Salt & Stone: A Water Elemental Novel & Mermaid Fantasy (The Siren's Curse Book 1)

by A. L. Knorr

  “You’re looking chipper,” Antoni said. “I need a coffee or two to get that same look in my eye.”

  “I have a renewed energy, now that I have this,” he held up one of the aquamarine gems between his thumb and forefinger.

  “Where did we put the rest of them?” I asked, wary as I stared at the jewel.

  “I put them in the safe downstairs,” Antoni answered.

  “And the tablet and camera?” Emun looked at Antoni.

  “They’re in my room,” I replied. “The tablet is charging. I can’t wait to see the photos on it.”

  “That’ll be troublesome,” injected Antoni, leaning against the wall. “It’s locked and needs a code. I’ll have to take it to someone who can get into it.”

  Emun nodded, but didn’t seem all that interested in the tablet. “I was just waiting for you to get up so I could thank you and say goodbye. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to find my mother, but I simply must not fail this time. No matter what. You can’t understand the things I have been imagining about her since we got back, that she’s in trouble, that maybe the curse has her in its grip. Maybe she’s nothing but an animal right now.”

  He was talking without taking a breath and it was startling to see how emotional he’d become. Since I’d met him, he’d been calm, reserved, flinty in the face of danger. But thoughts of his mother in a salt-flush state had him full of anxiety. I understood perfectly.

  Antoni and I glanced at one another. Sitting down beside Emun on the couch, I said, “I can make your search go much faster.”

  His indigo eyes darkened as he turned in my direction. “What do you mean?”

  Antoni perched on the armrest and crossed his arms, listening with interest. He didn’t know what I had discovered either.

  “I think I can call your mother to you, instead of you having to go find her.”

  “I don’t understand. How?”

  “It must be one of my elemental gifts. I discovered it by accident one night when I was missing my mom. Through the ocean, I was able to pinpoint where she was and that she was okay. I called her name, and she heard me. She changed direction and began to come home. If I had let the connection between us continue, she would have come all the way, I have no doubt.”

  His eyes momentarily glazed over and his bottom lip trembled. Glancing up at me, his lifted a hand to his mouth, covered it, and then pulled it away and took a deep breath. “Forgive me.” He looked down at his own hand, watching the way the fingers trembled. “I had prepared myself to spend years at sea, searching. I thought I’d have plenty of time to be ready to see her again. I haven’t seen her since…”

  “The night of the wreck,” Antoni finished.

  Emun glanced up at him and nodded, his expression vulnerable and unsteady. “Yes. Since the wreck.” He looked at me again. “You’re sure this will work?”

  “I haven’t tried with anyone except my mother, so I’m not totally certain, no. I don’t know if I could do it because we are genetically linked, or if I could do it for any siren, but all we can do is try. If that’s what you want.”

  Emun blew out a breath and slowly nodded. “I can’t turn it down.”

  “There’s just one thing,” Antoni said, raising a hand. “Something the glyphs in the ruins said.”

  “About the gems’ effect on a siren?”

  He nodded. “I’m certainly no expert in whatever language those ruins had on them, but from what I understood, the gems make a siren wax in a direction she’s already headed in.”

  Emun considered this. “That’s an interesting word. The way a moon waxes? Grows fatter?”

  Antoni agreed. “Yes and in fact the glyphs did reference the moon as a metaphor.”

  “So, if she’s in a salt-cycle, giving her a gem would only make her worse?”

  Antoni shrugged. “Your interpretation is as good if not better than mine at this point.”

  I took Emun’s hand and squeezed it. “All we can do is try. Why don’t I call her and see what I can learn about her state. When I called my mom, I could tell she was in a salt-cycle, but she wasn’t salt-flush. She only left a few months ago and from what I understand, salt-flush can take a while to happen. But I could feel her. Maybe I’ll be able to do the same for Sybellen.”

  Emun agreed. “Yes, one thing at a time, right?”

  “Right.” Glancing out the window, the sun was already well on its way into the sky. “Shall we do it tonight? After dark?”

  Antoni and Emun both nodded.

  “Tonight, then.” Emun put his hands on his forehead and tugged his hair back.

  I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to not have seen my mother since I was six, and to know I might get to see her for the first time in a century and a half.

  Emun disappeared for the rest of the day. I didn’t know where he went or what he was doing, but as the sun dipped below the horizon, he found Antoni and me sitting in the gazebo in the back garden. He wandered across the yard from the gate, hands tucked into his jeans, looking cool and calm again. Antoni I were chatting quietly and holding hands, still adjusting to the new level of honesty that had opened up between us. We stopped talking and watched Emun approach.

  “Are you ready?” I asked.

  “I don’t know how you get ready for something like this, but I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

  The three of us walked down to my favorite rocky promontory. Emun and Antoni stood behind me and waited while I went to the water’s edge and sat down cross-legged, trying to replicate the way it had been when I had connected with my mother. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, squashing the doubting voice telling me I had gotten Emun’s hopes up for nothing.

  Tuning in to the sound of the waves, the feel of the salt in the air, the spray dusting over my body, I let my mind slip into the Baltic the way my body had so many times before.

  I had never met Sybellen, but my imagination formed her easily as I knew she looked a lot like my mother, and I’d seen her countenance on the figurehead Mira had taken from the wreck. I imagined her swimming, and hoped that was what she was doing. If she was having a land-cycle then I wouldn’t be able to find her, this I knew. Our connection would only work if she was in one of the world’s connected bodies of water. I visualized her swimming alongside a whale, fingers brushing the slick surface of its body.

  Sybellen.

  My mind reached for hers, combing millions of square miles of salt-water. My elemental calling carried, rising and falling through layers of water the way music rose and fell on the wind.

  Sybellen, your son is waiting for you.

  Finding her felt like a warm and familiar hello with someone you knew you’d be friends with if given enough time. The tether between us was strong, inescapable, and impervious to distance or time. She was alive, she was in the ocean, she was in a salt-cycle but was not salt-flush, and now…

  She was coming.

  I had no sense of time passing, but when I opened my eyes, a feeling of completeness fell over me. Certainty. Sybellen had responded to my calling, just the way my mother had previously.

  Looking back over my shoulder, I saw Emun and Antoni standing on the rocks, waiting patiently. They shared a look. Emun was glassy eyed.

  “I’ve never heard anything like that,” Emun said. “It was like you were singing to my soul instead of to my ears. Is it done?”

  “It’s done.” I got up, looking out at the Baltic, its dark waves churning and its whitecaps catching the moonlight.

  “Now what?” Emun sounded nervous and his eyes darted about, skimming my face, the water’s surface, and back again.

  “She needs time to get here.”

  “Any idea how long?”

  I lifted a shoulder. “I’ll know. All you have to do now is wait. She’s coming, Emun. Your mother is coming.”

  He blew out a breath but seemed lost for words. Moisture rimmed his lower lids. “The impossible is finally coming to pass.”

 
I gave him a hug and he squeezed me tightly, whispering thank you in my ear.

  It didn’t happen the way I expected.

  While my connection to Sybellen was strong when I had called her, as soon as I left the beach and went back to my daily life, I lost her. Emun asked me daily where she was, but unless I went down to the water and connected to her, I couldn’t tell him.

  She had been far south of the Canary Islands, had a long journey ahead, and couldn’t do make it all the way here without resting. I wondered what the experience of being called by an elemental was like. Had she heard my voice audibly? Or was it just a feeling? Did she, even now, feel a connection to me even though I couldn’t feel it as I went about the day? Had her mind logically understood what was happening, or was it more like an instinct that drove her without any real rationality to it? I had so many questions to ask her, and as she drew closer and the days wore on, I became more and more excited, almost to the point that Emun and I couldn’t spend time together because we would make each other anxious with our anticipation, me to meet another siren, and he to be reunited with his mother.

  Emun went down to the rocks with me every other night and waited patiently while I found the connection between Sybellen and me. One night, I finally looked back at him from where I sat on the rocks and said, “She’s so close now, Emun. I think maybe tomorrow.”

  He let out the breath he’d been holding in and just nodded his head.

  Twenty-two hours later found Emun, Antoni, and I seated on the rocks together, Antoni huddled in a parka, hat and gloves. The wind lifted the water and buffeted us with spray. Whitecaps churned and in contrast the troughs between appeared black under the starless sky.

  We waited, sometimes talking, other times just watching the restless Baltic for a sign of Sybellen.

  She did not disappoint.

  When her shining black head broke the surface, she was past the rocks where we sat and had her back to us.

  “There,” Emun croaked, spotting her first as he’d looked back over his shoulder.

  We scrambled to our feet and raced over the slippery rocks toward shore as Sybellen’s long black hair and bare back emerged from the slapping waves.

  Something cinched around my heart as I stepped onto the beach, eyes glued to the siren now nearly fully out of the water.

  She turned her head, eyes and face shadowed in the dark night. The three of us froze in shock. It wouldn’t have mattered if we’d only had a single candle to light the shoreline that night, I would know that face anywhere.

  Emun and I cried out at the exact same moment, mine a cry of shock and Emun’s the heartbreaking sound of a small, lost boy finding safety again.

  “Mom!”

  28

  She was not yet free of the salt, I could see it in the wary, untamed look in her eye. Her face was slow to register emotion. Her bright blue eyes were dark and focused in mine, sharpening with recognition.

  Emun was ahead of me, his hand reaching out toward her.

  My blood curdled as I realized what he was doing, the faint blue-green glow now emanating from his palm flashed in my eye like the moment before waking from a nightmare.

  My mother’s wandering gaze fell and Emun as he reach her, and she did not step back from him. Her head only cocked to one side, her lips parted.

  “No, Emun!” I called, my siren voice swelling. “Wait!”

  Emun reached for her hand and put the gem in her palm.

  In the next moment, her knees buckled and she fell, boneless and limp.

  Emun barked in surprise but stepped forward to catch her as she slumped. He turned, her naked slick body draped over one shoulder. Emun’s blue eyes were dark with terror.

  “What happened?” His voice was a heavy rasp, almost a choke. His arm wrapped around my mother’s waist and he picked her up properly, turning her to cradle her body like a child’s.

  I had tears flowing freely down my face and wiped at them to clear my vision, but the world was a blur.

  I had called Sybellen, and Mira had answered.

  “Martinius was right,” I said, reaching him and brushing my mother’s hair back from her face. Her eyes were closed, her face relaxed. I tried to pry the gem from her grip, but Emun pushed my hand away.

  “Don’t touch it, it’ll hurt you.”

  “Take it from her hand,” I cried. “Before it’s too late.”

  Antoni tried to pry her fingers open but failed. The gem was locked in her fist as surely as though it was inside a vault.

  “Let’s get her inside, quickly,” Antoni said, his voice steady and strong.

  Emun had tears running down his face now, too, falling down his black leather jacket and landing in my mother’s hair. Emun carried her easily but nearly stumbled on the rocks because he couldn’t see where he was going. Antoni steadied him as I lurched along beside, fighting for my own balance through the shock. My mind was stuck on a loop.

  Martinius was right. Martinius was right. My mother is Sybellen. How is it possible? Martinus was right? How? How? How?

  Antoni held the door to the mansion open and Emun carried my mother up the stairs.

  “Put her in Targa’s room,” Antoni suggested. “She’ll want to be close to her.”

  Emun didn’t respond, just carried my mother—our mother—through the door as Antoni held it, and laid her wet body on the bed.

  I drew the covers around her while Emun tried again to remove the gem from her hand. Even a triton’s strength could not dislodge it.

  Emun and I stood at the side of the bed, looking down at our mother, and Antoni stood at the foot, looking on.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” Emun moaned and put a hand on my shoulder.

  I turned to look at him and saw my own shock reflected in his eyes. He opened his arms and I stepped into them, salt-tears still streaming from both our eyes.

  “Sister,” he whispered, arms tightening around me.

  A sound from the bed had me whipping around, Emun hovering right behind me.

  Mom’s eyelids fluttered and she gave a small sound in her throat, like she was fighting off a headache. A slash appeared between her brows as she frowned. Her lashes lifted and she was there. My mother was there, lucid, herself.

  I gave a laugh of relief and wiped at the water on my face.

  “Mom?”

  “Targa,” she said, her gaze holding mine. “What’s happened? I heard you calling me and the next thing I knew I was just swimming. Swimming almost without stopping.”

  I bent and hugged her, kissing her cheek.

  “The gem worked.” Emun’s words came out on a sigh of relief.

  My mother’s body went from pliable to still at the sound of his voice.

  I pulled back and moved aside so she could see Emun.

  He stepped forward, taking her free hand. “Mom?”

  Her blue eyes locked on his face, devouring his features, his hair, his shoulders and torso, then back to his face again. She lifted her hand from his grasp and reached for him.

  He bent so she could touch him. Her hand touched his cheek, her fingers traced his brow bone, his lips, his jawline, touched his hair.

  “I know you,” she said, finally. Her voice broke. “I remember you…”

  Emun’s tears ran unbidden down his face and dripped onto the bed. My mother’s eyes welled up but did not yet spill over.

  “I remember, now. I remember, and I’m so sorry.”

  Emun shook his head and sniffled. “You don’t need to be sorry, Mama.”

  She nodded. “I do. I remember, now. I love you.”

  Antoni and I shared a look, astonished, sober, and mingled with happiness. Antoni stepped close and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I pressed my head to his body, squeezing my eyes shut in silent gratitude.

  Sybellen pulled Emun, her son, down and wrapped her arms around him. She began a siren’s weep into his hair.

  “My son,” she rasped, her voice pregnant with sorrow. “I re
member everything.”

  Epilogue

  My name is Amiralyon––but Mira to my daughter and my human friends. I am a siren of the Okeanos, that sprawling, richly endowed, undiscovered underwater land of the Atlantic. I am the only ‘maid of the sea’––as some once poetically called us––to have lived two childhoods, two adolescent lives, and two adult lives. I am the only siren to have two siren names. The two women I have been, may as well have been strangers for all they knew of one another…until now.

  I had forgotten everything.

  When Nike had sent me back into a state of youth, there remained not a shadow, not even a filament as fine as spider’s silk to tether my second life to my first. Even Trina was of no use, her own mind addled by Nike’s magic. How artfully the sorceress had etched upon the landscape of her memory. How little Trina had passed on to me. How thoroughly she had been erased. Now that my memory has returned to me, I am dazzled by Nike’s powers, more so because she must surely be dead. If she were not dead, she would have found me and restored me to my former self.

  Sybellen.

  But I am getting ahead of myself.

  In the early days of my first life (though one could argue that all sirens have many lives, no one could dispute that I experienced this in a way entirely unique to our kind, and perhaps to any kind), I was afraid of our sovereign. I think we all were, to some degree. Apollyona was fierce, powerful, sometimes ruthless. She was a natural born queen. Though any siren could have challenged her for our highest-ranking position, I don’t think the idea crossed many minds. Apollyona was our champion, our protector, our war-lady, our defender, our provider.

  She was also my mother, and Trina was her handmaid.

  The story continues in…Salt & the Sovereign, The Siren’s Curse, Book 2. Sign up to Abby’s newsletter to be notified upon its release (early 2019).

  About the Author

  A.L. Knorr is an author of Urban Fantasy Fiction. She’s a Canadian who is a true digital nomad and is constantly traveling with her laptop. A.L. stands for Abby-Lynn, but that’s a lot of letters to fit on a cover. Abby is working on The Siren’s Curse Trilogy which follows Targa and Mira back to Poland, and promises more twists and intrigue and a few huge surprises!