Chapter 22 False Alarm
False Alarm
It’s been about a week since we released Little Bird.
I can tell Lir misses her, but we’ve been focusing on moving the rocks for the moat towards the ocean.
We’re taking a break with some mead I brewed from the honey at the bottom of the marmalade jar.
A good reprieve from sweating together. The bottles hiss from the compression when we pop off the repurposed corks.
I hold up the blue glass bottle in front of Lir, it looks like he’s trapped in a little aquarium, which is not too far off from reality.
I laugh as he moves and his face becomes warped and twisted like a fun house mirror through the bottles view.
Suddenly though, as I watch Lir, I see his face shift and my neck wrenches quickly to the shoreline. A small boat! I didn't see it or hear it on the horizon!
Fuck!
The two men with it are already walking across the dark rocks, they’re not here to just drop supplies.
They’re coming closer and I panic throwing my oversized newsboy hat onto Lir’s head.
Today is warmer and I have only a thin gauzy camisole over my top with my thick canvas pants rolled up over my bare feet.
Unlike when I first met Lir, I look clearly womanly and I've gotten too lax about it—and more importantly, Lir’s tail is sticking proudly out of the water.
I yell while grabbing his tail, “Ah! Just, um—look human!”
Without a moment to spare, when they are just far enough away to not see us very well, I jump into the water.
Pulling Lir’s tail in behind me, I take a big breath and duck below the water.
The tide pool is full of kelp and it blocks the clarity from above at least, as I struggle to keep from floating up I try to grip the sides of the rocks.
Lir’s tail wraps around holding me below the surface, hugging my torso tightly.
I panic a little wondering if he knows I can’t breathe underwater, but then I stop my struggle to listen to the multiple men’s voices above.
I stick my legs and feet out of the pool, crossing and uncrossing them trying to look like we are one normal body.
Nothing to see here—not a woman and a merman in a watery trench coat.
“Gentlemen.” Lir tips my hat towards them, covering his reflective eyes and otherworldly features.
“Rather rude of ya to stay in that tide pool, eh?” I can make the men out roughly through the wavy surface. “Even more strange than rude if you asked me,” says the shorter man. His gold teeth glinting through a snarl that tells us he’s been punched in the mouth a few times.
I feel Lir’s chest crunch up making his voice much more gravelly than the melodic tone he uses with me.
“I ain’t askin’ ya.” This causes the men to stop in their tracks.
I elbow Lir in the side, don’t be smart with them!
He continues in his sarcastic tone anyways, almost laughing under his breath from my weak jab.
“What? You’ve never seen a sailor nursing a mean hangover before with an ice water dunk?
” He holds up the pretty glass mead bottle.
“Are you a sailor or the lighthouse keeper? The latter is who we’re looking for,” says the tall, seemingly more sensible one of the pair.
“Both be I. Make it quick will you—you’re hurting my headache,” he says in a voice I’ve never heard. Like a mimic bird he matches their unnerving tone that has violence hidden poorly within it. His cadence is war drums that goad them against each other.
The taller one shrugs. “We’re just checking on who’s around here, that’s all.”
“Oh, really? An outpost that whales even hardly venture to—and you’re just checking it out? On whose orders then, eh?”
“A lot of questions coming from some useless drunkard!” The shorter man lunges a little towards Lir, but the other holds him back.
Lir hums in amusement as the men begin to squabble.
“Hey now, we’re not here for fighting—today.
” He swiftly pulls the other man by his shirt.
Cursing under his breath, “Goddammit man, I know you think you can win, but if you get your ass kicked I’m leaving you on this fucking rock.
” In reaction he angrily tightens his jaw, like this isn’t the first time his mouth has gotten him into trouble.
A cough starts to rise in my chest, I’m running out of oxygen and using all of my willpower to keep myself underwater, to not burst through the surface grasping for air.
Lir’s hand wraps around my neck, his nails pin pricking into the soft flesh.
He’s trying to keep me down and I can only barely fight against his grip.
I can gasp at little bubbles hidden beneath the large kelp leaves veiling me, but their air isn’t enough to sustain me as I lap at the tiny drops.
Lir’s heart is beating slow and calm, but thunderous against the back of my head. It lulls me into submission for just another moment. Luckily, I hear a storm begin in the distance and cold thick raindrops begin to break both the surface tension and the tension between the men.
“Come on, Jones. We were told to just scout it out and come back—” He shuts up knowing he already let too much slip.
“Some pretty stupid lackeys sent by whoever your boss is.” Lir says dragging his snarling tone across every word.
An animalistic growl churns around around between us that causes my stomach to flip.
“And, I think it’s about time you two just get the fuck outta here.
” If I wasn’t running out of air, I’d feel proud—he must have learned that word from me.
“What did you say to me? I ‘ought to come down there and beat the hang over outta ya!” The short man’s fuse is going quick as he yells back, compared to Lir he has more bark than bite though.
The other man grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him away. “Let’s get out of here, swells coming. We saw it’s here and that its just some squirrelly-legged-ass being the only one guarding it—Ah! What the hell was that?” He yelps as a gull dips down tearing a piece of fabric from his lapel.
Swarms of gulls are circling around and swiping by to peck at the men.
Pulling their hats off that the thugs have to quickly grab at to keep from being taken away.
Despite their efforts, the birds do pluck a few buttons off their coats and rip out a few hairs as they scream and bat at them. Thanks, Little Bird.
The taller one loses his composure completely as he’s swarmed by a flash of grey-tipped wings. “What the fuck! Come on Jones, let’s get back to the ship!”
Lir’s fingers tighten around my throat, holding me down under the water. The other hand scrapes against my cheek softly, a comfort to wait just a little longer. I count to ten and his grip finally loosens allowing me to burst out of the water.
Those men’s backs are far off and down by the decrepit dock already.
They made quick time running off, their hands gripping any loose belongings to keep the flying pickpockets from snatching it up.
A vest pocket chain glitters for a moment, but it slips out of the short one’s hands before disappearing into the cyclone of white above them.
Oh good, I wanted to get Little Bird a parting gift. That will suffice.
I see the two men getting back aboard their black miniature steam engine tug.
I don't like this, not at all. We’re too far out for anyone to just visit.
I watch as it leaves, not off in the direction of land but further north.
Further towards the direction of where that unidentified light had been—I can’t inhale, the air is stuck in my throat like hot wrought iron.
Lir’s voice cuts through the pounding in my ears. “I’m so sorry! In and out. In and out, Andrea. You are okay, yes?” He holds my wet face cupped in his hands as I catch up and pant too quickly, desperately trying to catch my breath. “Very good,” he whispers, breathing along with me.
He moves strands of hair from between my eyes and his last minute disguise does make him look like a normal man looking deeply at me.
Except, it’s mostly deep concern. “I don’t like those men.
Act human you say? I want to act like a shark and rip their heads off.
” Baring his teeth, he speaks as if what he’s about to admit disgusts himself.
“It almost makes me wish I had legs to chase those men across this rock. Almost—because wings seemed to work pretty well.”
The small smile that was just beginning to form in the corner of his mouth falls as he snarls, “They shouldn’t be coming here looking for you at all.”
“I don’t want anyone finding us here, and now that we’ve found—whatever that was in the basement, I’m scared because I don’t know if they told me everything before I came here.
” My voice shaking at a truth I’ve known all along, but thought would be under much different circumstances.
“Or if they even knowingly sent me as disposable,” I gasp, still catching my breath.
“If this is such a place to hold these sorts of secrets, how could they have just sent anybody here, a nobody like me?”
Then, I think back to even my small clerical position at the Mayor’s Office I held before I was married—
Yeah, the government would be stupid enough to send a nobody here.
Yes, they would have let it slip through the cracks, to not background check the person sent out to what could be one of the furthest…
and possibly most important outposts on this side of the continent.
I gulp in air and back down bile rising in my throat.
Yes, this level of lack of oversight is completely possible.
Fuck.
From what I’ve let my racing thoughts gather, but have been trying to ignore by kissing mermen all day, that machine down below probably has something to do with the messages the lens blinks.
It’s supposed to be just messages for navigation, but sometimes when I hear it clicking, the pattern of the lamp changes.
Those idiots, they put it under my protection. They just handed me a key, a maintenance logbook and dropped off some food every six months. They didn’t tell me to even be worried about anything other than a lightbulb turning on and off. It makes me want to scream and pull my hair out.
I can’t call on anyone to come, because if they do—I grip Lir’s shoulders, his strong arms barely budging beneath my desperate hands—Because he’s here. He’s really here. “Lir, from now on if you see anything on the horizon I want you to call out for me, and if I see anything I’ll call out for you.”
I can rely on him at least.
Lir sees the thoughts rapidly moving across my face. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you Andrea. Just like Little Bird.” He puts his hand up into the air and a small familiar gull wafts around his fingertips. “As long as you are in my hands, I’ll keep you safe.”
Even the wind feels warmer as he smiles at me. “If they ever come back—next time, we can disappear into the sea. Especially since you held your breath so impressively, like an otter. Maybe, I’ll be able to take you into the ocean someday after all.”
“Hell. No.” I just held my breath enough for one lifetime. Unless I am suddenly able to breathe underwater, I am not going back.
He shrugs up his shoulders and twists me around in the pool. I could stay like this forever, wrapped in his embrace. But, I watch that boat leave in the reflection of Lir’s eyes, and I am still afraid.