The Siren Queen

Chapter Sixteen

Nerissa bent over Lord Zale's frail, unconscious body, held both of his hands in hers, and wept like a newborn merbaby. Her hot tears momentarily warmed up the icy-cold water around them. "Zale...Zale..." was all she said as she gently stroked his long, jet-black hair.

She then started to softly sing "Mare Pacificum" to him. As she sang the ancient Pacifican folk song, she remembered how at her Ascension ceremony, she had dedicated the song to Zale, and gave a brief speech that called him her "confidante, anchor, and partner on this adventure". Nerissa most certainly still felt that way.

When she had finished singing, Lord Zale's dark brown eyes fluttered open. "Rissie..." he breathed.

The Crown Princess of Pacifica began crying again, but this time, it was happy tears that streamed down her pretty face. The nickname "Rissie" was like music to her ears, which were still plugged with kelp to protect her from the Siren Queen. She had dreamed of this moment for what seemed like forever and a day.

Even though Zale was still quite weak, he leaned in and kissed Nerissa on the lips. It was her very first kiss, and she thought it had been well worth the wait. His velvety soft lips tasted both salty and sweet at the same time.

After a little while, he finally pulled away. "Rissie...I never forgot about you...". He pointed to his ears, and then gestured toward the snow falling down from the ceiling. "The Siren's song stopped working on me weeks ago. Auntie Tempest greatly underestimated the power of a good earful of snow. I haven't eaten a halfway decent meal in ages, though, as my lovely aunt tried to force me to eat the rotting corpses of dead fish, calling it 'brain food', but of course I don't think any creature that has a brain deserves to be food. I saw you in my dreams every night, and there's absolutely nothing she can do to control my dreams, Rissie...".

Lord Zale paused for a moment and let out a sigh. "There is a way...I mean, Auntie Tempest did say she'd let me go home if..."

"If what...?". Crown Princess Nerissa's lovely blue-green eyes were shining with hope.

"Don't get too excited, Rissie...". He shook his head. "It's not an easy task. I don't know why exactly, but I have to complete a puzzle..."

"A puzzle...?" repeated Nerissa, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah...it's a 5000-piece monstrosity. The pieces are made of ice, and when complete, it'll spell out a phrase in Archaic Pacifican, a dead language that we both know was never my forte...and it only works if I complete it by the Winter Solstice..."

"Like how in those old human fairy tales my mother used to tell me, when I was a child...the wicked witch or dark fairy tells the hero or heroine that in order to break the spell, they have to complete some seemingly impossible task...and the hero surprises the villain by being clever enough to do it..." Nerissa said.

"The Winter Solstice is tomorrow, Rissie..." stated Zale gravely. "I've been trying to work on the darn thing for weeks, and it isn't even close to half done yet...I ended up passing out from the sheer exhaustion of working on that goddess-forsaken puzzle 24/7. I haven't slept a wink in nights..."

"If we work together, we can figure it out..." Nerissa insisted, squeezing Lord Zale's hand. "I'm sure we can..."

The puzzle sat on a tall ice table in the small room that Tempest had kept Zale in. Thousands of tiny pieces, which at first glance looked more like little ice crystals than traditional puzzle pieces, were scattered all over the table.

Nerissa studied the pieces carefully. "I'm not saying it's gonna be easy by any means...but if I look closely, I can recognize some Archaic Pacifican letters...". An hour later, she assembled one Archaic Pacifican word in the puzzle: "Pain".