Page 54 of Wicked Tides #1

Dahlia

Mothers know, and they whisper

“You are safe” even when the monsters

are breathing down her neck.

~ Ophelia Quin

I followed Taupek and Ahnah, watching as she spewed long sentences to her grandmother that I couldn’t understand.

There was a heaviness to both their tones as if they were talking about Sakari and when I heard her name uttered between them, I was certain.

Taupek glanced back at me and slowed her pace even more than her limp already forced her to.

I stepped up beside her as we strolled through the village.

I could smell salted meat and fish among the thick scent of wood smoke.

Venturing further, I smelled something I was unfamiliar with.

Something thick and musky with hints of dirt and grass.

A long, square building sat off the path with a large, wooden round pen in front of it where two giant beasts leisured about nibbling dry grass.

I slackened my gait at the sight of the four-legged animals.

“Horses,” I whispered .

“We have eleven of them,” Taupek said. “Have you not seen one before?”

“Wild ones. From a distance. Never have I seen them so close.”

“You will have to visit them in the morning when you’re rested.”

I blinked, trying not to gawk at the creatures like a child as we passed.

I had seen them before galloping across the beaches of some of the large islands.

They were gorgeous things, but I’d never tried to get close.

The sound of their hooves slamming against the ground was reason enough for me to keep my distance. I never imagined they were so large.

Ahnah’s little voice stole me from my thoughts as she rambled to her grandmother.

“She tells me you have a companion,” Taupek said.

“My sister. Meridan. She waits on the ship.”

“She is welcome here.”

“Why is that?” I asked, furrowing my brows. “You know what we are, yes?”

“I do. We all do.”

“You would welcome a monster into—”

“Monsters are different to everyone. To you, men are monsters, yes? To a mouse, a fox is a monster.”

We walked in silence for a moment as I absorbed her words. “On our way through the ice, we saw others in the water.”

Taupek smiled as if the thought of the coldfins elated her and I couldn’t grasp it.

“It is a great honor to see them.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” I uttered under my breath.

“You come from a place of war controlled by the ones who can be the most ruthless. I can understand how things might seem strange to you here, but we are far from your home, are we not?”

“You seem educated for being so isolated from the world.”

She sighed, placing a hand on her hip where her pain seemed to be the worst .

“I was taken a long time ago like these girls. I saw and learned many things before I found my way back here to have my first daughter.”

“Ahnah’s mother.”

She nodded once. “She was a product of horrible acts, but I loved her just the same. Until she died and we surrendered her to the sea with many others during a great fever.”

I took a deep breath and let my thoughts wander back to Kea and Voel. The pain of losing people was something every being in the world had in common, whether the loss came early or later in life.

“Here,” Taupek said, gesturing toward a small cabin just off the main path. “This hut is empty.”

I turned to look at her, a thank you teetering on the tip of my tongue. Instead, I just inclined my head and then glimpsed Ahnah. She gave me a shy, solemn smile and I returned it with as much subtlety.

“Sakari was like a sister to her,” Taupek said. “We will have a farewell ceremony for her tomorrow when the village is fed and rested.”

Ahnah muttered a few words to her grandmother and Taupek smiled.

“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.

“Hunters kill sirens,” 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.”

She stood with a groan, her old joints creaking. “Then perhaps a dip in our spring will help. I find the warmer water soothes the joints and the mind. It’s down the path just past the bend.”

A comforting bath was the last thing on my mind.

Relaxing was a luxury I hardly deserved, but once the longhouse became too noisy with the heavy breathing of passed-out sailors, I decided to leave.

I strolled toward the cabin I’d been given where I suspected Meridan was already trying to sleep, but once I reached it, I surpassed its door and continued down the trail.

At first, it was just to think and be alone.

It was a long walk, but I enjoyed it. Even in the cold, it was peaceful.

If I happened upon a spring, I would take it as a sign that I needed the time alone.