Page 15 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

“I’m sure they’ll all be very surprised to hear of their untimely demise,” Zephyr responded dryly. The tiny crew laughed, knowing that the rest of their fellows were perfectly safe aboard the Argo.

I hadn’t been surprised by the Selkie King’s lie. He would have had to save face in front of his court, and justify the captain’s elevation to princehood. Skies, I almost felt bad for the princess, being forced to mate him.

The crew rowed in silence until the selkie palace was nothing more than a faint outline of rock against the stormy sky, bobbing up and down violently as the sea tossed the little dinghy around.

“Hoist the sail,” Zephyr called, reaching down to do her part as always, never comfortable with giving orders she would not also follow. I continued to sit uselessly holding the princess as the crew hoisted the small mast and screwed it into place. The moment they unfurled the sail, the easterly wind caught, and Zephyr unspooled her magic to soothe it. After a moment she managed to coax the wind to push us toward the ship, rather than back to shore.

Sirens couldn’t reallycontrolthe wind, per se. We simply requested it do our bidding, and hoped it agreed.

“We’ll get you seen by the healer as soon as we’re back on deck,” Zephyr said, her voice raised over the sounds of the storm and the rolling seas. “We got a good haul today as well, so we should stop somewhere up north to offload before we return home.”

“Risky with the girl,” I pointed out, nodding to the princess lying still in my arms. “Her people will be pursuing us.”

“It will take us a day off course at most,” Zephyr argued. “And I’d like to see them try to take her from you.”

“The point of this was topreventanother war,“ I pointed out, frowning at my first mate. Zephyr was an excellent second-in-command, and a strong leader. When I retired, she’d make an excellent captain. But she was impulsive, as evidenced by the eyepatch. “Murdering more selkies will do the opposite.”

“Pretty sure kidnapping their princess will end the same way,” Zephyr countered, looking at me skeptically.

“Not as long as her father complies with our demands,” I argued. “You sent them?”

“Astraios flew them into the lower hall as soon as we heard your song,” she replied with a nod. “He should be back on the ship before we are.”

“Good,” I replied. “Then we simply wait a few days until we receive his reply, keep her alive and out of harm’s way, and trade her for our people’s freedom.”

“I know you think this will work, Cas…” Zephyr began, and I cut her off with a raised brow and a steely look.

“Ithasto work, Zeph,“ I replied, thinking of the scraggly younglings back home, the empty food cellars, the ships that returned with barely enough to sustain us. “We can’t stay in the cliffs. We need real land. A real home.”

“And you really think he’ll give up half of the archipelago for his daughter?” Zephyr asked skeptically, looking at the girl in my arms. “He could easily choose to wage war on us instead and risk her life to keep his power.”

“He won’t,” I said, more confidently than I felt. “She’s…special.”

“Special?” Zephyr scoffed, giving my scarred chest a pointed look. “You know as well as I that something as trivial as family meansnothingto people at the top.”

“I’m at the top, Zeph,” I reminded her, trying and failing to keep a growl out of my voice.

“You’re not a selkie,” she said, looking a bit contrite. “You would never. Buthemight. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“If her father won’t budge, her betrothed will,” I said, remembering how the brute of a captain looked at Marina for the few moments I saw them together at the feast. Something in me rebelled at the idea that a male with that much violence in him would be allowed anywhere near the princess, and I reminded myselfagainthat she was the enemy.

The Argo came into view as I let the conversation with Zephyr die. For five hundred years, my people had suffered. No bargain or parlay had convinced the selkies to give us back what was rightfully ours, and no battle had ended in anything more than bloodshed and pointless loss on both sides.

We needed to try something different if we were going to end this centuries-long war, and I had known for a long time now that I would do anything to save my people.

Even if it meant playing the villain.

Chapter 6

Ihadstrangedreams,ones of feathers and storms and haunting sounds, like bird song but somehow sweeter. I could swear I had felt the ocean welcoming me, the salt spray coating my arms and legs, and the rolling of the waves as they rocked me to sleep.

But my head was a pounding mess of agony as I cracked my eyes open. The light was too bright and made my head thump harder, so I squeezed my eyes shut. The ground lurched to and fro, and I felt like I might vomit as the world swayed around me.

“Good,” came a rough male voice from nearby. “You’re awake.” The voice was both familiar and not, and I risked opening my eyes a sliver.

I was in some kind of bedroom, the walls made of wood instead of stone, and the furniture old and a bit worn, but elegant. A red bedspread covered me, my hair a tangle on the pillows behind me, and I felt another wave of nausea course through me as the world tilted violently.

“The seasickness should pass soon enough,” came the voice again, now sounding mildly amused. “I’m a little surprised that selkies evengetseasick, being creatures of the sea.”