Salt & the Sovereign_The Siren's Curse 2 by A. L. Knorr

Author:A. L. Knorr [Knorr, A. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Intellectually Promiscuous Press
Published: 2019-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

The images blurred yet again, and the breath whooshed out of me in a painful rush as I was released from Sisinyxa’s memories. Now freed from my attachment to the mosaic, I fell and landed on my back on the stone floor. Breathing hard, my heart hammering in my chest and tears blurring my vision, I blinked up at the image of Sisinyxa.

The image gazed down at me, that same peaceful smile on her face, yet somehow it had become more knowing, more familiar. The image had chosen what to show me and I’d had to withstand the horror of it until she was finished.

There was no sign of Nike. I didn’t know how long I had been lost in the visions, but apparently too long to keep her waiting.

Lifting a trembling hand to my eyes, I wiped the moisture from my eyes and the sweat from my brow as I sat up. My scalp was hot and damp from perspiration, like I’d been fighting that battle alongside my ancestor. Looking up at her again, fresh siren tears coursed down my cheeks and there was no stopping them.

“Now, you understand,” came the familiar voice of Polly, her shadow darkening the door of the Hall.

I could not find the words to answer her. Disgust and shock still coursed through my veins. Disgust at the fighting and the blood, and shock at how different the Mer seemed at that time, how much things had changed.

“So many,” I panted, my mouth parched, “tritons.”

Footsteps on the stone preceded her and she knelt down beside me, a hand on my shoulder. She handed me a cup.

“Drink,” she said, her whispered word sounding lost in the great cavern of memory.

Taking the cup with a shaking hand, I straightened and gulped back the cool, fresh water. Tears continued streaming down my face. “Why did you not tell me? Why did you not tell us?”

“You had to see it for yourself.” She stroked my sweaty hair back from my forehead. “And these memories are for the Sovereign to bear; they are a burden your sirens should not have to carry. They trust you, and you must be worthy of that trust.”

That Polly had not been asked into the Hall of Anamna by her Sovereign passed through my mind only fleetingly. In that moment, I felt like a little girl who wanted her mother’s comfort. I was glad she was there.

“You see what our ancestors had, how they behaved?”

“Like mercenaries. They fought like soldiers, and the tritons…” My voice was still a dry rasp. I shook my head, wiping with futility at the continuous stream of tears running down my face and neck. “The tritons, they were so powerful, so beautiful. Where have all the tritons gone?”

Polly sat down on the stones next to me, something that I had never seen her do, even when I was young. Her dark eyes were heavy with sadness. “I don’t know. They’ve been gone a very, very long time. But, Sybellen,” she

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