The Sea Siren

Chapter Forty-Six

Vivian

Cracked coral scattered along the shoreline splinter through the tough leather of my boots, the underside torn right to my flesh. My eyes, as they have every minute or so, dart backwards anxiously to the towering kingdom.

The palace along the mountains and winding streets is ominous under the cover of dark, rolling clouds. The squall has nearly settled but the darkness remains.

And when the bells begin to ring, a warning from the palace of trouble, I could swear, the world around me becomes black. Black as night.

I don't know how I made it off the king's corpse, how I found my way through the secret tunnels that spit me out right along the beach. The harsh wind picks up the sand around me and my body is weak enough to sway with it, each step more difficult than the next.

All energy I conjured up is depleted.

My actions are a rattled haze, decisions my own mind can't seem to live with as it tries so desperately to forget.

Just keep moving.

"Just keep moving," I echo my mind hoarsely, stumbling through boulders, turning my gaze onto the sea.

Your crew wait beyond the splintered path.

The guard told me they are here. My people.

They will make you right. They brought you back once... they can do it again, can't they?

I close my eyes, wincing to make the voices stop but they continue to come.

Clang. Clang.

Like a shadow following my footsteps, the carillons continue to peal, the sound rolling across the coarse waves smashing into the shoreline.

I search desperately for the Orion but she's nowhere to be seen.

Just keep moving, Vivian.

It's an order to myself, a desperate last attempt as my knees weaken, buckling defeatedly. There are only a few steps left in me yet. Gasping, feeling the harsh air blow through the various holes the kingsmen left in me, I stretch out my strides until I have none left.

I fall with a painful thump, cheek buried in the hot sand.

"Just... keep..."

As my eyes flutter closed, darkness my first sign of relief, I lose sense of time.

It could be a minute.

Could be a day.

But hands capture my arms, muffled cries blurred by my fight with consciousness.

"My God, look at her!" I hear someone shriek.

A deeper voice, laced with horror, follows. "Pick her up! Hurry, before they come! Be careful!"

I'm weightless suddenly, wrapped in the warm comfort of arms. A body.

I cling to it, to my rescuer, tasting my own tears. "An... Antony."

He doesn't answer.

In my mind, he's fresh. His face is silhouetted by the sun, his smile as radiant as the rays of light. The man brings me into water but not for long. He sets me onto something hard.

We're rocking.

They're rowing.

"Faster! They can't see the ship!"

The ship.

I smile, at least in my mind.

The waves block out the rest, exhaustion too powerful to overcome. I surrender to any darkness that befalls me, craving it. It quiets me.