She lets out a sound so inhuman, I don’t even have the words to describe it. You were meant to be with me, not to suffer! You were meant to swim with the charm, add memories to this pile of gold. To hunt for colorful shells, dance in the currents. To observe the sea life, to sing with your family, to explore every hidden crevice the ocean possesses. Our existence is a full and happy one. You were not meant to be beaten!
She composes herself, pulls me toward her in another embrace. My dear girl, he will not harm you again. Stay with me, and I will protect you.
As much as I want to believe her, to let her, even, I know I cannot. I cannot. I have those I must protect.
Your crew.
Yes.
A pause. You’re not here for me at all. You’re here for the treasure.
I want to say no, but I don’t think she would believe me. I thought you abandoned me. I thought you used me so I would free you, faked your concern for me. After I freed you, the pirate king came after me. He’s hunting me. He can’t be too far behind my ship. I thought if I could get my hands on the treasure, I could bribe his men away from him, set myself up as the pirate queen. I came here to survive. Not because I wanted to steal from you. Although, when I thought you used me, stealing from you didn’t seem like such a bad thing.
Her face softens at my words. I do not have concern for you. I love you, Alosa-lina. The way she sings the last part of my name, it fills the room with truth, with power. It’s impossible for me to doubt. Mere concern is nothing compared to what I feel for my own flesh and blood. You are mine. Mine to protect and care for. I already know you are fierce and powerful, and I cannot wait to get to know you better.
My limbs tremble as she holds me, knowing every word she speaks is true.
But first, she says, you must make yourself and your friends safe. Take as much gold as you need from here. Go set up your regime. I will wait for you.
My relief sags through me. Thank you.
The charm will not harm you nor your crew.
Even the men? I ask.
Even them. Now go. Bring your ship to this position. The charm will help you carry the gold that isn’t claimed by living sirens.
It’s almost too good to be true, but I cannot doubt her words. Not the way she speaks them.
To go from such hate and disgust toward my mother, to suddenly being filled with love and understanding. It nearly undoes me. I cannot believe all that has happened.
Yet there is still so much to do.
I will come back after I and my crew are safe. I promise, I tell her.
Good. Now go. The sooner you leave, the sooner you can return.
*
I wish there were more time. My mother is no mindless beast. She is a siren, true to her nature, but that does not make her a monster. She is deadly and ruthless, but so am I. A new future opens up before me. One in which I know my mother. I visit her. We are different, and I can never abandon my human nature, but there is something for us. Where before there was nothing, now there is hope.
And my fury toward my father burns only brighter for his keeping her from me. But beneath that fury, there is still fear. He’s right behind us, could come upon us at any moment. My ship has kept a lead, but he has those sweep oars. For all I know he’s worked his men half to death to catch up.
I swim back for my ship. For the Ava-lee. I suppose there is no need to rename her after all.
Niridia’s left a rope for me. It hangs down into the water. I grab it and effortlessly hoist myself onto the ship, taking in the water as I go.
When I reach the deck, I find it empty.
My heart plummets. I told them not to go ashore. Made that perfectly clear. And I told them to keep watch. The ship is never unattended. Something is very wrong.
The railing is chipped and broken in places on the port side. Grappling hooks? I search the water on that side, opposite from the way I came. Wood scraps float on the water’s surface. Blown-apart rowboats? Did something come aboard from the island and run off with my entire crew? I didn’t even think to ask my mother what lived on this island in all the emotions of seeing her again.
I don’t have any weapons except my dagger. I go to my rooms first.
He’s waiting for me there.
“Alosa.”
The voice is deep and curt, swift and piercing all at once. It is the voice of pain, the voice of violence, the voice of terror.
My father’s voice.
Chapter 20
DREAD SEIZES EVERY MUSCLE in my body for a full second.
“Where have you been hiding?” Father asks. “My men searched the ship thoroughly.”
My mind races. Did he see me in the water? Is he trying to get me to admit something? Where is my crew? What has he done to them?
“I went ashore,” I lie smoothly.
“Good, you can show us where the treasure is.”
Several of his men stand behind him, hands resting against their sword hilts. Tylon is among them.
“Don’t bother trying to sing. Their ears are covered,” Father says. I’m only mildly surprised he would risk himself by not covering his own ears. But then I attribute it to his own arrogance. As soon as he is done with me, he will cover them and move on with his plans. It’s probably too much to hope for the charm to start singing again.
“I’m giving Tylon your ship, since you ruined his.”
“Ruined? I sank it. Where is my crew?”
“They’re below, waiting for you. Why don’t we go see them?” His tone replaces the blood in my veins with ice. What has he done to them?
Tylon’s men draw their swords at some unheard command. There are over ten of them crammed into my modestly sized room. Were my father not here, I might attempt to fight my way through them. But with him here, I know I don’t stand a chance.
And I need to see my crew. Horrid images flash in my mind. Images of them already bloodied and dead. It would be like him to kill them all and lock me up in the brig with nothing but corpses of all my loved ones for company.
But when we get down there, I am not met with death. My crew is safe for now, but locked in the cells, with even more of my father’s men stationed to watch them.
“Captain,” Niridia says with relief. Mandsy is in the cell with her. Sorinda, Riden, Kearan, Enwen, and the others are spread throughout all the cells in the brig.
“Quiet,” my father barks out before turning to me. “Where’s the treasure, Alosa?”
“I didn’t find it.”
My father draws his pistol and points it at me. I stare at it, unblinking.
“I don’t care what you do to me.”
“I thought not,” he says, and rotates his arm slightly to the right, to one of the other cells.
Before I can scream, he pulls the trigger. Niridia’s leg buckles, forcing her to the ground, blood seeping through a hole in the leggings over her knee.
I stare at the red spreading across the floor, trying to make sense of it, pressing myself against my father’s men to reach her.
Another shot fires.
My gaze snaps back up to my father. He has out a new pistol, smoke coalescing from it. Reona, one of my riggers, jerks to the right and falls.
Father pulls out a third pistol.
“Father, stop it!”
He ignores me. A change is coming over him. Maiming them isn’t enough now. He’s angrier with me than I’ve ever seen him. I know that the next shot will claim a life.