It felt good to be back.
Anything could've happened during his two week trip spying on the Siren's cove. The power to change his legs to a tail and vice versa had really been coming in handy lately.
Henri paused at the gates of the palace, the girl right behind him. They saluted to him and he counted the guards. He strode up to Maurice, one of the men he had trained.
"I've counted eleven men stationed here, where's your twelfth?"
"What? Oh your–captain, you're right," he glanced at the girl and Henri was glad he caught himself, "I'll send for another man immediately."
"And check up on the other corners of the castle, just in case," he said, looking skeptically at the other guards standing at their posts.
"Yes sir," the man said, saluting once again.
"What was that all about?" Karis asked, trying to look at his face and walk at the same time. "Captain? Would it be better if I call you captain Henri?" Henri couldn't tell if the girl was joking or not. She's not a girl, he reminded himself. She's probably sixteen or seventeen, only a few years younger than you. He sighed.
"No, Henry's fine," he gave a weak smile. "Captain is only for the guards to use."
She nodded, seeming to take a hint that that topic of conversation was closed. Judging by her expression she didn't want to talk that much. That made two of them.
Henri continued to nod back every time a guard saluted. It was odd, where they were positioned. But he trusted his second in command. If he felt the need to put twenty guards right in front of the throne room and eleven by the gate then so be it. He must have his reasons.
"Captain," a guard bowed to him when he tried to enter the throne room. "The King isn't ready to receive you yet."
"Isn't ready to receive me?" Henri asked skeptically. The guard rubbed the sword hilt at his side. Henri had never seen this guard before. He looked....different. Blonde hair pushed back, seeming a bit uncomfortable with the weight of the sword at his waist. He was almost Henri's height, around five nine, and maybe a year younger.
Henri glanced at Karis and frowned. She looked like she was choking, gasping for air. Her face was white (whiter than normal), and her jaw dropped, eyes never leaving the guard's face. Henri looked back at the guard again and the boy smiled, revealing fangs.
"Karis, GET BEHIND ME." She stumbled a step back, but hesitantly, her eyes never leaving the boy's. Henri pushed her behind himself, thinking. Could they have followed me? Could they have known?
"Micah?" Karis asked, gently pushing Henri's arm away. "Micah." Her voice more sure of itself now. She tried to take a step forward but Henri stopped her.
"Karis," he said gently, trying to take her eyes away from the boy's. Not every siren needs a song. "Karis." She looked down, her mouth still open, then at him, her eyes laced with panic. "Karis, it's not him." Whoever he is, Henri thought. She started to say something but stopped herself, nodding.
"I know," she looked at the boy again, "I know."
"It can't be him," Henri tried to reassure her, to break her out of the trance.
"It can't." Her eyes went cold and she looked away from the boy and back at him. The palace was filled with air but she still seemed to struggle a bit getting oxygen.
He turned toward the siren. "How did you know? Did you follow me?" Henri had been so careful. So careful. The boy revealed a sharp smile.
"Follow you? Ha! Not me, but I'm sure someone did. We've been planning this for quite some time, Captain." Henri scowled. He wanted to ask more questions but he noticed the siren's grip tighten on his sword. Henri pushed Karis back and drew his own just before the male siren lunged.
The boy swung his sword, and Henri brought his up in defense. He hated being on the defensive. He put all his weight into a push that sent the boy stumbling backward, swinging his sword wildly at the girl. A crash sounded next to Henri and he jumped. Karis was staring in horror at the man on the floor, her hands shaking. Henri looked at her questioningly.
"There was a vase," she said, and Henri noticed the shattered pieces of glass on the floor. Not bad. "How did you know he wasn't on our side?"
"I don't know, I usually assume most people trying to stab me are not on our side."
Henri smiled, she had broken free of the siren's trance.
"Good logic." He heard footsteps. "Come on, we have to go!"
"What if they are on our side though? They haven't tried to stab us yet," she protested as they ran into the throne room.
"Right now, assume everyone is trying to stab you."
"Everyone except you."
Henri smirked. "Everyone except me."
...
The throne room was beautiful. Karis admired the detailed painting of underwater life covering the top of the tall domed room, creating the illusion that there was almost no roof at all.
"Is it supposed to be empty?" Karis asked the dark haired boy. He shook his head.
"The King must've known. My hope is that the man I left in charge was able to get him somewhere safe."
"What's happening?" Karis tore her eyes away from the throne which couldn't have been real gold.
"The city is being attacked by sirens. It doesn't happen often, but it happens. My guess is they've been planning this around my trip." He scowled. "I'm lucky I got back a day early."
"Okay, so what do we do? Just sit here and wait for another one of those...things?" She looked pretty shaken at mention of the sirens. He wondered who Micah was.
"No. We have a place for emergencies like this, a safe place. If the King wasn't taken then he'll be down there."
"Down there?"
Henri grinned.
The tunnels weren't as dark as Karis first pictured when Henri told her his plan. Under a colored rug in the corner of the room was some sort of secret passage going below the ocean floor. She shuddered.
"It's not much farther," Henri reassured her. "You'll be safe there."
"What about you? I suppose you'll become the city's savior or something?"
"I'm Captain of the King's Guard, it's what I do."
"Is that your motto?" She raised an eyebrow and he made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.
"We're here," He said, placing his torch in a metal ring by the door. He dug in his pocket, and pulled out a small silver key. He put it in, twisted, and the door unlocked.
...
He pulled the door open and found the tip of a sword pointed at his chest. Oh please let it be- the sword lowered and Henri looked up at his friend and grinned.
"Jacob! Thank goodness it's you."
"Captain Henri," the man saluted, also grinning. "I didn't think you'd come so soon. I didn't know where else to take His Majesty," he nodded toward the King, who put a hand on Jacob's shoulder as he spoke. "When I found one of my men dead and the others missing I got suspicious. That was last night."
"You've been here all night?" Henri asked.
"Yes. With no back up and no way to contact you my first thought was the King's safety."
"You did good, Jacob." The man, two years older than Henri, let out a breath. He might've been older but he looked up to Henri. Literally, like he was actually shorter.
Then he remembered Karis. He turned to find her closely examining her fingernails, leaning awkwardly against the hall wall.
"Karis," he said, ignoring Jacob's and the King's questioning looks, "come inside." She nodded, walking into the room and taking a seat on a bench. Henri removed the torch from the wall, placing it inside, and closed and locked the door. Just in case someone discovered the passage way. They'd be looking for the King by now.
"Who is she?" Jacob asked.
"She's a human girl," Henri said.
"You know the rules-" the King began.
"So does she. That's not the problem right now." His father nodded, moving on. "Where is the Queen and princess?"
"I left them at Miss Noanne's house," Jacob said. "I didn't think the siren's were after them, and His Majesty insisted they be somewhere far away from him, somewhere safe."
"They're not after them," Henri said, nodding.
"What are they after?" Karis spoke up, everyone looking at her. Her eyes no longer showed that fear and hesitation they did earlier. "If they're not after the rest of the royal family, then their main goal is probably not him," she said, gesturing toward the King. She picks up fast, Henri thought with a small smile to himself.
"Who else would they be after?" Jacob asked in a genuinely curious tone. He's right...who?
"The people," Henri gasped. "They have no reason to be after the throne. They're not ambitious for those types of things."
"What do you mean the people, boy?" Boy, Henri scoffed. He wasn't a "boy" anymore. The comment kind of ticked him off.
"Your Majesty," he answered the King in a carefully monitored tone, "we needed someone to spy on the sirens, and as you know I was most capable for the mission. There were signs of an attack, but there was no way of knowing it'd be this soon. Either way, I left a day earlier than planned. Before then I spoke with a siren who mentioned their numbers dwindling. If they're not here for the city or the throne, then they're here for the people in it."
The King ran a hand through his greying hair. "To change them? To convert them to sirens? Then there's nothing we can do. The spell cannot be broken."
"Yes but that's the thing," Henri smiled, a plan forming in his mind, "it can be broken. She proves it," he nodded toward the girl and she looked up at him, startled.
"That's what that odd feeling was?" Her eyes reminded him of the small fish that darted in and out of crevices, nervous, quick, and a little scared.
Henri nodded. "The siren we encountered took the form of someone she knows," he paused, looking at her, "someone she loves. Yet she was able to break free from the spell."
The King gasped. "A human?" He looked at Karis with newfound respect. "Then there must be a way."
Jacob laughed and Henri smirked, Karis giving a weak smile as well.
"And I have a plan."
...
Karis forced a smile as she listened to Henri's plan, but her thoughts drifted elsewhere. On her mother. On Micah. Gosh, even one year couldn't take the pain away. Maybe that's why she was able to break free of whatever "spell" Henri had been talking about. She knew it wasn't real. He wasn't coming back.
Henri discussed strategies with Jacob and the King, and Karis stayed quiet and listened. That had always worked for her before. Well, not always.
"So you want to convince them," Karis said to Henri, trying not to smile at the enthusiastic look in his green eyes, "that one of us wants to join them, to become a siren. But who?"
"Well," Henri swallowed, looking at her, "you."
She closed her dropped jaw. "Okay."
"Jacob and the King will stay here. I'll give Jacob the other key just in case something goes wrong and we get captured. Me and you will go to them, and we'll pretend you want to join them. 'A human in great sorrow who wants to give her life away to the siren cause.'"
"That sounds very cheesy. No one in their right mind would believe that."
"They're desperate, Karis."
"Desperate enough to take me," she hated to admit it, but what he implied stung.
"No," he said firmly, "desperate enough to believe a cheesy story. I'm sorry I'm forcing you to be a part of this." His voice was earnest. Karis smiled.
"Okay okay, let's go fool some sirens then."
Jacob frowned. "Won't they recognize you?" He asked Henri.
Henri smirked. "Leave that to me."
...
Henri had to lead the two of them through several back alleys and such to get to where his mother was staying. He couldn't risk being followed or spotted by anyone. It was hard to tell who was a siren and who wasn't, since siren's were made to be deceiving creatures.
Finally they reached the small house the Queen and princess would be hidden. It was most likely they'd be safer than the King, since a undersea tunnel would be the first place checked. Better than nothing though, especially when Henri had had so little time to prepare. He knocked on the small door.
"I'm looking for my mother," Henri said in a quiet voice, hoping not to attract the attention of their neighbors.
"Of course you are boy, come in." His mother opened the door and he pulled Karis inside.
...
Henri's mother was a good humoured woman, and apparently the queen of that underwater country. Yeah, Karis was quite startled when she found out Henri was a prince–or used to be.
He wouldn't tell her the story...
Well, whatever it was it was none of her business.
"Okay, now he won't be recognized." Henri's mother said, removing her graceful hands from his face.
"But...he looks the same?" Karis asked, confused. Same black hair, blue green eyes as when she met him earlier...that day. Dang, it felt like forever since she attended her mother's funeral. No time for thoughts like that now, she scolded herself.
"Yes, sorry darling, it doesn't work on people like you and I, unless you have an extra ten minutes to spare so I can change that." Karis nodded. "My apologies, for now you will have to deal with staring at his face," she gave a mischievous smile and Karis laughed, a real laugh.
Henri rolled his eyes.
"But the sirens will see me however I want, correct?"
"To some degree," Henri's mother answered him. "They will be...entranced. They will see you as unrecognizable and unforgettable at the same time, although you will still mostly look like yourself. Except with all the things you don't have. Good looks, charm-"
"Okay, okay," Henri said, with another roll of his eyes, but this time with the smallest of smiles on his lips. He's quite handsome though, Karis thought mindlessly, studying his face. He had a solid look to him; tall, a bit muscled, defined jaw, thick eyebrows, but still kept some boyish features like the spark in his eyes and pouty lips. I mean, he's not that ugly, that's all... she liked blondes anyway. Had.
"We really don't know how much time there is. Better safe than sorry," He gently tapped Karis's shoulder.
"I wish I could tell you to stay here but I really need you for this one. I'm afraid no one else matches your...pot smashing skills." She laughed.
"It was a vase," she smiled and he raised an eyebrow.
"Well you better get going," the Queen said, standing and gesturing toward the door." They nodded and a head of dark brown hair popped out of a doorway in the room.
"Wait, don't tell me thats your sister?!"
"Hey Isabelle, were you sleeping?" The little girl jumped into Henri's open arms.
"Henri, who is that?" She yawned, pointing at Karis. Karis walked forward.
"Hey, how are you Isabelle? I'm Karis."
"She's going to help get you back into your real bed at home." Isabelle rested her head against his chest, hiding her face.
"Mom, please take her, we really do have to go." Henri's mother took over, gently carrying the little girl in her arms. She was already asleep. Karis missed when it was easy to fall asleep, when her mother cradled her in her arms. But that wanting did not make Karis resentful or jealous of the girl at all. It made her want to protect her, to make sure nothing would stop her from the love she was receiving now. That nothing would take away that peace. A part of Karis cracked inside, and she promised herself to make sure the sirens were stopped.
...
Henri had noticed a very determined look on Karis's face when they left the house.
"Your sister," she began when they were walking toward the palace. Well, walking would've taken forever, so he forced the current to pull them forward at a very fast rate, their bubble of air never leaving their faces. Technically he didn't need it but he kept it so as not to freak out the girl. "How old is she?"
"Isabella? She just turned three. Er, four? No, three is right." He looked at her quizzically. "Do you have any siblings?" Siblings that she was going to leave behind... he thought, almost angry.
"No," she said, brushing a strand of black hair out of her face, "but I always wanted a little sister." I'm such a idiot, he didn't know her well, obviously since they had just met, but she didn't seem like the kind of person to do something stupid for no reason.
"What about family...?" He asked. Was he crossing a line? They had only known each other for one day, and probably one of the worst days of her life.
"Well," she began, looking down, "I suppose you're wondering why I would try to..." she choked up a little in disbelief, "to kill myself if I had family that I love. I don't. Just a grandmother who doesn't care and a dad that was never there. My mom was my sole guardian, but thinking about it now I guess there were people who would take care of me." She rubbed her eyes and Henri wished he hadn't asked. "I wish I could take it all back, that I never jumped. That I could start over, be someone new." She sighed. "But I can't." Henri wished there was something he could do...
The rest of the way was met with silence.