Sound of Sirens by Jen Minkman (new reading txt) 📖

think I’ll live to see the day I strike terror into anyone’s heart.

My eyes widen when I see dots on the horizon. The Skylger fleet – it’s back! Relief floods my body. As much as I love my big brother being part of our marines, I’m always afraid something will happen to him. No amount of exotic presents will make up for missing Sytse.

I get up and make my way to the waterfront. Very soon, a multitude of Skylgers outnumbering the Currents has gathered around me on the quay, and I feel safe once more. I blend into the crowd, becoming invisible.

Not to my brother, though. As soon as the largest ship docks, he makes his way off the gangway while fixing me with a large grin on his face. His hazel eyes sparkle and his blond hair shines in the sunlight. He’s clutching a big, burlap sack in his hand. Filled with gifts for Dad and me, no doubt.

I push my way through the throng and end up hugging my brother for a longer time than I planned.

“How have you been?” he says, breaking our embrace at last and holding me at arm’s length to take a good look at me. “You’ve lost some weight. Have you suffered from the Sadness again?”

“I’m all right,” I brush off his concern. “They can call me all they want, but the Nixen won’t get me. I belong on the land.”

If I say it out loud often enough, it’ll be true.

“Well, I brought something to cheer you up anyway,” Sytse continues, opening his bag so I can sneak a peek inside. My heart trips when I spot at least five new records. “Here, why don’t you hold on to these things for now? I have to help the crew. There’s lots of unloading to do, and I bet those Currents hovering around the harbor want to inspect the goods as soon as they can.” He winks.

I grin. “I won’t unpack this until we get home,” I promise.

“Good girl,” Sytse says with a sunny smile. “But I want to show you one thing now. I brought it especially for you. Here, wait.” He snatches the sack from my hands again and digs up a flat, square cardboard sleeve with a picture on it. A Long Play record?

“These women sing like the Nixen,” Sytse tells me. “The lead singer’s name is Jyoti. You’ll love her music. She plays the piano like she’s putting a spell on the keys, and her partner Maya plays the cello. Unbelievably beautiful. I heard these songs outside a brown café near the Krummhorn harbor and I knew I had to get this for you.”

The two red-haired women depicted on the front chasing a fiery bird stare at the animal with wide, slightly slanted eyes. They look mesmerizing; almost witch-like. I’m intrigued, but Sytse’s gift makes me painfully aware of the things we can never have.

“How will I ever listen to this?” I say, sounding disheartened.

“We’ll figure out a way,” he replies, resting his hand on my shoulder. “Who knows, you might win a day’s supply of electricity this year during Oorol. Don’t give up hope.”

I shoot him a small smile before he rushes off. Sytse is a dreamer. No one in our family has ever won the day’s supply of Current power, and if I did, I wouldn’t waste it on listening to this Jyoti woman. I know what I’d do if I ever won – I’d get someone to drive us around the island in a Current car for the entire day. Ever since the illness took his strength away, Dad hasn’t left Kinnum because he can’t walk very far. And I know he longs to see the salt marshes in the east once more. The wild dunes and the unblemished sands of Osterend where he grew up. He wants to listen to the quiet birdsong in the woods of Hornsebos. He deserves to go there at least one more time, but he can’t sit on the baggage rack of my bike for very long because of the pain in his joints, so I can’t take him. I go to these places on the weekend and take photos with his camera sometimes so I can show him what it looks like, but the resulting black-and-white pictures don’t truly convey the beauty of Eastern Skylge.

“Hey, you!” Dani suddenly pops up next to me. “Left without me? I will never forgive you. Never.” She pulls a mock-insulted face and I start to giggle.

“Of course you will,” I object. “Because you love me.”

“Don’t be so sure.” Dani cranes her neck to look at the crates the sailors are now carrying onto the jetty. “Ooh, I wonder what’s in there. Did Sytse mention any shellac records, besides the ones he’s kept aside for you?”

I shake my head. “You should go take a look. You can listen to mine, of course. But I know you like Victor Silvester the best.”

“True, true.” My friend flashes a smile at me. “Will you be okay on your own?”

“Sure. I’ll just wait for you and Sytse to finish so we can all go home together.”

As Dani skips off to check out what our sailors have brought in from Fryslan, Grins, and Nethersaxony, the wind picks up, making me shiver all of a sudden. The sound of the waves rushes in, carrying wistful voices filled with longing and hunger. The Nixen – or the Sirens, as the Currents call them – are never really quiet. I can always hear them, just like my mother.

I close my eyes and wait until the feeling goes away. The only thing that goes away, though, is the sun hitting my cheeks. When I open my eyes again to see who’s casting a shadow across my face, I am staring into two piercing eyes that are blue like the cloudless skies.

4.

It’s Royce.

What the heck is he doing here? I blink up at him in confusion. Am I in his way? Has he mistaken me for someone else?

“Hi,” he says, his deep voice melodic like his music.

Why is he talking to me?

“Hello,” I reply stiffly. “Ehm... can I help you with something?”

“Actually, yes.” He smiles, and I hate myself for staring at him. He’s gorgeous, in an old, Frisian-god-kind-of-way. “I always come here to pick up the latest music from the mainland, and I think one of the LPs I’ve been waiting for has accidentally ended up with that sailor’s record haul.”

I follow his gaze when he stares pointedly at my hand still clutching the useless LP.

“You – but this is mine,” I say. “Sytse got it for me. As a special gift.”

“Ah.” The worried frown I spotted before creases his forehead again. “Well – okay. That’s unfortunate.”

“What’s so unfortunate about getting a present?” I snip.

Royce stares at me for a second and then laughs, his eyes lighting up. “Nothing. I’m happy your boyfriend is bringing you gifts, of course.”

“My brother,” I mumble, blushing when I realize I feel the need to point that out, somehow.

“Fine. Your brother. I mean it’s unfortunate for me. Since that is the only copy the ships seem to have brought in.”

Royce looks at me expectantly, as though I should fall down to my knees and prostate while offering him the much-coveted LP. I narrow my eyes at him and stubbornly cross my arms.

“So...” he continues when I don’t say anything back. “How much do you want for it?” His hand drifts down to his back pocket, probably to whip out his fat, loaded wallet.

I gasp. The arrogance – the sheer impudence of presuming everything is for sale, even gifts meant for others. I take a step back and glare at him. “I don’t want anything for it. I intend to keep it myself.”

I know it’s ridiculous, and I know he knows that. I will never listen to this LP in my lifetime. The best thing to do is to make him pay through the nose for it and do something awesome with all his cash. But I don’t feel like being reasonable. I want him to feel like me for once. Like a have-not.

Royce blinks in surprise. “Why?”

“Because Sytse picked it out for me especially,” I say. “He said it was the most beautiful music he’d ever heard and I would love it too. He knows my taste in music. Besides, why would I sell a gift? That’s really ungrateful.”

The dark-haired Current boy bites his lip, seemingly to stop himself from smiling. “Well, you have a point there,” he admits. “But you can’t listen to it. Unless you have a secret LP player stashed away somewhere.” His eyes bore into mine as though he’s expecting me to actually confess to something like that.

“I don’t.” I roll my eyes. “And if I did I wouldn’t tell you.”

Royce chuckles. “Well. This looks like a stalemate to me. I want to listen to the LP, but I can’t because you have it. You want to listen to the record, but you can’t because you have no equipment. That’s pretty messed up. Now nobody gets to enjoy it.”

“I’m not selling it,” I repeat, staring him down with as much courage as I can muster. I don’t know what he’ll do. Maybe he will call his lackeys to have me mugged on my way home. Maybe he’ll do it himself, even. He looks really strong. I never really noticed how muscular he actually is.

Royce doesn’t look away. He seems to be contemplating something. When he finally speaks, he says something I don’t understand at all.

“You know the abandoned village of Stortum?”

Everyone does. It’s a settlement north-west of Kinnum, destroyed by a storm surge in the time of my grandparents. It was never built back up again.

I nod. “I do. Why?”

“Because my grandparents used to own a cottage there. On the High Land.”

“And?”

“And now it’s mine. I repaired it and use it as a sort of retreat. There’s an electric piano there so I can practice without being disturbed by people. I – need to clear my head sometimes, and Brandaris is just too crowded for that.”

“Sounds great,” I say a bit sullenly, but my words are sincere. Royce sounds like he doesn’t enjoy the Current lifestyle all that much. I understand why he would want to seek solitude.

“Meet me there,” he continues, lowering his voice. “But don’t let anybody see you.”

“Uhm – why?” I ask, sarcasm lacing my voice. “Why would I want to sneak away to your little love nest slash music studio?”

“Sshh,” Royce urges me, looking around him furtively. Then, he shoots me an incredulous look. “You got the wrong idea. Trust me, my intentions are honorable.” An amused glint in his eyes makes me blush again. Of course his intentions are honorable. No Current would touch a Skylger girl like me with a ten-foot pole. I don’t even know why that comment about his ‘love nest’ slipped out. Somehow, his musical retreat center morphed into something quite different in my perverted mind. Maybe because of the way he asked me to meet him there. I could kick myself.

“So what are your intentions?”

He inches closer and whispers: “I have an electronic turntable there. So we can both listen