"You can feel joy!" the seventh uttered.
I didn't say anything. I curled in a fetal position by the edge of the raft, caught between my fear of water and Angel's sorrow. I could see him from the corner of my eye, punching himself. He had pulled a large fish's spine from the sea, and hit himself with its sharpened sides constantly. It was insane. I think he did it to put the beast inside him to sleep, to stop himself from biting the prophecy girl and ending all hope for good defeating evil in this world.
I closed my eyes, shivering to a cold breeze.
"Why are you doing this?" Sirenia began. "There is no good and evil in this world. There is no such thing. It's only sides you take, decisions you make. And you apparently don't need to be on this side." The damn siren snickered, pointing at the raft. She began playing the tune again.
"Stop it!" Angel screamed from the other side.
"What is this music?" I asked, hoping I could pull any helpful information from the siren. "Why can't I remember it?"
"So you never have immunity to it," Sirenia said, finally answering one of the mysteries. "If you can remember its tune, you will be able to re-sing it, maybe change it a little so it doesn't have the same effect on you. If you listen to it too long, you'll grow bored with it. How can it affect you and Angel then?"
"Also," another siren offered, "so you can never play it on us and hurt us!"
"Shhh!" Sirenia turned back and slashed the siren across her beautiful face. She seemed to have spilled a secret Sirenia didn't want me to know. If only I knew how to play this tune, I could get rid of the sirens. But why weren't they hurt by it when singing it? I assumed the tune never hurt the singer, only the listener.
Sirenia turned back to me, faking that motherly face, as if she cared for me. "If you let Angel bite you, all of this will end. Both of you will be vampires and this tune will never hurt you, because vampires can memorize it."
"I'm not going to let him bite me!" I screamed. A feeble scream, actually. A hollow whistle, weakened by hunger, stress, and hopelessness.
Angel ached.
"Don't provoke him." Sirenia giggled. "Anyway"—she waved her hands at her sides with her palms upward—"that's why the nameless witch is a better solution. She will give you all you want."
"If you so want me to go meet your witch, why don't you just come and get me?" I roared this time, with all the breath left in my lungs.
"They can't," Angel said, standing up, barely steady. He was trying to avoid my gaze. My sight must have provoked his thirst. He looked like an older Angel, millions of years older. His hair was actually graying. "They lose their powers out of the sea. Getting them upon this raft kills them." He had his fists clenched. "If only I had the strength to pull them up."
Although Angel was in his darkest hour, the sirens paddled back a little. I wished I could pull them nearer. But how?
"Well, he is right." Sirenia acted indifferent, checking her fingernails. "That's why we have you trapped on the raft. You can't pull us up, but neither can you survive on the raft before hurting each other."
***
On the sixth day, I lay on my back. I couldn't feel my hands, and my mouth was dry. I had drunk from the whale's salty water, but it didn't help. If Angel attacked me, there was nothing I could do. I couldn't even see clearly.
Where was he? Was he that curled-up bump at the side of the raft?
"I believe in you, Angel," I said slowly, each syllable feeling like a load on my shoulder.
He didn't reply, but I could hear his faint whimpering. Punishing himself must have tired him, which was good. He shouldn't have the strength to even cross over to bite me.
"Tell me more about the song," I panted, testing if the sirens were still there, as everything seemed blurry before my eyes.
"It was created long ago," Sirenia said, as if telling me a bedtime story. "Once upon a time, a Man with a Flute was deceived by men who claimed they knew the word of God."
"The Piper," I said.
"So you know the story of how all of this began," she said. "The Piper made this music to serve all his needs. We only know a little of it, and few people can play it on the Singing Bones, for there are even fewer Singing Bones scattered across the world."
"Like the one with Captain Ahab?"
"Yes, like that one," Sirenia said. "Don't ask me how he found it. Ahab is a fool. He wants to find the Tower of Tales."
"No," I protested. "He said he wants to find a whale. He said he had no interest in the Tower of Tales."
Sirenia laughed, mocking my naivety. "Everyone wants to find the Tower of Tales because everyone wants to find the Promised Land, where man can live forever and in peace without being hunted by his past. Isn't that why you want to meet Lady Shallot?"
"I'm sure Captain Ahab told me he was looking for a whale."
"What do you care, Majesty?" Sirenia said. "Soon you will need to make a decision. Soon, My Queen."
"Stop calling me your queen."