Page 8 of Blood of the Sirens
I liked to build sculptures using materials I found in the seabed. It seemed silly and pointless to some, but it was the one thing I had absolute control over in my life. I could createwhatever I wished: replicas of the fish who frequented our waters or even crude portraits of my friends or the sigils of the different clans. A few of them had even traveled to purchase a few of my works, so I must not be too terrible at it. Father thought it was all nonsense, but certainly hadn’t turned his nose at what the others had brought to barter with, proving that the art had value.
To some, if not him. My opinion didn’t matter, of course.
It was tempting to tell him Ihadfound one, but bragging was for guppies.
“It appears there will be more competition,” I offered instead, meeting the green and blue eyes that were identical to mine.
My father drifted back down to his chair, his chin falling into his hands. “Merrick, I know you don’t agree with what we must do.”
My lip curled. “You mean seducing human females, getting them pregnant, then abandoning them?”
His face twisted. “It is preferable to kidnapping them, which our predecessors tried, Merrick, with disastrous consequences. Would you rather we kill the females? They cannot survive down here with us. We cannot survive up there with them.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but said nothing. My stomach soured like it always did when we argued about this.
“I simply think there must be a better way. One we haven’t explored yet,” I insisted, refusing to raise my voice.
He glared at me from under his heavy brow. “Do share if you come up with anything.” His fingers flicked at me; a clear dismissal.
I pushed down the growl in my chest and turned, swimming away as fast as I could without seeming disrespectful.
For hundreds of years, it was how we’d survived as a race.The last of the sirens died out a few hundred years ago, though we still didn’t know how or why. Some historians blamed human contamination in our oceans, while others went a different route and argued that the females choseto forsake the sea and live among humans, mating with human men and diluting the bloodline until they simply didn’t exist anymore.
It was a ludicrous theory, but theyhadall seemingly vanished at once.
Others said it was dark magick.
Either way, it left us with few options other than to find human females with traces of that lineage in their blood, and mate with them, praying they had a male child.
Then we returned to the ocean, waiting for the birth.
If it was a female, nothing further happened. Female children were raised as humans; indistinguishable despite the small amount of siren blood in their veins.
But the males?
The males born of a siren lineage were always mers, and immediately stolen and brought back to the ocean to join our clan. The celebrations usually lasted for weeks.
Yet there hadn’t been one for decades.
I disagreed with the practice. It didn’t sit right with me—abandoning human females like that. Privately I wondered if such treatment and attitudes were why the sirens disappeared in the first place.
My father said it was our instincts from long ago creeping in, that the urge to protect and provide was what made the act so distasteful to me. He even agreed with me it was not preferable, but argued we had no choice. If we didn’t do this, our species would die out completely.
Just like the sirens.
Some days, I wondered if that was a bad thing. With pollution and the dying reefs, who knew how long we’d last? Thebehavior patterns of sharks and other marine life were constantly changing because of the environmental crisis. Was our way of life even sustainable? What would it be like to migrate onto land, and live as a human? Would it be so terrible?
It sounded a little exciting.
This was why I preferred building shell sculptures to debating siren policy. It was better than trying to solve all the world’s problems.
As I left my home, my nemesis Aris lay in wait for me. Aris puffed his chest out confidently, his lackey clan mates surrounding him and clapping him on the shoulder, laughing. “Merrick! Ready to go hunting next week? I bet I will bring back a female before all of you.”
I turned away, fully intent on ignoring him and getting a few hours to myself. It was only a matter of time before the other clans sent for their males and I would be forced to entertain them all as the chief’s only son.
“Hey. Art boy. I’m talking to you.”
I stopped, shoulders hunched, as Aris sneered at my back. He knew I couldn’t betoorude; I was the host prince, after all.
