Riven Isles

26 | Syrens Blaring (Part One)

Lying on the floor, I stare at the shifting light on the ceiling, where the blue from beyond mixes with the orange of within and shifts like tides over the beach. Simon, on hands and knees, pushes a thick towel around the floor, muttering to himself as he cleans up his mess. He pushes up his sleeves.

Dr. Oswald lights his pipe and lowers himself to his thin mattress, watching the enchanted waters. Lydia threads a needle, which is a dangerous thing to do in a moving ship that could hit a shoal or a rock at any time.

From the deck, a fiddle rings out, striking up a good-hearted tune. I listen for it, muffled through the boards. It bounces off the cave walls and grows louder and sweeter, resonating with timbre as though in a theater.

"Celebrating, perhaps?" muses Lydia.

"Relieving some of the stress, I imagine," Simon suggests.

"My heart is just starting to unclench," titters the doctor, touching his chest. "I could do for some relieving, myself."

"Me, too," I agree. I lay a hand over my heart and the rapid pounding surprises me. I'd thought I was beginning to calm down. I take in a few deep breaths and the speed gradually reduces.

Then I see something in the water. A flash of gray. I sit up and smack my palms to the glass. "Was that a shark?"

Dr. Oswald chokes on his smoke.

A high pitch shrieking, like nails on a chalkboard, suddenly cuts at my ears, sharp as silver. I screech and slap my hands over them, but it's too loud and too high and too terrible.

Dr. Oswald stands up as though struck by lightning. His pipe drops to the floor. The ashes shoot out like grapeshot. "It's beautiful," he whispers.

Simon sits back and looks pointedly at the man. Lydia looks puzzled.

He stood up too fast.

"Beautiful? It's the worst sound I have ever heard!" I cry, almost in tears at the grating.

"That's very rude, Walter," Lydia scolds.

"She has perfect pitch," Simon snips. He makes eye contact with me and jumps as though I've startled him.

"She has the voice of an angel," the doctor swoons, pressing his hands over his heart as though to hold back the pressure of his sudden love. I frown at him. He scans the water.

"Walter," says Simon, fixated upon me, "Walter, you're glowing."

"I..." I hold out my hands, wincing against the overpowering screams. There's shouting on deck, now, too. I ogle myself, unable to comprehend. I'm surrounded by the same bluish light that illuminates the cave outside. It isn't inside me, but it seems to cover me, reaching an inch out from my skin with translucent blue light. "I am?" I ask. How could I be glowing?

Dr. Oswald shakes his head. "I must see her," he says resolutely and turns away from the window, starting his march to the door.

"Doctor?" Lydia asks, frowning. "Doctor, are you quite all right?"

"Her?" I ask.

Simon stands up in the aisle between the beds and the partition wall, holding out his hands. "Doctor, we aren't supposed to leave." The professor sounds uncertain, and I can't place if that's because of the doctor's behavior, or his own words. He'd been the keenest to disobey the captain's order before.

Dr. Oswald tries to pass Simon. "Now, now, forget about that. It's safe!"

"I'm glowing," I say.