Control is a lie minds tell #2
It didn’t take long for James to return to the boat and for Meridan to be rowed to shore. She had her dagger on her hip, same as me, and her hair was pulled into a tight bun and tied with leather string. She looked fairly confident considering the circumstances.
“Did James tell you?” I asked her.
She nodded and then shrugged one shoulder. “I suspected as much as we sailed up.” She stepped closer to me, whispering as her eyes flicked toward Vidar. “How does he feel about this?”
“Exactly as you’d expect,” I said.
“Here,” James offered, handing me one of his thick rings. “Addison gave it to me the day I left on the Burning Rose. Might convince her you’re telling the truth. You know… if she’s still there.”
I slid the ring onto my thumb for safekeeping. “If she’s there, I won’t give her a choice on whether or not she comes with us.”
The corner of his mouth quirked. “Can’t really tell if that’s reassuring or not, but I trust you, I suppose.”
I turned to see Vidar unbuckling his cutlass from his belt.
Instead of handing it to me, he stuck it into my belt instead and secured the leather straps, forcing me to take it.
It smelled strongly of hemsbane. He bathed the thing in hemsbane oil now and again, keeping it saturated in the herb.
The smell itself wasn’t deadly to sirens, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant either.
“I will wait here,” he said, tightening my belts like I hadn’t just adjusted them accordingly. “And before dark, if you have not returned, I will come looking for you.”
“No, you must go back to—”
He jerked on my belts, pulling me closer to him. “I will come looking for you.” Taking my jaw in his hand, he whispered, “If you do not like that thought, then find Addison and get back here before nightfall. Understand?”
The way he demanded I come back made every muscle yearn to appease him. I felt like I had no other choice. I didn’t, if I thought about it. Vidar could not come looking for me, so I had to abide by his wishes. Find Addison. Return to the beach. Get back to the ship. It was the ideal plan.
If Lune was feeling merciful, no one would die in the process.
“I will return before nightfall,” I nodded. “Captain.”
Leaving Vidar and the others at the beach felt oddly relieving and worrying at the same time. I was concerned something or someone would find them and I was thankful they weren’t following us into what was likely a hellscape.
Meridan and I hiked along the water’s edge, unsure whether to look inland or toward the sea. When we reached the docks, the scent of rotting wood and death permeated the salty air. Coiled ropes were tangled on the soggy, wood planks and old blood had stained the grains.
“No bodies,” Meridan pointed out.
“Not yet.”
Off the docks was the road leading toward the town. My leather boots barely made a sound on the packed soil and Meridan’s bare feet didn’t make any sound at all. We were subtle, but someone or something was likely to notice us eventually.
We were getting closer to the buildings, but the sinking feeling that we were walking into a trap had not ebbed.
The sun fought to pierce the clouds, but Dornwich wasn’t like the sunny shores of Gilly Pine.
It was a drab place. After we passed a few buildings on the outskirts, I noticed that Meridan had her hand resting on her knife.
I hadn’t even realized that mine was also resting on my belt, my fingers coiled around Lady Mary’s hilt.
Bronze weapons had cut down hundreds of my kind and there I was clutching one, ready to unsheathe it at the first sign of danger.
The road was straightforward. It only had one direction and turned into brick once we were fully in the town. Still, we saw no one. Wagons were parked with no horses. Shops looked abandoned, their shutters closed. Ahead, I could see the church steeple and continued on, intent on reaching it.
A rhythmic clopping sound drew my eyes. I stopped, my arm jutting out to halt Meriden as the noise drew nearer.
We waited, sidestepping toward a building just as a large, cream-colored horse trotted out of an alley, shaking its tangled mane to one side of its thick neck.
It had the ropes of a makeshift halter on its long face, the short lead dragging on the ground.
When it reached the edge of the street, its front hoof caught the muddy rope, yanking the animal’s head down and startling it.
I stepped toward it, holding a hand out to calm the beast as I reached for the lead. It threw its head up, nostrils flared. As it did, I caught the rope and lightly tugged.
“Dahlia,” Meridan warned.
Slowly, the horse stopped tramping its hooves on the bricks, snorting loudly as I slowly pulled it closer. When its velvety nose touched my fingers, a sense of victory and relief washed over me.
“You lost?” I muttered at the beast.
“Aren’t you afraid of it?” Meridan asked.
I stroked my hand down the length of the horse’s head. “No more afraid than he is.”
I looked at Meridan and found my eyes drawn past her to a young girl standing in the alley from which the horse had come. She was dressed in rags, her face streaked with blood. Knotted brown hair was tied over her shoulder, tangled in the length of the ribbon she’d used to gather it into a braid.
Meridan followed my gaze to the girl, her hand poised on her knife again.
“Meridan, don’t.”
She stepped away, giving the girl space. Her eyes were sunken like she hadn’t eaten in days. She was staring at the horse, her hands clutching the soiled edges of her skirts.
“This your horse?” I asked.
She nodded, but no words came out.
I walked the horse toward the girl, watching her eyes glimpse my weapons for a moment before she settled her gaze on me.
“What is your name?”
She didn’t look intent on answering me. Doing my best not to frighten her off, I held the rope out to her. She extended her hand, opening her fingers so her palm was facing up and I dropped the lead into her grip.
“Where is your family?”
Nothing. She just watched me, her eyes big and analyzing.
“Do you think she cannot speak?” Meridan asked.
The girl’s eyes shifted toward her, growing larger. She had likely never seen anything like Meridan. Any normal person would gawk at her ghostly form, but she seemed less surprised and more… suspicious.
“What happened here?” I asked. I wanted an answer. Something. Anything.
Then, as if I’d pulled my blade and lunged at her, she dropped her mouth open, and a shrill scream ripped its way up her throat.
It was loud and long-winded, hitting my ears with force.
Meridan stepped back, pulling her blade out of its sheath.
The girl didn’t run. She didn’t take a breath.
Her scream continued. Her hand loosened and the rope dropped from her grip onto the ground.
The horse reared up, galloping away from the deafening noise.
I looked around, expecting things to come out of the shadows to greet us. Our subtlety had been ruined. I rushed forward, grabbing the girl and shoving her frail body against the wall, my palm clamped over her lips.
“Stop, girl,” I hissed.
Meridan ran up beside me, her eyes scanning for threats.
“What is she doing?” she whispered.
“I don’t know.”
The girl stopped her screams and stilled, her eyes staring up at me, unblinking.
Her pupils were large and her skin was ashen.
Slowly, I pulled my hand from her mouth.
The expression I saw on her was not the living sort.
She had a pulse, but her soul seemed to have left her already.
The scent of blood and urine was woven into the fibers of her dress.
“You will not speak to me, will you.”
It wasn’t a question. I knew. Her will hadn’t been her own for some time.
“Someone used the voice on her,” Meridan deduced. “For what?”
“I don’t know.”
“To alert us to intruders,” a voice spoke, feminine and unfazed. The two of us spun to find a tall woman standing on the road behind us wearing a long, cotton shift with a muddied hem. Her dark eyes slowly swayed from me to Meridan and then back to me with a cock of her head. “Like yourselves.”