I hit the water like a button tumbling from a velvet coat; the sleek chill of it was fire on my skin.
And as the waves tossed the ship away with the rest of my life, I resigned myself to floating, floating and falling. I laid on my back, stared at the stars and awaited the thunder of the fabled white horses; this was my fate, now.
The blood was slowing my veins. I felt the thump of it slacken to a drudge. Above me, the stars were blurring to smudges of faerie dust; I prayed they would fall upon me with their fey kisses from the other-side of dreams.
It was only the steam of her breath that saved me from the impending dark. It drenched my cheeks, awakening the spirit beneath the stone. I was so very thirsty for the salt-sweet scent of her. In my mind, a name appeared in smoke against candle light: Saedolin.
It was as if I had known her all my life.
Slender arms hooked beneath mine and we began to glide across the water. I heard her hair whipping in the wind, felt the silken scales of her tail against my back. We were becoming one, she and I. We were melded together in body heat; a missile against the storm.
I could not fathom the perfection of her. Her eyes were the grey of winter rock pools, her teeth the shards of a pearlescent shell. Her tail was a shimmering blur of jade. The world hung around us on threads of gossamer as we swam toward the shore, a chance at life ever-growing and suddenly so important. A new fate dangled before me; was I to be that man, after all? A man who loved?
She told me great things, my mermaid, with her silent voice of smoke; how she had spent a spinster’s life among the waves, searching for a boy to thaw her frozen wiles; how her love for me grew like a swelling tide. She sang to me of finding our place in the world, together. She sang of coming home.
The sea grew jealous of us as we slid over its skin. He bared his teeth, sharp rocks that scraped at us, stalled our dash for life. I jerked and snarled at his audacity - how could he deny his creature the one thing she yearned for the most? So long she had served, my Saedolin. Would the tyrant in the water have her end her years with him? I found her arm and I clutched it; you shall be his slave no more, darling. There is breath in my body yet.
We were upon the shore, not a mile away, when I saw that it was not of dry land. I cannot to this day describe it; it was a nothingness, a black pit. A chill shot through me as I recognised the void, and we headed not to love and laughter…but to the slow death of the soul.
A laugh cut through roar of the waves. It was shrill and mocking; it spoke of cruel ends and blind seductions. My mermaid - nay, my harpie - was to drag me to the edge and throw me from the world.
I bucked, I scratched, I threw myself from her grasp, and still she held me fast. It was as I said; we were welded together, she and I. As soon as it has appeared, hope withered to nothing, my resolve a wailing child. We reached the edge and I teetered, searching her grey eyes for remorse.
I did not find it.
She let me go.
I tore from her skin and she crooned in foul pleasure, the rip sharp and quick in my ears.
I hit the nothing like a button tumbling from a velvet coat; the sleek chill of it was fire on my skin.
And as the waves tossed my life away with the rest of the wraiths, I resigned myself to sinking, sinking and choking. I laid on my back, stared at the stars and awaited the smother of the heavy spray.
This was my fate, now.
—
© 2008 Rhiannon Morgan
Rhiannon Morgan has been writing since she was old enough to chew a pencil (and they don’t taste like they used to). She studied English and Creative Writing at theUniversity of Wales, Bangor, where she found inspiration in the dramatic landscape and rescued cheesey scripts for the film-making society. Her other passions include baking, quirky European folk metal and the majesty of Coca Cola (referring to it as ‘Coke’ has, in the past, landed her in some trouble). She lives in Staffordshire, England, with her husband and children, above a good old fashioned family pub.
Tags: harpy, mermaid, Rhiannon Morgan
February 11th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
This is a wonderful story - beautifully written!