Chapter 1
Bahamas under water in a small clearing of a Kelp Forest 5 miles from Nassau
Year, 1716
The nightmare that has been tormenting for the last 3 years began the same way it always did. I was surrounded in darkness with the only light coming from the Vipermaid's blue markings and their white eyes. I watched in horror as two blue lights dragged Edward down to the never-ending darkness. I screamed and cried as the dark sea enveloped them. I wanted to chase after them, but I was held back by the leader of the pod.
Her spine-tingling laugh filled my ears as she spoke in a shrill voice, "My sisters and I will take extra care of him as we filet his skin right off his bones and eat every single part of him. But don't worry we will save you the bones, except for the finger bones I think I will keep those to wear as a necklace."
I screamed and cried as she released me, and I pleaded, "Please give him back I will do anything.
She just turned around and stared at me coldly and then laughed, "Hmm Let me think how about no."
I woke up back in my bedroom. I looked around and then began crying. I heard my little sister stir in the bedroom next to me. I tried to stop crying but she came in before I could.
Sarina looked at me with concerned expression, "Aria are you alright? Did you have that nightmare again about him?"
I lowered my gaze and nodded, "That nightmare is never-ending and its always the same, so you would think I would be used to it by now. But I'm not."
She swam to my bed and sat next to me. She sighed, "Aria its been 3 years now since Edward died. But I guess I can't say much because I have nightmares still about our parent's death." She stopped suddenly when my eyes met hers.
I spoke softly, "I didn't know you remembered that you always acted like you didn't know what happened."
Sarina sighed, "I have I just didn't want to worry you. But I remember everything that happened that day with the hurricane and it's all my fault. I should have come when they called me..."
I interrupted her, "don't ever say that it was never your fault and don't ever think that. That hurricane came out of nowhere none of us were expecting it." I looked towards the darkened window of my room. "For the longest time I blamed myself for Edward's death, but I started telling myself that I had no control over what happened no matter what."
Sarina looked at me curiously, "You never told me what happened that night." She caught my horror stricken expression and she raised her hand up. "I'm not asking for you to tell me now, I'm just saying that maybe in order to deal with the fear of what happened you should talk about it."
I shook my head, "I know I'm just not ready to talk, I need time."
"Aria its been 3 years since it happened will you ever be ready?!" I responded with a shrug Sarina sighed, "Alright then take your time. But when your ready I will be here." She smiled and gave me a soft hug. "Now since we are both up what do you say we go for a late-night swim?"
The color from my face dropped when she said this, "You mean you want to go swimming now?! But its pitch black out there they could be out there, it's too dangerous out there, and besides we can't see in the dark." Which I knew was a lie.
Sarina scoffed at this, "Aria all mermaids can see in the dark and the Vipermaids don't come this close to the kelp forest. We will be fine."
"No, they are the same as the Viperfish they hunt in shallower waters at night. They will be out there I promise you." As I spoke about them, I looked at the window and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I thought I saw their blue glowing markings and their white eyes. I screamed and covered my face. Sarina being startled by my screams jumped back and looked out the window then back at me.
"Aria for goodness sake there is nothing out there." She then swam towards the window and closed the sea silk curtains and swam back to me, "Aria I understand that you don't want to go swimming but your 23 and your more scared then me and I'm 12." She sighed, "I can stay with you for the rest of the night if you would like?" I laid down while nodding and faced her she smiled at me. I smiled back and watched as she fell back to sleep, I then glanced down at the pearl bracelet that Edward gave me, I admired it and fell asleep.
The next morning, I woke up from a dreamless sleep to an empty bed my brunette hair floated recklessly around my face but then shifted back when I got up. I swam to my Clamshell Vanity and looked at myself my green eyes looked back at me. I smiled when I saw Sarina looking at me through the mirror, "Morning, how did you sleep?" I smiled as I turned and looked at her.
She smirked, "I slept better the second time." She swam over to my window and opened the curtains the morning sun peered into my windows brightening the room my copper tail reflected the sun rays causing it to gleam.
"So, what shall we do today?" I asked.
My sister shrugged, "Well we could go for a swim above the kelp forest, but I can't swim for to long I promised Ava and Maya that I would hang out with them today."
"Alright do you have something special in mind?"
Sarina looked down and began fiddling with the seashell and pearl necklace that belonged to our mother, "Maybe we can go see the wrecks or even go swim with the dolphins, or we can swim with the whales I heard they are going to be around for a little bit."
"Let's go see the whales we haven't seen them since Mom and Dad were here."
Sarina nodded in agreement as she continued fiddling with the necklace, "Do you ever miss them? Mom and Dad, I mean?"
I looked at her with bewilderment, "Of course, I do Rina what makes you think I don't?"
Sarina shrugged and dropped the necklace and looked up at me, "I just feel like you think of your human Edward more then our mom and dad."
I looked at her sadly and swam up to her, "I miss them both they were my everything just like you are."
She smiled up at me and hugged me, "I'm sorry I doubted you."
We left our household. I found my mind wandering about our parents. They were great merpeople, they were both in very high approval of our pod and they are remembered regularly. My dad was a high paying merchant, and everyone loved him and bought things from him, my mother was a stay at home mom, and everyone loved coming to dinner when she made food.
My sister looks a lot like our mother and I on the other fin look like our Father which I am content with that he was quite handsome. My sister and I were born here we live in the deep seas of the Caribbean it's a beautiful and relaxed place, the seas are always shining from the sun above the surface of the water, I tend to find myself swimming to the surface to watch the surface life, but I never stay long for we live in the Golden Age of Piracy and mermaids must always be wary of the Jolly Roger on the mast of boats.
Pirates are unexpected, you never know when they are dangerous and when they are not, but that doesn't stop me from going to the surface. I always keep my distance from them and their ships. But I do find the surface world a curious and fascinating place. I try to investigate as much as I can when I am alone and not with my sister. Sarina is far too young for that information but when she turns 16, she will have her first surfacing.
I usually study these humans above and below, I like to watch them from the rocks I am hidden of course, I also learn about them from my books that I find on ships that have laid to rest under the bright blue waves, of course these books are well hidden from my sister.
My mind continued to wander but my sister brought me back to reality. "Aria the trade Market is in town lets go see what they have before we go swimming above the kelp forest." I nodded and followed her towards the village town square.
When we arrived, the square was filled with tons of Merchants selling food, jewelry and tons of other things that they found on their journey. I became so distracted by the crowds of people that I barely noticed Sarina calling out to me. She grabbed my hand. "Aria come look at this necklace." She led me toward a merchant's table that was full of jewelry of all sorts. Sarina smiled and lifted the necklace she was talking about and showed it to me. "It's so beautiful and it would match perfectly with your bracelet."
I took the necklace from her and studied it. The necklace was made of black and white sea pearls and the trinket that hung from it was a small but stunning gold Spanish coin. I admired it and ran my hands over the pearls, "A Pirate would kill to have a necklace like this, " I looked towards the Merchant standing behind the table. "Sir tell me about this necklace did you make it?"
The Merchant gave a warm smile at me, "No, my dear, I found it during my travels." He swam closer to us and grabbed the coin, "This coin was glinting in the bright sunlight on top of the cloudy white sand and its beauty caught my eye, so I picked it up and I thought it was beautiful, I was wanting to give it to the wife, but I thought to myself she has so much jewelry, she doesn't need anymore, so I decided to sell it." He gave me back the necklace as he finished his story.
I admired it again and looked back up at him, "How much would you like for it?"
"How about 3 gold pieces?"
I looked at him questioningly, "Are you sure you don't want more than that?" The man shook his head with a smile. I looked at my sister who was anxiously waiting for me to buy it, I chuckled and looked back at the Merchant. "I will take it then." I handed him 3 gold pieces and placed the necklace around my neck.
The man chuckled and took the coins, "Oh I almost forgot to tell you they say those Spanish coins strengthen certain powers that we possess. Though I am not entirely sure which ones, but if you get curious you can ask The Lady Cordelia, she might know the answer. Some say she has a necklace that's similar."
I nodded but before I left an older mermaid that I recognized to be Thessa came up to the merchant and looked at him incredulously, "Did I just hear you mention that Balearic Witch to these young girls?!"
When Thessa mentioned The Balearic Witch, the name perked a memory about something our parents told us, But I couldn't place a finger on it. So, I continued listening as the Merchant looked at Thessa flabbergasted, "The Balearic Witch?! Why is she called that?"
Thessa responded shortly, "She is called that because that is what she is a witch who will cast a curse on anyone who goes against her. She is called The Balearic Witch because she is from the Balearic sea near Spain. Obviously, you're not from around here because this pod doesn't speak of her."
"Why are we not allowed to speak of her?" I asked.
She looked at me, "There are many reasons why. One of the few being she fell in love with a mermaid killer and left her pod behind for him and then when he broke her heart, she wanted to come back, but the pod banned her to the outskirts of the kelp forest. Another reason is she has been rumored to kill mermaids that get to close to her home, and she has cursed more then one family in this pod. So, I must ask you girls to never go near her or the outskirts of the kelp forest. I knew your parents and they wouldn't want you going near her either, so promise me you won't."
I inclined my head and glanced between her and my sister, "If I may ask why is it against the rules to fall in love with a human? I mean you love who you love it shouldn't matter if they are human or a merperson, aren't we similar to them, I mean we maybe half fish but our other half is human the only difference is our ears, the scales on our arms, chest and face and we have night vision but that's it. If you ask me there isn't much difference at all."
Thessa glowered down at me, "Young lady if your parents heard you say that they would not be pleased."
I scoffed, "Actually ma'am not to be rude or anything. But you didn't know our parents because our parents accepted everyone, and it didn't matter to them if they had legs or a fin. Also, our parents were never against Cordelia they believed that she was banished unfairly she at least deserved a chance to talk to the pod leaders. But they refused because she followed her heart." Thessa was speechless so speechless that she had nothing more to say so she swam off in a fury.
The merchant looked at us, "Well that is totally different to what my pod believes on The Lady Cordelia and if I may say that was pretty brave to stand up for Lady Cordelia like that, most mermaids other then the selkies wouldn't do that."
I bowed my head in thanks, "What does your pod say about her?"
The merchant answered, "Well where I come from Cordelia has been know to be a healer, yes she is very powerful, but she doesn't use her powers for evil like this pod believes she uses them for good and for helping others. Now there is truth to this pod's beliefs she did fall in love with a human but he wasn't a mermaid killer he use to be a soldier in the Marines but he decided to leave all that and become a Captain of a ship that flies the jolly roger. Which was common for most of the privateers that were in Queen Ann's War. "
"But this man was a pirate, and they have been known to kill mermaids."
The merchant continued, "Not all pirates kill mermaids some sell them, This Captain was one of those unfortunately and the Lady Cordelia found this out a little too late. She has quite the story if you would like to learn about it?"
I nodded, "I would love too."
"Then I have just the book for you."
"She has a book?" I asked gleefully
The Merchant nodded, "Yes she does in fact one of my friends wrote about her because she has so much history. Let me go get it for you." The Merchant swam off and came back in ten minutes with a small book, "Here you go." He said.
"How much?" I asked.
The merchant beamed, "Free of charge."
I smiled and said, "Thank you." As my sister and I swam off.
