A Mermaid's Heart

Chapter Seven.

PLEASE NOTE!!! Alexandria's name had changed to Aurella (It just sounds more witchy)

I sat up, gasping and gripping at my chest. I was dead on the deck of the Sunken Soul so why was I still breathing? Caleb sat in front of me on a black couch with his hand placed on my knee as if to comfort me. My eyes darted around the room, in search of Theo but he wasn’t there. Had it been a dream? Blue was sat on a chair beside the couch, her head tilted to one side, curious as to what I was looking for “You’ve been in a coma for quite some time” the familiar voice that sounded like thousands of voices laced into one said, capturing my attention on the other side of the room near the stairs. She had a book in her hands and was flipping through it, her ivory eyes searching the pages. It all came back to me, the sword, the vile, Caleb’s blood. What I had seen wasn’t real but it felt real. My hand tightened on the material of my dress above my heart and my gaze landed on my slender white legs, bare. They weren’t the tan skin from the visions of the past nor was my hair black like that of Claudia’s and the man whom I craved for wasn’t the blacksmith but the pirate Captain that rubbed at my leg “And from the looks of things, you have quite the story to tell” Aurella snapped the book she had been reading shut and looked me over. I was breathing hard, my hair was a mess and my skin was covered in a layer of sweat but regardless of that I felt like I was freezing to death. It was still dark outside and the sun had yet to shed its light on a new day which meant that I might’ve been unconscious for a few hours or so but time was of the essence. Neptune was looking for me and hours could be the difference between life and death for everyone in the room apart from me. The god would drag me into the depths of the sea and chain me up, forcing me to forget my memories forever and be his slave to use however he pleased. To me, that was an outcome crueler than even death. My eyes flickered up to look at Caleb. There were things I wanted to tell him about his sister and how she had felt the night she’d died because I knew he blamed himself for everything but I couldn’t tell him in front of everyone so I decided to address the topic that both Blue and Aurella had been waiting for “The sword has never left Martin’s Port” I responded, my hand gripping the back of the couch when I sat up straighter, my eyes moving from the pale face of Blue to the ashen gaze of the witch whose eyebrows furrowed up in confusion as if it weren’t possible for the sword to still be there after all the years that have passed “It was to be relocated but before that could happen-.” I looked at Caleb, watching him stiffen beneath my tired, drooping lids. I felt like I could sleep for days but that wouldn’t be an option, not with Neptune hunting me down or with a sword that needed to be found “The Port was burnt to the ground” Blue shook her head and Aurella dropped the book onto the nearest table when she turned to fully face me. The night Claudia was to be betrothed to Lord Edmund Main was the night all hell broke loose because of a stupid mistake Caleb had made, a mistake that he regretted more than anything ‘By that time word had already been heard that the sword was sent to Cheswick in 1738’ Blue argued as if plainly stating a fact but I was there, I was trapped inside Claudia’s body as I watched her argue with her father, make love to Theo and be gutted on the deck of the ship I called home. I threw my legs over the side of the couch and placed my feet firm on the ground “It had to be a diversion created by Lord Campbell, the sword was still at Leyland manor the night prior to the incident in 1739” if the nobleman had any brains he would’ve spread the word to the merchants in some way or form without giving it away that he was the root of the information, to let them know that the sword had been moved. I shook my head and breathed a laugh at the realization that if Claudia was to be married to Edmund that the weapon would be sent in the opposite direction of Cheswick to Felltham “The man knew what he was doing” I muttered under my breath to which Blue glanced at Aurella. There was a pause, the witch seeming to think it all over in the back of her mind. She then turned abruptly, her dress flaring out behind her from the sudden movement “We set sail for Martin’s Port!” she announced, pausing only to glance back at Caleb from over her shoulder with a sinister smirk tugging at her scarlet lips. She radiated power and dominance wherever she went “Ready your ship, Captain” the say she used his title was like the hiss of a snake, a deadly warning that was spat out before she disappeared down the stairs and walkways. Blue shot up from her chair and followed like a lost puppy, her tail flicking from side to side in time with her slight jumping steps. I breathed a sigh and thought to myself that if I ever met Amun that I’d ask him why it had to be me, why I had to go through everything and not some other orphan girl from Port Alice although I wasn’t really an orphan girl anymore.

A plant had been lowered when we reached the ship, allowing for us to climb onboard without having to scale the side of the vessel. Caleb was the first to set foot on deck, snapping at his crew to ready the sails and to set course for Martin’s Port that was South from where we currently were. Blue had climbed the netting and sat on the railing, her leg propped up with her hand in between her thighs, braced against the carved wood while her eyes searched the scurrying men. I glanced back at her when I joined them on deck, seeing the gears spinning in the back of her mind as if screaming the words out loud. She was comparing them to mice, to rats that crawled about the ship, all apart from Ben and I. Her head tilted back to gaze up at the fisherman, interest clouding her larger than normal orbs of blue. There were no whites in them and her tail slapped at the side of the ship. My eyes moved from her to the witch that was ascending the plank, her hands clutched neatly in front of her, rings and black claws standing out but what caught everyone’s attention was the black veil that was draped over her features, hiding her baron white eyes and the crescent moon in the middle of her forehead “Death come knocking. Black. Black is death” Malcolm sang in the crow’s nest but everyone else had fallen into silence, frozen at the sight of the woman before them. She was overwhelming, her aura almost suffocating when her shoes clicked onto the wood and thunder rumbled overhead “Get this ship moving, now!” Caleb snapped at his crew, his teeth gritting and his fists balling at his sides. He looked like a wild animal when he narrowed his glaring gaze onto his men. They quickly sprang into action, raising the plank and repeating what they had done a thousand times before to set sail. I hadn’t expected the crew to act any differently than they had. On a single vessel there was a mermaid, a witch and a nymph all forced together by the hands of fate and they didn’t know how to react to it all “What are ye looking at?” Caleb questioned a member who was still frozen in place, startling him into motion because of his fear for the Captain. He was on edge, I could sense it in the way that he reacted more aggressively than usual and since he was usually an aggressive person it had gotten ten times worse. He was irritated since we were returning to the place where he had been born, the place where it all began twelve years ago. He stormed his way below deck as Aurella approached me, pausing at my side “Don’t mind me” then disappeared into the navigation room. I imagine that she would busy herself by studying books or practicing small spells or even attempting to read a few palms while Blue continued her bizarre fascination with Ben. Rebecca had taken control of the ship’s wheel, steering us since Caleb was too occupied with his own mind, the raging conflict in his head needing soothing. I followed him below deck to find him seated on the edge of the bed, his face in his hands with the heart locket dangling from his fingertips, playing the familiar tune that seemed to calm the world of chaos, gods and raging seas around us “Claudia was a wonderful woman” I muttered half in thought, thinking back to the brief moments I had spent living her life. Of course, her thoughts and actions had been her own and I was just an onlooker, watching the scenes play out through the windows that were her eyes. Caleb’s shoulders stiffened at my words and his hands stilled their motion where they had been scratching at his skelp “I was there that night-.” Caleb raised his eyes to look at me when I spoke those words, referring to the night she was killed. He lowered his hands in front of him, the song still playing in the air between us. It made me miss my mother “She wanted to thank you” I whispered, my own eyes moving from the wall to lock onto his form. His fingertips twitched when he sucked in a sharp breath through clenched teeth. My legs carried me over to the desk, hand moving to rip the letter I had written to Caleb the night I planned to drown myself “But her pride got in the way of that” I raised the torn piece of paper, the letter with my handwriting scribbled across it and turned to glance back at Caleb from over my shoulder, a small smile tugging at the corner of my lips “Because ‘the lioness does not fear the lion” I used her words, the same ones she had spoken to Claudia the day Edmund had gone to visit her. The tune abruptly stopped playing and his fist clenched around the chain, gripping it as though it was his only lifeline. I couldn’t blame him; it was all he had to comfort him when I wasn’t there to wrap him in my reassuring embrace “Tell me about her” he surprised me by saying. I tossed the letter back onto the desk and turned to head over in his direction. I felt the carpet beneath my feet and thought back to her story, her memory “She fell in love with your father’s blacksmith” his eyebrows creased in response to my words. I wished I could express what her and Theo’s love was life, fire, wild and intense. It had her legs trembling and her heart racing even when she was such a strong and fearless person. He was her Achilles heel, her weakness, her exposed underbelly “She was fearless, witty and hated being a noblewoman-.” his eyes flickered with remembrance as if he was thinking back to his encounter with her in the garden, to when he had thought that, like Rebecca, she disliked the life she had been born into. I stopped in front of him and went down onto my knees, my hands reaching for the locket, cupping it in my palms along with his hands “You saved her from a life of torture and allowed her to die in peace” his eyes searched mine for any sign that I was lying, there being none. I didn’t want to see him beating himself up over a mistake he made more than a decade ago. Mistakes make us who we are as long as we learn from them. He kept his gaze on mine, golden globes seeing straight through me, it was a look that left me bare to his gaze regardless of the dress that hung from my body but there was no lust, only vulnerability.