Lydia the Siren's Arc

Chapter 7 of 37

Lydia held the last note soft in her throat. The armored man climbed toward her pond, and she kept singing. Her eyes stayed low. She let the song say stay. She waited for wind-swept hair and the ocarina at his belt. She waited for the man who slew the dragon. The figure stepped into the dim light. Long silver hair fell past his shoulders. His armor was dented and scarred from old fights. His face gave nothing away. This was not Gregorio. This was some other knight, drawn off the road by a song she never meant for him. The wrong man broke her. Her voice cracked. The note fell dead in the passage. For a heartbeat she only stared, and her careful mask slipped. The knight saw it. Whatever spell had pulled him, it snapped the moment her song stopped. His hand went to his sword. "Siren," he said. His voice was flat and cold. He drew the blade in one clean motion and came at her. Lydia had no more song. She had no time to hide what she was. So she stopped hiding. Her skin split into feathers. Brown and red plumage spread down her arms as they widened into wings. Her legs cracked backward into scaled bird legs, and black talons scraped the stone. Her face sharpened to a beak. The elegant woman was gone. In her place stood a harpy, twice the size of the girl who had leaned over the pond. Her auburn crest bristled high. Mezador's cold face finally moved. His eyes went wide. He swung anyway, quick and hard. Lydia was faster now. She caught the blade between two talons and wrenched it aside. The sword rang off the wall. She screamed, and the sound was nothing like her song. It was raw and it hurt. The knight staggered, hands to his ears. She struck. Her talons closed on his shoulders and lifted him off his feet. His armor was heavy, but her wings beat hard against the cavern air. She carried him out over the black mouth of the pit, the same pit that had swallowed the trader. "Wait," Mezador said. His unreadable face was gone. Now she saw fear. Lydia felt her hunger for the first time in days. Fishing the pond had kept her weak. This was different. This was real prey, drawn to her door by mistake. Her song for Gregorio had brought her a meal instead. It was not the ending she wanted. But she would not waste it. She opened her talons. Mezador fell into the dark. His cry faded, then stopped. Below, water swallowed the sound. Lydia settled at the pit's edge and folded her wings. Her hunger eased at the thought of food. Gregorio was still out there, still unmet. But tonight she would eat, and tomorrow she would sing again, and this time she would keep her voice for the man she truly wanted.