Cora's mission

The cool water slaps my back and I taste salt on my lips. The water stings my eyes, that didn’t used to happen. Part of being human, I suppose. I pull myself off my hands and knees and onto my feet. I lift one to flex it, just see what it can do, but I fall to the ground as soon as my weight shifts to only one leg. I scowl and crawl the rest of the way out of the sea. When I reach the shore, I stand, legs apart, shoulders back, jaw set. Confident, head up. I gaze around, so far not very impressed. Judging by the brochures that drift down to us from here, the humans think Sandy Cove is something special, but it really is not. The whole place is littered with trash and humans. My face tenses in disgust. I can’t wait until I can return to Rainbow Grove, the underwater city that I’m from. Now there is a truly special place. Even after humans have polluted it to the point of bleaching, it’s still beautiful, although not very rainbow anymore.  That being the reason I’m here. I’m Cora, a siren who works for the ocean force. We used to help terre au bord de la mer, singing as enemy ships passed, our words surrounding them and filling their ears and minds like water filling heads until it drives them mad and they dive overboard. Our sisters, the mermaids, tinkered with the equipment they could reach and poked holes in the ships. But then came that night when the moonlight cut through the waters like a blade. We broke the surface, our king and his royal army, me included, of course, to meet with their leader at the border between land and sea. The land leader told us we were doing great at helping him, hoping to distract our anger. He did not succeed. 

“You are causing our waters to rise and our reef to bleach!” our king had roared. “We sink your enemy's ships and drive the men mad. But you continue to throw trash into the sea and watch as the word heats and melts”

“There’s nothing I can do!” The land-leader protested “The whole world is participating in global warming and pollution, I can’t stop other nations”

“There are many things you can do. But still you do nothing” the king replied sadly. 

The land-leader sensed he was losing control of the argument and panicked

“I’m doing all that I can, I-”

“No you are not!” a voice interrupted. Our spy came forward, her red hair billowing in the breeze. 

The land-leader gasped, disbelief splattered across his face “Alana! You were working for them this whole time?” 

A whisper of a sad smile crossed her face “I’m sorry, dear. Not the whole time. But when you turned your back on the sea… You know it’s my home, and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing” Her expression turns cold “I’m not like you”

I should have seen it coming. The land-leader’s jaw set, his face reddened, and flicked his hand at her. Immediately, a spear came flying from one of his guards hands and planted itself in Alana’s chest. He killed his own fiance. I could have done something to stop it. But at the time, all I did was scream. She fell.

But the king stood strong. He glared at the land-leader with a storm in his eyes

“She may have been your fiance, but she is still one of my children, one of the sea maidens. This will mean war”

The land-leader met the kings stormy eyes with his own, full of fire

“You say that, but you will not. The sea will always cower from the land. You will not dare face me”

The fire in his eyes rages and Alana’s blood spreads and swirls through the water. It reaches me and swirls around me like a vine. We retreated.

So we let the land-leader think he has won. We do not contact him for a month and continue sinking his enemies' ships. And then I come in. I take Alana’s place as spy and travel to the castle to gather information for a surprise attack. You’d think he would expect something like this by now, but he doesn’t see many legged mermaids. The one he was to be married to, Alana, never really let go of her culture and wore seashells in her hair and long skirts to remind her of a tail. I will look nothing like that, so he’ll just take me as a regular maiden. And he has a weakness for pretty women.

I tuck my dark, still damp hair over my shoulder and knock on the doors. I run my plan through my head as I wait for the doors to open. 

I put on a Jamaican accent to match my skin tone to make me seem foreign as the doors swing open. 

“Hello?” I ask as I lean towards the opening oak doors

“State your name and business” a guard orders

“Cora,” I respond, seeing no reason not to use my real name, “I’m here to see the leader. I’m with a group of sea-travelers and we got lost. They told me to come here and ask for help”

They exchange glances and open the doors to lead me to the leader. We walk down a hall decorated with artwork, occasionally paintings of mermaids and sirens, wildly unrealistic. 

We reached the throne room and I resisted the urge to gag. The whole place was painted gold, decorated with gold vases, silver frames holding pictures of riches and glory and scantily clad women. The entire place screamed, I’m rich. If you’re not, what are you even doing here? Sitting atop a grand, gold throne, was the leader, looking like a wild cat about to pounce. Next to him on a smaller, silver throne was a petite blonde woman. She looked at us curiously, hoping we would provide some kind of entertainment. One of the guards nudges me. I notice both of them are kneeling, gesturing for me to do the same. I do not. He’s not my king, and so far he hasn’t earned it. I step forward, the leader scowls at me. 

“Sir-”

“Your highness” he cuts me off

“What?”

“I am a king, and you will address me as one”

I grit my teeth. This guy was the kind of king that makes you think: I bet he killed his father to become king. 

“Your highness, I am a mere traveler, me and my group of merchants were traveling past here to get to Reedar to trade, but we got lost. They sent me here to ask for help, we are out of food and supplies. The rest of my group is staying at an inn nearby”

The land-king looks me up and down slowly, “Interesting… Well, you’re welcome to stay the night and tomorrow I’ll send you off with supplies”

I breathe a sigh of relief. I bow my head, “Thank you your highness”

“Of course, sweetie. Now, it’s lunchtime, join us”

I grit my teeth at the ‘sweetie’ but force a smile “Of course, highness”

**************

At lunch, I smiled and didn’t talk much. I was nervous if I said too much I might give myself away. 

“So, Cora!” The king was grinning at me “You’re on a no-carb diet?” 

He nodded at the bread that I hadn’t touched. I wasn’t on a no-carb diet, I just hadn’t had bread before and didn’t care to try it. I open my mouth to respond but he interrupts me

“I must say, it looks like it’s going well for you. Destiny here could use a diet like that!”

He laughs to himself as rage courses through me and Destiny, the woman who sat beside him in the throne room, looks down and pushes her plate away. The man next to her, the king’s father probably, nudges it back to her, insisting that she should eat more and I force a poisonous smile onto my face 

“You’ve found yourself another woman so quickly, highness?” I ask

His smile falters “I was devastated by Alana’s death. But, the kingdom must have a queen! We’ll be married in a few months”

I force another smile “God forbid you rule by yourself”

That night, I’m laying in bed, waiting for everyone to fall asleep so I can do what I came here to do. The castle finally grows draped in silence and I stand up, but before I can leave my room, there’s a knock on my door

I pause, then call out, “Come in!”

It’s the king. 

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” I ask nonchalantly

“I think you should go back to your travel group tonight”

“Why?”

“Well, security reasons, of course I believe that you’re a traveler, but I have no way of knowing-”

“There’s no one here but me, highness” I interrupt him “You can tell the truth”

He meets my eyes “Because I don’t like you. You don’t do what I tell you, you don’t go along with what I say. I don’t like you”

I step towards him.

“Well highness, thank you so much for your honesty. In return, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a traveler. I’m a spy for the mermaids” 

Another step towards him, until I can see the surprise blooming on his face only 12 inches away from mine

“You killed Alana”

One last step, so I can whisper in his ear, “So I am going to kill you”

He lets out a yelp and pushes me away, but I reach out and grab his collar, shove him against the wall and into a headlock.

“W- why?” He gasps “How does this beni- benefit-” He gasps for air “Benefit you?”

I smile, “I’m just following orders, highness. But I’m pretty sure it has something to do with our traditions, you kill one of us, we kill you. Then we leave your country in chaos, scrambling to figure out who should be in charge with no queen and no heir to the throne. In that chaos, and the fact that you no longer have the mermaids on your side, your kingdom loses the war, and falls. We form an alliance with the country you lost to, and maybe they won’t be so stupid and will listen when we tell them our ocean is crumbling” I lean close to him “So maybe read up on your allies customs before betraying them”

The fear in his eyes grows, and grows… Then disappears. I got too close to him while talking. He kicks me in the stomach and I go flying backwards, air flying out of my lungs as I hit the ground. The prince grabs my arm roughly and drags me to the huge window and throws it open. I struggle, but I’m out of breath and in shock 

“Lesson one on humans” He growls “They don’t respond well to assasination attempts”

Then my stomach leaps and my heart nearly bursts out of my chest as he shoves me out the window. Time stops and I scream, an echo of the scream that escaped me the night Alana died. I will not scream and do nothing again. I will not fail. Without really thinking, my hand shoots out and grabs the prince’s. He opens his mouth to yell, but nothing comes out. I nearly explode from the adrenaline from the fight, being pushed out a window, and success. We hit the ground, and every part of me in drenched in pain. My chest aches and I can’t see anything… Except… Small lights in the sky.

“Stars,” I whisper, then cough so hard blood comes out of my mouth. I watch those lights as I know I succeeded, and the sky is so beautiful. 

I gaze up at those stars as the pain grows, the shock wears off, and I die.