The Mermaid's Madness by Jim C. Hines Read Free Book Online Page B

she sang, but the knife wouldn’t listen. She crossed her hands over her chest, trying to muffle the knife’s cries. It was like an infant, wailing an incoherent song of fear and grief. So loud . . . she had huddled in the cold depths throughout the night, trying to block out the sound and the memories.
    A school of minnows swam past, laughing at her. She tensed and waved them to silence, but they ignored her. Fortunately, the humans didn’t hear. Minnows had tiny voices, and she knew from experience how weak human ears were.
    You’ll never find her.
    Stupid minnows. She snatched at them, but they darted between her fingers.
    You’ve killed the human queen. They’re all against you now. If they don’t destroy you, then Lannadae will find you and kill you, just as you killed your father.
    Shut up! She grabbed again, this time catching one unfortunate minnow in her fist. She stuffed him into her mouth, then glared at the rest, daring them to speak.
    They swam away in silence. The one she had caught squeaked Murderer! from within her jaws. A little vicious chewing took care of him.
    Lirea waited until the humans left, then swam out from beneath the dock. She followed a white sandbar toward the ships anchored farther upshore.
    The water tasted faintly of blood. She could hear scavenger birds crying and fighting near the shore, swooping down as they tried to swipe a meal from the humans’ nets.
    Lirea swam along the seabed, stirring clouds of sand as she approached a small, single-masted vessel near the end of the harbor. The ship was in poor repair, judging from the peeling paint and the taste of rot in the water. Lirea swam around to the far side, where the ship would conceal her from the others.
    The water was deeper here. The humans must have dredged the bay to allow their vessels to load and unload. The morning sun rippled along the surface.Anyone looking down should have a hard time seeing past that reflection.
    Lirea fought tears as she shifted her body to human form. Scales cut her legs, piercing skin and muscle as they were absorbed into her body. Blood trickled from her legs as the flesh sealed over countless cuts. She swam to the surface, spitting seawater from her lungs and sinuses.
    Slowly, she paddled toward the anchor chain that trailed from the ship. She stripped off her harness, tying it to the chain beneath the surface. It was easy to feign weakness as she called out.
    A tousled head peeked down from the ship. Lirea heard shouts, and then a strange contraption of wood and cork splashed into the water beside her. She guessed it to be a buoy of some sort. Cork ringed a wooden disk. The rope was secured to an iron loop in the center. After studying the device, she grabbed the rope and pulled her legs onto the disk like a human stool. She used her other hand to keep from bouncing against the hull as they hauled her on board.
    Two men stared at her. At first Lirea thought some of her scales might still be showing, but then she remembered the human taboo against nudity.
    “What happened to you?” one asked.
    Lirea hugged herself, trying to cover her body the way a human might. She hobbled past them, putting the cabin between herself and the other ships. “I don’t want to talk about it.” A true enough statement.
    “Geoffrey, fetch a blanket for the lass,” said the one with the tousled hair. He appeared to be the older of the two. He was coiling the rope from the flotation device.
    Geoffrey’s eyes lingered on Lirea a moment longer, then he turned away. Lirea waited until he ducked into the cabin, then moved toward the other man. “Let me help you.”
    “No need. You’ve been through enough.”
    Lirea took the rope anyway. He started to protest, but Lirea looped the rope around his neck and pulled.
    The crack of bone brought Geoffrey from the cabin. He stared at Lirea and the crumpled body of his friend.
    Lirea broke the flotation ring over his head. He fell, still clutching a rumpled blanket in his