A Mermaid's Tale

Chapter 7

It took Arthur a long time to convince the mermaid to leave his room. She ignored him for the longest time, and then swatted his hand away when he tried to pull her up off the floor. For whatever reason, she had decided to curl up in a corner between his bed and a wardrobe and refused to move no matter what the Captain said. He was beginning to lose his patience, and for a brief moment considered threatening her.

He sighed. Captain Kirkland was a gentleman at heart, and gentlemen certainly don't threaten women no matter how unreasonable they are. He tried to reason with her some more, but to no avail. She wouldn't even look at him as if it were Arthur's fault this happened, which in a way it was. He finally gave up and plopped on the floor beside the unresponsive girl.

"Look, you want to go back to normal, don't you?"

She stiffened at that. Her eyes darted toward him and back as she pulled her knees closer to herself, but still not a word.

"I know you want to fix this, and so do I," Arthur said. "But I'm going to need you to get up first."

"You just want to sell me."

The Captain was so surprised that he almost didn't catch what she said. "It's my job."

"Leave me alone."

"I can't do that." Arthur set his face into a stony expression. "We've already sacrificed a lot to get you here. I'm not stopping until this is over."

The mermaid flinched. Arthur couldn't say for sure, but she was probably remembering Lanham dropping to the floor dead with a bullet lodged in his chest. He thought about that too, and Jamison who had been killed the night she was stolen. Two men in exchange for what? A girl that didn't look like a mermaid who wouldn't leave his room.

"Fine, stay here if you want, love. I just hope your conscience can handle knowing you've gotten two men killed." The Captain stood up to leave.

"Two?" Her eyes were filled with pain, and Arthur almost felt guilty. Almost.

"That's right. Lanham died trying to rescue you, and Jamison was killed by the men who kidnapped you. That's a lot of blood on your account."

She wrestled with that information. Arthur could see her working the issue over in her mind. It was almost cute how her brows came together in concentration, and how she bit down on her bottom lip. The Captain quickly dismissed those thoughts. He couldn't find her attractive. That wasn't part of the job description. He just needed to get her back to normal so he could ship her to Gaal and be rid of her once and for all.

"Okay," she said startling him out of his thoughts. "What do I have to do?"

"Simple." Arthur smiled. "We just need to visit an old acquaintance of mine."

~000~

I wasn't prepared for how bright the sun was when I stepped out onto deck. The room I was in wasn't as bright, and the sudden sounds on deck didn't help my disorientation either. My legs felt weak and awkward, but I forced them to move so I could follow Arthur as he walked toward a group of men. I didn't like the way they stared at me, like I was something to eat. I'd seen that look plenty of times before, but usually on sharks.

Everything seemed to come to a standstill as I followed Arthur, which made me more nervous than I was. Everyone stopped to watch the two of us, and I wanted to cling to Arthur for protection from their preying eyes, but I couldn't give him that kind of satisfaction. I got the impression that he thought I was completely under his control. If only he knew.

He said a few words to the group of men, who were paying more attention to me than their captain. He didn't seem to like that. A loudly barked order later, the crew aboard the ship was going about their business as usual, and Arthur and I were getting ready to leave on the same small rowboat we had used to escape the Bloody Rose. It seemed kind of strange that no one else came with us, but I preferred it that way. If things got bad and I had to act, I'd rather not anyone else be there.