,” she pleaded as she wiped tears from her rosy plump cheeks.
“I love you, Mama,” the young merman called out as the officials brought him to the show cage.
At once, the officials threw him into the show cage and released the new hungry sharks from the holding cage. The great whites were huge and mean looking.
Aver’s friends and I sat in our seats wide eyed with the look of terror on our faces. My stomach tied in knots. I felt uncontrollably nauseous from fear.
The sharks were circling Ray now. He held very still and watched them. The mer on the speaker was analyzing Ray’s physical strengths and weaknesses. His chest, shoulders, and forearms were well developed and he was thin enough that he could move rapidly through the water when he need. But, he was staring the sharks in the eyes which was a mistake.
Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) Page 11