Breaking Currents

Copyright © Emmi Lawrence

Edited Dec 28th, 2014: This story has been removed and below is only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available for purchase in January 2015.

It was another four days before Rikel made a conscious decision on whether to see Caarafk again.

While before he’d had throbbing need goading him along, now doubts assaulted his mind every time he thought about trusting Caarafk. Doubts that morphed into thoughts about becoming song sick again, especially after Kula asked whether the song scream’s power was temporary and the honest answer was nothing more than a shrug.

The decision came one morning after a particularly vivid dream. Unlike the ones that had haunted Rikel when he’d been song sick, this one didn’t dissolve into immediate sexual expression. Instead, he walked along an endless sandbar, far out into the Eversea, listening to Caarafk singing softly, but never, ever reaching him. Rikel woke lonely, feeling as if he was letting an opportunity sail past him. When he finally fell back asleep, he dreamed that he went to the north shore and walked the Gamble, only to find it empty and silent. Years had worn away the edges of the rocks, leaving no evidence that Caarafk had once waited for him because the siren had long since moved on. Just like Kula’s siren.

He waited two days, partially to prove to himself that it wasn’t residual song sickness driving his desire and partially so that he wouldn’t be going to the Gamble when he was tired and sore from hard labor. His dreams became just as abstract and strange as they’d been before he’d gone to the Nest, Caarafk never putting in another appearance, even when Rikel woke with morning wood.

The third morning—a full three weeks from the day he’d last seen Caarafk—Rikel woke early, kissed Mother goodbye, promised Wela he would be safe, after she gave him a concerned look, and headed up to the north shore.

This is only an excerpt of Siren Song. For more excerpts you can go to the Excerpts page.

One Last Song

Copyright © Emmi Lawrence

Edited Dec 28th, 2014: This story has been removed and below is only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available for purchase in January 2015.

Later, when Jieve had already fallen asleep and Wela was outside resetting the rodent traps around Mother’s garden, Rikel sat across from Kula, letting the constant movement of her hands drive away the desire to go see Caarafk. She glanced up at him now and then, but mostly kept her gaze on her lap.

“Wela will stop you if you leave,” she said finally. “You might as well go to bed.”

“Are you coming?”

She shrugged.

After another moment, he asked, “How do you do it? How do you sit here day after day and never even go to the water? You don’t go to the docks. You don’t even walk along the cliffs. It’s like you’re not song sick at all.”

Kula’s hands froze for a second. Then she continued without losing her place in the thin ropes. “You find something that is more important. When I was little, Father used to threaten to whip me if I so much as touched the water and I was more scared of him than I desired to find my siren, especially after he told me he’d sell me off to an old farmer from Vaisar a few years later.”

Rikel snorted. “No, he didn’t.”

“Yeah, why do you think we never got along? When I figured out he would never do something like that, I had an awful phase where I would sneak out. At first, I would just go to the cliff and sit there, listening. Then I would go to the Gamble and wait. No one ever came.”

“Gods,” breathed Rikel. “You don’t still do that, do you?”

She shook her head. “Tarok caught me coming home one night. Reamed me until I was crying. The songs don’t have the same effect anymore, mostly because I know I’m not truly wanted.”

“What if your siren had met you there and did still want you?”

She didn’t glance up from her work. “Then I’d probably be dead.”

This is only an excerpt of Siren Song. For more excerpts you can go to the Excerpts page.

Barnacle Tide

Copyright © Emmi Lawrence

Edited Dec 28th, 2014: This story has been removed and below is only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available for purchase in January 2015.

When Mother was gone, Wela turned to Rikel, though she still didn’t look at him, preferring to stare over his shoulder where a neighbor’s cows were meandering downhill. “Your siren started this?”

“No,” said Rikel. He glared at her, gesturing to the sea though only the horizon was visible from this angle. “He saved my life. Saved Narin and the others too. He wasn’t responsible for this.”

“Do you hear yourself, Rikel? You’re making him into some sort of hero. How do you know he wasn’t responsible? How do you know he didn’t organize it all?”

“Because he wasn’t there. I was under the hull when it happened. I was right there and he wasn’t with them.”

“Narin said there was at least two dozen. You’re telling me that in the chaos of that fight you might not have missed him?”

“I wouldn’t have missed him! Others, maybe, but I’d know him anywhere.”

Wela’s jaw tightened. “You’re listening to this, right? We need to get you help before you kill yourself. Or worse, kill another shipful of people.”

Rikel recoiled. “I didn’t do this. I fought them, Wela. It wasn’t until later that Caarafk showed up—”

“He has a name?”

“They all probably have names.”

“But you know his name.”

This is only an excerpt of Siren Song. For more excerpts you can go to the Excerpts page.

 Bright Storm

Copyright © Emmi Lawrence

Edited Dec 28th, 2014: This story has been removed and below is only an excerpt. The entire Siren Song novella will be available for purchase in January 2015.

Wela gave a short laugh. “We thought we were going to find your mangled parts washing up on the north shore, Rikel.” She turned toward him and he had the decency to flinch at the contorted distress on her face. “Don’t do that to us again.” Then she started the long walk back to the house.

The wind gusted and then dipped, low enough Rikel caught the heightened sounds of the sirens’ song and felt an ache tug at his heart. Or maybe his groin. Everything seemed to be directly connected to their song. As if Caarafk had left an echoing layer smeared on the insides of Rikel’s ear canals as a parting gift. An exchange for his hair. Hair that ended up being as useless as his own.

A dull fear pulsed inside Rikel and he spun around. “Wela, wait.”

She paused, twisting just far enough to look at him.

“What if I’m song sick?’

Something flickered across her expression, but it was too dark for Rikel to made out what she must be presuming. Then she shrugged, her dismissal of his fear calming him far more than any platitudes or promises could have. “Then you’ll fight it. Like all good sailors do.”

This is only an excerpt of Siren Song. For more excerpts you can go to the Excerpts page.