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  TAKING A BREATHER

  First published electronically in Theian Journal 2015

  Maggie’s father floated before her, his blue-veined face filled with rage. “They’re intruding on my ocean and give me nothing in return. Bring their living flesh so I may eat.”

  The soft flutter of her mother’s tail lacked any excitement over the hunt. “Do as your father bids,” she said to Maggie and her six older sisters.

  “They’re still far away,” whined Matilda.

  Father struck her across the face. Inky blood leaked from her mouth and floated away.

  Maggie drifted back from the others. Father grew more violent with each passing day. No amount of treasure from the land or flesh from the boats that sailed upon his seas appeased him. Not even for a short while, as it used to, transforming him to the playful and loving father she dearly missed.

  His skin, tighter and thinner than that of her mother and sisters, was more translucent than she remembered from her younger years. The magnificent power within him had always lent him a faint glow in the murky depths, but it had grown brighter of late, as if his skin could no longer contain it.

  “Go,” he ordered.

  Matilda hissed. Two of the other sisters took her arms. The six of them all swam into the blackness, leaving Maggie behind. She should follow. She knew she should, but Maggie couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her mother alone, not when Father was so angry. She shrank into the wavering shadows.

  “Far away?” Father ranted. “They can’t be far away if I can hear them. I can feel them. Feel them right above us. They didn’t send down an offering. No tribute, no passage. That’s the rule.” He drove his fists into his temples. “Sailors know the rule. They do.”

  “They’ll do as they should, my love. Be patient, the ocean is deep.”

  “Patient? Your daughters are lazy. I gave them names and I tried to love them but they’re worthless. You’re all worthless, and I’m hungry.” His tail lashed out, slapping her across the chest. The sharp barbs of his fins ripped through her flesh.

  She clutched the deep gash and drifted down onto the sand. Blood flowed through her fingers, the soft current tugging it away. Her milky eyes were filled with a terrible sadness.

  Maggie wanted to scream at her, to beg her to defend herself. She edged closer, unsure of what to do.

  Father sneered at her mother. “You’re lucky that you taste like rotten flesh, or I’d eat you too.”

  He glanced up, spotting Maggie. His pale eyes narrowed. He surged through the water like an eel, grabbing for her with his giant hands.

  Maggie dove away, flitting through the water as fast as her tail would take her. She buried herself in a tangle of seaweed until she was sure he wasn’t coming after her. She hoped she’d bought her mother enough time to get away.

  Had he really tasted one of them? Surely his hunger hadn’t grown so great that he’d try to eat his own kind. But how else would he know? Maggie shuddered.

  She should go to the surface with her sisters. If she didn’t bring something back, Father would punish her. In his present mood, he might even eat her regardless of how she tasted. But she had to make sure her mother was safe. If she’d escaped, she would have gone to the garden. That was their special place, far from Father’s treasures and moods.

  Maggie kept to the plants and spires of rocks as she swam to the garden. The tang of blood in the water spurred her onward. She found her mother moments later resting on the sandy floor, surrounded by her favorite plants and the shells Maggie had collected and placed in swirling patterns in the sand.

  Father was nowhere to be seen. He was probably off in his treasure room, trying to polish away the rot and ruin of the ocean from the once gleaming gifts from above.

  Mother smiled, though pain pulled her thin lips tight. She took Maggie’s hand and squeezed it.

  The blood was thicker here. If she couldn’t stop the flow with seaweed and move her mother somewhere else, sharks would find them soon. Maggie couldn’t fight sharks. Father could, but he wasn’t here.

  “Should I get Father?”

  “No.” Her mother’s hand slipped free of Maggie’s to caress her cheek. “He’s not your father anymore. The sea has changed him too much.” Her voice became as soft as ripples upon a shore. “Do you remember that song I taught you? The one I told you never to sing more than a verse at a time?”

  Maggie nodded.

  “You’re old enough now. It’s time for you to sing it.”

  “Are you sure it will work? We’ve been all over the ocean for Father and I’ve never seen another of our kind.”

  “The words will bring him.”

  “But I can’t leave you here, not like this.”

  Mother’s lips brushed Maggie’s cheek. “It is my time as it is your father’s time. And yours.”

  “I don’t understand.” Her throat constricted. This wasn’t like her mother. She’d always stood between Father and her daughters. Now she was just lying here, bleeding, looking far more peaceful than Maggie had ever seen.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt your father, truly I didn’t, but life isn’t simple. We follow our instincts and we do what we must.”

  Maggie glanced around, sure sharks were close by though she saw no sign of them. “We have to get you away from here, away from all the blood in the water.”

  “I’m happy here. This is a good place. Go find your husband.”

  Mother was making no sense. It had to be the blood loss. Maggie tried to pick her up, but her mother shook her head. “Go on.” She weakly waved Maggie away.

  Even Maggie could hear the sailors above now, their voices a dull roar. Father would be churning the water in his treasure room into a thick froth.

  Hints of sunlight drew her up through the dim waters. She needed to find something to offer Father before her sisters took it all.

  How angry was he going to be to learn that Mother wasn’t coming back? Maggie choked out a sob. He’d killed her and he didn’t even care. Anger built within her. She’d never understood what made him so angry but now she had a taste of it for herself. She didn’t like it. She wanted to be rid of the burning inside her. And of him.

  Maggie took one last look at her mother, still on the sand, her eyes open and empty. A school of tiny fish swam to her side. A few brave ones nibbled tentatively on her fingers. Maggie shooed them away.

  She would find something to appease her father and then she would find a husband as her mother wished. She’d be free of her father soon enough. Maggie streaked to the surface as fast as her tail would take her.

  A wicked thought washed over her. She’d find an offering on the ship, but she wouldn’t bring it to Father.

  She broke the surface. A cool breeze stung her skin and an awful stench filled the air that burned her nose and lungs. Maggie took her place beside her sisters. It was quickly clear why the sailors hadn’t paused at the edges of her father’s waters to make their offering.

  Black smoke billowed from the ship. Dark-skinned men yelled to one another, their deep voices crisper and stronger than the sounds she’d heard below. They raced back and forth with buckets, sloshing water onto the flames. The fire’s hunger was only matched by her father’s far below in the dark depths. The flames would have their fill, but he wouldn’t, not if she had her way.

  In the distance, broken hulls of deserted ships lay in jumbled disarray on rocky shores, a reminder to stingy sailors of the penalties of not paying her father his due. Soon the remnants of this ship would join the others.

  The men were close enough to Father now that they could be delivered alive. The sisters began to sing, not the special song, that was for Maggie alone, but a gentle hum that drew the attention of the sailors on the ship. One by one, they dropped their buckets and turned to the railings to peer below.

  Gentle waves lapped Maggie’s shoulders. Wet hair clung to her neck and spread out around her like a nest of seaweed, stirred by the fluttering of her arms, buffeting the
tops of her breasts. Her sisters bobbed in the water beside her, humming and taunting the men with seductive smiles.

  Their song grew louder, incorporating words not known to men, though their lusty looks and yearning bodies knew their meaning well enough.

  A man reached for one of the ropes that dangled over the side with a bucket tied to the end. He shimmied his way down, dropping into the water, calling out to Maggie and her sisters. Another leapt over the railing and swam toward them with admirable skill despite his lack of a tail.

  Men leapt over the sides of the boat. Some swam, many flailed their arms, pleading for Maggie and her sisters to save them.

  Maggie’s sisters wrapped their arms around the men and grinned, revealing their long, pointed teeth. The men screamed as the sisters pulled below the surface. Maggie waited, searching for the perfect offering for her husband. Soon the only sound left was the crackling of the wooden boat. The flames licked and bit, gnawing the vessel down to a blackened shell.

  Maggie made her way through the burning shards until she discovered a man clinging to one of the boards. His shirt was singed and torn and dripping hair covered his face. She reached out and pushed the sopping strands aside. His eyes fluttered open. He stared at her, his mouth gaping. He started to yell.

  Maggie clamped a hand over his mouth. Her ears hurt from the shrieks of men, she didn’t want to hear any more. Not today.

  This ship had nothing left to offer but the man floating beside her. He was thick with muscle and the lone survivor. He would make a good offering.

  Maggie wrapped her free arm around his broad shoulders. His eyes grew wide, and he pushed at her as she pulled him below the surface. He was strong, but Maggie was used to this fight. The deeper she took him, the weaker he would be.

  He wouldn’t be so loud underwater. She took her hand from his mouth and used both arms to take him deeper. Bubbles leaked from his mouth and nose. He writhed and shook and shoved, but Maggie held on. He kicked, pushing them upward. A few flicks of Maggie’s tail drove the blue sky from view.

  His fight lessened as more bubbles trickled from his mouth and nose to form a trail that led to the surface. This sailor would find no rescue at the end of that line.

  She swam away from home, wanting to avoid her sisters should they think to come back for more. The man grew limp in her arms. Father liked his food still kicking. She couldn’t offer her husband a meal of dead flesh.

  Maggie placed her lips on his and was surprised by the softness of them. They would turn blue soon enough and be of no value if she didn’t hurry. She parted them and breathed into his mouth. His body stiffened. She breathed into him again and again as she swam down, away from the ship and her father.

  When she was far enough that she was sure her father and sisters wouldn’t hear, she began to sing. She paused every few words to breathe air into the offering she held in her arms. Her gaze drifted across the ocean, searching for the one who would protect her from Father. She would make him happy and give him many daughters. He would be pleased and be kind to her. All would be as it should be. Maggie wistfully sang the words her mother had taught her, waiting and watching, breathing into the man.

  When she reached the third verse, he grabbed her wrist. Startled, Maggie tried to let go, to push him away, but he held tight. No bubbles escaped from his nose or mouth. She glared at the uncooperative food and continued to sing. At the first line of the fourth verse, his body went rigid and his fingers clamped tighter around her wrist. Maggie frowned. He shouldn’t have been stronger than her. Not under the water. This was her place. She quickly sang the last of the song, hoping her husband would arrive soon to save her from her offering.

  He screamed. It wasn’t the same voice as she’d heard on the surface. It didn’t hurt her ears. Instead, she felt his pain as though something connected their bodies and minds.

  “What’s happening to me?” He spoke in her own tongue.

  Maggie’s tail stilled. She tried to pull away from him, but he held on with the same brute force her father possessed. “Let go. You’re hurting me.”

  “You’re hurting me,” he said. “It’s only fair.”

  He cried out again and he did let go. His fists pounded on his legs. “What have you done?” he asked through clenched teeth. Teeth that were lengthening and growing sharper.

  His jaw grew longer, his chin dropping closer to his chest. His face made popping noises, like rocks clanging together.

  Sharp fingernails scratched at his leggings, tearing the fabric away. Maggie watched in fascination as his legs fused, his toes pointing and then growing to form fins. The short, coarse hairs sloughed off his legs and scales formed, shimmering like the night sky. The sailor was beautiful, like a school of fish in the sunlight, shimmering.

  The song had brought her a husband. Maggie basked in the sight of him until her brain started working again. “I’m so sorry, I have nothing for you to eat.”

  “I’ll eat soon enough.” Her husband looked over his new body, taking a few strong strokes with his arms and flexing his stomach muscles with powerful flicks of his tail.

  The swish of someone swimming toward them broke Maggie away from her admiration. One of her sisters came into view.

  Miranda came to a stop, floating before them both. “Maggie?”

  “I’m fine.” She grinned. “He’s mine.”

  “No, you’re mine,” the sailor declared, again grabbing Maggie’s wrist, though without hurting her this time.

  Warmth filled Maggie as his arm brushed against hers. She could feel his hunger but there was no rage in it. She rested her cheek on his shoulder.

  “Father isn’t going to like this,” Miranda said, slowly swimming backward.

  “Father doesn’t like anything,” said Maggie. “He killed Mother.”

  Miranda gasped and spun away, swimming toward home.

  The sailor kicked his tail, spinning, and gliding along. He pulled Maggie with him.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “To meet with your father.”

  “We could go anywhere in the ocean. We don’t have to go there. Please let’s make a new home somewhere else.”

  He paused, floating beside her, head cocked to one side. “I can’t. I’m hungry and I know just what to do.” He thumped his chest. “I feel it in here.”

  The connection between them had lessened now, but she knew there was a certain sense of purpose driving him toward her father. “All right then.”

  He wrapped his arms around her. Maggie felt the rightness of it all.

  A large shape barreled toward them. Maggie knew before she clearly saw that it was her father. His fins were stiff and the muscles along his shoulders and up his neck stood tall, bulging beneath his pale skin.

  Maggie wanted to cower, but her husband held her steady. “What is yours is mine now. Your time is over,” he said.

  Her father laughed, a terrible sound that sent shivers down Maggie’s spine. “I said those same words once, and I killed that man. I’ll kill you too.”

  Her husband thrust Maggie safely aside as he charged her father. The two of them rolled and spun, roiling like sharks fighting over a bloody morsel.

  Maggie had always thought of her father as an absolute—powerful and eternal. But as the two of them fought, she realized how old and ragged he’d become. Compared to the sleek strength of her husband, her father lumbered more like a walrus than an eel. Dangerous, but quickly tiring in the face of this new opponent.

  The sailor caught her father, wrapping an arm around his throat. “You will know what it is to be food. It’s been put off long enough.”

  Maggie shrieked. “No. You can’t.”

  They both looked at her, her father defeated, the sailor perplexed. He held tight to her father’s neck. “This is how it must be. He’s been clinging to the life he lost for too long now. It’s time he was released.”

  As much as she hated her father, Maggie couldn’t watch. The sounds of his agony and
the smell of blood followed her as she swam to the garden.

  Her mother was gone, but her sisters were there, huddled together, murmuring. They welcomed Maggie with open arms, pulling her into their midst. Together they mourned the loss of their mother and honored the passing of their father.

  The ocean went silent. Moments later, Maggie’s magnificent husband reached into the tangle of sisters and rested his hand on Maggie’s arm. “Come.”

  Maggie swam from her sister’s embrace and into that of her husband. Would he want to eat them too? They’d done nothing wrong. She detached herself from his arms and floated between him and her sisters. “What will become of them?”

  “I don’t plan to eat them.” He grinned and nuzzled her neck. “I will set them free.”

  He set her aside and floated among the sisters who eyed him warily. Matilda crossed her arms over her chest and held her chin high. “We will go, just leave us alone.”

  “Yes, you will go and leave us alone.” He kissed her and then moved from one sister to the next. “Go now, and be free in the ocean that is your home.”

  Matilda gasped as her arms fused to her sides and a tall fin rose up along her back. Her mouth grew wide and her eyes turned black.

  Maggie watched as each of her sisters turned into sharks and swam away. When the last one was gone, her husband came to float beside her.

  “Will they be all right?”

  “Nothing much has changed for them. They will still seek out men but now they can fend for themselves. They serve no one. They are free.”

  “But I will miss my sisters.”

  “Soon you will have daughters to keep you company.” He laughed. “This place belongs to us now.”

  Maggie followed him through the skeletons of ships that had succumbed to their fates here long ago. Deep inside one of them rested a vast room full of treasures. Maggie vowed to keep her husband fed and busy playing with so many daughters that he would be too content in his new world to have time to mourn the one he’d left behind. Instinct whispered that she had a song to teach, but she prayed she’d never need it.