Here There be Dragons: Testing the Waters

The two wives had no more time to figure out the how of Egaz’s revelation. There were too many things to juggle now; Aella rushed back to the deck in a fluster, when she realized that she had left her post and wasn’t sure if someone had replaced her. Nereida left her sleeping son and went to find her brother. The crown prince was in his room, sitting on the floor with his new baby daughter. The baby was chewing her hand as if she had just discovered it.

“She likes the rocking,” Basiano said, glancing up at her. He frowned, taking in the snot drying on her shirt, her worried expression and weary shoulders. “What happened?” Nereida dropped to the floor, her knees screaming at her. She leaned into her brother, and let out a long, slow breath.

“Egaz isn’t a siren. Not fully.” The words rushed from her, feeling like daggers as they passed her tongue. She felt her brother stiffen in sudden understanding, before he pulled her into a hug. She could feel how he shifted, clearly filled with questions, but he did not ask, did not press, he just held her. She listened to the beating of his heart in his chest for a long moment, before she spoke the rest. “He’s shadow-touched.” She couldn’t bring herself to call her son a demon. He was her son! Basiano’s grip tightened, but he still said nothing, holding her until the tears started.

She was not sure how long she cried into her brother’s strong arms, but eventually her tears inspired the baby, and she began to cry as well. Basiano carefully shifted, keeping one arm wrapped around her, while he used his other hand to scoop up the tiny infant, bringing her to his chest.

“Can he control both?” he asked softly.

“No. The water… it was always an illusion.” She hiccuped, and wiped at her eyes.

“What do you want to do?” he prodded. He kissed the baby’s head and she began to settle, her small fingers grabbing his now-scruffy beard and holding tight.

“Keep him safe. I just… don’t know what that looks like.” She leaned forward, pulling out of his embrace. “I love him. He’s my son. And he’s not done anything wrong.”

“Will you tell the crew?”

“After the ambush,” she replied. “There is… there is too much right now. I need to get the other sirens, we head to the water tonight.”

“Should I take the boys?”

She paused, looked up at him, searching his expression for fear. She saw none, and a new wave of tears threatened to overtake her.

“If you could, they’d like that.” Her voice was rough with tears, and she cleared her throat. “I’d like that too.”

“He’s family, Nerry. Just like you. But maybe we not tell the old man. He couldn’t even handle you.”

“I can’t stay.” She looked at the floor. “I… I can’t risk Egaz. I will see mom and the old man. I will say my Goodbyes. And… then….”

“Ride off into the sunset on your wife’s ship?” he prompted with a half-hearted smile. His tone was vaguely teasing, but there was a roughness to his tone as well.

“We’ll come back in a few years. When Egaz can… defend himself. When the baby is old enough to not be a constant target.”

“You thought you’d only be gone five years, Nerry. You were gone so much longer.” He placed his hand on her knee. “Go where your heart tells you, where your nonsense destiny is pushing you, but … think of me at least?”

“Every day,” she promised, swallowing her grief. She hugged him tightly. “I love you, big oaf.”

“I love you too, trouble. Now go, save us again.” There was a bitterness in his tone. He clearly did not care for being side-lined. She gave him one more hug, before she retreated, to round up Alejo and Egaz.

The children were told to stay with their uncle or with Dymion, and told if the ship was boarded, that they could do whatever they needed to stay safe. She left the egg with Dymion, so that her brother could concentrate on the two rowdy boys. She hugged him too, leaving him shocked.

“If the ship goes down,” she whispered to him, “while Egaz can swim, he can’t breathe water. Basiano… won’t be able to save his daughter and my son.”

“Understood,” the short, heavy-set man made a fist a pounded once on his chest, a salute of some kind. “But,” he added with a wry little grin. “My plants are here. Maybe you could make sure the old Tooth stays afloat?” She laughed.

“Only if I can snag an apple when this is done.”

Her children mostly were safe, except Epelda. She found the young woman resting in one of the crew cabins, staring at the walls as she swung in a hammock.

“Can we talk?” she called up. Epelda fluttered down, making faces as she tangled in the hammock, her wings still making her movement awkward in the tight spaces of the cabin.

“Water-mama?”

“There is something you need to know, before I go in the water. In case I don’t come back.”

“Don’t say things like that!” the young woman’s hands nearly exploded as she signed.

“I have to, as your mother, prepare you,” Nereida replied, signing slowly, keeping her expression as calm as she could. “This is a dangerous plan, even if it is the best one we have.” The girl gave her a petulant frown, but motioned for her to continue. “Egaz is not a siren. He knows. Aella knows, but Alejo doesn’t. That is for after this attack. He is….” she struggled, but could not come up with a sign that was not “demon”. She did not want to say it out loud, not where more crew could hear it. “He is of… the not light.” She grimaced, feeling stupid. But Epelda’s eyes went very wide, her mouth opening as if she were mouthing the word “no.” There was a long moment where her daughter observed her with emotions dancing over her face. She signed something, but Nereida could not understand, they were signs she simply didn’t know. Epelda huffed, and tried again. Her expression was distant.

“You owe me the story later. But… he is still Egaz. I will keep him safe. Promise.” There was no urgency to her movement now, but a slow, calculated set of movements instead.

“Thank you,” she whispered, signing it as well. She reached toward Epelda, but there was a hardness in her daughter’s eyes, and so Nereida abandoned the hug. She swallowed her pain and her worry before she fled, looking to find her wife.

Aella was in their cabin, changing into simpler clothing to sleep in.

“Bed?” Nereida asked, glancing at the sun that was still in the sky, albeit barely.

“A nap, only, so that I can be ready. I can’t pull full day shifts any more.” The Grand Admiral sounded embarrassed to admit that she needed rest. “You should grab an hour too, before you plunge into the water. The other sirens might gain strength, but it will make things harder for you.”

“I told Basi and Epelda.” She explained how both encounters occurred, watching Aella’s face for an indication of how she was feeling.

“You could have waited for me, love. I could put off a nap for that.”

“I just… I needed it to be done, like pulling out a porcupine quill.” Aella snorted a laugh at the mental image, but her expression soured.

“Epelda was angry?”

“Not… angry. Cold. Distant.”

“She thinks you loved a demon, Ner.” Aella was reaching for her boots, to lace them. “That would be…. She has a history, love.”

“Oh I know,” Nereida replied, feeling bitterness wash over her. “How could she think that of me?”

“Because she’s young, love. She doesn’t understand what survival can mean, can look like. I’ll talk to her.”

“You need to nap.”

“This is more important, Ner.” She stood, reaching for her hat and a cloak so that she wasn’t completely dressed down. She leaned in, kissing Nereida’s cheek as she passed. Nereida grabbed her hand, holding tightly. She looked into her wife’s beautiful, soft brown eyes. She wanted so badly to kiss her, to lose herself in the feel of her wife so that she didn’t have to feel anything else. But Aella shook her head subtly, as if she could hear Nereida’s thoughts, and so she let go.

“I love you,” Aella said, kissing her forehead. “Rest. I will help Epelda, and then sleep. Don’t worry about either of us. Do what you must… however you must.” Nereida nodded, hearing the implied “no mercy”. She squeezed her wife’s hand, and watched as the Grand Admiral headed back onto her ship, her shoulders square and her footfalls heavy.

Nereida rested as best she could, her heart aching as she listened to the gentle sounds of the ocean. But as it got closer to nightfall, her mind was no closer to peace and her time had run out. She went to collect her allies, the three other adult sirens. Together they went to the ocean, two of the crew lowering them down on a row boat before they pulled the boat back up. No big splash, just a quiet slip into the cold water where they could ready themselves.

Kana and her husband began scouting, seeing what kind of life and underwater terrain could be used to their advantage. Jules was making spears from what he could scavenge, readying himself to keep Nereida safe. Together the two of them swam away from their ship, heading back south. Once they had put distance between themselves and the ship, Nereida began to sing. Jules shifted nervously as she sang, worry dancing across his features even in the low light.

“Friends of the water, dolphins, come to me. Let’s make mischief together against the dark-ships!” Nereida repeated her refrain six times, the water taking her notes into the distance. She hoped that the dolphins would come, that they would be as easy to work with as the last pod had been. Jules looked up at the slowly rising moon.

“Can we trust the dolphins?” he asked nervously.

“They’ve always been good to me,” she replied, shrugging as if she was unconcerned. She was not ready to admit that she was as nervous as he was. But it had to be done.

Her family had to be safe. The Tooth could not sink. She wouldn’t let it!