The Tide

Chapter 23: Almost to the Sea

Marius

“Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer--both in waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams.”

― Bram Stoker, Dracula

Walking mile after mile with Sage in my arms is equal parts wonderful and completely exhausting. The long week walking back to our home is leaving her incoherent. What started as one nightmare has doubled and tripled. The nightmare that started it all was just a simple dream of nerves and being scared of a new place. At least that’s what I thought. Until Sage continued to tell me about the new nightmares she wakes up to every time she rests her eyes. Each dream is more vivid than the last. They seem to continue where the last left off. It began with another mermaid stabbing her with a hook and injuring her. Then the mermaid drags her away from the safe haven of our city out to open water and into an underwater cave. Which leads me to believe that it’s not a mermaid in her dream it’s a sea witch. Only sea witches make haven in caves because they use the man labyrinths for prisoners. Which is exactly what Sage says she becomes in the cave. When merpeople are punished they are sent for hundreds of years to leave in these caves. The sea witch will then enchant these poor souls to be trapped in their fish form. Then the merpeson will be beached on the cave ground away from the water and chained to the wall so they may not reach more than necessary water. This cruel practice leaves the prisoner to wilt and dry away only half living kept alive by small drinks of water. This practice while terribly barbaric has almost eliminated crime and with a few of my people who have the gift of truth and can extract any information from a person by just asking we eliminate the possibility of convicting anyone who is innocent.

Sage’s dreams leave her stuck eternally in her mermaid form, chained to a cave wall as the life leaves her. But the dreams aren’t even the thing that bother me the most. Sage isn’t a mermaid in these dreams she is a goddess. The tail and marks she describes are identical to the Gods and Goddesses that once ruled our lands. The mating mark that sits on her heart in her dreams is half gold for me and half silver for herself.  Such thing would be impossible. Our marks are never silver. Her notae would be gold as mine is since she will be a royal. A silver mark is that of a god. Or goddess in her case.

“Mar, where are we?” Sage mumbles into my shoulder.

“We are in the first town we passed through when we started our journey to your home. We are almost to the ocean.” I say as she takes in the view of the coastal town all the rich homes build up on high beams so they can overlook the ocean. The moon shines a bright light on the houses that look sad and unkempt and abandoned by their previous tenants.

“I can walk love” She says leaving my arms. She no longer looks lost and pained instead her brown eyes are clear and bright outlined with silver in contrast with her tanned clear skin. No longer limping and dragging her feet across the ground she walks next to me and interlocks her fingers with mine I stroke her thumb feeling shocks of warmth travel up my arm.

“Let’s stay one more day Mar. Just to say one final good bye to my land.” She smiles.

“As you wish my dear” I say trying to hide the relentless in my voice she doesn’t catch it and continues on with a smile on her face.

“This is perfect to stay… We can see the ocean and everything!” Sage exclaims as we travel up the stairs to a large white beach house. It sits on top of a tall hill that look down onto the beach and water.

“It is Omne Peti, we shall stay her tonight then I will call for the escorts to lead us safety to Urbem Deorum”

“What’s the urban derum?” She asks poorly articulating the name.

“It’s what we call our home. The city of the gods. The gods made our safe haven deep under the waves. Although it’s so deep to hide us from humans, we still feel the warmth and light of the sun. We see the moon as it gives us strength. We are safe from any predator. Large golden gates lined with the statues of our Gods and Goddess protect the perimeter. You’ll love it my dear” I smile at here as I picture my home.

Sage leads us up the stairs and into a bedroom that has large windows that overlook the ocean from high above. I toss her bag in the corner of the room.

“I suppose we can leave that here since you really don’t have a need for anything of survival. Your every whim will be cared for when we get to the kingdom”

“Oh no, wait. I have something to show you. Go get comfortable and sit on the bed.” She says and goes to the corner where her bag sits. I take off my shoes and recline on the bed.

I watch Sage dig into the bag. Once she finds the things she was looking for she comes over and kneels at the bedside.

“I want to bring these two things with me Mar.” She says and hands me a book and a small glass globe.

The books has an illustration of multiple human fairytales on the cover. Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, The Golden Goose and Rapunzel are a few depicted on the cover. When I open the books a handful of pictures fall out of the book. Mostly of her family a few of the house and some of just Sage. The other item she hold out for me to see is a glass globe with two merpeople inside it resting on a rock. The inscription on the side of the glass reads

“Laguna Beach: Where the Mermaids Swim. How ironic” I laugh. Sage smiles.

“I can bring them with me can’t I?”

“Of course I’ll have a sea witch escorted with those who will come to fetch us. She’ll enchant your things so they will be forever safe with us under the sea.” I smile.

She throws her arms around my neck and the book and glass globe land on the carpet quickly forgotten about. She presses her lips harshly against me and I wrap my arms around her drifting up the back of her shirt. The scales from under her pants rip at her movement.

“Do you want this Marius?” She asks as she takes off my shirt. The marks on my skin glow brightly and my eyes cause a bluish glow to cover the dark room. I just nod unable to come up with any type of coherent sentence.

“I do too” She gets up off of me and stands at the end of the bed on the carpet. She wraps her arms around her waist and tugs off her shirt. Nothing under it, but a handful of pearl scales dot across her stomach. She tugs her hair out of its tie and unbuttons her half ripped pants. Under them is her legs that have green and pearl scales all down them her ankles have small willowy fins protruding from the sight. She holds onto her pearl necklace and bites her lips as she crawls back onto the bed. I grab ahold of her hips and bring her down on top of me. She doesn’t even flinch when her scales lay against my legs.

“I love you Marius. But are you going to stare at me the whole night or take me?” She smiles and laughs.

“I love you to my princess.” As soon as the words leave my lips I flip her onto her back and do exactly as she asks.