Sea Food

Sea Food

 by Marie-Therese Knepper

Beautiful Hespera, you never fail, Edouard smiled to himself as he watched the first of The Kraken's tentacles slowly emerge from the moonlit ocean. Content in the knowledge that the crew, captain included, were still knocked out from the effects of the Sea Hag's special potion he'd slipped into the ship's rum supply, Edouard lowered himself over the starboard side and into the dinghy he had secured only a short while ago. 

As Edouard rowed safely away from the soon to be sinking vessel, his thoughts once again turned to his siren. Hespera - his savior, friend, and - dare he think it - lover; of sorts. 

She came to him on what he had planned to be his last night on this earth. Only 15, he'd been shanghaied by the vicious Captain Blood. Born a deaf mute, Edouard had been an easy target for abuse. His torment began at the hands of the parish priest who ran Port Royal's orphanage. Longing for freedom, Edouard jumped at the first opportunity for escape. Little did he know that the caretaker who secured his release from the orphanage was secretly in league with Captain Blood. Sold into slavery aboard The Night Princess, Edouard had nothing left to live for. So when The Princess's crew took safe harbor in Tortuga, Edouard planned his final escape. 

Walking the imaginary plank to his sad life's eternal rest, he heard his first sound. Having no other sound to compare, Edouard was overcome with emotion. He heard her before he saw her. Hespera. The maid of sea legend. Edouard grasped her outstretched hands, and was jettisoned into a hope-filled sea. Here, Edouard could hear and understand. Here he was home. Here he was reborn: a man with a plan. Here he had a family, all of whom suffered abuse in one form or another from the blackhearts who roamed the Seven Seas. Here, he and his kin plotted their revenge.

And now, only a fortnight from their plotting, Edouard stopped rowing when he caught a glimpse of his lover's scales shimmering in the moon's light. Once again grasping her outstretched hand, Edouard relished the sight of The Kraken's tentacles ravaging the unsecured bow of The Night Princess. The green flash is nothing compared to this, Edouard sang in triumph, as the giant's death hold brought The Princess plummeting to her sure demise. As the last of the stern slipped under the roiling waves, Edouard and Hespera languished in The Night Princess's death rattle echoing through the murky waters.

(To be continued...)