In their place is conviction. A promise. As one they sing a song so powerful it brings tears to my eyes. It’s a battle cry made of pure, heavenly song. The ships above shift from the force of it.
I show them their advantages over men—what they can do to subdue them—
And then we ascend.
*
When my head breaks the water, I sing and pull the moisture into me, drying as I drag myself back up the side of the Dragon’s Skull. I peek my head over the lip of the ship. My crew has been tied to the mainmast, bunched together under layers of rope. Some five men stand facing them, making sure no one leaves.
A soaked Riden is tied up with the others. He had no choice but to return to the ship and be taken captive once more until I returned. Sorinda, I can see, has already managed to free her hands without attracting the attention of the guards. Mandsy is opposite her, head slumped against the mast, only knocked out, I’m sure. Radita wriggles her shoulders, and a pirate advances on her with his sword raised.
“Stop that,” he says, “or I’ll run you through.”
She gives him a look to say exactly where he can stick his sword.
He steps forward, catching a lock of her hair on his cutlass and holding it up to the light. “Captain says we can do what we want with you lot once we start sailing again, so long as you’re all still alive once we reach the keep. I’m going to start with you.” He puckers his lips at her and laughs, gliding his sword along her cheek now as though it’s a caress.
No one lays a finger on my girls.
He’s the first to go. With his back to me, he can’t see me come up behind him, can’t see me reach for his sword. With one hand at his wrist and the other just below his shoulder, I bring the whole arm down on my knee, ignoring the spasm of pain that erupts in my injured arm at the movement. The resulting crack is a fierce drum beat adding to the music of my sister sirens. I take his sword and rake it across his throat.
The struggle is enough to get the attention of the other guards. Before they can reach me, I toss the cutlass to Sorinda, who catches it easily and frees herself and the others.
One of my father’s men rushes below for help. I start on the rest. Riden offers up a smile before leaping onto the nearest guard and taking his sword from him. I kick another’s legs out from under him and stake him to the deck with his own cutlass through his chest.
By the time we’ve finished with the guards, my father has made an appearance once again, the massive forces of his men lined up behind him. His side is bandaged now; his hand holds his sword once more.
He doesn’t appear surprised, only more enraged.
“You don’t know when to quit, girl. You’re just as outnumbered as before. This fight will not have a different outcome.”
A scream rises in the air. First one, then another, and another. They’re distant, traveling to us from other ships in the fleet. My father looks around, but he can see nothing from where he stands. His men still cannot hear a thing. They haven’t a clue that anything is amiss.
Until the sirens pour onto the deck. Hundreds. As many as will fit.
Water falls off them in waves, dribbling down their long locks and smooth bodies, soaking the deck instantly. A line of sirens go down as my father’s spooked men fire off shots, but they are helpless against the superior numbers. The sirens trample them underfoot. They force them off the edges of the ship and into the water. They fight alongside my crew, sending souls to the stars right and left.
I’ve never known Kalligan to run from danger, but he races for higher ground at the sight of all those sirens on his ship. He climbs the rigging, leaving his men to fend for themselves. And I realize then just how much he must fear death. He’s been in a position of power and security for so long, I wonder if he’d forgotten what it was to be afraid. And now he has no need to worry about being seen as weak. None of his men will live to speak of it.
I leave him for now. My priority is my mother.
I cut a line through the masses, taking down the pirates in my path, assisting the sirens who need it. Eventually I make it to my father’s rooms.
She is right where I left her.
First I take out the gag.
She coughs twice and swallows deeply. “You’ve saved me again.”
“It’s my fault he found you again. I’m the one who tracked down the map pieces for him.” I use a borrowed cutlass to work at sawing through the thick ropes at her wrists.
“Is he dead?” she asks. It’s the fiercest tone I’ve heard her voice take.
“Not yet. He’s hiding from the fight.”
*
The battle is over only minutes after it began. The sirens made quick work of the pirates. They’ve already taken back to the water by the time I get my mother out in the open air. I’m surprised she doesn’t join them immediately. Instead, she stares purposefully at the mainmast, where Kalligan stands on the beam below the highest sail.
“You’ve lost,” I shout up to him.
“I haven’t lost until a sword plunges into my heart,” he calls back.
“Mandsy, find me a saw,” I say. “If our beloved king won’t come down of his own free will, we’ll have to hack down his throne.”
A loud clang sounds. It’s my father’s sword hitting the deck.
The purest sign of defeat.
He’s no fool. He knows he’s lost. He has no power over me. My crew and I are finally safe.
His feet follow, and everyone on the ship quiets, watching him. “Now what?” he asks as he rises to his full height. “Am I to face a firing squad? Be imprisoned till the day I die? You don’t have—”
His words are stopped by a fiery-red blur crashing into him. They crack through the wooden railing and topple off the side of the ship, a tangle of limbs and hair and my father’s shouts.
As soon as they hit the water, I know I will not see my father alive again.
The water churns violently as Kalligan tries to claw his way to the surface. There’s a muffled, watery scream, a sound I’ve never heard him make before. My mother pulls him deeper. The water folds into place as their dark shadows fall away.
One,
two,
three bubbles.
And all is still.
The pirate king’s reign has come to an end.
*
The cheering is ear-shattering. It mixes with the songs of hundreds of sirens, shaking the ship from under the water. The girls rush one another, tangling themselves in ferocious hugs. We’re alive. We’re still alive and the king is dead.
For one, brief moment, I mourn the man I thought my father to be. I mourn the rare embraces, the words of comfort and encouragement. I mourn the man who taught me to fight. Who set an example of leadership. Who showed me the joys to be had in a life on the sea.
I mourn him, and then I remember the ultimate choice he made. He wanted control and power. Nothing more. He did not know how to love, only to use what he had to get what he wanted.
So I mourn the man I once believed my father to be.