Chapter 23
In my bedchamber, I sank onto the plush bed, the softness enveloping me as fish glided past the large tracery window overlooking the open sea. I turned my attention to the sky-blue journal in my hands, running a fingertip over the well-worn cover. I opened it and read.
I will love him for the rest of my existence and beyond.
Even if that love existed for only a single breath, I would love him again and again, no matter how short-lived or how much the circumstances changed.
Because the nights beneath the sea in Naiadon are when I feel truly at home.
Each morning I curse the sun for its betrayal, for shedding its light on my reality, and damn the Guardians for making me human and he siren.
The world seems bent against us, forcing me to leave Aegir each night.
Aegir. Hylos’s father. This journal belonged to his lover. Was it Hylos’s mother? Was she … human? Was that even possible?
A knock rapped on my door. Quickly, I jammed the journal under my pillow and stepped across the room.
I opened the door to Nixie and Lumina.
“Morvyn said you were up for a picnic, still care to join us?” Nixie asked, a white woven bag slung over her bare shoulder like we weren’t hundreds of feet below the sea. Like I wasn’t the daughter of a king they called enemy, and they weren’t creatures I’d only heard of in holy prayers.
Lumina stood beside her in a filmy yellow gown.
It was another opportunity to explore this place and maybe find an escape. I nodded in agreement. “Sure.”
As we walked through the castle, it was apparent that the news of the human royal in Naiadon had broken.
Eyes followed me intently as we walked through the halls, more so than when I was merely the human woman wandering freely among the sirens.
Whispers followed in our wake, pricking my skin.
A human royal in their midst was clearly more interesting.
Especially one they believed could aid their regent in a war against her father.
We turned into a section of the castle I hadn’t seen yet and ascended a grand staircase, the stone steps broad but shallow. How far was I from Arlo and his men here?
The air felt warmer with each step upward, and then a familiar sound warbled in the distance. My heart faltered and my eyes grew wide; the birdsong I’d heard in the library. Did something else glow and sing for my touch? Lumina and Nixie looked at me knowingly. So they heard it too.
“Is that—?” As if answering my question, the birdsong rang true.
Nixie smiled at me brightly. Even Lumina’s lips drew upward.
I hurried up the stairs two at a time until they flowed to rolling, clover-covered hills, skyward glass bowed above, and the blue-green sea beyond it.
The room brimmed with sunlight and was teeming with life.
The sun made the space warm, like a giant greenhouse, as birds trilled and dove through oak trees.
“We thought you might miss home, and this is as close as we’ve got here in Naiadon,” Nixie said beside me. Lumina stood on my other side.
“How are there birds here?” I asked in awe.
“Hylos’s mother cherished the sound of birds in spring,” Lumina said as we walked out into the glade. “Aegir created this place and brought them here for her.”
The clover-covered ground, lush and soft, pressed against the bare arches of my feet.
“Love brought them here,” Nixie said.
“But how did he get them down here?” If all this life could get here, surely there was a way for me to leave this place with a crew of men in tow.
Nixie stopped and spread the blanket on the ground under an oak tree.
I craned my neck to admire its reaching limbs against the sea-sky. It was purely magical that it stood rooted here at all.
“It isn’t clear. But I’m sure he invoked something similar to your bracelet. He was a very powerful siren,” Lumina answered as we gathered on the blanket.
“Is that—” A hum buzzed by my ear as a fat, happy bumblebee zipped by. “Are those bees?”
“Yes,” Lumina said. “The glade is a fully functioning garden. We have an apiary, two dozen fruit trees, and of course, many florals. We crafted an ecosystem and each living creature plays its part in maintaining the grounds. The bees pollinate the flowers, the flowers grow then perish, fertilizing the ground, the birds eat other bugs found here, and on some days water will collect and it will even rain. Those are my favorite days.” The sound of life was music to my ears.
“After Aegir left,” Lumina continued, “it went by the wayside, but I’ve been working on getting it back into shape, along with some others. Made sirens, like us”—Lumina nodded to Nixie—“especially cherish this space. A parcel of land but on our terms.”
They were both made. How many other sirens here were like them?
Nixie pulled out a bundle of silk, untied it, and revealed red gems of jellied sweets coated in powdery white. She offered me one. “Love created the glade, and now love keeps it alive,” she said.
Lumina’s proud smile waned with a touch of mourning. Something in this space was bittersweet for her, and I wondered if it was because of how close it likely was to Hylos’s own heart. How close he himself was to her heart.
“This place is amazing,” I said, stuffing the treat in my mouth, the sugar powder sticking to my fingers.
“It is,” Lumina admitted, her eyes closed and head lolling back, savoring the sun’s blessing.
All of this, the castle, this glade, for Hylos’s mother. The woman whose journal I may have found in the library.
“Hylos’s mother enjoyed birdsong, and Aegir created this very castle for her; is that because she was human?” I asked.
Lumina and Nixie exchanged sidelong glances.
“Why do you ask?” Lumina asked.
“I’m curious, mostly. What kind of remarkable woman meets then convinces a siren king to build all of this for her?” But more importantly, how did she get here, and did she leave here alive?
The pair remained silent as around us, sirens enjoyed the glade, their strange coloring more vibrant here as they walked or lounged on blankets in clusters, relishing the sun.
A pair of red siren children, one a tall, gangly boy and the other a slender girl, both with matching glossy black hair, ran past our blanket in fits of giggles.
“Little is known of his mother,” Lumina said in a dismissive tone.
“Was she made as you were?” I asked.
“No, she was human, and remained human from what we know.”
“Let’s start with some siren basics. The birds and the bees as they say,” Nixie said, splaying a finned hand in Lumina’s direction.
“What?” Lumina asked.
“Well, tell her.”
“Why do I have to explain everything?” Lumina scoffed.
“Because you know everything, Lumi,” Nixie said as she stuffed another sweet in her mouth, a bit of powder left on her rose-colored lips.
“That is absurd, I do not know everything. That would be impossible.” Lumina rolled her big brown eyes. “But I will, as long as you do not interrupt me. I hate when you and Morvyn interrupt me when I speak.”
“Of course. If you keep it short and sweet. No rambling on about too many particulars.”
“Fine.” She let out a huff that shook her long brunet braids. “But the complexities of siren genetics and mating especially in relation to other species isn’t exactly a simple topic to cover, considering—”
“You’re already doing it,” Nixie interrupted.
Lumina looked at her flatly, then continued, “I’ll start with those like Nixie and me, the made sirens, created by siren invocation or magic as you know it. When you’re made, you may no longer have children. Sirens call this the sacrifice. We are essentially sterile.”
Nixie fidgeted at the statement. The topic of children seemed to make her uncomfortable, as it had when Calypstra brought it up in the grotto as a sort of dig at Nixie.
Lumina realized her unease too, and placed a gentle hand on her knee. “Sorry,” she said softly.
“It’s fine, keep going,” Nixie said, and tried to smile.
“We relinquish the creation of life to Nymphaea for our new life below the sea.” Lumina continued, “Then there are the sirens who are born, like Raylik and Morvyn, their parents both sirens. They’re believed to be the most pure of our kind, often Circle leaders or influential members of inner circles.
” But not Hylos’s inner circle, I noted; they were a mixture of made and born sirens.
“And on exceedingly rare occasions, our kind come from the love of humans and sirens.” Lumina looked at the children with me.
“The children of human and siren relations often perish before they quicken in the womb, especially if the mother is human, as Hylos’s was.
We don’t know her name; it’s not written anywhere, and Aegir was careful to keep it a secret.
He referred to her as the queen of Naiadon.
The first human to ever be given a title below the sea in written history. ”
Lumina paused and looked up. The scales on her cheeks shone in the sunbeams as she lifted a finned hand to block out the rays.
“Which upset many. Aegir had already united the sea, which was a new thought in itself, and then he essentially crowned a human, refusing to be with a pure siren, or forge a worthy match with someone of his status like a Circle leader’s daughter or sister.
It was very contentious. Many assumed unfruitful.
Until of course one day, Hylos appeared here as a baby. ”
Lumina let out a breath and Nixie sat up, crossing her legs before her and pulling them in as if for protection.
This story made them uneasy.
“But only Hylos appeared here in Naiadon, out of thin air, and his mother was never seen again.”
“Aegir was devastated,” Nixie added.
“There is no written account of his feelings,” Lumina stated factually, “but some state he searched for her on land for years.”
Nixie interjected, “Hylos grew up without a mother, and with a father who was absent for most of his life.”
“Records of that time period also showed taxes went uncollected, and rebellions broke out.” Lumina stated the hard facts rounded in sadness. “It was chaos. Then one day Aegir vanished.”
“Vanished?” I asked.
“Gone, without a trace. Hylos was only fifteen, and after months of the king’s absence, Aegir’s trusted inner circle named Hylos the regent in his father’s stead,” Nixie said.
“We weren’t here then.” Lumina shook her head, hurt settling in her eyes. Like it was a crime she was guilty of. When she was likely too busy going through her own hardships in Oakhaven.
“But Hylos had Raylik and Morvyn at least,” Nixie said. “Can you imagine?” She elbowed Lumina playfully, trying to shake the sadness brimming in her eyes. “This place must have been a disaster! Hylos as regent of all three great seas, with Morvyn at his side.”
Lumina let a smile slip.
Nixie giggled, twinkling in pinks in the sunshine. “Sacred Mother, this place probably smelled like a brothel and those three had to be drunk off their asses every night.”
“At least Raylik was around to keep them in order,” Lumina added.
“He was probably so relieved when we arrived.” They both laughed now, light reflecting off their skin and dancing around us on the spread blanket as they leaned into one another.
The little siren girl in front of me stuck her tongue out at her brother. A melodic chime followed, and water whipped through the air, splashing his face.
He scowled, wiping a wet black lock from his forehead.
“They match in coloring, like Raylik and his cousins,” I said, pointing my chin at the two.
“Very observant,” Lumina praised. “Sirens usually inherit their coloring from their mothers, originally for camouflage. For example, those from the ancient Twynox lineage, who stay in the deep sea and don’t mingle with other Circles often, have kept their original gray and black hues.”
“They don’t get out much,” Nixie joked.
“But here in Naiadon you will see sirens of all coloring. But relatives often have correlating coloring. As you likely share your mother’s eyes or father’s hair.”
I was all my father. I knew that. From my red hair to my amber eyes.
The two children ran around in circles, giggling. How different my life would have been with a sibling, with a family, especially with a brother.
Then maybe my mother would still be alive.
Summer 5339 AT
45 days away from Naiadon. Away from Aegir.
Each night marked with innumerable tears.
The grave look on Aegir’s face when I finally appeared at our meeting spot, a cove on the Nettle River beside Guardian’s Watch, was horrendous.
I never want him to feel that agony again.
I know in my soul that he came for me each night.
I knew he waited for me. He would for eternity.
Tonight, he pleaded with me to stay in Naiadon for good.
He spoke of marriage, a wild thought considering his people do not even believe in such things, but he said he would marry me if it meant I would stay, and he would make me a siren, like the other sirens here.
But his unwelcoming court already looks at me like a scourge.
If Aegir married a made siren it would topple all he has worked for, surely.
But I know him, he wouldn’t care. He spent his life building this powerful kingdom below the sea and he would give it all up in a heartbeat for me. A love like that is dangerous.
I cannot stay. His purpose is to rule his people, and mine is to elevate my family. I am young and, many say, beautiful. With the proper match, my family will rise in ranking. I cannot stay in Naiadon past dawn, even if it is where my heart dwells.
Aegir sleeps soundly now, in his bed, and I lie next to him, writing in this little journal, listening to his breathing. How can one man be so perfect?
How will I ever tell him I’m to be married? A match too great for my father to reject. That if I don’t marry him, if I were to disappear and never return to shore, my family would surely be in grave danger.