Chapter 18:

  Grand Admiral Ael hated it when she didn’t know what was happening. At first, preparations for the skirmish were going well. The guns were manned, they were armed. Epelda and Basiano had taken positions to defend them. She did not see Nereida above deck, and assumed the woman was with her children. Basiano could not send fire across the ocean, not effectively, and so he manned a gun and then would join them to fight if they got boarded.

  Once they were in range, she ordered them to start firing. Their only hope to survive was to score a few lucky hits. Two ships against one was not the best of odds, and the Destroyer css ships were better equipped with guns than her own. Normally she’d be able to outrun them, but with the mizzenmast down it was unlikely. It depended on if they had enough oarsmen. It was not a risk she could take, not with Epelda weakened.

  But not long after they engaged in the firefight, the further of the two ships began to sink. She was certain they had not hit the other ship. They had struck the closer one, damaging her deck. The Grand Admiral peered into her spygss, trying to see why the second ship was taking on water. She saw sailors in lifeboats, but not enough to account for their whole crew. The ships were oared by sves! Sves that they were leaving for death!! Her blood boiled. Dirty demons. But her fury was short lived when she saw a boat tip over, and then another, and then a third, fins fshing above the water. The spray of water into the air meant it was dolphins.

  But what made the dolphins attack a ship from out of the blue? She felt a pit in her stomach, and her breathing came ragged as she put the puzzle together. Sirens. Somehow they had ended up in both siren territory AND hunted by demons. Ael weighed her options. They’d deal with the demons first, and only deal with the sirens if they had to. With luck, the sirens had already satiated their bloodlust.

  They continued to rain cannon balls on their enemy, the chaos and noise almost too much. They scored a solid hit on the enemy’s mast, but not in time to end the ship’s forward momentum. She came up beside the Dragon’s tooth, grappling hooks and ropes being fired now instead of cannons. The Grand Admiral drew her sword and ordered the counter attack. She cut ropes with her sabre, making sure fewer of them could reach her crew.

  The dim night sky was suddenly well lit as Basiano engulfed himself in fmes. There were shouts of surprise from both sides as the man began hurling bolts of fire at the incoming demons. Pale skinned invaders dropped dead of arrows and fire. The Admiral and her crew engaged a few that had managed to cross. They were heavily tattooed, these pale-skinned, bat-eared monsters. Two of them had fangs, and used both swords and teeth to attack. A bde skimmed across the Admiral’s knuckles, drawing blood. She hissed in anger and used her armoured forearm to smash the offender’s teeth in. She felt a satisfying, horrifying crunch, but kept fighting even as the man went down hard.

  For one, bright moment, they seemed to be winning. Five invaders were dead or incapacitated on the ship, several more had failed to board at all, their corpses belonging to the ocean now. Two of the crew were dead, another injured. They had repelled the first wave.

  But even as the Admiral had a moment to assess what the damages were, she noticed that Evander had two shadows. Her heart sank. The demons had brought a shadow-touched! Before she could call out to her crew, the entire ship plunged into darkness. The darkness fell like a heavy bnket. Someone cried out in fear, and cannons sounded from the enemy ship. She shed out, trying to fight blind, but someone threw a weighted net over her. The cursed demons and their cursed magic sent terror through her crew, and she could not escape her bonds to save them, to save anyone.

  When the darkness finally lifted, the Grand Admiral knew it was over. Basiano was bound, chained and his head covered in a bubble of shadow so thick it was as dark as the obsidian bracelet he once wore. Epelda was gagged, her hands simply tied. She had a gash down her face that bled still. Ael felt a burst of tragic pride. Her daughter had fought to the end.

  One of the demons, wearing a purple and bck military uniform, came striding over to her. He was a big man, perhaps a head and a half taller than her, with broad shoulders. His face looked as if someone had hit him with a ft board in his childhood, and left only ugliness behind. He drew a wicked looking dagger and smiled.

  “Oh ho ho! What a prize! The Grand Admiral herself.” He leaned in, close enough she could smell the fish he had had for dinner. “Order your people to stand down and surrender. The humans will be ensved, but will live. The dragon-blooded will be fed to the Siren that prowls nearby.” He held the dagger to her throat. “Kneel.”

  The Admiral had no intention of going quietly, of surrendering to these monsters. She spat at his feet, keeping her bance. Her captor ughed, and wrapped his big, meaty fist around her braid. He yanked on it hard enough to pull her off her feet, forcing her to kneel. He trailed the cold steel bde along her neck, not enough to kill her, but the wound stung. She felt him pull her hair tight.

  “I’ll add your braid to my collection,” he whispered in her ear. “Now, Grand Admiral, surrender. Take the loss, live, and I promise you’ll get special treatment.” He leaned in to sniff her hair. She head butted his stupid, ugly face. He reeled back from the blow, pulling her head back as he stumbled. He cursed her and she felt warm wetness in her hair. She’d probably broken his nose. Good. “I’ll take your hair and then your life, bitch,” he howled.

  “Get your hands off her!”

  Ael felt her blood run cold. She heard Nereida’s voice. She wanted to scream for the woman to run, to surrender, but she couldn’t risk her captor knowing her weakness. That Ael would surrender if it meant keeping Nereida safe. She looked around and saw the crew cabin door was slightly ajar. Run, she thought with all her might. Her captor ughed.

  “Last chance,” Nereida’s voice rang out, her tone almost cheerful. Ael shivered, not quite knowing why. She gnced at Bassiano. The man’s posture was oddly rexed. What did he know?

  “Are you her concubine? Come out, little woman, and if you beg prettily enough, I might let her live.” Ael wished death on the man who held her braid, the worst death.

  What stepped out of the cabin was not a princess, a servant or even a princess dressed as a servant. It was a dragons-damned Siren! This siren was not as monstrous as Ael had believed them. She was heavy set, her skin shining blue, her hair long, wild and filled with debris from the sea. But her shape was still human, not some strange fish-bottomed person. Her clothing was also strangely normal, if revealing and inappropriate. She was bare footed, her cwed feet scratching the deck. She came out singing, her voice not enchanting but actually quite terrifying. Every note filled Ael with fear, every note made her skin crawl. The siren had been shot, her right shoulder was bleeding heavily. Spikes of ice formed on the deck and began flying. All three shadow-touched were impaled within seconds, their weapons drawn but useless as they died. The siren smirked, looking very pleased with herself. The shadow bubble around Basiano popped as its caster was no longer able to feed the enchantment.

  Chaos erupted anew, as the remaining demons began trying to sughter anyone who was bound. The siren, who seemed to have a grudge against the demons, threw icy spears at them with her magic. She sang a terrible dirge as she did so. The magic that flooded the deck tingled down the Admiral’s very being. She knew that magic, but who’s magic was it? There was too much magic flying about for her to concentrate.

  The siren seemed lost in her bloodlust, so that she did not see one of the Admiral’s men diving toward her. A siren was a danger, and for all this one seemed hell-bent on killing demons, it would not be long until she turned on the crew. Out of nowhere, Evander jumped in the way of the blow, taking a solid strike to his face as he cried in agony. The crewman dropped his bloodied sword in shock.

  “Evander!” the siren cried in panic. Ael’s heart dropped into her toes.

  No! No no no no no. The siren pulled Evander away from his assaint. He leaned into her gratefully. The siren had ensorcelled her first mate!

  The Admiral managed to get her arms loose just as one of the few remaining demons got to her. He made a motion as if to bring his weapon down on her, when a bde of ice exploded out of his chest.

  “Don’t touch her,” the siren growled. Ael looked up at her rescuer, into stormy blue eyes that she would know anywhere.

  “Nereida,” she breathed. Her heart hammered in her chest. It wasn’t just fear driving this reaction. Nereida’s grin was full of sharp fangs, but was beautiful all the same.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” the princess said impishly.

  Before they could truly talk, a demon hit Nereida hard enough to send the siren sprawling to the ground. She did not immediately move. The Admiral sprang at the man who had hurt Nereida. He was unprepared for the smaller woman to leap up at him. She nded on him, and she smmed his head into the ground, over and over, until the demon no longer moved and his blood was spreading over the deck.

  The st few demons on deck were killed, and silence was left behind. The Admiral managed to get herself untangled.

  “Dump their dead into the ocean,” she ordered. She stood tall, trying to regain herself completely after that travesty of a battle. “Gather ours for st rites and start treating the wounded.” She turned toward the fallen siren. Basiano was cradling her head in his p, one hand protectively on his wife’s chest, the other filled with fire, as if daring any to approach. Epelda and Evander were at his side, each holding their bdes toward the crew. Ael felt a stab of betrayal. It was one thing that the Prince had kept his wife’s identity a secret, that was loyalty. But Evander? Epelda? The blood oath suddenly made complete and total sense.

  She hesitated ten paces from them. Several of her older crewmen had gathered at her side.

  “Throw it back in the ocean,” suggested one. “A mercy for it; it will heal or not but not drown in the air.” Ael took a breath.

  “No.” She kept her voice calm and measured, despite her heart hammering in her chest. “It’s Nereida.” She stepped ahead of the crew, and knelt across from Basiano. He dropped his fire, his worry bleeding away. She took the unconscious siren’s hand, and gred at anyone who dared move. “And Nereida is part of my crew.”