A Mermaid's Heart

Chapter Fifteen.

By the time the sun had risen and Caleb took up his position on the helm, the red desert was within our reach. I was stationed in the Captain’s quarters, my hands toying with the heart locket as I stared off into space, captured deep in my own thoughts. I shifted, pressing my forehead to my balled hands and closing my eyes to escape the tumbling scenes that kept replaying themselves from Aurella’s blue eyes to Malcolm’s warning ‘The time has come for you to be purified’ my eyes shot open at the sound of her familiar yet haunting tone. The voice came from everywhere, echoing off the inside of my skull. I was frozen, unaware that like Blue, Aurella could enter a person’s mind and speak to them without having to appear before them ‘As magic will not enter a tainted host’ her words referred to the power that was trapped inside the jewels. My body had to be pure in order for the spell to work, for it to be able to absorb the power successfully. I raised my head when I felt a presence nearing me only to find Blue stationed at the bottom of the steps leading into the Captain’s quarters, watching me silently ‘We will start with your body-.’ an image of Blue washing my ivory skin with various oils and salt water flickered past my eyes. Her webbed hands worked tenderly to seek out every crevasse, dipping down along the curve of my hips to my legs and toes. She then would dry me and kneel to start coating my skin in a layer of sage that had been liquefied ‘Move on to your blood-.’ the image changed and I was seated on the foot of Caleb’s bed, dressed in a simple white dress as Blue held a bowl out for me to drink from. In it were herbs and minerals gathered from the earth to help rid my blood of any toxins ‘And end with your mind’ I was laying on the bed now, my head in Blue’s lap as she sang to me, incents burning around me to help clear my mind of any unwanted thoughts or worries. Her hands worked at the sides of my head, messaging to help relieve the pressure in my neck and calm me enough to fall into a deep, soothing sleep. I blinked and Blue stood before me where I still sat in the arm chair that was placed in the far corner of the room. She held her hand out for me to take, the voice in my head fading away until I could no longer feel Aurella’s powerful presence weighing down my mind. I had no choice but to take Blue’s hand, but to continue and go through with the spell if I were to continue to survive and have the slightest of chance to be with Caleb. The process was a tantalizingly slow one as Blue spent hours scrubbing at my skin until every inch of me felt raw only to take her time when applying the sage. She didn’t speak, too consumed in concentration when it came to dressing me and preparing the herb mixture for me to drink. She ground them down and mixed then together before offering the substance to me. When I fell asleep afterwards there was no Neptune, no white marble room or king size bed nor were there a hundred different types of fishes swirling around me, there was only darkness. It was like drifting through an endless black sea where there was no life, no sound, no emotion. I could hear my own heartbeat, calm and steady as I curled in on myself, hugging my knees to my chest. A voice reached me in that quiet place, a voice I couldn’t remember ever having heard before. It was the voice of a man, then a woman, then a child, then that of a man again. It was gentle yet powerful as it whispered to me “Rise not burn” it was so clear, like a crystal pool but it became muffled, filling with a hissing sound that eventually made it impossible for me to hear the simple three words that were constantly being repeated. The harshness of it hardly affected me “Rise not burn!” the voices yelled all together causing my eyes to slowly open in the Captain’s quarters. I stared at the floorboards overhead when my eyes caught sight of a black velvet bag that was placed on top of the dresser on the other side of the room. I could feel the power radiating from the jewels when I pushed myself up with my bare feet touching the floor. Blue was nowhere to be found as I stood and slowly began making my way toward the bag. I could faintly hear the same voices from before reaching out to me the closer I got to it. Seven gems, seven voices. The closer I ventured the louder the voices began to speak, uttering multiple things at once, some of which I could barely make out or register what was being said. My hand moved to reach for the velvet bag, my fingertips skimming over the soft texture when an image of myself dangling above a pool of water covered in blood and drained of life flickered past my gaze. I froze at the sight then felt the ship rock as it came to a stop. There was yelling from above deck, causing the voices of the jewels to disappear and fade away among their obnoxious shouts “Red desert a yonder, Captain!” one of the crewmen had yelled before the ship had even jerked, causing my eyes to land on the stairs that lead to above deck where Rebecca was stood staring out onto the desert with her hand shielding her squinting eyes from the sun’s rays. Her hair appeared to be a flickering flame when a harsh gust of wind swept past their curled strands. I found myself selfishly wishing that my life was as simple as the one she had lived even at the cost of her parents or her first love but I quickly pushed the thought away, my hands reaching for the black velvet bag to make my way onto the deck of the ship. By the time I reached the top of the steps, Rebecca was gone, replaced by a stone faced witch with her white, empty eyes boring directly into me. I came to an abrupt halt at her sudden appearance and clutched the bag tighter. Her eyes never moved, her head never bent to look down at my feet when she spoke “Good, you must walk the desert barefoot” with that she turned, the tail of her black robe dancing around her as she headed for the side of the ship and the desert that stretch on for miles beyond it. I had forgotten to tug my boots onto my feet and hadn’t noticed it until then. My first mate’s hat still hung on a hook in the Captain’s quarters. Caleb descended the stairs that lead to the helm, the sword that only he could wield tied to his belt. Once he reached the bottom, I held the bag out for him to take. His eyes found them, his mind travelling back to a time when he had almost sacrificed me, the love of his life, the reason why he had gathered the gems in the first place. From the image that I had seen of myself above the pool and the jewels telling me to ‘rise not burn’ along with Aurella’s repeated warnings of how torturous the spell would be, I knew what awaited me once we would reach the ruins of Neptune’s temple which is why I asked what I did “Promise me-.” he took the bag from me and stuffed it into the pocket of his red jacket only to have his muscles tense at the serious tone behind my words “Promise me that you won’t leave until it is done” he was the only one who could break the jewels using the sword, the only Campbell left in existence and there were seven treasures. He had to break all seven of them and bear the sight of my agony until then, not run or try to stop it but make sure that the spell is finished. His jaw tightened as he examined me. I could see the conflict in his eyes, the desire to tell me that what I was doing was wrong, insane even but because of his love for me, he couldn’t deny me anything even if he didn’t agree with what I was doing “I have no choice” he bit out then placed his hand on the railing of the ship to fling himself over the side. A plank had already been slid into position for me to use as a bridge between the ship and the sand. I paused before stepping onto it to glance up at the helm where Blue was sat on the railing, her head thrown back, staring up at the cloudless sky with skin that seemed dryer than usual. She wouldn’t follow us into the desert as she could not take a human form like I could and would dehydrate much faster than I had the previous time. She was safer onboard the ship with a worried Ben to watch over her in the boiling heat. The moment my feet came in contact with the sand, I could feel the grains burning into my flesh, causing me to grit my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut in response to the pain. When I opened my eyes, I could make out Caleb’s figure waiting for me a few paces ahead and beyond him on a dune stood a figure dressed in black, impatient and in a hurry. I dared take a few steps only to crumble to my knees, feeling the same intense heat that had tortured my feet, scorch them. The palms of my hands had reached out to block my fall and they too were burned. My breathing came in short ragged pants as I stared down at the crimson sand ‘Your body must be able to withstand pain if it is to please the jewels-.’ Aurella explained through her link with my mind. Caleb hurried to my side, bending as if to scoop me up into his arms and carry me the rest of the way but I raised my trembling hand in protest to his actions ‘Now get moving!’ her voice forced me to my feet, forced me a few more paces onward until the pain became unbearable. I bit down on my bottom lip, squeezing my eyes shut with every step over dunes and along salt pans. Caleb stayed close by, ready to offer me a hand but I couldn’t accept his help for fear of the gems rejecting me, for fear of not being able to entrap Neptune so that I could ultimately be with Caleb. He didn’t know it yet, but I was doing it for him, I had to withstand the pain for him. Blisters had formed on the soles of my feet that eventually gave rise to gaping sores that continues to bleed, grains digging their way into the open wounds. I was weak from the scorching sun, my lips chapped, eyes tearing at the harsh reflection of sunlight on the sand but I continued to drag myself toward the temple like a corpse desperate for a final resting place. I fell again, crumbling to my hands and knees, wheezing for some water, my body dehydrated and my limbs covered in sweat, trembling at the lack of energy from making it as far as I had “Ye don’t have to do this” Caleb tried to reason, kneeling beside me, his eyes hard, his lips set in a thin line to try and hide his concern but I could feel it, the fear and worry that were hidden beneath his words. Move! I mentally yelled at myself, slowly getting back onto my feet only to stagger each step like a drunk, having to catch myself over and over again. Time felt never ending in those moments until we finally managed to catch up with Aurella where she waited, stood before the gaping hole in the sand. She didn’t bother to look back at us and instead felt our presence so she raised her hand and aimed it toward the hole, causing the sand to trickle away before her, revealing a set of stone stairs that lead down into the temple. She followed them, silently telling us to follow so I did, almost tumbling down the steps but managing to grab hold of some of the rocks to keep e balanced long enough to reach the bottom. The temple was just as I had remembered it with statues of Neptune overlooking it, some having fallen and crumbled laying in pieces across the temple floor with a clear pool of crystal water sat off to the side. It was the place where Caleb had first learned of my secret, a place that changed the very way I saw him, not as a monster but as a man. I collapsed as soon as I reached the bottom of the stairs, curling in on myself, my vision blurry and my mouth gaping like a fish out of water. I could feel my lungs refusing to accept the air that I so greedily breathed in, the wheezing worse than before. Aurella stood in front of the pool, observing it then turned to address Caleb “Use the chains to restrain her” I knew that somehow I was dragged through the water of the pool, chained to the center of it and left there to dangle with only my legs hidden beneath the surface but I could hardly remember any of it, of the spell, there was just so much pain, pain that could cause a grown man to crumble into himself, pain that could cause one to beg for death rather than be constricted in constant agony. I could remember the voices, the seven voices yelling at me to ‘Rise not burn!’ hundreds of times in the back of my mind. I could remember screaming, my screaming, my limbs wanting to tear as I jerked at my restraints. I could feel my muscles straining, my legs extending, toes curling, head trashing about as I sobbed and begged and pleaded for it all to end but it didn’t. It didn’t.

Caleb.

“Use the chains to restrain her” the witch ordered. I wanted to spat at her, to curse her for the pain she had already put Evangeline through but I only turned to kneel beside the frail, broken body of the woman that I loved. Her eyes were barely open, her lips cracked and dry. She was panting, wheezing, the palms of her hands covered in blisters from when she would break her fall. Her feet bled from open wounds and her kneecaps were littered with sores. I reached out to brush the hair out of her face but she didn’t respond, it was as if she couldn’t understand what was happening around her. My body trembled with a need to stop it, to stop the unnecessary torture but Evangeline’s words echoed in the back of my mind ‘Promise me you won’t leave until it is done’ there was a reason why she would subject herself to such torment but I didn’t know what that could possibly be. I had to trust her, had to believe that whatever it was driving her would be worth the pain. I hooked my arms underneath hers and raised her from the ground, dragging her along it and leaving a trail of blood from where her feet still slid across the floor of the temple. The woman dressed in black stepped aside for me to enter the pool one booted foot at a time. I found comfort in the knowledge that the water would at least help to mend her dehydrated form. Her feet, knees and hands caused the water to turn a murky red when I began to fasten her wrist to the chains that hung from ceiling overhead. She was so weak, so fragile and vulnerable when I took a step back to examine her. The white dress she wore was soaked through, exposing every inch of her body to the eyes of those around her, her lips didn’t touch, her breathing shallow and her eyes began to glow, their pupils turning into thin slits. That was when I noticed the narrow strips of blood trailing their way down her arms from where the chains dug into her wrists. Those wrists that had been through enough, those very wrists that she would have to keep bandaged “Why are there chains in a temple?” I found myself asking of the woman who stood silently observing from afar. A temple is a place of worship, a holy place that should not be tainted by something similar to what was about to transpire within those ruins. I glanced back at the witch from over my shoulder when she took longer to answer me than expected. It was as though she was contemplating whether speaking to me would benefit her or not “Quite often men would be sacrificed in honor of the gods-.” when she spoke there was no emotion, not a flicker of remorse for what she had said or the men who had been sacrificed. It was as if she couldn’t care less about what she was saying “This pool used to run red with blood” at her words I found myself looking to the crimson dyed liquid around Evangeline’s form that seemed to only grow with passing time. It made sense that many decades ago men would sacrifice others to honor the gods but the act seemed cruel even to a man who had sentenced his own sister to death “The treasures” I turned to fully face her and found that she held her hand out for me, the palm facing up. Her black claws were like those of a panther, deadly and waiting. I stuck my hand into the pocket of my coat and pulled the black bag from its depths, moving toward the edge of the pool to place it within her grasp. She then retrieved the red gem from it and slowly knelt to place it on the floor outside the pool “You must break the barrier separating the outside world from the jewel’s power with the tip of your blade” she instructed, once again rising to stand at her full height. I nodded, exiting the pool and readying my sword, gripping it between two hands with the tip aimed down toward the gem. I spared a glance in Evangeline’s direction, her calm form dangling before my eyes, so peaceful and at ease as if she was asleep but the moment I connected the tip of the sword to the gem, she began to scream in agony, her body thrashing in the water, tugging at her restraints. A fire flickered from the jewel that turned into a glowing red mist. It swirled around Evangeline’s form and entered her body through her gaping mouth. Her eyes turned red, glowing brightly while her fangs stretched toward the ceiling when she threw her head back to shriek even louder than before “What the bloody hell is this?” I bit out in the direction of the witch, gripping the sword tighter in my right hand. I wanted to swing it at her, to cut her in half if she didn’t put an end to Evangeline’s pain but before I could she replied in a calm, emotionless tone “The power that had been entrapped within the jewels have over time developed their own personas-.” my eyes widened at her words, realizing that not only was the energy being transmitted from the treasures to Evangeline but her body was being possessed in the process of it all “The pain is a direct result of two souls merging into one” I couldn’t think clearly over the rattling of chains, the thrashing of water, the screams of terror but I was ready to aim my sword at the woman in black’s throat which is exactly what I did. She didn’t move, hardly flinched at the sudden threat of death and remained as cold as she had previously been “Before you continue to lose your temper, boy-.” she placed two fingers to the edge of my blade and managed to push it away from her neck “No, this will not alter her personality nor will it tamper with her mind as the souls of the gems will evaporate and be replaced with hers once they have merged” her head turned to look at me, ivory eyes staring blankly into my golden ones. I lowered my sword back to my side and looked to Evangeline. The blood from her wrists had reached her shoulders and were making their way down her chest and torso. Her legs were covered in silver scales that appeared violet whenever the desert light would hit it just right and her finger nails had extended into a set of claws similar to those of the witch. She arched her back, her eyes wide and filled with horror as they stared upward, her lips parted while wave after wave of pain shot through her, finding the deepest corners of her body to dig its way into. That is until all went silent and her body fell limp, dangling like a corpse from the chains with her head hung and her chest heaving “It would seem that she had survived the first” the witch announced, her hand searching for the blue gem that she held out toward me. The silence following Evangeline’s screams was so desolate that I could hear her blood dripping into the pool below “Now, let us continue” with that she allowed the jewels to slip from her clawed palm, letting it tumble toward the floor of the temple. I raised my sword above my head and swung, striking it as it came into contact with the stone flooring. Ice shot out from its broken core, slowly slithering its way in every direction. The surface of the pool began to freeze over until it crept up her legs to her thighs where it stopped. Evangeline’s lips parted and a breath of condensed white air appeared as a calm gust before her body stiffened once more. Her once closed eyes were wide, now glowing blue instead of red like they previously had and her voice pierced the silence like an arrow through the heart of a nobleman. The chain’s rattled with her struggle but the waters that had been frozen no longer sputtered around her thrashing form, instead her legs were trapped in place with only her upper body desperately trying to escape both the bonds that were her prison and the punishment that was her pain “Each jewel represents one of the seven ruling elements-.” the woman who stood beside me randomly decided to explain as she dug through the velvet bag in her grasp, paying little attention to Evangeline’s agony. All she cared about was finally trapping Neptune not of the pain she had to cause in order to achieve the goal she had set her sights on “Red is fire, blue is ice or water-.” from the depths of the bag she retrieved the yellow stone, turning it this way and that so that she could examine the many sides of the treasure. It was then that Evangeline fell limp for a second time and the silence grew too much to bear. Thunder rumbled overhead in the desert when the witch held the yellow gem out for me to break “Yellow represents thunder” there was a slight hint of sadness in her tone as she allowed the jewel to drop. It bounced off the ground once before I managed to stab it with the tip of my sword, splitting it down the middle. The moment the treasure was destroyed, a single burst of thunder struck the temple through the hole in the ceiling behind us. The white light was blinding but gone within seconds, leaving only ringing ears behind from the intense clap of lightning. The woman didn’t bother to turn and look, nor did she jump at the sudden noise almost as if she had been expecting it to happen. Evangeline’s gasp was what brought my eyes back to her, her head once again raised, back arched and teeth clenched to try and fight the screams of agony. Her body was weakening, unable to fight the foreign feeling that continuously invaded her body, causing her eyes to glow the color of the gem. It was like she was slowly giving up, her body growing used to the coming pain. She still moaned, still drew blood from her bottom lip to try and hide the shrieks, still trashed but it wasn’t as urgent or as frantic as it had previously been “Her resolve is fading” the witch announced, a small hint of fear hidden in the depths of her ashen orbs. If Evangeline could not survive the torment of all seven gems she would die and the power already entrapped within her would seep into the ground or evaporate into the air. We would not be able to get our hands on it and the witch’s desire to entrap Neptune would be but a mere fantasy “We must hurry for our time is limited” next was the green jewels that when broken caused the temple to tremble, small rocks falling from the ceiling and down on the pool of ice, breaking through the surface like cannonballs through the side of a ship. Her reaction to the pain was much like before, weaker, frailer. The black treasure when split took on the shadow of a skeleton that she inhaled through her mouth. Her eyes became black with no whites left in them and her jaw dripping crimson with fangs stained yellow from the iron liquid made her look like a demon sent to bring chaos to the world but instead she was just a woman with the discord brought unto her. The amethyst released the spirit of a woman, nude but beautiful that walked along what remained of the ice, her form appearing purple like the shade the jewel had been. She stopped directly in front of Evangeline and reached out to cup her tired face, staring into her once again mismatched blue and grey eyes that appeared dead. When she lowered her arm, she stepped toward the restrained body and crashed into Evangeline’s form, dissolving into purple mist that was absorbed by her eyes, once again allowing them to change color moments before she passed out from the pain and only hung above the pool, limp and unmoving. The last jewel was orange, having used the gems in the sequence that Evangeline had found them. When it was broken, a strong gust of wind swept into the temple and past the body that hung as an offering, pushing her ivory hair back out of her face and causing her eyes to open just enough to look at me. It was as though there was no pain with the breaking of the last jewel, just a calming breath that was like a sigh of relief. I dropped my sword, the metal cluttering to the floor when I looked to the woman dressed in all black. She kept her eyes on the form of the woman she kept referring to as Mary and slowly nodded her head, knowing exactly what I had silently asked of her. I stepped into the pool, easily breaking through the ice with my weight and went to her, removing her wrists from the chains and catching her when her entire body fell limp onto mine. I used my hands and fingers to break the ice around her legs then carried her from the pool. Her head lay on my shoulder, her arms loose at her sides with one of my arms wound around her waist, the other wrapped beneath her rear to steady her. She was so small, so oblivious to the world around her that I feared death could take her at any given moment “Take her to the ship and tend to her wounds” I was about to snap at the witch for telling me to heal the wounds she had caused but when I looked to where she had been stood she was gone as if she had disappeared into thin air. I gently sat Evangeline down against the far wall to strip out of my red coat so that I could lay it over her shoulders. I placed my Captain’s hat on top of her head and took her into my arms, the hat and coat shielding her from the scorching sun on our way back to the ship. She had suffered so much, had been through too much in her few years of life that the thoughts of her broken body made me want to kill whoever or whatever would compel her to go through with such torture. I decided that when she’d awaken I’d ask her why she had done what she did, not relenting until I could find out the truth and bring harm to the one who had brought harm to her.