Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
I ignore that voice. I had a plan and it didn’t exactly unfurl as I had hoped. Part of me thought that perhaps I could seduce the captain into letting me go. The other part of me wanted to seduce the captain, but for my own pleasure. The moment I felt the Syren energy flow through me I knew my blood was changing, the moment I ate Aerik’s heart the urges I had were inevitable.
But now I have only one thing I need to do, and that’s escape. I may not be able to control my monstrous features at will, which is proving to be most unfortunate thus far, but I can still seduce a man, especially one that isn’t the captain. With a young strapping boy like that Page John, it was easier than I thought. The minute he admitted he was a virgin and I promised I would let him see heaven with his own eyes, he was unlocking my restraints as quickly as he could.
The damn fool didn’t see me coming when I knocked him out with the butt of his own sword. Then I made quick work of things, taking his shirt and putting it on me, then his holster which I tied around my waist, the shirt long enough to cover my thighs and rear. Before I could leave I went to my torn gown and fished out Nill’s shark-tooth necklace and tied it back on around my neck. With Aerik dead, I was free to wear what I wanted and do what I wanted.
And what I wanted now was to escape.
I run out of the room with the chains, leaving an unconscious John behind, and start looking for a way out. I can’t go above deck and from the way the boat is suddenly turning, causing me to stagger off-balance, I have a feeling we’re turning around, no longer heading in the direction we should be going in.
But it is the direction back to the islands. Now if I jumped overboard, there’s a very good chance that I could get my ability to swim well. Perhaps my legs would morph together into a tail the moment I hit the water. At any rate, I finally have a chance to swim and I’m going take it.
My sister wanted me to be free.
I run toward the opposite end of the ship, a place I’ve never explored before, hoping to find a weapon of some kind but there’s nothing. Nothing but some faint moans coming from the hold.
The prisoners! Dear lord, were some of the servants and crew of the Elephanten still alive?
I go toward the sounds, my heart in my throat and before I can even reach the door I’m overwhelmed by a revolting smell, simultaneously sour and sweet and rotted. With one hand on my nose and one on the handle I open it. In the faint light of the deck’s lantern I see a row of dead bodies propped up on the ground, chained to a beam above them. Excrement, blood, and gore fill the area and I start coughing violently, fighting the urge to vomit.
“Princess,” I hear a voice weakly say.
No. No, no one can still be alive.
But I did hear a moan and now I hear my title and as I step forward among the bodies, recognizing the gaunt and pale faces, their bodies seemingly drained of blood, I see Hodges. Hodges, Aerik’s manservant and the man who carried me from the sea all those years ago. Fitting that I would see him before I went back into its depths.
“Hodges?” I say softly, trying not to cry. If he wasn’t talking I would have thought he was dead.
He opens his eyes, completely red with blood. “Kill me, Your Highness. Make it swift and quick.”
I shake my head as panic seizes me. “No. I can’t do that. Tell me what they are doing to you in here? Why do they keep you?”
“One of the crew called them…” he licks his lips but he has no saliva to spare, “Mandurugo.”
“What does that mean?”
He just stares at me. “Please. Don’t make me beg for my end. Please.”
Hodges lets out a raspy weak breath and eyes the knife in the holster at my waist.
I can’t actually kill him, can I? I killed Aerik, yes, and I would do it again. But while Hodges was never overly kind to me, he was loyal and never cruel.
“I can’t suffer any longer,” he manages to add. “Let me go home to God.”
I find myself reaching for the knife and pulling it out, the blade trembling in my hand. Where had all my bravado gone? Earlier I had no problems killing Aerik, eating his heart, and asking the captain to touch me. Now I find myself feeling sick and weak at the idea of killing an innocent man. What happened to the Syren inside me?