Chapter 16
“Hylos told me what happened last night with the Kelpie,” Nixie said, her large, mauve eyes watching me carefully.
Did Hylos also tell her what the monstrosity called me? The voice still lingered, a ghostly echo in my mind. Lost princess.
We wound up the library stairs, the glass steps radiant in the morning light that stretched through the green-blue sea.
A sunny day likely shined above, the air still touched with cold from the winter sweeping off my father’s land, and not a cloud in the sky blocking the sun that beamed so brightly that it had found me, even at these depths.
I could almost feel that sunshine on my skin. Smell the snow in the distance. How I longed for home.
“Nasty creatures,” Nixie continued, despite my lack of response. “They come from the Midnight Realm. Born in pure darkness. I think that’s what makes them evil. A lack of light and beauty.”
We reached the top of the stairs, and I saw the captain standing in the center of the library next to Raylik and the broken virginal.
Raylik’s webbed hand firmly grasped the captain’s shoulder, and the captain’s face flashed with recognition steeped in ire.
As though I was not his ally but his enemy.
His captain’s coat was gone. He wore only a white undershirt stained with salt water and sweat, unbuttoned to reveal the hard lines of his chest. Those honey-gold eyes that had once glowed with warmth over our blissful dinner had now dimmed, tempered and cool.
It was one thing for the sirens to imprison me; I knew cages. But the captain had only ever been bound by the horizon of the sea. It made my blood boil to know they had trapped him below it. The man had no business being confined.
Raylik shoved him in my direction, and I lunged across the room to support him. The weight of his heavy frame was staggering. The captain steadied his balance.
I gathered his restrained hands in my grasp.
His eyes flared at my touch and he ripped away with a scowl.
“Why is he bound?” I demanded. A gash ran along his jawline. My hands longed to trace over it gently, to assess the damage. But this time, I kept them firmly at my sides.
“To protect you,” Raylik said.
“Why do I need to be protected from him?”
“You are a guest here,” Raylik grumbled.
“I am as much a prisoner as this man. Shall you chain me next?” I snapped.
Nixie frowned. “Sirens are wary of terra men. These restraints were mostly for show as we walked through the castle.”
“Calypstra saw in his mind that he locked you away on his ship,” Raylik added.
“Who did what to my mind?” Arlo exclaimed.
A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of Calypstra, that snake, even nearby the captain. Sinking her fangs into his thoughts.
“He was told to keep me confined in that manner,” I said. “That was not his choice. Unshackle him.”
“There is always a choice,” Raylik argued.
I turned to Nixie. “Please.”
Nixie nodded to Raylik, who grunted disapprovingly but obliged her silent request.
He brushed a hand over the chains, a deep sound pounding rhythmically, and water shimmered from his palm. With a click, they unlocked and clattered to the marble floor.
The captain watched us warily, like a fox cornered by hunting dogs, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tried to breathe through the fear. My heart panged at that look. The brave, stalwart captain was afraid.
“And may we have some food and drink as well?” I asked Nixie, unwilling to try Raylik again.
“Of course.” She nodded and turned to leave, but Raylik stood sternly, arms crossed.
“Raylik, will you please assist me?” she called from the staircase.
He was reluctant, scrutinizing the captain, who stared back boldly, ready to fight. They were the same in height but Raylik was broader and I knew his strength was unnatural.
I sent a prayer to all four Guardians that Arlo would remain calm. Otherwise they might not allow him to visit me alone.
“Try anything stupid and I’ll drag you to the bottom of the sea and watch as the fish eat your meat, human,” Raylik said, then shouldered past him, sending the captain stumbling.
Then the pair disappeared down the stairs.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Where the fuck am I?” he said, rubbing at his wrists. His breath was slowing, but he scanned every corner of the library, no doubt searching for an exit.
I pointed up at the glass dome that topped the library, to the expanse of sea above, as a large fish swept by.
He looked up with me.
“A castle … under the sea.” It sounded utterly mad.
He grimaced. “But how?” No panic touched a single syllable, even though his eyes remained wide and searching. He was trying with all his might to remain calm.
“I have no Guardians-damned idea how.” I’d never even heard of such things, castles at the bottom of the ocean. Yet here we stood.
He narrowed his gaze at me. “Are you one of those monsters?”
“We were both on the same ship together, do you not remember?” Had he been injured in the shipwreck? Hit his head? Had he forgotten the time we spent together? I ignored the fact that the thought wounded my feelings.
“A beautiful maiden who charms a captain and his crew, then sirens are summoned. It sounds like something straight out of a holy prayer. You could have called them to our ship,” he said, his brow knitting.
“So, you think I’m beautiful and charming?” I said with a smirk, reaching for the banter we’d shared on the ship.
He scoffed and shook his head in disgust. Ouch. Then he turned to inspect the library.
Maybe it wasn’t the time for jokes.
He was reaching with his accusations. Which was understandable. How could anyone reason in this situation at all? But how did he conclude that the king’s only daughter was a siren?
Then I realized. “You truly do not know who I am, do you?”
“No, I told you before I didn’t,” he said tersely, still eyeing the room.
“Do you make a habit of trafficking unknown women on your ship, captain?” I crossed my arms before me. Flames sparked in my belly. He had the audacity to hold me captive and bring me across the sea, and he didn’t even know why.
“No, I don’t. It’s bad luck to bring women aboard, but it was a favor to Cedric.”
Cedric? He said the name with familiarity, and without the appropriate title. He knew my betrothed. But why did Cedric pay for my passage and not my father? And why did he insist on me being locked away?
“He also paid me ridiculously well. But now we’re in this mess.” He waved his hands above to the water-crested dome.
“Glad you were fucking compensated for my imprisonment,” I said back snarkily.
He let out a bitter laugh. “Well, at least I know it’s the same supposed lady from my ship with that language. That foul mouth of yours will get you into trouble one day, you know.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “More trouble than being at the bottom of the ocean imprisoned by mythical beasts?”
“Imprisoned? Only one of us is being paraded about in shackles,” he said, watching me closely.
Those damn strong features sharpened with deadly precision.
I tried to ignore what it did to me, even in disdain.
“You’re dressed pretty in their clothes and throwing orders about.
You’re no prisoner at all. The question is why? ”
“Beautiful, charming, and dressed prettily. Careful, Captain, if you keep complimenting me I may just fall in love.” I lolled my head to the side and gave a toothy smile.
He rolled his honey-colored eyes. “Well then, who are you?”
How would he react to meeting the king’s daughter below the sea? Or, what if this was all a trick? The sirens might have lulled him, or whatever, into compliance to ask me such questions.
Hylos had promised me time to tell him my true identity, but could I really trust him? He was my captor and an enemy to my father, and therefore an enemy to me. What if instead of waiting, he’d used a handsome, familiar face along with the virginal to butter me up, all to learn who I truly was?
I stepped to the virginal and grazed the keys, wishing they would sing back to me.
“What do you know about this instrument?” I asked.
How in Infernum did a captain of a ship have any idea how to repair such an instrument, anyway? It had to be a ploy.
“I asked you a question first,” the captain said firmly.
“And I’m ignoring your question,” I answered, then crossed my arms. “Look, if you can’t help me, I can just tell Raylik—you know, the enormous one who’s awfully ill-tempered—that there’s no need for your assistance after all.
He can just send you back to—where were they holding you again? ” I leaned on the virginal.
His hazel eyes blazed when Nixie appeared at the top of the stairs, right on time with my threat, a platter of food in her finned, pink hands, its savory scent filling the room.
“I’ve brought you both some cooked fish and bread.” Her cheery, singsong voice belled through the library.
“Well actually, Nixie, I don’t think we’ll be needing any food after all,” I said, watching the captain.
“My father was a luthier,” the captain blurted out. “I assisted him as a boy.”
Nixie’s gaze flitted between us. “Yes, that’s what Calypstra saw in your mind …” Nixie said, confused, not realizing how intrusive the statement sounded.
The captain watched her, half in fear and half in revolt.
Nixie tried a smile to shake his weighty stare. “Okay then, I’ll just leave this right here and get out of your way.” She placed the platter on a small table.
“Lovely,” I replied. “I think we’re ready to get to work. Isn’t that right, Captain?” I needed to see for myself if he really knew how to mend a virginal. I would decipher whether he could be trusted before I attempted to discuss plans of escape with him.
Luthiers were a rarity in the foothills of the Ashen mountains, passing by Granger House only yearly, so I often did the maintenance on my virginal between their visits. I knew enough about the task to decipher if he was telling the truth or not.