Upon waking up from a much-needed sleep, I caught sight of the beautiful creature slumbering quietly and instantly knew what had happened.

I got up and marched to her resting area. “I told you not to sing!”

My escalating voice jostled her awake, and her amber eyes were filled with fright. At first, I felt sorry for scaring her. I shook my head to break her hold over me.

“What did you do?” I demanded. “Why did you sing?”

She threw herself up and shrank back against the wall of the den. “I didn’t sing.”

She looked so innocent. The lying wench.

“Yes, you did. I remember hearing your voice in my head before falling asleep.”

“It was just a lullaby. Sometimes I hum myself to sleep,” she exclaimed sheepishly.

I felt my gaze narrow as anger seeped into my chest.

“Don’t do it again, spellsinger,” I reprimanded her.

She blinked. “Spellsinger? Is that what you call us?”

I turned and busied myself with getting the fire going again. There was moisture in the atmosphere, and I could hear the raindrops pelting the ground just outside the shelter. Once the morning rain stopped, we'd move out.

"I don't know any spells to sing," she continued, adamant about redeeming herself with me. Or maybe she just liked hearing herself talk. And sing…and hum. I knew she put me to sleep. I was sure it was her.

I almost believed her about not knowing any spells.

“You have magic,” I grumbled.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

I poked at the flames with a stick. “Kradr.”

“Kradr,” she pronounced. “You are Zaqwarian, yes?”

I nodded. “A bastard. Zaqwarian and a man of the Quag.”

“Man of the Quag. I’ve heard the phrase before. My mother used to speak about the different land dwellers with my father. She talked about your people all the time. Men of the Quag are descendants of humans who adopted barbarous customs after The Epidemic. Is that correct?”

This creature knew a lot, but sea people were smart. They had been around since the beginning of time, seeking sanctuary in the ocean to survive the last apocalypse and probably many others before that. I didn’t respond to her latter question, but she was good at reading me like a book. My mother told me once that spellsingers could see into a man’s soul. The good, the bad, and the evil.

I recalled the female telling me her name the night before. Celeste. The name was almost as beautiful as she was.

“And your brother? What’s his name?” she asked.

I was surprised she even asked about him and that she also remembered my mission.

“Drokkil.”

“I don’t have siblings. Just friends from my unit.”

“What’s a unit?”

“There are units in the undersea prison, depending on what you’re in there for. They placed me with the orphans.”

“Are there others like you? Halflings?”

"Oh yes. There are many others, but these days mixture of the species isn't a crime anymore. Things are evolved now on Eutar. Not the same as when this was once called Earth. People are free to love who they want…if they're prepared to accept the consequences."

“Why imprison a mermaid? What need do they have for undersea prisons?”

“Breaking the law. Things like going out of the territory. Stealing. Revealing ourselves to humans. Endangering our domain. Playing tricks on the pirates who sail through our kingdom searching for gold coins to take back to their leaders. Just to name a few. I’ve heard lots of stories,” she replied. “May I have some food?”

I crawled to the opposite end of the den, grabbed my bag, and handed her a biscuit.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“A biscuit. Like bread.”

“Bread. Mmmm. Good.” She took dainty little bites until the entire biscuit was consumed. “Do you have more?”

I almost choked on my own breath. Yet, this was the price I would pay for taking this little prisoner. I had to keep her alive. I couldn’t help my brother with nothing to trade. I fished out the last biscuit from my sack and handed it to her.

“I told you not to talk yesterday,” I said, as she broke the second dried biscuit in half.

"Today is a new day," she exclaimed and handed me the biggest half. "I won't sing spells. I promise."

I looked at her outstretched hands, my gaze trailing up her long slender arm to the plump, curvature of her breasts. My groin tightened with hunger, and certainly not for the biscuit. I took the offering from her and gobbled it down.

"Did you offer yourself as a sacrifice to Zaqwar?" I asked as we drank water from the canteens.

She shook her head. “No. There’s a lottery. Sometimes the king handpicks us. Although, it’s considered a great honor among sea people to sacrifice yourself to prolong peace.”

“Your people do not honor you, no?” Hadn’t she told me that they made her an orphan?

She frowned. “They honor the sacrifice, but not me. I don’t think they honor me. They probably won’t even remember me.”

“Doesn’t seem fair. Why didn’t you run from me?”

“Like I said last night, where would I run? I know nothing of this place.”

I looked at her in confusion. “To the sea…”

“I can’t walk in the sea,” she said, quietly.

“You don’t love the sea?”

“I do. Because of my…dual nature, I love the land just as much as I do the sea. Some say it’s a curse to want both and that I’ll never be happy.”

“Why were you with the Mer and not on the shore with spellsingers?”

“I was born during a time when the shorelines weren’t very safe. Young Sirens were slain daily. That’s why there aren’t that many of them today. They’re so vulnerable even when they try to hide. Many of them don’t live past adolescence.”

“You are lucky,” I offered.

“No, not lucky. I barely saw my mother as a child. I am both Mer and Siren, but I’ve never really been accepted by either.”

“Men fear and refuse to accept what they do not understand,” I said.

“Yes, I think so,” she said, softly.

“You want to live on land?” I asked.

She nodded.

“You were willing to sacrifice yourself to the Zaqwar for a chance to live on land?”

She nodded again.

“Your wish has been granted, little spellsinger, but I don’t think you know what you asked for,” I warned. These weren’t the happiest times on Eutar. Only the strongest, most resilient survived. These days, war and infighting ran rampant throughout the lands and the four corners of the Quag. We fought enemies for our lives. We fought friends who sought to stab us in the back. It was sometimes brother against brother and sister against sister. This king of hers had the right idea. He kept his people safe under the sea from all of the misfortunes created by men.

She fell silent after my warning, casting her gaze down to the ground and playing with the seashells on her anklet. I poked at the sticks in the pit and re-arranged some of the rocks. Then I pulled back the thick animal hide from the entrance and glanced out into the rainstorm. The early change in weather was only temporary. Nothing would stop me from freeing my brother.

“I need to pee,” I heard Celeste’s soft voice announce behind me.

I clenched my teeth together and turned around to scowl at her. She looked so innocent, but those eyes held some evil. I wasn’t a fool. I knew what she was capable of.

“It’s raining,” I grunted.

“I’m not afraid of the rain,” she replied. “Please…”

Her legs were folded under her, and she shifted back and forth, demonstrating that she really needed to relieve herself. I looked at an empty bucket in the corner. Her gaze followed mine. She looked back up at me sharply and shook her head defiantly.

I walked over to where she was sitting, grabbed the end of her rope, and together, we walked out into the steady rainfall.