“That won’t be necessary...yet.” The siren swam over to him and gently took the stone from his hand. “We will do this tonight. A nice sharp knife will make a much tidier job.” Neither of the sirens had even glanced my way, but I knew this was my only chance. I leapt up and, using the chains between my arms, pulled the nearest one’s head back and wrapped the chain around her neck.
“Let us go!” I shouted across to the other one who glared at me in shock. “Let us go, or I’ll strangle your friend.”
From the water, instead of trying to stop me, she winked at me. Long lashes of silver covered her diamond-like eyes. She was so beautiful... perfect.
I shook my head, realizing I was getting suckered in again. Her beauty had dumbfounded me. I remembered what I’d heard Ari saying all those hours ago—shut your eyes. I did just that and tried to think of something other than the ethereal perfection of these strange women. I pictured Astrid and how she’d lost her golden hair to the sea witch. I pictured Hayden who loved her no matter what her hair looked like. I pictured these sirens taking our body parts.
“No!” I screamed. “I won’t let you.” I pulled on the chain while the siren between my arms made a strangled sound.
Then it wasn’t just her I could hear. The water bubbled. I hazarded a glance to see the other sirens coming back. They didn’t look angry. Quite the opposite, they had warm smiles on their faces and appeared welcoming. The sight of them soothed me, and I slackened the chain. The siren I’d been holding fell to the ground in front of me and then rolled into the water where she grabbed a rock to right herself. The sirens looked at me. All of them. They were just so utterly beyond anything I’d ever seen before I was taken aback at how beautiful they all were.
“Take me first,” I urged. I needed them to take my body...whichever parts they needed...all of it. With every fiber of my being, I needed to be part of them. Somebody handed me a knife.
I was going to be first. They’d chosen me above the others to be the first to give myself to them. I’d never felt such joy.
I held the knife to the flesh of my arm and watched it dig in. As the first drop of blood trickled down, there was a noise from above. I looked up along with everyone else, but there was nothing there, so I continued to push down with the knife.
The noise happened again, a thwack of something on wood. I could see the confusion on the faces of the sirens as they wondered what was happening. I felt my own pulse quicken, wondering if this noise was somehow going to impede my dream of becoming at one with the sirens. There was a final thwack and sunlight poured through the roof. Ari stood there, peering through the hole, an ax in his hand. He continued to hit at the roof, sending splinters of wood down into the water on top of the sirens. I followed the path of one of the larger pieces as it fell hitting one of the sirens on the head. As I saw the siren in the sunlight, I gasped. She wasn’t the beauty I’d thought her to be. None of them were. As the light from the hole Ari was making got bigger, the patch of sunlight fell on more and more of the sirens.
Far from the stunningly beautiful women we’d all seen, these creatures were grotesque. As the light hit them, their true appearances shone through. As the sea witch had been, these things were made of a mismatch of other people. They had the faces of women, but a lot of the body parts they had taken belonged to men and various sea creatures and birds, leaving them unbelievably strange looking. As the light hit them, they shrieked, turning the water into a bubbling mass of flailing sirens.
They weren’t the only ones making noise. Beside me, I could hear the screams and shouts of my crewmates from the ship, and the clinking of chains as the spell was well and truly broken.
Why had I thought these creatures would help us? The sea witch had never done anything to help anyone, not without a price, and it was obvious that these snarling women were not about to either. They wanted our skin, parts of our body, but that was not a price I was willing to pay.
The siren that had brought me here shouted loudly, making her friends quieten down. The silence after the echoing noise of scores of people screaming and wailing was deafening.
It was clear that the sirens were disconcerted about having their true colors revealed and their magic stripped away from them, but it didn’t make our situation any better. We were still chained to each other and the wall, and even though the sirens would have to come and take our skin themselves rather than let us do it, the results would be the same. We’d be dead, and our bodies would end up as part of this monstrous circus.
A loud splash in the center of the water caused by something falling covered many of the sirens with water and made me jump. Where the splash had occurred, red water began to float to the surface making this horrific place even more macabre. It took me a few seconds to realize what it was, and when I did, my heart fell. It had been Ari that had either jumped or fallen through the hole he’d made into the water. The red was blood. Blood from his legs. I hadn’t seen him for so long, and back then, his legs had been a complete mess. I could only imagine how difficult and painful it must have been to climb up the outside of this overturned wrecked ship and do what he did. I watched the spot where he had landed, as did everyone else and waited with bated breath for him to surface.
A Revelation
A whole minute passed before his head breached the surface and as soon as it did, the sirens jumped on him.
“Stop!” I shouted out, my voice echoing around the chamber. “You want something from us, and we need something from you. I know you would prefer to trade rather than have the messy job of pulling our limbs from our bodies yourselves.”
It was ok, me speaking these words, but I had literally no idea what to trade with these people. All they seemed to want was us dead so they could use our bodies in various nefarious ways. At least, they had let Ari go in order to listen to what I had to say. He swam over to me and rested on the rocks by my feet.
Are you ok? I asked silently. He nodded in the affirmative, but I could see how tired he was. Doing what he did had really taken it out of him.
“I’m intrigued,” the leader said, swimming over to me. How I had ever thought her beautiful was beyond me. They certainly knew some potent magic. In reality, her skin was mottled brown, and her hair was more seaweed than anything else. One of her eyes had almost rotted away entirely leaving a gaping hole through her eye socket. Looking at her was enough to make anyone sick, but I held her gaze. I needed her to know that despite the positions we were in, I wasn’t scared of her. It was a trick my father had taught me years ago. He’s said that no matter how nervous I was, I should never show it. It was easy to say when you weren’t chained up by a psychopathic water creature that wanted nothing more than to strip my skin from my body.
“I wondered why you came here. You want something from us?”
“I do. One of your people put a spell on everyone she ever helped. A few months ago she died, but the spell didn’t die with her. My family, my friends...hundreds of people are dying, and we don’t have the magic needed to stop it.”
The siren laughed. “And you want me to stop this spell? In exchange for what? I think you already know what I want...what we all want.” She gestured to the other sirens behind her. They all nodded their heads, showing horrible spiky teeth as they grinned. If I’d had breakfast, at this point, I would have lost it.
“I want us to be able to leave here safely with all our body parts intact. That being said, what else can I give you in exchange for our lives and some of your magic?” Even as I said it, I knew that I sounded ridiculous. I was hardly in a position to barter. “I’m a queen. I have gold. The ship we came on has some riches, but if you let us go, I can make sure more is brought back to you.”
She shook her head. “What use have I for gold? We have no shops on this island to spend it. There is nothing you have that I desire that can’t be found right here.”
She swam closer to me, taking a lock of my hair in her hand. Up close she smelled as disgusting as she loo
ked. I held my breath and tried to come up with a solution to this impossible situation. As it was, I didn’t have to. It was Josh that saved the day.
“Fame!” he said. The siren let go of my hair and shifted sideways until she was opposite him.
“I do not think fame will suit me, I do not have the face for television...not yet anyway.” She glanced back my way which made me shudder.
“Not fame for you,” Josh continued. “I’m famous.”
“I don’t see how that helps me in any way, shape, or form, and I’m getting tired. I do not care for anything you have to offer.”
“No one knows you exist,” Josh said hurriedly. “I’m here doing a documentary to prove to the world that you exist. If you’d not caught Seth while he was sleeping, you’d have seen the camera we brought with us. I wouldn’t have to show you on screen. I think that you would not like that, but if I showed hints of you...the parts that are...undamaged. An odd tail here, a wing there, I could pique the interest of the people in all the nine kingdoms.”
“So what?” she asked. I was wondering the same thing myself.
Josh moved closer to her so they were only inches apart. I don’ t know how he could stand it. He was either a much better bluffer than I was, or the sight and smell of her really didn’t repulse him the same way it did me.
“It will bring people here. So many people. Look around you. There are so many more of you than there are of us. It doesn’t take a genius to see that we won’t go very far. Plus, most of the crew is male. As you are all female, surely you would prefer prettier faces than these ugly mugs.”
I could see she was thinking about it. Of everyone on the ship, there were only four of us that were women. Astrid, Captain Howell, one of the servants, and myself. There was no way all of them would be able to use us.
“Fine, but I have no reason to trust you. You can all go back to your ship, but I will keep this one here as collateral. I like her hair.” She looked back at me, and I had to swallow back vomit. “If she is indeed the queen like she says she is, then I think you will have to stick to your word.”
“No!” Ari jumped between her and me, not that he needed to. She wasn’t going to attack me, not just then anyway.
Josh remained calm, much calmer than Ari. I grabbed Ari’s hand and immediately a flush of excitement and happiness ran through me. Even though my life was in such danger, the magic of the bonding took away the fear. If only we could have harnessed that magic, then we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.
“That’s not going to work,” Josh stated plainly. Getting back to our land will take a couple of days. Then, we will have to edit the footage we take of you which could take a week at the very least. On top of that, I’ll have to persuade my bosses to air the footage as quickly as possible. I don’t think that will be a problem because you’ll be sensations, but there is no way Erica would survive long enough. You don’t need fresh water to survive, but she does. She’ll need food, and her human stomach won’t be able to digest the uncooked fish you eat. She’d be dead long before the people started showing up.”
“Hmmm.”
“But...” Josh added hurriedly sensing he was losing her interest. “Why don’t you come back with us? You can stay by my side and watch while I edit the footage to make sure I keep to my word.”
I could see her weighing up his proposal. It was ideal for us, but I couldn’t see her going for it. She had no guarantee we wouldn’t kill her the second we were away from her people.
“Fine,” she agreed, shocking me. “I will allow you all to go free to your ship. You will stay at anchor while you and your cameraman come back and film us. Tomorrow we will set sail to your land.”
The surprised expression on Josh’s face told me that he hadn’t expected it to work any more than I had.
I leaned towards him and whispered excitedly. “I could kiss you!”
He winked. “I told you, you’d be begging to kiss me before the end of this trip.”
I was too happy to be finally leaving this prison to be annoyed. If anything, I found it funny.
The manacles chaining us together suddenly opened by magic and just like that, we were free. The others were led out through the water by the sirens, but I was allowed to be pulled out by Ari. Being so close to him made me realize just how much I’d missed him. I knew that I had missed him, but swimming here next to him was like coming home.
Part of me wanted him to keep swimming. The two of us could literally swim off into the sunset, and it would be wonderful, but I knew I couldn’t leave the others. They’d all done so much for me, ditching them now would be the worst thing I could do, and I’d regret it. Even so, I was reluctant to leave Ari and climb back onto the ship, and there was no way that I was going to let him come aboard. He only needed to be out of the water for a minute before his tail turned into legs and I’d seen the amount of blood he’d lost when he fell into the water earlier. That was undoubtedly from his legs. The sirens, however, didn’t care that Ari couldn’t go aboard. They only cared that I did. I was forced from him which damn near broke my heart. I’d be able to speak to him over the railings, but it was hardly the same thing. Once I was on deck, I noticed that all the sirens had surrounded us. There was no way they were going to let us sail off in the middle of the night. At least, they stayed in the water. I couldn’t bear having them on the ship too.
Seth trooped past me with his camera in his hand. His expression was clear that he wasn’t happy to have to go back with the sirens. As the camera wasn’t waterproof, he and Josh ended up sitting on a craggy outcrop while the lead siren and a couple of others played about in the water. I watched them for a few minutes wondering how on earth they were going to make the hideous creatures appear beautiful. It was a shame their magic didn’t work in the light, but Seth could hardly film in the dark.
Hayden rushed past me with a bucket on a rope, closely followed by Astrid and a couple of servants. They all had buckets too.
“Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked as they threw the buckets over the side. “Are you trying to kill the sirens, because I think you’ll need more than empty buckets.”
“We’re bringing Ari on board. We just need to fill one of the baths with salt water, and he’ll be fine.”
Of course, he would. How had I not thought about that? He’d done it before in the palace. When the bath was full, Hayden climbed down the rope ladder and hauled Ari over his shoulder. Ari was the bigger of the two, and it was clear that Hayden was struggling, but eventually, he managed to throw him up onto the deck. From there, we had to work quickly to beat the magic that would transform him. Astrid, the servants and I picked him up, sharing the load equally and rushed him to the bath.
The water barely covered his tail, but it was enough. Had the bath been any bigger, I’d have climbed right in there with him. As it was, I had to make do with lying on the wooden floor beside him and holding his hand. It was enough. It was everything.
I could quite happily have lain there on the floor just being in his company, but there was too much to talk about. Things that couldn’t wait.
“I came here to ask the sirens about stopping the spell the sea witch cast. My mother is sick, my grandfather too.” As I looked at Ari something occurred to me. “Everyone who had help from the sea witch is affected. How come you aren’t?”
He looked tired, exhausted even, which was hardly a surprise after the journey he’d just completed, but it was nothing compared to how my mother and grandfather had looked the last time I’d seen them.
“I am affected...Erica...I’m dying.”
Ari
I stared at him, not comprehending his words. How could he be dying? He didn’t look ill.
“You can’t see it when I have my tail,” he explained “I look almost normal, but I can feel it. At first, I thought it was just the original curse the witch placed upon me, but the pain I felt when I had legs came even when I had a tail. It’s not nearly as bad
when I’m like this, but I can feel it. It’s like a sickness invading me, and now it’s getting higher and higher. When I changed back there, I found I was right. My skin was slewing off much higher up my body than before. It wasn’t isolated to my legs.”
“I saw the blood,” I murmured, tracing a hand up his chest. The skin there appeared normal at first glance, but as I looked a little closer, I could see a very slight discoloring as if there was something sinister going on underneath. “How far up does it go?” I asked, peering closer, trying to see in the dim light.
He took a deep breath. It reminded me of the time the hospital director told me my father was dead. That deep breath was almost certainly a sign it was going to be bad news “It’s almost up to my neck.”
The implication was clear. When it reached his head, he’d be completely consumed by it and would die. I could hardly bear it. Not only had we managed to get ourselves into more trouble with the sirens, they still hadn’t agreed to use their magic to heal everyone, and I knew they wouldn’t. Not without a sacrifice. They wanted people. Josh had promised them lots of people, but that was weeks away, and Ari, my mother, and my grandfather didn’t have weeks. They had days at most and looking at Ari, maybe not even that. I could see the magic moving about under his skin. It was faint, but it was there.
Blue Water (A Little Mermaid Reverse Fairytale Book 2) Page 13