Kingdom of Salt and Sirens

by J. A. Armitage

  “He can’t hear you. It’s a complicated thing I should have explained to you before. Only I can hear you. Don’t let her touch you. You saw her take your friend’s hair. She’ll want something else from you.”

  I already knew what she wanted from me. I thought back to what my mother had told me in her bedroom. She wanted my legs. The thing she gave my mother she wanted back. I could see it now. The witch looked odd because she was cobbled together of different parts. Her hair sparkled a perfect pale blonde, fresh and new. Her hands were the hands of an old woman with gold rings adorning every finger and thumb. The rest of her was grotesque and the closer she got, the worse she looked.

  Her dull skin was flaky and her eyes a dull seaweed brown. She got right up to me and pulled back thin lips coated in some kind of unevenly applied purple lipstick. When she did, I saw yellowing teeth, crumbling from age.

  “What do I do?” I shouted, forgetting I was supposed to be speaking in my head.

  Over her shoulder, I saw Hayden stand. He’d woken up. He had a cut on the side of his head where he’d hit the wall and streaks of blood floated weirdly around him. He picked up a piece of wood, which I realized was part of the boat we’d been in and raised it as if to hit the witch over the head.

  I tried not to look at him as he came closer. I didn’t want a flicker of my eyes to give him away, but it wasn’t enough. She pushed her hand behind her sending him jettisoning into the wall once again, this time, knocking him out completely.

  “Let us go!” I shouted with as much anger as I could muster. Inside my heart was pounding, but I’d been well schooled on the art of hiding one’s emotions. She could see my anger, but I wasn’t going to show her my fear.

  She laughed, a long, low cackle. She was enjoying this. It wasn’t enough that she wanted to take my legs, she wanted to enjoy the experience.

  “I’ll let your friends go if you like. I have all I need with you anyway.” She looked me up and down and cackled again. With a wave of her hand the whirlpool started again, but this time it was dragging everything upwards. Hayden and Astrid began to spin. As both of them were unconscious, they couldn’t even try to swim against it.

  “If they go through that hole, the magic won’t work,” I shouted. “Without a merperson holding them, they won’t be able to breathe.”

  I pushed the Witch to the side to try to grab them, but she was too quick and too strong. She grabbed my arms and forced me to watch as my two best friends circled upwards out of the hole.

  “They’ll drown!” I screamed, but she didn’t care. She laughed again as she spun me around.

  “After all these years,” she hummed to herself.

  I pulled against her, but the more I pulled, the harder she gripped. Her painted red nails and gold rings dug into my skin as I fought to pull loose.

  “And now, your legs, I think. I’ll start with those, and we’ll move on up from there. You have such a pretty face; I don’t think I’ll want to waste a single part of you.” She raised her hand again. She’d taken my friends lives and now was going to take my legs, and there was nothing I could do to stop her.

  I pushed my legs up against her to try and push away, but that only helped her. She grabbed one and began to perform the spell. I tried to swim away, but swimming was impossible in the strange environment.

  Struggling, I turned back to her, and as I did, one of her rings ripped my t-shirt.

  Her eyes went wide. Ear-piercing screams filled the room. She was so loud that everything began to rumble.

  She shot back away from me so quickly that I barely had time to register that I was free before water, real water this time, began flooding into the cave. The witch had vanished into thin air

  Water came crashing down on top of me, the kind I couldn’t breathe through, and knocked me into the cave wall. Trying to swim through the current was impossible. It was too strong. I could wait until the cave filled up entirely and swim through the hole in the roof, but then what? I couldn’t really swim at all. Out in the open ocean, I’d be dead within minutes. I hadn’t succumbed to the sea witch, but it looked like I was going to succumb to the sea.

  18

  Escape

  I felt a hand grip mine. I couldn’t see who it was thanks to the water battering down on me, but as I was pulled upwards at high speed, I knew it was Ari.

  “Find Hayden and Astrid!” I shouted mentally to him as we passed through the opening and out into the ocean. Salt water made me blink, but I kept my eyes open.

  Without any warning, Ari sped up, taking us in a different direction. I soon realized why. Both Hayden and Astrid were floating a couple of hundred feet from where we were.

  No, not floating. Astrid was swimming. She must have woken up as she hit the real water. She was trying to pull the unconscious Hayden to the surface.

  I looked up. They still seemed so far away. With an incredible burst of speed, Ari pulled me along through the water. He grabbed a surprised Astrid’s hand and gestured for me to hold Hayden too. As soon as I caught hold of Hayden’s free hand, Ari swam up to the surface. Like a rocket ship on launch, we blasted through the water, leaping high into the air before we all fell back down with a splash.

  Ari pulled me back to the surface where we met Astrid and Hayden. Hayden had woken up and was now coughing up water as Astrid hit his back.

  “What did you do?” I asked Ari once I could see that Hayden was alright. We all floated there in the middle of the ocean, the coast barely visible in the distance.

  “I didn’t do anything. I don’t know what happened. One minute she was going for your legs, the next the magic shackles fell off, and water was pouring in through the ceiling. I think we should get you all home before she comes back.”

  I nodded. I didn’t know what it was that had startled her, but I didn’t want to hang around to find out.

  The easiest way to get back to shore was to lie on the surface of the water and hold hands like a chain. Ari then pulled us swiftly back to the coastline where we ended up on a desolate beach. I recognized it immediately as the beach where we first met.

  “Why didn’t you take us home?” I asked, pulling myself onto the land. Ari followed, pulling himself up the sand using his strong arms. I couldn’t keep my eyes off his tail. I’d seen it before, but here on land it looked strange as though it didn’t belong, which made sense because it didn’t

  “It will turn into legs as soon as it dries,” he said catching my glance.

  I blushed wondering how obvious I’d been.

  “I brought you here because there are a few things to discuss before we take you home. First of all, how are your parents going to react, knowing it wasn’t you getting married?”

  “They know. I’ve already been home. The sea witch came for me except I didn’t know it was the sea witch then. A couple of guards saved me, but then my mother told me something. I should probably tell you too.”

  “Who are you talking to?” asked Astrid, looking confused.

  “I’m answering Ari, who do you think?”

  “She can’t hear me. I’m still talking to you in your mind.”

  I thought for a second. So he was. I’d gotten so used to it that I’d not even noticed. I’d been answering questions out loud that Hayden and Astrid couldn’t hear.

  “So talk then. I think we all need to hear everything.”

  He looked down. Something was bothering him. I could feel it. As I waited for him to say something, his tail began to change. His face contorted into an expression of agony and his bones and skin separated into two legs.

  I watched, unable to help as he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. It hadn’t occurred to me that it would hurt, changing between the sea and the land, but this transition was brutal.

  I grabbed his hand and held it tightly, willing the pain away from him.

  When he’d finished, he collapsed onto the beach, his breath coming in rapid bursts. I held onto his hand until he’d finally calmed down.

&nb
sp; He was completely naked, face down on the beach. Hayden pulled his trousers off and threw them to Ari. Ari smiled, but I could still see the pain in his eyes. How long would he hurt, now that the transition was complete? With horror, I realized he’d have to go through it again to swim us back to the palace.

  “Your friends can’t hear me because I can’t talk, and I can’t talk because I had to give something in exchange for my legs.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked aloud, but I already knew. Ari had gone to the sea witch and asked for legs just as my mother had all those years ago. In exchange, my mother had offered up her firstborn child. Ari had given his voice. She’d taken it even though she wasn’t using it.

  “I knew I had to see you again. That moment on the beach after I saved you and you asked me to kiss you again…I’d thought it was funny, that maybe you’d hit your head too hard. But you looked at me so earnestly that I realized I did want to kiss you. When you left, I couldn’t stop thinking of you.”

  I could see the other two watching us out of the corner of my eye. They were probably wondering what was going on, why I was staring at Ari without either of us talking.

  “You already know that, but what you don’t know is that I went to the sea witch. I knew I shouldn’t have. I knew she was dangerous. But I needed to see you again so badly, and I couldn’t think of another way.”

  “She offered you legs for your voice.”

  I heard Astrid say Ah as she suddenly figured out what was happening.

  Ari nodded and gave me a smile that damn near broke my heart. He’d given up his voice for me.

  “She gave me the ability to dance. It was not something I’d done before. We don’t dance underwater, not the same way the land dwellers do. I guess she recovered quickly from whatever happened back there because I’ve never had this pain before. She’s used her magic on me to cause my legs to hurt. It’s her way of getting back at us. She must have cast the spell as we were making our escape.”

  I looked down at his legs. Now covered with Hayden’s trousers, they looked so ordinary.

  I took a couple of deep breaths and tried not to let the tears win. He’d put himself through this for me. I pulled up the bottom of his trouser leg and rubbed his calf softly. It had soft hair on it, dark, the same color as the hair on his head.

  I willed his pain away from him. But each time I touched him, no matter how lightly, he winced at the slightest pressure. I laid his leg back down in the soft sand.

  I thought back to the dance we’d shared the night of the ball. He’d danced beautifully. It was all part of the witch’s magic.

  “Can someone tell me what’s going on?” asked Hayden standing up, a look of annoyance on his face. “Because I’ve had just about enough for one day.”

  I nodded. He was right. “We should go before the sea witch comes back.”

  I looked out at the fading blue light for signs of the sea witch. The black water that followed her around was nowhere to be seen, but soon it would be dark, and all the water would be black.

  “Not yet,” argued Ari. “What about the wedding? Do you still have to get married?” As he said it, his eyes wandered over to Hayden. So that was the real reason he’d brought us to this beach. It wasn’t to tell me about his legs, although that might have been part of it. He wanted to know that everything he’d done had not been in vain. He wanted to know that I wasn’t destined to be someone else’s.

  I turned to Astrid. Her veil was long gone, but she was still wearing the wedding dress. It was now a dirty grey color and was covered in sand. I tried not to think of all the time and money my mother had put into having the best seamstresses in the kingdom found to make it for me. Now, it looked no better than a rag.

  “What happened at the wedding?” I asked them both. Hayden looked at me in disgust and sat down on the sand.

  “We didn’t get married,” Astrid replied, looking up at Hayden. She lifted her hand and took his, all the while looking up at him lovingly.

  “When Astrid lifted that veil, I nearly had a heart attack, but that was nothing compared to your mother. I’m surprised you didn’t hear her screaming,” huffed Hayden

  “I did,” I answered ruefully, remembering her screams over the loudspeakers. I turned to Astrid. “Why didn’t you wait until the end of the ceremony. That way, you would be married now.”

  She sighed and began to draw small circles in the sand. “I wanted to. I almost did. But then, I’d wonder for the rest of my life if Hayden married me because he wanted to or because he was tricked into it. I want a real proposal.”

  “So does that mean you will have to marry him?”

  I turned back to Ari. Fear was etched onto his face. I’d never had anyone look at me the way he did right then, as though I could crush his very soul with one word. I desperately wanted to bridge the distance between us and kiss him, but now was not the time. Instead, I shook my head. When I replied to him, I kept the words in my head. I didn’t want the others to hear this.

  “I’m not going to marry Hayden. I’ve spoken to my mother, and she understands. I wouldn’t have gone through with it anyway. I couldn’t marry him.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m in love with someone else.”

  He exhaled quickly and bit his lip. My blood pumped just a little bit quicker with that gesture.

  “Guys, it’s getting dark.” Astrid stood up and peered out to sea.

  “We should go,” I echoed. “I’ve been chased by the sea witch twice today. I don’t want to make it a third time.”

  Ari stood up and walked the few steps to the water’s edge. “The main beach is just around that cliff there. I can get us there in less than two minutes. It would take the sea witch longer to get to us. I’ll swim us all along the shallows until we get back to the palace. If she does come looking, we will have to get out onto the beach.” He jumped into the water and dove under. Seconds later, Hayden’s trousers came floating up. I waded out to get them and passed them back to Hayden. Ari resurfaced and took my hand. With my other hand, I held onto Astrid, and she held onto Hayden.

  I was beginning to feel more at home under the sea. Below us, small sea creatures floated by and the last trickles of daylight filtered through, creating an eerie but dazzling rippling effect. I kept my eyes out for the dark water, but Ari was right. She didn’t come for us. Whatever had happened to her in her cave had stopped her in her tracks. I hoped it would stop her for good, but I knew she would be back. Now, not only had my mother gotten away from her, I had too.

  Ari brought us to the small dock where Hayden, Astrid, and I had set out a couple of hours earlier. As we pulled ourselves out of the water, I heard my mother shouting my name. I looked up to see her on the balcony waving down at me. She had such a look of relief on her face. I guessed she’d been out there waiting for me the whole time. She began to run down the walkway to greet us, a pair of binoculars bobbing around her neck on a strap.

  Without legs, Ari couldn’t get out, so I bent forward and grabbed his hand to pull him out. Astrid did the same with his other hand. The necklace my mother had given me fell out from my top and hit Ari in the face.

  “I’m sorry,” I giggled as he slipped onto the promenade.

  He looked up at me with a grin on his face to share the joke, but when he saw the necklace, his eyes went wide.

  “I think I finally know what happened to the sea witch.”

  19

  The truth about Delilah

  “Oh, thank goodness you are alright.” My mother barreled down the walkway and flung herself at me almost knocking me back into the water. She was still wearing the pretty dress she’d picked out for my wedding, but her hair was now out of the elaborate up-do and flowed freely. She passed us a towel each. “Come inside, all of you.”

  It was so strange to see my mother use so much emotion. I still couldn’t get used to it. Once Ari’s tail had turned back to legs and he’d been brought a pair of trousers, we followed mother b
ack inside using a side entrance that was rarely used. I thought she would take us to the main part of the house, but she ushered us all into her drawing room. The room itself was decorated in pretty pinks and soft greys and looked completely different from the grandeur of the rest of the palace. She had a small, ornately carved writing desk that my father had inherited from one of his ancestors, but she rarely used it. She came in here for solitude, to sew or to read, away from the hustle and bustle of the palace. No members of staff were allowed in here. She called it her fortress and had to make do with cleaning it herself.

  Along one wall was a floral sofa that we all fell down on. Ari grimaced as he bent his knees. It was awful knowing how much pain he was in and not being able to do a damn thing about it.

  My mother pulled up a matching chair and sat opposite us.

  “Your Majesty,” said Ari nodding his head.

  He was speaking with his mind again. I waited for her to answer, but she didn’t appear to hear him. I thought that with them both being merpeople, she would be able to communicate with him through her mind. As she ignored him, I decided to speak for him.

  “Ari says Your Highness,” It wasn’t strictly true, but he’d made the mistake so many others do. As the ruler, it was only my father that should be referred to as Your Majesty. My mother should properly be addressed as Your Highness.

  She nodded back at him and turned to me.

  “I’m so glad that you are back safely.”

  Before I had time to speak, Ari’s words cut through my mind. “The Havfrue Ruby saved you.”

  I gave him a cursory glance, wondering what he knew. I decided telling my mother might bring the answers about faster.