Scales and Legends

  “I’ll be there with the female greens. We will keep everyone safe,” Whitney told Sam.

  It had taken him over an hour to convince her that she wasn’t going to be a part of the main battle. It was a hard deal to make as Nic, who wasn’t fully healed, was going to be fighting. He worked on his argument in his head before going to her with it, and it was still a battle of wills. Whitney just wasn’t like normal siren women, and that was the hardest part for Sam.

  “Marl isn’t the only old-timer going up there. We have Mitchell, Ramon, and Stan. That should be enough to guard both doors,” the king replied, not looking up from what he was writing.

  The confrontation was only moments away. His father was going to walk down to the shore and release the barrier on the lagoon side of the island, and they were going to face the mer head on. No more waiting. Everything had been planned for, and everyone was ready.

  Grasping Whitney’s hand, Sam pulled her outside his father’s office.

  “My mom already took the children and women up to the school. They have a few buckets of healing water, but if they need more, you know where to get it.” Sam was in full planning mode. He didn’t want anything to go wrong. It wasn’t just the siren he was fighting for now; he was fighting for Whitney and her Oceanid world, too.

  “Yes. And as soon as I try to persuade the mer to leave, I have to go up there, too. I know. I know. I get it. You need to concentrate.” Whitney added the last part a little sourly.

  “Thank you.” Sam leaned down, pulling her face to his. She needed to know he meant it. Even if it offended her, he did need her safe. There was no way he would be giving it his all fighting if she was there. He would be watching over her. He couldn’t help it.

  His father came out of his office, interrupting them. He didn’t stop as he walked past and made his way down to the beach where everyone was waiting. It didn’t matter, either. They had already been over everything. Sam was going to lead the charge as his father was going to use most of his energy to deactivate part of the wall keeping the island safe. It would’ve been easier to take the whole thing down, but they needed to direct the mer attacking to where they wanted them to come ashore. They weren’t prepared to fight all around the island. Therefore, the king was going to rewrite the borders of the barrier to lead them to the beach and the waiting siren.

  Sam pulled Whitney with him after his father. As they drew closer to the beach, they began to pass their allies. Whitney’s old clan had returned with Cassie, and animals of all shapes and sizes stood around waiting for the battle to begin. Then there was the row of hunters. They were a small bunch, but as Sam had convinced his father, they were worth at least half a dozen siren each in fighting skill. His father knew that much even if he didn’t want to admit it. And lastly, they came to the warm sand that was going to be stained with blood by the time the night was through. His fellow siren were all standing around, weapons in hand and ready for battle.

  The king took his position on a rock overlooking the battle. It was Whitney’s friend Jax’s job to keep the king safe where he stood in the open. He was needed to sit there and keep the barrier in place while the fighting went on. Everyone knew that was the job of the king as the barrier was connected to his blood. What they didn’t know was the old man wanted to be on the shore beside them fighting. It was killing him to just sit there. Sam could feel his disappointment.

  Sam let go of Whitney’s hand and left her with the row of hunters. He didn’t want her any closer, and he trusted them to keep her safe. Though he was a not a fan of them scraping her scales off, he still knew they would never let harm fall her. Leaning down and placing one last kiss on her head, he turned and headed into the pack of waiting siren.

  Nic was already there with his other brothers, and handed Sam his own weapons. Sam began to strap daggers on his legs and an extra sword on his back. All night humans preferred to fight with old-fashioned weapons, as they felt things such as guns could be hexed. That was actually another advantage of having hunters. They never let their weapons leave their side and thus never had to worry. Jax, hidden in a tree with a rifle, was all they needed to keep his father safe.

  “Ready for this?” Nic asked, as he passed over a large, spear-tipped staff to Sam.

  “I’m ready, but I would still prefer it if we found something else for Ken to do,” Sam replied.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his brother. Ken was a decent fighter, but Sam knew they needed him more for planning than fighting. If it came to a mass change in strategy, Ken had to figure it out and get the king to relay it all to everyone. Ideally, Ken should be staying beside the king in a vantage point to view the fight and make adjustments, but Ken had refused to just sit by their father. He wanted to prove himself as a son of the king, and for that Sam didn’t blame him.

  ‘I am ready whenever you are,’ Sam’s father said to him silently.

  Sam glanced over at the old man as he stood with his own staff. He was peering out into the sea. With the sun going down, the light was fading, but their vision made it easy to still see. The mer behind the barrier knew something was coming and more were there than the day before.

  Taking a deep breath, Sam turned to face the waiting men. “Tonight, we gather here for something that has never come to our island. The mer outside the barrier want us dead. They want war.” Sam looked at the men standing around him. “We are ready for this, and we cannot fail. Our families are depending on us to win, and beyond them, we have a second reason to fight our hardest. After tonight, we will be free. You have all met my mate, and she placed her life on the line for us to get freedom within the night human world. Now, all we need is freedom from the mer that wish us dead.”

  Sam walked down the shore a little and looked into the faces of mer that he had known since he was a child. Most of them were years older than him, but they had always been around as he grew up. They were all now standing beside him, ready to fight. It was very possible that some, if not all, might end up dead. He could be looking at them for the last time, but he couldn’t let that stop him.

  “We aren’t in this alone. We have friends. Behind you are a line of hunters. While they once hunted us, they are now our allies. They will fight beside us. And behind them are the night humans that my mate was part of once—the skinwalkers. They are here to help also as they believe in us and our cause. We have never had allies before, and we have never ventured outside our mer world, but this is the freedom we get when this is done. We won’t just be mer; we will be night humans.”

  Cheers of approval went up around him. Sam couldn’t bring himself to smile as many of those men would die in the process of getting that freedom. He knew what war meant, and was ready for it. Most of them had never fought in a battle before, but they were about to now. He didn’t want to bring that reality to his island, yet it was there waiting just outside the border.

  “We went over this earlier, but don’t step in the water. Stay on land and don’t let them leave the sand. We keep them from our homes, and we end it here on this beach.”

  More cheers of approval sounded. They were ready, or as ready as they would ever be.

  Sam turned one last time to look at Whitney where she stood, behind the line of siren.

  ‘I love you,’ he called to her.

  Whitney gave him a little smile back. ‘Please try to not get too cut up. I don’t need any new scars.’

  Sam gave her a grin. Of course, she was worried about number of scars and not over him dying. She was the legendary Oceanid after all. She was all the luck they needed.

  ‘And I love you, too.’ This time there was no joking. Even Whitney couldn’t predict the future.

  Sam nodded to her and then turned to his father. War was about to begin, and he was ready.

  Whitney waited to see the mer come far enough to the beach to need to rise up and walk in their human forms or semi-human forms. She had been expecting a variety as she had met more than one other mer clan, but it was stil
l shocking. The bright yellow hair or deep red signified one clan, but it was the old lady with shriveled skin and waist-length clumpy gray hair that made her shiver. The old lady looked right at her and smiled with rotting yellow teeth showing.

  “I command any mer that holds my mark to freeze. You were given the chance to leave and chose not to; now you will watch as the world fights around you. I command any advancing mer to also stop,” Whitney said both verbally and mentally at the same time with her siren command.

  Most of the mer just kept moving. They figured they must have done something to their hearing to be immune to the siren song, even if the king didn’t think it was possible. Two of the mer on the left side of the shore, close enough that more than half their body was visible above the water, stopped in their tracks. Mer behind them just kept coming and didn’t stop to see what they were doing. Two was more than nothing, but Whitney had hoped to stop a few more than that. More than three or four dozen were coming ashore as she watched, including the creepy old lady.

  “You have to leave now,” Jade said, pulling Whitney out of her disappointment.

  Whitney nodded to her.

  “Stay safe,” she told her friend. She felt guilty running off, but she had made a promise to Sam, and the people in the school were close to defenseless. She wanted to be in the main fight, but they needed her more.

  “You, too,” Jade added, not turning from the shore and watching the fight already beginning. Beside her, her mother smiled, like she couldn’t wait to join them.

  Whitney pushed past the hunters and then the skinwalkers. She didn’t want to look too closely at who had come with Cassie. Odds were good that she knew most of the people who’d come to help, but thankfully in their animal forms, she couldn’t be too certain.

  “Uncle John didn’t let him come, even though he begged,” Cassie said, stepping beside her and walking the path up the hill to the school with Whitney. Cassie wasn’t to join the main fight either.

  “Who?” Okay, Whitney knew who, but she wanted to be sure.

  “Your brother. He’s been getting stronger every moon, but he still has a long way to go. John ordered him to stay behind.”

  Whitney nodded. She didn’t want her younger brother in the siren battle and was relieved he’d been left home. He had almost been killed once alongside her over a year ago. This way he was safe. She knew he was probably angry, but John was able to handle anyone. Who in their right mind would defy a man who turned into a bear on the full moon, and was close to being one the rest of the time?

  It didn’t take long to make it up to the school. Whitney looked inside and found the women sitting and waiting with the children. Sam’s mother was moving between women as cuts would appear on them. As Sam had said, she had a bucket of water with her that she was quickly applying to each person. She worked efficiently and didn’t need the help of the women assisting her. At the front and back doorways, the old men sat with their own swords at the ready as if they were prepared to battle. It was strange to see the old men ready for battle in leather vests that matched what lots of the siren wore for protection from claws of the other various mer. They probably and hopefully wouldn’t see that kind of action. Marl appeared uncomfortable in his with long sleeves underneath.

  Whitney nodded to him before leaving the women and children alone. The windows had been all boarded up, so from the outside, you only knew there was someone in there if you saw one of the open doorways. Whitney peered into the surrounding woods and could see each of her green siren Oceanids walking around, keeping their distance and remaining hidden while protecting the village.

  “I need a better view of the beach,” Whitney said to Cassie, who stood just behind her.

  Walking around to the side ladder that most of the buildings on the island had, Whitney began to climb up to the roof of the schoolhouse. Cassie followed, and somehow her panther was right behind her. Who knew that large cats could climb ladders?

  From the top of the schoolhouse, Whitney had a better view of the beach. More mer were coming out of the water, and more siren were attacking. It was a never-ending cycle that was ending up with piles of bodies on the beautiful white sand. Whitney looked down as a cut appeared on her arm. Cassie handed her a cloth.

  “I told him not to get all cut up. I don’t need more scars than I already have,” Whitney complained, and Cassie smiled. Joking was the only way Whitney could deal with the fact that Sam was getting hurt.

  Whitney tried to find Sam in the mass of people on the beach, all swinging weapons around, but it was impossible in the fading light. What wasn’t impossible was seeing the king sitting on his stone above the fight, his expression laced with complete determination. Every now and then a mer would get the idea to attack him and start to climb up the stone. Each time, they would fall back to the ground, unmoving. Jax was an expert shot and kept the whole thing working. Without the king, there would be much more chaos and a very good chance the siren wouldn’t win. Whitney was starting to believe maybe she had a little Oceanid luck in making friends with hunters like Jax.

  Cassie stood up as the panther’s ears perked.

  “There’s someone close,” Cassie whispered to Whitney.

  Whitney shot down the ladder with Cassie right behind her. Neither one made a sound on their descents.

  ‘Where?’ Whitney mouthed to her friend.

  Either Cassie or the panther had better hearing than her and she didn’t care which it was. If someone was close, she would rather take care of it than let one of her greens come upon the person. Whitney was by far better trained in hand-to-hand combat. Cassie pointed into the trees and toward a different path than the one they had taken to the school from beach. Someone was trying to sneak their way to the school house. Whitney hurried that way as quietly as she could. As least she was still as silent as her old night human form had been.

  When they got close enough, Whitney could hear the same fighting that Cassie and her cat must have heard. There was someone close, but they were fighting with someone else already. Whitney dove off the path and into the trees to help out whatever green had come upon the intruder, and was surprised to find Sam’s older brother and traitor, Tim, with a rope wrapped around Jade’s neck. She was gasping for air, but that didn’t stop her as she jabbed behind her with a knife in her hand. Tim was hit several times, but still didn’t let go. Whitney stood and watched, unsure how to enter the fight without getting cut by Jade in the process. She wasn’t going down easily.

  Suddenly the ground around them began to frost over, and it crept up Tim’s legs. Before anyone knew what was going on, Tim was frozen in his position. Whitney didn’t question where it came from and ran over to her friend, removing the rope from around her neck. Jade fell to her feet, gasping for air.

  “I was in the middle of everything when I saw him slip by,” Jade finally explained once she caught her breath. “I followed him up here, and once I knew where we were going, I jumped in to stop him. Your boyfriend’s dick of an older brother wanted to go kill innocent children and women. How much less of a man could he be?”

  Jade was standing up, yet still, quite a bit winded. She was fighting for her life, but more than that, she was fighting for the lives of everyone in the schoolhouse.

  Whitney turned to Tim and stared at him. Even for him, that was low. He hated the siren and wanted them dead, but the hate was more for his family. That was what didn’t click for Whitney. He didn’t want all the siren dead, because if they were, he could never be king over them. It made no sense to kill them all off.

  “You’re going to let me into your mind and let me see what the plans are from the attacking mer,” Whitney told him with force in her voice.

  “You are weaker than my brother … good luck, little girl. I was thinking of keeping you around once we win since you’re easy on the eyes, but I’ve changed my mind. It’ll be much more fun to kill you in front of my brother and see him suffer as he dies, too.” Tim glared at her.

  W
hitney didn’t hear his words very clearly. She was already going into his mind. Whitney had only been completely in Sam’s mind before; it felt really odd to be in someone else’s mind. Sam’s mind was filled with love and honor—the two most important things for him—but Tim’s was like walking through sludge. His head was filled with evil thoughts. People he wanted to kill and how he wanted to kill them. And then there were all the ways he planned to get more power. That seemed to be all he thought about, wanting to kill people and get power. She didn’t want to stay long in the poison that was Tim’s mind.

  “Show me what your plans are,” Whitney ordered, not leaving his mind.

  “No,” Tim replied, and then there were images in front of Whitney. It was exactly what she needed to see. “Impossible. You can’t order me around,” he protested, realizing what she was finally doing.

  Tim continued to complain, but Whitney focused on the images of their battle plans. The mer seemed to understand that a small opening wasn’t to their advantage. At the rate they were going, the siren stood a chance. They needed the barrier from the whole island down. Tim had offered to go kill the queen, and thus the king, in order to do so. There were more mer waiting on the other side of the island, ready for the barrier to be released.

  Whitney pulled out of his mind.

  “You really want your father dead?” she asked Tim as he stared sullenly at her. He did not like the fact that she had been in his mind, but he seemed to like the fact that she was stronger than him even less.

  “The old man chose Sam—Sam, of all people—and it turns out he was always going to choose him. I never stood a chance. So yes, I want the old man dead. That’s not news.”

  ‘Mace, the other mer are on the opposite side of the island,’ Whitney told their ally as she stared at Tim.

  She wasn’t going to let him win with his complaining to get into an argument. She wasn’t going to stoop to arguing with him. He didn’t deserve to win. He deserved to rot for all the bad he had done over the years. She had seen inside his head, and he didn’t just think evil thoughts, he acted out a lot of them as well. Pulling into his pace was not going to work.