Page 41 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

“No one!” I shouted, incensed that he would accuse me of putting his whole crew in danger. “I didn’t call for him!”

“He clearly has a death wish, then,” Caspian concluded, still looking at me suspiciously as he counted up the selkies present. “There are worse things in this part of the ocean than me.”

“They’ve blocked their ears, Captain!” Zephyr shouted across the deck amidst flying arrows and churning waves. “What are your orders?”

“I can try to stop the maelstrom,” I shouted, trying to find my balance on the rolling deck. Even though it wasn’t, this felt like it was my fault. I wanted to help fix it. “Then you can get everyone off the ship.”

“How?” Caspian asked, eyes holding mine. I felt a thread of something snap between us at his piercing look, but I didn’t reply, calling up my own rarely-used water magic and focusing on the sea.

“Like this!” I had never thought of my power as particularly useful, as I’d never had much reason to use it. I wasn’t allowed to fight or explore, and clean water was readily available, so I had never used my water magic for much more than coaxing a current here or there.

But now I focused on the sea, closing my eyes and reaching out my senses to try to feel the maelstrom beneath us. The sea had always called to me, always responded to me, and she didn’t disappoint me now.

I pushed my will into the water, trying to slow the swirling vortex that the other selkies had created with their magic. I could see the faint glow of blue light bobbing in the rough seas, and light flared in my own palms as I pushed my will into the maelstrom.

“The princess!” shouted a voice I recognized as I pulled on more of my power. I ignored them, faintly aware of the threads of the swirling currents, disturbed from their usual calm by the other casters. I felt, rather than saw, each selkie in the water, the hulking forms of beasts stirring in the depths below, and the solid presence of the Argo tossed about in the waves.

Be calm,I told the seas.Heed me, not my brothers.

To Caspian’s clear surprise, and a little of my own if I were honest, the seas obeyed, the swirling slowing as I coaxed it into stillness.

“How...” Caspian began, but he broke off with a grunt as a spear lodged itself through his wing. I gasped as he fell to a knee, skidding on the wet deck to help him remain upright as he wrenched the spear from his wing.

“Attack!” Zephyr cried, swinging down to the lower decks to stab a selkie soldier through the torso with her sword. With the calming of the maelstrom, the soldiers began to board the ship, Vitulus shouting orders about rescuing me. A responding cry rose from the siren crew, metal clashing with wood and shell and leather as they attempted to fight off the attackers.

I stumbled just as I got Caspian upright, a tremor from deep below knocking me off my feet.

“What is it?” he asked, pulling me to my feet as blood poured from this wing, staining the white feathers red.

“I’m not sure,” I said, my awareness of the seas ebbing as I released my magic. “There’s something—”

A crack and whining of wood preceded a lurching roll of the ship as a huge wave tossed us to one side.

Not a wave, I realized as a giant, undulatingthingrose from the sea. A creature.

“Fuck!” Caspian shouted, grabbing me and diving to the side as a great suckered tentacle crashed across the deck. It hit the center beam with a sickening crack, and Caspian rolled us out of its path. He roared in pain when his damaged wing hit the deck, but he didn’t let me go as he propelled us out of harm’s way.

“Kraken!” A scream sounded, and I watched in horror as one of the selkie soldiers was plucked from the deck by a writhing tentacle and thrown onto the deck, his spine breaking with a sickening crack.

An eerie quiet fell as the sirens broke into wavering song, and I threw my hands over my ears.

I caught a glimpse of Vitulus then, waving frantically to his men and mouthing the word, “retreat.” I couldn’t hear him shout over the piercing siren song, muffled by my hands, but he caught my eye as he fled, a promise in his gaze as he snarled at the sight of Caspian rolled on top of me on the deck.

“You can lower your hands!” Caspian shouted, his face strained as he pulled my hands away from my ears. “It’s aimed at the creature. Siren song only affects those we will it to.”

The song was eerie and beautiful, entirely different from the ballad Caspian had sung in the tavern. This song was a wordless melody, its notes filled with meaning and magic I couldn’t decipher. But Caspian appeared to be right. It didn’t compel me or hurt me as I had expected.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed, feeling somewhat entranced. My brain vaguely realized that this was neither the time nor the place to admire the siren magic. “Where did that monster come from?”

“They must have woken it with their damned maelstrom,” Caspian growled, steadying me as the ship lurched again, the beast sinking back into the sea below us.

Astraios landed before us, the powerful flap of his wings startling me from the haze of the song. “We’re taking on water,” he shouted, reaching down to offer Caspian a hand. He took it, pulling me to my feet with him as both males shook the waters from their feathers. “Your orders, Captain?”

“How bad?”

The crew continued to sing the monster into submission. Caspian clenched his jaw so tightly I thought his teeth would break for sure.

I stretched out my awareness of the sea, my heart sinking at the gush of icy water that was steadily filling the hull of the ship. Without asking for permission, I reached out with magic, the blue sheen glowing from my palms as I stemmed the rushing tide and held the sea at bay.