Page 63 of Between Salt and Serenades
“I need you all to stop bloodying yourselves. I finally got all the rum off my deck. Do you know how annoying a sticky deck is?” Rory’s gaze chaotically flicked to each of us.
“Rory, I need you to shut your mouth and get these women a glass of water, okay?” I said.
“This isn’t a tavern, lass. We drink from the flask around here,” he chuffed, reaching into a crate nearby. Rory handed Zellia his waterskin as she settled down next to Breena, and she gulped it greedily.
When Zellia passed it off to Breena with panting breaths, Breena gave Rory a weary smile and said,” Do you happen to have any citrus slices on board? Sid is in no condition to bubble this water.”
I snorted as Rory gawked at Breena.
“You sea women are killing me. I don’t have any feckin’ citrus slices aboard my fishing vessel, you’d be correct. Not in the habit of staying aboard the Indigo Tide long enough to fall ill with scurvy.” Rory ran a large hand through his hair, and I thought for a moment that he might rip out a few of his copper strands.
“Alright, alright, we’re going to give the poor fisherman a heart disaster,” I said to the women with a warning smile. I motioned for Breena to toss me the waterskin after she was done with it, but as she was winding her arm back, Rory took it from her and walked it over to me.
“I suppose all three of us are already enough of a mess. We don’t need another person to join us.Someoneneeds to get us back to land,” Breena grunted. Rory wiped his sweat-sliced face on the collar of his shirt and shook his head at us.
“We haven’t formally met yet. I’m Zellia,” my sister said to Breena. She sat by her side, her eyes continuously flicking toward her oozing wound. Rory took a step back from all of us and found his place behind the wheel.
“It’s nice to finally meet you. Thank you for taking care of me. I really do appreciate it,” Breena said. “Is it too much to ask for your help again?”
“Not at all. It’s why I’m here,” Zellia said, taking her hand. “Listen, what I’m about to do is going to hurt. Do I have your permission to sing you to sleep so you won’t feel it?”
“You may, but first…” Breena peeked around Zellia to find my gaze. Her eyes were watery, and for a moment, everyone else disappeared. “I’m sorry I closed my eyes.”
“I’m glad you did, little droplet. Now, get better. We have a sea to save when you wake.” No part of me wanted her to see me in pain either; not because I felt like I needed to be strong in front of her, but because I couldn't bear the watery look in her eyes that she gave me now.
Breena wiped those beautifully haunting eyes, nodded her head, then gave Zellia her permission. Letting my head fall back onto the heaping net behind me, I momentarily shut my eyes. Zellia began working, allowing me to hear her song on land for the first time. The sounds flowed from her mouth in stunningharmony without the distortion of the water, sending chills up my arms.
When Zellia was done, Breena was unconscious with a cauterized wound. I peeled my eyes open and said, “Thanks, Zel. We should find some rest too. Will you wake us when we’re there, captain?”
“I can do that,” he confirmed.
I stared at my sister, who watched a sleeping Breena. Her eyes trailed over her features, taking her in from all angles, from her beautiful textured hair to the tips of her spotted fins. Breena still hadn’t fully transitioned back into her human form, but I suspected she didn’t want to irritate her wound further. Her body had already been through so much today.
Zellia smiled at me sheepishly when she caught me watching her. She hadn’t spoken to me much, and though I’d heard her voice in my mind a million times, I wanted her to speak aloud to me. There was something so different about the way words were spoken into the air on land. It was almost as if the sounds lingered a little longer instead of immediately fading into the rest of your mind's chatter, as they so often did when spoken telepathically.
Zellia cocked her head to the side, and I realized I was still watching her. I simply gave her a soft smile and drifted off into a much-needed rest.
I woke to the sounds of hushed muttering. The sun had lowered in the sky, and a misty evening settled in.
“She’ll stay unconscious until I wake her,” I heard Zellia say. “She should remain asleep until tomorrow. Her skin won’t heal right if I have to cauterize it a third time.”
“So we’ll move her while she’s asleep, then,” Rory said, leaning on his captain’s wheel as he peered down at a disheveled Zellia. She still wore his shirt, but she now had one of the rags from earlier tied around her waist like a short skirt. Her bright blonde hair was knotted, with bits of silver scales crusted into it.
I sat up and fought a yawn as I mumbled, “And how do you suppose we do that?”
“I have a trunk.” Rory glanced over Zellia’s shoulder to where I sat in crumpled netting.
“First, you stole her skin and took it back to your home in your trunk, and now you want to take the entire selkie?” I teased with a croaking voice. “You fishermen are so greedy.”
“Oh, am I now?” Rory smirked. “I think I’ve made up for it, Sid.”
“Since when did we get on nickname terms?”
Rory gave me a once over and then shook his head with a shrouded smile.
“Captain, what did you say about this trunk of yours?” Zellia asked. “Is it actually big enough to hold her without further injury?”
“If we take everything out of it, it sure is,” he said.
