Heads popped out of the water around them with bright coloured hair and angular features. The first thing Fandri noticed was the sharp pointed teeth. He tried to shout a warning, but the words failed to come from his parched throat. He pointed a trembling finger.
Telmane patted his shoulder. “The mermaids have come. Whether to drown or help us, remains to be seen.”
“They came at my request.” Liara-Star’s clear voice rang out above the shouts of surprise and alarm. “Welcome Lady Eidothea.”
A blue-haired mermaid nodded.
Fandri was reassured by the confident smile on the elf’s radiant face.
Lady Eidothea stood out from the mermaid group; her hair matched her dark blue tail which Fandri glimpsed under the water. He gulped with surprise, for she certainly wasn’t of any form he had yet seen. What in Reloria?
Varl leaned towards the halfling and spoke in a low voice. “Be careful, friend Fandri. Mermaids are renowned for luring men to their deaths in the oceans and devouring them. Once captured, you would never return home. It is an astonishment to me that the queen would call these vixens to our location. She must believe our predicament with the pirates to be greater than our risk of capture by the mermaids.”
“Pirates, attack!”
A barrage of sharpened bone fragments soared towards them, landing without mercy on the travellers. Screams of pain and fear filled the air. The snake was wounded in several places and immediately changed back into the bleeding mage, leaving his companions helpless and adrift in dangerous seas.
Fandri tread water and called out for his friend, but the squire was nowhere to be seen. “Varl, Varl, where are you?” His heart was beating out of control, thumping in his ears. Every time he rose to the crest of a wave, he looked in desperation, but the jumble of writhing bodies did not reveal his friend.
An orange mermaid launched herself high out of the water towards the nearest ship. She grasped Varl tight in one hand and a sharp plank of wood in the other. Fandri gasped to imagine the strength required to propel them both into the air.
Varl screamed in fright as they crashed onto the ship. The mermaid pushed him out of harm’s way. She grasped the plank with both hands and drove it deep into the bowels of the ship, as though spearing a wild animal. Pirates dived overboard as water bubbled up from the deck and the ship sank.
Varl came up for air, gasping with fright. He had a bare moment to steady his nerves before the mermaid splashed down beside him. He held her back at arm’s length. “Please do not kill me. I am, but a young boy.”
“I’m well aware of your attributes.” Her voice was soft and low, purring like a fascinated kitten. Her head tilted to the side as her blue eyes took in his measure, then she closed the distance between them. Her mouth pressed warm and moist against his, and her arms locked him in a firm embrace.
The young squire groaned against her unwanted affection and struggled in a plea for her to release him.
“No.”
The vixen refused to let him free and kissed him with passion once more.
Shivers of pleasure came upon the boy and his body betrayed him, pressing towards her. A small moan betrayed his change of mind.
“Ah, now you are coming to your senses. Hermine is beautiful, is she not?”
He seemed rather puzzled at her phrasing, but then it hit him. “Are you Hermine?”
“But of course, youngster. Hermine is infatuated with your health and youth. You will make a fine father for my children.” Her angular eyes looked confidently into his and she nodded assurance. “Hermine will care for you well and bring you food and water in exchange for your love. Is that not every man’s desire?”
Varl’s eyes widened at the thought of being trapped as a love prisoner to this strange and powerful creature. “I…well, I do not believe I am yet of age to produce children, my Lady Hermine. I am still but a young squire myself. Are you certain I am what you are seeking?”
Hermine spat. “Bah man-child, you are too immature for one such as Hermine. Fend for yourself while I aid my sisters in the demise of these sea-dogs. Come back to me when you are fully grown and I shall make a real man of you.”
The squire gave a choking cough of relief and nodded many times. “As you wish, my generous lady.” He turned away as fast as he dared and swam back in the direction he had last seen Fandri and Nnarndam. Whew.
Varl was aware of boats sinking around him and the desperate cries of pirates being pursued and attacked. Some mermaids appeared gentle and embraced the men before drowning then within sight of the water’s surface. Others attacked without mercy, spearing the men through the torso from behind or dragging them down to the depths of the sea and watching with delight as bubbles escaped their tortured lips.
Hermine leapt through the water and tore the throat out of one unsuspecting pirate before he could shout. Varl turned away in disgust. His stomach churned and he gulped in an attempt to suppress waves of nausea. His efforts were futile; sickness gripped his heaving stomach and he lost his breakfast into the sea. His nose wrinkled in disgust and he squeezed his eyes shut, but fear for his own life made him open them again. Everywhere he looked was slaughter and chaos.
The blue-haired mermaid was the most heartless of all, using her ornate golden sceptre to cave in the heads of hapless pirates. She enjoyed the torment too, singing a merry tune as though her acts were of no consequence. Varl shuddered as he swam past her and noted a thin circlet of gold with a golden shell gracing her exotic brow.
“Fandri, quick, we must escape this danger.” Varl panted with his heart thundering in his chest and breaths fast with panic. He had no doubt the mermaids would kill him and his companions after disposing of their common enemy.
Fandri swam towards his friend and the fairy reached him first. “Oh, this is dreadful. How could these sea creatures behave so monstrously?” Tears welled in her eyes.
“Hark, the cliff opens.” Every eye turned to Sir Rawlan. He pointed at a crack in the distant cliff, where the sky was visible through the top portion.
Cries of shock and disbelief echoed through the survivors.
The elven queen remained elegant despite bobbing up and down in the ocean, surrounded by her skirts. Her face glowed with health and showed a serene expression, in ignorance of her bedraggled state. “Please, my friends. It has been a harrowing afternoon, but our fortune is changing. Lady Eidothea and her kin will eliminate our foe. Now our way forward has been revealed.”
The remaining elven handmaidens and guards including Telmane surrounded her. They linked arm in arm and paddled their feet to propel them forward.
As the cliff-face continued to open with a loud rumble, the survivors headed towards the ominous-looking fissure. Fandri joined the swimming sprint in the hope of escaping the carnage being wrought by the mermaids.
Beyond the crack, the cliff was dark and little could be discerned. The youngsters thought they could see shadowy movement, but despite straining their eyes, they could not tell if it were friend or foe.
Lady Eidothea and her band of sharp-toothed killers waved goodbye to the queen as though they were leaving a calm afternoon tea. Fandri and Varl exchanged open-mouthed glances of bemusement at the odd situation.
Before they could comment, the mermaids leapt into the air, showing their colourful tails once more and vanished into the blue sea.