Aliénor's Song

Revenge

I shot off after the ship above with Mairi following closely behind.

When we breached the surface, the sea was eerily calm. A Scottish merchant ship was sailing in the eye of a towering storm, as thpugh the heavens themselves had paused to watch. I made my way as quietly as I could to the side of the ship. What I saw made my blood boil. Sailors were sitting on deck laughing as if they hadn't just murdered an innocent girl. They might as well have been discussing a game of dice or the weather, amd not the life they had stolen mere moments before.Their indifference sickened me. The callous way of the men who sailed these seas enraged me almost to the point of physical illness.

"See mate. I told you. A lass aboard is terrible bad luck."

This had to be the ship Mairi was thrown from!

"Aye, true. Notice how the sea has calmed now that we gave the wench to her!" The first man clapped the second on the back.

"Let's have a drink, laddie. I think we'll have no more trouble this voyage."

Oh boy were they wrong.

Mairi opened her mouth and began to sing. The haunting melody filled the still night air. The men stopped and turned to look at us. I saw a hint of recognition on the first man's face.

"Impossible!" He said.

I opened my mouth and joined Mairi. My song intertwined with hers in harmonies that were unheard of by any human ear before.

The men began running to the side of the ship with fervor. Mairi beckoned to one with a finger as she continued to sing. Without hesitation, he leaped from the ship into the water. After that, the men began leaping from the ship one after another. A few of the men were clearly not swimmers, as they began to sink shortly after hitting the water. As they flailed about in the water, trying to reach Mairi, I dipped below the surface.

I grabbed the legs of the first man I reached and pulled him swiftly under the water, beating at him with my fists until he stopped struggling. He floated lifeless to the water's surface. I grabbed the next man, piercing him through with my tail spike. He immediately went limp.

Mairi had grabbed a man by the throat and her long black fingernails were at his neck ripping the flesh away in shreds while she continued her song with tears streaming from her face. She wasn't really singing anymore, but screaming. I could hear the rage in that scream even through the melody. I knew immediately this had to be the man that sent her overboard.

With men still leaping from the ship all around us, it was chaos. I lost count of how many there were. The sea claimed many of them herself before we ever reached them, but Mairi and I made short work of the rest.

It only took us a few minutes to dispatch all the sailors. By the time we had finished the water around us was red. Through the deep crimson waves, I saw four fins break the surface of the water.

Sharks.

The cleanup crew had arrived. I knew more would soon follow. I took Mairi by the hand and we swam to the side of the ship. I looked at her and then reached out and tore a chunk from the hull.

Understanding immediately, Mairi began to bash and claw at the hull with her hands. Soon the ship began to take on water. Once I was satisfied it had taken on enough to ensure it would sink, I pulled Mairi away. As we dove beneath the water, we saw the large ship sinking down beneath the waves of the storm wall that had finally found it.

As we sought solace on the ocean floor, Mairi looked at me, I could see the same questions burning behind her eyes that had plagued me at first.

"I know you have questions. Ask them. I will try to help you understand."

"What are we?"

"I'm not sure. Atargatis called us mermaids. From what I can tell we seem to be part fish, part human."

Mairi beagan looking at her hands and her tail.

"Careful with that. Your tail is venomous. Anything you spear with that goes limp almost instantly. I think it paralyzes them."

"Does it work on us?"

"I'd prefer to not find out just now, if it's all the same to you."

Mairi smiled. Her smile was so innocent. It reminded me of my nieces. I almost forgot I had just seen her kill a man with her bare hands.

Almost.

She was as deadly as I was.

"Are there more of us?"

"Atargatis said we were the first. I dont think there are now, but there will be."

"How can we breathe down here?"

I pointed to her side.

"Gills."

She looked sad for a moment. "Can we go back?"

"I dont think so. That part of our lives is over."