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I grab him, and the two of us leap from the ship.
Chapter 23
WATER ENVELOPS ME,cradles me, welcomes me home. My body shifts, stretches, relishes the new surroundings. My muscles feel refreshed, ready to get back in the fight.
Riden watches me, ascertains that I am myself, before giving me an encouraging nod and swimming for the surface.
My father’s laugh reaches me, even down here. “Your captain has left you! She’d rather live her life as a senseless beast than go down with her ship and crew. I hadn’t realized I’d raised a coward.”
I feel nothing at the words. My crew knows how I’ve grown. They won’t believe them. They must know I am here to save them, not to save myself.
For now, I swim far, far below, arcing down into the deep. It’s clear as day to me where no human could see or bear the pressure.
I find them easily. The sisters I would have grown up with had I lived my life as a siren. They swim in circles or rest on the ocean’s bottom, arms thrown over their faces in defeat. Limbs twisting and shifting uneasily, helpless, yet enraged.
I am here,I sing to them.Now you can speak directly to my face. Tell me why you have abandoned your queen yet again.
A group of older sirens looks away. Their hair obscures their faces as they shift uneasily. They were there when their queen was ripped from them the first time. They are ashamed—so much so they can’t bear to look into my face.
The siren children are ethereal. Perfect pearls in this sea. They hang back behind their mothers—those that still have them. A girl with hair the color of sparkling sand huddles near a woman with night-black locks. The child, who can’t be more than five, sings of her mother’s death. She saw it with perfect clarity, the way the harpoon hit her mother, how her eyes rolled back, how she sank down to the ocean’s bottom.
We need to make them pay for what they’ve done,I say.
How?the siren clutching the orphan asks.The men cannot hear us. Their leader is immune.
How is that possible?
He has lain with a siren and lived. Now the magic of our song does not affect him.
All this time I thought I couldn’t control him because weshared blood, but it is because of his relationship with my mother, not me, that he is immune.
And even if he weren’t immune,she continues,it would do us little good. Our voices do not work when we’re completely out of the water as yours does.
They don’t need to. Do you not have arms and legs?
We are weak out of water. We will have no more strength than human women.
I smile at all of them.I’ve been training human women to fight for years. A woman is not helpless when she knows what to do. And even a man is helpless when outnumbered ten to one.
It’s not a question of if you’ll win,I continue.The only question is whether you will choose to fight. Will you fight for your queen? Will you fight for your waters and treasure? Will you fight for your little ones?
My song carries through the water, firm and unmistakable. A call to arms. A demand from their princess.
I am not your queen. You do not have to obey me as you do my mother. This is a choice you must make. A choice to avenge your lost ones, to save your queen, to protect your children. I am an outsider. The life I could have had with all of you was taken from me, but I am here now by choice. Will you not choose to rally with me now? I braved the ocean for you. Will you brave land for your queen?
All of their singing stops. The piercing chords of grief cease. The harsh thrums of anger relent.
In their place is conviction. A promise. As one they sing a song so powerful it brings tears to my eyes. It’s a battle cry made of pure, heavenly song. The ships above shift from the force of it.
I show them their advantages over men—what they can do to subdue them—
And then we ascend.
***
When my head breaks the water, I sing and pull the moisture into me, drying as I drag myself back up the side of theDragon’s Skull. I peek my head over the lip of the ship. My crew has been tied to the mainmast, bunched together under layers of rope. Some five men stand facing them, making sure no one leaves.
A soaked Riden is tied up with the others. He had no choice but to return to the ship and be taken captive once more until I returned. Sorinda, I can see, has already managed to free her hands without attracting the attention of the guards. Mandsy is opposite her, head slumped against the mast, only knocked out, I’m sure. Radita wriggles her shoulders, and a pirate advances on her with his sword raised.
