Page 103 of Wicked Tides
“She wishes for you to help us prepare food. She says you’re good at it.”
“I carved some fish in front of her,” I scoffed. “I wouldn’t say I’m good at it.”
“Then perhaps we will put you in charge of the fish while the rest of your people come ashore.”
They turned and began walking away.
“They’re not my people,” I blurted. “They’re… hunters.”
Taupek turned back to me, her lips parted with surprise before her expression softened.
“Hunterskillsirens,” she spoke, continuing on to another part of the village. “Are you coming?”
I was quickly put to work preparing salted fish stew and bean buns as Vidar and the others retrieved the rest of the crew. It was hours before everyone had come to shore and with them, they brought what little supplies they could spare to thank Ahnah’s people for the hospitality. I watched tear-filled reunions unfold around me as everyone gathered in a longhouse at the center of the village. A large fire pit burned warmly in the center and above it were rabbit carcasses slowly cooking over the flames.
Aside from the obvious sorrow hanging over the place for those lost, the villagers seemed overjoyed to be reunited with their loved ones. Their delight filled the air with a sweet and spring-like scent that I wasn’t used to. I could hardly tell who was family and who wasn’t. They all seemed so close.
Glimpsing the crew of the Rose scattered throughout the gathering, I realized how similar they were in that sense. None of them were related by blood and yet they acted as if they were.
Beside me, Meridan helped pluck rosemary and chives from their stems and roots to drop into the stew. She wasn’t speaking much. Of everyone, she was the most obviously inhuman. She’d been given a hooded coat with a fur trim and she kept the hood up to shadow her pale features. Despite the village being adamant that they had no ill feelings toward our kind, I could tell Meridan was uncomfortable. I kept her close, hoping my presence would sooth her.
Food was divvied out among all those present and everyone enjoyed it with full appreciation. It was the best food I’d had in a long time. Even Port Devlin’s bread and stew could not compare. Quiet conversation filled the house, but the gathering was far from being a celebration. Many were sad. Some of the girls learned their loved ones did not survive the attack that took them from their home and things seemed quite downhearted. But the relief I saw because they were home was worth the struggles we endured to get them there. It had given me a sense of purpose that I didn’t think I was missing.
The night moved swiftly. Most ate their fill and surrendered to exhaustion or retreated to corners where the villagers set up fur-covered cots for people to sleep. The longhouse grew quiet save for snoring and the crackling of the fires and torches. The leftover bones and scraps were given to a few wolfish looking dogs that seemed to roam the outdoors like wild pets and a majority of the villagers dispersed to their homes.
A few of the stronger men stayed in the longhouse and by the weapons tucked in their belts, it wasn’t to be social. They were subtly keeping watch. As much as the girls vouched for us, we were still strangers and Vidar’s crew looked like any other pirate crew.
I was sitting at a table sipping tea from a bone cup with Meridan for a while before she walked off without me. She seemed deep in her thoughts and as someone who knew the feeling, I didn’t want to intrude. I stayed at the table watching the room in silence until Ahnah strode up to me and sat by my side. She didn’t say anything. She just rubbed her tired eyes, attempted to smile, and fall to sleep with her head on the table. It didn’t take long for Taupek to appear with another young lady to take Ahnah to bed.
Rather than follow her granddaughter to their cabin, she stood beside me, her hands tucked into the furry sleeves of her coat.
“She adores you,” she said.
I lifted my cup to my lips and took a sip of tea. “I was nothing like the sirens you’re used to when she first saw me. I have no idea why she’s taken a liking.”
Taupek sighed and sat down on the wooden bench, perching an elbow on the table.
“This place has seen more violence than we’d like to admit. We’ve rebuilt many times.”
“Pirates?”
“Sometimes. Other times, neighboring tribes. We are separated from the world, but we know it’s a cruel place. Sometimes that cruelty finds its way here. Ahnah is young, but she understands what evil looks like. She must not see evil in you.”
“My soul is darker than you know.”
“Darkness and evil are different.”
“The things I’ve done—”
“You brought our girls back,” she cut me off. “I do not care what you’ve done, Dahlia. We thought them dead before today.”
A splash of warmth touched my heart at those words. I knew what I was. Who I was. I thought I did, at least. I thought I understood my place in the world, among men and sirens, but evidently, I knew nothing.
Or perhaps I was being made a fool for questioning it.
“I am old,” Taupek continued. “I must rest. You should, too. Your journey has been long.”
“I am not tired.”
