Scales and Legends

by B. Kristin McMichael

  Whitney smiled at that. She had complained to Jax a lot in the short time he had lived in her town. Something about him just made her trust him, and she got the feeling that because he reminded her of home with Cassie and their best friend Owen, she might have been more talkative than normal with him being new. Somehow he knew all long she wasn’t completely human, but he never told his mother or sister. That alone made her trust him completely.

  “Why didn’t you tell them about us?” Whitney finally asked. She really wanted to know.

  Jax shrugged as he continued to row. “What was I going to tell them? There are more mer in this town than anyone thought? Or that most of those kids in school are mer? Oh, and by the way, Jade, you know that one girl you like at school? She’s a mer, too, and you need to kill her. That would have crushed Jade. And I knew you weren’t who we were looking for. You were too good to be the one killing off humans.”

  How the heck did he know her that well? They were friends and all, but he saved her life. After all, she was an outlawed night human. If he had told the hunters, there would have been nothing she could do, and with Sam stuck on the island, he wouldn’t have been able to save her.

  “Whit, don’t believe everything my sister says about night humans. It isn’t as cut and dry as she tries to make it out to be. All the hunters do that to make themselves feel better about killing people. They have to. Otherwise, they will question every life they take. The fact of the matter is, every night human they kill is a person. Just because you drink blood doesn’t make you evil.”

  Whitney smiled. She was glad she got to know Jax, and even happier he wasn’t what she thought hunters were like.

  The boat hit the sand, and Jax smiled as Whitney was jostled beneath him.

  “Now the fun part,” he told her, reaching down to wrap her in the tarp. It was not the fun part for her. She wasn’t fond of being carried around, but being carried around like a wrapped up hotdog was even worse. She wouldn’t even be able to see where he was walking.

  “If you drop me …” she threatened him as he placed a piece over her face.

  Jax simply laughed as he stood up and hauled her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. Making his way across the sand, Whitney had nothing to look at but the bright yellow grains as that was all she could see. After what seemed like at least twenty minutes of being wrapped in the hot, unbreathable tarp, Jax set her down on the ground. They were within the tree line and hidden from any eyes that might still be in the water watching them. Whitney jumped up as Jax took the tarp and hung it at the edge of the tree line like a curtain to indicate where they were.

  Contrary to all his joking, Jax was actually a complete gentleman. She knew she didn’t need to worry about him, but she couldn’t help but threaten him. He was too good at playing the brother part that he even felt a bit like a brother to her.

  Whitney closed her eyes to do her job. With her enhanced new Oceanid senses, she could feel every kind of mer perfectly. There were dots along the water surrounding the island, but they kept moving as if the island meant nothing to them. And the best part was the island was completely mer free. Not a single mer was on the island anywhere. They would be safe for now to make camp.

  Whitney opened her eyes and looked at Jax. “None on the island, and no one in the waters tracking us. It’s safe to bring everyone ashore, but I’d still keep the greens hidden just in case they catch anyone’s attention.”

  Jax nodded and walked back to his waiting rowboat. He was on a mission now, and much more serious than he was just moments before in the boat.

  Whitney stayed in the trees, which were out of the line of sight from the shore, and waited. It wouldn’t take long to get everyone to their new home for the next few days, but beyond that, she wasn’t sure what else they could do. Rommy had a plan to sit and lure the mer to the island in small groups and take care of them. That was one way to spend their time, and would be pretty useful, but Whitney felt like she needed to do more.

  ‘Sam?’ she finally called out to him. ‘We made it to the island.’

  There was silence back, so she waited. She knew he was fine physically, but in the middle of an argument or something with his father. When his anger finally shut off, she tried again.

  ‘Sam, what’s going on?’

  ‘Sorry I didn’t answer right away,’ he apologized.

  ‘Sam?’ Whitney knew he was avoiding the conversation. She didn’t want to pry into his mind to find out the truth, but if she needed to, she would.

  ‘Nic went to check the barrier and got caught in a trap,’ Sam finally replied.

  ‘Trap? As in they took him?’ Whitney had no clue what he meant. He sent her a mental picture of his brother. It wasn’t what she expected. ‘Oh, no.’

  ‘I want to go get him out of there and get him help, but my father refuses. He said I might get caught, so he can’t risk letting me. He isn’t concerned about my brother. He expects me to just sit and let Nic bleed out in the bottom of the ocean.’

  Whitney could feel Sam’s pain. It wasn’t fair, but the king was right. There was no indication that there were any more traps, but she had a very good feeling that Nic wasn’t accidentally caught in one. He’d been the one training her. He was good, very good, in the water. He wouldn’t have walked into one unless it was hidden well, and who was to say there weren’t more of them, also hidden? It wasn’t safe for Sam to attempt to rescue him.

  ‘So they can’t cross the barrier, but they can send traps across?’ Whitney finally understood what was going on.

  ‘Seems so,’ Sam answered.

  Sam sounded so defeated. It was time to change the subject. Whitney didn’t want to keep him focused on the one thing he couldn’t do anything about, and she needed his help elsewhere, anyway.

  ‘We are at the island, and the hunters are coming ashore as we talk. Rommy thinks they can take out up to fifteen mer at a time each. While that helps, it won’t win the war. I feel like I have to do more, and I’m missing something. Like somehow there’s a way that I can get us more allies in this fight. We need more bodies on our side.’

  Sam seemed to be on the same page. He agreed that what the hunters were planning would help, but it wasn’t going to stop what was coming to the island. They needed to be able to reduce the direct hit once it came, but taking out fifteen mer every few hours wasn’t going to dent their ranks enough to make them rethink attacking the island. Whitney followed his train of thought.

  ‘But what about if they were attacked by another clan? If we split their forces, then would the siren stand a chance of defending the island?’

  It was the question Whitney had been pondering all day.

  Sam’s anger over his brother was gone, and he was getting where Whitney was going with everything. They didn’t need to share any images; they were on the same page in their thoughts.

  ‘There’s one clan that hasn’t joined either side, right?’ Whitney needed confirmation that it was still so.

  ‘The Selkie,’ Sam answered. ‘If you can get the Selkie to join us, then we might have enough of a diversion to do this.’

  That’s exactly what Whitney was hoping he would say. Now the question was, could she offer them a great enough incentive to join? Something was keeping them out so far, and she had to guess they didn’t have a reason to help either side.

  ‘You don’t have anything to barter with,’ Sam replied to her thoughts.

  ‘Oh, but I do,’ she answered. She had something to barter with the whole mer world. ‘I can give them freedom from being hunted. I can give them freedom in the night human world.’

  And for once in many days she felt optimism from Sam. Her plan was a good one, and she was happy to see he could agree. She was worried he would tell her it wouldn’t work or it was too dangerous, but there was hope now. He was actually liking her plan. He was optimistic, and so was she.

  ‘I’ll show you where they live, and you’ll have to get to them as soon as you can. I don’t k
now how long the barrier is going to hold since they now can get things across it.’

  Whitney nodded as she watched two hunters carry her green siren into the dense forest where she was waiting. They would get the war started without the mer world knowing. She had to assume she was doing enough and not missing something that could help. She was going to do everything she could to make her ideas work. She had to, and she had to hope her new Oceanid status would bring them the luck they needed.

  CHAPTER 7

  The hunters and siren had their plan ready, and Whitney stood just beyond the tree line, hidden in the foliage to be sure it would work. Trevor was the youngest siren with them, but according to all of them, he was also the fastest one. He was being sent out to lure a mer onto land. They had found the perfect spot that had a river going inland, and right there they set up a camp full of hunters. They kept their hunter marks covered and got a bonfire going. Pretending to have a party in full motion was going to be the distraction to get the unsuspecting mer on land.

  Trevor dove into the stream and headed out to sea. It wasn’t going to take him long to find someone, and Whitney waited anxiously. She hated to see a kid who was barely fourteen being used as bait, but if everyone was correct, he would have the best chances of surviving. Whitney used her new senses as leader of the Oceanids to watch him as he made his way farther away from the island shores. It wouldn’t take long before one of the passing mer saw him, and she was correct, as he soon hurried back the way he came. He would be quick enough to make it back without any trouble. She trusted him to stay safe.

  As the unsuspecting mer passed the group of hunters, he stealthily climbed out of the river. Pursuing the lonely siren was going to take second place to grabbing an easy snack, just as they had predicted. The mer came closer to the group where they sat around the fire, drinking what appeared to be beer, but was just water.

  “You will leave here and return with ten friends to feast on these humans without telling anyone where you are going. Make sure to not be followed,” Trudy commanded the clueless mer. Her voice was not as strong as a blue, but it was strong enough to make any other mer do as she told.

  His eyes glazed over and he, rather noisily, hopped into the river and back out to sea. It didn’t take him long to find other mer, and soon enough they were all stealthily coming out of the water. Whitney kept her distance as she watched. She wanted to protect the new family she had just made, but she had to be sure they would be fine on their own for her to be able to leave them. Only if they got in trouble, would she step in.

  And it seemed she wasn’t needed. In fact, beyond luring the mer to land and making them get more mer to come back, it seemed like the young siren, now Oceanids, were not needed either. They stood back and watched also as the hunters handled the mer they had lured to the island. Whitney was happy to see that her charges wouldn’t be doing any of the fighting, and possibly getting hurt or killed.

  “See, what did I tell you?” Jax said as he stood beside Whitney. His job was to pick off any mer trying to make a run for it with his rifle. As everyone suspected, the mer thought the humans would be an easy treat, and not a single one ran for it. It seemed like Jax wasn’t going to have much to do.

  “Jax,” Rommy called to him before they could talk more. Jax jogged down to his mother and started to help throw the mer bodies into the already roaring fire. Once the evidence was hidden enough, they would try to lure more in to do it again.

  Whitney walked down to the sand and found Trudy sitting on the side watching it all happen, trying to hide the expression of horror on her face. Dead mer didn’t seem to be her thing, and Whitney smiled at her friend to try to distract her. She was going to see a lot more death before the war was over, and that made her feel bad. In the night human world, Whitney was raised in, dead night humans happened, but the mer were isolated and the siren more so. What Whitney didn’t want to tell her it was that it was very likely Trudy was going to see people she loved dead by the time the whole thing was done, and quite possibly everyone she loved if they didn’t find help in the Selkie.

  “So this is going to work?” Whitney asked her friend; more than a little worried that Trudy wouldn’t keep playing her part after seeing the results.

  Trudy gave her a grim smile. “It’s kill or be killed at this point, isn’t it?”

  And, unfortunately, it was. The other siren with her seemed to be having a hard time watching the dead mer being tossed into the fire, but they all seemed to share the same sentiment. They understood that even if they didn’t like it, it was what it was.

  “Yes. They are coming for the island and plan to kill every man, woman, and child on it. They don’t want any siren surviving, so yes, it’s kill them before they kill us. I know you all haven’t seen much of this side of the night human world, but I can tell you, along with every hunter here, that this is the night human way. It sucks, and I’ll do my best to make sure we get a future, but what you are doing now will help. Just remember that. Every little bit helps keep everyone back on the island safe. I went before the night human council to give us all a chance. Now we have to keep going to get that chance to live as free night humans.” Whitney had to hope her speech was inspirational enough. The siren were all watching her, and that alone helped lift their spirits.

  “They can stay in the river until we clean up,” Jade suggested. She had been standing beside Whitney while she was giving her speech.

  At least there was one hunter who didn’t have a heart of stone yet. Rommy looked up from where they had just tossed the last body into the fire. She didn’t disagree with her daughter. Even the famed hunter could see that the siren with her were just kids. Maybe she even had a bit of a heart left, too … then again, Whitney had watched her move and kill more mer than anyone else with them.

  The siren all made their way to the water to sit with their backs to the hunters. A few didn’t look as comfortable turning their backs on an enemy who they had been drilled to hide from their whole lives, but they trusted Whitney, and she didn’t hesitate to turn away from the hunters. Not watching it was probably the best solution, and sitting in the river would be safe.

  “So while I’m gone, I’m leaving Trudy in charge. In reality, I’m still in charge and can hear any one of you if you need me. My fin makes you part of my clan now.”

  They all nodded like that was normal. It was far from normal for Whitney, but she was just going to go with it.

  “I hope it won’t take more than a day to go and bargain with them, but I have no idea what the Selkie will think of my offer. It might take some begging on my part, but that isn’t beneath me at this point. I’ll do everything I can to make sure we survive, and please do the same here.”

  Whitney looked into the face of each of the siren-Oceanids she was leaving behind. They were all scared, but at the same time, she could see determination behind the apprehension. They knew what was going on and what needed to be done. The moment she had pulled them from school, they all had to instantly grow up. It was time to protect each other and the siren who were back on the island that couldn’t do so themselves. Whitney smiled at them. She might have been given a group of seven young greens, but now they were much more than that. She nodded to them and slipped into the stream.

  “Don’t do anything heroic … rely on the hunters. They are trained to take out the mer and are here willingly. Let them handle the fighting, and you guys handle the luring of the mer to the river. Please stay safe.”

  Every face was looking at her and nodded back.

  Whitney had to leave. She wanted more than anything to stay around to keep them safe, but she knew her best shot at helping now was to talk to the Selkie.

  Whitney splashed her tail a little quicker, picking up her pace at the same time. She didn’t know it was possible for mer to get cold, but she was feeling the chill of the icy water. It wasn’t unbearable, and she doubted it would kill her, but she was missing her warm Caribbean water. And she missed the warm sun.
The gloomy skies above when she broke the surface were more than a little depressing. She didn’t need depressing. She needed hope, and that was what she was searching for.

  Sam had explained how to get to the Selkie Island.

  ‘Remember their leader is Mace. He’s new and going to have to prove himself to everyone. He’s about thirty or so and already has a family. If you’re going to use the whole ‘save them from the night human hunters if you join our new merworld,’ then use your new status as a hook for his family,’ Sam told her quickly. Even he knew she was getting close, and he was going to have to break off contact. She couldn’t afford any distractions.

  ‘I’ve got this, babe,’ Whitney said back more than a bit cheekily. Sam was worried. She didn’t need to worry an ounce herself. He was doing enough for the both of them.

  ‘I’m not worried,’ Sam countered, picking up on her thoughts. ‘I’m terrified that I won’t see you again.’

  ‘And you’re jealous,’ Whitney added for good measure to distract him. She was always worried she wouldn’t see him again. She was outside the siren island with no way home. She had faced the night human council and actually thought they were going to rule against her. Yes, he had thought the exact same thoughts, too.

  ‘Of course, I’m jealous. You are off putting your neck on the line time and time again for the siren, and I’m just sitting here in my father’s office, while you’re in danger- and Nic is still sitting on the bottom of the ocean slowly bleeding out. I feel completely helpless. I wish I had the power to do more,’ he complained.

  ‘And you are. Go talk to Ken about Oceanids, and get the whole background on what he knows. There might be something more we can do with our new mer forms that we don’t know about,’ Whitney added. She was getting close enough to see the blur of the barrier around the Selkie Island. ‘I love you.’

  ‘And I love you, too,’ Sam added before Whitney put up a wall between them.