An Affinity For Fire

34. Heleonne

"And you're absolutely sure you've never been in love before?" Leo asked for the third time, to which he received the same irritated glare.

"I think I'd remember," Tarragon said.

"I just want to be completely certain," he said. "This won't work otherwise. The sirens won't come onto land if they realise you're not seduced."

Tarragon grimaced. "Can you please not use the word 'seduced'? These are fish we're talking about."

"Wait until they start singing," Clover said from behind him, working on an intricate knot in the rope wound round him and a piece of driftwood they'd staked into the sand. "As soon as that happens, you're going to want those fish all over you."

Tarragon's face screwed up. "That is not helping!"

"All done," Clover said, ignoring Tarragon's disgust. She took a step back, hands on her hips, and admired her work. She'd wrapped the rope around him so many times, his upper arms were completely hidden. It couldn't have been comfortable, Leo thought, but at least it looked relatively secure.

"Try to escape," Leo said.

Tarragon frowned at him. "Why?"

"Because once you've been sed-" he stopped, noticing the way Tarragon's eyes anticipatorily narrowed in warning. "Once you are ... under their influence, you'll do everything you can to get to the water. We need to make sure you can't, so that they're forced to come to you. Well, and so you don't die. That too."

Tarragon sighed. "Fine." He started to shuffle half-heartedly, kicking at the sand, trying and failing to lift himself from his sitting position.

"Come on, you can try harder than that," Clover goaded.

With a groan, Tarragon struggled harder against his restraints, shoulders squirming as he tried to wriggle his arms free. At one point, it looked like he'd managed to get his feet under himself, but when he tried to stretch his legs and stand, the ropes prevented his upper body from lifting, and he flopped back down, wincing as his backside slammed into the damp sand.

He shot Leo an indignant glower. "You are enjoying this way too much."

"I don't know what could possibly have given you that impression," Leo said, with a barely restrained grin.

"Alright, I think we can conclude that I'm not going anywhere."

"Good," Clover said. "The sun's setting, Leo and I should go and hide."

 "Good luck," he said, before turning and glancing up at Leo. "And if I do get eaten alive by murderous kissing fish, there's something I want to say to you first. You may be the most annoying person I've ever known, and ever since I met you, my life has been nothing but a relentless series of narrowly avoided disasters."

Leo waited for him to continue, but Tarragon didn't fill the pause. "Is ... that it? You made it sound like there was a 'but'."

"Oh, no, there's no 'but'. That's it. That's the speech."

Leo nodded. "Short, accurate, from the heart. I like it, good speech."

"Any profound last words for me?" Clover asked.

"Don't let me bloody die."

Clover snorted. "Okay, but wouldn't it be funny if those actually were your last words?"

Tarragon gave her a deadpan stare. "It's reassuring to know that the thought of my death is so amusing to the person whose hands I've just put my life in."

Clover rolled her eyes. "Alright, calm down, you're not actually going to die."

"I don't know," Tarragon said. "I mean, this is an ambitious, dangerous and extremely poorly conceived plan."