“Come on,” he coaxed. “Let’s brush out your hair and tie it up for you.” He had watched Rey do this for her several times, and she always felt better afterwards.
“No.”
Her flat response a punch in the gut, he felt it to his core. Glancing at the other two men, they watched him as he fawned over her, their eyes sullen as they glared at the spectacle.
“It’s your turn to tell the story,” the first mate insisted, pushing at her shoulder. “Sit up and tell us about your spice farm.”
“It’s a lie,” she sobbed, her body trembling as she cried.
Stunned, he glanced again at the others, lowering his face so he could hear her better. “What’s a lie?”
“The farm,” she sniveled, shifting so she could peer up at him with her clear green eyes.
Her cheeks sunken, her gaze appeared hollow, taking his breath away. They had eaten the last of their food ten days prior, and he had taken to clinging to her tube that morning out of fear she would perish if they allowed her to sleep. Her end was near, and he knew it.
“Ami, please tell us the story,” he begged, his voice cracking as he grazed her cheek with the back of his fingers. “Have some water,” he urged, indicating for Rey to open their supply. “We have plenty of water, love,” he soothed, his tone soft as he addressed her.
Fishing out a cup of the precious liquid for him, Rey handed it to the other man and placed the lid back over the center cask. It had rained on them enough to refill the barrel. If they had found any food in the ocean below them, they would have been fine. It broke his heart that this was where and how they would lose her.
Accepting the metal cup from him, Ami sipped the liquid. It burned her cracked lips, and she struggled to get it past her swollen tongue. Coughing at the last drop, she pushed the empty vessel back at him. “That’s enough.”
“Ok,” he smiled, happy she had something in her belly. “Now, tell us about this imaginary farm of yours.”
Cutting her eyes over at him, she squinted. “It’s not imaginary,” she informed him tartly. “It just wasn’t mine.”
Relief painted his features. Down to his undergarments, the salty water lapped at his legs, scorching them in hot sun, but he didn’t care. He would remain there, hanging from her keg as long as she needed him; as long as he could keep her talking. “But it belonged to your parents, right?”
Stretching, the girl stood, stirred by her anger. Hoisting her lid, she raised it over her head, beads of water dripping from the edge where it had been floating in the water. Under her shade, she grimaced. “I don’t know the whole story. Not really. I only know what my mother told me before she died.”
Encouraged, Rey joined in the prodding. “What did she tell you?” he asked, feigning great interest in the tale as he leaned closer and rested on the edge of his own container.
“Well, apparently they found me. I wasn’t born to them,” she admitted quietly. Licking her dry lips, she nodded. “Yes, I was about four, or so they thought from my size. And they found me somewhere on or close to their farm.”
“My parents were old, you see,” she informed them, looking at Bally and considering his age. “I think you and me are about the same in years, but I can’t say for sure. They found me and took me in, and no one came looking for me. No one knows where I really came from, so I have no past and no idea where I’m going.”
“Didn’t they search for your parents or where you came from?” Baldwin united with the others in their effort. Shifting to her side of his container, he scrunched down as he leaned on it so he stood right next to her and shared her shade. The weight all on her corner, the raft tilted slightly, but stayed upright.
“If they did, they didn’t really try very hard. In fact, I would think not, as no one in town ever mentioned my being adopted. Either they assumed that I knew, or they themselves had been fooled by my parents’ pretending,” she sniffed, their lie twisting her empty gut in agony.
“And when did you discover this exactly?” Piers nudged gently, placing his hand on her shoulder to give it a squeeze.
“Mum told me a few days before she passed.”
“Oh,” he consoled, massaging her bony back firmly. “But what about the farm? Was it a nice place to grow up? I mean, surely they were kind to you, taking you in and treating you as their own.” He couldn’t let her stop there. He had to keep her talking until they came to the end of the endless sea. That, or she could no longer speak. The thought of her in that condition troubled him, and he swallowed the knot in his throat as he focused on her words.
“The spice farm was wonderful, or so I thought. We had a meadow filled with wild berries. We would pick them and turn them into jellies for trade. And the orchard of fruit trees that my father tended,” she smiled, forgetting for a moment that he had deceived her. “He gave me the mirror, you know,” she faltered. “The one in my bag. Gave it before he died,” she said quietly, blinking back tears as she thought of the old man who had been so kind to her.
Shaking her fingers, as if to calm herself, she cut back to the farm, which was less painful to talk about. “We also had a cliff behind the house, that over looked the ocean –” She stopped in mid-sentence, and her eyes glazed. Standing on the bobbing raft, she thought of the place she had whiled away so many hours. “The ocean,” she breathed.
“Ami?” Rey asked softly, concerned with her changed behavior. “Ami, what are you thinking about?”
“The ocean,” she repeated. “It called to me, all the days of my life. I stood on the cliff, listening to the waves, imagining that I was a bird, able to float and soar and coast above it, with the wind in my face and the splash of the surf beneath my wings.”
“That’s beautiful,” the Mate agreed, managing a weak smile as he continued to caress her firmly.
“No,” she shook her head, her brow furrowed, and her eyes still staring into some distant memory. “It was calling to me. Beckoning me to the place where I will die.”
Frowning, the older man grasped her arm, “Ami!” He gave her a shake, “Ami, you are not going to die. Listen to me!”
But the girl appeared to be in a trance. Dropping her cover, it fell onto Bally and he caught it, placing it back into the water as she collapsed against their leader. Easing her down into the barrel, he stroked her hair and sobbed, repeating, “Don’t leave us, Ami. We’re going to be saved. I swear it.”
Kneeling down, he clung to her cask, refusing to relinquish his spot despite the instability in their craft. Murmuring to her intermittently, he touched her hair and face, longing for another day, or even another hour, if he could have it.
Watching him, the other two males suspected he had been overcome with delirium. They were all susceptible at that point, as the air seemed to swim, and the horizon danced with mysterious shapes beyond comprehension. Objects that moved with them, never closer or farther as they floated along.
Bally, unable to watch, also took his seat and closed his cover above him. Pressing his palms over his ears, he muttered to himself, trying to drown out the other man’s voice as he spoke to the girl.
“Amicia,” Piers whispered. “Amicia!” he screamed more loudly. She didn’t stir, and he began to cry in earnest, his saliva thick and sticking to his lips as he blubbered. “I love you,” he confessed. “Please, stay with me, my sweet Ami.”
Blinking back salty tears, Rey only stared, drinking in the words of the other man. “We all love her, Mate,” he consoled, wishing that there was something, anything, any of them could do about it.
“Mate!” Rey shouted, slapping him on the arm. When he didn’t respond, he closed his fist and punched him; that got his attention.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” the older man bellowed. “Can’t you see I’m grieving here?” It had been hours since Ami fainted, and he had spent the time pining over her, lost in his sorrow. Glancing around, he noted that the sun had moved to set, and it would be dark soon, which twisted his gut with fear she would
not see another dawn.
“She’s not dead,” Bally informed him smugly, touching her face from the other side. “She’s unconscious, that’s all.”
“So?” Piers squealed, tortured tears staining his stubble covered cheek. “We’ve spent weeks here with her. All of us fighting for our lives. We should be looking out for each other, you heartless bastards,” he grumbled, his voice dropping to a hoarse whisper.
“We are looking out for each other, Mate,” Rey informed him, pointing to the north west. “We found some land.”
Standing, Piers gasped, “Fuck me, it is land!”
“Yeah, so what are we going to do about it?” the younger man clipped.
“Well, it’s to the west of us, which is good,” the first mate breathed, his pulse quickened and his mind clearing. Wiping his face, he sorted out their options. “But it’s north of us, as well, so the current won’t take us there. We need a push.”
“Like we talked about?” Bally suggested. “We swim and push the raft for her?”
“Yes,” Piers shouted. “We push it for Ami! Everyone into the water. Let’s go!”
Clumsily climbing out of his barrel, Rey slipped into the salty sea. It had been eating at their flesh for weeks, and it burned when it made contact, but he did his best to ignore it. They had a goal, a concrete reason for their next breath, and he would give his last to push the flat if it meant that Ami might be saved.
On the other side, Bally also entered the cold abyss. Grasping the rope and the barrel before him, he kicked wildly, pushing against the craft. “We can do this, guys,” he informed them through gritted teeth. He might be the smallest and youngest of the three, but he cared no less for the girl and would give his best effort to save her.
With all three of them pushing, the raft turned so that Piers’s empty barrel became the bow, parting the water and sending ripples off to the sides. Ami’s trailed behind, where the Mate pushed against it. Between the three of them, they fought against the current, at first not feeling as if they made any headway. Soon, however, the shape of the land began to fill in, and they could tell they were moving towards it.
“That’s it, mates,” Piers praised. “Think of Ami. Think of saving our girl.”
Rey wasn’t sure if his first mate was talking to him or himself, but it spurred him on either way. Thrashing his legs, his fingers cracked and dribbled blood into the water as he fought to keep his hold on the course rope. “AAAAAyaaaa,” he screamed against his desire to stop and simply sink to the bottom of the sea.
“Don’t give up, Rey,” Bally called from his corner. “I can see trees!”
“I see them, too,” Reynard replied, peeking around the side and then refocusing on his stride. A moment later, he paused, then shouted, “Be still. Everyone stop moving!”
As soon as their feet grew motionless, the sound of voices carried over the flat calm of the water. “Shit, are those sirens?” he sputtered. They had all heard the tales of singing maids of the sea, vile creatures who lured sailors to their deaths.
Bobbing in the water next to him, Piers scowled. “I think they are. But, dying on dry land would be preferable to this, I say we keep paddling.”
“Agreed,” Bally chimed in, glaring at them from around the barrels. “Grab on and let’s go!”
Shaking his head, Rey seized the rope and resumed his position, striking the water firmly once more. Muttering to himself, he wasn’t sure that he would agree, but at this point, they had little choice. Ami’s time was up, and if they didn’t get her on land soon, sirens or no sirens, she would be lost to them all forever.
Land of the Sirens
Coming to, Rey could feel the warm sand beneath him. Rough against his face, the granules dug into his salt-sore flesh. Huffing air and blowing it out through his nose, he puffed a few times, pushing the grains away from his sensitive nostrils.
Hearing the sound of water lapping, he lifted his head, flopping it side to side as his eyes combed the shore. Next to him, the flat they had been pushing sat on the land almost completely, perhaps forced up by the small waves that gently licked the beach.
“We made it,” he breathed, overcome with joy. Resting his head against the ground, he called more loudly, “We made it!”
When no one replied, he pushed himself up again, this time rolling over and sitting to discover his feet still in the water. Pulling them out, they were bare, and his toes bled from the smallest of scrapes created by the rough sand.
Fighting tears at the agony the cuts and brine produced, he grabbed the ropes on the side of the raft and hoisted himself up. “Ami!” he shouted, seeing that her barrel was empty.
Stumbling around the side, neither Piers nor Baldwin were to be found. “Where is everyone?” he gasped, afraid he had been the only one to survive. But Amicia had been on the raft, he rationalized. “We made it, I know we did!” Falling onto his knees, he collapsed into an unconscious lump in the hot sun.
Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. How long have I been here?
Rey stared at the canopy of trees above him. His mouth dry, he couldn’t swallow. Blinking, his eyes burned. Darkness. Yes, darkness surrounded him, only held at bay by dancing light. A fire.
A shadow moved. Turning his head, he saw a tiny woman standing beside his prone body. Gibberish. She spoke to him, but her words were meaningless. She offered him a drink from a small vessel; not a cup, but more like a shallow bowl.
Lifting his head, he accepted the swallows, slurping at them eagerly. Her hand landed on his chest. Tiny. Her fingers short, it could fit entirely within his palm. What the hell?
Withdrawing her appendage, she stared at him with wide blue eyes. Blue as the sea. “Where am I?” he croaked.
Lifting his head, he tried to see more, but his temples ached. Resting the back of it against the ground beneath him, he felt as if small insects covered his body, crawling over his flesh and tickling it beneath their miniscule feet. Bright lights flashed around him, as if stars exploded in the night before he fell back into the darkness.
Sunlight. Bright crisp sunlight. His eyes closed, they glowed red, confirming the sensation. Open, he commanded his hazel orbs. Squinting, he forced the lids apart, then blinked. They did not burn as they had before.
The beach. He had been there last. No, he had been under trees last. Someone had moved him.
Looking around while only elevating his throbbing head ever so slightly, he saw the creature again next to him. She’s tiny. He hadn’t imagined it. A woman, smaller than he had ever seen, with large blue eyes and hands half the size of his, at best.
Shifting his gaze, he could see more of them. Hundreds of them. They clung to the branches of the tree above him. They sat on the sand of the beach at his feet. Their words carried on the air, like a song. Fuck.
“Where are my friends?” he demanded angrily.
“Shh,” Ami implored, squatting next to him, opposite the tiny creature. Taking his hand, she pressed it into hers, a shell of some kind sandwiched between them.
“Rest,” the siren commanded.
“No shit,” he gasped. “I’ve lost my mind!”
“No, Rey,” Amicia giggled, waiving his caregiver away. “They’re mermaids,” she informed him quietly, laying his hand on his chest and toying with the shell between her fingers.
“And they speak to us in our own tongue,” he insisted, confident he was delusional.
“No, they have their own language,” she informed him, smiling as she smoothed his dark ringlets of hair. “They gave me this, so I could hear them,” she supplied, showing him the shell more clearly. Turning it slowly, she presented the rough, chalky-white outside and then the rainbow-colored inner piece. “It’s magical,” she said softly, a tear slipping over and streaking her cheek in the warm light.
“Magical,” he repeated, still dazed.
Wiping at her face, she sniffed loudly, nodding. “This whole place is magical. I can’t even promise that we’re still alive,” she sobbed.
> “We’re still alive,” Piers informed him, taking the spot vacated by the mermaid. “This is the most… incredible,” he searched for the right words. “Yes, incredible, most amazing place I have ever seen!” he grinned.
“We made it,” Rey stammered.
“Yes, we made it,” Piers agreed. “Get some sleep, and we’ll talk again when you’re stronger.”
Closing his eyes, Reynard didn’t argue.
Cold. Rey shivered violently. His body ached, and the air felt chill.
Opening his eyes, darkness surrounded him once more. No fire danced. No song could be heard. Sitting up gingerly, so he could lean on his elbow, he saw tiny bodies littering the ground. Moving slowly, he reached out with trembling digits, touching the pudgy arm of his caregiver, who lay in the damp sand next to him.
Instantly awake, she leapt to her feet, squatting on the soft earth. She blinked at him with her large blue pools that seemed to glow in the moonlight.
Using his hand, he imitated drinking from a cup, and she scurried away, up and running between her miniature comrades on two legs. Returning a moment later, she offered him the drink from the shell he recognized as the odd shaped bowl from before.
Sipping the sweet water, he drank it all in a few swallows. Then, pushing himself up to sitting upright, he found that he could look her in the eye squarely, even as she stood at her full height. “You’re a mermaid,” he whispered.
She smiled, cocking her head as she blinked at him. If she understood him, she gave no reply.
“Where’s Ami and Piers? They were here… before.”
Nodding at him, she held the grin.
“You understand me,” he said more loudly, causing a few of the others to stir.
Getting to his feet sluggishly, he picked his way through the cluttered shore. Down at the edge of the water, he realized they were in a lagoon, with the water in the center protected on three sides. Behind him, large trees stood at the edge of the beach, and two sides held a thin line of shrubs and greenery as they jutted out into the ocean.
Dragon of Eriden - The Complete Collection Page 12
