Ilior shook his head at Selena. She squeezed his arm and then stepped to the rail. The two dolphin-tailed merkind dove backwards into the water to make space for her. She peered down.
The mermaid, the Ere’k’aaii, was the most beautiful thing Selena had ever seen. Her face was exquisite and wholly human, with large gold eyes, and smooth skin that glinted in the morning light. Around her neck and down the front of her torso were striped frills in brown and gold, like that of a lionfish. They shivered in the cold and Selena saw the mermaid’s gills opening and closing, as a fish does when out of water.
The mermaid regarded Selena with those enormous eyes for a moment, and then dove under the surface for a breath. The length of her body and her tail were covered in the same striped frills, as though she wore a delicate ruffled dress. She resurfaced and when she spoke it was in a voice so thickly accented, Selena could hardly make out the words.
“You sicken my people and steal their alk’iir.” The lionfish mermaid passed a delicate hand in front of her eyes. “Gone. Where do you keep their alk’iir? The…” She searched for the words. “The light behind their eyes?”
“We’ve stolen nothing,” Selena said. “I promise you, I have not the magic to corrupt your people, nor the intent. We are not enemies.”
The lionfish mermaid dove below the surface and then reemerged. She pointed one slender arm laced with striped frills. “Sirrak’ah, from the sky where there is no stars. It shares your vessel. It is you.”
“I wield the magic of the Shining face,” Selena protested. She spoke faster, panic rising, as the mermaid looked implacable. “It’s the Shadow face, the Bazira. They have harmed you, not us. Please…”
The mermaid regarded her with pity in her luminous eyes. “You will sail no more. You will hurt us no more.”
“What do you mean?” Selena gripped the rail. “Please, listen to me. We’ve been attacked before—”
“Say goodbye to the sun. Now, you will live below.”
“What did she say?” Julian demanded from behind her, his voice edged with fear.
“She said we’re guilty,” Selena whispered. She beseeched the mermaid. “You must listen. We were attacked by your people. By others, who have had the…the alk’iir…the light from behind their eyes, stolen. There was another ship—”
“We see no other ship,” the merman on the prow said. “We see your sirrak throw our sister over the side of your ship as if she were…” He paused for the word in Tradespeak. “Trash.” He held up a hand when Selena tried to protest. “The Ere’k’aakii has spoken.”
He made a barking call to his brethren and the merkind on the gunwales dove into the water. Two mermen carried the lionfish mermaid backwards, away from the Black Storm. The entire merkind school did the same, swimming some distance away but none went below the surface. They seemed to be waiting.
“They’re leaving,” Niven said. “That’s good. Right?”
“No,” Selena said. “It’s not good.”
“Why not? What are they going to do?” Niven cried. “A maelstrom? Like in the stories? Those aren’t true,” he said with rising panic. “They can’t possibly be true! We didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Shut your bloody mouth,” Julian snarled, and then his face drained of blood. “Gods no,” he breathed, watching the merkind take formation, ringing around his ship. He gripped the rail of the Black Storm as if he could lift her out of the water.
“All hands! Loose the lines! Furl the sails! Main and fore, first! Bloody smartly now!”
He slipped out of his long coat and climbed up the mainmast. Spit followed him up and the two of them began taking in the mainsail. On the foremast, Grunt, Cur and Whistle were doing the same. Below, Cat dashed between the main and foremast, untying knots, one after the other.
The crew worked with a speed born of fear, but even Selena, who was no sailor, knew the futility. And the danger. Every single sail on the Black Storm was unfurled so that the slightest gust of wind could be captured. In a tempest, full sails could capsize a ship, or at the very least, snap their masts. There wasn’t enough time or enough crew to bring in every sail. Not by half.
“You should have let me…” Svoz ran his fingers along the length of his staff and gave Selena a meaningful look.
“Help them!” she cried, and gripped the portside shrouds and watched as the lionfish mermaid raised her frilled arms. The Ere’k’aakii made a swooping, circular motion, and then raised both hands in the air. She held them there for half a heartbeat and then let them drop. The merkind around her threw their heads back, opened their mouths, and began to sing.
The sea that had been still as glass for three days began to churn.
A slow current turned with the merkind’s slow chant. Swells rose as their voices did, moving in a curved path between them and the Black Storm. The ship began to turn, its bowsprit following the arc of the water. The merkind’s song became a roar, and the wind that had been absent roared down with it.
“What’s happening?” Niven begged Selena.
Her heart ached for his fear, but her own was threatening to undo her. “Hold on, Niven. Take ahold of something and don’t let go.”
From above, Julian screamed at his crew. “Get down! Get down!”
They all clambered down from the yards but the topsails on the main and foremasts were still unfurled and billowing, straining now against the wind, as were the three staysails at the prow. The big main and foresails were furled but rigging hung from every spar, dangling and then blowing horizontal in the strengthening gale like hangmen’s rope.
Selena was thrown to her knees and lifted her head in time to see the sheet torn from Cur’s hands as he was endeavoring to tie it off. It scraped the skin off his palms, and sent the spanker boom swinging across the quarterdeck. Selena followed its path, a cry in her throat. Cat had taken the helm. She ducked under the boom, and stayed at her post with grim determination, leaning into the wheel in a futile effort to turn it against the current.
Selena scrambled to her feet and hurried up the ladder to the quarterdeck to help her but Julian was faster. He caught the boom as it started to swing back the other way and was pushed to the rail. Selena grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him back or he would have gone over. He swung back with the boom and she helped him hold it until Cur, down on the main deck, could tie it down.
The merkind’s song filled the air, growing louder until it was a deafening, a keening chorus of wails that were laden with magic. The merkind voices turned the placid sea into a swirling maelstrom of legend.
The Black Storm canted sharply to starboard and stayed there, riding the lip of the maelstrom.