Siren Song

Chapter Eight

Lionel slammed the door behind him, breathing heavily. Ignoring the guards watching him in bafflement, he sank to the floor, rubbing his hands through his hair.

Tyri's voice was unbelievable.

Amongst the mermen, only three or four harmonies were average. Lionel had five-- that was why he had been recruited into the king's guard so young-- and it was rumoured that the royal family had seven or eight. It was harmonies that determined the strength of your song when it came to actually enchanting humans, after all, and mers were notoriously weak in almost all other areas of magic, with the exception of healing. Sirens especially were well known for only being capable of enchanting others' minds, though they were very good at it.

So why did Tyri have so many harmonies? Surely with so many, he shouldn't have been a mere scout. And why was he so reasonable about being captured? Sirens were meant to be the less evolved versions of mers, more animal than human and with an inferior sense of morality. That was why they dragged humans down to the depths of the ocean and drowned them.

A terrible thought occured to him. Tyri was just too talented to be a scout. That was indisputable. And as a lone siren swimming through merman territory, what purpose could he have but to kidnap a human?

For some reason, despite this sudden certainty, he hesitated before dashing straight to the king. He'd been taught all his life that sirens were barely more than territorial animals that killed for fun, and he'd believed it. Why wouldn't he? It was their fault that his parents were dead.

But Tyri hadn't acted like that at all. In fact, he'd thought that the young man was just another merman, albeit a very attractive one. If he hadn't been innocent enough to ask him what kind of siren he was, Lionel knew he would never have guessed from his demeanor. What was with that, anyway? Why did the siren not seem to be aware that they were at war? Yes, it had been quiet lately, but not enough to warrant that kind of obliviousness.

And what was that song? Mermen were far more advanced in the music they created, but Lionel had never heard something like that before. He'd fled before he could hear too much, but that minute or so that he'd stood there entranced were enough to convince him that either the sirens had been severely holding back or Tyri was talented beyond reasonable belief. The melodies, beat and rhythm were unlike anything he'd ever heard, even from the humans who, though they tried their best to emulate the mers' music, ended up twisting things in new directions.

He needed to tell the king. Perhaps they couldn't trust him, but they could certainly learn a lot from Tyri. Besides, he was nothing like the stories he'd heard. Maybe Tyri was just different from most sirens?

Lionel levered himself off the floor, ignoring the stray notes still floating around his head, and darted through the halls in the direction of the throne room.

<Tyri's POV>

Tyri sat in his cell, humming idly to himself. On the bright side, he wasn't chained to the walls like some of the other prisoners he could see, and his bed was surprisingly comfortable. Not in the same league as, like, an actual mattress, but in comparison to the lump of sand he had been sleeping on it was like a five-star hotel. On the not-so-bright side, it was quite dark and very boring. Not that the darkness was an issue, considering that he was used to the darkness of the deep ocean and sirens' eyes were adapted to a low light intensity. But it did make everything look dull which was practically blasphemous when you took into account how beautiful the palace was, even in the dungeon.

But what he was not used to was the boredom. As a bottom-feeder he had spent all day scavenging around the ocean floor, and living on his own had been challenging enough that he'd never really run out of things to do.

But here there was nothing. No music to listen to-- except his own-- no books, no games, and nobody to talk to.

Or wasn't there? He looked to his left, and two cells over saw an old, decrepit merman, a ball and chain fastened around his tail.

"Hello."

He glanced over at him, and grunted.

"I'll take that as your own greeting."

He grunted again. Entrancing conversation from this man right here. A round of applause, ladies and gentlemen.

"So..." He thought for a few moments. "What are you in for?"

Was that tough-sounding enough? He didn't want to come across as weak to the other prisoners, although the half-assed flirt he'd got going with Lionel followed by bursting into song meant that that ship had probably sailed a little while ago.

The man grunted.

"He won't answer you," another voice called. Tyri turned to see who had spoken.

A few cells to the right and across the hall was, to his surprise, another siren. He was from a different clan to Tyri-- he could tell by his piercings-- but Tyri was still quite sure that he was aware of who he was. Not many sirens had glowing tattoos sweeping across their torsos, after all.

That suspicion was confirmed when the siren shot him a grin. "Tyri of the Sand-Shrine clan, right?"

Tyri's eyes widened, and the siren nodded sagely. "I thought so. Not many I know of with that many harmonies, and even fewer who'd have the guts to display them, especially around here. Especially after what you did at your trial day."

Tyri winced. "So you've heard about that, huh?"

"Everyone has," the siren laughed. "Come on. You shamed yourself and your family in front of the whole clan."

Tyri decided that he didn't like this man.

"Didn't know you were this cute, though," the siren mused. "Maybe you'd be good for something."

He shot Tyri a lecherous grin, letting his eyes roam over his body, and Tyri shifted uncomfortably.

Yup, he really didn't like him.

The door slammed open, and Lionel came through, cutting through the water like a knife. Closely behind him came another three guards, all just as graceful as he, and hot on their heels-- fins-- was the king.

"Don't sing a note," one guard barked, leveling his spear at Tyri. "Now we know what you can do."

Tyri shot a glance at Lionel, who looked at least a little uncomfortable. As he should, the traitor.

The king drifted closer, though he was careful not to get within arm's reach of the bars.

"Siren. What's this I hear about your singing?"

The king sniggered to himself, rubbing his hands together greedily then linking his fingers together and twisting his arms to crack his knuckles with a horrific crunching that echoed through the water. "You could have told me this before, no? Perhaps we can work out a deal."

Tyri blinked, taken aback. All this over a bit of Carly Rae Jepsen?

<A/N: I'm sorry this is so short! I've been sick all week, so this was written in a couple of hours. And then I went back to edit and realised that I'd written it all in first person, so the editing has been... a process. If the writing style seems a little different, then that's why. But better to upload a short chapter than none at all, right? But if the editing is dodgy then please point it out, because I think my brain has melted by now and I'm at the stage where I genuinely can't tell if what I've written makes any sense. :)>
(Ooh. That end of the A/N looks like a bearded smiley, and I like it.)