The sailboat held course, like it had for the last few weeks. Nothing would hinder it from reaching its destination. Not even Siren's Island, a place known for harboring the mythical creatures – half bird, half woman – born to lure men to their death. The few who had escaped them through sheer dumb luck, most of them because they fortunately had a lady unaffected by the foreign magic on board, all told different stories about the sirens' songs. Some said they had heard their wives call for them, a meager handful asserted that it had been the seductive melody of the finest whores clambering for their attention, and others swore, come hell or high water, they had heard people crying for them as if they knew them as heroes and not the lowly fishermen they were.
Therefore, Jaime sucked in a breath when the island's cliffs came into view, with no chance to skirt around them without losing precious time. He gripped the railing and made a mental tally of the things he always hoped for, to steel himself for the moment the sirens would use his deepest wish to ensnare him.
He was prepared for Cersei telling him in dulcet tones how she loved him, for Tommen and Myrcella calling him father, for a thousand strange voices cheering for Ser Jaime the Just.
"Jaime…"
Ripped out of his musings, he turned to his only companion on the ship. "Yes?" he asked Brienne, who stared at him with troubled eyes. The cuts on her face from their latest run-in with others searching for the Stark girls still hadn't healed over completely.
She just blinked at him, uncomprehending.
"Jaime…" he heard her sighing again.
Yet, her lips never parted.
He whirled around again. The surface of Siren's Island was deceivingly green and lush with flora, and evermore trying to bewitch him.
"Jaime…" the words rode on the wind. "My knight, my friend," Brienne's voice beckoned, "my love."
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
When Brienne's callused and warm fingers folded around his shoulder and he caught her voice, concerned and close to his ear, asking, "What do you hear?" he just laid his hand over hers and squeezed. Turning his head to smile at his worried wench, Jaime whispered, "That we have nothing to fear. Reality is more tempting than their song."