Chapter 17
After more fuming, Arlo finally gave Morvyn a list of tools and materials he would need to fix the virginal: a lengthy list of strings, wood, and other supplies. But the room remained tense.
Relief washed over my nerves when Nixie and Lumina entered the library. I needed reinforcements to keep these two from tearing out one another’s jugulars.
“Lumi, why don’t you escort the captain to his quarters,” Nixie offered, noting my unease.
“What?” Morvyn drawled, “But I was so excited to spend a little time with our new pet.” Morvyn smiled impishly. “I was going to teach it to fetch.”
Arlo cut the siren a deadly look. “I’ll fetch a blade and show you what an animal I am, you—”
“Enough.” A brilliant hum radiated from Lumina with a wave of her gold-finned hand, and Arlo lulled before my eyes, his face relaxing into that peaceful smile he’d borne when his ship was headed to its doom.
My stomach sank.
They could control a man with such ease.
“Thank you, Lumina,” Morvyn said.
“If only I could do the same to you, then you would finally stop talking so much,” she said, then left the library with Arlo in tow.
“Will he be safe?” I asked Nixie.
“Regrettably,” Morvyn said, inspecting his nails.
Nixie elbowed Morvyn, then her eyes softened. “I promise, on my life, that no harm will befall him, Elowyn. Along with the others.”
“I’ll escort you to your room, if you would like?” she added.
“I’d like to browse the books,” I said.
“Of course,” Nixie said. “Morvyn can escort you after—”
“I know my way to my room. I do not need an escort.” There was something else I needed to inspect in the library.
That faint glow from the day prior, pulsating gently like a heartbeat in blue upon the bookshelf, out of reach.
I hadn’t spotted it on this visit yet, but the captain had distracted me from scanning the shelves for its subtle gleam.
A look passed between Morvyn and Nixie that I knew carried a thought.
“You say I’m a guest here but you worry about me lingering in a library without a chaperone?” I pushed, but kept my features neutral, not letting on just how much I longed to be alone with whatever called to me from the bookshelf atop the mezzanine.
“You are an honored guest here,” Nixie said.
“Fine.” I glided past them, testing the statement and its bounds. “Then I will head to my room after I find something to read, unless I am not trusted to do so.”
“It is not you we distrust, Elowyn.” Nixie’s pink brow furrowed, telling me all that I needed to know.
Ice puddled in my gut.
“Am I in danger?” I asked with false bravado, although fear settled, frigid, in my spine.
“The kelpie, last night—those creatures do not dwell near Naiadon …” Nixie said reluctantly.
“Nixie, Hylos said—” Morvyn started, but Nixie cut him off.
“She needs to know. Elowyn, someone likely summoned it here.”
Back in my room, I noted another book at my bedside, likely placed there by Nixie’s webbed hands. She was persistent. Did she really believe I would find comfort here? Why give me a false sense of safety when Naiadon was clearly dangerous?
And how could she promise safety for the others when something lurked in the shadows, summoning beasts here? Either she lied or she was a fool. Maybe they all were. Either way, it was clear. Naiadon was not safe for any human.
I settled into the bed and skimmed the pages of the book.
The worn book had kept its pungent scent of ink, melded with sea salt.
The prose was old, with clunking words spelled differently than what I knew.
The story was of a woman who fell in love with a man she didn’t know was her betrothed.
It reminded me of the fairytales that preached the same morals to little girls.
Do as you’re told, marry the man your father tells you to, and be a dutiful wife.
Cedric haunted my mind and I shuddered. That loathsome look on his face when I slammed fists into his chest. I never thought you were foolish enough to not know your worth.
He was an idiot if he thought I was worth anything. Infernum, I couldn’t even convince my father I was worthy of spending more than a single night in his court.
If I returned to land, I’d be forced to wed him. Then Cedric would attempt to use me, as my father had tried to use my mother for an heir and failed. When I disappointed Cedric, I would be at his mercy.
The mere thought made my stomach roll.
Yet I was prepared to return to land, to warn my father of what was to come, all to save the people of Oakhaven.
Standing, I walked across the room, pressing my forehead to the cool glass, my mother’s prayer beads glinting in a stray sunbeam.
Nymphaea brought you to Naiadon to be saved.
Morvyn had been sincere when he said it.
Hylos seemed to believe it too. What if it was true?
What if the Guardians had saved me from my awful fate?
Fish darted in and out of beams of sunlight, snapping in silver, yellow, and orange.
No. That was a ridiculous thought. No Guardians would save me. I was nothing. No one. Title-less. Powerless. Born of a dead woman, her name struck from history. No Guardian had saved her. Such things did not happen.
Then there was the captain and his crew.
They needed to be saved. No Guardians would do that either.
Sure, the sirens were kind to me, but I could only imagine the nature of the crew’s confinement from the manner in which they treated Arlo even in my presence.
How maltreated was he when I wasn’t there to defend him?
I knew what I had to do. Save Arlo and his crew, and warn my father of what was below the seas. Save my country. Even if it would never save me.
A rap on my door pulled me from thought. I opened it and Lumina’s stunning face radiated back. “Hylos wishes for you to attend the deipnon tonight.”
“The what?” I asked.
She was dressed in a flowing yellow gown, her hair braided high above her head, with flecks of gold painted on her cheeks into her hairline.
“A deipnon. It is a social gathering where we eat and drink, then afterward all guests come together for what we call a symposion. It is a meeting of minds, accompanied by drinks, music—”
“Got it.” I stopped her. “Like a feast.”
“Yes, like a feast of sorts. Will you attend?” she questioned.
Hylos had said the night before that he planned to discuss Oakhaven at this very event. If I attended, then I could learn about his plans and tell my father that information as well.
“Yes, I will go.”
“Very good.” She walked past me into the bedchamber, two sirens trailing behind her. “You will need to be dressed appropriately.”
“Sure, come on in,” I said under my breath.
I sat on an ottoman across from the large, gold-filigreed mirror in the bathing chambers as the two Sirens pulled and brushed my hair and painted my face. They trilled with a song they passed back and forth over my head.
One siren with long swaths of violet hair painted my eyes jewel-blue with a delicate hand, and with a tacky substance placed small gems across my nose and cheeks over my freckles.
The other siren, her skin, eyes, and hair all a pale yellow, frowned as she attempted to tame my riotous red curls with elaborate plaits that pulled at my scalp. She wove them into a larger braid that swung behind my back.
“It may seem a bit pompous,” Lumina explained, “but it is fitting in siren culture to dress in this manner. We take pride in colors and show. We believe it honors the great Mother to emulate the variety of colors she paints her people and her ocean.”
I thought my hair and makeup at my father’s court was extensive, but this was a whole other level.
When they finished, I slipped into the dress Lumina selected for me. The fabric was gorgeous, like liquid-blue sapphires, vivid against my pale skin. The style was revealing, with a large slit in the skirt that revealed my pale legs. But it was stunning. I maneuvered the fabric to hide my curves.
Looking in the mirror, I saw the woman who peered back was completely transcendent.
“Yes.” Lumina nodded, looking in the mirror with me. “This will do.”
As we made our way to the deipnon, I paused, looking up past the glass arching overhead. Large creatures floated through the midnight waters, their forms glowing with a pale light, ruffling across the black water like hundreds of moons phasing through the night sky.
“The sirens call them jellyfish,” Lumina said, noting my wonder. “Incredible creatures, despite being so unusual. They’re quite beautiful.”
They were beautiful and unusual, as everything appeared to be below the sea.
“Have you enjoyed the books I’ve asked the servants to leave you?” Lumina asked.
“You’re the one leaving them for me?” I questioned, looking at her sidelong.
“Yes. They are not my usual reading material; I prefer nonfiction, but I thought stories from your land would help you adjust better. Books were a comfort to me when I first arrived at Naiadon. They allowed me to make heads and tails of this strange new world.”
Her finned hands twined at the front of her waist as we walked. “At first I was afraid, too. Most are. But up there …” she pointed above. She meant past the glass ceiling, past the expansive sea, and up on land. “There was only unhappiness for me.”
“You lived on land?” I asked.
“Yes, I was once human, born in the city of Guardian’s Watch,” she answered.
“But how are you a siren now?” I asked, looking at her finned hands and feet that gleamed in gold scales like the flesh of a golden fish.
“I was made. That is what we call it. When a human is turned into a siren.”
Humans could become sirens?
“Why?” What would make a person become a creature tied to the bottom of the sea for the rest of their life?
“I will tell you if you wish to know. I think it may help you see our people better, but I wish to warn you. My story is gruesome,” she said in her soft, tepid tone. “Many of the made sirens’ tales are, sadly.”
I nodded yes.
“Guardian’s Watch is a hard place to live.
As I’m sure you know. It is especially hard to live in when you are one of seven children and your family is impoverished, as mine was.
There was little work for me. So I, like many others, turned to begging.
On one evening, I was only a few coins short for a bowl of hot oats and I stayed out past nightfall.
I knew the streets were more dangerous in the dark and had heard stories about the dangers of the city at night, but food was all I could think of.
There is little room for logic when you’re starving. ”
Images of the dilapidated shacks leaning against one another, dusted in snow, came to mind as we walked through a stony section of hallway.
My eyes never left Lumina’s beautiful face as the siren light played tricks on her skin, reflecting in iridescent shades off her scales.
I couldn’t envision such a beautiful being on land, let alone in the wretched city outside my father’s castle.
“Most people ignored us. I wasn’t alone in my begging, but sometimes people were cruel.
They would spit, curse, or shove. But usually nothing violent.
That is, until they found me.” She swallowed hard, like she was there again, trying to gulp down the fear.
“Two large men who beat me nearly to death.”
My stomach soured.
She stopped in the middle of the hall and turned to me.
“I do not tell you this for pity or emotion. My story is not rare; many have similar ones here within Naiadon. I tell you so you will see the mercy of the sirens. Their inherent goodness. Those men dumped what little was left of me into the Nettle River and luckily, my body drifted to the sea. There, a Circle of sirens found me and made me.”
My heart ached for Lumina, but another emotion burned far hotter. Anger. This atrocity happened in Oakhaven, in my father’s realm. No food? No law? No one stopping a little girl from being beaten in public?
“That never should have happened to you.” It was all I could offer her. Empty apologies. Because my father allowed such reprehensible things to happen in his country. In his great city. One of the wealthiest in the world. All while he hid behind his castle walls and feasted.
“Sirens are not perfect,” Lumina added. “We have our prejudices, our wars, our traditions that bind us to rules that are antiquated and illogical. Just as upon land. But here in Naiadon I can learn, I have adequate food, and comfort. Most importantly, I have peace.”
“At first, just like you, I was so afraid, angry even. Then I saw and learned and read of this world and others beyond it. Places I couldn’t even imagine, kindness I couldn’t even comprehend.
” She turned and walked on. “I often mourn my younger self, begging on the street, unable to even conceive of a place this beautiful because only suffering and misery surrounded her. But now, I dream enough for us both.”
I reached out to Lumina’s finned hand and squeezed it.
“Thank you for sharing your story with me.” I said.
A small smile sparked on her lips.
“Thank you for listening,” she said. “Now, are you ready, Elowyn, to face the greatest siren Circles of all three seas?”
“Ready as one can be,” I answered. And together we walked onward.