Chapter 28

  Their night ended with frustration. Evander was waiting for them when they got back; both of the children had started being sick, and were crying for their mother. Nereida made time to kiss her beloved goodnight, and hurried below to cuddle her boys.

  Three days passed with Nereida being a mother, and with no time or thought of anything or anyone else. She told her sick children stories, kept them drinking water and small beer, eating fruit when they felt up to it. She cuddled and sang to them, keeping their spirits up. Basiano helped, mostly by fetching whatever she or the boys needed. Both children were hit with fevers, and were uncomfortable in their own skin. She slept with them in her bed. Ael would drop by with small trinkets for the boys, leaving them outside the door. They would talk through the door, but nothing of substance beyond an update on the boys’ health.

  By the fourth day, she began to realize the issue. Their magic needed bleeding off. They weren’t using the magic to heal or move the water, and so the magic was starting to change them. Alejo's small fingers were now tipped with tiny little cws instead of soft human fingernails. It had been simir for her; at thirteen, she had become self conscious about her magic, and had avoided using it… until one day she had started turning blue. The children turning blue would be disastrous right now. If they could stave it off at least six months, they could finish their change in the safety of the pace…. Hopefully.

  Her children were napping, and so she headed over Basiano.

  “I need you to study mom’s anklet,” she whispered. He pursed his lips.

  “Nerry, really? They are so young!” Nereida closed her eyes.

  “I’ve seen others like me, all of them blue. I… we were on one of their spawning isnds, where they teach their young to breathe air instead of water.” She remembered the other young mother, her short hair a vibrant blue, her young toddler experimenting with air breathing, pying in the shallows with Alejo. “They let me rest there, before they helped me back to the mainnd. The babies were blue. One of them had gills. I learned from them that most of their babies are born breathing water, but sometimes they have a “dolphin baby.” A baby born who needs air. And… mostly they give those babies to the waves.” She closed her eyes at the implication. It was horrible. “Or sometimes they have dolphins take them to nd.”

  Basiano pulled her into a tight hug as she fought off tears.

  “They didn’t even believe me when I sang to them…” she whispered. Basiano rubbed her back.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” He asked. She nodded miserably. “With me or with your beloved?” Nereida pushed her face farther into his shirt.

  “I don’t want her to see me as a monster,” she whispered. He tightened his hug.

  Nereida had not told anyone how she had truly gotten to shore after the demons had brought her out to sea. She was profoundly grateful that Alejo had been too young to remember, too young to understand.

  “Nerry, you should tell her; she won’t think less of you… and if she does, then you know how you must proceed.” His voice was soothing. She leaned into him, gathering her strength.

  “Love you,” she sniffled.

  “Love you too. Go on, you haven’t seen her for four days and I imagine that’s driven her to the brink of madness.” He kissed the top of her head. “You too, I’m betting.” She nodded into his chest again. “Go. When the boys wake up, I will take off their bracelets and have them use their magic to dry our undry.” She snickered at that.

  Nereida took a moment to re-braid her hair. She put on clean but simple clothing, and her anklet. The pressure returned, feeling heavier every time she put the anklet on. She had gone so long without taking it off that each time now felt like cutting a piece off herself. Still, she had to keep them safe. She did not, could not, trust outsiders with her true face.

  Ael was on deck when she emerged. The sunlight was bright and dazzled her slightly.

  “Ner?” She felt Ael’s arms encircle her. She wanted to sink into the arms and just lose herself in Ael's touch. But there could be no easy escape, not now.

  “Are you busy? There’s… I need to talk to you.”

  “Let’s talk in the cabin. I’m not needed.”

  Back in the cabin, they moved to sit on Ael’s bed. The Admiral dropped to her knees and gently took the anklet off. The relief was instantaneous. Nereida smiled down at her beloved. Her heart raced seeing the other woman on her knees, but she pushed that aside. She needed to tell Ael everything first. She couldn’t form a new life on lies; that had backfired spectacurly st time. But even thinking of it, of him, filled her with such dread that she wasn't sure how she would tell Ael.

  Ael finally rose and sat next to her, entwining their fingers.

  “I’ve missed you,” Ael whispered. She pnted a soft, chaste kiss on Nereida’s cheek. “Are the boys well?”

  “They are better… or they will be now that we know the problem. Their magic is backing up in their bodies. The ocean is… it’s all around us, constantly singing to us. If they don’t start using their magic, their magic will make them… they’ll look like me.” She flushed, looking away. Ael leaned into her.

  “Not the worst thing, love. I rather like how you look.”

  “Sailors don’t typically do well when presented with a siren. If outsiders saw our boys?”

  “Our boys?” Ael’s breath caught and Nereida felt her own heart speed up. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud but it felt right.

  “Well… yes, if you want. You could… we could raise them together.” She licked her lips and looked away, her heart suddenly heavy. “But… only after I tell you a story first.”

  The Admiral seemed confused, but she nodded. Nereida pushed herself farther on to the bed, crossing her legs and sitting with her back straight.

  “Once, as the story goes, there was a Princess, who became a pauper and married for what she thought was love.” Ael straightened as well, worry creasing her face. Nereida closed her eyes and continued speaking. ”The princess gave birth to a son. He was sickly at first, and so she begged her husband to find a way to take them home. She wanted her mother. When he asked where home was, and she told him that she was a princess, he called her a Dirty Samander and locked her in the house. After two days he returned. He took his child, her child, and threatened to dump him down a well unless she came with him quietly.”

  Ael was practically vibrating with anger, the bed shaking with it. Nereida drowned her feelings, and kept going.

  “He took them deep into the wilderness and tried to sell her to demons who were waging nd-side war against the lunar people, trying to take their army by nd and sea. But the demons did not believe him. They took him captive as well, and made him live as a sve.

  “The demons tried many tricks to get her to use fire magic. They beat her, held hot coals to her legs until she lost consciousness. When nothing worked, they made her work in their keep. During the day she cleaned, at night she and her contemptible husband shared a cell and straw on the floor. Once in a while, they would go back to beating her, torturing her. She admitted to being princess, could recite the royal line back four generations, but she knew nothing of military secrets, nothing of fire manipution. They left the baby alone, for he had no magic they could discern. They let her feed him. They had some mercy.

  But not much.

  “She tried to make her miserable life more bearable. She no longer loved her husband, but when the loneliness became unbearable, she would seduce him, hoping to lose herself to pleasure. Sadly, he was a mostly inept “lover” and when he ceased caring about her, he made no effort to please her.

  When that no longer worked, she began to seduce guards, in exchange for small favours; a pillow and bnket for her son, an extra portion of rations or a night in another cell away from her husband so she could just be with her son. She whored herself to them, men and women both, for creature comforts. And when her heart felt heavy, she would seduce her husband and just pretend.

  It was, at some point, decided she might be one of the rare royals born without power. They prepared to pce her on a ship, her and her husband and toddler child. They were tied to the mast of a smaller, faster ship. They pnned to try and skirt the edges of the Cursed Sea. It would allow them to avoid the patrols of their enemies. No one dared venture close to the Cursed Sea, for ships blown into it never return.

  The reason soon became clear to the Princess. It was water controlled by sirens. She hears them singing beneath the waves. And so, knowing all hope was lost for her child and for the child growing in her, she began to sing their songs back to them.

  The demons were used to her singing at odd times; she sang while she worked, while she prepared for bed, some even had her sing to seduce them. They were unprepared for the tridents that soon were on their deck, for the sirens to climb aboard with the help of dolphins. They were terribly unprepared for the woman they had tied up to sing to the sirens and beg them to help.

  Sirens are very very powerful when at sea; the ocean sings to them constantly and they take strength from her. There were nearly two dozen sirens. They wiped out the crew, leaving only the three captives alive. Their leader, a bare chested man with a crown of coral, demanded to know why she had sung to them. They offered her the mercy of drowning in their arms, so that she would feel only pleasure and no fear.

  She told them she was a siren, that her magic had been bound but if they removed her bracelet she would prove it. The leader did not believe her, and did not believe she was anything more than a weak nd-bound human. And so he made her an offer; she could go with them to safety, her and her child, but if she wished to, she would have to drown one of the survivors that they were still hunting. Her face hardened and she looked at the man next to her.

  “Him.” And without mercy or second thought, she called the water and drowned the man who had once been her husband. He had time to cry out her name once before the water surrounded his head. She watched him die, though one of the kinder sirens shielded her son so he did not see her. She felt a profound relief when he sagged to the ground, his life gone. The princess, in some ways, died with her husband. Only the survivor, the mother, the monster remained.

  The sirens took her to rest at an isnd, when it became clear she was unaccustomed to breathing water. She learned some of their customs, some of their practices, but asked to be returned to nd. They obliged, giving her a name to use should she ever find herself in trouble again.

  She was Dolphin’s Revenge.

  And they would tell her tale of revenge, redoubling their attacks against the ships of bck for their crimes against a siren.”

  Nereida ended her story. Her face was wet with tears that she didn’t remember shedding. Her body shivered, still caught in the memories. She dared to look up at Ael, risking her own heartbreak. Ael’s face was white and her eyes fred with anger. She was shaking. Nereida pulled farther from her, her heart shattering, until Ael reached out and took her hand. The siren paused, unwilling to break the connection.

  “Love…” Ael whispered, holding her other arm wide. Despite her fear and her pain, Nereida sought refuge in the Admiral’s arms. She closed her eyes, listening to the pounding heart of her lover. And she began to sob.