Siren Song (The Fated #1)

05 | Hero

Rhode was staring.

This came as no surprise to Kain. In fact, he was more curious about why Dalphie wasn't doing the same. After all, his ability to not only keep up, but remain unexhausted by the swim wasn't exactly how a normal human would behave.

Of course, Melitta had them all beat. She swam circles around the group, then would dart ahead, before rejoining them once again. He could only feel grateful that she'd agreed with a giggle to leave her dress in place. It looked strange with her silvery-blue scaled tail, her fins, and a rucksack she had retrieved from the forest before they'd left, but saved him the trouble of figuring out how to handle a naked mermaid.

The trip itself took a number of hours. They'd started in the cove. Melitta led them out via an underwater tunnel that sliced through the rocky cliffs and ended in the open ocean. The tunnels were dark, but the group wasn't in them very long due to the current tugging them along. After that, it was a matter of locating where she'd last seen the Airlea, then attempting to track down where it'd drifted to after she'd left.

Due to the sirens and mermaids swimming beneath the surface, and Kain's lack of gills, conversation was nonexistent for the most part. The only exclusions came when they'd pause for Melitta.

Occasionally, for reasons unknown to Kain, she would pause and close her eyes. He'd then tread water while watching the mermaid hum softly. The two sirens would whisper to each other, and Kain would marvel over the fact that while neither of them had gills, they didn't seem to surface while swimming for a breath of fresh air. After a minute or two, Melitta would open her eyes and declare them ready to move once again.

They reached the Airlea at the break of dawn.

"How're we going to get aboard?" Kain wondered aloud.

The women surfaced next to him. Rhode eyed the ship with a frown; Dalphie's lips pursed in a thoughtful manner.

"There is a rope," Melitta explained. "I brought it with me last time."

Careful to avoid the undercurrent, he trailed behind Melitta as she led the way to the opposing side of the ship. True to her words, a single rope dangled over the railing and dipped down into the water.

Without waiting for the rest of them, Melitta dipped beneath the surface, before returning a split second later. Only this time, she was treading water with her legs. Without a word, she seized the rope, gave it a deft tug as if to test her weight, and began climbing up the side. He couldn't help but feel surprised at the show of strength as she easily scaled the ship and straddled the railing. Then, she glanced down at them and gave a smug smile.

"Are you coming or not?"

Giggling, Dalphie was the first to follow. This left Rhode and Kain looking at each other, before he suggested she go first. Without a word, she took the offer, leaving Kain to be the last one to scale the ship. Exhaustion seemed to set in the moment his feet hit the deck and it took everything Kain had to keep standing.

The sun had fully risen, and that strange, neverending energy of his had disappeared. Still, he stubbornly pushed his tired body into action as he joined the others around the twin barrels the rope had been secured around.

"I was not sure if I would need to come back," Melitta was explaining. "But, I thought it safer than leaving the rope on a grappling hook. So, I dug these out from below deck when searching for his sword."

"Lucky for us," Kain said.

Melitta beamed as if his words had been a huge compliment. Rhode, meanwhile, leaned so her back was resting against the barrels, her weary gaze flicking between all of them.