The Siren's Song.

3

The long haired woman gurgled something and in the back of my mind, something told me she was telling us that Madame Pearl wanted to see all the sirens. I slid into the water gracelessly, and Sabrina looked worried as she followed, muttering, "Madame Pearl only sends Oceanids when something bad is happening." We swam down to the pearly white castle and into the throne room with the other sirens, of which there were hundreds. I hadn't realized just how massive the throne room was until that moment. As Madame Pearl swam in, her voice echoed through the room. She said in a very grave tone, "My fellow sirens, something horrible has happened. A group of pirates, the men of the Silver Thief, have begun kidnapping women of the sea and auctioning them off. Already, two of our mermaid cousins have been stolen. These men are getting more and more daring by the day! No more than twenty minutes ago, they attempted to take our very own Anadia. If it hadn't been for Lamia warriors, she would have been gone. They wear wax in their ears, making our songs useless. We must fight back with everything we have! We cannot let them win!" Worried mutters filled the room and Madame Pearl held her hand up for silence, finishing, "I have asked for the leaders of all sea women to inform their followers of these scoundrels. Mother Echidna of the Drakainas and Queen Sybaris of the Lamia have promised to send their best warriors after the ship and its crew. Commander Deniz of the Savasci has sent her strongest and smartest warriors after the ship. Empress Amani of the Marids has sworn that she herself will take up her spear and lead her armies against these filthy animals. I implore all of you to join the fight. Call up storms to batter the Silver Thief. Do everything in your power to stop these fiends." Cheers shook the roof and Sabrina looked worried as we swam out. She muttered, "This isn't good. If the mainlanders  find out about us, the results would be disastrous. They would want us dead. They would get their warships and their swords and come after us. At least mermaids can turn their tails into normal human legs, no scales or anything. But the rest of us can't do that." She looked around worriedly and, trying to take her mind off things, I asked, "So, Madame Pearl mentioned some names. Are they rival sirens or something?" Sabrina laughed slightly and replied, "No, they're not rival sirens. Sirens aren't the only sea women down here. There's our cousins, the mermaids, led by Princess Cordelia. They are mostly weavers and seamstresses. They look remarkably similar to us, with a few key differences. Their tails only go to their hips and have more fins, and they don't have fins on their upper arms. Other than that, we're practically identical. They're created from women who drown in shipwrecks. They don't use their singing to drown sailors, or for anything, now that I think of it. They sing for the fun of it. Of course, there's Oceanids, who are sea nymphs. They're born from waves. I don't get it either." We passed through a curtain of kelp and found ourselves in a large cavern. A woman with octopus tentacles instead of legs swam over and Sabrina continued, "This is Rosa. She's a Marid. Marids are warlike sea women, with octopus tentacles, obviously. They, along Drakainas, Savasci, and Lamias, are the fiercest warriors in the ocean. Those octopus tentacles they have are lined with venomous suckers, so avoid touching them. Their venom could kill you in under a minute." Rosa nodded at us and swam off. A different woman, with a shark tail and a long spike in her hand, swam by us and Sabrina said, "That's a Savasci. They're the weirdest sea women. They have the tails and teeth of sharks. But their most renowned trait is that the spike they use as a weapon is actually grown from their own bodies. When a Savasci is created, a spike begins growing from the wrist of their dominant hand. Once it's fully grown, it falls off. The spikes are nearly indestructible and becomes the Savascis' main weapon. The greatest embarrassment for a Savasci is having her spike taken. Like I said, weird."

A/N: I'm thinking I might make a separate book of just the different sea women I use, since I change the mythology around a bit and actually made up one (Savasci). Also, I'll get to Lamias and Drakainas in the next chapter.