The Siren Queen

Chapter Four

"What is that...someone is singing down there...". Lord Zale's voice sounded uncharacteristically monotonous. He abruptly pulled away from Nerissa, and dived back down into the sea.

"Zale, wait...!". The Crown Princess of Pacifica followed him. The water unexpectedly felt at least twenty degrees colder than it had been before her Ascension. She shivered in her skimpy sea-satin bikini top, even though the cold very seldom bothered merfolk.

Stormer was presently nowhere to be found. Something must have spooked him, so he swam off...thought Nerissa.

Somewhere in the distance, an eerily beautiful female voice was singing in Archaic Pacifican, a voice which grew louder and clearer by the second. Nerissa swam as speedily as her weak fins would carry her, trying desperately to catch up with Zale, who was currently several meters in front of her.

"Wait, Zale...!" she cried out. He didn't even turn his head to look in her direction.

"She is singing..." was all that Lord Zale said, once Nerissa managed to gain on him. His brown eyes looked glazed over. There was not the slightest trace of his usual warmth in his stare.

A chariot sculpted out of whale bone came into view. It was pulled by a colossal narwhal with a unicorn-like horn that was nine feet long. Nerissa had never seen a narwhal in person before, as they only lived in the Far North, two thousand nautical miles north of Pacifica.

Driving the chariot was the source of the mysterious singing voice, a tall, olive-skinned mermaid with a silvery tail and soulless black eyes. Her pitch-black hair of considerable length reminded Crown Princess Nerissa of Zale's thick, dark locks.

Nerissa got excellent grades in her Archaic Pacifican class at school, but she was merely able to comprehend about half of the lyrics in the enigmatic mermaid's song. "Come to me...my boy, come to me now...". Her long fingers beckoned to Lord Zale.

Miss Shelley would probably say that her singing technique is exceptional, but the tone of her voice lacks warmth...Nerissa observed to herself. She also vaguely remembered hearing rumors about Sirens a while ago. Sirens were said to be evil mermaids who used their enchanting singing voices to magically manipulate people. They supposedly preferred to target humans, not their fellow merfolk, but being under the influence of a Siren would definitely explain Zale's peculiar behavior.

"Zale, I think she's a Siren!" shouted Nerissa.

"Ignore her, dear boy..." the Siren intoned. "Come with me..."

Lord Zale leaped into her chariot, next to the Siren, who firmly put an arm around him.

"No, Zale...!" Nerissa pleaded. "Zale...!", she called again, but a sudden, ice-cold current pushed her back a few meters. A magical portal that resembled a swirling whirlpool then materialized out of the blue. The Siren's chariot entered the portal, and then disappeared into thin water.

"Zale...!" whimpered the Princess of Pacifica, but, alas, both him and the enthralling Siren were gone.