Chapter 24
With a sweep of Hylos’s palm, he conjured a deep-timbre sound that rang through the air, buzzing in my chest and lighting the massive cartography table, which was carved from a large piece of coral. The light bathed the books that lined the dimly lit shelves of his study.
“Let’s start with what we know. All the sailors we’ve captured have followed these routes.” Another song drummed from him with a wave of his hand, and water in strings traced paths upon the map like twine-wide rivers.
“Our current location?” I asked over the dissipating hum of his song.
“Here.” Hylos pointed far off the coast, to the northeast of Oakhaven.
I’d had my suspicions that we were far from land, and he confirmed it. It would be impossible to swim from here if I ever managed to get through one of those entry pools.
“Here is where the disappearances have been reported.” He moved his hand again as red-illuminated spears of water ticked the mapped seas surrounding Oakhaven, all falling outside of the ship routes.
“So, none coincide with the routes?” I asked.
“As of now, no,” he answered.
“Doesn’t that mean that the ships are not part of the disappearances then?”
Hylos’s blue brow furrowed.
“The sailors have limited knowledge of sirens as well. Aside from folktales or religious prayers,” Raylik said. “We haven’t collected a single person with memories of true sirens.”
“So you essentially have … nothing,” I said, knitting my arms across my chest.
“Tell her, Raylik,” Hylos said.
“We have the account of a young siren, named Orlan of Fallon Circle, who claims that while headed to warmer waters with his family, a strange sound overtook him and his Circle. A song he’d never heard before.
He described it as wild and terrifying, like a broken heart.
He passed out and awoke to his entire Circle gone. We assume they were taken.”
Hylos shook his head in disgust.
“But strange noises at sea sounds like something your people would have a hand in.” It was a sad story, sure, but what did it have to do with Oakhaven?
From the folds of his tunic, Hylos pulled out a small coin. “When the child awoke, he was at the bottom of the sea, and beside him was this.”
“A coin?” I asked, taking the copper piece from him. On the front was the shape of a bear with a fish’s tail.
My stomach sank.
“You know that creature, then?” Hylos raised an eyebrow at me.
I did. Unfortunately. It was my betrothed’s familial heraldic beast. The same one on the hull of Arlo’s cargo ship. But what did the Gyldfords have to do with this?
“Flip it over,” Hylos said.
On the other side of the coin, embossed in its metal, was the word Whiterok.
I met Hylos’s ocean gaze. “When you told me the name of the city on the sea, it all came together.”
Was Cedric somehow a part of all of this?
“And when you look at the abductions and use that unnatural structure as a point of reference, it all comes together.”
With a movement of his hand, new paths formed. Slicing lines that traveled back and forth from Gyldmare to Whiterok.
In silence, Raylik escorted me to my room.
The wine from dinner had soured my gut and the thought of war was bitter in my mind.
What if it was true? What if Oakhaven had something to do with the disappearance of sirens?
Did that mean that war was inevitable? But what did Whiterok and Cedric have to do with any of this?
Maybe it was all him behind this. He was a terrible person. But why?
“Have you seen battle?” I asked Raylik.
“Long ago, as a boy, I fought by my father’s side to defend our Circle against Aegir and his conquest to unify all the great Circles. We fell. I was taken by Ageir as his ward.” So it was true; Hylos was Raylik’s family’s greatest enemy. “My father died shortly after.”
“Serenous said your father was a great warrior.”
The siren light spilled down the hallway, glowing against the black void beyond.
“He lived and breathed war,” Raylik answered. “My first steps were with a spear in hand. He assumed it was the only answer. But war can be for many reasons. Aegir fought to unite us. My father fought to keep us apart,” he said steadily.
“Life will be lost if Hylos attacks Oakhaven. There will be bloodshed. Even if you take the humans’ with ease.”
“Hylos is determined,” he answered, not looking at me as we continued down the hall.
“Determined to send people to their deaths.”
Raylik sent a warning look in my direction. He was a soldier and commander. Steady and loyal. “Hylos is a good leader. He will do what is best for us all.”
The measured statement wasn’t a disagreement. That was something.
“But you hope that ‘what is best’ is not war?” I pushed further.
Raylik only looked ahead, not answering my question, which again was an answer in itself.
Because he didn’t want war.
But he would follow his leader’s orders. No matter what.
“Are you good with a sword?” Raylik asked, changing the subject.
I let out a snort. “Me? Good with a sword.”
He didn’t laugh, only kept that slow pace. It wasn’t a joke.
“No, I’m not good with a sword.”
“What about hand to hand?”
“Like dancing?” I asked.
“Hand to hand combat,” he clarified.
“The only combat I’m familiar with is what I’ve read in books. I have no skill in fighting. It is not …” The words tasted disgusting on my tongue. “It’s not becoming of a lady.”
“Nonsense. Everyone should learn to hold a sword and defend themselves.”
He was right. If I had been a son, surely I’d have learned to fight and hold a sword. Every boy from the age of five did.
“Could you teach someone like me?” I asked. Half-waiting for him to laugh in my face.
“Of course,” he answered curtly.
If he trained me a little, maybe I could learn the sirens’ strengths and understand their weaknesses. It could also help us escape when the time was right. Also, I could pass the information along to my father.
“Would you teach me?” I asked.
“I will speak with Nixie. We both should train you. She is the second-best fighter I know.”
Petite Nixie was the second-best fighter Raylik knew? When he was raised by warriors and had the muscle mass to show for it?
“And who is the first?” I asked.
“Me.”