Thunder and Lightning

Part 7

The clack of wooden staves, the thwack of flesh against flesh and the thuds of fallen combatants resounded around the practice yard. Talk was permitted and today it was about mermaid myths.

“They’re just like lampeqins. Steal their clothes and they’ll be your slaves. What I’d give to have Madam Bitch on her knees, doing my bidding!”

A roar of laughter went up.

“They mate with humans to make water babies. The human always dies.” Eyes glanced at me and slid away. They all knew the fate that awaited me when I’d done what the sirens demanded. That I’d lived so long was a mystery, most of all to me.

“But you go out with a bang. I heard tell those siren girls can go all night and they suck like a whirlpool!” More raucous laughter. It sounded forced, but I was glad of it. It didn’t do to be reminded of death.

“They say that those who understand the siren’s songs can predict the weather, for the Sabawaelnu, as my grandmother called them, can summon storms and waves.” There was silence for a moment, before the same voice continued. “If we’d worked with them, do you think we could have staved off the storm? The flood that took everything?”

I looked into the wistful eyes of the man who’d said it, then downed him with a right hook he never saw coming. He thumped to the sand, dreaming of a world where the flood had not happened. “We’ll never know, will we?” With the help of another, I hefted my sparring partner out of the ring. “Who’s up next?”

“You, Ronaldo,” Gunter said. In the weeks training with them, I’d learned to tell the brothers apart. “Lady Diana has asked for you tonight. You must bathe and eat, so you are ready for her.”

“Fuck her good, Ronaldo!”

“Come back tomorrow and tell us how hard the girl blows!”

I smiled and laughed as the guards cheered for me, but my heart was heavy. Death was the shadow that pursued me, into the darkness of the palace.