Chapter Six

I chose to sleep until just before afternoon. To avoid the prince and my mother.

When I finally rose from my great pile of discarded clothes, blankets, and pillows. The gaping windows left my room with square shadows only at the very edges. I hopped from one shadow to the next, playing a game of tag with the light. Something I had done since I was a girl.

Naked in the light of the morning, I could feel the sea call my name. Throwing on a simple loose set of silk men's clothes, I scooped a knife and clams net from the kitchens. It'd be a good day to hunt for lunch in the water.

More servants from the main palace had arrived to tend to the wishes of the prince, making my home a thriving place of tall women hidden beneath lace veils. Mother was in the sand garden on a stool amidst serpents crawling onto her arms and laps. She cupped a large one and it sat in her hand curled and writhing. It was a hooded creature, with golden scales and black stripes. I could hear hissing words, only barely audible from a distance. She pet it, as one would a cat and listened to its gossip. Without her makeup on, I could see fine wrinkles trailing her mouth and neck. Her hair was wet, hinting she had just come from the bath. I supposed she had slept in as well.

I walked by quietly to hide from her and the creature's gaze.

I spinned as I finally felt the sand between my toes, opting to be barefoot like most Isla women. First I collected little shells along the coast, of all sizes and shapes. Once I found a nice place and had a pile of them I strung them onto fishing wire and tied them to my ankles. An old elders rhyme came to thought:

Be warned of the siren call, child and man.

For if you go to the water in which they swam,

hope the necklace of shells can save your soul be damned.

It worked as an indicator, if your shells broke it meant the sirens were tracking you. It was well known among our people that the creature's necks would expand and produce sound waves that could map the water like a compass. With the shells on, I stripped my shirt off, now only wearing the pants and long strips of cloth across my chest. The small slip of the beach was private, meaning only those in my family could traverse it. I need no fear to even swim bare if I desired, and two massive stones blocked any prying eyes. Along the bottom of those rocks were bunches of tasty mollusks perfect for grilling. They created a curve into the beaches tall ledge. The small beach was made of loose sand, still that dark black color.

Swimming out to one of the rocks that lay deeper in the water, I felt at peace. I had the net tied to my waste and in the band of my pants, the small shucking knife. When I opened my eyes under the water, the noon sun was illuminating the rock in green and blue patterns.

A gift to people with the first king's blood, the ability to hold one's breath under water for around forty minutes easily. Eyes that could pierce depths deep under the waves, and the ability to swim fast. There was a story about that too, but I had never cared to listen to the elders tell it.

I collected the clams and muscles greedily. Excited to feast. I traveled further and further down the rock, I had been doing this since I was old enough to walk.

I barely registered when the shells began to burst, one by one.

I broke for the surface in desperation, but halted when I saw a figure below me.

A woman's face was peering cautiously up in my direction.

Her face was smoothe and white, as was her body that had no indication of breasts. From what I could see, her eyes glowed a pale green and her hair was like seaweed. That long and beautiful face tilted at me, in curiosity. I held the knife across my chest, prepared for her impact.

The point where I believed her collar bonds would have met opened up into the neck. Her delicate face and body looked as if they were being pulled apart to show a horror beneath. At the center of the 'X' like mouth, I saw a black pit of vicious teeth expanding and a throat with bubbles of air came from in a terrible way. A long seaweed tongue wiggled from within, tasting the water around me. I only had a moment to think before it twisted towards me in an unusual way. Moving like an eel, flying through the water. I raced it to the rock so I could climb up to the surface.

When my hand brushed the gritted rock, something slimy grabbed at my ankle and I shook it off violently. The tongue. It did not break away. I had only a gasp of air before I was dragged under swiftly. In a moment of desperation, I sliced at the creature with the knife.

Like the echoes of dolphins from a distance, a noise shot through my ears. I knew the knife had cut a part of the siren's body. I took the brief moment of surprise to kick off the tongue and make my way back to the surface. Hauling myself up onto a ridge in the rock's porous frame.

Fear rattled me from the deepest parts of my heart as a head poked from the water. It looked at me on the rock and I wondered if it was angry. What she believed was an easy lunch had just fought back in bloody rampage. I would have done the same if the clams had taken a finger. She swam in circles around the rock, like a shark sniffing blood. My ankle was beginning to bruise and swell. It wasn't snapped, luckily. Most sirens grabbed their prey and dragged them to the depths to drown. When she stopped in front of me we stared at each other for a long time.

"Blood.. for.. blood." It hissed, like those creatures my mother entertained in the garden.

I could see iridescent blood around her, as if she leaked oil. Without a second of hesitation I sliced my hand open with the knife, and pressed it closed above the water. That long black tongue was moving like a water moccasin.

Once it had gotten a taste, it lowered itself down back to the depths. I waited an hour longer, my skin turning pinkish under the sun before going back to the water to swim to shore. The entire time my heart raced, and I shook in terror.

When I could finally stand on fully dry land, I collapsed. Breathing as if I had landed from a wrecked ship.

My hand had stopped bleeding, but the place I had sliced was pink and raw. When I finally crawled to a stand, I limped back to the place I had left my blouse, my hair dripping with salt water.

I screamed at the air, angry with my own cowardice and fear. I screamed to stop myself from crying.

A few paces from me, watching from a shadow in the curved rock was none other than Prince Ryu Tae-Ho.

He was smiling, in a freakish and psychopathic flash of pearly teeth.

"What a show." He said, and I felt rage come over me before I leaped towards him with the knife in hand.