Tale of the Siren

Sushi swam quickly, tail thrashing threateningly. In her arms she carried an orange-streaked purple egg. Sushi glanced behind her at the shrinking city. She cringed at the thought that she may never see her friends and family again. But then she turned her eyes on the egg again. No, she would see family. If only one member. The egg was smaller than the others. Sushi wrapped her arms around the egg protectively and tried to refrain from weeping as she swam farther and farther from her home.

*******

An Hour Before

Sushi hugged Shrimp, her husband, closely as she stared at their egg.

“Thinking of names?” he asked in that humorous, light tone of his.

“You know I can’t do that,” Sushi replied. “The Council will decide its name when it hatches.”

“I know. But my parents said they had names picked out for my older brother before he hatched. Just in case,” Shrimp said with a wink. Sushi laughed and picked up the egg gently, cradling it in her arms. A sadness dropped over her.

“There is no ‘just in case,’ Shrimp. The Council never makes exceptions.”

“You know that’s not true.”

Sushi didn’t speak. She remembered perfectly well the one exception ever made. A mermaid had once tried to keep her first child from the Council. She had taken the egg and swam away in the night. Two days later, she was found with the newborn and taken home, where she was judged for her actions by the Council. The child was allowed to stay. But no one ever heard from Mrs. Rivers again. Sushi finally turned to Shrimp with tears going unnoticed in her eyes.

“So those are my only options?” she snapped. “Give my child over or become a fugitive?”

“I suppose so.”

“But—what if everyone did this?”

“Then we’d make our own fugitive village together,” Shrimp laughed.

“Shrimp, I’m serious! I don’t want to be hunted down! Who knows what they’d do to me if they found me!”

“I’m not saying you should,” Shrimp said in a low, serious voice. “I love you too much for that. But if you want to keep this kid…well, we may be out of options. All I’ll say about it now is that, if you’re caught, I will give my life to defend you.”

With that Shrimp turned and headed to bed, for it was very late. Sushi stood, still holding the egg, and stared at it, thinking about what he’d said.

“We may be out of options. I will give my life to defend you.”

Her head snapped up and she made a decision. She didn’t go to bed. She hesitated for only a moment longer and flew out the door, egg held tightly in her arms.

*******

Soon after, Sushi was swimming quickly away, hoping that she wasn’t caught at the same time as wishing she’d never left. She felt the egg vibrate in her arms, and she glanced down. A crack ran down the side of it, jagged and true as the eyes on her head. Sushi held her breath. No, no, no! It was too early. An egg was one thing, but it would be near impossible to carry a newborn baby for possibly days at a time.

“No, little child, no,” she whispered. “Stay in your shell just a little while longer.”

But it wasn’t happening. The crack grew, spider-webbing through the entire egg. More cracks appeared.

“No—no! Stop it! Stop hatching now!” she hissed, eyes widening. Wild with fear, she tried to keep the shell pieces together, but tiny pieces shattered off until all she was holding was a tiny, soft mermaid. She stared at her child desperately. The mermaid stared up at her mother and giggled sleepily.

“Why, oh why did you have to do that now?” she muttered. Suddenly, the baby began to wail, thrashing around. Sushi held her daughter properly, sighing in frustration. She continued her fast-paced swim, baby crying louder and louder.

She’s hungry, she realized sorrowfully. And Sushi had no time to stop and feed her. They were not far enough away from the city yet. Sushi hushed her daughter and continued to swim. Within minutes, Sushi’s fears were confirmed. She was stopped by a merman with a trident, the common weapon of the merfolk, directed straight at Sushi. Sushi halted.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said in a low, gravely voice. “What’cha doing outside this late? With the tiny kid, too? Looks like a newborn.”

Sushi was stunned into silence. It was over. All over.

“I—” she stammered. He squinted at her and grinned.

“Wait,” he chuckled. “Aren’t you one of the mermaids due to give over a first-mer to the Council? Sushi, right? The pretty one.”

Sushi blushed.

“I was just—” she stuttered.

“C’mon, lady. I’ll escort you to the Council. They’ll wanna see this.”

“I can find my way,” she whispered. The merman laughed out loud.

“Yeah, right,” he chuckled. “But, ah, they need someone who’ll give them the correct report,” he said, eyes hardening. “About the mermaid who thought she could run away with her first-mer.”

Sushi paled. Without a word, she allowed herself to be escorted to the largest building in the city, Council Castle. She cradled her child in her arms as she was led into the building, into the Council’s meeting room.

There was a large, round table, and three merfolk sitting in the rocky seats. They might as well have had blades for eyes and knives for teeth.

“Whale,” the one in the middle said, nodding at the merman. “This must be Sushi and her daughter.”

Whale suddenly seemed quite shy.

“Yes, sir,” he muttered. “I caught her trying to run away with her first-mer.”

“Really?” the one on the right, another merman, drawled. Whale nodded, swallowing. The mermaid on the left got up silently and approached Sushi. She took the baby from her arms. Conveniently, the little mermaid had ceased crying by now. The Council mermaid brought the baby to the middle merman, who looked it over with an unimpressed expression. He turned to Sushi with a glint in his eye that made her tremble.

“The child’s mind has been tainted by her mother’s,” he said, much louder than needed. He turned to the Council mermaid and said in a lower voice, “Kill her.”

Sushi clasped her hands and bowed her head as she wept.

“No!” she cried. “Please! Don’t kill my daughter!”

The Council merman in charge rolled his eyes.

“Don’t worry, Sushi, I’m sure you’ll have plenty more. And the next one will belong to me.”

“That is my daughter! I beg you, sir, don’t kill her!”

There was a long, still silence as the merman looked straight into Sushi’s soul.

“Very well,” he sighed. “Kelp, please deliver Sea—our beautiful new experiment—to the humans at the beach shore.”

The other merman stood and took the baby, whom the Council had named Sea, and walked out the door. Sushi was left standing still, waiting to be excused. The main Council merman called Whale over and whispered something in his ear. Whale nodded and exited the room after Kelp. Then the Council merman smiled at Sushi and said, “You may return to your lodging tomorrow. Stay in our guestroom tonight.”

Sushi started to object, but with the same glint in his eye as when he had ordered death to Sea, the merman hissed, “I insist.”

The Council mermaid guided Sushi to the guestroom, where she tossed and turned half the night before she fell into a fitful sleep as the sun rose.

*******

Sushi awoke with a start only hours after falling asleep, remembering all that had happened the night before. She rolled over and swam quickly through the Council Castle and out. She found her way to her lodging and opened the door.

“Shrimp!” she called. “I’m home!”

All was eerily silent. Worried, Sushi began to search the lodge. It was too early for Shrimp to be at work. He’d be sitting on the bed, drinking his seaweed tea. He’d have responded to her call. Sushi threw open the bedroom door and stared at the bed. The water around her was tainted green with blood, so thick it was that she could barely see the corpse laying on the seaweed bed. She gasped and lurched forward.

“Shrimp!” she cried, shaking his shoulders. “Shrimp! Wake up!”

Shrimp sagged lifelessly on the bed. Sushi squeezed his body to her chest, weeping bitterly. Slowly, rage filled her mind. They did this, she thought furiously. The Council. That merman, Whale! Sushi raised herself and looked around at the green water. She spotted Shrimp’s trident leaning against the wall. She swam over and grabbed it, hugging it close. An idea blossomed in her mind. It took root, and overcame her.

She charged outside, trident in hand, rushing to the Council Castle. She flew into the meeting room before the soldiers could sound the alarm. She saw the Council mermaid and within seconds the trident had pinned her to the wall. A shout died in the mermaid’s throat, along with the mermaid herself. Sushi plucked the trident from the body and charged through a door in the back of the room that she hadn’t noticed the night before.

Inside the room, all was dark. She blinked once, and the room glowed blue in her sight. She looked around, but from behind her, someone tackled her. She heard a voice growl in her ear, “You will never win, Sushi. The city will be under our control forever, even if we must gain another ally to continue. You will die here, as your husband died in his bed.”

“No!” she shrieked, throwing her attacker off with mermaid super-strength. She turned and saw the main Council merman. But as she lurched toward him and threw the trident, the door flung open once again and the other Council merman swam in, oblivious to the trident that ended his life less than two seconds later as it impaled his head. Sushi snatched it out of the man’s head, spewing green blood into the air. She almost gagged. The smell was horrible, and it was so hard to breathe. But she turned to the last remaining Council merman and hissed at him. He backed away slowly, fear showing in his eyes at last. Sushi savored the moment. Then she struck, quick and efficient. She pinned the merman to the wall by the chest. He wheezed as Sushi snatched it up again. He dropped to the floor. As she was about to leave, he choked, “Wait! You don’t understand what you have done. They’ll attack us now, now that they will receive no more merfolk. You must see!”

But Sushi just paused, glanced back, and whispered, “Your reign of terror is over, Council Member.”

Less than a minute later, Sushi walked out of the dark room a free mermaid. But the bitter teeth of revenge had already sunk into her heart, which was quickly hardening and becoming black. Whale. Whale was next.

Whale was an easy target, already afraid of the Council meeting room. As she exited the Council Castle, Sushi remembered the words of the main Council merman the night before.

“Kelp, please deliver Sea to the humans on the beach shore.”

Humans. They had Sea, now. She’d get revenge on them, too. She swam to the surface as quickly as possible. She saw a stone a bit away and propped herself on it. She waited, trying to remove the hardness from her eyes.

*******

It was days later when the first human came. He was riding on a boat, alone. Sushi began to sing, a slow, sad song. He came closer. As he did, she peered into the boat. Nothing. In a fit of rage, she struck out, launching herself at the human. She killed him and went back to her stone, sinking the ship for good measure. From that day on, she was labeled by the humans as the Siren.

Word Count ▼

1999 words