Mistress of the Damned

“Not all of them. But yes, it’s believed that at one time a great number of Dragons were slaughtered here. The Dragons tell the story of the battle to their kin, to keep them away from the Demon Isle.”

“Are the stories true?”

He shrugged. “To some degree, all folklore is true. It just gets exaggerated over the years.”

“What is the other story about the red waters?” I whispered.

He leaned over and brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes. His touch was gentle, and I felt a stir inside me. I didn’t understand why the Siren was suddenly being kind to me, willing to sit there and talk with me. Especially when I sat there covered in my own vomit.

“Well, the Demons tell a very different story about the red waters.”

“The Demons? I didn’t know that there was history there.”

“Come now, Flipp! You don’t know your own history?”

I swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t call it my history.”

His eyes moved to my horns and smirked.

“Tell me,” I said.

“It’s Queen Lilith and her death.”

Queen Lilith was the Demon Queen, and her death had completely rocked the residents of Demon Isle. Many believed that she wasn’t really dead and one day she would be reborn in another. I thought the whole thing was crap, and people couldn’t just accept the fact that the Queen had died. That was one of the reasons why the monsters were happy that the Dragons were terrified to come back. Without their Queen, many monsters were afraid that one day Demon Isle would be overthrown and taken over by the Dragons, Witches, or Fae.

“So, what? People believed the blood in the water is the Queens?”

Azil laughed. “No, Flipp, not at all. The blood in the water is a punishment. Legend has it that the world is angry. That, in a fit of rage over Queen Lilith dying, it’s throwing a fit while it waits for her return. Rage is a powerful feeling, don’t you think?”

He looked deep in my eyes. Yes, I knew rage well, and I had used it often in my own life. Sometimes, I thought that rage was all I felt. Sometimes the only way to survive was to let that rage out. To unleash it on another person, just so that even for a moment you can feel alive again.

I didn’t answer him, and he just smiled.

“The Bay of Blood will remain red until the wrongs have been set right. Until your monsters get their Queen back.”

“And if she never comes back?”

He looked over at me. “Then the Bay will remain red as a reminder of all that has been done wrong in this area.”

I smirked. “So, what’s the real story? The Dragons or Queen Lilith?”

“We may never know. That is, unless Queen Lilith comes back.”

“Yeah, I won’t hold my breath.”

I looked around the ship as the Sirens moved from place to place, making sure they did everything to make the ship run smoothly. My head was pounding from when the mast hit me. I rubbed at my temples.

“You took a good hit. You have to keep your eyes open on a ship. There are a lot of moving parts.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said dryly. “So, what is your story?”

His eyebrow raised once again. “My story?”

“You said that all creatures have legends, you know the legends around here pretty well. So, what’s the legend of the Sirens?”

“Oh dear Flipp, those stories are not for your ears.”

I blanched. “What?”