The Siren Princess

by Lichelle Slater

  I inclined my head. “You are Captain Josiah?”

  “Aye.”

  “Where is your proof?” I glanced at the few crew members on board.

  One was a cabin boy, tying back some sail rope, and another man stood up at the front of the ship looking over the edge. It appeared as if he were checking the cannon doors.

  “Aye, boy!”

  The cabin boy, a lad probably ten years of age, lifted his head. “Cap’n?” he asked.

  Josiah gestured a beefy hand. “Proof enough?”

  I folded my arms. If I weren’t so desperate, I would have said no.

  Josiah picked out a large date and popped it in his mouth.

  I finally conceded. “I want to go after the summer stone.”

  He blinked.

  I didn’t budge.

  He shifted his gaze beyond me, likely taking in the reactions of the other two on deck. He frowned. “Ye can’t just go find it. Don’t the rumors say somethin’ about King Eric havin’ it?”

  “I know where to look.”

  “And where is that?”

  “I’m not telling you until your crew is on board and we are on the open ocean.” I knew I was gambling because Josiah was right. According to my mother, the king of Terricina was in possession, and Josiah didn’t need to help me.

  “Ye drive a hard bargain.” He picked another date. “My payment?”

  “We will discuss that later. You likely heard of the plunder I brought back with me only yesterday?” I raised my eyebrow. “I shall pay you when we return.”

  He wagged his finger at me. “Not so fast, dearie. I want yer pearl as payment.”

  I reached up and wrapped my fingers around my newly obtained treasure. I shouldn’t have felt so possessive of it, it wasn’t as though it held any significance. I’d merely gotten lucky enough to find the right oyster.

  “No,” I said with finality. “I’ll pay you in gemstones or coins.”

  “Then no deal.” He shoved another date in his mouth. His fingers looked like dates. Fat and wrinkled. They barely even had nails on them. He was starting to annoy me.

  I let out a soft scoff. “I suppose you don’t get to share in the glory when my mother receives the only piece of treasure she’s ever searched for. I bet Captain Pan would be willing to share in the glory. Could you imagine how famous he would become? A new pirate captain returning from his first voyage with the most precious gemstone in the sea . . .” As I spoke, I headed slowly back toward the gangplank.

  “Now, you wait here.” Josiah got to his feet quickly. “Yer gonna go to Barrie’s kid?”

  I gestured my arm toward the fantastic vessel. “He’s got a full belly of supplies, his crew is eager, and it appears everyone is already on board. If I made this deal with him, do you think he would turn it down?”

  “Why did ye come to me, then?”

  “Because I hate him, and I didn’t want to have to use him, but . . . here we are.” I sighed. I set my foot on the ramp.

  “You promise the pirate queen truly wants this gemstone?”

  “Well, I certainly have no need for it.”

  “All right.” He inhaled through his nose, sucking in a wad of snot, then turned his head and spat it over the railing into the ocean below. “We might have an extra hammock below. We leave at dawn.”

  “No!” I blurted, then plastered a smile on my face to cover my nearly yelling at him. “I mean, we should go now. Before anyone else has time to catch wind of where we are headed. We don’t want them getting there first.”

  “Aye, good idea.” He tapped the side of his nose. “Solomon. Go fetch the crew. Wake ’em up and tell ’em we’re leaving immediately.”

  The cabin boy didn’t hesitate to scamper below deck.

  The pirates weren’t happy to be woken and spat curses at the boy, but realized he was serious when they noticed me putting my pack in an available hammock. I heard a few of them mumble about me being on board, but they headed above deck, and we set to work preparing the ship for sail as ordered.

  Sails were lowered, the gangplank dragged up, anchor retrieved from the waters, and ropes tied off. However, every time I attempted to grab a rope and do my share, a pirate stepped up and took it from me.

  I found myself standing to the side, glowering at the pirates as they finished their responsibilities.

  Gradually, we made our way through the bay. As we drew nearer to James’s ship, I saw people on the deck. Someone played music and a small group of men sang loudly. I leaned on the railing, trying to spot Sky. I finally did, and my heart ached a little to be leaving him when I’d just barely returned. But I was still mad at him.

  He stood on the quarterdeck, dancing. He’d always thought he was a great dancer, and he always managed to make me laugh. In fact, I was smiling as I watched him. Until Lilly, the smithy’s daughter, approached. He swooped her up in his arms and danced around the deck.

  My jaw clenched.

  I tore my gaze away and spotted James leaning his backside against a crate with a pan flute in his hand. He turned his face toward me so slowly, I wondered if he’d sensed me staring at him. Time seemed to slow with the movement.

  I blinked and saw the side of his face bleeding, his face twisted in a grimace.

  I blinked again, and he was completely normal.

  James watched me with his stunning brown eyes. He lowered the flute, shifted his gaze from me to the ship, then over to the captain and back before he climbed to his feet and walked to the edge of the deck. “Where’re you headed?”

  “You’d like to know, but I’m not going to tell,” I called back with a satisfied smirk.

  “You do know what ship you’re on?” He glanced away from me again.

  I shrugged. “Some of us weren’t gifted a shiny new boat.” I pressed fingers to my lips and blew him a kiss. “We’ll see if you get to keep that ship of yours when I get back.”

  He arched his brow.

  A young man I didn’t recognize approached James. “You must be Captain Pan?” He wore light trousers, a vest buckled to the neck, and a brown overcoat. The crevasse on his neck made him look like he was trying too hard to fit into our pirate culture. It was too crisp. New.

  “Aye.” James turned to address him.

  “I’m Gerard.” He extended his hand and they shook hands.

  My ship drifted too far away for me to hear the rest of the exchange, but I shrugged and returned my attention to the sea ahead. My heart leapt with excitement at the thought that I would soon return victorious.

  When we got out to sea, Captain Josiah turned to me. “All right. Where we heading, lass?”

  “Head east along the coast.”

  “That’s not much to go on.” He frowned.

  None of them would be too happy if I said we were heading to Terricina’s capital city, Delphi, miles down the coast. I couldn’t reveal my hand too soon. Pirates were completely illegal.

  “I’ll tell you when we’re further out to sea. Good evening.” I trotted down the steps and wound my way through the hammocks to the one I’d chosen a few minutes earlier.

  The ship was filthy. By nature, most ships were, but at least Captain Avery made his crew clean everything once a month. Even the hammocks got washed to prevent them from rotting. I hadn’t considered other captains wouldn’t keep their ships in tip-top shape. I’d always been taught it was an honor to be on a vessel and every captain should treat their ship likewise. I frowned at “my” hammock, understanding very well why it wasn’t occupied.

  I climbed onto the brown fabric, praying the frayed strip by my knee wouldn’t give in the middle of the night. I did my best to fall asleep.

  In a few days, I would be a captain. If I didn’t get lice first.

  six

  Delaying information was going to get me killed.


  At breakfast, Captain Josiah asked me where we were headed.

  We’d made it past the tip of Corinth and were headed up its eastern edge toward the Port of Gillsberry. It would still be a few days before we reached Delphi.

  I was able to satisfy the question by saying, “If I tell you in front of your men . . .” and let it hang. But as soon as we were away from the men after eating our afternoon meal, he took my arm and pulled me aside.

  “As the captain, your captain, you need to tell me where, exactly, we be going.”

  I shrugged off his sweaty grip. “I need to go to the capital of Terricina. To Delphi.”

  “Delphi?” he squeaked. “Are ye crazy?”

  “I have to get there because the king knows where the stone is.”

  “And what’s yer plan? Walk in and ask if he’s got it?” He threw his arms up in the air. “Yer a pirate, lass. Pirates are outlawed. We set foot in that city, they’ll lock us up. None of my crew are riskin’ their freedom on this quest.” He started away. “We’re goin’ back.”

  “No!” I ran after him. “Captain Josiah, you don’t have to disembark. I’ll go alone.”

  “We can’t even get close to that port! Think about it. We pull up flyin’ a skull and crossbones, and we’re good as dead.”

  “Then we take down the Jolly Rodger.”

  He wasn’t convinced.

  “Then we go to Gillsberry, and I’ll walk there! Please. This is the only way I can prove to my mother that I’m skilled enough to be a captain.”

  Josiah stopped and looked at me. “Part of bein’ a captain is knowin’ yer limits. Knowin’ laws. This is a law, little miss. We ain’t riskin’ it.” He turned to his first mate. “Turn the ship around,” he called.

  “If you turn around, I’m jumping overboard.”

  He looked over his shoulder at me, then at the expanse of ocean surrounding us. “That would be suicide.”

  My mind raced. “James saw me on your ship. If you return without me, he’ll tell my mother you murdered me, and you’ll be hanged.”

  “And ye’ll be dead too.”

  He had an unfortunate point. My jumping overboard wouldn’t help my situation at all. “Put me in the rowboat, then!” I gestured to the one sitting on the starboard side of the ship. “I’ll row to shore and go from there.”

  He shook his head. “Yer crazy.”

  “Desperate,” I corrected.

  He stared and then rolled his eyes. “Then take the rowboat. Joshua, go get her pack. Storm and Row, lower the rowboat. The faster yer off this ship, the better.”

  Two men stopped what they were doing and walked to the rowboat. They must have overheard our conversation because neither questioned the captain as they lowered the boat into the ocean.

  I didn’t know what to do. My lifelong vow of not hesitating had put me in a sticky position.

  Captain Josiah was turning the ship around. I didn’t know exactly where in the ocean we were, and trying to get to shore in a rowboat was as foolish an idea as it sounded. I doubted Josiah would give me provisions either.

  I had to get the summer stone. If I stayed on board and returned back in Port Mere, I would be returned to my mother like a foolish child, and she would never allow me to own a captain’s hat until I was at least forty! It wasn’t like I could just jump on the next ship and hope that crew would risk their lives.

  It was up to me.

  A rowboat it was.

  I dropped my pack onto the tiny boat, which banged and bumped against the side of the ship in the rolling waves.

  “Yer sure ye want to do this?” Josiah asked as I lowered myself down.

  “You won’t take me, so yes. I have no other choice.” I grabbed the oars.

  “Head that direction.” He pointed. “That’s north. Ye know how to navigate?”

  “Of course I do.” I heaved the oars through the water, pulling away from the boat, only to be forced back to it, then another wave came and pulled me away. I used the momentum to gain some ground but realized just how difficult it would be.

  Captain Josiah shook his head at me. “I hope to see you again, miss.”

  With effort, and luckily some help from the ocean current, I was able to pull away from the ship. I watched it sail away, the movement so subtle that it appeared as if it weren’t moving at all until it was far enough away and there was no turning back.

  I had made a very foolish decision.

  Within the hour, my shoulders burned with the effort of rowing to shore, and I still had hours to go. No matter how many times I looked over my shoulder, it didn’t bring the horizon any closer.

  The sun beat down.

  The waves seemed to fight me.

  And my hands blistered.

  I kept my head down as I rowed, focused on keeping my breathing level. Even with my hat shielding me, the sun burned. This was probably the most foolish thing I’d done in my entire life. All I could hear was the wind in my ears and the waves splashing against my small, poor excuse of a boat.

  My mother might not have wanted me to captain my own ship, and I might have felt like she was wrong, but I was certainly a fool to be rowing to shore. If I wasn’t careful, my anger and desire to prove my worth to my mother was going to get me killed.

  Something about the water changed at the same time a gust of wind blew my hat off my head. I reached up and snatched it before it disappeared into the ocean.

  My eyes locked on the black sky in the distance. It wasn’t darkness from the setting sun but an incoming storm.

  My stomach sank with dread.

  I glanced over my shoulder and thought I could see a mountain peak on the edge of the horizon. I was still several hours from shore, and the storm was moving fast.

  I was in trouble.

  I tried to tap into the small reservoir of strength I had left and rowed with all my might. Lightning flashed, and I slowly counted. One. Two. Three . . . until I got to eleven when I heard the thunder.

  The storm was eleven miles away.

  I couldn’t gauge how far away I was from shore. The same distance? Who knew?

  But I didn’t have a chance of outrunning it.

  I gritted my teeth against the pain in my hands and ache in my shoulders. It didn’t feel as though I’d moved a foot, let alone miles, when the storm’s waves reached me. I pulled on my pack and placed the oars inside the boat, knowing it was pointless to fight the sea. The rough waves tossed, and I lay down on my side.

  As a child, I remembered storms never scared me on land, but being on the sea was completely different. And being in a rowboat, I was completely terrified.

  My heart pounded, and goosebumps rose on my body. I covered my ears, feeling very small and insignificant being heaved about in the enormous swells.

  I suddenly found myself feeling something I’d felt a few months earlier, at Castle Bay.

  Hopelessness.

  As the waves attacked my tiny boat, I recalled being in the ocean, beneath the waves, being dragged by a current I couldn’t fight.

  Had that been what my mother meant when she said I almost died?

  No, it was something beyond that. And like so many times before, I saw a flash of memory of myself standing in front of an abandoned shed in the middle of the night. Another flash of lightning and the memory snapped away.

  Rain pelted my exposed body. My small boat was at the mercy of the sea. I was completely useless against it. My stomach lurched as my boat dived down one wave and was dragged up another. Water started to pour in, and then the rain increased, striking me with such force it stung. Soaked to the bone already, I curled up and held onto myself, praying to the ocean that it would allow me to survive.

  I wondered if anyone would miss me when I was gone. Would they even know I had drowned? Or would they assume I made it to land? How long would
it take for them to realize I wouldn’t be returning home? With the way the pirates had avoided me, I doubted it.

  A wave lifted the boat, and I cried out before plunging into the waters. Tossing and turning as I rolled with the waves, I couldn’t find any sense of direction until I surfaced just as unexpectedly as I’d been flipped.

  I gasped for breath.

  Another wave came toward me, and I swam for it, hoping to ride it instead of getting buried by it. I’d heard that the sea could be calm under the waves, but I would need to be a whale!

  Or a siren . . .

  The thought hit me at the same time as the wave.

  It carried me while my mind raced. I tried to look through the storm to gain some bearing, but it was impossible through the curtain of rain and the sky the same color as the angry waters.

  If my hallucination from a few days ago was real . . . I might actually be able to survive the storm.

  I couldn’t decide whether to risk it, to plunge under the waves and try to summon the transformation. I didn’t have enough time to recall all the siren lore or to weigh the dangers and advantages of me becoming a siren.

  The sea chose for me, sinking me again as two waves collided. Only, this time, I focused on my body. If I was going to survive this storm, I had no choice. I had to transform.

  But one thing was certain—if I became a siren, I wasn’t losing my new boots.

  I tugged them off as quickly as I could manage and hugged them to my chest, and wiggled my boot dagger holster off and shoved it inside of one of my boots. My toes felt the cold water for the first time as I kicked forward. I tried to summon whatever it had been that caused me to start to change last time.

  I recalled panic as I was about to drown. Fear from seeing the sirens. And determination to survive.

  It was that determination I clung to.

  Come on, fins! Appear or whatever I have to say! I thought.

  Almost instantly, I gulped in a breath. And I smiled to myself in relief. I reached up with one hand and felt the frilled gills on the sides of my neck. I looked down at my body and saw the glittering scales of a fish-like fin. I couldn’t see the colors in the dark water, but I didn’t care. I needed to get to shore, or at least near it enough to be safe.