Song of the Sirens (10 page)

My father didn’t resist me. The sirens
were too preoccupied with the mermen and their spears to keep a hold on him. He
did what they set him out to do. The sirens had been unleashed.

Dad stumbled to his feet, as if standing
on dead limbs, and face-planted into the chair ahead of him. I cursed to
myself. He fell close enough for Riley to reach around my father’s oxygen tank
straps, and hauled him through the rippling surface of the window.

I stood upright as several mermen
appeared behind Riley. He handed Dad to them. A silver glow emanated from their
tales and cocooned my father as they swam away.

Riley turned to face me once he
delivered my father into the hands of his men. He reached back into the vessel
and extended an arm for me.

I took in a deep breath, calmed my
nerves as much as possible, which was hardly at all, and took his hand. His
flesh felt cold to the touch, as normal.

I walked into the ripples as he pulled
me through. I didn’t feel anything at first and kept my eyes open with a
twisted interest in seeing everything around me. I stepped through what seemed
like a three-dimensional hologram. The clear view from within the submarine
blurred through the thickness of the wall until I entered murky water.

Coldness took refuge in my bones. I
shuddered. An empty feeling took a bitter twist the moment I escaped the safety
of a pressurized vessel. Sudden impact of floating miles beneath water took its
toll and jammed my frail human body with the laws of natural physics.

The force compressed my body. Air filled
my inner ears, which throbbed with pain. My chest compressed and ached. My
limbs became rigid and screamed from searing pain as if rivers of fire gushed
through my veins.

I couldn’t scream. I wanted to cry and
yell, but I just couldn’t. Everything occurred in a fleeting moment.

I clutched my ears as pressure built up
deep within. I bit down on the mouthpiece and forced my teeth into grooves.
Every joint ached. My head whirled with dizziness. My chest throbbed. I
experienced telltale signs of a very horrendous case of the bends. I knew I
would die if we left the vessel! I knew we just wouldn’t make it from all the
way down here.

My body succumbed to violent tremors. A
strong mind could’ve calmed the nerves enough to face death in a decent and
honorable manner, but I wasn’t that strong.

As I shook, I curled in on myself.
Before my knees reached my chest, Riley removed his hand from the window,
returning the wall to a solid surface, and pressed his palm against my chest.

Pressure against my chest compressed my
lungs. They failed in moving air and breathing ceased. A minute slipped by as
the world turned dark. My mind blocked off everything else during those
moments, as if I floated in a painful and desolate, black wasteland.

My eyes wandered down to Riley’s thick
forearm. An intense, blinding green glow wrapped around his arm and slithered
toward his hand. Once it reached his fingers, the glow burst through my chest. Riley
pressed his palm between my breasts.

The glow penetrated my shirt and dug
into my flesh. It increased as a cold sensation throbbed across my chest.
Surrounding water changed current into a spherical movement resembling a small
cyclone around his hand. The action drew in more water as it pushed through my
shirt and torso, and took over my chest cavity.

Encountering something I knew little of
created panic. I fought to control fear, but I pulled away from him instead. My
back hit the sub wall, and Riley followed in stride, his hand never leaving my
chest.

I couldn’t gasp, knowing that could kill
me down here, but concentrated on breathing and staying somewhat sane. I took
in a sharp inhalation through the mouthpiece as the frosty invasion rendered
every last inch of my body numb. The icy invasion spread across my breasts and
seeped into the core of my torso. It stretched over my lungs and heart until
the freeze encompassed my organs. The sensation gradually moved out, numbing
everything on contact.

For a moment, my entire body chilled
over, my torso the coldest. A strange sensation crawled across my extremities,
numbing, and brought total pacification.

I felt…perfect. The pain vanished, along
with fear and dread. Riley pushed some sort of mythical power into my soul. It
enlightened my mind.

Everything slowed down to a carefree,
lazy pace, despite the flutter of glowing fins darting around and the sound of
screeching sirens in the disturbingly near distance.

I inhaled again, but felt nothing. My
chest did not ache. My limbs did not scream. My head did not throb. In some
bizarre, magical way, only because science eluded me at the moment, the touch
of a merman kept my body from suffering from barometric pressure.

After several minutes, the numbness
faded and the iciness retreated into my chest until the cyclone extracted the
force. The water restored warmth as it returned to its normal flow in the
current. The glow abated.

Riley lifted a thumb up, an underwater
scuba gesture asking if I were all right. I stared at him for few seconds
before returning the gesture with my own thumb up. Riley removed the pain, but
the only way that could be possible was by stabilizing the gases in the blood
stream so my body could adapt to the pressure.

He gawked at me with narrowed brows and
relaxed lips, as if questioning the reluctant answer.

I breathed again and nodded to fortify
my answer. He seemed to buy it that time.

My dark locks swelled around my face as
I searched for the most important person in my life. I knew enough about diving
to realize Dad’s chances of survival were slim. If a merman used the same type
of power on my father, and if my father breathed on his own, he may have a
chance, yet.

Riley gripped my wrist and pointed
toward the city, toward the distant haze beyond the boulders and just out of
view. The glowing tails of mermen swam in that direction with a limp human in
their possession.

How could things get worse? Well, aside
from dying miles beneath the surface. If mermen and ocean demons existed,
anything could pivot on a terminal point, ending our lives at any minute.

I quivered at the thought. I didn’t want
to move. I wanted to hug the wall and sink back into the submarine, close my
eyes, and wait for someone to haul my butt back to the breathing world.

After another long moment, I mustered up
all the courage I could possibly squeeze out of my soul and moved toward Riley.
I didn’t do this for myself. I could die in fright, despite how much I wanted
to live, but I had to fight for Dad. His life never depended on me until
tonight, and I would not let him die.

Riley swam, and I followed, to the
majestic splendor of his homeland. I didn’t protest. I would go anywhere they
took my father to ensure his safety. Although the situation both confused and
excited me, I held a faint amount of trust in Riley.

I glanced behind just before we took off
into a sprint. I swam as fast as my legs could propel. Swimming wasn’t a strong
point, nor was scuba diving as natural to me as it was to my father. In a
stressful situation, it truly amazed me what my body could do, and at this
point, my legs kicked like a machine. If it weren’t for Riley’s power, they
would ache and scream resistance as I sank to the ocean floor.

My body, being human and all, should’ve
pooped out and died.

I glanced over my shoulder. The Nautile
7000 and its out of place lights illuminated the otherwise complete darkness.

Turning back, I searched the sea for my
father, but couldn’t see him in the light drifting on the current. The cold
expanse of sea snapped me back into reality. I glanced up only to face several
murky feet of water on the brink of an eternity of hollow blackness.

Darkness met us at the threshold of two
sides. Behind, the lights from the sub vanished. Ahead, the glowing enigma of
Atlantis appeared.

We approached the outskirts of the
kingdom. Brilliant, sparkling buildings made from marble dazzled in the near
distance. Tall buildings covered in plants and vibrant colors from coral and
water flowers dabbed the surfaces. Streets paved in gold and silver lined the
city and twined through the kingdom. The myths had been true!

The shimmering brilliance could’ve
blinded a human, and likewise, could draw out any ounce of greed to devour them
with insatiability. Men killed for a piece of this luxury, not to mention the
city and its inhabitants. I understood why Riley and his kind were so adamant
in remaining unknown. All those times he disappeared, he came here.

While the awe of observing an underworld
wonder captured my thoughts, Riley maneuvered away from the glistening city and
any unwelcoming eyes. Although I didn’t see any mermaids, I ascertained others
watched our every move.

As Riley pulled left, I caught a glimpse
of the palace. It stood in the middle of the grand kingdom, perched high on a
hill. Massive columns of erected pillars carried the weight of a palace,
resembling The Parthenon. Flowering vines twined around the pillars and weaved
through every nook and cranny. Schools of small fish hovered above the
buildings, but larger critters remained absent.

I wanted to explore the city as much as
my father did. Such a thought drew me back. Pulling away from the sight, I
readjusted my focus.

I looked around for Dad, or possible
sights of the fins of other mermen, but the glory of the lost city captivated
me. Her towering pillars of glowing beauty covered in vines, flowers, and moss.
Her main road paved with gleaming, gold cobblestones. Glowing anemones and fish
illuminated her borders, lit her corners, and created an unearthly rim of haze
as if trapping the city in a bioluminescent globe.

I yearned to explore her. She called out
to me with a sweet whisper, an enticing promise to relinquish every hidden
secret of a legend.

Though the city slept and few coursed
through her veins, images of life during the day bombarded me. Her streets
overflowed with brilliant mermen, mermaids, and merchildren. What did they do
all day? Did they have merchants who sold items, cooks who prepared food, or
workers who offered their services? Did they split into social classes, or live
according to their skill? Did they know about us and life above the water?

I felt an overwhelming calm. It relaxed
every muscle and dulled every thought as if drugged. I loved this feeling and
hoped it never went away. My movements were lucid. The life-threatening swim
didn’t seem so important.

I wanted to go to her, to the splendid
city beneath pounding waves. I wanted to enter her domain and lose myself,
never to return to the stormy world above.

Through the darkness to my right, tails
whipped by in flashes of color as mermen rushed to the siren’s cave. They
hurried to secure the danger, while I anticipated entering the forbidden city
as her illumination engulfed me. Atlantis’s towering, golden gates stood a mere
fifty feet away. I reached out to her.

No wonder men spent entire lives in
search of this city. No wonder her splendor filled vivid imaginations and
sparked legendary stories. How much of those myths were fact? At some point,
mankind must’ve known about Atlantis in order to hand down the stories.

Riley’s cold grip on my wrist tugged and
jerked me to the left. My right hand, extended and floating away from the
light, lazily pointed to where I desired to go. I allowed Riley to pull me. My
hair clouded the view of the city in blackness.

Good-bye, mesmerizing, mysterious,
golden lost city of Atlantis.

Chapter Seven

A group of three mermen emerged from the
ever-hazy city and approached us. When they spoke, their words pried through my
thoughts, drawing me closer to the extreme situation at hand as the numbing
sensation gradually left me.

“What’s happened?” an older merman with
a blue tail and fin asked.

I heard their conversation in heavy
sounds carried through water, but I made out their words.

“The sirens have escaped,” Riley replied.

In a calm but urgent voice, Riley
continued with stern authority, “There are three other men at Theoisis
attempting to secure the sirens, and other men raced to aid them. Several
sirens escaped. They lured the humans down with their vessel and succeeded in
opening the gates.

“Two of you return to the city and
gather as many able-bodied men as possible. Alert the king, sound the horns,
and surround the city. Let no one out or allow anyone in until we’ve secured
the sirens. We are on the highest alert.

“Be cautious. They are angry, and they
are hungry. I have to take the humans to a safe location. You’re aware that
once the sirens feed, their strength and health will return. We can’t allow
them to reach land. Remember, the blood of the sirens is as tainted and potent
as the toxins in their saliva. If a single drop dilutes into the water, it
could wreak havoc on our minds. Do not shed a single drop of their blood,
brothers.

“Now hurry! Time is essential. Remember,
do not spill their blood, and avoid their claws and teeth. If you are bitten,
you must inform me. You know what is expected of you thereafter.”