19. Chapter 19 #2
The wind blew in my face, the sail snapped, and my hand ached where I gripped the steering oar. Was there any way I would actually find them? It seemed impossible, but impossible wasn’t an option. If I lost Lyri…
I kept sailing, fueled by fear and betrayal, my heart twisted so tightly in my chest that I felt it ripping at the seams. When the position of the sun and the shoreline told me I was close to my destination, I looked around, fiercely hoping to see another small boat bobbing close by.
I turned and looked and then turned and looked again.
I sailed a little farther, my breathing becoming more ragged by the second, then I stood precariously on the bench and studied the horizon, hoping for a glimpse of anything.
There was nothing.
I stepped off and sat down on the bench hard. I was afraid to go too much farther in case I overshot their position, but how could I possibly know where to go?
A splash to my right drew my attention, and when I looked to locate the source, shock rocked my whole body.
A woman’s head and shoulders showed just above the water.
What was it with women being suddenly dropping into my ocean? Had she come from Branfrie like Lyri had, or was she…
My eyes dropped from her face to look beneath the surface of the water.
The water was clear and her silver tail reflected the sunlight, making it glitter in the current.
My jaw flapped, useless. She was a mermaid, but not the one who had saved me months ago.
Melody had distinct red hair and bright green eyes.
This creature had black hair, and her eyes were a startling blue.
Her hands, arms, and shoulders were bare, but I noticed that the silver scales of her fin extended up her abdomen and covered her chest, trailing off at her clavicles.
“What is your name, Prince?” she asked, the words almost a song.
“Tavric,” I choked out, blinking hard to see if the ethereal image would vanish.
“My name is Saskia. Are you looking for the girl?” she asked.
I stared wide-eyed for several moments before her question slotted into place and hope surged. “Yes,” I blurted, leaning on the edge of the boat, anxious for more information. “Did you see her?”
“A man took her. He’s looking for the portal.”
Having my worst fears confirmed sent a blast of horror through my whole body and I felt suddenly weak. “Where? Where?! You must show me!”
She backed away a little, and I realized I’d been shouting.
I tried to calm myself, but it was impossible. “Please. Will you help me?”
“Yes, but you will not be fast enough in your boat. Do you trust me?”
I hardly had a choice. “Yes.”
“Then come. I will take you to them. They are still searching.”
LYRIELLE
We’d been sailing a long time, and yet my strength was returning far too slowly.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was desperately hungry and thirsty.
Aunt Ethel may have held me prisoner, but she’d always fed me, especially if it had been a taxing day of healing.
My body had never been pushed to this limit, and it frightened me to feel so wrung-out for so long. I couldn’t fight if I had no strength.
There was a puddle of tears beneath my head, but Harlan had ignored every sob and all my begging. So when he spoke, it startled me. “Sing, Lyrielle.”
The request confused me. He wasn’t hurt, so what use was my singing? “Why?”
“We need to open the portal.”
“I don’t know how,” I snapped. How dare he demand anything of me right now.
“Don’t be dim. The portal operates on magic. You have magic. Sing,” he commanded.
I shook my head, frantic. “I can’t go back there.” My breathing was speeding up, getting out of control. “I won’t sing.”
He lunged toward me, causing the boat to rock. My head slammed into the bench behind me, but my cry of pain was cut short when Harlan grabbed hold of my chin, his cold eyes boring into mine. “You will, or I will throw you overboard with your hands tied.”
His cold glare and sharp threat washed me in terror.
“You can’t swim, can you?” he asked with a raised brow.
No, I couldn’t.
“And you’re too weak to even sit up, so I can’t imagine you have much strength to fight in the first place. So if you want to live, you’ll have to open the portal to save your own life.”
New tears streamed down my face, joining the rest.
His grip on my face intensified and he gave my head a shake, screaming in my face. “Sing!”
I tried to obey, but fear choked my voice.
He grabbed hold of me and dragged me up against the side of the boat, lifting me enough that he could shove my upper body over the edge.
I gripped the boat weakly, crying out in fear, trying to lean back into the boat, but his large hand held the back of my head, keeping it bent over the water. “Sing.”
I did so, singing over my own sobs, making up the words and the lamenting melody as I went.
Selfish. How can you be so selfish?
How can my life mean nothing?
My choice is a corpse upon the ground
My wants a shipwreck on the ocean floor.
“Keep singing,” he demanded as he let me go and returned to his seat to take the steering oar in hand. He searched our surroundings, studying the air around us and the water below. He raised his hand to shade his eyes and then adjusted the oar.
I kept singing as he turned the boat this way and that, hoping with everything in me that this wouldn’t work, that he wouldn’t find what he was looking for.
But all too soon, I heard him say, “I see it” in whispered awe.
Those words were a blade to my heart, and I summoned all my strength to lift my head and look out over the water. It was still a ways off, but the golden glow at the surface of the water was unmistakable.
“Keep singing!” he screamed as we sailed swiftly toward the portal.
You offer a choice that’s no choice at all
Fill my lungs with sea water
And welcome death
Or be sold, imprisoned, enslaved
You are no man, you are no man, you are no man.
On a different day and in a different world, the swirling magic that seemed to rise up from just below the surface would have left me entranced.
It didn’t spread very far; the glow was only as wide as a wine barrel, but I could feel the power of it pulling on me, like it envied my magic and must claim it for its own.
Harlan lowered the sail and used an oar to maneuver us alongside the shimmering light. Then he grabbed a rucksack I hadn’t noticed before and strapped it to his back.
TAVRIC
Holding on to a mermaid’s shoulders while being pulled through the water at shocking speeds was an experience I’d have to marvel at later. Right now, I was focused on the sailboat on the horizon, especially when the sail lowered.
“They’re stopping,” I choked out past the salt spray in my face. “Did they find it?”
“Take a breath, we’re going under,” Saskia said without any further explanation.
I managed to gulp a breath before she pulled us beneath the surface. My arms ached from trying to keep a grip on her slick shoulders, especially when we seemed to start going even faster, but I was grateful for the pain. It meant progress.
She brought us to an abrupt stop, still underwater, and my eyes popped open—then went wide as I saw a pillar of glowing…magic. That’s what it was; it had to be. Harlan had found the portal she had mentioned. It bubbled and sparkled at the surface and then faded as it reached down into the depths.
Saskia yanked on my arms again and we soon broke the surface of the water. The boat sat close by, bobbing back and forth. Harlan stood in it, throwing some sort of pack on his back.
“Why did you stop? I have to get to her,” I urged, haunted by the sound of Lyri’s singing as it warbled over the water.
“I can’t get any closer, or I risk being sucked into the portal.
I’m sorry, Prince. You’re on your own. Go.
” With that, Saskia gave me a shove in the direction of the boat, and I didn’t waste time wondering about the why or how; I just started swimming, my arms cutting through the water as Lyri’s singing stopped.
“Please, don’t do this,” she begged. “Please.”
“Keep singing or I’ll slit your throat here and now.”
I swam furiously, my blood boiling with anger, my heart torn open in fear. I was getting closer. If I could just get in that boat and get a hold of Lyri…
The disjointed sound of her singing filled my ears as I reached for the boat. I looked up in time to see Harlan cradling Lyri’s small form, and then they disappeared over the other side, right on top of where the water glowed gold with magic.
“No!” I shouted and dove under the boat, straight toward the light.