Chapter 43
The sun blazed, the sky pink and orange, breaking through the clouded night, a reminder of time slipping by, time that could not be spared.
Oakhaven glittered to life across the water as the people on the coast of Gyldmare awoke to daybreak.
I needed to make it to Thornley, which was far by boat, but not for me.
Focusing my mind, I willed the water with music.
It was challenging at first, like when I was learning to play the virginal and my fingers felt fat and clumsy.
But power was there, right at my fingertips, singing through my veins.
The water became an extension of my body, a conduit moving me toward Thornley, where Hylos planned to strike.
In a bay, anchored in the water, I waited.
The world was nearly overwhelming. Countless compositions vibrated through the sea, swirling around and through me.
The ocean and its song were part of me. The small birdsong I’d once heard echoing back under the sea now emanated from within me, as much my own as the sound of my voice.
But somewhere, nearing, an unmistakable melody boomed loudly, heading my way. That same deep rumbling I’d often heard in Naiadon I now felt in my bones. Powerful. Brave. Impatient. Hylos.
He and his army were barreling toward Oakhaven, the crash impending, and I was the only thing standing in the way. I steeled myself, ready to speak with Hylos. Not sure what I would do if he didn’t agree to put down his arms. Unsure if I was ready, or capable of fighting him.
One by one, sea steeds emerged, each carrying an armed siren rider. There were hundreds of them. Some in pale moon-white, others in Mariscal Circle red, many even in black. The other leaders made good on their word. Hylos had his army.
Finally, he emerged at the forefront, donning the blue of his Circle and standing in a white-shelled chariot guided by two slick white sea beasts.
Anticipation vibrated at my fingertips. I concentrated that feeling and turned it to song, to power that radiated from my heart and mind into water that lifted me across the sea’s surface.
Stop! I called, desperation wielding the siren song, forcing it to blast the word from my chest on intense galloping notes to Hylos.
The army came to a halting stop. Hundreds upon hundreds of steeds reared and huffed in the water, eager to move forward.
Their riders brandished swords and spears, ready to fight at their leader’s command.
Hylos propelled himself from his chariot through the water, closing the space between us with astounding speed.
But when he finally laid eyes on me, confusion flashed across his face.
“Elowyn?” Realization washed over him. “Your hair? Your skin?”
I didn’t even think about it. What I looked like in my new form.
I didn’t care.
“It’s blue,” he whispered.
I grabbed a lock of hair; it was deep navy, like his, with red strands intertwined with the blue. A combination of fire and sea.
I looked down to my hands, washed in pale blue, just as Hylos’s skin was, all the way to the sapphire fins, long and slender, that had replaced my feet.
“All ordained, just as you said, brother.”
The army below murmured and shifted uncomfortably at my words.
Hylos shook his head, a concise no. “That’s impossible.”
“Your mother is Clare Adele. She was my mother too,” I answered, wanting to wrap him in a hug. “And I found Aegir.”
His eyes lit with questions. I wanted to sit with him and answer every single one over a drink in his study. Away from the armies and mistakes that edged the air.
“Where is he?” he demanded.
“I’ll tell you everything, I promise. We just need to leave here and—”
“Tell me now!” he roared, the sound of thunder crackling with his words. A strange power emanated from him, making my knees wobble. The power of a siren king. His eyes fell atop my head.
“That crown, where did you get that?” My hand followed his gaze to be poked by a small metal crown. Had it been there this whole time?
“That is my father’s crown. It is the source of his power.” Choler flared in his eyes.
“Nymphaea said Aegir offered me his power. I wasn’t sure what it meant.”
The words caught like wildfire across the army.
Nymphaea.
Aegir.
Power.
“No, he wouldn’t give you his powers. The only way for a siren to give their power is … is to give their life. My father, he … he would never do that. He would never leave me … not without saying goodbye.” His voice broke and tears welled in his eyes, but he still held that same look of wrath.
I hadn’t known the weight of Aegir’s sacrifice.
My chest tightened.
His prayers were finally answered. Hopefully Aegir was at peace now.
“Hylos, I will tell you everything, I swear it. But we must take the army and leave. This is a trap. Calypstra has betrayed you. She’s working with Queen Jessal and they know you’re attacking here. It’s all a trap to capture you and use you—”
“Get out of my way,” he growled, and underneath those words that strange power emitted again from him. It threatened to bend my will, urging my body to obey and bow to Hylos, King of the Three Great Seas. Now officially, with the death of his father.
He turned his back to me, the water propelling him to his armies, to his war.
“No!” I yelled with a song that thundered against that strange force he was pushing against me.
He whipped his head around, fear flooding his eyes. He pushed another stronger surge of that commanding power toward me, but I only pushed back against it.
Gritting my teeth, I strained, saying, “If you continue forward, I will stop you!” I warned.
The great force stilled, and Hylos’s lips curved into a vicious smile.
“Elowyn, there is only one of you.” His hand directed my attention to the army behind him. “And thousands of us.”
“You will not harm my people,” I answered through clenched teeth.
“Ha! Go to your people looking like that and see how long you live. Humans are not kind to what they do not know, Elowyn. And they take as they please. That is exactly why we must retaliate against them. So they will stop, once and for all.” That power radiated from him again, but not at me.
I could feel it race toward his forces, marching them forward without a single word passing his lips.
Behind me, on shore, a clamor of human voices murmured, noticing the approaching figures on the sea’s horizon. They were so astoundingly far away, small specks collecting on the beach, and yet I could hear them. Dull tones and songs that rattled to us. Humble and small. But there were many of them.
“Hylos,” I called urgently. “Remember what I told you of Thornley. What Lumina told you of it too. It is mostly uninhabited. But do you hear that?”
He paused, listening.
“Those are people, many of them. Far more than there should be. That is an army, Hylos, waiting. Because they knew all along exactly where you would strike. Because Calypstra told them. Please, don’t do this.”
He looked back at me.
With bated breath, I waited.
“If there is an army, we will cut it down,” he seethed. Then Hylos continued. His army marched onward, toward the shore.
My nails cut into my palms. Power, I could feel it hammering in my soul, slamming into my bones. I reached inside for that force Hylos had, because it radiated from me now too, on the beat of regal drums. The power of a ruler. The power of a king. The power of Aegir.
Reaching out like a steady hand, I pushed on Hylos’s forces. They halted under my power. Somehow, I was stopping them. Controlling them.
Hylos whirled to me. “How are you doing that?”
“Would you just bloody listen to me. Plea—”
With a flick of Hylos’s wrist and a single percussive beat, a wave slammed into me, sending me flailing across the expanse of sea and slapping hard into the water.
My bones clacked from my impact on the plane of ocean, as hard as stone. My legs tumbled over my head. Deep, I was so unthinkably deep in the ocean. Every bare ounce of my flesh burned from the smack of the impact.
Guardians, Hylos was so unthinkably strong.
But I had to stop him.
Trudging through the water, I swam back to the surface. In the distance, Hylos’s army was now progressing toward the city. The siege was fully underway.
Then I saw them, turning a corner across the bay. Large naval ships raced out to meet the incoming forces. Ready for them. Just as I warned Hylos they would be.
None of this needed to happen. No blood needed to be shed. Not today.
Ships and sirens clashed as hard shards of water pierced sails and cannons exploded, sending projectiles smashing into the sea.
The battle began.
Closer, I had to get closer. Hylos had sent me so far from the carnage that the ships and arms of catapults atop them looked like playthings in the distance as they sent deadly projectiles arching through the air, colliding with siren bodies.
Focusing my mind, I willed the water with music, moving me forward. The water rushed past me as I played it, commanded it, far faster than before.
Soon, the shouts of fierce siren warriors harmonized with my melody.
Dodging arrows and firepots that sizzled when they collided with the sea, I waded through the chaotic army for my brother.
Thwack. A siren, handsome with dark-red skin, locked wide eyes with me. An arrow protruded from his crimson chest. His death stare was hopeless and gaping. Blood the color of his flesh dribbled down from the wound and encircled him in the water.
His sea-mount reared, throwing him off its back with a shrill cry. The siren sank, motionless, disappearing into the sea, his song fading with him. Gone before his time.
“Elowyn?” Raylik’s familiar voice boomed. With one hand, he wrangled the fallen soldier’s mount. “What are you doing here?”
“This is a trap,” I said, breath ragged. “I found Aegir, and those behind the sirens’ disappearance.” There was so much to tell him but no time.