Songs of Nendavia

RIVER

River woke up slowly. Her head was thick with the telltale signs of too much to drink the night before. Ugh. Had she gone out drinking with Wade again?

She had the weirdest dreams.

The dive was today.

Wasn’t it?

Fragments of a terrifying man with fins and a bright underwater oasis drifted through her mind and she rolled over.

She could just barely make out the blue-green lights of the clock on her nightstand in the darkness.

Something was off. She squinted blearily across the room, but the numbers didn’t get any clearer.

God, she was uncomfortable.

She tried to stand, but gravity was working against her. She couldn’t get her legs under her.

How much did I drink last night?

She took a deep breath, and it felt all wrong, like she was trying to breathe through a sieve.

Something bumped into her, and she scrambled to sit upright but failed.

No, she bumped into something.

Her breath came faster now, struggling to draw oxygen. What was happening to her?

She heard voices.

Her arms windmilled and she cursed as she grazed her knuckles against stone.

The light was getting brighter.

She looked down and let out a startled cry. She was in her wetsuit. She was floating. Her oxygen tank was missing. She was underwater.

She choked instinctively, but the telltale signs of expelling air were missing.

She was dead. She’d died during the dive, that was the only explanation. Now she was locked in a watery grave, doomed to haunt the shores of the Pacific for all eternity…

A door opened, letting bright light into the room.

She instinctively lunged back; thank god her flippers were still on her feet.

A man she didn’t recognize entered the room. He had a harpoon in one hand.

Scrambling backward through the water, River hit the other side of the small room in a panic. She looked down.

He had a long, green-blue tail, complete with razor-sharp fins.

She managed a squeak of fear as he approached her. He didn’t even speak to her. He simply seized her arm and hauled her out of the room.

She couldn’t help it; a scream bubbled up in her throat and she fought against the thing’s grip.

He turned and scowled at her. “Quiet,” he said in a strange accent.

She whimpered.

“If you want to stay conscious, you’ll be silent. His Royal Highness has ordered your presence upon your waking.”

His Royal Highness...?

Dazed, River let the merman escort her through a confusing labyrinth of hallways.

She tentatively touched her free hand to her lips. She didn’t seem to be drowning, and she couldn’t imagine how that was possible.

She was escorted into a midsized hall of some kind and balked at the sight of the terrifying thing that attacked her in her dreams.

He lounged on a chaise-like throne attended by a variety of nubile women with marine features—seaweed hair and gossamer fins—and adorned with a variety of seashells.

Two other mermen floated menacingly behind the chaise, arms crossed over their broad chests.

If looks could kill, every one of them would have murdered her on the spot.

Her escort bowed deeply. “Your Royal Highness. The...human. As you requested.”

Now that he hadn’t taken her by surprise, River could see clearly where his ebony-black piscine tail met his human waist.

Long black dreadlocks undulated around his head, gilded with beads and glints of metal clasps.

The guard prodded her sharply with the end of his spear. “You will show proper respect for the Sea Prince, human,” he snapped.

River awkwardly bowed forward in the water.

The merman on the chaise lifted a hand. “Leave us,” he commanded.

The mermaids and the guard immediately bowed themselves out. The two other mermen remained.

“Who are you?” River ventured.

“Silence,” the Sea Prince barked at her, and she cowered away from him. “You will speak when spoken to.”

He and the other two mermen behind him observed her for a moment.

“How did you come to be in Nendavia?” the prince asked.

River hesitated, terrified of providing the wrong answer.

“Answer the question,” one of the other mermen said sternly.

“I-I-I’m sorry, I don’t know what Nendavia is…”

“Here. This place, stupid girl,” the third merman snarled.

“I don’t know! I don’t know, I’m sorry.

“I was trying to break a diving record and suddenly he...you...were there and everything was bright, and I could see, but that’s impossible, but somehow I’m here talking to you...underwater…”

She listed sideways. Her vision blurred as the insanity of what she was saying sunk in.

The three mermen conferred for a moment, glancing uncertainly at her.

“She must be lying,” one of the mermen said. He had a tail similar to the first prince, but the black gave way to shimmering red scales.

“Why would I be lying?” River snapped. “I don’t know how the fuck I got here, except that this asshole knocked me over the head with his spear thingy…”

The red-and-black merman surged so quickly into her personal space she didn’t have time to react.

“You, human, need a lesson in respect,” he snarled, raising a hand. River raised her arms to ward off the blow.

“Ath…” the black-finned prince warned from the chaise.

The merman sliced his hand through the water, stopping the blow an inch from River’s face, the velocity enough to send ripples of water rushing against her cheek.

She felt faint as the red-and-black merman retreated back to the dais.

“What is your name, human?” the other merman asked. His scales glinted deep navy and lime green. He seemed…milder than the other two.

“River,” she replied faintly.

The black-tailed prince almost looked amused.

“River?” he asked. She nodded and he sighed deeply. “You really don’t know how you came into Nendavia?”

She shook her head.

The merman frowned. “It has been…centuries since a human knew of the existence of Nendavia.”

“So, I’m not…you know, dreaming? Or dead?”

The navy-blue and lime-green merman snorted. “I’m afraid not. Though it would be preferable to us all if you were. Dreaming, I mean.”

The merman called “Ath” looked like he’d prefer the alternative.

“How am I not dead?” River asked tentatively. “I’m not hooked up to a tank. I should have drowned by now.

“My…breathing isn’t as easy…” She took a deep, strained breath of water as if to accent her point. “But…I can breathe.”

“I granted you the ability to survive here,” the black Sea Prince said.

“As long as you remain inside the borders of Nendavia, you will both be able to breathe and withstand the pressure of these depths.”

“As long as I remain… How long are you going to keep me here?” River asked.

The black merman stroked his beard. “Your knowledge of this place cannot be shared with any other human. Your disappearance in these waters has surely been noted, yes?”

River blinked. “I…suppose so. How long have I been…here?”

“About a day now.”

River swore softly.

The black prince raised an eyebrow at the curse. “And your kind cannot survive without air for more than a few minutes, yes?”

“Not without a tank.”

“Thus your...resurfacing would likely raise questions that would be...difficult for you to answer without revealing our existence here.”

“I mean, maybe…”

“Therein lies the problem,” the black prince replied. “As much as I am...loath to have you remain in our kingdom...I do not think we can let you leave.”

River stared at him. “You’re not...going to let me leave?”

He met her gaze steadily. “No.”

She gaped at him and then swore again.

“You will be a...guest,” the black prince said, earning dark looks from his fellow mermen. “We will arrange for you to have...appropriate accommodations. You will be fed, and clothed, if you wish.”

“If I wish...?”

The prince ignored her. “You will remain in the palace, with an escort. Until we...get to know you better.”

“So, a ‘guest,’” River made air quotes with her fingers. “That’s a fancy word for ‘prisoner,’ yeah? You could have let me turn around and go.

“I would have chalked it up to the bends, a hallucination, but instead, you attack me, bring me here, trap me with your sea-breathing bullshit, and then treat me like ~I’m~ the bad guy?”

The prince observed her for a moment. “We do not trust humans. Even female ones.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” River snapped.

“You are...unlike other females I have encountered.”

“Oh? What other ‘females’? You mean the mermaids fawning all over you as I was dragged in here?”

The three mermen stiffened.

“They are not, as you say, ‘mermaids,’” the dark-navy and lime-green merman said crisply. “They are sea nymphs, beneath the class of what you call ‘mermaids.’”

River frowned. “So, women are considered a lower class here?”

“We do not have women here,” the black prince snapped.

“Oh, so only mermen are important, then?”

“We do not recognize that term,” Ath said sharply. “And you would be wise not to use it again.”

“What do I call you then?” River asked snidely.

“We are the Nereidri,” the black prince said flatly. “The terms you used so...cavalierly were coined by your kind.

“We are not men. Or maids. Athanasius is correct. You would be wise to avoid those terms in the future.”

River glowered at him. “So, should I just call you all Mr. Nereidri, or…”

The black prince exchanged irritated glances with his comrades and then looked back at River. His tail fins twitched in agitation.

“This is Prince Athanasius, firstborn son of the Sea King,” he said, referring to the hotheaded red-and-black Nereidri.

“Prince Zaccai, second born of the Sea King,” he gestured to his navy-and-green brother.

The black Sea Prince caught and held River’s gaze with dark, inscrutable eyes. “And I am Prince Endymion, seventh son of the Sea King. On behalf of the royal family, welcome to Nendavia.”