Fair Island

         Lucas lay still.  He could feel the sea breeze ruffling his hair and the hot sand beneath his mostly naked body.  He lay still and marveled that he was still alive.  The sailor’s head ached, and when he sat up and opened his eyes the world swam around him.  The ground beneath him was fine, white sand and in the distance he could see a few palm trees. One gull called out to another. Well, at least I didn’t drown.

         Lucas craned his neck and peered up at the sky.  It was blue from horizon to horizon.  There was no sign of the heavy, purple clouds that had rolled upon the Fenella so quickly…the day before?  Two days before?  Thinking, he could not recall much of the trading galley’s unfortunate end.  The main mast had shattered.  His brother, Braydon, had been thrown overboard as the ship was tossed like a child’s doll by the relentless onslaught.  The hull had splintered, and then Lucas himself had fallen into the water, into a sea of grasping hands. He had fought to stay afloat…

         “Are you going to lie there all day?  The sun will burn you.” The voice was soft and melodic.  Lucas looked towards its source and found a woman bobbing in the nearby water.  Her head and the tops of her bare breasts were above the sea, and Lucas could not help but stare.  What he could see of the woman possessed ethereal beauty.  Her eyes were the color of the summer sky; her skin as fine as dark as fresh milk and her hair as fine and dark as coal.  Before he could speak his gaze wandered down her neck and over the curves of her shoulders and breasts.  What he could see of them—which was not nearly enough, proved as perfect as the woman’s face.  Lucas closed his eyes and took a deep breath to at least attempt politeness.  He was a sailor after all, not a saint, and the Fenella’s journey had been a long one.

         “Who are you?” he asked, standing up and moving towards the woman. “Where am I?”

         “My name is Kari,” she said. “As for you, you are on Fair Island.  My sisters and I make our home here.”

         “Fair Island?” Lucas’s eyes snapped open. “But that place doesn’t really exist.  It’s just some old sailor’s tale.  Fair Island is the island of plenty, full of treasure and beautiful women and—“ He broke off abruptly as Kari raised herself from the water.  Lucas forgot all about the Fenella and his dead brother when she raised herself from the sea.  Water ran in rivulets down her perfect breasts, and his eyes followed it.  Her stomach was flat, but as his eyes reached her hips the skin there shifted seamlessly to gleaming green scales.  Where a woman’s legs would have been she had a fish’s tail.

         “You’re a mermaid!” he exclaimed. “But they were only—“

         “Sailors’ tales?” Kari laughed. “All the best legends have a little truth to them.”

         “I’ll say,” Lucas said. “Are there more of you?”

         “Oh yes.” Kari sat upon the sand, running a slender hand over her tail. “My sisters and I have made our home here for many years.  You are welcome to come and visit us at our lagoon.  It is off that way.” She gestured to the left. “But whatever you do, don’t go past the old ruins on the other side.  They are dangerous.”  Kari’s blue eyes darkened dramatically as she spoke.

         “I’ll keep that in mind,” Lucas said. “Say, is there anything to eat around here?  Any fresh water?  Anywhere to make shelter?”

         “There is a spring near the center of the island and several trees near it,” Kari said. “As for shelter…if you look around, I imagine you’ll find something.” A sly smile clung to her full lips. “You should come and see us tonight.  My sisters and I would look forward to your company ever so much.”

         “I’ll be sure to do that,” Lucas said.  He wondered to himself if all of them would be as naked and fair as she, but didn’t voice it.  Food and shelter would have to come first.

         “Come at sunset,” Kari said as she slid back into the water. “We will be waiting.”  Lucas watched her until she disappeared beneath the waves.

         The rest of the day passed as if a dream.  It took him half the day to reach the center of the island, where a natural spring bubbled.  He gulped down mouthfuls of fresh water, letting it run down his chin without caring.  Further along island the coastline became rocky and he found crabs and mussels clinging the rocks.  There was driftwood enough for a fire, and he cooked and ate the meat as afternoon faded into evening.  Shelter was all he needed, for as the sun went down the wind coming off the ocean turned brisk.

         Lucas shivered a little as he followed Kari’s directions.  The sand was soft under his bare feet, and soon he could hear the sounds of splashing and laughing coming from nearby.  He broke into a run and soon came upon the lagoon.  It wasn’t a real lagoon, more a pool of water surrounded by a rocky outcropping.  In the semidarkness, the jutting rocks reminded Lucas of the teeth of some long-dead dragon, and he felt a sudden stab of fear.  It lasted only a moment, for a minute later he spotted Kari stretched across a rock.

         “Kari!” he called.

         “You came!”  She beckoned him closer and Lucas sat on the rock beside her.  As he watched, heads popped up out of the water.  There were redheads, blondes and brunettes, each one as beautiful as Kari herself.  There was Sella, Aila, Ella, Avi, Edri, Liri, and many more.  They circled the rock that he and Kari sat upon, talking and laughing.  One of them draped a necklace of seashells around Lucas’s neck and gave him such a lingering kiss that his hands instinctively found her hips.  She continued to kiss him as he pressed her breasts against his chest. 

         “Calla.” Another voice pulled Lucas out of his reverie.  The mermaid withdrew.  Another mermaid had pulled herself up onto the rock in the center, and Lucas found his attention drawn to her.  She was beautiful but not really pretty, with pale gold hair that spilled down her back and large, heavy breasts.  Her neck and shoulders were decorated with necklaces.  Some of them were woven with seashells, but others looked to contain teeth and small bones.  She smiled at Lucas, and he managed a smile back.

         “That is Aerya, the fairest of them all,” Kari whispered, looping an arm around his shoulders.  He would not have called her the fairest of them all, but Aerya was certainly a beauty.  They all were, now if only one could lay with him.

         “Greetings, stranger,” Aerya said. “You are welcome to come and sing with us.”

         “Thank you, my lady.”  Lucas shifted his weight a little. “But I’m not much of a singer.”

         “Just listen then,” Aerya said. “Listen and enjoy yourself.  Sisters!”

         The mermaids crowded around Aerya in a circle.  Some floated in the water.  Others, like Kari, found places along the rocks.  As the fairest of them all lifted her voice; the others followed.  Lucas closed his eyes to listen.  The song went on for a long time in a language Lucas could not understand, but it sounded a little to him the way the wind had sounded when the Fenella was in the midst of the storm.  The clouds had rolled and the wind had howled like a woman screaming.  The wind howled, the ship bucked, and his little brother Braydon flew over the side.  Lucas had not gone after his brother, but when he had leaned over the rail, a flash of light had illuminated the churning water below.  It looked to him to be full of figures.  Some of them were his drowning comrades but others…others were moving with the sea, raising their voices and arms in a strange rapture that sounded so terribly sweet with the thunder and rain.

You’re a selfish bastard, Lucas.  You never could give a damn about anyone else.  The thought came unbidden with the face of the woman who had spat the word at him.  Caly had been his wife less than half a year before she caught him in the bed of a pretty young whore.  His wife had been furious.  She knew as well as he did that that tryst had not been the first time he had been unfaithful to her.  First she had left him, and then he had let Braydon get thrown off the side of the ship. I could have followed him.  I could have…  Lucas felt a tear in the corner of his eye and hastily wiped at it.  The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of a bunch of women.

         As the song ebbed away, so did some of his emotion.  Lucas swallowed the lump that rose in his throat and wiped at his eyes one more time with the back of his hand.  He looked around.  The mermaids were sitting with sorrowful expressions, all but Aeryna.  The fairest of them all was watching him intently. Lucas looked down at his hands.

         “Beautiful, wasn’t it?” Kari chirped from beside him. “So beautiful and sad.”

         “Yes,” Lucas said. “It’s wonderful.  Very…moving.”  Now that the song was over, the sailor felt more himself.  It was easier to push Caly’s face out of his mind—and Braydon’s grasping hands.  The song had moved him.

         “You should come join us tomorrow evening as well,” Aerya said. “We will sing to you again and bring you refreshment.”

         “Absolutely,” Lucas said. “I mean…”  What else am I going to do?  What’s better than enjoying the company of a bunch of beautiful, bare-breasted women?

         “Just be careful,” Aerya warned. “Do not go around to the other side of the ruined mountain.  I am sure Kari warned you, but I’m warning you again.”

         “You might hear sounds like voices in the dark,”  Calla, chimed in. “They are just birds.  The sound carries over the water.  Ignore them.”

         “No mountain.  Sounds like voices.  Got it.”  Lucas committed that to memory. “Do you all know anywhere I might find shelter?  A cave, perhaps?”

         “There is a cave not far from here,” Calla said. “Follow the path.  There may be some things left for you.”

         “Thanks.” Lucas pushed himself off the rock and gave Kari’s lips a kiss.  She beamed.  The crowd parted and he soon found the path Calla had mentioned.  It was barely visible within a clump of tall grass, but the cave it led to was small and sheltered from the wind.  Much to his surprise, he did find supplies within.  There was an old wool blanket, a couple of waterskins, and a leather-bound book in a language Lucas couldn’t read—which could be any damn language under the sun.  He gave the journal a cursory glance, wrapped himself in the blanket and went to sleep.  In the night there were sounds like voices, but Lucas slept too soundly to hear them.

         The following morning dawned as clear and warm as the first, and after roasting a few more fish and crabs for breakfast, he set to exploring.  The island was quite large, and he had the entire side of the ruined mountain to himself as far as he knew.  He took one of the waterskins and set off along the beach.  The sand soon gave way to rock and grass, and he found himself in the shadow of the mountain.  It was a formidable thing, a lone peak jutting up from the water like a shark’s fin.  Lucas found it unnerving, for how could it be in such plain sight, yet unfound?  The island was large, yet there were no settlements that he had seen.  Maybe they are on the other side of the mountain.  He was curious despite himself.  Perhaps sometime soon he would ignore Aerya’s warning and sneak over there.

         The ground started to slope downward about halfway around the mountain.  The going was treacherous with his bare feet, for the dirt was littered with sharp stones and glimmering chunks of bone.  Something has lived and died here.  He saw no more mermaids and no people, just the occasional crab or bird.  Eventually he grew bored and went back the way he came.  When the sun set; he was invited again to sit and sing with the mermaids and again he was moved by Aerya’s song.  Her voice was stronger than the others, and he found sleep the second night was not so easy.  Every time he started to drift off he saw his brother’s grasping hands or the angry countenance of his wife.  You are a selfish bastard, Lucas.  Eventually, he slept.

         Lucas woke up later on the third morning; stiff and sore from a bad night’s sleep on the stone ground.  He wrapped the blanket around himself and took a drink from the waterskin.  Gods, what he would not give for some wine.  His head had started to ache, and not from a hangover.  As he started to rise, something scraped against his foot, and he saw the journal open to another page.  This one didn’t contain words, but a crude map of the island.  The left side had been carefully drawn out, but on the other side there was little more than a large, smeared X.  X for what, Lucas wondered.  X for forbidden?  He closed the journal again, and made a decision.

         There was no path along the right side of the mountain as there had been on the left, and soon Lucas found himself picking his way through rocks and broken ground.  There was a lot more driftwood on the side than the other, some of it still riddled with nails.  Parts of ships, maybe the Fenella.  He did not want to think of her just then, or the rest of his crew. None of them washed up here though.  A crew of a hundred, and not one of them made it here.  The hair on the back of his neck prickled.

         Most of the sand on this side of the mountain had been eroded away by the constant pounding of the waves, and Lucas was carefully as he rounded the bend that would take him to the forbidden area.  Once he rounded the bend; Lucas stopped dead in his tracks.

         The wreck of the Fenella leaned drunkenly against the mountain.  Her mainmast had been shattered and her hull was a sea of splinters, but Lucas could still see the LLA painted on the side.  One of the other masts jutted out towards him like an accusing finger.  Beyond that was a second ship, this one more submerged in the water, in equally bad shape.  Past that was a third.  None of the ruins looked that old.  His gaze drifted from the wrecks towards the land. 
He nearly wet himself at what he saw.

         Piles of bones had been stacked along the pathway.  Birds had picked most of them clean, but rotting scraps of clothing clung to a few.  They weren’t scattered haphazardly.  The bones had been…arranged.  Arranged by many pairs of beautiful hands, he did not doubt.  Had the fairest of them all lured them into the sea?  Had there been some mistake?  If they died, why had he been spared?  The questions ate at Lucas as he ran back towards his cave, tripping and falling more than once. 

         By the time he reached the cave his hands and feet were cut and bloody.  He sat down on the stone floor and wrapped his blanket around himself.  Lucas closed his eyes, but all he saw were the piles of skulls grinning up at him, half buried in sand.  Tonight, he decided. I will go to Aerya tonight and demand an explanation.  There has to be one.  Never mind that the storm that smashed the Fenella to splinters came from nowhere and that the howling in the wind sounded like their singing.  Never mind that you may hear sounds like voices, nope.  He was shaking all over and drew the blanket closer around his shoulders.

         When the sun started to set, Lucas stayed in the cave.  The air cooled off and for awhile he wished he had gathered some driftwood for a fire.  He stared at the red orb as it descended into the ocean, waiting.  He was not disappointed.  Right on schedule the singing began.  He heard Aerya’s voice, low and powerful, mingled with the others.  Lucas closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears, trying to block out the compulsion to join them and demand an explanation.  As darkness descended on the third night, Lucas tried to sleep.  Eventually he managed to doze.

         A cry pierced the silent night, startling Lucas awake.  He blinked and rubbed at his eyes, reaching for the blanket again.  The cry came again.  Lucas shivered and rose to his feet.  You may hear sounds like voices, but they are just birds.  The sound carries over the water. The noise was coming from the ruined mountain, and Lucas gathered his strength as he picked his way along the path.  It was slower going in the dark, and the wind cut him.  Another scream ripped through the night.

         Lucas ran.  He grabbed a fallen branch for all the good it would do and wound his way towards the sound.  There was no path, and when he tripped in the grass he crawled for a little while before regaining his feet.  The screaming had stopped, but he could see movement near the shoreline.  Feminine figures crowded around something on the ground.  A man, Lucas realized.  He ducked behind a tree, but none of them noticed him.

         As Lucas watched, the mermaids curled around the corpse like kittens around a bowl of cream.  Aerya sand something in their strange language.  Lucas was about to turn and leave when he saw one of the women lift up the man’s arm and bite down into it.  Her teeth sank into the man’s flesh and she tore a chunk away and chewed.  They swarmed over him.  Mermaids were on his arms; his legs; his neck.  One of them was even flopping around his manhood.  Lucas’s stomach rolled and he vomited up everything he had eaten that day.  He wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand and looked back over his shoulder. 

         The corpse was little more than a pile of meat at that point, and the mermaids were talking and laughing.  There was Aerya, the fairest of them all, with blood running down her chin.  Calla, whom he had groped without shame, sat beside her.  They were all there, all but…
A hand closed around his ankle.
Lucas screamed, but there was no one there to hear him.