Here There be Dragons: Testing the Waters

The Grand Admiral was fit to be tied. She tucked her sleepy wife into their bed, bringing warm wool blankets up around the beautiful sleeping siren. Nereida’s hair had been braided while it was damp, and so now it crimped around her face like miniature waves. Normally, she would have laid down next to her wife and rested, but she was burning with anger. Not at Nereida, nor even at the bastards that had manned the Grey Death. No, it was the very Ocean she wanted to rail against.

She stomped across the deck, leaving Nereida to sleep, and placed her hand on the mast. She found pockmarks that she did not recognize, and her heart lurched. Even the Tooth had been into trouble without her.

“What am I to do?” she asked the wood. “They have helped, sure, but… what if it destroys Ner? What am I supposed to do? Let them?” The wood, as always, had no answer. Aella rested her head against the mast, breathed in the scent of the old wood. Around her, she could hear different crew at work, some whistling merrily. It would be time for stories soon. She’d have to get the children from Dymion and Evander so they could go to bed. “Why haven’t they left us?” she asked softly. She remembered Basiano, slowly losing ground to the Stars Dragon until it had almost taken him completely. Were they losing to Ocean and Moon? She still felt like herself.

The sky was cloudy, and the moon was only just rising into the sky like a smile. She glared at the slowly rising crescent.

“This is your fault,” she whispered, staring at the Moon. “You and your wife. I can’t lose her, you hear?” But the sky was silent, and her magic slept, unbothered by her tirade.

“Admiral?” Evander’s voice broke through to her. She turned to see her actual first mate trotting toward her.

“Yes?” her own voice sounded tired. He paused, and blinked at her, his gaze shrewd. Evander had known her longer than anyone on the ship, even that blasted Matthias.

“Gnomes sent us a message, Matthis is, uh, occupied this evening.” He flushed. “He really is like that, ain’t he?”

“He likes his company,” she hedged. “But so long as it is not putting us in any danger, he can have at it.”

“I noticed that yer wife, er, was a little… upset,” he began. She scowled at him, ready to tear into him, but he pushed on. “Dymion was wondering if we could keep the little mites tonight. The wee one fell asleep on her biggest brother, and no one wants to move them.” She knew an excuse when she heard one, but she nodded regardless.

“That’d be a kindness, Evander. Thank you.” He flushed again at the sincerity in her voice. “Now, anything else to report?”

“Sky’s clear, sea’s clear, a few little clouds but ain’t nothing. Should be an easy night. Crew’s a little leery about making land, with that great black bog where there should be a living oasis, but they’re fine for a day or so. Any longer and they’ll be itchin’.”

After Evander left, Aella took time to climb to the crow’s nest. Epelda had gone to bed, and the look-out had come down briefly to get dinner. She scanned the horizon with her spyglass but saw nothing but calm seas in all directions. Only the island and the unfortunately named Brick broke the calm sight. In the low light of gloaming, the blackened water looked almost like a pool of blood slowly spreading across the dead landscape. The dead animals near the pool had been covered in white cloth, and the human victims had been wrapped in shrouds by the gnomes. They were building a pyre of the dead wood, planning to destroy the poisoned flesh and flora in one action. Aella hoped they waited until dawn, so they could sail upwind or have Epelda control the breeze. She had no desire to breathe in the putrid smoke.

True darkness eventually fell, and Aella left her crew to tell stories without her. Her skin buzzed, and she was unsure if it was with magic or simple anxiety. The sooner they were on the move, the better. Nereida was not snoring when she slipped into bed, but was instead staring at the ceiling.

“Your other wife needed attention?” Nereida joked softly. Aella chuckled and kissed her.

“Needed to clear my head,” she admitted. “This poison thing is… I can’t stab it or sail away from it.”

“Oh, I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to stab the people involved in this.” Nereida yawned and pressed herself into Aella’s chest. Aella kissed her head, running her fingers through Nereida’s soft, wavy locks. The siren’s tension bled out of her at the tender touch.

“Evander and Dymion are keeping the children,” Aella whispered. “We are alone.” Nereida hummed pleasantly at that declaration. “Do you want me?”

“Always,” Nereida half whispered, half moaned.

“Then, quietly love, or it is us that the crew will tell stories about.” She started nibbling Nereida’s ear as the princess giggled helplessly.

“Oh, love, they’d never.”

Carefully, Aella began to unlace her wife’s corset, stopping only to plant soft, fluttering kisses down her neck. Nereida clutched at her arms, whispering Aella’s name with the reverence of a prayer.

“Tenderly, tonight,” Aella whispered into Nereida’s ear. “We both need softness.” She kissed the soft flesh of her wife’s breasts as Nereida whimpered. Carefully, gently, she licked her wife’s nipples before blowing gently across them. Nereida made a pleasant little mewling noise, before panting “more.”

They spent nearly an hour gently, slowly touching each other. It was paradise, losing herself in her wife’s soft curves, her needy sounds and her scent. After, they lay together, tangled and tired, the covers pulled up to ward off the chill. Nereida’s head was on Aella’s bare chest, and she blinked sleepily.

“That was nice,” Nereida whispered. “Though I think I miss the bigger bed of the palace.”

“Do you miss the snow?” Aella teased. Nereida snickered.

Dawn found them still tangled in one another. Aella awoke with one of her arms tingling. Nereida’s full weight had been on it all night, and the arm continued to sleep even as Aella moved about. She made a face, wiggling her fingers to try and get rid of the sensation of pins and needles that prickled the entirety of the arm. Once regular feeling returned, Aella tried to gently wiggle out from under her wife, to let Nereida sleep in. She quickly learned her wife was only pretending to sleep. Nereida was shaking in silent giggles as Aella tried to slip free. The siren princess was using her weight to her advantage, pinning Aella.

“You know, you could just stay in bed,” Nereida said after a minute of giggling. She planted a sweet, almost innocent kiss on Aella’s cheek. “We could hide from the world here. The door’s still barred.”

“Can’t, love,” Aella sighed.

“Can,” Nereida grouched back at her. “There’s a Captain on board, another Admiral. They could do without you for a day.”

“If we didn’t have Gnomes on the shore, I’d agree. But love, we can’t leave this.” Nereida finally slid off her, frowning like a petulant child. Aella kissed her once more, whispering apologies as she dressed.

The morning sun was rudely bright, and Aella blinked in aggravation. The ship was already alive with the crew moving about her, checking riggings, doing simple maintenance tasks and readying to set sail.

“Morning, Admiral darling!” Matthias came bounding toward her like an excited puppy, a grin on his face. “I hope your night was as pleasant as mine.”

“You are far too happy this early in the morning.”

“Oh, it is a glorious morning, Admiral Aella darling.” He flashed a grin, though it lacked some of its usual sparkle. “Captain Georgie asked to speak with you. He’s been up since first light with his alchemist buddies.”

Aella suppressed a groan. She almost went to get her wife, but was not keen on making her wife hide her pain from the Gnome. Instead, she called for Carlos, who had dealings with them now, and just the two of them rowed off. The sea was calm, the air still, and so it was an easy enough trek in. The captain was waiting for them on the beach, his cap in hand, wringing it as she trotted forward. The scent of death hung heavy in the air still, with no breeze to disperse it.

“I have a, um, a favour, to ask if you don’t mind, Grand Admiral.” He scuffed his feet in the sand, stirring up damp sand that hid beneath the dried out sparkling white sand. “We’re going to burn the corpses, the animals and everything here, and then skedaddle. Its… we can’t learn anything else here, not with what you’ve given us. We need supplies. We have taken some of the ichor but I swear to you on my mother’s soul that we will ONLY use it to try and reverse this. But there are other ships about, the demons are around and I would feel so, so, so much safer if I had you as an escort. Would you?”

“We will,” Aella decided. She paused a moment. “You understand I have several sirens aboard, yes?”

“Several?”

“Three. And they will be in communication with their people.”

“They can do that?!” He bounced up on his toes, his earlier trepidation wiped away. “Oh my stars and shadows!”

“You must swear not to fire on any sirens.”

“So sworn!!” He grinned. “I knew they weren’t all mad!” She chuckled at that.

“No more than the Moon-touched are.” He stared at her with open mouth, as if he could not quite manage to figure which question he’d ask first. She took advantage of his moment of shocked silence to press on. “Stay in our wake. We have a Sylph, and she can, if necessary, call the wind.”

“Oh, we don’t use the wind much,” he said with a shrug. It was Aella’s turn to stare at him. “It’s unreliable. We use steam.”