“You don’t know the Ava-lee like I do. Now move over!”
He scowls but does as I say. Rather than stomping off belowdecks, he hovers behind my shoulder. Another violent jerk starts to move the ship, but I grip the helm and hold her still. Even then, one girl slips from the mast and dangles from her line. The rain is too thick for me to tell who it is. But her hands find the rope, and she pulls herself up. Another girl hurries to her along the beam and helps her to get her feet on solid wood.
“Niridia!” I shout. “All unnecessary crew are to go belowdecks!”
“Aye.” She races around the deck, shouting to everyone holding on to the railing, masts, and anything else to keep from being tossed into the ocean. Calmly, yet quickly, they head for the hatch. Enwen is the first to reach it. He hauls it open and hands the girls into the hole one by one before traveling down himself.
All the sails are tied down save the topmost square-rig on the mainmast. A larger body that can only be Riden climbs upward with a couple of the girls to secure it.
“Kearan, join the others belowdecks,” I say.
“I’m needed, Captain. I’ll stay.”
I look over my shoulder. “How are you needed?”
“If you should fall, someone else will need to take the helm.”
“You no longer care for your own safety, is that it?”
“The only person I trust at the wheel is myself. I am watching out for my own neck.”
I go back to ignoring him after that. If he’s going to start being as difficult about following orders as Riden, then he can get dragged to the ocean’s depths and I’ll say good riddance.
Wallov comes running out of the trapdoor a second later, rushing for the mainmast. A struggle up at the top drags my attention to it. Riden wrestles in the crow’s nest with something.
Another sudden pitch and the ship veers left.
Two bodies, one large and one small, fall from the mast and flail over the edge of the ship, plummeting so quickly, if I were to blink, I’d miss them.
I’ve left the helm and made it halfway to the port side when the ship starts spinning wildly in a circle, sending me down to my hands and knees. Wallov ends up plastered against the ship where the railing connects to the deck, and the force of the spinning prevents him from standing.
Another sharp twitch and I’m flung onto my back. I crane my neck to see Kearan getting the helm under control once again. I’d leapt for Roslyn and Riden before even thinking of the consequences.
The rope is stretched taut against the lip of the ship. Wallov finally finds his feet and starts pulling at the rope. Once I reach his side, I add my strength to his. We pull little Roslyn’s form back on board. She’s conscious, but she’s groaning so loudly I can hear her over the storm.
“It’ll be one hell of a bruise,” she says as she rubs at the rope under her arms.
“You watch your language,” Wallov says, but he gathers her to him in a crushing hug.
“What happened?” I ask. I grip the side of the railing tightly as my eyes search the roiling sea for Riden.
Roslyn pushes away from her father to face me. “I told him I didn’t need his rope! But he wouldn’t listen. He untied it from his waist and put it around my own.”
“You were supposed to be belowdecks along with everyone else,” Wallov says. “What were you doing?”
“I was keeping lookout. It’s even more important to have eyes on the sea during a storm. The captain needed me!”
Wallov’s face is harder than I’ve ever seen it in front of his daughter. “Because you disobeyed orders, a man is dead.”
Roslyn shivers involuntarily, but I feel my senses clearing.
“He’s not dead yet,” I say. “Get her belowdecks.”
Roslyn hangs her head, ashamed, as Wallov leads her away.
Niridia and the rest of the riggers arrive an instant later. “I’ll go in after him,” she says as she fiddles with her own rope.
“No,” I say. “It’s too dangerous.” My mind races, knowing every second we delay brings Riden closer to death. “Tie it to me.”
“What!”
“Just do it. Use a constrictor knot around my waist. I won’t be able to untie it underwater.” I don’t have to say aloud the next part. Even in my siren state. I hand her all my weapons, everything sharp. “I’ll have no choice but to return to the ship.”
“But you won’t be lucid enough to reach him.”
“I’ve done it before.” I somehow managed to save us both from Vordan by swimming us to safety.
“How?”
“I don’t know, but this is the only way he has a chance.”
She looks at me sadly as she finishes tying the rope. I know we’re both thinking the same thing.
Riden has no chance at all.
I try to rip the rope free and find it snug. “Be ready to restrain me when I get back to the ship. Have the other men stopper their ears.”
Then I dive.
As I fall, I fill my thoughts with Riden. Don’t forget. You are going into the water to save him, nothing more. You will not lose yourself. You will not become the monster.
I close my eyes as I hit the water, as if that will somehow keep me in control.
Warmth envelops me. The sea enfolds me into the world’s most gentle caress. I am one of her own, and she missed me during my long absence. And, oh, how I missed her. I am content to let her push me down, down, down, where I can rest on the ocean’s silky bottom.
But there is a disturbance in the water.
I search through the sea’s depths. I’d see better if it weren’t so dark and the waves so unsettled. As it is, I can still make out a human man. He can’t see me; he’s too concentrated on his arms and legs. As if he can master the full weight of the ocean with his limbs alone.
I watch him for a moment. If anything, he loses ground instead of gaining it. Sometimes he doesn’t even propel himself in the right direction, burying himself deeper under the waves. Soon I grow tired of watching him squirm.
Come here, sad creature, I sing, and the man turns his head in my direction. Though he can’t see me, he does his best to obey my beckoning. Every muscle in his body does what it can to bring himself closer to me. He makes better progress than he had before, now that he’s not fighting against the direction of the current. But he still moves too slowly for my pleasure. I don’t like waiting.
I swim to meet him. I’m almost there, when a force pulls tight against me. I look down and find a rope holding me back.
I tug at it, try to wriggle free, but it is far too tight and unyielding. I could take my nails to it, but the man will likely be dead before then. We won’t have nearly as much fun if he’s already dead!
Come on, then. Just a little farther!
He manages to get in one more good kick, and I reach him with my fingertips. My lips pull up into a wide smile as I bring him closer.
My, he is pretty. I stroke a finger down his cheek until it reaches his lips.
His eyes strain to see me. He relaxes suddenly as if he’s comfortable now that he’s with me. No, wait, he’s running out of air. That won’t do just yet.