Page 83 of Wicked Tides
She had been shot. I’d suspected it, but now I knew. She was clutching the wound, but it wasn’t her only one. She had holes in her hands. Tears in her clothes. Her long, black tail, at least twice as long as her body, sat limp and littered with deep abrasions.
Meridan hissed at anyone who tried to touch her, including me. She pulled Dahlia into her lap, pushing her wet hair off her face.
“I can help her,” I said.
“She doesn’t need your help! She needs the water.”
I gestured toward the infested ocean around us as my men continued to fire on attacking beasts, pulling up the nets with haste as the ship gained distance from the massacre.
“Be my guest.”
She gave me a glare that could cut skin and cradled Dahlia tighter.
“The island. There are caves,” Dahlia muttered.
“We’re going back to the island,” I confirmed. “Can you make it?”
Meridan took a breath and calmed herself enough to give me a tense nod.
“Willwebe safe on the island?” I asked.
“The sons cannot stay long from water. Not like us. But no,” she said, looking up at me. “We will not be safe. Safety is a fantasy you humans cooked up in search of bliss.”
I shrugged. “I’ll take that over being on the sea right now. To port!”
~ 30 ~
Vidar
It is when we cease seeing with our eyes
that ugly things transform into diamonds
~Mother Anne Stillington
It was midday before we returned to Port Devlin, but it was overcast. The season of storms was earning its name and I could smell rain in the air. Once we anchored, no one stayed aboard the Rose. Not after the sons had devoured Collin’s entire crew. They were voracious beasts and they wanted Dahlia as much as they wanted humans.
As soon as we were in the shallows, Meridan took Dahlia’s partially conscious body into the water without even a warning and disappeared beneath the dark waves. We came to the docks and headed inland, eager to gain some distance from the shore. All the while, David kept his head down like a beaten dog. I hadn’t said a word to him during the entire journey back. He knew he’d made mistakes. I knew I had, too. I was at fault as much as he was and neither of us wanted to admit it aloud.
Coming to the inn, I immediately walked in searching for Gus and the girls. They were down in the tavern sipping on warm broth and nibbling some bread when we arrived. Gus got a lookat my torn ear and the dried blood on the side of my face and shook his head with a sigh.
“What happened then?” he asked.
I skimmed the girls, catching the little one’s distressed gaze as she scanned for the young lady that had been taken. Knowing she wouldn’t find her among us made my heart sink a little.
“Gone,” I muttered to Gus. “The lot of them.”
“Don’t look like it was an easy fight.”
I touched my stinging ear and shrugged. “It was easy enough.” I glanced over my shoulder at David and gestured toward the girls with my head. “Can I trust you to look after them while you get a bite to eat?”
He nodded silently and dragged his tired feet to one of the tables as Thelasa brought out a fresh bowl of broth.
“Got the boy back looks like. What about the girl?”
I shook my head. “Haven’t asked what happened yet, but I didn’t see her when we boarded. And Dahlia looked mad enough.”
Gus lowered his head with a grumble and scratched his scruffy chin.
