by Ellen Mint
Enki shrugged. “Can one truly decide what is best when the flesh hardens so?”
The bodyguard, perhaps used to the prince’s come-what-may lifestyle rolled his eyes. Both seemed to forget Joanna once again naked and left staring into the ocean water lapping below. As her heart calmed in her chest, she glanced around where the two men took her.
Where once all she saw was weather-stripped wood and natural foliage, Jo spotted a crate blackened with rot. A chair leaned near them, its bottom chewed through by rainwater. Snatching up her soaking chemise and wiggling into it, she caught the eyes of Namhu staring anywhere but her.
With her naked feet, she rose to her tiptoes to creep around the creaking boards above the waves. “Where are we?” she asked, easing into the first of what looked like a once-walled off section. Boards blinded one side, but small birds chipped away at a knot until they could build a nest between the slats.
A smell struck Joanna’s nose, not one of salty waves or tropical flowers. Not even fish or algae rotting on the shore. It was death, yes, but the one that stalks man instead of animal. Easing deeper over the winding path, her fingers extended to keep a safe grip on both sides should the floor give out, Jo turned a third corner and froze.
Bones dressed in insect-chewed uniforms lay scattered across the ground. They were bleached in streaks by the sunlight that managed through the breaks in the roof. One had an arm extended high over its head as if it was reaching for a stolen treasure map or bottle of rum.
“It’s one of our hideouts,” Enki said. He slipped into the catacombs without a care for the dead left lying on the floor. After knocking a foot into a fallen hat, jiggling the skull inside, he shrugged and turned to face outward to the sea.
“It’s a graveyard,” Jo whispered. Her hands moved to form the sign of the cross even as she noted that the scraps left on the bodies were navy and not gold or crimson. Sure enough, she caught hanging off a pole, the red and white cross of England.
Namhu stepped behind her, his hot breath pounding against her ear. Jo spun on her heels, her hand rising as her blood pounded. “This was a fort of your people, but they lost the battle.”
“They’re not my people,” Joanna said, eyeing up the waterlogged blunderbusses and swords scattered to the sides. She bent down to pick at a hilt only to find rust chewed apart the edge rendering it useless. “Who did they lose to?”
Spanish, Portuguese, possibly French. Jo felt no deep love for the English, their ‘buccaneers’ sinking Spanish ships for years and the crown pleased with it. But this much death so quickly… She could almost smell the blood and gunpowder in the air.
Her haunting blue eye turned to Namhu, and as the taciturn man raised his chin, she focused her brown as well. Turning to face her dead-on, he said, “A hurricane. We will rest here until the danger is passed.”
“And then?” Jo asked, noticing how the man who worried about accidentally harming her, turned away to glare at the sunrise.
“Enki and I shall continue on our journey. You may do whatever you wish.” His tongue was painfully flippant, but the words sunk like buckshot into Jo’s flesh. He would abandon her now? Trapped in a fort ripped to shreds by a hurricane, what life could she hope to find here alone?
“I will resume patrols,” Namhu declared, and without a second thought, he leaped into the water below. Jo watched him swim away, her fingers wringing over the hilt of the rusted sword.
CHAPTER SIX
FLIPPING OVER THE fish Enki brought her, Joanna inched closer to the fire. Despite her clothes as dry as the scattered bones, the cold wouldn’t leave her marrow. Namhu was once again off scouring the area. No longer as enamored with her savior as before, Jo took to walking around the remains of the lost fort.
Sections crumbled into the ocean, unreachable unless they were rebuilt, and Enki didn’t seem the type meant for manual labor. She did stumble across scraps of leather armor rotted off the bodies of the dead. What wasn’t peeling apart from the elements Jo strapped across her body. If she was to be on her own, then she’d be as prepared as possible. A shame the swords were all rusted and the gunpowder drenched.
Snarling at the thought of Namhu, she stabbed a fork into the fish instead of testing its scales. That caught the lingering prince who didn’t seem as put off by her. “Something drawing upon you, my beauty?”
His tone was sweet, but all Jo could taste was the bitter drops knowing he too would abandon her at his bodyguard’s insistence. “Only that I serve no purpose to your cause and should be left aside like rotting driftwood?”
“Oh.” Enki wrapped a hand around Jo’s shoulders. She stiffened at first, not wanting to be touched by any, but at the pleading in his eyes, she softened towards him. “Namhu, he can be… What is that word they use up here? Shark! He is of the shark clan, which makes him dangerous, proud, and thick-headed.”
“Ergo, he hates me,” Joanna summed up while picking the fish off the fire. She had been hungry, but with food so close her stomach roiled in disgust.
A loud whoomph struck the planks, Jo craning over her shoulder to find a net filled with clams tumbling open. It was quickly replaced by the steady hand of the shark come back to his prince. The sharp grey eyes burned in hers before darting over Enki to make certain the man was safe. What could she do to him? Stab him with a fork?
Rising to his quickly appearing legs, Namhu turned away from her to gather up the clams. After passing one to Enki, who pried it open with his finger and sucked down the meat raw, Namhu said, “I do not hate you.”
“Truly? Perhaps the word means something different under the ocean.”
He extended a palmful of the clams to Joanna, but beyond her disgust at the idea of eating uncooked shellfish, she wanted nothing to do with him. Turning from the man, she faced the fire and smoke twisting towards the blue sky.
With a groan, Namhu opened his palm, the clams clattering to the deck. “I do not hate you,” he repeated as if his say-so could change reality.
“Then why plan to abandon me? Why keep Enki from befriending me?” Jo scolded. For a brief moment, the prince looked up, his eyes drifting around Namhu as he slurped down his third clam. Finally leaping to her feet, she jabbed a finger at Namhu’s naked chest. “Why even bother pulling me from that cave at all? You should have left me to drown.”
The ice-grey eyes drifted to his lover, but Enki threw his hands up. “This is not my fight.”
Realizing his prince was no help, the shark turned on the tiny guppy attacking it. “I don’t trust you,” Namhu said, “or your kind.” He reached over to draw a hand to Enki’s cheek, tenderly touching where the nail cut had been. “All it is here is war and death at their hands.”
“And yours is so much better? You’re clearly a warrior yourself, tasked with protecting someone of a higher class. How is that any different?”
“I never claimed it to be better,” Namhu puffed his chest out, the naked, wet skin glancing over Joanna’s. “We protect our own, and you — land-walker — you protect yours.”
“My father is…” she began, but the shark cut her off. He stomped closer, his finger prodding into her chest.
“This is no matter with your blood, it is your kin. Your kin by way of country. Would you turn on them for us men of the sea?” Namhu’s degrading tone softened, his eyes sweeping down as he whispered, “Would you kill one of them to save us?”
Jo’s mouth opened, any excuse or plea rising, when a black ball flew through the air. It splattered through her fish and struck the fire. Erupting from the flames, white smoke obscured their vision and clawed down their throats. Joanna tried to tug her dress up, but the leather kept it in place. She struggled to stumble away and plowed into Namhu.
He was holding tight to Enki, both coughing as their rarely used lungs fought against the attack. They had to get out of there; it could be a grenado. Joanna tried to shove both aside to safety, her eyes burning from the smoke. Namhu grabbed onto her, pinning her in place. Did he not understand a
n explosion could be imminent? Did he think this her fault?
She opened her mouth in spite of the smoke when a figure rose from the edge of the dock. Tall, skin like a weathered sail, hat as black as his heart. Even with tears streaming down her cheeks, Jo knew it was Captain Esparza. Namhu must have read the fear rising in Joanna’s eyes as he flipped around and a snarl rose from his throat.
The shark straddled between both Enki and Jo, shoving them close together to hide behind his bulk. It was clear Esparza thought himself to have the upper hand, the man taking his time. “You really thought you could escape me, whelp?” He kicked one of the skulls on the planks, its jawbone shattering and teeth scattering. A sickening crunch erupted from each of Esparza’s steps, Joanna’s stomach flipping at the sound.
“I know these waters like I was born in ‘em,” the captain snarled, his hand gripped to the hilt at his side. They may outnumber him but they were unarmed and who knew how many more he had hiding in the jungles.
A wind blew off the ocean, scattering enough smoke that Miguel got an eyeful of the men standing beside her. “And the second you’re off my leash,” the slicing draw of his sword cut through Jo’s eardrums, “the bitch goes into heat.”
Joanna tried to snarl at him, her fingers extending as if she could rip the man’s throat out. Well aware of her ferocity, Esparza pointed the tip of his sharp sword forward and glared. “Now, how’s about you barbarians shriveling from the pox or worse pass her over?”
Why wouldn’t they? Namhu wanted rid of her, Enki seemed to only care for what entertained him. What purpose could she serve?
She braced for the man who saved her life to toss her to her jailor. Namhu folded his arms tight across his chest, and said, “No.”
“Excuse me?”
“We will not give her to you or anyone else,” the bodyguard ordered, his white-grey eyes burning into Esparza’s. But they didn’t sting the man who was bloodier than most pirates.
He shrugged his shoulders and waggled the tip of his sword. “Look, amigo, no idea what passes for brains in your skull, but I’m armed and you’re…” the sword point circled down to the genitals swaying in the breeze, “without a stitch to protect you. So, less you want to go around without your sugar stick, I suggest you do as told.”
This was stupid. He’d slice them both to ribbons. Joanna wouldn’t hear of it. She tried to step forward, to volunteer before this ended in more death, but Enki snagged her tight. His eyes were narrowed, the lips pursed, but he was clearly as out of his depth as she.
“Have it your way,” Esparza sighed and, without a thought, slashed forward.
Namhu’s hand launched through the air. His fingers clamped around the end of the blade and held it tight. No blood trickled from his palm, and Esparza’s eyes shot open wide as skin as grey and resilient as a shark’s erupted over Namhu’s body.
“What in Christ’s name are you?!” Esparza shouted. He yanked his blade back and tried thrice more to attack, each one bounding off the rock-hard skin.
“You will leave,” Namhu insisted, stepping closer. His large hands reached for Esparza’s neck even as the blade whipped and chipped at him. Pink marks grew over the grey, but they were shaken off without thought.
Miguel darted back, trying to keep from Namhu’s grip, but they were quickly reaching the end of the dock. The only way out was into the mermen’s domain and there was no chance he could survive that. Namhu closed the gap, the sword beating against his chest with ferocity. Circling his hands around Miguel’s neck, Namhu pressed his thumbs down. It was all over for the good Captain.
A shot crackled the air. Smoke pillared from a gun. Blood splattered to the planks and Namhu tumbled after.
“No!” Joanna screamed, scrabbling towards him even as Esparza held the smoking gun in his hand. Crimson coated Namhu’s stomach, his magic skin unable to stop a bullet. He was trying to crawl away from the man that’d murder him, but was losing too much blood.
Falling to her knees, Jo wadded up the end of her chemise and attempted to staunch the bleeding. It soaked up her arm, the sticky warmth bringing tears to her eyes. “Damn you!”
“Jo-ann-a,” Namhu gasped, a paling hand curling around her cheek.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. It’s my fault. If you hadn’t…you were right to hate me,” she cried while tears canvased her cheeks.
“Please,” his sweet lips panted for air, his handsome face contorted in agony, “please return me to the water.”
“What? No. You’ll…stay with me. There’s a chance that…” She wanted to scream at him to fight, but the blood soaked up to her knees, Namhu fading fast.
Wadding his hand in her hair, he pulled Jo to his lips. She couldn’t stop crying through the last kiss, and — as it faded — he whispered, “Free me.”
Screaming every obscenity she knew at the bastardo, at her father, at fate, Jo pushed Namhu the last foot to the dock’s edge. His body plummeted, a stream of grisly blood swept in his wake. When she heard the final splash, her heart stopped with him. Whatever continued beating in her chest was dead as iron. She tried to scrabble to peer over the edge, but Esparza grabbed her arm and threw her back.
“You son of a…!” she shrieked, prepared to rip him to shreds. But he was pointing a second gun, not at her. This was aimed for Enki.
“What about you? Can you bleed too?” Esparza licked his lips and Jo shivered at the barbarism.
Her iron heart thumped once, and — without pause — she stepped between the captain and the prince. The gun didn’t drop, but Esparza snarled, “What are you doing? Get out of the way!”
“Lovely one, this isn’t…” Enki pleaded, but she stayed strong.
“He needs me. He won’t kill me,” Jo thundered, her tears held at bay by the anger burning inside. “Take me and let him live.”
Esparza raised the blunderbuss higher. “It’s adorable how you think you hold any power in this world, you…”
Water erupted from behind him as if a whirlpool of Poseidon himself arose. Esparza turned, his gun aimed at whatever was rising from the sparkling depths. Without a second thought, Joanna leaped forward. Her fingers that’d ached to for days grabbed the sword at his right hip. Her eyes that glared at him from the sides knew precisely where to aim. Esparza tried to turn, to throw her off, but he was too slow, and she too close. With all of her strength, she thrust his own blade straight through his ribs and into the lungs.
A gasp of shock gushed from the dying man. Wild eyes turned to the woman who dared to slay him, his form crumpling. Jo went with, meeting him eye to eye. She wanted to watch the life drain from him, to know that before he reached the gates of hell, hers would be the last face he saw. Esparza struggled to breathe, blood — the same as what he took from Namhu — boiling from his punctured lung over her hand. She wouldn’t let go of the sword inside him. No, she sliced deeper, watching and waiting for the lights to dim.
The gun, his last chance for vengeance, wobbled in his grip. She was about to reach for it when another hand crunched the bones in Esparza’s fist. Jo blinked, confused to who it could be, and she lifted her head.
There, standing as proud as ever, was Namhu without a scratch to his perfect skin. “You’re alive!” Jo shouted, aching to throw her arms around him and cry in celebration. But a gurgle told her the end was close.
Leaning over, Joanna whispered in Esparza’s ear, “When you see him, tell the devil that no man will own me. Ever.” She yanked the sword out and slit the throat of Captain Esparza.
May he rot in pieces.
“Namhu.” The sword tumbled from her bloodied hands, Joanna rising to fold into his embrace. From behind her came Enki, the prince enveloping both Jo and his fellow merman lover. Heat swarmed across her body, Jo’s tears steaming as a giddiness filled her body from the men’s passion.
“How did you…?” She turned to gaze up at the man, a hand cupping his undamaged abs.
A smile twisted his lips and he guided her hair back behind he
r ear. “When we transform, all injuries are erased.” The grin dimmed, Namhu’s eyes darkening as his chin dropped. “Thank you, for protecting Enki. For sacrificing yourself for him. A stranger. A man not of your kin. I was wrong about you, Jo-Ann-A. And I…”
He glanced up at Enki, the prince’s smile splitting his cheeks. “He means we…but do continue. Your voice is delectable to listen to.”
“We,” Namhu’s smile returned tenfold as he gazed into her eyes, “would like you to remain, if you so wish.”
“I do,” she gasped, whipping her head from one to the other. Her kiss on Enki’s lips was bright and cheerful, and Namhu’s tender and heartfelt. Two men, two strange men far from anything Jo could have ever dreamed possible. But she could not imagine a life without them now.
Wrapping her hands around both in a hug, she glanced upward watching the tattered British flag flap in the wind. It was Enki who spoke up, “While I am never against a board-pounding celebration of life…” he skirted a finger over Namhu’s chin, dipping into the dent, and the shark snickered, “I am left wondering what we do next.”
Jo walked to the flagpole and unwound the rope. As she pulled it down, she said, “We fight.”
“Do we now?” Enki chuckled.
It was Namhu who watched her pluck the flag free, Joanna weighing it in her hands. “How precisely do we do that?”
“This is a dangerous world, for men of Britain, of Spain, of Portugal and beyond.” She dipped the flag into a barrel of tar that’d been destined to repair a ship’s cracked hull. As the black oozed over the fabric, leeching away all the colors, Jo turned back to her two men. The eyes of an icy squall foretelling a hurricane and the tranquil serenity of a perfect day both watched Jo run the pitch-black flag up the pole.
It struggled from the tar, but a hearty wind swept off the island to yank it outward. It told the tale to all who’d dare draw close to this hideout. This would be the first of their forts, rebuilt, refortified, reimagined for an army of merfolk and land-walkers working together to bring down those who’d keep them underfoot.
