The Little Mermaid

by Nikki Dean

  But Celeste? He could never forget her, no matter how long she was gone. Even if she never spoke to him, herself.

  His little blue-finned companion cuddled closer, nearly planting herself in his lap as she watched the little arrow moving, pointing due north no matter which way he moved it.

  “Would you like to keep this?” he finally asked gently.

  She lit up with happiness as she nodded, her wet hair falling over her shoulders in her exuberance. He handed it to her with a little smile. “Here you are, then. I haven’t been graced with a child of my own, and was afraid that I would be terrible at it even if I were, but you’re helping me to think that perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. You must be what, nine years old? Where are your parents, Little Otter? Surely they’re concerned for you?”

  He steadfastly ignored Celeste’s presence as she drifted a little closer, only her eyes showing. They were fixated on him in a way that sent shivers down his spine, although he couldn’t be certain if it was from fear or exhilaration. Perhaps it was both, as her expression reminded him of a cat that was thinking of pouncing, trying to decide if her prey was worth the effort or not.

  He dearly hoped that she decided he was, whatever that meant.

  The girl beside him pouted, then caught sight of her guardian’s expression. “Celeste takes care of me,” she said quickly. “My mother died, and my father is…” she trailed off. “Busy.”

  Sam nodded. He could wholeheartedly understand the sentiment. The unplanned younger son of a king, Sam had unfortunately been left on his own for much of his childhood, until the curse that had caused him to fall under Rumsfeld’s care. Once that happened, he barely had a moment to himself.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, but am happy that you have such a staunch protector for a sister.”

  “She takes care of me,” the girl only repeated, looking away from them both. The ocean was dark, reflecting the moonlight over silvery waves as they lapped at the boat, rocking them gently. “I need to tell you something.”

  “What is it, Little Otter?” Sam asked.

  She smiled. “I just realized that I haven’t told you my name yet, have I? It’s Lahni, but I like that ‘Little Otter’ too. I haven’t had a nickname before.”

  “Lahni.” Sam nodded. “Thank you for telling me.” Lahni and Celeste. Who would have ever thought.

  Lahni’s smile fell and her eyes tightened, crinkling up around the corners. She scooted away from him, closer to the edge of the boat, even as she turned to face him.

  “What is it?” he asked in concern. This is it. This is why they’ve come, even though I’m fairly certain that Celeste would have let me drown if it weren’t for Lahni that night.

  “We were out in the ocean and saw a ship,” she began uncertainly, glancing out at Celeste. Her guard, ever vigilant, was watching them closely and nodded.

  “What kind of ship?” Sam asked.

  “A merchant ship, I think. I don’t know where it was coming from, or what it carried. It was heading this way, and we were on the surface, watching the sunset. They saw us and threw these things at us. Sharp poles with ropes on the end.”

  “Harpoons.” He barely breathed the word. Sam grabbed her shoulders, nearly jerking her off of her seat as he inspected her quickly, something within him sick with momentary dread that she or Celeste had been injured. “Did they hit you? Are you hurt?”

  Celeste hissed as she rose from the water and grabbed his hand, throwing it off of Lahni’s side. Sam took advantage of the contact and hauled her into the little boat as well, running his hands over her back to make sure she hadn’t been hurt. She froze beneath him, then caught his wrist and twisted, stopping just short of breaking it.

  “I’m sorry! I just had to make sure you were both uninjured! The sailors have been known to put concoctions on their blades to paralyze large fish. It makes it easier to pull them into the boats if they are hit before the water washes it away. I meant no harm, I swear.”

  Celeste loosened her grip slightly, keeping him bound, but no longer in pain as she got close, nearly pressing her face against his. Her luminous eyes were narrowed in anger.

  “I should have asked. You’re right, and I apologize to both of you,” Sam murmured. He couldn’t tear his gaze from hers, fascinated by the way her eyes shone in the weak light of the moon. They seemed to reflect the light back to him, like a cat’s, and he could barely stop the hundred questions that he wanted to ask her from pouring from his lips.

  Speaking of touching, he thought as he realized that her lips were close, so very close, to his own. Do I dare to try and steal a kiss from a mermaid? he thought with amusement. Somehow I think that would all but guarantee that they never come back. If they return at all after that moment of foolishness.

  The realization kept him still, although he could have sworn that she swayed forward, the movement nearly imperceptible before she released him and escaped, sliding back into the water. He rubbed his wrist as she circled the boat, her red scales flashing as though conveying her anger at his physical intrusion.

  Sam turned back to Lahni to find her staring at him in shock, incredulity written all over her face.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized with a slight bow. Well, more of a lean forward since they were both sitting, but she got the point.

  “You touched her,” Lahni whispered. “You actually touched her. And she let you.” Her eyes flicked to Celeste’s flashing red tail and back, as though she couldn’t believe what she had seen. “I’ve never seen anyone touch her, aside from me.”

  Sam blinked. “Never? Are mermaids not affectionate? I deeply apologize, I had no idea.” He stopped as Lahni shook her head emphatically.

  “It’s not that we’re not affectionate, although some are more than others. It’s just her.”

  Warning bells rang in his mind. “What about her?”

  Lahni shook her head again. “It’s not my place to say, but just know that she needs the contact more than most, even if she won’t admit it. She’s,” Lahni paused to glance between them again then lowered her voice, “alone a lot. But she shouldn’t be.”

  Sam sat back, intrigued. I’m alone a lot too, even in a room full of people that have come specifically to address me. All anyone sees is the king, not Sam. I wonder why she’s alone. He went to ask when Lahni spoke again.

  “I appreciate your concern over the harpoons, but that wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about. Have you heard of any ships disappearing?”

  He froze. “Missing ships? Perhaps, why? Did you see something?” Rum’s words about the merchant ships vanishing without a trace ran through his mind.

  “I don’t know what I saw.” Her voice was miserable, on the verge of breaking. Sam carefully lifted his arms, inviting her in for a hug. She stared at him for a moment, then dove into him, sobbing against his chest.

  “I was so scared,” she cried, “They just kept screaming and screaming, and then they were gone. The whole thing was gone, swallowed up by some black cloud. I tried to save one of the sailors, but she wouldn’t let me!”

  “Shh, shh, shh, everything will be all right. Just start from the beginning and tell me what you saw,” he comforted her, stroking the top of her head. He hadn’t realized just how young she truly was until this moment, her blossoming bravado falling away as she tried to tell him her story.

  It took a few moments to piece everything together, but from what he could gather, she and Celeste had been in the open water when they saw a magical cloud of some kind cast lightning spells and swallow a ship. There was nothing at all left, not even a splinter and nary another soul to tell the tale. All in all, he was lucky to be hearing about it at all.

  “You poor thing, to have witnessed something so awful,” he whispered against her hair. “I’m just glad you weren’t hurt, too. Celeste was right to keep you away from it.”

  “But I could have saved one of them!” she wailed against his chest. “You think they should have died?”

  She
feels guilty that she survived, and they didn’t, he realized. He looked up to find Celeste peering over the edge of the boat again, concerned for her little sister. He met her eyes and nodded, not sure what he was trying to convey.

  “Their deaths are a tragedy, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not glad you were spared, Little Otter. I only just found you, and would be heartbroken if anything happened to you.”

  Celeste’s eyebrows went up as Lahni immediately relaxed against his chest, winding her arms around his neck as her crying slowed. She still mourned, but with less force than before.

  “I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to either of you,” Sam said again.

  Celeste met his stare, unblinking. He had no idea what was going on behind her large eyes, or why she wouldn’t speak to him, but was dying to know. What if she can’t speak aloud? Lahni said that she is treated differently, what if that’s why? Then how does she communicate? I want to learn everything about her.

  Even though he knew it was a terrible idea, Sam stretched his hand out to her, inviting her to join them in the little boat. Why, he wasn’t sure, since there was barely enough room for him and Lahni already, but with the young mermaid in his lap, the bench seat was empty beside him.

  As he was afraid would happen, Celeste bared her teeth to hiss at him, then backed away from the boat. She kept her top half above the surface, waiting and watching, but wouldn’t come any closer.

  “Why?” he dared to ask. “Why won’t you speak to me?”

  A jet of water shot up from the ocean by his side, hitting him in the ear. Lahni giggled in his arms.

  Sam grinned as he rubbed his ear against his shoulder, trying to get the water out without relinquishing his hold on the girl, although her laughter assured him that she was feeling better. He’d never been in the company of a child for so long, and found her presence relaxing, even after that troublesome confession.

  I could have had this by now, he realized. If that damned fairy hadn’t cursed Sebastian and our parents, I would have merely been the younger prince, able to find a wife and have a family instead of being caught up with the kingdom. As it is, I’ll probably have to marry for some sort of alliance. The thought saddened him until Celeste’s scowl caught his eye. I wonder if mermaids believe in that sort of thing.

  The thought of Celeste sitting in a throne beside his own, her red tail flashing in the candlelight as she lifted her eyebrow at him in irritation made him laugh. Lahni pushed back against him and settled back onto the wooden plank that served as their seat.

  “What were you thinking of?” she asked.

  How do I explain it? They have no idea that I’m the king, and I’d rather not tell them. It tends to change things. “Humans marry to form alliances,” he said, omitting the part about royal humans only doing so. “So I was wondering if your sister was available, and tried to picture her in my home, but she kept glaring at me, even in my imagination.”

  Lahni laughed through the last of her sniffles, even as Celeste made a noise not unlike a growl.

  “So you can speak!” he teased her, unintimidated. She scowled and sank underwater. Lahni laughed harder.

  “Are you feeling better, Little Otter?” Sam asked her gently. “I’m glad you told me what you saw, but sorry that you had to go through that. Will you promise me something?”

  She looked up at him, waiting.

  “If you ever see anything like that again, even if you think you could help, promise that you’ll turn tail and swim the other way as fast as you can?”

  “But I -”

  “No,” he cut her off with absolute certainty. “I’ve heard rumors about ships going missing, but didn’t think anything of it or I would have warned you. No one knows anything about what you saw, and we probably wouldn’t have ever known if you hadn’t told me, but it’s too dangerous. We don’t know where they are going, or what’s happening, and they might still be alive, but caught. There is an evil fairy that’s been meddling with things in this kingdom for years now, and I would hate to have to challenge her over you. But I would, and then we would probably both be killed.”

  He didn’t even feel the slightest twinge of guilt for saying so, and knew that it had worked when her eyes widened.

  “You would try to save me?”

  Celeste huffed in indignation somewhere out in the water.

  “I promise I would,” Sam replied, ignoring her. Celeste is right, and she would most likely beat me to it since she’s Lahni’s guardian, but still. It seems as though Celeste is the only one that cares for her, and they are confined to the ocean, but Elavee isn’t.

  Lahni looked up at him, the adoration back in her eyes once more. Sam lifted his eyebrows in surprise.

  “Your face is different.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve been out of the water for some time now, and your face has changed. I thought it did a little that first night that we spoke, but now I’m certain. You look almost human.”

  “How?”

  “I have no idea. But your cheeks are rounder, and your eyes look more like mine. Smaller, somehow, I suppose.”

  “I don’t feel any different.” She looked down at her tail, which was losing some of its luster.

  “As much as I’ve enjoyed this talk, I think it’s time for you to go home. We don’t want you to dry out.”

  She looked at her wrist, and even her anboll was fading. She leaned over and dipped her arm into the ocean, watching as the charm flared back to life.

  “What is that?” Sam asked in curiosity.

  “It’s called an anboll. It’s a magic charm that my family carries to, um,” she stopped suddenly, and they both noticed Celeste shaking her head. “It gives off light when I’m swimming in the deep. It’s dark, and hard to see without it,” Lahni finished lamely.

  So it does something else, something she doesn’t want to tell me. That’s fair enough, I suppose. Everyone has their secrets. Especially family secrets.

  Sam nodded as though this explanation was the most logical thing in the world. In truth it was, but he had a feeling Lahni could see just fine without it, and she wore it for a different purpose. But, such questions could be saved for later, especially when she needed to get back into the water.

  “Will you come back and see me again?” he asked as she got out of the boat with a splash. “I’ll ask around, discreetly of course, to see if anyone has heard of a black cloud with blue lightning.”

  Lahni nodded happily while Celeste shook her head. Sam had to laugh. “If you do come, we should agree on a time. I won’t be able to come out here often in the next few months, but I will be here every Tuesday evening. How do mermaids keep track of the days?”

  “By the sun…” Lahni trailed off uncertainly. Celeste rolled her eyes and pointed at the waning moon.

  At least they have a sort of monthly system then, if they go by the moon cycles. I wish that Celeste would just speak to me. “I’ll come back to this spot and wait for you seven days from now, and then seven days from that day, and so on. That way you don’t have to wonder when I’ll be here. If you need me sooner, anchor a float here, or something that I can see from shore and I’ll come that night.”

  Lahni agreed with enthusiasm, earning another glare from her guardian. She said her farewells and slipped underwater, while Celeste stayed a moment longer. Sam just stared at her, at a loss as to what she could need.

  “Can you speak and you are just refusing to do so with me, or do you want to communicate some other way? I can bring a pencil and paper along next time, if you can write.”

  She wrinkled her nose at the suggestion, leaving him to assume that she couldn’t write, either. Then again, it would be difficult to do so underwater. Her eyes lingered on him a moment longer, blatant in her perusal of him. If it had been any other woman, Sam would have assumed that she was attracted to him, but the calculating tilt to Celeste’s head and lack of expression led him to believe that perhaps she was simply as curious about him
as he was about her.

  After all, Lahni had said that speaking with humans was forbidden to the mermaids, so this was as strange for her as it was for him.

  Presumably.

  She finally descended into the water, the cool waves whispering over her head and she was gone, almost as though they had never been there to begin with. The silence of her departure left him wondering just how often they were with him while he was on the ocean.

  “You like him,” Lahni accused with a smile, earning a rattling noise of warning from her sister. “And he likes you.”

  Celeste cast a glance at her sister, slowing. “Impossible. He’s afraid that I’ll eat him, as he should be.”

  Lahni grinned, twirling through the water as she swam in a circle around her older sister. “Oh, he definitely likes you. Maybe even more than just liking. He could barely take his eyes off of you.”

  Celeste snorted and shook her head. “Because he’s not stupid, and knows that I could kill him on a whim. He merely has a healthy sense of self-preservation, is all.”

  “Mmm-hmm, if you say so. I think we both know that wasn’t the case. Why don’t you speak with him, and ask him how he feels?”

  “That is truly one of the stupidest things you’ve ever said. One never knows how the smallest phrase or request will stick with someone, and humans are so weak that anything I said to him would become his goal in life. I can’t be responsible for that. I have enough to worry about.”

  “Or you could just tell him to do something simple, like kiss you,” Lahni teased. “I saw how close you were when he touched your back.”

  “I was merely contemplating how angry you’d be if I broke his arm for manhandling us,” Celeste replied as she began swimming again.

  “If that’s what you want to tell yourself.”

  Of course it is. I had no desire to kiss that scrawny little human. He’s so very fragile, and can’t even withstand a minute or two under the sea without drowning. Why would that ever interest me?