He nodded.
“I don’t know how you got here, but—”
“Your mother came last night. She told me what had happened to Michael. She said you would be coming, and that we needed to get Michael to shore as fast as possible.”
“Good.” Arianna wanted to cry as she thought of her mother.
“She also said you would be coming with us to help us break the siren song.”
“I . . .” Arianna had to stop and breathe. “I’m afraid plans have changed. I will not be going with you.”
“But we need you!”
Arianna shook her head. “We need to stop my aunt, and stopping her will require power from both the sun and the sea. And,” she took a deep breath, “I think that’s why the Maker might have made me this way. I can harness both. If I don’t, she’ll never stop coming.”
“But Michael needs you! Your mother said—”
“If I don’t do this, Michael will never be able to live in Maricanta again. It’s too close to the ocean. He would be in peril for the rest of his life.” She drew in a shuddering breath. “I don’t know if I can win this. But perhaps I can make the fight so difficult that I have grounds to demand a trade for his release. Or perhaps with the Maker’s help, I can bring her down and make way for a new Sea Crown. Either way, I am needed here.” She looked up at the six ships moving in on them from all sides. “You’ll never make it out alive otherwise.”
“Arianna?”
Arianna looked over to see that Michael had been tended to and was propped against the side of the ship. She ran to him and kneeled beside him.
He took her hands in his and held them tightly. “I remember you singing . . .” he said, eyes full of wonder.
Arianna smiled and nodded through her tears. “Yes. I sang to you.”
“You got your soulsong,” he whispered.
Arianna stared at him. Even under the siren song, he had heard her. But how was that possible?
“It was beautiful. But why are you crying?” He wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Stay the course!” Lucas yelled as he jumped up and ran to the back of the deck, leaving Arianna and Michael alone.
“I have to go.” Arianna took Michael’s hands. “But you must listen to me first.”
“You can’t go. We just got here.”
“You must never touch the ocean again. Don’t even wade in the tide pools. If you do, her curse will be completed, and you’ll return to your merman form forever.”
“Arianna, answer me!” He stood up and loomed over her.
She stood, too. “And if you go near the water, you’ll hear her, and you’ll be under her siren song again as well. As long as you stay away from the water, you’re free.”
“Why are you leaving!” he shouted, grabbing her arms and pulling her close. “She’s going to kill you!”
“She’s going to kill everyone I love, too. I can’t let them die, Michael.” She choked out a sob. “I can’t let you die.”
He searched her face for an immeasurable moment. In the fire of the rising sun, his eyes burned like amber, and for one perfect minute, Arianna knew he could see inside her soul. Finally, he began to nod slowly.
“If I’m going to listen to you, then I have one stipulation for you as well.”
Arianna blinked, confused.
He pulled her hair down from its knot on her head and ran his hand through it. “Don’t choose between your two natures. The Maker crafted you perfectly just the way you are.”
And with that, he bent down and pressed his lips against hers.
53
Ally of the Sun
Arianna gritted her teeth as she plunged back into the ocean. The kiss had stolen her breath and her focus, and she shook in agony as she forced her fins to propel her away from the ship. Whatever was left of her anger, any remnants of the resentment she’d nursed against him dissolved as she recalled the way his fingers had felt in her hair, on her face. How he had looked at her as his eyes glinted in the sunrise, as though he had never seen her before. What had possessed her to think she might have those arms encircle her every night for the rest of her life? She had known it was impossible. And yet . . . she had hoped.
But no one would survive this attack if she didn’t stop Renata. Arianna shook her head to clear it. If Renata succeeded, it wouldn’t matter in the least whether Michael had ever loved her.
Arianna narrowly missed swimming into a column of black smoke as she tried to talk sense into herself. Jerking her tail to the side, she hit a rock and found herself staring into a pair of small black eyes. She swam backward, but the eyes followed her, and as it pulled out of the shadows, she found that they belonged to a very large orca. As it followed her and passed beneath a patch of light, Arianna noticed a black festering wound in its left fin.
Perfect. Just when she was about to challenge the most powerful mermaid in the ocean, she was going to be eaten by a whale instead. It would be funny if she weren’t staring the whale in the face.
Arianna backed into something hard. When she turned around, she realized she was up against the side of a cliff, one that dropped precipitously into an inky canyon below. Arianna dove down, and the whale immediately took up the chase.
She needed to sing. But as she fled into the darkness, Arianna found it difficult to focus. Sea and sun. Sea and sun. But try as she might, she couldn’t think clearly enough to pull her song of two worlds to life.
Just as she began to see the glow fish below her, a sure sign that the seafloor was fast approaching, Arianna gave up trying to remember her soulsong and simply used her other koroses instead.
The Nurturing song flew from her mouth like a bird loosed from a cage. It echoed off the canyon walls, and made the orca squeal. Not waiting to see how the orca would fight as coral arms reached out to grab it, Arianna pushed herself back up toward the murky, distant light above, darting out of the way of several smoke columns as she did. As soon as she escaped the canyon, Arianna began to push through the kelp, only to find Renata waiting.
“You should have kept your hair up like I told you to,” Renata said, her voice nearly inaudible. Her arms were crossed, though she held the triton in her right hand. “You might get it caught on something.” She snapped her triton toward Arianna and then twirled it next to Arianna’s ear. The triton caught Arianna’s long golden locks and twisted them up so that her head was stuck tight against the triton itself. Renata pulled Arianna close, just inches from her face. “But then, you never learn.”
She lifted the triton up, dragging Arianna along with it, and began to bring it smashing down against a boulder, but Arianna threw out a Growing song. The thin strands of sea grass that sat below the boulder shot up, and the grass caught her head before it could crack against the rock. Using the momentum, Arianna pushed off the rock with her tail, flying right back at Renata. This time, she sang a song of Healing. Her knotted, torn hair untangled itself from the triton’s prongs, and she was free.
“I gave you everything!” Renata screamed. “Why can’t you just be happy?”
Arianna rolled away so that she was out of the triton’s reach. “It was never about you, Renata! It was about this!” She lifted her arms to gesture at the darkness around them.
“I shielded you too much from humanity’s atrocities. I can see that now.” Renata adjusted her grip on the triton. “You never knew the depths of their depravity.”
“I watched my brother die at the hands of pirates!” Arianna twisted to the side to avoid another column of smoke. “The same pirates you’re still using to do your dirty work!”
“Then you’ve chosen to forget!” Renata again aimed her triton at Arianna, and two pelican eels appeared from the shadows, their wide, sinister mouths opening and closing in tandem. They floated just at Renata’s elbows, their long, thin bodies poised to spring.
“No, and I never will. But twenty-three humans died at his funeral as well. And we did nothing to help them!” Arianna felt the frustration begin to boil in her bl
ood. “In fact, the reason they died—”
“I wasn’t trying to kill them all!” Renata exploded. “I just wanted to get the old Sun Crown! The others were simply collateral.”
“So it was you,” Arianna whispered. “And . . . you brought the storm on, too, didn’t you?” Somehow, even in the face of all Renata’s crimes, Arianna had hoped to the Maker that her aunt didn’t have that much blood on her hands. But it appeared now that she did. And she wasn’t shedding a single tear over the men, women, or children that she had killed, either.
Before Arianna could say anything else, a bolt of green light shot right at her, then another. Arianna dodged both, but the second forced her to dive behind a large boulder. When she peeked back out, the two eels attacked. Throwing out her Protection song, Arianna covered her face as the scum on the ocean’s surface above them opened enough for two beams of light to pierce through. The light hit the eels’ eyes, and they wriggled back into the shadows.
“What, no soulsong?” Renata held her arms up. “I was told by a very serious young servant that you had gained your soulsong, and that you were going to use it to defeat me. Piero, I think his name was.”
Arianna’s heart sank, and she struggled to stay focused as she circled her aunt. Renata was trying to break her, she assured herself. And Arianna knew better than to let Renata get under her skin. But that was getting harder as Renata began to describe all the ways she was going to hurt the young servant when they were through, and how much she was going to enjoy it.
Something wrapped around Arianna’s left wrist, then her right. Too late, Arianna realized that she had let her guard down. Each of the eels had curled itself around a hand.
Sun and sea. Sun and sea. What was her soulsong? Why couldn’t singing be second nature to her? Oh yes. Because she was also human. Michael had picked a fine time to tell her not to choose one nature over the other.
With a good deal of annoyance, Arianna let out another Protection koros instead. The eels immediately began to loosen their grips, but Renata aimed her triton at them, and two green bolts later their grips were tighter than ever. Arianna struggled with all her might. Sun and sea! Sun and sea! she screamed in her head. Maker, what is my song? Still, try as she might, she couldn’t focus enough to remember her soul’s true song.
“Please, Renata!” she begged Renata, who floated just a few feet away. “Don’t do this! I love you!”
And she did. Through it all, anger and love, resentment and misunderstandings, Arianna loved her aunt. Even now, she wore the conch around her neck. It had sung her to sleep the last time she had dared close her eyes.
Renata’s face twisted to a grimace. “I always loved you,” she said in a strained voice. “And I will hate myself forever for doing what has to be done now.” She swam over to the largest vent Arianna had seen in all of the Deeps, and floated above it. Wider than Arianna’s sponge bed, it reeked of spoiled eggs and hot metal.
“Renata, no! It’s too much power for one—”
But before she finished speaking, a monstrous column of smoke ascended. Arianna had to cover her face with her hands to protect it from the heat. When she dared to look again, she nearly shrieked.
Renata’s familiar features began to contort. Her soft face grew more angular, her bones more pointed, and her dark hair was streaked with white. Gone were the familiar, comforting eyes of Arianna’s aunt. Instead, two shark’s eyes looked down upon her.
“To the bottom,” Renata said in a voice that wasn’t her own.
Arianna was yanked back down to the seafloor even faster than she had swum to escape the orca. In just seconds, Arianna hit the ground so hard it jarred her bones. The eels didn’t stop, however. Instead, they continued to push her into the sand.
They were going to bury her alive.
Just as Arianna’s ears began to fill with sand, Renata floated down to watch. “I let you stay too long out in the sun. And for that, I’m sorry.”
The sun. In that moment, Arianna recalled the way Michael’s eyes had reflected in the light of sunrise as it moved over the ocean, like golden brown against a backdrop of perfect blue. Sun and sea. I’ve found you.
Power warmed Arianna’s fingers and tail as it surged out from her heart. With her last breath, just as the sand began to cover her chin, Arianna let her song burst forth.
The eels flew backward, slamming against a nearby rock wall. Arianna launched herself out of the sand, and as she did, she was struck with an idea. She closed her eyes and imagined the texture and weight of the wet sand on a sunny day, right after being covered by a wave.
Renata pointed the triton at Arianna, but Arianna let out a low note. Then, raising her song and her hands in the air together, Arianna watched in amazement as the sand that had trapped her just seconds before now rose up and began to twist around Renata.
Renata shrieked and whirled the triton in an opposing circle around her head. She wasn’t fast enough, though. The sand continued to twist up, surrounding her.
“What are you doing?” Renata screamed.
“I never wanted this,” Arianna said, her hands still directing the sand. Renata screamed like a kraken as the sand closed in around her, and Arianna wept as she resumed her song. But you’ve given me no choice.
When the sand was whirling around Renata so fast that she was cut off from view, Arianna took one last deep breath and closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry.” She clapped her hands together. When she opened her eyes again, there was no sign of Renata or the triton. The sand had engulfed them completely.
54
Vortex
“We need those casum balls!” Lucas shouted from above.
“We’re out!” Michael slammed the chest lid so hard the wood creaked. When he did, however, a single round clod of dirt rolled out from behind the chest. “Wait! I found one more!” Michael snatched it and sprinted up the steps onto the deck. He carefully handed the ball to his brother, who in turn gave it to one of his sailors.
“There.” Lucas pointed at the pirate’s ship closest to them. “Hit their quarterdeck.”
The sailor pulled his arm back and heaved the casum ball forward.
“Great throw, Berardi!” Lucas crowed. Before they could celebrate, however, another explosion rocked them. Michael, Lucas, and Berardi were thrown against the deck’s wall. Lucas grunted as he rolled over. Michael tried to pull him up, but Lucas shoved him away.
“Go see to the mast crew! Leave me be!”
Michael wanted to retort that his brother should not be running about a deck in the midst of battle while suffering from a stab wound, but the four remaining pirate ships attacking them didn’t really leave them much choice. So he did as Lucas said and ran over to the railing. Below him, a third of the crew was trying to clean up the remains of their foremast where it hung suspended in the air, half toppled in the front of the ship.
“Need another hand?” he called down the men.
One of the old grizzled sailors shook his head. “We can’t even push the rest of the mast into the sea, Sire! Not out of port! And Capii says we can’t withstand another blow.”
“Why not?”
“Took out our rudder! We can’t even turn!”
Michael turned to tell Lucas, but from the grim set of his brother’s mouth, Michael could tell that Lucas had heard. Please, Michael prayed, we need a reprieve. There are just too many.
Another set of shouts broke out from the front of the ship, calling for water.
“If Renata was underwater, how did they blasted know to find us here?” Lucas growled as he limped up behind Michael, still holding his chest.
“Renata must have told them somehow.” Michael scanned the disarray of their ship. Men were everywhere trying to put out fires, struggling to free the other masts from the main one that had fallen, and searching for any remaining useful supplies. But Michael knew from his own searching that there wasn’t much left.
“How?”
“A sea witch could do it.” Which wa
s exactly what Renata had become. Michael searched the waters. Still over the Deeps, since they hadn’t been able to move once the pirate ships had started closing in, the waters were tumultuous, knocking the ship about even more. Dark shapes moved beneath them that sent shivers along Michael’s spine. Still, as long as the waters foamed and churned, Michael knew that Arianna was still fighting. She was still alive.
“Sires!” A young man ran up to them and pointed, his eyes bright. “They’re coming!”
Sure enough, dozens of ships appeared from around the distant cape. Many were still unpainted, and others obviously needed repairs that hadn’t been made. But they were all in better shape than the flagship. And best of all, they would have weapons.
“How did they find us?” Michael asked Lucas.
“When I realized Princess Ines was a fraud, I sent a bird back, ordering them to come out as soon as they could.” Lucas yanked Michael down. “Watch out!”
Michael fell just in time to feel the heat from a casum ball emerging from its shell several feet over his head. The ball missed them, exploding several yards past the ship’s deck. Michael regained his footing just in time to look up and see an unpleasantly familiar ship coming straight at them.
“They’re going to board! Gather the weapons!” Michael darted back down into the cabin and grabbed the first weapons he could find. “Jonas! Take these!” he called back to the younger shipman who had followed him down. Shouts sounded from above.
“Cut the ropes!” Lucas shouted. Dozens of footsteps thudded on the deck as Michael continued to feed Jonas the weapons and Jonas continued to run back and forth between the deck and the cabin until they froze at the sound of a familiar voice.
“Stand down! Or your prince is dead! I said, stand down!”
Motioning for Jonas to stay back, Michael crept to the edge of the room. Peeking through the open door, he found everyone at a standstill. Pirates and sailors stood motionless, Lucas’s men with their weapons at their feet. In the center of the pirates and captive sailors was the pirate lord himself, holding a knife to Lucas’s throat.
Silent Mermaid: A Retelling of The Little Mermaid (The Classical Kingdoms Collection Book 5) Page 33