Page 2 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
As the ship neared the dock, a mosaic of islands unfolded before me—lush, scattered, and stretching toward the horizon like stepping stones across the ocean. Even in the midst of brewing storms, people wandered the harbor in search of vendors, seeking to spend their coins as if no fear or uncertainties haunted them. I envied it, long enough to wish I could swap lives with the villagers at the pier. How many of them would enjoy hanging from the side of a moving ship after being nearly killed?
Clarity bloomed around me, the world more vivid than ever, as if I’d only just opened my eyes for the first time. I’d seenthe land before—it felt natural in the breeze—but the grogginess in my mind wouldn’tlift. Wouldn’t bring back my memories.
Calmness hugged the islands, far more at ease than the rapids that threatened to pull me back under as I hung from the ship’s hull. Smiles plastered across the land-dweller’s faces along the harbor, and although I clung desperately to the side of the raging ship, even I breathed easier.
“The world out of the depths is spoken as chaos and pure destruction,”I murmured scratchily in confusion, the memory so ingrained in my mind that it didn’t disappear like all the others. As if it were planted there on purpose.
But as I looked beyond at the serenity of the harbor and shops, I did not see that. In fact, only peace overwhelmed me.
Water whipped my face as the vessel rocked against the waves, hair uncomfortably clinging to the skin along my shoulders and biceps, making it difficult to maneuver. A chilled breeze caressed my tail, right before thousands of tingling needles pricked the flesh. It shifted, the muscles moving on their own accord.
“What the—”
I peeked down hesitantly and nearly plunged back into the waves. Legs transformed in place of the battered, scaly appendage. I could hardly believe it. I could hardly believe anything that happened since I woke up thrown to the ocean with no recollection of my prior life. But I didn’t have time to settle into the shock.I needed to climb.
I lifted a leg and dug my new, unfamiliar toes into a divot in the wood, pushing upward, one uncoordinated, clumsy step at a time. The nails at the toe beds tore back as they shoved further into the cracks, but I knew pain and embraced it as if it were a natural occurrence. One hand gripped the ship, the mutilated one reaching out to help but jerked away every time it tried to assist. My elbow instead became a crutch as I threw my aching arm over the hull of the rocking ship and used it for purchase.
That part of my carved-out memory blared warnings of the lurking creatures beneath the waves waiting to pounce, urging me to scale the ship and escape by any means possible. But my fingers barely moved to my will, nerves pinching and searing where the reaper snapped my wrist. Uncertainty cradled my brain, seeping into every crevice and taking hold like an unwanted poison leeching through my blood. Tossed into the sea to die.
No gates of Aetheron. No gates of Aetheron,I begged repeatedly. The god of death accepted no discrimination in his work, but as I neared the railing of the ship, I feared the deity searched for me, waiting in the shadows to purge the soul from my body. Hope accompanied danger, so I forced it deep into a compartment in my mind.
I finally flung myself over the railing, laying flat across the sultry beams. Clouds rolled out above as I gasped for breath. I couldn’t grapple the unfamiliar sensations—the sky, the warm sun against my skin, the legs, even the air that blew across my beaten body like the sweeping currents of the ocean's deep. But somehow, I also welcomed its acquainted pull, like something I'd forgotten I once knew.
What was happening with my mind?
I lifted my arm to inspect the damage of my shattered wrist, barely able to raise the appendage, when a female voice pierced the air far sharper as if the edges of the words crisped, but they weren’t nearly as razor-edged as the blade digging into my chin when I startled.
“You thinking of casting something? Try it onmyship, and I’ll be feeding your fingers to the ocean.”
Under sluggish legs, I scrambled backwards, exhaustion and the excruciating agony racking my body. The blade trailed along with me.
I wouldn’t survive the day. Death wouldn’t come from what crept beneath the waves. It’d come fromabove.
“What are you doing on my ship?” the woman demanded with a snarl, the blade of her sword still aimed at my gasping throat. I looked up into bright jade eyes, momentarily stunned by them, even though they were half-hidden beneath a brimmed hat; however, I questioned my whereabouts even more than the lady ever could. My only intentions were to survive. My only thoughts swirled with the fury of the sea and the murderous creatures that lurked deep within. No way in hell was I going to be forced back in there.
The pirate lady’s beauty entranced me, her skin of deep umber, rich and smooth that contrasted the snug fitting white tunic and leather vest she paired. Sun rays kissed her warm, deep brown skin, including the inky-lined arm that held the sword to my chin. Some innate part of me magnetized to the woman, whispered safety in a world of chaos.
“Final chance, water-girl,” she hissed, advancing with the blade, slicing just enough to promise worse.
Water slammed over the rail behind me like a fist thrown by the sea, pulling the lady’s focus as another Tide Reaper hauled itself aboard, its limbs jerking and twisting in unnatural sync, arms and legs scuttling like a spider’s, wet bones cracking with each grotesque movement. The weapon released from my neck and rammed straight through the throat of the creature. Its limp body hung from the side of the ship like a threat delivered without mercy. Its head rolled to meet my side, mud-colored ooze spraying across my shivering body, sickeningly cold against my skin, the odor rotten like powdered sulfur.
Oh, gods.
Frantically scooting away, my legs fumbled my escape. Only for my back to bump into a solid, icy mass. I slowly turned away, terrified of what or who I rammed into, but it didn’t matter.
Claws tore into my shoulders, saliva splattering across my skin from the Tide Reaper’s ripped mouth at my back, mixingwith the creature’s festering greige along my torso. It pierced its serrated talons into my flesh, breaking the skin beneath my shirt. I couldn’t open the claws, my mangled fingers pulling at the sharp grip. Instead, I shoved forward, ripping my body from its grip, flesh chunks remaining in the creature's pincers, and worked to drag myself away.
My bellow pierced the world, weak yet desperate and confused.
The Tide Reaper’s glassy, tawny eyes bore into me, its malicious grin widening as it approached. Then, they frosted white as a blade from behind shot through its abdomen, the tip stopping inches from my nose. Its rotten scent assaulted my senses as the Tide Reaper’s blood dripped from the sword’s end into my lap. The monster fell lifeless to the deck with a thump when the sword slid grotesquely from its spindly body.
A hooded, male figure squatted before me, wiping the sludge from the blade using the shirt of the Tide Reaper. Black hair tumbled over his pale forehead, shadowing a face caught between memory and horror when he finally realized I was there. He madly lifted his sword again, low-lidded eyes of lingering twilight fixed on his target and ready to attack.
My heart beat against my sternum, hoping that the end of my too-short life of twenty-four years would earn me eternal solitude.
“Don’t kill her,” the pirate lady demanded from behind as if her blade hadn’t just been across my throat, threatening my life. I shuddered at the response. Maybe they’d torture me before my death. The cloaked man hesitated before slowly lowering the weapon, his scrutinizing stare searching my bewildered gaze.
“Why are the Tide Reapers chasing you, water-girl?” the pirate lady pushed again.
