Chapter 157: Nereida’s Voyage
Nereida was ready to scream. Stuck in the bilge, in the dank, wet darkness, with her son and son-in-law, was nearly torture. They had been there for hours. Alejo had complained about the smell more than a dozen times. They couldn’t really chat, needing to listen for whistles that could indicate attacks. Fear and boredom were terrible bedfellows, and Alejo in particular was having difficulty staying focused.
She felt the magic before Epelda came flying down the stairs, lantern in hand. It made her feel nauseous, this siren’s magic. Alejo cried and covered his ears, his little face twisting with disgust.
“An enchanter!” Jules took Alejo’s hand and pulled him toward the stairs. “Get to your brother! Sing the most annoying song you can and snap him out of this!” The boy nodded, wide eyed and terrified, and went running.
“Help me,” Jules said to Epelda. “I’ll sing the counter, but you need to carry it!” And they disappeared up the stairs, without a word to her. The weight of feeling useless sat heavy on her like a wet cloak, and she started to pick her way up the stairs after her son. She paused, listening to the magic, to the sounds. It was insidious, and called her to the water. She let it. Not because the magic worked, but because she could help most from the water. Siren enchantment did not, typically, work on other sirens it seemed.
Nereida made her way out a porthole, leaving her boots and cloak behind. The water was cold, but not as bad as it had been in the depths of the winter. She dove beneath the waves, and listened. Here, the song was different. Here, the siren begged for help, the only voice echoing along the waves. Here, the siren begged for death. The pain of the emotions washed over her; threatened to drown her. She could see, now, the Grey Death as it got closer to the Tooth. Nereida drew closer, keeping deep so that she could not be easily seen in the dark waters. The hull was covered in metal plates and spines. She looked deadly even just floating there. There were skulls being dragged behind her, human in size and shape. Most were adult sized. Most.
Anger roared to life in her, and she was not sure if it was her own, or the Ocean’s. It was getting harder to tell. She pulled it back, pulled it in, knowing that she could not risk the children on their own ship.
“Please,” she pleaded to the dragon in her mind, “let me deal with this.” The overwhelming anger ebbed, but did not abate completely. This was not a demon ship. They hunted sirens… they would know her tricks. They had defenses. She could see some, and knew there would be others above deck.
There was no more cannon fire, but the ship was headed straight for the Tooth. Nereida began to sing to the waves, changing her course so that she could not hit the Tooth head on. It was a monumental task, the magic burning through her. The singing above changed, to an almost questioning sound.
“Help me,” Nereida managed, before throwing herself back into her song. The song above joined her too, and the ship was forced off course. There was sudden silence, as the song above died suddenly. The clouds above moved across the moon, and Nereida was left in darkness.
She waited a few breaths, as the enemy ship was pushed farther from her. Grief crashed into her, helpless, drowning grief, as she realized that the siren she’d tried to help was likely dead now. The water became harder to breathe, and she had to force herself to count her breaths, in five, out five, until the water was no longer choking her. The water rippled around her almost painfully as something was shot into the water. Large, heavy, it displaced water and shook her hard enough that she bit her tongue. She swam further down, into the darkness, before she headed toward the Tooth. She had learned her lesson; she could not take a ship down on her own, even with the power of the Ocean behind her. She’d not survive another spear hit. Her lizard leg cramped as if the dragon was reminding her to be cautious.
Eventually, Nereida broke to the surface, breathing air at last. The moon was still obscured by heavy clouds, but she could make out the Tooth in the darkness. Someone threw her a rope ladder. In the distance, the other ship was missing one of its masts, and there was chaos on board. The ship, however, was turning as if it intended to try to smash into them again. She climbed halfway up the rope when she heard it again… the captive siren’s voice, small and full of pain.
“Kill me. Please.” The refrain was soft, almost as if the siren were whispering a prayer. Her heart lurched, and she felt a deep, terrible anger and grief that were not hers. She struggled to reign it in, but in the ocean, in her waters, it was a nearly impossible fight. She let go of the ladder and hit the water hard, hearing her wife call her name.
She was ready to let the Ocean have her body, let her take vengeance on the ship, but the darkness did not come. She felt her bones stretch, wings erupt from her back, scales covering flesh like armour. Everything was pain, blinding pain, as if she were being torn apart and stitched back together. But when the pain cleared, she was a dragon. She was as big as a ship, and she could feel the Ocean Dragon inside her heart. It felt like someone sitting on the same chair, watching. It was odd, disorienting. But the siren’s song, still a whispered prayer, was clearer now. The Dragon gave her no commands. She did not have to.
Nereida cut through the waves with no effort, the body moving with as much ease as her own. She broke the waves close to the ship, causing her to rock. She heard sailors scream, swear and two dropped to their knees in supplication. On the deck, in the middle of it, was the siren’s prone, broken body. She was bleeding, but conscious, and they had hammered iron spikes into her hands and feet to pin her to the deck. Nereida’s world went red in fury. She did not know this siren. But the cruelty was beyond the pale.
She gave in to her instincts, and charged the ship. Someone shot a cannon at her. The impact knocked her slightly off course but did not stop her from landing on the ship. Two men were crushed when she landed, their deaths quick. The captain stared up at her, drawing his sword. It looked like a toy from her vantage point.
“Get off this ship, creature, or face the consequences.” His words were shouted, but he managed to sound bored even when shouting. She felt, rather than saw, someone try to stab her, but the sword broke on her scales. She lazily knocked that person overboard. She tried to answer, but all that came out was a rattling, ear-splitting roar.
Nereida felt no fear, until she saw the Demon who had moved beside the captain. He said something too soft for her to hear, even with the dragon-body’s admittedly better hearing. But she saw what he held. A vial of black ichor. Fear washed over her; threatened to drown her. She reared back, and the demon, with his pasty, pale skin and black bone horns, grinned at her.
“Capture it,” the demon suggested. “Don’t kill it. We can make use of it.”
Hearing that, Nereida brought her tail down into the captain’s cabin, shattering the door into a burst of splinters. The crew tried to swarm her. This ship was smaller than the Tooth, and probably needed only fifty to seventy five souls to run. But she could not fight fifty to seventy five people, not when they had a demon, a sylph and whatever else they might have. She called the water up, sending a wave crashing over the side of the ship. Several crew members went overboard, but not enough. Someone fired a harpoon, and the thing lodged itself into her delicate little wing. She howled in agony, and someone was pulling her toward the deck, tearing the wing further. She lashed out with tail, claws and teeth. Nereida caught someone in her maw, crunching them once before spitting them out. She did not know how to fight like this. The body was strange, and while she had some instincts, they were now all screaming at her to swim away.
After a few, grueling moments, she had a break in the violence. She was able to sing a keening, terrible song, calling the waves once again. This time, she was able to flip the entire ship like a toy boat in a tub. Once underwater, the wound screamed. She watched as the sailors tried to escape the cold water, tried to get back to air and life. She snatched the demon and the captain, holding them in her claws. They fought her with all their might, but this was her element. The evil bottle of black ooze, likely dragon’s blood, had been washed away when the ship had flipped. They could not hurt her, not now.
And the Ocean required both their suffering and their death.
Within five minutes, the sea was quiet again. No humans thrashed about, but instead would feed her fish, her dolphins and her other children with their bloated corpses. She preened, and considered eating the stupid human who had dared order one of her descendants to be tortured.
The thoughts chilled Nereida like ice, and she took a sudden, sharp breath. She tried to take her own form back, to stop being the dragon, to stop being the Ocean. She was drowning in someone else’s thoughts. She pleaded, silent and terrified, begged that the Ocean let her be human again.
The transformation back was just as painful as the transformation to dragon shape. She was alone in the dark sea, the bodies of sailors scattered about. Curious sea creatures were approaching. She felt sick, but pushed it away as she remembered the skulls. They deserved their fate. After a moment, she remembered the siren who had been nailed to the deck, and she swam toward the ship. The ship was upside down, and making terrible creaking noises. She found the siren without difficulty. Her blood was flowing from the wreckage of what had been her hand… during the capsizing one of her hands had been wrenched free, with disastrous results. Nereida sang healing songs, and watched the blood slow. The siren was barely conscious, whimpering in pain.
“I’m here,” Nereida sang softly, gently touching the siren’s face. The other woman leaned into the tender touch.
“Stay?”
“I’ll save you,” Nereida replied.
“Already did.” The siren’s song was weak, so weak. “Cabin, other ships.”
“Others?” Nereida’s song came out as an angry hiss, and the siren woman nodded.
“Go.”
“But if I leave you?” Nereida left the thought unfinished.
“Too late for me… help me?” Nereida closed her eyes, understanding what the siren wanted.
Nereida swam up, her face so close to the siren that she could make out the faint shimmer of scales around her eyes. Her heart shattered, and she stroked the woman’s face gently. It was the kind thing, she knew, but she struggled with it. Killing someone who’d kill you was one thing. This was another. She felt the Ocean’s presence again, gentle like a wave in the early morning. She could ask for help, she knew, and the Ocean would help her. But… if she did, would the Ocean remember to get the information from the other ships? It was the pain in the other woman’s eyes that made the choice for her. She kissed the siren on the head, a gentle, motherly gesture, and then surrendered to the Ocean, praying for kindness.