Kingdom of Salt and Sirens

by J. A. Armitage

  She placed the daisies on the bedside cabinet, not bothering to find a vase for them. “He came while you were sleeping. I told him you weren’t well enough to see anyone today. He said to tell you he’d see you tomorrow at the ball.”

  I smiled, picturing his face, his dark blond hair never falling quite as it should, usually falling over one of his deep brown eyes, and the cheeky grin that almost permanently resided on his face. In my mind, the picture shifted. The brown eyes became green, the hair darkened, and the grin turned into full, smiling lips. What was it with the stranger? I couldn’t seem to get him out of my mind.

  “Lucy? Do you think what happened to me could make me see things that aren’t real?”

  “Like hallucinations?” she asked, looking all worried again.

  “No, more like fake memories.”

  She put her hand on my forehead again, no doubt checking to see if I had a fever. “You did have a bump to the head. Sometimes your brain tries to make sense of things, which can cause dreams to seem real. The best thing you can do is sleep and see how you feel in the morning.”

  She turned the lights down low as she left. I picked up the pills and chased them down with the hot chocolate. She was right about one thing, I really needed to sleep. I closed my eyes and let oblivion wash over me.

  3

  The Stranger

  “How are you feeling?” My mother asked the second I opened my eyes. I noticed she was already in full makeup as she passed me a mug of coffee and two painkillers.

  I drank the whole thing down, using it as an excuse to decide how to answer her question. On the one hand, I felt pretty good, considering. My headache was gone, and I no longer felt dizzy or sick. Whatever had been in those pills that Lucy had given me had done the trick, and I’d slept well. On the other hand, my heart still felt heavy over the loss of my ship’s crew. I’d not known them, but it didn’t stop me feeling terrible about what happened. I could also still see the stranger clearly in my mind. The pills hadn’t taken that away.

  I went with “I’m fine,” because it was what she wanted to hear.

  “Wonderful,” she clapped her hands together as she always did when she was excited about something. “I’ll see if Lucy will release you, and then we’ll get you ready for the ball.”

  Twenty minutes later, I found myself in my mother’s dressing room with her bevy of beauticians. One started on my hair, teasing my long red locks into something manageable.

  “Up or down, Your Highness?” I knew the question was directed at my mother, and so, I waited for her to answer. I’d never been allowed to decide what to wear or how to have my hair on occasions like these. My mother always had the final say.

  She came up to me and looked at my reflection. Once upon a time, she had the same vibrant red hair as I did, but now, hers had dimmed with age and had more gray than red. Other than that, we looked remarkably similar. We had the same heart-shaped face and long eyelashes. My lips and green eye color I’d inherited from my father. Just thinking of green eyes reminded me of the stranger again. What was it about him that kept popping up in my brain? Was it the fact that it looked like I’d somehow made him up, my brain rearranging normality into something else? My eyes were a perfectly normal shade of green with flecks of brown in them. The stranger’s eyes. They were the brightest green eyes I’d ever seen, almost otherworldly and the only flecks they had in them were flecks of light just like the light I’d seen bouncing off the waves when I’d first boarded the Erica Rose. And then, there was that purple flash. Now that couldn’t be real. No one’s eyes changed color like that. It just wasn’t possible. I had to give in to the fact that Lucy was probably right, and my brain had simply conjured him up out of nowhere.

  “Erica, are you alright?” My mother gazed at me in concern.

  “I’m sorry, mother. I was just daydreaming. What did you say?”

  “I said, it’s up to you how you have your hair. Do you want it up or down?”

  I hadn’t yet seen what my dress looked like, but I knew it would be a deep purple color. On anyone else, the purple would have looked magnificent, but with my red hair, it was sure to clash. Purple was the traditional color of our royal family, and so for generations, Royal princes and princesses had been wearing it for occasions such as these. Unfortunately, when my great-great-great grandparents started this tradition, they didn’t foresee a time when one of their descendants would have flaming red hair that would look ridiculous with purple. My own mother had taken to wearing lilac these days just to tone things down.

  I sighed and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair reached almost down to my waist, cascading down in loose waves. It would have been nice to wear it down, to show it off, but in the end, I decided it would be far better to minimize it and have it put up.

  The hairdresser nodded his head and got to work while the young woman who was doing my makeup, dithered between the colors on her palette.

  “Just make it neutral,” I suggested. “Nothing goes with red and purple, so I’m screwed whatever you do.”

  “Erica! Language!” my mother admonished, but the young makeup artist gave me a grin and began to mix some pale beiges together to use as foundation.

  The end result was much better than I’d expected. The hairdresser had put a tiara on my up-do which hid most of the red, and the makeup artist had done an excellent job not making me look too garish.

  Once we were finished, my mother sent everyone away, so it was just she and I. She took me into her bedroom and sat me on the bed.

  “You look stunning today. I have never been so proud in my life to have a daughter as wonderful as you. You’ve grown up into such a beautiful young lady; it will be a pleasure to show you off tonight.”

  Tonight was not only my birthday party but a coming out party where I was to be formally introduced to the people of Trifork.

  “Have you been practicing your speech?” she asked.

  A few weeks earlier, I’d been asked to prepare a speech, which with a little help, I’d done. I’d read it so often, I knew the whole thing by heart. I nodded my head and fished around for the piece of paper I’d written it on.

  “I feel so nervous.”

  She put her arm around me and drew me into a hug. “It’s to be expected. I was terrified the day your grandparents threw an engagement party for your father and me. I was expected to give a speech then too.”

  “How was it?”

  She shrugged. “I can’t remember. I’d drunk quite a lot of champagne.”

  Her admission shocked me. I’d never seen my mother drunk. It was weird to think of her that way. She laughed at me and gave me a wink. “Don’t worry. No one could tell.”

  The happy look on her face dissolved into one of sadness.

  “I’m sorry about your ship sinking. I know you’ve found these past couple of days difficult. We all have, but your father and I have got another surprise for you. I hope it makes up for it.”

  I sat up straight “What is it?”

  She stood up and walked towards the door. “You’ll see,” she answered cryptically. “I’ll send someone up to get you when the ball starts. Your dress is hung up in the closet. I hope you like it.” And with that, she was gone.

  I rose slowly, not sure what to expect. I’d given my mother instructions on how I wanted my dress to look. I’d asked for nothing too fancy, but my mother had a tendency to go overboard with these kinds of things.

  I opened the door to find a long, silk, sleeveless dress with a band around the waist. It was only when I took it out into the light of my mother’s chandelier that I saw how magnificent it really was. It was iridescent, shining first purple then green depending on the light – almost like magic. The stranger’s eyes once again flashed through my mind. Something about the dress reminded me of him. I shook the thought off and pulled the dress over my head, being careful not to ruin my hair or makeup. In the mirror, stood a princess. While the purple clashed with my hair, the green complimented it.
My mother had picked this strange material on purpose so I could look beautiful while still keeping to tradition.

  I gave myself a twirl. The light reflected off my skirt as it flew out all around me, giving the impression of a stormy sea. I looked striking. In all the years of wearing pretty dresses, I’d never seen myself in something so gorgeous, something that made me beautiful. I almost couldn’t tear my eyes away from my reflection.

  I had to practice my speech though, so I spent the next hour going through it in my head. I wanted to sound confident, but now that it was so close, I was positive that the whole thing sounded ridiculous—like the ramblings of a three-year-old who didn’t know what she was talking about.

  When the knock on the door sounded, I almost had a heart attack. Fear gripped me as I realized that this was it. There was no more time to prepare. I was to be taken down to the great hall by one of the palace staff, and there I had to walk out and greet every one of the six hundred people who were there to see me.

  I took a deep breath as I opened the door. In front of me, stood Hayden with a bouquet of flowers. A big bouquet of stargazer lilies and twenty other types of flowers I didn’t know the name of. They must have cost him a fortune.

  “Where are my daisies?” I teased as I let him in. From behind his back, he pulled out a bunch of daisies tied together with an old bit of string.

  “Someone asked me to bring these up to you,” he said, placing the bouquet down on a nearby table, “and these are from me.” He handed me the daisies. As the son of Lord Harrington-Blythe, he had more money than he could spend in a lifetime. He could have afforded a hundred bouquets of flowers, but oh, how I loved those daisies. I ran to the bathroom and filled a glass with water, placing the daisies in it before setting them down on the table.

  “Don’t you need water for the big bunch?” he asked pointing at the expensive bouquet.

  “I’ll get a maid to bring a vase up,” I replied, kissing his cheek. I’d never been so pleased to see him as I was now. If anyone could keep me from dying of stage fright, it was Hayden. I took his hand, and together, we headed down to the great hall.

  “How are you feeling?” Hayden asked as we stood behind the large golden doors that led into the great hall. All the guests would be lined up waiting to shake my hand—all six hundred of them. It made me feel sick just thinking about it. “Your mother told me that you’ve been having a tough time. She said you’d been hallucinating.”

  “I’ve been better,” I admitted. My headache was now more of a dull pain, thanks to the painkillers, but my side hurt, and I still felt a little foggy. “My mother is wrong. Someone, a man, saved my life. He brought me to the beach where I was found and gave me CPR.”

  Hayden looked at me curiously. “You hallucinated a man?” His eyes gleamed as if this was somehow funny.

  “I didn’t hallucinate anything. The man was real.”

  Why did no one believe me?

  “Ok. If you say he is real, then I believe you.”

  I could tell he was lying to appease me. He kissed my cheek and turned to leave.

  “Where are you going?” I asked him in a panic. I didn’t want to go in there alone.

  He pointed down the corridor that ran the entire length of the ballroom. “I have to go in through the catering entrance so I can join the line to formally greet you. I’ll see you soon, don’t worry.”

  “I can’t do this!” I cried, desperately trying to keep my breathing even.

  He kissed me on the cheek again, calming my nerves. “This is your big night. You have to go in there alone. I’ll be with you once you finish formally meeting everyone. Maybe after you’ve shaken hands with all the old fogies, we can play hooky and steal some food from the kitchens.”

  “We are being served a seven-course meal,” I replied to which he grinned. He gave me a wave as he jogged down the corridor.

  I took a deep breath and nodded my head at the guards at the door. They slowly pulled them open, and as they did, I heard the sound of clapping. The long line of people waiting to greet me stretched right around the hall. Thankfully, I only had to spend a couple of seconds with each person, or I’d have been greeting people for the rest of the night. To my right, stood my mother, father, and Anthony, who would follow me down the line and greet everyone in turn. To my left, the line began. A member of the staff had a list and began to read out the names as I shook hands in turn. The first people to greet me were Hayden’s parents. I’d known them all my life. They were my parent’s best friends and very high-up members of society. Lord Harrington-Blythe was the Admiral for the Navy of Trifork, while his wife spoke for many charities and organized fundraisers.

  I gave them both a warm smile as the page read out their names. Lord Harrington-Blythe, or Henry as I knew him, took my hand and kissed it warmly, before giving me a grin through his bushy gray mustache. Lady Harrington-Blythe, or Evaine, to her friends, politely shook my hand, although I could tell she really wanted to bring me in for a hug.

  I walked down the line, nodding, smiling, and shaking hands as I had been taught to do. I thanked every single person for coming and tried in vain to remember all their names. About two-thirds of the way down the line, just after I’d greeted Queen Charmaine and her husband, Prince Cynder of Silverwood, the page faltered. He’d been just about to read out a name when he stumbled and pulled the paper up to look at the continuing list below. I gave him a sharp look, raising my eyebrows. He just shrugged his shoulders. I turned back to the line, ready to see whom he’d got lost on. With any luck, I’d know them and could help the page find his place. It was then that I realized why he’d stopped. Right in front of me was the stranger—the figment of my imagination, the product of my bump on the head. He was real, and he was standing there as clear as day, a smile on his face and a look of amusement in his eyes.

  To top it off, he was even more gorgeous than I remembered.

  4

  A dance and a kiss

  I waited for him to speak, to say his name, anything; but he remained silent. Instead, he took my hand and brought it up to his lips. The way he looked at me as he did, never taking his eyes off me, eyes that reminded me so much of the dress I was wearing hypnotized me. They were one color one minute, another color the next. I was in dire danger of getting completely lost in them.

  My heart must have been beating a mile a minute because I lost all composure along with my mind. The words I’d been trained to say, the same words I’d literally just repeated four hundred times had flown completely out of my mind, leaving me speechless.

  “Thank you for coming,” I managed to finally get out through the fog in my head. In the back of my mind, I was aware that all eyes were on me, wondering what was happening. I wasn’t even sure what was happening myself, but it was becoming obvious that I’d already spent more than my allotted ten seconds with him. He nodded his response. His eyes crinkled up at the edges as his lips widened into a smile, exposing dimples in his cheeks. Just that small gesture made my heart nearly fly out of my chest.

  I knew I’d waited too long. People were beginning to notice that I’d turned to mush, and I was sure it was pretty obvious that the pink of my cheeks now clashed with my hair and my dress. Thankfully, the page saved me by calling out the name of the person next to him. Princess Carabosse of Eshen. I gave her a quick smile while internally trying not to fall apart. I probably would have too if my parents hadn’t been in the receiving line right behind me. I could only imagine their confusion at the stranger, but as many of the people we’d invited were dignitaries and royalty from other kingdoms, I doubted they knew many of the people here anyway. They’d probably pass him off as a prince from a far-off land. Maybe he was. He was certainly foreign-looking. No one I’d ever met had eyes quite the same color as his, and absolutely no men in Trifork kept their hair long.

  Greeting the rest of the people seemed to take forever. The never-ending line of people smiling and offering me congratulations, blurred from one person to the
next. It took everything I had to keep to protocol and not gaze back up the line to where he was standing.

  Finally, after getting a quick kiss on both cheeks from princess Ala from Ling, I reached Hayden who was the last in line. As we exchanged inane pleasantries, the orchestra in the corner began to play.

  “Shall we?” he asked, taking my hand. It had been planned that Hayden would be my first dance, which is why he’d stationed himself at the end of the line. My mother had asked me who I wanted to dance with, and I’d not hesitated to ask for my life-long best friend. Now though, my thoughts were with the stranger. Where had he come from? How had he gotten in, and why hadn’t he spoken?

  Hayden led me to the center of the room, and the orchestra began to play a slow waltz. My mother had picked the music and organized dancing lessons, which I’d been taking for the past three months. Hayden bowed to me, and I curtseyed before he once again took my hand, and we began our heavily rehearsed dance routine.

  I gazed around the room, but now that Hayden and I had started dancing, everyone else had joined in. The room was awash with beautiful swirling dresses of all colors. The stranger was nowhere to be seen.

  “Are you ok? You seem a little distracted. Is it something to do with that strange man in the lineup?”

  I felt my cheeks redden at Hayden’s words. He looked at me so intently; it was almost as if he was trying to read my mind. If Hayden had noticed the stranger, it stood to reason that everyone else would have too.

  “What strange man?” I asked, pretending that the stranger wasn’t completely filling my thoughts. “Oh, the one where the page forgot his name. I don’t know what happened there. No, I’m just thinking about how lucky I am that so many people came out for my ball.”

  I tried sounding as nonchalant as possible, hoping that Hayden wouldn’t probe me further. Now that I knew the stranger was real and not just a figment of my imagination, I wanted to find out more about him, before telling anyone else. No one believed he existed anyway, and I decided then and there to keep it that way for now.