Chapter 21
“Sirens attacking! Arm yourselves, lads! Sirens incoming!”
Riella’s stomach dropped. She threw down the sail she’d be working on and ran to the bow.
“No!” she said to the pirate. “They aren’t attacking.”
He pointed at three dark blue shadows hurtling through the water toward the Pandora. “Sure looks like they are.”
Riella snatched the man’s spyglass.
“I said they aren’t attacking,” she hissed. “You’re going to get people killed.”
He scowled at her and drew his cutlass from his belt. “Sirens killed, you mean.”
Her temper flared, and for a moment she forgot about Jarin and Seraphine and the amulet. All she could focus on was the disgusting pirate snarling in her face about killing sirens.
“Not likely,” she spat.
“Positions, lads!” he shouted.
Riella picked him up by the collar and threw him hard against the railing. He howled in pain as he crumpled to the wooden boards.
Before she could slash his face with her talons, Jarin emerged from below deck and ran to the bow. He assessed the situation with a glance at Riella, whose chest heaved with fury, and a look at the fast-approaching blue shadows in the water.
“Stand down!” he shouted at the crew. He hauled the man Riella had thrown to his feet, giving him orders. “Get to the bilge. Finish work on the hull. Now.”
The man glared at Riella, then stomped away.
Jarin turned to her, lowering his voice. “They aren’t attacking, right? They’re here to help you?”
“Yes,” she said with more certainty than she felt. “But perhaps I better head them off before they reach the ship, all the same.”
Although a truce existed between sirens and pirates, she didn’t wish to test it. The pirates’ tempers were nothing compared to her friends’, especially Mareen. She took special pleasure in tormenting her prey before killing it.
If sirens attacked the pirates now, Riella could kiss the amulet and Seraphine goodbye. But how would her friends receive her? They likely didn’t know she had legs now.
Jarin nodded. “Go.”
She climbed onto the wooden railing of the bow and dove headfirst into the turquoise water. Right away, she heard her friends’ thoughts.
“Stay there,” she Sent to them. “I’m coming to you.”
“Riella! What in the seven seas?—”
“I’ll explain. Just stop advancing. The pirates are getting ready to defend themselves.”
“She’s ordering us around. Unbelievable.”
That was Mareen. Despite her nerves, Riella’s heart lifted at the familiarity of her friend’s haughtiness. Perhaps this meeting would go well. The sirens might even want to help her to defeat Polinth.
She swam through the blue depths as fast as she could, painfully aware of how much slower she was traveling than her friends.
“I can’t see you,” Sent Galeil.
“I’m coming. Right in front of you.”
Mareen’s vivid orange hair became visible first, then Galeil and Thera. Although the younger siren had just come of age, Thera looked every bit as fierce and beautiful as the other two, with her cloud of brown hair and powerful pink tail.
Riella’s optimism vanished as she took in the majestic sight of her friends. Never had she missed her tail more than in that moment. She steeled herself for their reactions to her new body.
“Where have you—” started Mareen. Then, a moment later, she saw the rest of Riella. “Ugh! What happened to you?”
Mareen propelled herself forward to get a better look, then surged backward again in disgust. “Riella! You have legs. Is this some kind of trick?”
Riella was treading water to stop herself from sinking to the ocean floor. Her air would run out soon and she’d need to surface, but for now, she could communicate via Sending.
The three sirens circled her, their faces aghast.
“That day with the fishing boat,” Sent Riella. “I was captured by a sorcerer. He experimented on me.”
“But what are you now?” Sent Galeil in fascination and horror.
“I’m still me!” she replied desperately. “He just gave me legs. And stole my Singing voice.”
Mareen swam right up to her, gazing into her eyes. “You seem so . . . fragile now.”
She wrapped her hand around Riella’s wrist and twisted her arm back. Riella gasped in pain and tried to shove her off, but Mareen easily overpowered her. Riella’s physical strength used to outstrip Mareen’s, before Polinth changed her.
“What are you doing on a Dark Tide Clan pirate ship?” Mareen seethed, releasing her wrist with a look of derision. “Traitor.”
Riella rushed to explain, mindful that she’d need to surface shortly. Sirens were perfectly able to speak above water, as humans did, but she suspected her friends would further deride her for it. “I’m trying to save an elf named Seraphine. She’s being held hostage by Polinth, the sorcerer who captured me. Seraphine helped me to escape him. But then I was dragged up by a Dark Tide Clan net. I need your help.”
“Do you, though?” Sent Galeil. “It seems pirates are your friends now. Land-walker,” she added.
Galeil swam to Riella with a single tail kick, glaring into her face as Mareen had. Thera circled ceaselessly and silently. For the first time, Riella glimpsed what it was like to face sirens as opponents, as humans did. It was utterly chilling.
As apex predators, the trio innately sensed Riella’s fear, heightening their killer instincts. They circled her more closely, pressing in on all sides. She willed herself to focus on her reason for summoning them in the first place.
“The Amulet of Delphine is hidden in the caves of Neredes. Please, swim down there and find the amulet, before our enemies do.”
“What do you mean by our enemies?” Sent Galeil. “Land-walkers are our enemies. Their petty squabbles aren’t our concern.”
Mareen stopped swimming, floating before Riella with blazing eyes. “How would you know where to find the amulet?”
“The Sea Witch told me.” Riella’s chest was beginning to ache. She needed air. But this was a critical moment, and she didn’t want to ruin it by acting human. “She told me via a Seer.”
“The Sea Witch?” Mareen scoffed. “She would never appear to a land-walking Seer. You’ve been tricked.” She shook her head, her hair flailing around her terrifying face. “The amulet has a greater purpose than land-walkers can comprehend. Typical human arrogance to suppose they might plunder the sea for such an artifact.” She shrugged. “But, let them drown trying.”
“I’m not human, though,” Sent Riella.
But her timing was terrible. Her lungs burned beyond endurance, and she was forced to kick upward. As she broke the surface, she lost the telepathic connection with the sirens. They emerged a moment later, glaring at her in revulsion as she gulped air.
“There’s much you are not telling us, and I don’t appreciate the deception,” said Mareen. Her eyes slid to the Pandora, where it bobbed in the shallows. “Who is that?”
Riella looked over her shoulder. Jarin stood at the bow, arms folded in front of his chest, watching her.
“Is that who you’re wearing a dress for?” asked Galeil.
“He’s a necessary evil. He agreed to help me rescue the elf.”
“Ha!” said Mareen, as if catching Riella out. “So you have sided with the Dark Tide cretins.”
Thera spoke for the first time. “Are we going to fight them or not?” she asked with a slight whine, eyeing the ship. “I’ve never fought a pirate before.”
Despite herself, Riella recalled having the same bloodlust when she was younger. In a siren, it never truly went away. She felt it still. Not that her friends would believe her.
“We’ve patrolled nonstop trying to find you, or any trace of you,” said Galeil, a hint of reproach entering her voice. “You only Sent us a message when you wanted us to do your bidding.”
“There’s no bidding!” Riella felt like tearing her hair out. “I’m trying to keep the amulet out of the hands of bad people. Why can’t you just do as I ask?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew they were a mistake. The very last thing a siren appreciated was being bossed around. Perhaps her friends were right, and she’d become more human than she’d realized.
“Enjoy your new life,” said Mareen coldly. “Do not call on us again. We don’t exist to run errands for land-walkers.”
Before Riella could reply, the red-haired siren dove, kicking a wave of water into Riella’s face. Galeil followed. Thera alone stayed above the surface with Riella.
“Mareen searched harder for you than anyone,” said Thera quietly. “She hasn’t rested since you disappeared.”
Then, Thera left too, diving after her friends, headed out to sea.
Riella swam straight to shore instead of the ship. Her heart was too heavy to be around humans, who hated her, for meeting with sirens, who also hated her.
Perhaps she was destined to die soon simply because she had no power, no friends, no plan, and no weapons. What if she declined to participate in the prophecy? Could she opt out of her fate by refusing to seek the amulet?
But, as she reached the shallows of the beach, Seraphine’s haunted face appeared in her mind’s eye. She couldn’t abandon the elf after she’d sacrificed herself for Riella.
And Jarin?
He waited for her on the powdery sand. Her enemy, and yet the only one in her corner. How did that come to pass?
“Why were you watching like that from the ship?” she demanded, shaking her wet hair. “They scorned me for it.”
“In case I needed to step in.” He gestured at the sea. “What if they’d attacked you?”
“You would’ve restarted the war.” She sighed. “But it doesn’t matter anyway. They aren’t going to help me with the amulet.”
“I figured that, by the look on your face. Did you tell them about the prophecy?”
“They don’t believe it. The more I tried to convince them, the more annoyed they became. I should’ve known they’d react like that.”
Jarin rubbed his tattooed hands together. “It was worth a try. Come, let’s return to camp.”
They walked together in silence as the sun dipped lower in the sky, Riella trying in vain to ignore her broken heart. The sirens had dispensed with her. The rejection hurt in a very deep and essential way.
Jarin cleared his throat and spoke once they neared the camp. His words were the first good news she’d received that day.