Thx nthusiastic for the edit, the epic saga continues.
*****
The sting of my cheek snaps my eyes open. Kelly is standing over me, her mouth is moving but I am not hearing any sound. She reaches for me and I feel her hand grip my throbbing cock, and try pushing it back in my pants. The siren bounces close to Kelly, and she lets go of my cock as if it stung her, then grabs and nocks an arrow.
"Stop, Kelly, it was a side affect. Don't shoot her."
Kelly looks at me, her lips moving again.
"I am deaf. I can't hear what you are saying. This will wear off?" asking the siren, pointing at my head.
She nods with a grin.
"Did we get them all?"
Kelly holds up two fingers, mouthing 'got away'.
"Guess that couldn't be helped. I'm sorry, Kelly."
She tilts her head, points at my cock, gesturing to put it away.
Ella comes running over, hands jabbing towards the north road. The siren bounces past Kelly, down behind me. Kelly spins, starting to bring the bow up again.. I throw my hands up, waving her off. The siren put her hands on my shoulders. My ears pop, leaving a sense of vertigo for a moment.
"A dozen armed riders are coming. What do we do? Hide? Run? Wow, your cock is big," Elle babbles out.
"Sorry," I stand tucking it away, as I get to my feet.
"What about her?" Kelly asks.
"Can you fly?" I ask over my shoulder.
"No, they bladed my wings."
"I would ask that you don't even speak with other men around, safer for all of us. Will you do this?"
"For you, I will comply. You will speak for me with the Mer-Queen when the time come in return?"
"Mer-Queen?" Stacy asks, walking into the conversation.
"I will, Kelly, she is mine, that is all you know. I saved you, and we all fought to escape. End of story."
"You are a brave yet possibly insane man."
The hooves of the approaching horses slow their thunderous pace. The rider at the front signals those that follow with a hand sign. As he draws near, he sees the women holding weapons, and the winged figure hiding behind me. He pulls the reins, pointing his horse in our direction.
"Hail! What has happened here?"
"These bandits and murders killed members of these ladies' families. I happened upon them, and helped these ladies avenge their losses."
"Kelly! Ella! Girls!" A distraught man yells, half falling, half leaping from his horse.
"Father!' You're alive!" they both scream, tossing aside weapons, and running towards the man, tears pouring forth with each step, bowling him over into a sobbing pile.
The mounted rider looks at Stacy, "And you, Miss?"
"They killed my husband. It is as the Wizard says. He and his ward came to our aid. If not for them, I believe you would have fought your way here only to claim our strung-up raped corpses," Stacy said, trying to hold off her own tears.
"Stacy, it's ok to cry now."
And does she ever, great, heaving wails of sorrow and relief. The road warden has me and the siren stand off to the side of the scene under guard. The siren whispers "I can sing them away." I give her bottom a little bump, "Shh!"
"I am less than trusting that you happened along this area. What are you doing out this far, without mount or coach? What business do you have here?" a ranked rider with different markings from the others asks.
"I am a Wizard. The manner of my travel was magic. And my business here is to find out why I can't get a survey out here to pace off an area map to put in a land claim with the king for this stretch of coast line. I wish to buy it for my research into oceanic magics."
"Nameless?"
"In person, the king has told you of me?"
"I am Lord Nelzury, Imperial survivor. His Majesty only dispatched the survey order yesterday."
"Forgive me, Lord, I was unaware I spoke to one of station. I did bend the truth about the survey thinking you were of a less ranked office. My apologies."
"And the siren?"
"My ward. One of the reasons I seek this impassable cove, along with the rights to the water half a league out from its shore. Should the day come that her voice returns, ships would not be close enough to hear her song."
"And you came here to pace off the claim yourself, finding a band of depots and imparted justice to same. I see no reason to detain you, though the road men will take a number of days to clean up this mess. I would advise finding business to handle that keeps your Ward from harm around less mannered soldiers."
"Would descending the cliff be far enough out of harm's way in your opinion, my Lord?"
"The road is their priority, I will order that none follow. Those that do face death, if they make it back up here or down there. The fall from such a height is most often fatal, is it not?"
"I understand, my Lord. We will be about our way. I thank you for your wisdom and learned advice, sir."
Bowing to the Lord, I reach for the siren, and slide my hand around her waist. He watches us walk down the road, turning toward the cliff. Getting down is hell. The siren bounces, clawing at the cliff, and is at the bottom in the same time it takes me to get a quarter of the way.
The tide is low making it easier to cross the tidal rift from the cliff's base to the island chunk of cliff that shadows the cove where I awoke. As I round the edge of jutting rock, Caldoria wades in the water, her mother at her side. Both give the siren disapproving looks. The siren skitters in close to hide at my back.
"Queen Caldoria, I have killed many of those men and rescued from them a sister of the sea in this siren. She was bladed by them, and for now is unable to fly."
"Then you accept your place as my consort?"
"I do.."
"Mother, has he met with your approval?"
"He has, thus will make a fine champion for you, and a great addition to the clan."
"Lady Taltania, if I may ask a question."
"Yes, Consort, your question."
"Why did you not tell me of the men's prisoners?"
"How dwellers deal with each other was of no matter to me. How you dealt with them was as much part of the test as how well you killed those that deserved it. Is that answer enough, Consort?"
"A wise Queen you must have made, I hope you advise My Queen to be as wise in her rule."
"She will have my council for as long as she wishes it, Consort, rest assured."
"My Queen, I request sanctuary for the siren.."
"Tempis, Queen," adds the siren.
"Till such a time as she can leave on her own wing," adding as much to Tempis as asking "She will confine her song to that of herding fish or as a defense to the cove and its Mer-clan. Will you abide this, Tempis?"
"Yes, Queen."
"You have a place of rest and safety by his word. Do not betray it."
"I must go with them. I will return soon. Do you need anything?"
"I am fine, I will need fresh water for drinking at some point."
"I'll get some for you upon my return."
I turn and grasp the offered hands of Caldoria. I sink with her beneath the water. I swim for part of the way, then towed the rest. The open ravine that was home of the clan was almost equal to the valley in which the Vale stood. The walls here however reached further back into the center of the ceiling.
I was given a Cloak of the Sea which allows me to swim as a true Mer-folk, and a Queen's claw, an obsidian blade with a Krakken tooth pummel. Last was the Staff of the Consort, it imparts use and understanding of the Sea dialects, and upon command goes from a four foot water spear to a full size trident, then back at a second command.
After a tour of the ravine and introduction to the elders of the clan, Taltania takes me to the horde she had gathered as dowry. She encouraged me to take what I could carry, alluding to using this to acquire things for the clan. I agreed it would be fitting. Caldoria returned to the cove with me, her guard staying in the deeper waters below the water's surface.
"I would very much like to lay with you again," she said sadly, "But it is not my phase for several nights yet."
"I would not be as pleasant of company right now. Tempis, in an attempt to protect me, infected me with her love poison. I will need to refrain from those activities for a day or two. I need to ask you, do you expect visits for that reason alone?"
"No, I wouldn't mind one like that for special times."
"And how about what I do with other women while I am away?"
"Do as you will, mermaids mate with many partners. Our clan is special, for we have males, many don't. Now should you find one and wish to marry and it not be me, you would step down. No bad blood, a friend of the clan will always be, though betrayal would be death, and then some."
"And to what degree do I speak for the clan? What authority do I hold in the realm of the dweller kings and lords?"
"You speak for me; what you agree to with them, I will abide or proclaim to the clan. I share some of your memory, remember. I have come to the realization that the human world is expanding, and we, the Mer-folk, have to adapt. There are fewer and fewer clans that don't live in fear of the human ships. The machines are stirring, even the deep races."
"So if I pursue an alliance with the Empire, you would agree?"
"I think we, as a people, to keep what we are, have to start thinking of ourselves as part of the larger world. We need to set aside the old notion that dwellers are not any of our concern. Like the Fhay, think how they would fight if threatened with imprisonment or extinction."
"She speaks the truth," Tempis says from a ledge just above us. "I was taken because the grove where my clan hunted was gone. My sisters and I lost our way, ending up in a human settlement. I was the only one that lived."
"There are many of these things happening. They just aren't spoken of because we aren't human. Three humans die on a road, soldiers come. Three mermaids are killed in a harbor, they celebrate," Caldoria continues.
"Four sirens are killed, they parade the bodies through town and pelt the survivor with their body parts before selling her," Tempis mumbles as tears pour down her cheeks.
"I think she will need that water," Caldoria says to me.
I nod, slip into the water and swim towards shore. It seems easier climbing up than it did coming down. Reaching the top, I see Stacy riding in her wagon onto the area. She waves at me, almost jumping off the wagon.
"Nameless, I need to talk to you. Kelly and Ella were already taken off by their father. He wanted to talk to you, but left a message for you. 'I am in your debt, ask what you will, Look for us in Meridous'. I tried remembering more but he babbled on, that was the gist of it though."
"What of you, where do you plan on going from here?"
"I don't know."
