Dark Depths Read online

  The sound was in the high-pitched language of the sea nymphs, for it carried better through the water. Treasure gasped and jerked her head toward it, the sound chilling her more than the water itself. The tail of one of the anglers brushed by her own, and she flung herself back from the shelf, startled.

  From a deeper layer of the sunken vessel, a great mass of hair emerged, followed by a dark body with a silver tail. The face that was nearly hidden in that forest of thick hair, which was bound to resemble a squid’s tentacles, smiled at Treasure with lips as pretty as her own. Despite her solitude, the ebony-skinned one was as lovely as when Treasure had last seen her.

  Who was she now? How had she changed? Since they’d been separated, she’d become quite a name in these waters. They called her the sea witch—as if she was wickeder than they.

  “Jou’re looking well,” the host said. “Jou always were de prettiest among us. What a shame.”

  “I need your help,” Treasure said, wasting no time on pleasantries.

  “Jou do indeed,” said the other, folding her arms and turning to travel back down below. “Jou’ve become a fool since I left jou.”

  Treasure followed her down into the belly of the ship, and the smell of thick blood shocked her nose. Down below, her old friend had been busy disemboweling a shark. There were numerous wicked tools, sharp and rusted, hanging from the ceiling. Some were made of bone and diamond, beyond decay. Treasure moved no farther than the entrance, while the silver-tailed imperfect went back to her work of cutting open the large, dead creature.

  “I knew jou’d be no good to me once jou fell in love wit dat boy,” the dark one said disappointedly. “But I could never kill jou. Not one so close to my heart. Not jou.”

  There was a sickening noise as she ripped back into the shark’s belly. Treasure had never liked the look of those beasts. The rows of teeth in their smiling mouths had always been unsettling to her, but they were not the worst creatures in the depths.

  “Please help me,” Treasure begged again. “I’ll do anything you want, but I must be with him.”

  “Mark my words, Treasure. Jou’re a fool.”

  The girl was aware that this one had been watching through her eyes for many years, but she couldn’t say she felt uncomfortable because of it. She’d become used to it, as if the other belonged there. But this had to stop now. They were both alone and shunned, but Treasure was the one taking the beatings. There was more to life than torture for the hope of revenge. She wanted nothing of that now.

  “But you will help me,” she said with firm belief.

  The sea witch ignored her, carefully sliding out the string of guts from within the shark’s belly. Treasure moved forward insistently, stopping again when a thick haze of blood washed over her.

  “I want to be with him more than anything else in life.”

  “I know,” the witch said, though unfeelingly.

  Treasure’s need swelled inside her then, bursting from her mouth without further hesitation. “Make me into a human.”

  She’d expected her request to have some greater impact, but her host seemed completely unmoved.

  “Why would jou want dat?” the dark nymph asked finally, distracted.

  Treasure was becoming irritated with these inquiries. Was she not paying attention at all? This witch knew why. She had always known it.

  “I love him,” Treasure said as if she had said it before.

  “And how do jou know he feels de same?”

  “He told me so,” she replied indignantly.

  “One will say anyting when dey are feeling desperate. Even jou know dat. He said he loved jou, jes; I was dere. But he also told jou to go. He told jou to stay away from him. Don’t jou tink he might have just told jou some lie to have jou comply wit his request? He’d never have to see jou again, after all. Lies are easy to live wit dat way.”

  “That’s not true. He meant it,” Treasure insisted without even having to consider. She’d known he wasn’t lying to her. The truth was in his eyes, his hands, his voice!

  The dark one sighed then, turning back to the love-struck child in the midst of her lair.

  “Do jou truly have any idea what jou are asking me for?” The teasing manner had dropped from her voice. She was serious now; it showed in her silver eyes. “I cannot make jou into a human; I can only make jour tail into legs. Jou will still be a sea nymph. Jou will not possess a soul, and jou will still live for hundreds of years. Jou will be a sea nymph on land. Jou know de dangers of dat.”

  Treasure had already thought of this, and while she knew that it was dangerous and it might have dire consequences, she was willing to take the risk. A few moments with her love in the sun was worth a healthy lifetime beneath the water.

  “I’m willing to accept it,” she said without a waver in her voice.

  “Do jou tink he will protect jou, golden one?” the laughter was back in the witch’s tone once again. “I’ve had a look at jour young man myself, and I promise jou dat he has no idea what he’s dealing wit. Truly, jou would be doing him a favor by staying away.”

  The witch turned back to her knife. An entranced angler came closer to better light her work. Treasure knew she was being ignored, but she had not given up.

  “Bliss,” Treasure addressed, breathing the dark one’s human name into the water. “Please…”

  The name stirred something inside the witch, and finally she lifted her silver eyes.

  “Jou didn’t finish helping me like jou promised. Why should I help jou?”

  “I’ll do one last thing,” Treasure vowed. “Anything you ask. But I’ve already made my choice. I was warned that if I left the palace waters I would be killed; you know that. I couldn’t stay there, so know that if you refuse me, I will kill myself. I’ll certainly be no help to you dead.”

  Bliss tossed down her bloody knife, rising up in the water. The blade sank quickly.

  “It is a wonder dat I care!” she yelled.

  They stared at each other for several moments, silver eyes cutting toward Treasure, but her resolve could not be sliced. If Treasure felt fear then, she did not show it—though knowing in the back of her mind that the dark mermaid could give her a punishment worse than death. But she would not; Treasure was confident of that.

  She was right. Eventually, Bliss sighed heatedly in defeat.

  “Alright den. What I want in return for dis foolish ting jou ask for is jour tongue.”

  The words were a surprise, even to the water.

  “My…” Treasure began with a start, but then her surprise turned to suspicion. “May I at least ask what good it will do you? Or are you just being cruel?”

  A long smile stretched across Bliss’s lips, telling Treasure that both of those things were true.

  “Why do jou tink dey banished me?” the dark nymph asked with pleasure. “Why do jou tink dey keep our kind as slaves?”

  Treasure shook her head in confusion. Why had Bliss asked this? The answer was such a simple one.

  “Hatred?” Treasure guessed. “Because we look so much like humans.”

  Bliss shook her head in disagreement. “Fear.”

  Fear? That was a concept new to Treasure. Why would those ruthless creatures fear something like her? She understood why they feared Bliss, and certainly the only thing she and Treasure had in common was the fact that they were imperfect.

  “We are humanlike, and we have so much more power dan dey do,” Bliss told her with great pride rising up from within her lungs. “I learned how to use human magic, and dey feared me. And our tongues speak de human language when deirs cannot. Deir hatred is jealousy.”

  The others wanted to be humanlike as well? The Mistress did? No, that was not possible, Treasure knew. But she could understand how the Mistress might want a human tongue. She could make her intentions of destruction known to the humans then, and if she could speak to them in a language they understood, they would stop regarding her as an animal.

  “I see,” Treasure
said thoughtfully.

  “Since jou are no longer willing to help me, but jou are willing to give me what I ask, I will take jour tongue and make a trade wit jour Mistress. I can set de tongue into her mouth and allow her to speak as we do—but of course dat will only be de tip of de iceberg, as dey say. I was not pleased wit what she did to de hatchlings. Still, we will reclaim dis sea—even if it is witout jour help.”

  That had been Bliss’s intention since the beginning—even the reason she had learned to use human magic. Treasure was not a stupid one, which was why the silver-eyed nymph had attached herself to her when she’d been a mere slave, and then was banished from the servitude of the Mistress out of fear. Bliss had been seeking revenge since long before that—revenge for her own kind—and Treasure had been her tool. Though this proposition did not sound pleasant, this was the trade she had offered, and Treasure felt she would be more of a fool not to take it.

  Bliss smiled cruelly as she watched her think.

  “So, are jou willing to go through wit it? I can give you de most beautiful legs dat have ever been, only for de exchange of jour tongue. I’ll be kind to jou though, golden. I’ll reduce de glands in jour mouth so jou won’t drool all over jour pretty self! But jou’ll never be able to speak to dat handsome young ting jou love. Ever! When he grows old, jou will still be young; when he dies, jou will still live; and witout a soul dere is no’ting for jou past death but a return to de sea as foam!”

  “Unless I somehow obtain a soul,” Treasure spoke up, cutting out the terrible things. “To become completely human.”

  “False. Hopes.” Bliss seemed to take great pleasure in telling her this, her teeth gleaming.

  Treasure closed her eyes and imagined the one she loved. Nathan… She imagined the way the wind blew his wavy hair past his tanned face. She remembered his eyes and the soft smile on his lips when he looked at her. Recalling his muscular form put a gentle smile on her own lips, and she knew it would only be right when that body was wrapped around hers, legs entwined. To not see him again would be torture worse than the bone hooks—worse even than walking on needles with every step she took across the land.

  “There is no other way for me,” Treasure said finally, agreeing to her old friend’s terms. “I’ll do what you want.”

  Bliss’s expression turned grave, and she reached down to retrieve the knife from where it had fallen. Even though she looked solemn, there was a gleam of anticipation in her silver eyes.

  “We’ll have to surface,” she said. “It’s going to be bloody.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Lady, Luck for Fools

  1

  The blue-green tide rolled steadily to the shore, and with it on this day blessed with sunshine, came a body. The body of a young woman slid across the wet sand and hung there, left in the water’s swift retreat. The heat of the sun bore down on her skin, attempting to dry her flesh and tangled hair. When the breeze touched her, she remembered life.

  Treasure opened her eyes.

  Where was she? She didn’t remember until she curled her toes, feeling the sand between them. She was happy where she was, peaceful. That was when she remembered that the sensation was entirely new. She shouldn’t have toes.

  Her weak head lifted to peer down at herself, and beneath the blinding light of the sun, she found a beautiful pair of legs attached to her torso where there had once been a fin of golden scales.

  The pair was slender and long, attractively shaped and toned with muscle even though she had never used them. The skin was a few shades paler than her upper body, for her newly formed legs had never seen the sun. She lifted one leg and then the other, amazed that she could move them both individually. The muscles did not strain, and she pulled the limbs as far as they would go into the air, completely fascinated. Her fingers touched the gentle curvatures. They were of smooth flesh, now complete across her body. She was no longer a fish, but a human.

  Treasure smiled a smile of genuine happiness. Things were good. Soon they would be better.

  Soft footsteps on the sand drew her attention, and she took care to shield her nakedness, not because she was ashamed, but because she recalled that it was not acceptable for humans to go about without coverings on their flesh.

  “Treasure?”

  The glare of the sun made her blind to the figure that stood there, but she knew the voice.

  Nathan? She mouthed the word, but little sound came out past the nub of flesh in her mouth. The sound that did emerge was unpleasant, more embarrassing than her shrieking nymph cries. She quietly vowed never to make it again. From this day on, her mouth would remain closed.

  His shadow blocked the sun then, and she saw him fully. There was no doubt that it was him, and he leaned down to her with a smile, only to have it fall from his attractive face when he saw her legs. Why did his smile vanish? Was he not happy to see her this way? Treasure hoped that his expression was only of mere confusion.

  Almost as hesitantly as if he’d been reaching for a jellyfish, Nathan put his hand on the muscle below her knee. Finding that he hadn’t been stung, a disbelieving laugh escaped his lips, and his smile renewed. His fingers caressed her new limbs down their full length, felt the gently sloping contours, and traced within and without her thighs.

  “Is this real?” he managed to whisper.

  His brown eyes waded into the sea of hers, and Treasure felt her heart swell. He was happy about this after all. All the pain that she had endured was over now. She was with the one she loved, and he loved her in return.

  The young pirate did not take his eyes off hers, even as he continued to feel the warm skin of her new legs.

  “You did this for me, didn’t you?”

  She couldn’t reply to him, but could not keep a smile from coming to her face. Treasure offered him a brief nod, and Nathan seemed unaware of her absent words. Carefully, he urged her up to stand with him. Though her legs seemed prepared for the endeavor, the sensation of standing was so foreign that she couldn’t manage to hold herself up without Nathan’s arms around her. But she didn’t mind that. Treasure wanted it to be that way forever.

  “We’re going to be together now,” he promised. “I’m going to keep you safe.”

  If she could have felt happier, these words made her so. Treasure admired his face—and then she watched his smile fall.

  “But…there is something else,” he said. There was something like regret or concern in his voice.

  She looked at him attentively, a small cloud of fear fogging her mind. What else? What was wrong?

  “Breathe,” he said to her.

  She stared at him uncomprehendingly as a look of distress overtook his face. Before she could protest, he gripped her shoulder, jerking her roughly as if trying to shake her awake.

  “Breathe, Treasure,” he urged her. “Breathe!”

  Treasure breathed in a long, gasping breath. She awoke then from her pleasant illusion, and pain filled her world.

  “Jes, breathe, but don’t move. Jou have to learn to use jour mouth and nose to breathe now—always. Jou know how dis works.”

  This was not Nathan’s voice. But it was familiar. It was the only familiar thing. All throughout her body, there was throbbing ache. When Treasure had awoken enough to register the taste of blood in her mouth, she knew that her tongue had already been taken from her. Though she knew this was meant to happen, she felt panic because of it, and her breath began to rise in quick puffs.

  Treasure knew she had been instructed not to move, but the pain made her reluctant to heed. Her head lifted up to peer down at herself, and her eyes first caught sight of Bliss before she saw her ruined tail. Blood was everywhere—hers. Her fin was split down the middle into two large slabs, and the dark mermaid was rubbing a thick, gelatinous salve over the parts. If Treasure had been in her right mind, she might have realized that her parted fin was well on its way to becoming a pair of legs, but the poor child did not notice. She felt fear and disgust, and she easily forgot the initi
al purpose of this mutilation.

  “Stop squirming. I mean it. Jou will come away with some nasty imperfections if jou don’t.”

  The words did no good to calm Treasure. She had slipped free of her trance before time. Her pleasant dreams of Nathan had turned into this scene of horror, and her mind could not take it.

  I won’t survive this. I will never be with him.

  Bliss released the forming legs and pressed her palms into Treasure’s shoulders, holding her down and forcing the girl to focus on her eyes. Treasure saw the silver orbs looming over her like moons, and slowly—very slowly—she began to still herself.

  She was pulled away from pain once again, back into the arms of her lover. She was on the beach with him once again, and he was supporting her weight with his strong arms. Happiness filled her, as if she had never known anything but joy. He was speaking then, and she gave all her attention to his words.

  “It’s alright,” she heard Nathan’s voice say as her eyes fluttered to a close and the illusion faded. “We’ll be together soon.”

  2

  The night air was damp when Nathan slouched into the port. He’d done as Ellister had asked, pulling on some ragged clothes and attaching his weapons to himself openly, as if he were still very much a pirate. Truly, something about the change felt liberating, but he reminded himself that he was a different man now. He was here solely on business, and would not be tempted by drink or the prospect of joining some departing crew.

  The streets of the dock area were fairly extensive in the way they wove between the buildings, and a man could easily become lost if he did not know where he was going. Somehow, Nathan knew exactly where he was headed, even though Ellister had been vague with directions. The crown prince had told him to go to the port and find a man named Gideon in a tavern called the Shipwrecked Sailor. Nathan knew the port area well, and even though he didn’t know the man Gideon himself, he felt that he knew where to find the tavern. He recalled one which rested fairly close to the water—a small, rundown place—but the building had a large mermaid crafted over the stoop from eave to eave.