A Pirate Melody

Chapter 7

When I finally awaken, I feel a warm sensation spreading across my forehead. It sends a wave of relaxation throughout my body and I lean into it.

"You are awake. Great! I have brought you something to eat. Food works wonders on a healing body. " I turn my head to see Arianna sitting on the edge of my bed. I move my hand from behind my back to get a piece of hair out of my face and I am surprised that the rope has been removed. Someone must have taken it off while I was sleeping. I grab the bowl that Arianna is handing over to me. It is filled with oatmeal.

"What a night you had." I hear a hint of pity in her voice. "I do have some good news for you. Your concussion is healing even better than expected. It should not be worse than a mild headache today." Arianna takes a pause and furrows her eyebrow. "I'm sorry but I just realized. I have forgotten to ask for your name."

"It's Lucia." I say in between bites of oatmeal.

"Well, Lucia. The captain said he wants to see you when you wake up. So, try to make your way down there after you eat. I also brought you this." She hands me a white blouse, a brown knee length skirt and a pair of knee high boots. "To change into. Figured you would want to wear more than just the captains shirt."

She stands up and runs her hands across her dress to get the wrinkles out.

"I will leave you alone to change then."

"Wait!" I say before she walks out the door. She looks over her shoulder at me with her hand on the doorframe.

"Do you really specialize in curses?" I ask. She turns back around and enters the room again.

"That is my specialty. I study the treatment and removal of magical curses." She responds.

"Is it true that I am not actually cursed?" I have a little bit of doubt in my voice. She walks over and sits back down on the side of the bed.

"I could not detect any curse placed on you." I have mixed feelings upon hearing this. I am relived that I can finally talk to people and there is a chance that I can live like everybody else. But there is also a sadness. I was kinda hoping a little bit that maybe my grandmother was telling the truth. That maybe those years of staying silent were not for nothing. Arianna grabs my hand and I look up at her.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"When I place my hand on your forehead, I am not only searching for physical harm to the body. I am also detecting if there is any magical damage done to the body as well. When someone is cursed you can sense an aura of dark magic from the person. You did not have any dark magic in your body, so you do not worry about being cursed" she said with kindness and professionalism in her voice. You can tell she has training delivering bad news to people.

"Oh. Thank you for telling me." I say sounding someway defeated. " I guess I better get dress and ready to talk to the captain."

Before letting go of my hand Arianna adds "If you need anything at all or just need someone to talk to you know where I am." I give her a small smile. She gives me a small smile in return before she leaves the room.

I get dressed and make my way over the the Captain' office. The door is ajar, so I give a little knock and I pop my head in. I see him look up from the paper that he is scouring over.

"I was wondering when you would finally wake up. I thought you were going to sleep all day. Come in and close the door behind you." I do as he says then I sit down in the chair in front of his desk.

"I made some plans for you." he says while putting the paper back down on his desk. "I assume that since you did not know you were a siren that you do not know about your magical abilities."  I give a little scoff and an eye roll at his comment. Of course I do not know, but I also do not  want to dignify that assumption with a response. After a short pause, he continues.

"As a siren you should be able to enchant people with song. A sirens song has the ability to enchant all who hear. It can start wars, start mass panic, or drive a person to madness."

"What do you expect me to do with this information?" I retort. It seems kinda dumb to provide me with this knowledge. He must want something out of it.

"I need you to perfect this ability as soon as possible." I furrow my eyebrow and side eye him. Why would I work hard to perfect this for him?

"Now don't think that there is nothing in it for you. We would make a deal. If you try your hardest to prefect this ability and do so quickly. Trust me, I would know if you are slacking. Then do as I request just for the next six months, I will let you go. Drop you off wherever you want. Never to see me again. How does that sound to you?"

"Let me guess. The alternative is death?"

"It seems like you are catching on quite well. Sounds nicer though when phrased like an agreement. Don't you think? "

"Fine. I'll take your deal. But, what is to stop me from using this power on you? To take over the ship and send myself home?"

"We got it handled. You are not the only siren that we ran into on the seas. There are plans already in place. Also, if you try to compel all of us, indescribable torture will follow."  Shoot. There goes that idea. At least, six months is not that bad. That is if I don't managed to escape earlier.

"Time for your first lesson." He picks up a quill. "Make me give this to you. Command me." I focus. I try to connect my mind to his mind.

"Give me the quill." I command in a monotone voice. He does not move an inch.

"Siren's songs are beautiful and melodic. That does not even qualify as a song." He sounds a bit irritated. I focus again trying to shoot the command from my eyes to his head.

"Giiiiiive meeeeee the quiillllll." I sing this time. It is not really in tune and each word is pretty much the same note. He puts the quill down on the table and sighs.

"That is enough of that for me. Go down to the brig and sing for the prisoners. Compel them to fall asleep or something." I supposed that is it for trying to compel the captain. I guess I can take my leave now.

"Is that all?" I ask.

"One more thing. Make sure you come back daily to update me on your progress." I roll my eyes. What a pain.

"Sure thing. Whatever you say."

I get up and down exit his office. Time for me to head down to the brig.