Awakening (7 page)

Hanging from the walls were long strips of leather and other things I didn’t have names for but that equally scared me. After the hours of practicing and going up and down so many steps, I’d become accustomed to my legs enough that I could walk across the stone floor without aide of the wall. I occasionally and reluctantly touched one of the free-standing contraptions in the room to help steady myself on the few times my balance failed me.

It was all very puzzling, yet also sinister. I wasn’t sure what any of this was for, but it seemed it couldn’t be for good. If this was my master’s castle, then he must be aware of this room, perhaps even used it. That thought, along with the cool dampness in the room, sent a shiver down my spine.

“I thought I saw someone come down here.”

I turned quickly, recognizing the voice. Male. Not my Master. Aric. The fisherman who had shown too much interest in me the day they’d brought me to Kyros’ chambers. He smiled, not a friendly smile. He smelled of fish from the sea, and something else I couldn’t name. The odor was so pungent it reached me from across the room.

The smell made me want to vomit. At first I thought I wanted my family, but in my mind my mother’s arms wrapped around me and held me close. That wasn’t the way of my kind. No, what I wanted right now, the type of comfort I sought, I could only get from a human.

For the first time, I didn’t long for my fin or the sea. My fin might have protected me more from the lecherous fisherman, but the only thing I wanted was for Kyros to be with me, his arms wrapped tightly around me.

Aric stepped closer. “Pretty mermaid. I see you just became a more convenient conquest.” His eyes traveled the length of my body and I could almost see the images bloom in his mind. I could guess what they were. He didn’t seem to be much of a thinker, so they probably weren’t imaginative images, but instead primal, simple: my legs spread with him inside me. I shuddered and backed away, putting one of the scary contraptions between us.

“Come now, don’t be that way,” he said, his approach not slowing. If I could somehow move as fast as the beating of my heart, I could get away from those measured thundering steps of his, but I found myself rooted to the spot.

I still hadn’t managed to form a word. Perhaps if I screamed someone would come help me. I opened my mouth to do it, but quickly closed it again. What if they wanted what the fisherman wanted? Or worse? What if they wanted to watch? I wished I had the kind of mental magic sailors accused us of. I wished I could make Aric drop dead, or that I could will my Master to the scene.

“I bet I’m more gentle than the Master. He’s got dark tastes, as I’m sure you’re aware. Does he bring you down here often?”

The question caught me so off guard that my vocal chords spontaneously reactivated. “W-what?”

“Oh, don’t play coy with me. I know he must have whipped that pretty little ass I’m sure you’ve got hidden away. He should keep you naked, the way you came to us from the sea.” He reached me then, his hand curled like a claw as he gripped the fabric, ripping it away from my flesh until my breasts were bared to his gaze.

I struggled to cover myself, my modesty around strangers having risen to ridiculous proportions because now I knew too much about the pleasures humans fed from.

“Gotten all prissy on us have you? You weren’t so good when you came out of the ocean. You could have been an appetizer, don’t forget. Must be a great cocksucker for him to have let you live.”

He reached down to start undoing his pants. I could feel the tears streaming down my face and something inside me yelled
Run!
I didn’t know how to run. I could barely walk and climb stairs, but the voice in my head sounded like Kyros, and so I obeyed. I didn’t think, I just moved, just like in the water when he’d told me to swim.

As Aric stumbled in his half-removed pants, it occurred to me what the other smell was. He was drunk. I gained confidence as I started to notice his own slight unsteadiness made greater with his pants no longer around his waist.

I raced up the stairs, stumbling a couple of times, not looking back. My legs burned from the exertion I wasn’t yet used to, but I didn’t care. I ran straight for the kitchen because that was where I’d heard women’s voices. They may not approve of me, but I hoped they didn’t actively wish me ill.

I was panting when I reached the doorway and several women looked up, their mouths gaping open. I looked down to find my breasts still exposed. Blushing, I gathered the fabric to cover myself.

“What on earth?” Estella said.

“A-Aric,” was all I could manage to get out.

“Did he?”

I knew what she was asking. These women seemed unable to express a full graphic sexual thought, but somehow a female language older than time took over. We all knew what we were talking about, even though we weren’t really talking about it.

“He tried. Downstairs.”

Estella and one of the other women exchanged a look that let me know they knew about the frightening things down below. The kitchen became a flurry of activity as the older woman guided me to a wooden table and started shouting orders. The others scurried off to follow her bidding.

One woman returned a few moments later with a blanket to wrap around me. Another put a bowl in front of me with soup she’d just ladled from a big pot on the stove. Another gave me some water and a generous chunk of fresh-baked bread.

It had been a while since breakfast, but since my fear had abated, the hunger response was even greater than it should have been. I’d had a similar situation once when I’d had to outswim a hungry shark.

Although Estella had shown disdain for me before, neither she nor any other woman in the kitchen showed it now. What had almost happened to me served as some sort of bond between us. We were united against a common foe: a man.

“Don’t you worry,” she said, patting my hand. The gesture caught me off-balance, as Kyros had been the only human flesh against my own until now. Aside from when the fishermen had brought me up to his room, of course. “When the Master gets home, he’ll take care of everything.”

I hoped that was true, yet Aric’s words about my Master’s darker urges, whatever those might be, lurked on the edges of my mind, making me almost fear seeing Kyros again. I hadn’t been human long, and the possibilities of what he might yet do with me hadn’t sunk in. At least not until I’d seen what was hidden beneath the castle.

A few moments later, Aric arrived, his pants still halfway about his legs, his ruddy little cock at full, unimpressive mast protruding obscenely toward us. There was a bottle in his hand.

“Wine just arrived!” he shouted, swinging the bottle out and sloshing some of its dark red contents out onto the floor. It made me think of blood and violence, and I shrank back farther from him, holding the blanket tight around me.

His eyes seemed to zero in on my movement like a shark and for a minute we were the only ones in the room. “Pretty little mermaid. Why did you run? I wanted to play. I had good games for us. I’m sure the Master will be happy to share his whore.” Tears gathered in my eyes because I was cornered with nowhere to go.

It was at that moment that Estella started beating him on the head with a big wooden spoon. Of course. I wasn’t alone this time. Panic made me forget.

“Ow, woman!”

The violence sobered him enough to pull his pants back up and fasten them. Estella’s glare was fierce and protective, and I didn’t feel so alone and hated here. The other kitchen staff armed themselves with utensils and cookware and stood in front of me.

“Crazy whores, the lot of you!” Aric said, sloshing more wine onto the floor. “I only came to share the happy news that the wine was here and finish business with the mermaid.”

I realized now why it had taken me so long to realize he was drunk. He didn’t slur his words. Who knew how long he’d been drinking or how much he’d had. He seemed able to hold his liquor more than most.

It was at that moment that Kyros showed up.

At first I didn’t know what had happened. The room went deathly quiet and still. Then I peered around the hip of the woman standing directly in front of me.

Kyros took the bottle of wine from the fisherman’s hand and smashed it against the wall. Everyone, including me, jumped.

“Someone had better explain what is going on this instant.” I’d never heard his voice so sharp. He stood taller than Aric, broader, and far more imposing. And if not for the words still spinning in my brain about his desires, I might have been relieved to see him. Now I wasn’t sure what to feel.

The kitchen workers were all clustered in a group, blocking me from his view. He moved them aside one by one until there was no obstruction between us.

“Nerina?”

“Yes, Master?” I’d been the victim, but I was so afraid he was going to hurt me. His loud voice and the smashing of the wine bottle as well as my uncertainty over whether I was even allowed to roam his house without permission had a tight knot forming in my stomach. I cringed away from him.

He looked around at the others in the room. “What’s happened here?”

When the others remained silent, he took the blanket off me, as if it was necessary to prove his suspicion. His eyes darkened and narrowed. He was staring at me when he bellowed, “Aric!”

I closed my eyes against him. His anger didn’t seem directed at me, at least not for the moment, still I couldn’t look in his eyes when they were so dark. The fact that they could get like that at all was more than I could presently cope with. Feeling his stare on me, I grabbed the fabric of my clothing and held it together because it made me feel ashamed for Kyros to know what had almost happened downstairs.

On some level I knew it wasn’t my fault, on another, I’d been somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, so it was easy to blame myself. I was afraid that once Kyros extracted the truth from me—and I knew he would—that he too would lay the blame at my feet, and then that malevolent gaze would be directed at me.

My breath came more shallowly, and I hunched my shoulders, my whole body turning in on itself like a turtle going into his shell. I wasn’t able to relax and open my eyes until I heard his footsteps move away from me.

He gripped the fisherman by his collar and raised him off the ground. “What. Did. You. Do?” He practically hissed when he spoke.

“She asked for it. She begged me for it.”

For one insane moment I feared Kyros would believe him. After all, they all knew the legends of mermaids and their supposed seductive powers, luring men to their deaths. There was real reason to fear my Master could be taken by such a lie.

Kyros set the man down on his feet then hauled back and punched him. Aric stumbled a bit and grabbed for the wall to hold himself upright. He laughed.

“You will stay the hell away from Nerina. Am I being clear?”

“You’ve shared other sluts you’ve bedded. Why not this one? She used her magic on me. She’ll use it again. You can’t trust the sea witch. I won’t be held responsible for what I do next time I see her unattended.” Aric’s gaze shifted to me, showing me the full lewdness of his intent at our next encounter.

Kyros let out a guttural shout that sounded like some sort of war cry. His large hands reached out, gripped Aric’s head firmly, and wrenched and twisted. The crack was so loud it filled the whole space of the kitchen. It had been too fast for the fisherman to react, and he slumped to the floor, dead.

My Master still stared at the fisherman as if he might somehow magically reknit bone and get up. “Estella,” Kyros said without taking his eyes off the corpse, “that’s been a long time coming for him. Get rid of the body.”

Then he turned back to me and everything inside me screamed to run. He seemed electrified, taken with an intense blood lust, not even seeing me properly, his rage was so great. Was that rage now directed at me? Did he believe the
sea witch
garbage?

“Master, please, I didn’t … ”

“Don’t speak, Nerina.”

I shut my mouth as he advanced. Estella and the kitchen staff were already acting on the Master’s orders. Estella, being the substantial woman that she was, moved behind Aric’s body and hefted him up, gripping under his arms. Two other women helped, each picking up one of his legs. Then they made their way down the hall.

I shuddered, thinking that perhaps they’d had to dispose of a body at a previous point in their work history, so coordinated was their action. As if they knew exactly where to go and what to do. No one was standing in front of me and guarding me now, although I desperately wished for that protection. Even if Aric had still been alive, he now felt like the least of my problems.

I was surprised when Kyros hauled me up to stand. His grip wasn’t nearly as harsh as the anger that still radiated from his features. It was as if he were intentionally being gentler, controlling the force with which he touched me. I hoped that was a good sign as he led me out of the kitchen and down the hallway away from Estella and the other women.

Even as I was trying to convince myself he wasn’t upset with me, my fear mounted. When we reached the main hall, my anxiety had reached its peak. I could still feel the anger coming off him. Seeing and hearing his violence and rage acted out against another made me fear what would become of me if I stayed with him. Aric’s words about my Master’s darker urges and his insinuation that Kyros had tortured women downstairs was the final deciding factor.

His grip on me was still gentle, gentle enough to break free. So I pulled away and bolted for the door.

Once outside the castle, I ran down the grassy hill, disoriented for a moment by the hazy red clouds all around me. They were thicker than normal and it made navigating more difficult as I could only see a few feet in front of me. But I could smell the sea, and my instincts told me which way to go to get home. I fell a couple of times. Running was still so new, but my need to get away from the castle aided me.

I knew I couldn’t live in the sea anymore. I knew I couldn’t survive out there, but I couldn’t survive here either, and I was sure what lie waiting for me in the ocean would be quicker and less traumatic than whatever my Master’s plans for me.