I and other prisoners sat there under guard, watching the pirates' physicker and the traitor wizard heal the pirates we'd wounded. After a while, the wizard turned his attention to some of his former mates, healing a few who'd lost consciousness from their injuries. Fira sat up groggily, still looking pale, but miraculously alive -- for how long, I wondered? I didn't think he would turn pirate, and didn't know if he'd be willing to live as a slave. A pirate had tied his wrists behind his back while the wizard healed him; once he was awake, they unceremoniously hauled him over and dumped him next to me and some other prisoners.
"What's going on?" he asked me.
"We lost, and the wizard joined the pirates. I thought you were dead, but the wizard healed you." I told him about the pirate captain's offer.
"I'll jump overboard," he said firmly. "I might not mind being a slave if I could be sure I'd be sold to a kind master. It would be bad, but better than death. But there are many masters worse than death -- perhaps most of them, in the slave markets we're probably bound for."
"So you won't turn pirate," I said. "I didn't think so. Me either. We'll drown together, and curse the wizard and the pirates with our last breath."
The wizard healed Midrun too; he wasn't quite as bad as Fira, who'd seemed to be dead until the wizard checked his pulse, but he'd been groggy and confused from a blow on the head. Once he was alert again, Fira and I filled him in. We were the only survivors of the mercenaries; there were several sailors tied up next to us, who'd put up a good fight against the pirates. Those who'd surrendered quickly or just hidden from the pirates were tied up at the other end of the deck, or belowdecks.
"I'll let them sell me," Midrun said. "I figure with my experience, I've got a pretty good chance of escaping sooner or later."
"But," Fira urged, "remember they have the wizard on their side now. Who knows what spells he might work on the enslaved men before they reach port and sell you? You might not want to escape, or you might want freedom but be unable to try to escape."
"I don't know for sure what this wizard can do besides turn brine into brandy and unravel a man's clothes," I said, "but it's sure that some wizards can do what Fira said -- fiddle with your mind so you won't be able to do what you want, or so that you'll want whatever he wants." After that, Midrun decided to jump overboard with us.
It wasn't long after the wizard healed Midrun that the pirate captain came back to where we were tied up -- he'd been inspecting the ship, giving orders to his men to take down the extra sail we'd put on when trying to outrun them, appointing some of them as a prize crew to man our ship and some to return to their own vessel. After an hour or two of that, he returned to us and said: "Well? Have you made your decision?"
We had. We mercenaries and several of the sailors decided to jump overboard. Two of the sailors joined the pirates; only one preferred to be sold as a slave. The pirates untied the turncoat sailors when they had sworn an oath like the one the wizard had sworn. The man who'd chosen slavery was dragged belowdecks. And then it was our turn.
"Who will jump first?" the pirate captain asked. "I've already given you more time than I promised to make up your minds, so you should have said your final prayers by now."
"I'll go," I said, and stood up, unsteady and off-balance with my hands tied. The pirates spread out and gave me room to get to the starboard rail; one of them touched his cap respectfully. I walked to the rail, still dripping blood slowly from the bandage that bound my wrists, and paused.
"If you untie my wrists, I can climb up and jump," I said.
"Someone give him a hand," the pirate captain suggested. Instead of untying my wrists, though, two of the pirates took me by the shoulders and legs and tossed me overboard, a surprising distance from the ship. In the moment before they tossed me, I thought I saw the wizard make some mystic gestures behind the pirate captain's back, not unlike the ones he used to turn brine into brandy. For a moment I hoped he was going to save us; and then I hit the water.
I didn't know how to swim well, and I had gotten some water in my lungs when I first plunged under. My blood was spreading out in the water from my bandaged wrist, and I knew that the sharks would soon gather; I hoped I would drown before they started tearing chunks out of me. But I struggled, knowing it was hopeless but still unable to make myself relax and sink. Thrashing there, I saw Fira climb clumsily over the rail and drop into the water right by the ship. Moments later one of the sailors, Tiram, was tossed by the pirates into the water near me. In his thrashing around, he kicked me in the stomach, and I went down for good.
I'd expelled my breath when he kicked me, and couldn't stop myself from taking in a lungful of water. I sank then, too stunned to struggle against it. I saw above me the sunlight on the water, and the shadow of our ship's hull and the smaller shadow of the pirate ship, and the chaotic ripples around Tiram and Fira where they were trying to stay afloat for a few more moments. As I sank deeper, I saw more splashes as more men jumped or were thrown overboard. Some of them sank right away, some paddled or even swam for a while before their strength was exhausted. The sunlight far above got dimmer and dimmer, and everything around me went black, as I sank deeper. But I didn't lose consciousness; not entirely. For a little while I was surprised that I hadn't drowned yet; then I decided I must have already drowned, but my soul hadn't left my body yet. I'd heard the priests say that the soul stays in or near the body for three days after death, and I figured that must be what was happening to me: I'd be a prisoner in my drowned body until it was devoured by the fish, or until three days had passed, and only then would I go wherever the gods decreed I should go... But I found that I could still move, once I had recovered from the kick in the stomach. I could move my arms and legs, I could feel myself and my clothes with my hands. I felt little ticklings as fish approached and took a nibble at me, and I swatted them away.
I wasn't sure why I wasn't dead, but after an interminable time trying to untie my wrists and finally succeeding, I decided to try to swim toward the surface. I wasn't any better at swimming than before, though, and in that lightless, weightless world I had no idea what direction the surface was in. I paddled aimlessly for a while, and then drifted aimlessly for a while. I grew hungry, and the next time a fish nibbled at me I grabbed for it with both hands. It slipped from my fingers, but after three tries I caught one, and ate a good part of it raw. Something felt strange in my mouth, as I ate, and after I'd finished off the fish and let its bones drift away, I put a finger in and felt around. My teeth were sharper than before, and there seemed to be more of them -- a second row coming in behind the first.
When I realized that, I felt myself all over, head to toe -- pulling off my useless clothes and shoes as I did so. (The cold had ceased to bother me by then.) I found two more strange things. Running along my neck there were narrow grooves, which opened and shut rhythmically. And further down, my penis and testicles seemed to be partly fused into the flesh of my thighs, which were growing together; I couldn't spread my legs, and my crotch was several inches lower than it had been.
I continued to drift in the dark, cursing the pirates and the wizard. I was sure he was responsible for what was happening to me, but I didn't know what he was doing to me -- obviously he'd made it possible for me to breathe underwater, but what were the other changes? You must realize that I had grown up far enough from the sea that I did not hear the sea-tales which children on the coast hear growing up. And the previous times I'd been at sea, on troop-ships, I'd had little to do with the sailors; even on this voyage I'd spent more time with my fellow mercenaries than with the sailors, and had heard only a few of their stories.
So I didn't know what was happening to me. I continued to drift in the dark, feeling myself change slowly into I knew not what. My thighs continued to fuse together and absorb my manly parts until they were a smooth extension of my belly, all the way to what had been my knees, and it didn't stop there. Webbing grew in between my fingers on each hand, and between my upper arms and my sides. My second row of teeth grew in fully as long and sharp as the others.
And the darkness around me grew less silent. I realized I was hearing an almost constant background of distant whistles and rumbles; nearer, I heard or felt the soft rustle of fins as fish and other sea-creatures swam about. With my new webbed hands and arms, I could swim better, and with my new senses, I could perceive fish before they got close to me; I turned hunter, and found I could easily catch enough fish to satisfy my hunger. Soon enough I no longer felt any distaste at the raw fish, and I learned to distinguish different kinds of fish by the rustle of their fins, their feel in my hands, and their taste -- though I had no idea what they looked like.
My legs fused together all the way to my ankles, where my feet remained distinct but turned outward, the toes fusing together or being reabsorbed. It seemed that my lower parts were taking on the shape of a slender dolphin, with a horizontal fluke. By the time my legs had taken on their final form, I was a much better swimmer, and it was about that time that I heard the singing. I swam toward it, and felt a gradual increase in the temperature of the water around me. Something else changed too, though I wasn't sure how to describe it, and I felt that I needed to go slower, that it would be dangerous to go too fast in this direction -- though I still wanted, needed, to reach the source of the song. As I forced myself to pause and drift in the darkness that was already a little less dark, I found that I was singing in response.
How I produced those sounds I don't know. Not by pushing air from my lungs through my mouth, as when I was a man; but how? All I know is that I could and must sing.
"Through the water dark and teeming,
Teeming with the fish so tasty,
I have heard your lovely singing,
And I come to hear you better."
After a short rest, during which an uncomfortable feeling in my lungs and belly had gradually gone away, I resumed swimming toward the song and singer I had heard before. I sang as I went, and I heard other singers far off, gradually drawing nearer.
The light came back -- I had almost forgotten what light and color were. I could begin to put colors to the shapes and sounds of the fish around me. And besides the many small fish, I saw larger shapes as well, swimming toward me or toward the source of the song -- creatures with dolphin's hindquarters and more or less human arms and heads.
Finally I reached the surface and burst through. After a moment of panic, I realized I could breathe the air as well as the water. And other heads and shoulders and arms were bursting from the water all around me. We swam toward one another and circled the first singer, who continued to sing:
"I have called you all together,
Here upon the trackless ocean.
For how long I cannot reckon
I have swum beneath the ocean,
Felt my body slowly changing,
From a man into a siren.
When my lungs first filled with water,
And I thought my life was over,
Then I cursed the sea-marauders,
And the drunken traitor wizard.
Then I found I still was breathing,
Breathing in the deepest water,
Living still, no longer human."
It was a womanly voice, high and clear; it reminded me of my sister, and I thought of the trees I had seen growing in my parents' house. I looked more closely at myself and the others, now that we were above the surface of the sea, bathed in sunlight. I scarcely recognized any of the faces at first, but then I thought I detected in one a sisterly resemblance to Fira, and then, in the singer, the altered but still recognizable features of Tiram. All of us, it seemed, had taken on a feminine appearance; all of us had breasts, too, though mine were among the smallest and it was thus perhaps that I had not noticed them among the other, more radical changes to my body when I was still immersed in darkness. I could not call us women, I did not think we were still human, but we certainly appeared to be female. The singer continued:
"Now I seek my siren vengeance
On the men who would have drowned me,
Who enslaved my friends and brothers,
Who have slain my dearest brother.
Nowhere can they sail to hide them,
Nowhere on the seas escape me,
Nowhere in the lakes and rivers.
Only if they leave the water,
Trek into the driest desert,
Climb into the highest mountains,
Change their trade to mountain-bandit."
The one I had recognized as Fira sang:
"I am eager too for vengeance,
And I seek the death of pirates,
Pirates who have killed our captain,
Pirates who enslaved our shipmates.
Yet I do not understand you:
How do you propose to find them?
How do you propose to slay them?
Now indeed we breathe the water,
Swim more swiftly than the dolphins,
Yet we cannot board their vessel,
Walk the deck or climb the rigging."
Tiram sang in reply:
"I forget you were a landsman,
Soldier from the wars far inland.
Now you are my siren-sister.
Sirens call their prey by singing;
Call them from the shore of islands,
Call them from the decks of vessels,
Bring them leaping to the water,
Diving into deepest water,
Seeking the embrace of sirens,
There to perish, still ecstatic,
Still rejoicing in the singing,
As the siren rends and tears them,
Spills their blood into the water,
Fills their gasping lungs with water."
Another siren, one who had been a sailor I didn't know well, sang:
"Let us wait and watch the heavens,
See the sun go on his journey,
See the stars that come to follow.
Then we'll know the way to travel,
Where to swim to find the pirates.
When the pirates swarmed our vessel,
And we lifted swords to meet them,
Then I killed my two marauders,
But another struck me senseless,
And I sprawled upon the foredeck,
Seeming dead to all who saw me.
When I had regained my senses,
I lay and heard the pirates talking,
Where they'd sail and sell their captives,
In the port of Dakrimandu,
Slave-mart of the eastern islands."
The other sirens who had been sailors thought the plan a good one -- they were confident that by watching the sun and the stars, they could figure out which direction Dakrimandu was in, and that we could swim thither fast enough to overtake the pirate vessel and their prize-ship which had been our home. Fira, Midrun and I didn't understand, but we trusted them to know their way around the ocean; and after we'd swum in circles for a while, watching the sun long enough to see that it was going down the sky and thus it was in the west, we all swam away from the sun, not directly but at a bit of an angle. We swam along just below the surface -- we made better speed underwater, but we needed to be near enough to the surface to see the sun. After the sun set and the stars appeared, we surfaced and the sailors studied the stars. We adjusted our course and increased our pace.
And as we went, we sang. I sang my puzzlement at our new forms, and the sailors sang the stories of the sirens, which I, child of the inland plains, had never heard. All the sirens they had ever heard of were female, though one of them said, perhaps as a joke, that in the antipodes, where the ships are crewed by women and the men stay in port to take care of the babies, the sirens who lure them to jump overboard are male. We sang of the things we had felt and heard in the deep water, of the fish and stranger creatures we had caught and eaten, and then, as the surface above us grew light again, of what we would do after we had our revenge on the pirates.
Nice!
I like how they communicate by singing
Now it's revenge time