by Lani Lenore
The strain made his face ache, and the taste was of bitter acid with a hint of coconut, but he disregarded that. He was surprised that he could dream so intensely. It was true that he had many nightmares, but never like this. None had ever made him vomit, or sweat so much that he was soaked, but was this truly sweat making his hair drip in front of his face? Or could it have been seawater?
He looked toward the tide, which was rolling gently, but it was not near him. There was no way the waves could have reached him to soak him so thoroughly, and yet he’d been drenched. Something was indeed very wrong.
He felt a presence behind him and, for the first time, realized that he was not alone.
Startled by this notion, Nathan turned his head to see a pair of shining, silver orbs looming over him. Someone was nearby, looking down at him, and she was not human.
Her skin was as dark as the night itself—from the top of her head to just below her hips. Her tail was as silver as her eyes, long and smooth like that of a shark. Her hair was long and thick, twisted into separated tendrils. She wore a necklace of long fish bones, which rocked against her breast when she moved. She was beautiful without question, gazing at him from a face with high cheekbones and thick lips. Propped up on her arms beside him, she smiled with brilliant white teeth.
Nathan was confused and agitated by the sight of her. Just because he’d accepted one sea nymph did not mean he wanted to meet another. He tried to determine if this lovely skin was her true appearance, but judging by what he’d heard about the creatures and how they only looked beautiful from a distance, he would have to believe that his eyes were being truthful. She was too close for doubt, but even though she was like the pretty one who had saved him, there was something very sinister about her. He felt this in his bones.
“I certainly can see why she likes jou,” the dark-skinned nymph said. Her voice was deep and appealing with a strange accent. “Jour body is very forthcoming. Unfortunately, dere isn’t enough to share, young pirate.”
Looking down at himself, Nathan saw that his clothes were undone, his flesh exposed to the night air. There was a slick film spread across his hips, encompassing a fallen erection, left in the wake of some motion he’d been unaware of. It was warm and very different from the water he’d been drenched with. He knew she had been there.
He did not stop to ask questions, enraged immediately. His fingers recognized the knife in his hand and he stabbed forward, aiming for her side. How dare this creature defile him? The knife cut through the air, but cut no further. The sea nymph gripped his wrist, and with strength he’d not expected, forced it back nearly to the breaking point. The power in her arms was unreal, and with very little effort, she pressed him back onto the sand.
Looking up into her silver eyes, Nathan felt numb. He could not move, only stare. With her presence, all his bruises began to ache. Old cuts and scrapes began to ooze blood from beneath the scabs. The tattoo on his back throbbed with new, burning pain. Nathan clenched his teeth and groaned through it. The nymph licked her lips and laughed at him. The sound of it was deeply wicked.
“Ohh, did I ruin jou, Nathan?” she cooed. The anger on his face seemed to thrill her to no end. No matter how he tried, he could not reply to her. His tongue was limp and would not work.
“As good as it is to finally meet jou in person, little human, I did not come all dis way to admire jour beauty.”
She licked blood from a scratch on his face with the full length of her tongue. How could this be happening? What did she want from him? He wondered this through the pain, hearing her words and wishing he could cut her face off.
“I have looked into jou, Nathan,” she said quietly, keeping her face close to his. Her hands rested easily on his prone body. “I know what jou want most. I know jou want to be free. Jou want to release jourself from jour past and jour pain—from all emotion. Jou want to be dat monster jou hate.”
His eyes widened at that notion. Even if he could have protested, he could think of nothing to say in his own defense. He’d been a murderer and a thief, forcing himself to fight his conscience just to one day beat it down completely. He’d been disgusted with the sea nymphs for many reasons, but he’d not stopped once to think that the very thing he was working so hard to become was exactly what seemed natural for him to hate. This was what the nymphs were in his eyes. Monsters with no emotions and no souls, which murdered and caused destruction at will… Her words led him to realize that he had been exactly the same, but he knew now that becoming a monster was not what he wanted.
“Even if jou don’t want to be dat monster,” she said as if reading his thoughts, “jou will never be free—will never be able to do as jou want—if jou take her wit jou.”
Her? The mermaid that had saved him? Who else would she have been speaking of? There were no other women in his life.
“If jou let jourself love her, it will only lead to jou hating jourself.”
Love her? She’s not human! I don’t even know her name! He wanted to shout, but he could not pry his jaws apart.
“If jou don’t believe dat, allow me to offer jou someting else.” Her eyes burned into his. “I can see through her eyes at any time dat I desire. At dis moment, for instance, I can see dat she is being punished in a hidden place—being beaten wit a spurred shell for taking off de net of hooks before she was relieved of it. See what jour involvement has done?”
His anger kicked back at that. The girl was suffering more because of him? He could not bear to think thoughts like that.
“Oh, but don’ worry. She will heal quickly.”
He wanted to demand what was meant by all this, but the creature was silent for a time, amusing herself by running her fingers across the hairs on his chin, dragging her nails slowly against the rough texture.
“Am I wasting jour time?” she teased. “I’m certain dat jou have so many other tings to do—stranded on dis island all alone.”
She dug her long nails into his chest, being certain that he winced before she let go.
“Very well. I’ll get on wit it.”
The wind whistled off rocks as it blew in from the sea. The dark mermaid spoke.
“Perhaps jou don’t know much about her yet, so let me tell jou a story or two. Jou may have noticed dat she and I have a few tings in common. I admit, we do not look much alike, but our similarities stretch further dan our specific features. I am connected to her through eyes and ears. What she sees, I see. What she hears, I likewise hear. And do jou know what I have been seeing for de past few years for every moment she could steal away?”
And what would that be, sea wench? he sent silently to her. She smiled, quite pleased.
“Dat would be jou,” she informed him.
His teeth were forced to press together so tightly that he thought they might crack apart. He wasn’t doing this to himself. It was her. All of this suffering was her.
“She is a slave in de kingdom—or what is left of it. I no longer dwell in dat place, and de girl is my only knowledge of what goes on. I need her to be a good girl and stay where she belongs so dat I can know everyting dat her mistress is doing. If she is up here looking after jou like some lost minnow, she is no longer valuable to me. Is dat simple enough for jou, little human?”
When he made no response, which must have been completely expected, she saw fit to elaborate.
“Perhaps jou do not grasp what I am saying, so let me clear it up for jou. I need her eyes to stay where dey belong. If dey do not, she will no longer be useful to me. And if she disappoints me so, I will destroy her.”
As he looked back into her coin-like eyes, he saw she was satisfied that her words had sunk in.
“Jou see what I am able to do to jou; I’m sure jou can only imagine what I can do to her. If jou do not want dat to happen to jour pretty dear, I suggest jou shove her away as far as jou can.”
Stay away? He had only seen her twice, and he hadn’t planned on seeing her again—save for once more when she returned to him with
a ship. He had no intentions with the golden-tailed mermaid. He understood that they were from different worlds, so why would this one bother with him? It would seem her real business was with the fair-haired nymph herself.
“Mmmmm,” the dark nymph hummed as she examined his face, snapping him back. “Still so lovely…”
No later than the words had come out, she sat up swiftly, twisting her head to look across the shoreline. She was perfectly still, staring at something that Nathan could not turn to see. Whatever it was, it had her full attention. He saw the rise and fall of her chest quicken as her breathing increased, rattling the fishbone necklace. Then, without turning back to him, she began to retreat.
“Who are you?” he finally managed to demand through his clenched teeth, perhaps because her distraction had allowed her thrall to slip. Even so, her attention came back to him quickly.
“I am jour suffering,” she hissed maliciously, staring directly into his eyes, the silvery orbs like moons. She made sure that he had locked onto her fierce gaze before she relented, smiling once again with her bone-white teeth as if this were all in jest.
“We will meet again, Nathaniel Thomas,” she assured him, sliding her hand down his chest as she retreated. “Jou were a pleasure.”
Nathan lay there for many minutes, unable to move, paralyzed in his wakefulness. He heard a slight disturbance as her body entered the water, but the sound was quickly swallowed by the rush of the waves. A bit more time passed before he could work his muscles once again.
When he could move, the first thing he did was lean up and look across the beach, searching the area that seemed to have captured the dark nymph’s attention so firmly.
Nothing was there.
2
Day and night did not exist beneath the heavy, crushing waters. There was eternal darkness in the kingdom, lit only by luminescent organisms and the nymphs’ glowing eyes.
On the throne, the Mistress sat, dragging her hard nails across the arm of the seat, cutting through the algae there. Once again she’d been forced to take time away from important matters in order to discipline her slave. An avoided punishment had been countered by another sentence, and the girl had been left to cry over her bruises, locked away in her cell. Now, the Mistress wondered over her own lenience, but she was quick to dismiss this from her mind.
The last feeding had been successful, and many of the raiding nymphs had been properly impregnated. The warriors of their number were glorified by the right to produce offspring, but never the imperfects. The sea nymph race would be further contaminated if those were allowed to give birth. Soon, a hatching would take place, and then the incubation chamber would be filled with the next round of eggs. The population would thrive.
But was that enough?
The Mistress spent much of her time considering the state of her own, and certainly not neglecting her dreams for the future. Nothing would please her more than to see the human world above swallowed by the sea, creating a world of water. She had once heard stories of a great flood that had devoured the land. Yet somehow, man had survived. Her desire was a dream of something lost, but before she could even consider ways of making it a reality once more, her people needed a king of their own perfect kind. Without a male, and with all humans dead, they would begin to perish. Perhaps the only thing she could hope for in her lifetime was to raise up a new generation that was instilled with hatred for the surface world and an intolerance for the imperfects, but she was not sure if that was enough.
Preferably, I will not have to wait. The time draws nearer for the summoning. I cannot waste this chance.
All they needed was for a male to be born. That was all it would take to make her reign legendary.
The Mistress sat silently in the darkness, pondering her next move.
Chapter Five
Given Value
1
The sun rose and fell, then rose once again over the blue water. Two days had passed, but Nathan had not seen any ships. He had also heard nothing from the one who had promised to help him. She’d said she would come back ‘between now and then’—meaning she’d return at some point before the storm—but after the first day, he was already starting to lose hope. What if she was not able to return?
He’d then gone back to his own efforts, building up fires at several points along the shore in hopes that they would be seen by someone—anyone—passing. Though he worked toward his escape, he had only thought of two things during the time he’d spent alone: the fair one who had saved him, and the dark creature that had confronted him.
Since the silver-tailed nymph had visited him, he’d hardly been able to sleep. The image of her shining eyes was on the backs of his eyelids every time he tried to shut them, and he was certain that she was responsible for his dreams. In the moments that he did sleep, he dreamt once again of being swallowed by the sea. When he awoke from it, he was certain that he felt her evil presence nearby, but there was never anyone there. He cringed at what she’d done to him, and hated himself for being helpless to fight against it—for wanting it, as he’d thought she was someone else. All of those things helped to make him slowly lose his wits, but what he remembered most was the echo of her words.
“Jou will never be free—will never be able to do as jou want—if jou take her wit jou. If jou let jourself love her, it will only lead to jou hating jourself.”
He would admit, he had thought about his rescuer over the time that she had been gone from him. She had been on his mind for the rest of the afternoon after she had left him. He’d even been dreaming about her up until the moment the dark-skinned nymph appeared to him. She was good and kind, so foolishly trusting. It was endearing. Her gaze was so full of love. But why him? What had he done to deserve it?
For the day and night following the nymph’s visit, Nathan’s mind had shifted from one to the other, but now, after so much deliberation, he only wondered one thing.
What did he want?
Perhaps he would never have thought so deeply on it if it hadn’t been for the suggestion of the silver-eyed mermaid. He may have just been able to let the lovely blonde-haired thing go forever, but was he going to let some other tell him that he could not see her again if he wanted to? And, did he want to? Would it make him strange to care about her? He knew there were men who fantasized about having a mermaid love them—but only the lovely sort of course. Nathan had never been one of those men. He was sensible. And what bearing did it have now that he knew they were real?
I don’t even know her name. …I shouldn’t ask.
Yes, if he didn’t ask, that would keep an appropriate distance between them. He could not care about someone who was not allowed to be someone in his mind. He could keep himself away, and she would avoid an unpleasant fate. More importantly, he would not have to know what happened to her.
He moved around the island with those thoughts in his head, with the sun bearing down on his tattooed back. It was only a short time before he decided he needed to rest and cool off. Nathan rounded back to the rocky cliff where he’d been taking his rest throughout the time he’d been here, stopping short as he had just two days before.
Out past the cliff, perched atop a rock, she sat.
Her golden hair was drying beneath the sun. The breeze pushed vainly at it. Her blue-green eyes glittered as she watched him, saying nothing and waiting for him to notice her. When he looked at her, she sent him a short wave of her hand, and at her sight, he actually smiled.
Her. He felt hopeful with her appearance—but he saw no ship.
“Have you something for me?” he called out to her, looking more pleased to see her than he was aware.
She smiled coyly, laying back on the surface of the rock and turning away from him, out to the open water.
“Come and see,” she said teasingly.
He chuckled once at her invitation, welcoming the playfulness. This was not too much to ask. He knew he wanted to go to her. It seemed that he had forgotten everything that he’d ju
st decided upon. The power of beauty and flesh was too much.
Nathan stepped down the beach and into the cold water that soothed his skin. He swam a short distance to the rock she rested on, climbing up onto its surface to lay beside her. He looked into her eyes while his damp hair plastered itself to his face. She smiled at him. Her shining tail of gold scales flipped against the rock gently, and the only thing he could think to compare it to was the way a cat swished its tail when it was feeling mischievous—or perhaps incredibly content. He couldn’t be certain.
Lying on their backs, not far apart, they only watched each other. Her expression was soft as she looked at him. He felt his was too.
“I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back,” he said, finally breaking the silence between them.
“I promised I would,” she reminded him.
The waves hit gently against the rocks and the call of seagulls could be heard. And what was this he felt as he looked at her? There was affection in his eyes; warm fondness at the corners of his mouth. Was it real? He wondered if it mattered. If she made him feel so light, did it matter if it came from within himself or if her magic had induced the feeling?
Her arm was resting between them. Nathan twisted up his own and slid his fingers through hers.
“Is it safe for you to be out of the water like this?” he asked.
“For a few moments,” she said, seeming to enjoy the feel of his fingers within her own.
“The sun will dry you out if you get carried away, I suppose,” Nathan guessed. The mermaid smiled at him, but did not reply to that.
Nathan wondered what she was thinking. He thought of how easy it was to focus on her eyes, even when so much of her skin was laid bare before him. But thinking of that, he remembered how he had touched her when they had awoken together on the beach, of how his hands had glided easily over her curves. He clenched her hand a little tighter.
