The Little Mermaid

by Nikki Dean

  The sun caressed her cheeks, its warmth more intense than any heat she’d felt at home. The breeze blew against her sensitive skin, reminding her of the myriad of ocean currents that toyed with her hair as she swam along.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Lahni’s quiet voice broke through her awestruck revery, earning a bare-toothed snarl of surprise. Lahni merely smiled in response.

  “This is my favorite part of the day. My first trip to the surface was in the evening, and once I saw my first sunset, I knew I could never forget it. This happens every day, you know.”

  “Every day?” Celeste was surprised to think that such beauty was a commonplace occurrence.

  Lahni nodded. “Every day. Humans are so lucky.”

  “And yet they’re so awful. This just proves to me that they aren’t worthy of your time or attention if they are treated to this every day, yet they do nothing more than destroy each other in senseless wars. Not to mention the times they have tried to wage war against us, dropping those awful bombs into the ocean, pumping it full of their disgusting concoctions. They’re a menace, Lahni. Not your friends.”

  Lahni heaved a sigh. “They’re not all like that, I promise.”

  “How would you know?” Celeste scoffed. “Did your human tell you so?”

  “I’ve only spoken to him once,” Lahni retorted, defensive. “I listened to him plenty, though. He never spoke of violence or malice, except to try to figure out what to do with those who had broken the laws. He was kind while he was in his little boat, thinking of ways to help his people. He never once spoke of doing anything awful.”

  “Of course he wouldn’t. That would give away his true intentions.”

  Lahni rolled her eyes. “What intentions? He had no reason to lie, or mislead anyone. He was alone, as far as he knew, and didn’t realize I could hear him. It was always dark. You only lie when you have an audience, Celeste.”

  That’s not necessarily true, little sister. “Some of the worst lies that can be told are the ones whispered silently to yourself,” Celeste said quietly. “Merfolk lie all the time, and I assume that humans are no different in that respect.”

  They both fell silent, watching the spectacular display in front of them. The sky turned even more of a molten orange as the sun sank lower, intensifying the yellows and reds in its wake. A little farther away from the sun, the sky was an azure blue so pretty, so unlike anything Celeste had ever seen, that she resolved to come back and float on her back just to see it again someday.

  She gave her sister a suspicious glance, wondering if this had somehow been a trap that Lahni had laid to finally show Celeste some of the wonders that drew her to the forbidden surface so often.

  “Did you do this on purpose?”

  Lahni sputtered in the water as she laughed. “I wish I could say yes, but you’re giving me far too much credit, Cel-Cel. No one can make you do anything that you don’t want to, least of all me.”

  The stars began to peak out along the horizon behind them, their light finally trickling through the darkness that had already fallen. Celeste pushed herself up to get a better look around, then hissed.

  “What is it?”

  “Humans. A ship. It’s heading this way.”

  “Are you certain?” Lahni sounded confused. “They aren’t scheduled for another ship so soon.”

  Celeste lifted her eyebrow. “You know their schedules now? How often have you been coming up?”

  She blushed, confirming Celeste’s suspicion that the answer to her question was a lot. “I didn’t come all the way to the surface. I watched the ships from below for a long time, to make sure I knew when it was safe. I’m not a complete idiot, you know.”

  Celeste nodded, willing to accept this answer. Lahni’s worst fear would be getting caught, not by her precious humans, but by one of the merfolk from below. She wouldn’t take the chance of being seen while an actual ship was in the area, for they both knew that would enrage their father, and she would likely never be allowed out of her room again.

  “Fine. But whatever the reason, the ship is here now, and coming quickly. We need to leave.”

  “But the sunset is almost over, and soon they won’t be able to see us at all,” Lahni pouted. “Can’t we just swim away? I don’t want to go home yet, and they won’t come near the rocks. We’re safe here.”

  Some unidentifiable feeling flickered through the back of Celeste’s mind, leaving her on high alert. She wasn’t sure what it was, but something about this was wrong. Very wrong.

  “If they won’t come near the rocks, why are they headed straight for us? Quickly.” She sat up again, using her hand to shade her eyes from the last vestiges of sunlight. She could only see so far past the rising waves, getting a better view each time the swells lifted her board, but the sailors were much higher up, and would be able to see her from much farther away. Feeling suddenly vulnerable atop her perch, Celeste slipped back into the welcoming embrace of the ocean, hoping that they hadn’t spotted her. Lahni’s fins at least blended in with the water if one wasn’t looking too closely, but Celeste’s dusky red scales lit up like fire itself under the sun’s rays.

  Shouting from the ship told her she was too late.

  “Damn it!” Anger fueled her as she snatched at Lahni’s arm and dragged her below. “They saw me! Why can’t you just stay under the water with everyone else, instead of getting us into this mess?”

  “ME?!” Lahni sputtered. “You went to the surface first! It’s your own fault for being up there, so don’t try to blame me for this! They never even saw me!”

  That part was true, but they both knew that Lahni had merely gotten lucky.

  “I only went up because I knew that you would sooner or later, and you needed to be reminded why the surface is so dangerous!”

  A harpoon cut through the water nearby. “You see?! Humans are dangerous! They would stop at nothing to capture either of us, and then who knows what would happen? We’d be better off dead!”

  Lahni recoiled. “Better off dead? Is that really how you feel?”

  Celeste grabbed her arm again and pulled, trying to drag her down. Lahni fought, her face a twisted mask of grief and outrage.

  “You’re hurting me! I bet you’d be happy if I were dead, wouldn’t you? Then you could finally leave without feeling guilty! Don’t think I don’t know that you want to!”

  “Lahni, now is not the time for that! Of course I don’t want to leave, and you’re an idiot if you think I want you dead.” Another harpoon was jettisoned into the water, leaving a trail of bubbles in its wake. “I wouldn’t be trying to keep you safe if I just wanted you to get yourself killed!”

  The ship was nearby, bearing down on them quickly. It was close, too close for comfort.

  “Now come on, we need to get out of range of those things. They have ropes attached to the ends, so I don’t think they’ll reach all the way to the sea floor. We should hide in the rocks, just in case.” Lahni stopped fighting and allowed Celeste to drag her along. Celeste wasted no time in pulling the young siren into a darkened crevice before she finally let go, a twinge of guilt slicing her heart as Lahni rubbed her wrist.

  I’ll make it up to her later, I swear. Right now, all that matters is keeping her safe. More harpoons came down around them, then suddenly stopped. The two mermaids looked at each other in the murky depths, not daring to hope that the humans had already given up.

  Nothing happened.

  “Lahni, get back here!” Celeste ordered as she stuck her head out to see.

  “Celeste! Something’s there!”

  Celeste rolled her eyes and tried to jerk Lahni back inside, but the younger girl was too fast and swam out first.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it! Look!”

  “All the more reason to get your fins back inside!” Celeste hissed as she ventured out as well. Lahni was right, something was coiling around the bottom of the ship, bubbling through the water as it closed in on the hull. They could see tend
rils of bright blue creeping up from the water, only solidifying into something tangible as they touched the wooden planks.

  Someone jumped into the water, desperate to escape whatever was happening on the ship above.

  Blue tendrils wrapped themselves around him, sucking him into the cloud of rolling darkness that had surrounded the ship. Lahni took off, heading straight for him.

  “Lahni, no!” Celeste threw every ounce of compulsion into the command that she could, willing Lahni to stay away from the wretched scene, nearly overwhelmed with fear that she would keep going regardless.

  The young mermaid froze, her momentum carrying her upward as she drifted toward the ship.

  Celeste cursed as she swam after her sister, determined to bring her back safely. She called upon one of her rarest gifts, one that even Lahni didn’t know she had, and reached out to the water, desperate to save her sister.

  It obeyed her commands, as usual.

  The water thickened above Lahni, pressing her back down to safety. Celeste caught her with open arms and dragged her away, her first impulse to get her back to Morwen as soon as possible. But I need to see what happens, so I can tell King Tidus. This isn’t natural, and he needs to know about it. It could be a threat to the kingdom.

  She reluctantly released the compulsion keeping Lahni still.

  “You killed him!” Lahni immediately screamed, the force of her despair enough to send a current shooting into Celeste’s chest. “I could have saved him, and you just let that thing keep him under!”

  “It would have taken you too!” Celeste shot back. “I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself for some human monster that was just trying to kill us with those spears!”

  “You don’t even care that he died!”

  “No, I don’t! You’re absolutely right, Lahni, and do you want to know something else? I’d happily destroy a hundred ships and all of their wretched sailors who do nothing but treat the ocean with contempt, like it’s an enemy to be conquered and disrespected, before I’d let them have you! I’m glad he’s dead, and if we are lucky, the rest of them will be too!”

  Lahni gasped, shocked to her core at the violent sincerity in Celeste’s voice.

  “Now if you can control yourself, we can stay to see what happens. We have to be alert though, and make certain that whatever that is can’t catch us, too. I have to tell King Tidus about this, and we need all of the details we can get. Can you do that?”

  Lahni looked away, refusing to answer.

  “Lahni! Can you control yourself and stay beside me, or do I need to haul you back to your room and lock you in myself?”

  Lahni flinched and sniffled, but Celeste felt no remorse. She’d do it in a heartbeat if it meant keeping her sister out of harm’s way, no matter how upset Lahni got over it. The sooner she realized that, the better. Finally she nodded.

  “Good. We need to go to the surface and see if this thing came from another ship, or some sort of magic on the boat, or if it came from underwater.”

  “How will you be able to tell?”

  “I don’t know. It looked like it was climbing up, though. If it’s a witch or fairy on board the boat, well, they will likely be the only ones left. If it came from another ship, we should see that too.”

  It was already dark when they peeked their heads above the waves, the last vestiges of sunlight filtering slowly from behind the horizon, but the faint illumination wasn’t needed.

  The ship was blazing like a beacon, commanding attention from anyone who cared to look. Blue lightning danced along the rigging and sails, leaving destruction in its wake. Ethereal flames licked along every surface until the whole ship was alight, not exactly burning, but glowing with an intensity that was difficult to look at.

  The sailors screamed as it engulfed them, leaving those who weren’t lucky enough to have made it into the crow’s nest rolling along the decks in terror. Celeste had no idea if they were in pain, but could only assume so.

  Lahni reached out toward them, sobs wracking her shoulders. “Make it stop, Celeste, make it stop! Help them!”

  “I can’t, sweetheart, I can’t. I’m so sorry.” Celeste gathered Lahni close, tucking her face into her shoulder so Lahni couldn’t see anymore. The screams were another matter entirely, and she knew they would be heard even from under the water, so it would do no good to dive. All they could do was stay and watch, bearing witness to the horrors before them so that they could carry the details back to the King, and hopefully figure out what was happening.

  No one deserved to die this way.

  The blue light intensified, shining so brightly that it seared Celeste’s eyes even as she clenched them shut. And then it was gone.

  Gone.

  The silence was deafening when just a moment before they had heard screams of terror. Celeste thought she could still hear them echoing among the waves.

  She knew she wouldn’t be able to get them out of her head for years, if ever.

  It wasn’t just the screams that had been silenced though, which was puzzling. She heard no creak of timbers, or snap of sails. The rigging didn’t rub against itself, or the deck. There was nothing but complete and utter silence.

  They both opened their eyes, rubbing them in surprise. Celeste blinked several times against the afterimage that had been burned into her vision, but the glowing ship was nowhere to be found.

  “What happened?” Lahni whispered in shock. “Where are they? Where’s the boat? Did it sink?”

  She dove under without waiting for an answer, determined to help where she could. “Celeste, help me find them! Surely there are a few we can save!”

  Celeste shook her head, baffled by the scene before her. There’s nothing here. No ship. No survivors. Whatever did this was thorough. Cold dread coated her spine as the next thought occurred to her. What if it’s not finished?

  Lahni surfaced beside her with a keening cry of anguish. “I couldn’t find anything on the seafloor! They have to be here somewhere!”

  She surged forward with a wild sob, soaring through the waves in wild leaps that she undoubtedly learned from the dolphins, her tail snapping against the water only to send her airborne again.

  She’s looking for survivors, Celeste realized. Hunting the wreckage for the crew, no matter what they planned to do with us if they had caught us. She’s too tender, her sympathy for living things too great for her to ever give up on anyone, even a human. Her heart broke with the realization that no matter what she did to teach the young siren to stay away from the surface, Lahni would never learn.

  “Where are they?” Lahni screamed in frustration, fear and anger lending power to her Voice. “Help me find them!”

  Without meaning to, Celeste found herself swimming forward, obeying the command so delicately laced through her sister’s tortured cry. But there was no wreckage, nor was there anything to find.

  She thought she saw a flicker of blue among the waves, like the lightning that had somehow devoured the ship.

  “Lahni, stop!” Celeste cried, surging forward to catch the girl. Something was desperately wrong. She had seen enough shipwrecks to know how they worked, and even the old board she had pulled from the rocks earlier had floated. Even if the ship had burned, they should be seeing some sort of remains - pieces of the hull, an errant sail floating on the surface like the vessel’s silent ghost, come to mark its demise.

  But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

  The air stank of magic. Why didn’t I notice it before? “Lahni, get back here now! Don’t go any closer!” She threw the compulsion of her Voice into the command for the second time that evening, well aware that Lahni would be furious. It didn’t matter.

  “This is insanity. An entire ship can’t disappear without a trace, can it? There’s always something left behind. Always,” she said to herself as she swam to her sister and took her hand.

  Lahni could do little more than glare as Celeste pulled her through the water, dragging her away from the area. Fi
nally she stopped at the end of the chasm and released the compulsion.

  “Stop doing that!”

  “I won’t do it again, I promise. I’m sorry, but look,” she said, pointing to the empty expanse of ocean. “It’s just gone. As though it never even existed, and we haven’t any idea why. I couldn’t allow you to go gallivanting around in the area, running the risk of having whatever took the ship take you, too.”

  “You promise? You won’t use your Voice on me again?” Lahni repeated, her spirits lifting a little at Celeste’s words.

  She nodded with a sigh. “Let’s go home. I have to tell your father what happened.”

  “Not yet. I know who we should ask about this,” Lahni said as she jerked her hand from Celeste’s grasp. “Come on.” With that she took off, swimming more rapidly than Celeste would have given her credit for.

  Left with no choice but to follow, Celeste went after her, swearing once she realized where Lahni was headed. Night had fallen, and she was going toward shore. Toward her human, in his little boat.

  It took some time to find him, but Lahni wouldn’t give up. She at least stuck to the shadows, flitting from one to the next to ensure that she wasn’t seen, hiding her anboll as she went. Celeste was happy to see her using at least the smallest bit of caution, even as she did something so ridiculous as going to meet with the human.

  Had Celeste had a little more time and Lahni not so much of a head start, she would have overtaken her sister and physically dragged her back to the depths of Morwen, promise or no. At least, that was what she told herself as Lahni watched the lone boat that floated above them, completely isolated. It was larger than the last one the human had brought, but Lahni continued to circle it from the sea floor. She flashed her anboll occasionally, keeping its light to a dim flicker. Soon enough something fell from the boat, twisting and glittering as it fell through the water.

  Another bauble, Celeste thought in disgust. Why does this human curry such favor with her? These trinkets must be nothing but cheap trash, for him to keep throwing them into the ocean. And yet the necklace that he gave her before was very similar to the ones I have seen in the holds of ships on the bottom of the sea, packed with gems, coins and other valuables. Why, then, would he be giving her jewelry that was worth anything? There is something odd about this human, and I am surprised that he came back. He must want something from her, to risk coming out in his tiny, breakable boat after the whales nearly drowned him. But still, he may have answers to what we saw tonight.