Beka had him sail to the small island of Monomoy. Once inhabited but now abandoned, it was home to about three thousand seals, and apparently, a number of the local Selkies. Not that most people knew about that second part, of course.
During the summer, visitors to the Cape took tours of the island, but at this time of year, they had the place to themselves. Alexei steered The Flora MacDonald into a quiet cove and he and Beka rowed the dingy into shore and settled themselves onto a couple of rocks to wait. It didn’t take long.
Two men and a woman walked out of the wind-battered trees, dressed in only jeans and tee shirts despite the cool weather. All three had straight dark hair, intense black eyes, and strong, lithe physiques. A few steps behind them were an older couple, both of them with long greenish-blonde hair, green eyes, and an odd, slightly limping walk. The Selkies and the Mer had arrived.
They all came to a stop before Alexei and Beka, and when Beka rose to meet them, they bowed in unison. Alexei and Beka bowed back. The Paranormal folk tended to have Old World manners, much more formal than the modern era they now found themselves living in. Of course, they rarely mixed with Humans, so that wasn’t so surprising.
“Baba Yaga,” the male Mer said, clearly the senior member of the greeting party. “I am Niall, and this is my mate Niamh. Our companions are Connor, Sean, and Anna, of the Selkie people. We are grateful you came.”
“Of course,” Beka inclined her head gracefully. “I am honored to come when my Selkie and Mer brothers and sisters Call me. As I’m sure you know, I have many friends in the communities of the water people back home.”
“Indeed,” Connor said. “It was they who suggested we ask for your help.” He shifted his dark eyes, as deep as the caverns of the ocean, in Alexei’s direction. “Is this not…that is, we had heard…”
“Yes I am,” Alexei said, gritting his teeth. This was why he’d stayed away from anyone Paranormal for the last year, and why he hadn’t wanted to get sucked into this particular task. He couldn’t stand the pitying way people looked at him. At least Humans just gave him strange looks because he was so large and intimidating, not for any personal reason. “And yes, it is true. I am no longer a Rider. I’m just along - ” he couldn’t say because “because Beka twisted my arm.” “I’m just here to help out an old friend, because I happened to be in the area.”
The Selkies and Merpeople bowed again. “We count ourselves fortunate that it is so,” Niall said smoothly. He glanced from Beka to Alexei and back again. “I suspect this challenge will require all the strength and magic we can muster.”
“There seems to be a monster infesting our waters,” Niamh said, twisting her hands together. “None of our people have seen it as yet, but we are hearing strange rumors from the fishermen who sail these seas, and our scouts have reported many fewer dolphins and whales than would normally be around in this season. Even the fish are disappearing, and if they don’t return, we face a hungry spring and summer.”
“I think you’re facing much worse than that,” Alexei said in a grim tone. “It is possible that your monster is a kraken.”
The Paranormals looked more resigned than shocked, as if this possibility had already occurred to them.
“You don’t seem very surprised,” Beka said, clearly having expected a bigger reaction.
Anna shrugged. “There are tales from our parents’ time that tell of such a creature infesting our waters during the age of the last pirates. The early seventeen hundreds, that would have been, as Humans measure such things.”
“What do the tales say?” Beka asked. “Perhaps they have nothing to do with our current situation, but it can’t hurt to know.”
Niall shrugged. “Supposedly there was a particularly fierce pirate who had a magical talisman that could call a kraken to do his bidding. Mind you, in the tales, all pirates were fierce. And it seems unlikely that a Human pirate could ever have controlled such a creature. But those are the tales. According to my father, both the kraken and the pirate disappeared over three hundred years ago and were never heard from again. As I said, a story told to children.”
“Hmm,” Alexei said. “Three hundred years ago would have been about the time that the high queen decreed that all Paranormals return to the Otherworld to live, excepting than those like the Selkies and the Mer who could not leave their oceans, or the tree sprites who could not abandon their trees. Did the tales you heard ever suggest that this pirate was anything other than Human?”
Niall and his companions all looked shocked.
“No, that is impossible,” Niall stuttered. “How could that be? It was a story, nothing more. Surely we would have known if it was so.”
Beka narrowed her eyes, looking pensive. “Still, that was the last time this kraken was heard of, right? That would be an interesting coincidence.”
Anna shook her head. “But that doesn’t make any sense. If, perchance, this so-called pirate really existed, and if he could actually call up and control a kraken - which seems unlikely in the extreme - and if he was a Paranormal, who was forced to retreat to the Otherworld, then why would he have suddenly reappeared now? Those who live in the Otherworld have little to do with the lands of the Humans.”
“There is that,” Beka said. “It was just a thought. Anyway, sometimes there is a grain of truth in these old stories, so perhaps you could ask some of your elders if any of them remember any other appearances of a kraken, or something that might have been mistaken for one?”
“Of course, Baba Yaga,” Niall said, and they all bowed again. “In the meanwhile, we are all grateful that you and the Black Rider are here to help.”
“I am not the Black Rider anymore,” Alexei growled. But if he was being honest, he hadn’t felt this alive since the incident with Brenna. Perhaps it would not be so bad to assist a Baba Yaga one more time. Just for the heck of it.
Beka simply ignored him. “We are happy to do what we can. We will investigate, and meet you back here in two days time, to see what information we might all have gathered.”
The Selkies and the Mer walked up and over a dune, and vanished into the trees like smoke.
“Well, this sounds a lot more interesting than cleaning up an oil spill or tracking an odd algae overgrowth back to its source,” Beka said, rubbing her hands together in satisfaction. “A possible kraken sighting after all these years, mysterious pirates, disappearing sea life - Barbara is going to be so sorry she didn’t come handle this one herself.” She chuckled. “And that’s before she finds out you’re here. Ha! I can’t wait to call her and gloat.”
Alexei rolled his eyes. “You know, it might be best to hold off on the gloating until we have actually solved the problem and discovered whether or not the vanishing sea life has anything to do with krakens, pirates, or you know, something completely innocuous, like global warming.”