The Siren and the Deep Blue Sea

by Kerrelyn Sparks

  “I knew about that last part.” As far as Maeve was concerned, Brody was the unsung hero of all the changes that had happened over the last few years. “It upsets me that no one seems to realize how valuable he is.”

  Nevis scoffed. “If you value him so much, why do you keep calling him Julia whenever he’s a dog?”

  She winced. “I-I had my reasons, but I’ll stop doing it.” At first, it had been an honest mistake. Brody made such a pretty dog with his long, silky fur and bright blue eyes, that she had assumed he was female. But later, after she knew the truth, she’d continued to call him Julia. For deep down inside, she’d wanted to annoy him.

  The blasted man had a habit of ignoring her. Whenever there was a ball, he’d dance with her sisters but not her. He hardly even talked to her. She would have thought that he hated her, except for the fact that he always showed up on the night of the full moons as a seal or otter to play with her. That had to mean he liked her, didn’t it? So why did he avoid her when he was human?

  “You seem to have lost most of your island accent,” Nevis observed.

  She nodded. “While I was living at Ebton Palace, Luciana encouraged me to improve my diction.” No doubt so she could attract a noble suitor. “Where do you think Brody could be?”

  Nevis shrugged. “My guess is he’s investigating the secret Embraced army that Lord Morris talked about before he died.”

  She stiffened. “What? An Embraced army?”

  Nevis’s mouth dropped open. “Oh. Oh, shit. I-I thought you knew. All your sisters know. I thought they . . .”

  “No.” Maeve gripped the railing hard. “They didn’t tell me.”

  Nevis winced. “Sorry.”

  “What is this Embraced army?”

  “I don’t think it’s my place to say anything.” He made a quick bow. “I should check on my soldiers. Good day, my lady.” He strode away, disappearing around the side of the cabin.

  With a groan, Maeve propped her elbows on the railing. Of course her sisters hadn’t told her. She wasn’t a queen as they were. During the few days when all four kings and their queens had been in Wyndelas Palace, they had closeted themselves in the royal privy chamber for private discussions. Maeve hadn’t been invited. After all, she didn’t have a country to protect. She understood that, but even so, it was aggravating to feel left out.

  It was a feeling she’d struggled with since childhood. Not that she was ignored. Her sisters had doted on her as the baby of the group. But it had always been clear that the eldest two, Luciana and Brigitta, were the best of friends. And the next two, Gwennore and Sorcha, were equally close to each other. Maeve was always the baby. The fifth wheel.

  And now she felt even more left out. Her sisters and their husbands had become an exclusive group she could never join. There was only one kingdom left on Aerthlan, the island kingdom of Moon and Mist, and it already had a queen and an heir. So Maeve would never be a queen like her sisters.

  She closed her eyes briefly. There’s no point in feeling sorry for yourself. Being a queen didn’t matter to her. What was important was that Nevis had given her a big clue. An Embraced army?

  When she opened her eyes, she noticed the ripples coming from the barge and undulating their way to the riverbanks. Cause and effect. Lord Morris had claimed there was an Embraced army, and Brody had disappeared searching for it. Since he hadn’t returned, it seemed likely that he hadn’t found the army yet. Had Lord Morris been speaking the truth, or had he taunted them with lies before dying?

  She recalled everything she knew about Lord Morris. Before Leo had become king, when King Frederic had ruled Eberon, Morris was his chief counsel and the head of the Church of Enlightenment. In those days, the kings on the mainland feared those who were born Embraced, so they had them hunted down and killed as infants. That way, the Embraced children could never grow up and use their magical powers to usurp the royal thrones. In Eberon, it had been Morris’s job to eliminate the children.

  But once Morris had become a member of the Circle of Five, had he realized that keeping the Embraced children alive could help the Circle take over the world? Had he hidden the children away to train them as an army? Was the widely believed story that the Embraced children had all been murdered actually a lie?

  It wouldn’t be the first time that Maeve and her sisters had come across that sort of falsehood. Growing up in the convent on the Isle of Moon, they had always believed that they’d been hidden away because they were Embraced. But in the last few years, they’d learned that this was only partially true. There had been other reasons. Luciana had been sent away because she was a twin. Brigitta’s father had gotten rid of her to make everyone believe she was dead. Gwennore had been taken away to punish her mother for giving birth to a half-breed, and Sorcha’s mother had been trying to protect her from the plague.

  At the convent, Mother Ginessa had told the five young girls that they were orphans. For her elder sisters, that had also proven to be a lie. What other falsehoods would they discover?

  As she did every day, Maeve wondered if she would ever know the truth about herself. She had no idea where she had come from. The nuns at the convent had estimated that she was nearly a year old when she’d been left in a basket by the front gate. That had been midsummer, so from then on, the nuns had celebrated her birthday in late summer. But no one knew why she had been abandoned, so they had assumed she was Embraced like her adopted sisters, and that her actual birthday must be when the moons embraced in autumn. That theory had proven correct when, at a young age, Maeve had displayed the odd gift of being able to communicate with the seals that lounged about on the nearby beach. Then, at the age of sixteen, she’d shifted for the first time into a seal.

  This was one of the reasons she’d always felt close to Brody. His past was mysterious, too, and he was also an Embraced shifter. Because of a witch’s curse, he could maintain human form for only two hours each day, and unfortunately, he spent most of that time in secret conferences with Leo or whichever king he was currently helping. So it was only on rare occasions that Maeve saw him as a human. When he wasn’t looking, she would study him intently, memorizing every bit of his handsome face and lean, strong body, so she could keep the image in her mind until she saw him again.

  She wandered slowly back to the cabin and stopped by the door. When she’d left, the door hadn’t latched properly, and now the gentle sway of the boat had caused it to swing halfway open.

  “I don’t think the Embraced army could be in Eberon.” Luciana’s soft voice filtered across the cabin. “The land is all cultivated. There would be no place to hide.”

  “Rupert is having the mountains in northern Tourin checked,” Brigitta said, referring to her husband by his pirate name. “But I don’t think anyone could be hiding there. The lords in the highlands are very loyal, and they would have reported anything odd to us.”

  “I suspect there are vast areas of wilderness in Norveshka,” Luciana continued. “But Silas is having his dragons survey every inch. And Aleksi is scanning the remote areas in Woodwyn.”

  Maeve sighed. Her sisters were no longer talking of babies. Had they been waiting for her to leave so they could discuss business matters?

  She leaned against the cabin wall, thinking. If she had to hide somewhere, where would she go? The mainland kings would know if an army was hiding in their countries. Was there somewhere else? When Brigitta’s husband had been a pirate, he’d hidden on a secret isle he’d named after himself. Could there be other islands in the Great Western Ocean?

  A faint memory stirred in her mind. Over a year ago, while searching for something new to read in the library at Ebton Palace, she’d come across an extremely old book written in a form of the Eberoni language that was so archaic, it had taken her over an hour to decipher it. But once she’d started to understand it, she’d become fascinated with the story it told.

  According to the old book, an ancient continent had existed in the Great Western Ocean, and the culture
there had flourished long before the primitive people of Eberon had learned to even count the years. It had been the year 699 when she’d found this book, so she figured that this ancient land had to date back over seven hundred years.

  The continent, Aerland, had been a place of magic with sorcerers so powerful that the rest of Aerthlan had quaked in fear of them. The ancient race had worshipped the twin moon goddesses, and that had made the sun god, the Light, seethe with anger and jealousy. In a fit of rage, the Light had struck several volcanoes on the continent, causing them to erupt all at once in a massive explosion. Earthquakes had added to the devastation and after a few days, most of the ancient continent had collapsed far below the sea, and most of the people had perished.

  There had been a map in the book, and after studying it, Maeve had suspected that the Isles of Moon and Mist were all that was left of the ancient continent of Aerland.

  Could there be other islands? As soon as she arrived back at Ebton Palace, she would search the library for this book. And then, tomorrow, she would travel to the Isle of Moon. The nuns at the convent transcribed books, so they had a huge library. She might find more information there. And she could ask the seals at the nearby beach if they knew of any other islands.

  Her breath caught. She could also go to the Isle of Mist and ask the Seer if he knew where the Embraced army was hiding. He might even know where Brody was.

  Finally. She took a deep, satisfying breath. Finally, she had a course of action to pursue. It was so much better than sitting around worrying.

  She strode into the cabin.

  Luciana spotted her. “Oh, the air must have done you good. You look much better.”

  “I am better.” Maeve stopped by the table of food and began loading a plate. Now that she had a plan, her appetite had returned.

  “Ye should try the cherry tarts,” Brigitta suggested. “We were just talking about how yummy they are.”

  “I know what you were talking about.” Maeve gave them an annoyed look. “You should have told me about the Embraced army. And that Brody is gone because he’s looking for it.”

  Luciana’s and Brigitta’s mouths fell open.

  “Well . . .” Luciana winced. “We didn’t want you to worry—”

  “I’ll worry more if I’m kept in the dark!” Maeve set her plate down with a thud. “Did it never occur to you that I hate being left out?”

  Luciana and Brigitta exchanged looks, then turned to her with apologetic expressions on their faces.

  “I know I’m not a queen, and I never will be,” Maeve continued. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you or your countries. I want to help.”

  Luciana sighed. “I’m afraid there’s not much we can do.”

  Brigitta nodded. “It’s frustrating for us, too.”

  “I believe there is something I can do.” Maeve put a cherry tart on her plate. “I want to go back to the convent. Can you arrange passage for me to leave tomorrow morning?”

  Luciana sat back with a shocked look. “Why? Are you not happy at Ebton Palace?”

  Brigitta winced. “Are ye angry with us for not telling you everything?”

  Maeve shook her head. “There’s something I want to check in the convent library.”

  “Is it that urgent?” Luciana rose to her feet. “I was thinking of hosting a ball for you. And having my seamstresses make you a beautiful new gown. A sea-green color that would match your lovely eyes.”

  “Chee-ana.” Maeve used her nickname for her eldest sister. “I don’t need a ball. Or a new gown. And I’m not angry.” She was determined. If the Embraced army was hiding somewhere in the Great Western Ocean, then there was no one better suited than she to track it down. She could finally put her Embraced gift of seal shifting to a good purpose.

  And with any luck, she might find Brody, too.

  Chapter 2

  “Be careful with that,” Maeve warned the sailors as they carried a large wooden crate toward the naval ship. “There are wine bottles inside.”

  “Aye, my lady.” The two men crossed the gangplank to the ship, then carefully set down the crate.

  It was the next morning, and Maeve was eager to set sail for the Isle of Moon. The ship had arrived at dawn, the smallest of the Eberoni naval vessels. Small enough that it could navigate down the Ebe River to the palace, but sturdy enough to cross the Great Western Ocean. It was the same ship Maeve and three of her sisters had taken from the Isle of Moon four years ago when Brigitta had been kidnapped. Maeve was happy to see that Captain Shaw was still in charge.

  After arriving at Ebton Palace the night before, she’d hurried to the library to locate the old book. Then, back in her room, she’d packed it and some clothes for the journey. A few simple gowns would suffice. No need for fancy clothes and headdresses at the convent.

  At dinner in the Great Hall, she’d learned that Luciana had been equally busy arranging gifts for Maeve to take to their childhood home, the Convent of the Two Moons. There was a crate of wine from the duchy of Vindalyn, another container of fresh fruits from southern Eberon, and some soft woolen blankets fresh off the looms of the Ebton Palace workroom.

  Now that the last of the crates were safely onboard, Maeve was ready to go.

  Luciana hurried down the palace steps. “Wait!” She joined Maeve on the pier, pressing a hand to her chest as she caught her breath. “Oh, I was afraid you would leave before I could tell you good-bye.”

  Maeve blinked away some tears. She was going to miss her eldest sister. In fact, she couldn’t remember ever being away from all four of her sisters before. “We talked for a long time last night.”

  “I know.” Luciana gave her an exasperated look. “All my attempts to convince you to stay were in vain. Are you sure you need to do this?”

  “Aye.”

  Luciana’s eyes narrowed. “You’re up to something. I know it. Promise me you’ll be careful.”

  “I will.” Maeve wondered how much her sister had figured out. Luciana hailed from a long line of witches who could predict the future, although her talent usually came out only when they were playing the Game of Stones. “I’ll be sure to give Mother Ginessa and all the nuns a hug from you. They’ll love the presents you’re sending.”

  Luciana sighed. “I wish I could go with you, but . . .” She placed a hand on her swollen belly. “Leo and I agree that it’s not safe for you to go alone—”

  “I’ll be safe with the nuns,” Maeve insisted, knowing very well that her investigation would probably lead her away from the security of the convent. But she didn’t want Luciana or anyone else to know that. They would try to stop her for sure. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’ll be a target,” Luciana said sternly. “There are still a few pirates out there. And a few members of the Circle of Five. There are any number of people who might try to hold you hostage in order to control the kings and queens who love you as a sister.”

  Maeve stifled a groan. Was she only important because of the royals she knew?

  “So Leo and I have asked Nevis to go with you.” Luciana glanced over her shoulder. “Ah, he’s coming now.”

  Nevis? Maeve grimaced as she watched the large, muscular colonel descending the stairs from the palace. He was not going to let her do what she wanted. “Chee-ana, I don’t want a bodyguard.”

  “Too bad.” Luciana gave her a wry look. “If you want to use my ship, you’ll accept my terms.”

  Maeve huffed. “I’m almost twenty years old, and you’re still bossing me around.”

  With a smile, Luciana pulled her into a hug. “I know you get annoyed when I still try to mother you. But to me, you have always been my first baby.”

  “I know, I know.” Maeve hugged her sister back. “Try not to worry about me.”

  Luciana stepped back, her eyes glistening with tears. “I hope you find Brody.”

  Maeve winced. Luciana had guessed one of the purposes of this trip.

  “Your Majesty, my lady,” Nevis said as he
approached. He was in his uniform as a colonel, a knapsack in one hand and small leather folder in the other. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.” He lifted the leather folder. “Leo just gave this to me. A letter for Queen Esther.”

  “You’re going to meet the queen of the Isles of Moon and Mist?” Maeve asked.

  Nevis nodded. “After I make sure you’re safely ensconced at the convent.”

  “We’re asking the queen to ally her islands with the kingdoms on the mainland,” Luciana explained. “So far, she’s ignored all our gestures of friendship.” She turned to Nevis. “I had several packages taken onboard, gifts for you to give the queen. They’re the ones wrapped in red and black silk.”

  “I will deliver them with your sincere greetings,” Nevis assured her, then went over to talk to Captain Shaw.

  This was good news, Maeve thought. Nevis wouldn’t be by her side the entire time. She’d be able to slip away.

  “We’re ready to set sail,” Captain Shaw announced. “All aboard!”

  “Good luck.” Luciana hugged Maeve once more.

  Ignoring the sting of tears, Maeve hurried across the gangplank. She headed straight for the quarterdeck at the back of the ship, and as the ship drifted slowly away from the pier and down the river, she waved at Luciana.

  A tear rolled down Maeve’s cheek as she realized her sister was remaining on the pier until the ship was out of sight. She wiped her cheek and squared her shoulders. This was not the time to look back, but to move forward with her life.

  She strode toward the front of the ship, and her heart began to race. Finally. She was off on her very own adventure. Brody, I’m coming! Wherever you are, I will find you. And I’ll find the Embraced army.

  An hour later, her excitement had dulled to barely veiled impatience. It had taken far too long for the ship to reach the mouth of the Ebe River and start its journey across the Great Western Ocean. And all her pacing up and down the deck had not caused the ship to sail any faster.