When You Say Nothing At All

Chapter 10

"You won't get away with this!" I say as I struggle in the seaweed bonds. Ursula just smiles her rotten smile and twists a piece of my deep brown hair in her chubby fingers. She chuckles.

"My dear, you are far too valuable to let slip through my fingers," she says and then reaches out as though to touch my stomach and I flinch away from her. "Especially with your condition." She smiles evilly at my ever so slightly rounded stomach and as her hand sweeps past, a faint glow of life appears in my womb, easily seen in the dark cave.

"My child is innocent," I say. "Whatever grudge you hold against me, Peeta and our child have nothing to do with it." She just chuckles.

"Sweetie, they both have absolutely everything to do with it," she says. "If it weren't for me, Peeta wouldn't even know you and you wouldn't be carrying that beautiful, bright little girl in there. A shifter. Mermaid in sea but the moment her tail touches dry land, well, her father is human. It makes sense that she'd inherit more than his blue eyes." I lay my hands over my tiny, squirming daughter and feel tears in my eyes.

"It's not their fault," I say. "It's mine. Peeta and our daughter, they shouldn't be punished for what I did."

"Maybe not," she says. "But I can't really spare the child when it's forming inside you now can I?" She doesn't wait for an answer as she cackles and swims away, her eels going after her. I look down at where my trembling hands lay on my abdomen. I feel my baby move slightly under my fingers. I let out a strangled sob and I feel my tail collapse beneath me as I huddle on the cold ocean floor, crying.

"I'm so sorry, Sweetie," I whisper to my unborn child. "I was such a stupid, love sick girl. I made a deal with the wrong person and now the whole world is crashing down. You'll never know anything about the world above us because I'm as good as dead. I'm so, so sorry." The baby squirms some more and I just curl into a fetal ball, crying my eyes out.

Suddenly, there is a crash outside and an explosion. I look up and shudder lightly as green and blue flashes of light glow in the opening of the cave. My father's forces have reached me, but we are in Ursula's realm. She is stronger in this reef than she would be in the open.

I get up and struggle to get free of the seaweed that binds me to the floor. But the more I struggle, the more it digs in and the poison in the tendrils burn my skin. I fight the urge to cry out but screams escape my lips anyway. The burning is excruciating and my tail thrashes wildly. I want so desperately to get free, but it won't work. Someone needs to cut the the binds off at the base so they die and lose their power.

So I sit here, helplessly burning under water. I wonder how long it will take them to find me. I wonder if they even know I'm down here. I realize that if I make as little noise as I am and they don't know I'm here, I will never be freed. I flick my tail in frustration and am rewarded with another burn mark. I can't scream. I won't stoop that low. But I do need them to find me, if not for my sake than for Peeta's daughter. So I do the only thing I can think of. The only thing I've ever been any good at.

I sing.

"It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

"The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

"All day long I can hear people talking out loud
But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd
Old Mr. Webster could never define
What's being said between your heart and mine

"The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

"The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all" Nothing happens at first and I wonder if I've been totally fooled by the lights and it's just a trick of the sea witch. But then I hear something above me. I look up and see the face I've so desperately missed.

"Peeta!" I cry out and he opens his arms as though to hug me but I stop him just in time. "You can't touch me, it's poisonous." He nods and pulls out a knife, swimming below me and cutting the binds at my tail. I feel the life die from them as the burning subsides and the seaweed falls away from my body. Peeta looks at me as I flick my tail, shaking off the rest of my binding. I wrap my arms around his neck and start crying. He holds me close to him and runs my back.

"I was so scared Peeta," I cry and he just nods.

"I know," he says. "But she's dead. We won't have to be scared of her anymore." I lift my head from his chest and look up into his blue eyes.

"Ursula's dead?" I ask. "We're free? Like free free?"

"That's right my little sea gem," he says. "We can finally go home." His hand rests lightly on my waist and I move it so it's over our child.

"You caught me," I say. "Do you still want to know?" He nods excitedly and I laugh.

"It's a girl," I whisper just loud enough for him to hear. He wraps me tighter to him and we stay like that forever when suddenly, I feel his body leave my arms.

The spell that lasted only for the war has been broken. Peeta has gone home.