The Sound of a Siren's Call

10.) Lack of Plans

I stared after Juniper. What did she want me to do? What was she doing?

I stared at her, flicking her tail and yelling at the sirens on the beach. I stared out at her. Everyone knew I was unpredictable because of my lineage. Why was she being unpredictable?

I saw her eyes meet Castor's again. I groaned as she smiled. That was a stupid reason.

I still didn't have a plan for what to do.

Juniper had had two days and she was already in love enough to be stupid. I didn't know her that well. Maybe she was stupid all the time.

I paddled the boat closer to the shore and jumped out. My legs were somehow sore from my bold excursion. I groaned internally.

I leaned against a rock. The fact that I didn't want everyone to die all the time wasn't going to suddenly give me whatever superpowers Juniper thought I had.

I missed my hammock. It was dawning on me that I had made a horrible mistake.

What was she expecting me to do? I looked over at the water full of swishing tails and grinning faces.

What did she think was going to happen? The whole thing had gone on too long for them to be willing to just kill their prizes like on a normal day.

I half wished I was on the Red Revenge going faster than the whole issue of morals could catch up with me. I peered over at Castor, backing farther and farther inland.

More annoying than being around love is being around unrequited love. Juniper was talking a mile a minute to her fellow sirens.

She was right that something was going to happen. She was also right to dump the planning of how to fix it onto someone else. Unfortunately for me, I was the last one in that lineup.

A plan was forming in my head. I had the advantage of being able to walk up the mountain, but I wouldn't be able to communicate anything useful when I got up there. I could sneak loverboy off the back, but he was terrified of me. I was too tired to try to pantomime to him.

I moved with as much care as I could back to the boat.

With a hearty effort, I'd moved the boat a little further out of sight. I tied it in place and was satisfied with its shelter between a few rocks and its tether keeping it in place. The only thing left for me to climb the island.

My muscles ached as I pulled myself up. I flopped on a little rocky shelf. I could see Juniper as a speck of vibrant blue. Her tail shone against the sea as she argued some point with her fellow companions.

I didn't know what her plan was, but I got the feeling it wasn't going to make anything better.

The air felt like it was getting stretched apart, as though a single step would break the tension and cause something to happen. I wasn't sure what the something was, but no one seemed to want to find out.

I should explain something about siren's music. It's as much about sound as lightning is about thunder. The sound is an effect, but not the goal. Storms are dangerous. You run from the thunder, but the thunder doesn't hurt.

Siren's music is about feeling. They have words, lyrics, but no one's jumped off a ship for beautiful poetry. No, the air itself comes alive. It feels like a wave of second-hand feelings is taking over every sense, every control, every impulse. It feels like you've discovered something you've been missing your whole life. And that thing is the sea.

It feels like contentment is letting the sea salt through your lungs. And I was the only one who knows what it's like to have a foot in one world and a tail in the other. I was the only one who knew they felt exactly the same.

I took in a sharp breath. I sat myself up. I saw a flash of red on the horizon.

A new understanding of the depth of my mistake came with my father's ship. Pirates were just going to make everything better.

The air felt like it was going to strangle me. I had gotten myself into a mess.

I could still see Juniper. I pulled myself to my feet. I was running out of time to do something.

Whatever my something entailed was looking more and more like it was going to be on impulse. I scrabbled up the island, watching the Red Revenge sail closer.

I stared ahead. The Red Revenge was too close for there to be much hope of avoiding it.

I stared at a flash of purple beside it. Of course, my mother would get involved. I cursed internally.

I ran, trying to get both farther away from the shore and get a better view. My eyes were pinned on the ship, and I only looked away when someone grabbed my arm.

Castor hadn't caught on that I didn't respond to his verbal questioning. He was talking too fast. I jerked away.

I caught his lips for a moment. What's going on?

I ignored him. He kept following me.

"We have to get out of here," I signed, looking down.

I looked over at him. He hadn't understood.

We have to leave. I spoke, watching the surprise on his face. My dad had always said my voice came out sounding strangled, but I hardly cared.

Castor seemed to take that as a sign of something.

He talked, seeming unaware that I was staring at my father's ship too heartily to tell what he was saying.

The ship reached the sirens, and I felt the tension snap. Castor put his hands over his ears.

I felt the air shimmer with a reverence for the crashing waves. Castor's face was suddenly pained. He wasn't trying to say anything anymore.

I saw the gangplank lower. My mother kept herding people away. For once, she wasn't trying to drown my father. I had screwed up.