She grabbed her throat and tried to Sing. Vandar could hear again now, and he could see she could breathe normally, but the only sound she could make was a hoarse croak. The Prince looked in triumph at the now vastly less harmful woman. Vandar cleared his throat and told the Siren. “I think you’ll have to find another line of work now. If you’ll behave, I may come back in a few summers and remove that Spell.” The Prince derived a lot of satisfaction from delivering the short speech.
The silent siren clutched frantically at him; she was trying to plead with him, but he couldn’t hear a thing. The Prince regathered his supplies and walked out of the cavern area onto the beach. He saw he was on a rocky island surrounded by the beautiful blue sea. The rocky shore of the island was heavily strewn with the wreckage of many ships. He had no idea of how far the island was from the Castle, or of how long he had been there. The stubble of youthful beard he had grown showed he might have been unconscious for as long as a couple of sun cycles. The one thing he was very sure of was that he wasn’t going to risk allowing the Siren from under his Spell to ask her.
He also had a suspicion her shock at seeing him use Magic was the only reason he had physically been able to hold against her attack. After a short exploration, he found an intact dory that must have belonged to a fisherman who had become the Siren’s victim. Vandar could not remember the Siren having fed him anything since his capture. He felt as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks. He checked the small kegs he’d brought out of the cave. One contained fresh water and the other a sour wine. He poured a measure of each into a flagon, and drank deeply.
Feeling greatly refreshed by the diluted wine, he looked through a box he had brought from the cave and found some dried meat. Vandar reflected that though the meat looked like the hard tack sailors used on long voyages, he didn’t know enough about the Siren’s eating habits, or her methods of disposal of her victims, to eat any meat from her larder. He returned the meat to the box then he scavenged along the shoreline. His warrior training had included many hard-earned lessons on living off the land. Vandar watched closely for bubbles and he soon found a place to dig for clams. He dug with his dagger until he had thrown a couple of dozen clams up on the sand, then he sat and started opening them. The raw clams were succulent and delicious.
Vandar felt a hunger for the salt in them he knew was caused by his loss of blood. After he drank another flagon of the watered wine he felt almost human again. Vandar sat on a smooth rock in the shallows and cupped a handful of the clear seawater and began to cleanse his wound, the warm, salty water was very soothing. By the time he had throughly cleaned the bloody, half-healed wound, the combination of his weakness and his full stomach were inducing him to sleep. He went back to the protection of the cave and carefully bound the silently groveling and pitifully pleading Siren to ensure she didn’t cut his throat while he slept. Then he lay down for some much-needed rest. The last thing he did was to think of his family and of the terrible pain they must be going through.
VANDAR IN CHARGE When the Prince awoke it was nearly dark; he lay silently alert until he remembered where he was. He looked over at the Siren and was gratified to see she was still securely bound. He had tied her hands over her head to a handy spar. The nude Siren made an intensely erotic picture of enslaved and defenseless vulnerability and femininity. She writhed her body around; she was silently offering him the erotic pleasure his swiftly healing young body hungered for. The treacherous thought came into his head that if he yielded and gave the Siren what she was literally begging him for, no one else need ever know. Instead, he got up and threw a blanket over her.
The Prince was well rested now and he decided to try the Magical healing again. He lay back and visualized his wound as it had looked when he cleansed it on the beach. Then he thought the healing thoughts that had worked for him the last time. The constant ache he had been feeling in the wound disappeared as he again felt the Power surge up from the earth and through him. When he looked again the wound was much improved. This seemed to be as good a time as most to escape from the island. It was imperative he return to the Summer Castle as quickly as possible.
He knew word of the attack and his disappearance would have been sent at once to his Parents and Linden. Vandar couldn’t bear to think how terribly his loved ones must have been suffering because of his disappearance. The Prince had decided to escape at night because he knew nothing of the forces that had attacked him, or their present location. The only two things he did know for certain about them were that they wanted to kill him badly and they’d cursed well almost succeeded! He surely wasn’t going to advertise his survival by sailing to the coast in broad daylight. He gathered a few more items he felt he might use, along with some dried biscuits and cheese he found packed in the stores from the wrecked ships. He then released the Siren.
She again began to silently beg him to release her from the Spell, but he had hardened his heart to withstand her. He had known from Childhood that as Royalty he would someday be responsible for dispensing justice. Although the Siren had saved his life, she had not done so for altruistic reasons, but only to put him under her own erotic Spell. He had never heard of any man who had survived that. He felt his leaving the Siren marooned and voiceless on the island was a fitting punishment for her many crimes. Vandar had loaded his equipment and arms in the dory when he began reconsidering his decision. Sir Gannon had trained him to use any and every available weapon in a fight.
He was only an inexperienced warrior and fledgling Wizard against unknown odds and the Siren had some awesome Mystical Powers over men, as the many stark ship wrecks around her island stood mute testimony to. She might be useful as a powerful weapon in intelligent hands. Vandar went over this decision in his mind to make certain it wasn’t some diabolical mental Power of her’s that was coercing him to make it. He went over and over it, and his reasoning still seemed to be logical, so he returned to the cave to try to work out a treaty with the Siren. He first sat her down and covered her infinitely desirable body with a blanket so he could concentrate. He then spoke reasonably to her. ” I don’t know your name so, for now, I’ll simply call you Siren.
I want to explain to you I am the only one who can release your voice from the prison I have built for it, so it is to your advantage to see no harm comes to me. Do you understand and agree with me?” She nodded her head in reluctant agreement. At the slight movement, the blanket slipped down to expose her large breasts. He pulled it back up to conceal her. “The men you rescued me from tried to kill me and would have succeeded, but for you. For that much I am grateful, but as to what you did to me…” The Prince’s voice faltered as he blushed in remembrance.