Chapter 94: Aella’s Journey
For three days, they played cat and mouse with the demons. They never again saw all three spots on the horizon, only one or two, which made things worse. Aella's crew were on edge constantly, Nerieda became more and more protective of the egg, letting no one else hold it save for Aella, Dymion and Basiano. Epelda grew wan and, on the third day, it was Jules who came up for her shift in the nest. He stalked toward Admiral, a determined look on his face, his stubble making him look older than his twenty years.
“Admiral,” he said, his tone firmer than she had ever heard it. She lifted an eyebrow, daring him to speak more. To her surprise, he continued. “Epelda won’t say anything, but I will. She is exhausted. You are boiling her up. Please, she cannot keep going at this pace.”
She paused, let out the frustration she had been holding with her breath.
“Round up my officers. Even the dragon. I’ll hear his thrice damned opinion. We will plan our next action.”
“The Princess as well?” He sounded suddenly young again, and she saw in his face something worrisome. Awe. Awe for her wife. The Admiral squared her shoulders.
“She’s got less rank on the ship than everyone but you, boy.” He flinched at her tone. “Why should I invite her?”
“Because she speaks for us, for the water born and for the ocean herself.” His answer was quick but quiet, almost reverent. Dragons’ saggy ballsacks! Did they worship Nereida?
“You may invite her, if she speaks for the sirens,” Admiral grouched. He smiled, relief flooding his young face. “Now pop off, get them, Epelda included, and then when this is done, you and I are going to have a chat about your expectations for my wife.” He nodded, looking a little worried. Good, the lad had some sense. He gave her a quick , if sloppy, salute and rushed off.
Once the officers, and her wife, were gathered, the Admiral explained the problem.
“The seas are bloody huge, but they seem to have some idea of our heading and are content to herd us, exhaust us. It is like they bloody well know who we have on board. My own PEOPLE don’t know that!” The words exploded out of her. Aella saw her wife shift, as if the siren wanted to take her hand to sooth her, but knew she could not while Aella was the Admiral. Nereida’s stormy eyes were full of worry, and that alone made the Admiral take a breath and attempt to find some calm.
“I would hazard,” the Dragon said with a yawn. “That they are using Star Gazing to guess your next position. The shadow folk were often adept at it. And if you cannot use your magic to shield your little toy boat from their gaze, Moonlet, then you are left with two choices…. Fight them on your terms or fight them on theirs. They likely don’t know who is aboard, but they know your heading, and from that, with a touch of prophecy, they could harass your ship until your Windlet is dead tired, or perhaps even dead from the strain of it.” There was no emotion in his tone, just a kind of boredom. When he spoke so easily of her daughter dying of exhaustion, Aella felt her armour crumble and her stomach roil. She’d never push Epelda so far! But she glanced at her daughter, pale and sweating despite it being a cooler day, and realized she had no idea of her daughter’s new limits. That idea sat like a stone in her gut.
“The egg will hatch soon,” the Dragon continued, his eyes falling on the wrap that kept the egg pressed to Nereida’s body. Aella had to ignore the urge to step between them. “No more than a week, likely less than that. The full moon is coming, and she will likely enter the world then. Obviously, the demons, if they know of her, will force a conflict before. If they, if Shadow, knows about his pseudo-sister, I imagine they will not stop until they have her… or have destroyed her. Neither is acceptable.” There was a bite of vehemence in his tone. A bit of warmth started in Aella’s chest, perhaps he was a proper ally after all.
“That doesn’t give us much time.” Gregors crossed his large arms as he spoke. “When night falls we can try to plot a course to a small island, make a stand where there’s food or shelter to be had if we fail.”
“If we fail we will be dead, except the sirens.” Aella had not meant to speak, but the words came from somewhere else, someone else. She felt the tingling in her mind. Everyone stared at her. Only Nereida and the Dragon looked unbothered by her words.
“Then we won’t fail,” Nereida said, slipping into her “princess” bravado. She smiled a wide, soft smile, a politician’s smile. Her eyes, though, were the hard eyes of a survivor. “We will set a trap. I will get the other sirens. I’ll sing them to sleep.” Her words sounded sweet, but the way her face hardened made Aella shiver. Her wife was perfect. Terrifying, but perfect. The others were staring at her, mouths agape, except the Dragon who nodded appreciatively.
“I will only interfere if all is lost,” the Dragon said with a yawn. “Until then I will let the boy have his body back. It wouldn’t do for the demons to know how close their reckoning is.”
It took them hours to plan. Nereida remained mostly quiet, content to coo to the egg and listen to the others bicker about location. She only offered opinions when asked, or when siren magic was brought up.
“If you set the plan with enough time, then the other three sirens can return to the water in advance and rest.” She was gently stroking the egg as if to soothe it. “Rest?” Gregors echoed. “Two of them just laze about all day!”
“Feeding an infant is not exactly lazing about,” Nereida snapped. He flushed, unaccustomed to her raising her voice. Nereida was a head and a half shorter than the muscular helmsman, but in that moment he looked small next to her. “And furthermore, they need to use their magic constantly to simply breathe up here. Have you considered how exhausting that is?”
“Jules ne’er complains.” He threw his hands up in surrender, but the siren pressed on.
“Jules is a nineteen year old boy in love with a surface girl. Of course he wouldn’t complain!” Epelda winced, looking away from her siren mother.
“Nereida, that’s enough.” Aella stepped in, holding a hand up toward her wife. She wanted to see what really had her wife’s bonnet in a twist, but had to be the Admiral, not the wife, right now.
“Apologies,” Nereida muttered, clutching the egg to her chest. She dropped gracelessly to the deck, glowering up at the rest of them.
“Your point about them being taxed is fair. We will chart for the nearest island, make as if we needed repairs, that should bring the sharks. We will stay anchored for two days. If they don’t attack us, we move on.” The Admiral looked at her officers, ignoring her sulking wife for the moment. Gregors nodded.
“Maybe we could buy ‘em some tubs in the next port?” Gregors suggested. “Let ‘em sleep in water at least.”
“Noted,” the Admiral gave him a smile. “Epelda, take the spy glass. Head as high as you dare. If there’s an island on the horizon, even a little one, report to us and we will change course.”
“Aye, Admiral.” She gently took the expensive equipment and fluttered upward.
The other officers dismissed themselves, heading to grab a bite to eat before they had to get back into the swing of things. Aella stayed at the helm, watching them leave. Once they were clear, she looked over at her wife who still sat on the deck floor.
“What is eating you, love?”
“I feel like… like something is happening that I’m missing.” Nereida rocked the egg gently. “There is a piece to this we are missing.”
“The demon on the ship,” Aella offered, but Nereida shook her head. The siren carefully stood, putting one of her hands over Aella’s as the Admiral kept the helm steady.
“Egaz… he kept trying to tell me he was sorry, but when I asked him about it in the light of day, he pretended to not know what I was talking about.”
“Are you sure he was pretending?” Aella asked, thinking of her own bouts with prophecy. Nereida slowly turned her head toward Aella, her stormy eyes full of worry.
“I’m… I’m hoping he’s pretending. The alternative… is not great.”
“You already suspect he’s a star reader, love.” Aella shifted her weight so that she could squeeze her wife’s hand in comfort. “I black out.”
“But he’s little. I’ve given him no reason to fight off his magic!”
Aella took a moment before she answered her wife.
“When you found out he was a siren, love, what did you do?” There was a long, painful beat of silence. Nereida blinked at her slowly, horror creeping up over her face, her stormy eyes widening, her mouth falling open with protests that she did not manage to form. Nereida’s mouth flapped open and closed a few times, before she sank to the deck again. She did not cry, but Aella could see the way her love’s shoulders moved, the way she swallowed. The tears would come later, when she ran out of strength. If not tears, then the manic laughter that sometimes escaped her wife.
“Go see him, love. Hold him. Set Eggy there up in that ridiculous cloth contraption, and I’ll carry her for a few hours.” She dropped her voice low as she spoke, gentle as she could manage. “Go be Mama for a few hours. Forget the deck, the crew, the sirens.”
“Is that an order?” Nereida asked, a tremor in her voice. Aella smiled down at her beautiful, emotional wife.
“You’re my wife right now, love, so no, it’s not an order.” Something swam across Nereida’s expression, a change in her lips; they no longer trembled, a change in her eyes that no longer burned with tears she refused to shed.
“I love you,” Nereida said softly, standing up and wrapping cloth around Aella. “It’s called a wrap, love. Women have carried babies in wraps for ages.”
“But not, I suspect, eggs.” She kept her tone deadpan, glancing sideways at her wife. Nereida chuckled. It was brief, but it was real amusement. Good. Couldn’t let her go see the children as an emotional wreck.
“No, I suppose not.” She pulled tight, securing the egg, before the siren placed a gentle kiss on Aella’s cheek. The Admiral’s face burned at the attention, feeling that everyone must be staring at them. But when she dared to look up, no one was glancing their way, there were no pointed fingers or exchanged gold. No one cared that her wife had kissed her. Still, the burning embarrassment did not abate until her wife was out of sight. Only then did she find her Admiral armour, wrapping it around her heart so that she could concentrate on something other than making her wife’s fears disappear.