Chapter 64:

  Ael had spent most of her day reconnecting, both with her crew, and her family. She was pleased with what she saw; the crew had been efficient. They had followed Evander without question. They had restocked on the isnd as best they could, their water stores all full except what they had used reaching them. No one had died or been seriously hurt or ill. All in all, they had done very well.

  She met with the officers to set a new course, and was appalled to find out they would need Jules in on the meeting. NONE of the waters they were in were charted at all. They could pick a heading, but would need the boy to tell them where the isnds were. The boy was, thankfully, amenable to helping, at least so far as guiding them away from dangers and isnds that could be in their way.

  “I am allowed to see you through safely, and may even let you draw maps, but only if you promise to destroy the maps if you get … invaded?” he paused, looking for the right term, which Evander helpfully whispered to him. “If you get boarded. The location of the isnds we protect is secret, to stop those that would steal their treasures.”

  “You trust us not to?” Ael asked. He grinned at her, an almost impish expression.

  “You’re the Blessed Ones. If YOU take it, Admiral, or the Princess, it is not stealing. It would be… harvesting.” He shrugged. “I cannot make such decisions, but I strongly suspect the Storytellers would allow you to take anything after what befell you.”

  “You know what happened to her?” Evander asked, suddenly shifting to gre at the boy.

  “I have heard the tales, but, if I am honest, they seemed… far fetched. I didn’t say anything because it was not my pce.” He looked to the Admiral for approval. She nodded once, giving the boy a tight-lipped smile. “It will be a story I hold until a decade has passed, when this is no longer what is but what had been.” He smiled a little, looking more confident. “Unless, of course, I am given permission to spread the tale by those that lived it.” The Admiral felt a sigh bubble up, and she had to work to keep her expression stoic. She wondered if Nereida had already given the boy permission, or if this was a py by him.

  “We will burn the maps, or drown them,” Ael promised. “Evander, please make sure the crew knows.”

  “Aye.”

  Their heading set, they had at least two days of sailing before Jules said there was much of note. They had just left a cluster of isnds, and as they moved away from the center of the Sacred Sea (the boy’s name for the Cursed Sea), the farther apart the isnds would be. Barring any terrible storms or other types of trouble, they seemed on track to be in the waters controlled by the Samanders in only two months. Faster, if she taxed Epelda. But Ael did not feel it necessary or wise. A part of her knew she was stalling. Here on the sea, she and her wife were equals, could be themselves. On nd, she would not be the Grand Admiral but instead Countess Kyverna. Nereida would still be her wife, but would be Princess D’igna. They would have to handle the politics of their marriage, of them being married by sirens. Ael was NOT looking forward to that.

  And if they took long enough, their egg would hatch at sea. Somehow, it seemed best that the little one born of Moon and Ocean be born on a ship, in between the Ocean and the Moon.

  Ael wore the egg through most of the day. The children were too rowdy, too interested in pying with their mother, to risk her carrying the egg. The crew saw, and she saw questions flitter across faces, questions they did not dare to ask. Though she did catch at least a handful of references to the time she had let Dymion bring an iguana aboard the ship. The iguana that no one but Dymion knew had a poisonous bite. She shuddered at the memory of them finding a dead, half-eaten cat with putrid bite marks along its body. She found herself fervently praying to the egg that she would be born human or at least close enough. She could not imagine an infant with rows of teeth. Or, she could, but she did not want to.

  After super, which was mostly the boys chatting about their days, and them asking question after question about everything she and Nereida had seen, Ael took the egg to the deck to walk around. She stopped at the mast, as most of the crew were still off eating, leaving her as alone as she could be on a ship of three hundred. She pced her hand on the wood. She took a moment, breathing slowly. Finally, she was home.

  “I… I think I’m going to have a daughter,” she whispered to the mast, leaning into it and pcing her forehead against the familiar, smooth wood. “Did you know I was magic?” Her voice caught, and she closed her eyes. This was painful to admit to her ship, that her existence , her family, everything before Nereida had been a lie. “I can’t control it yet. And the magic on others is louder now, the buzzing, the whistling, the burning, it is so much clearer.” She swallowed her pain down. “I’m married now. I know I said I would tell you before it happened but… we were surprised. I was so, so angry. But she’s my wife, and I can’t help but be gd about that.” She smiled a little. “Only a few more months, and then the world will change for me again. Give me the strength to see it through.”

  Night seemed to take forever to truly arrive. The longer days of spring were welcome, but tonight she wanted it to be fire time. She was already tired of the sideways gnces as she walked around with an egg. She and Nereida had talked about what to say, and had decided on the truth, though leaving out marital details for obvious reasons. Ael wanted to actually be able to look at her crew without wanting to die of embarrassment. More and more of the crew were filtering up onto the deck. Evander must have spread the word that they were going to tell their story tonight.

  Nereida found her just after sunset. She looked serene. The time with her children had given her back something she had clearly been missing. Time with her brother had soothed her hurts. Nereida wasted no time and simply stepped up on the story-telling box the moment the ntern was lit.

  Ael had never heard three hundred souls go quiet before. It was unnerving, to be able to hear them rustle, but having no one speak, not even to pce a bet. The sea of faces were all focused on Nereida. Epelda, Basiano, Evander and Dymion had pushed to the inner ring of people for this story, which Ael had expected. But Jules was in the interior ring as well, his hand gripped tightly around Epelda’s right hand. Even in the dull mp light, Ael could see how besotted he was with her daughter; he was one of the few without eyes on Nereida. She considered, briefly, forcing them apart, but she knew they could not get into trouble holding hands in full sight of everyone. It was safer to leave them alone. At least for now.

  Nereida began to speak.

  “The Princess and the Admiral had spent the day among friends, winning alliances and prizes. The Admiral’s proposal had been accepted, for the hand of the lovely Princess.” This was met with whistles and cheers. She let them celebrate a moment, before she lifted her hand and continued to speak. “They joined a sacred ritual, not understanding what it was. They agreed with open hearts, thinking only that they would get a blessing. And before they could process that it was more, they found themselves married. This was not unwelcome, for their hearts had longed for it, even if they had not yet been together for a season. And as it was welcome, even if it was not the “how” they would have chosen, they completed the ritual.”

  Surprisingly, she stepped off the box, pulling Jules up. He nodded at her, a solemn expression on his face, before he continued where she had left off.

  “Among my people there is a ceremony. One couple, newly engaged that season, is offered up to the Moon and the Ocean. Not as a sacrifice, but as vessels.” There was a sharp intake of breath somewhere, and the boy did his best to ignore the growing unease. Magic was a sensitive subject to begin with, but siren magic was feared. “When the marriage ritual was completed,” he flushed brightly when someone in the crowd made a knowing “oooooh” sound. The adolescent cleared his throat and continued. “The Ocean and the Moon accepted the offerings for the first time in seven generations, perhaps longer. The spirits of the Great Dragons can possess the willing, and they did so. The Admiral became the Moon, for she was born to the Moon’s Scions. The Princess became the Ocean, for she was the daughter of the Ocean. The possessing spirits changed the flesh of their offerings, made them into dragons, and beneath the light of the full moon they flew off.”

  He stepped down, bowing his head respectfully to Nereida as she took her pce back on the box.

  “The Council knew there was a chance, however slim, that this possession would occur.” Nereida’s tone was hard here, hard enough that Jules flinched. Epelda leaned into him, as if to offer strength. “The Princess and the Admiral had no knowledge of what their bodies did, for their minds slept. It was only in fshes of dreams that they knew what had occurred. When they awoke, three days had passed, and they were in an unfamiliar forest on an unfamiliar isnd… and between them was an unfamiliar egg.” She motioned to Ael, to the egg she carried. “The dragons had been busy in their offered bodies, and they had produced with magic and love, a viable egg, filled with hope.” She straightened her back. “The women, now in control of their bodies, back in their human selves, decided they would do whatever it took to raise this little egg, to let it hatch, to let it, her, grow into whatever she would be, baby, Scion or Dragon.” She looked across the sea of people, her face hard. “They decided that since the child was made with their bodies, with their magic, with their love, that the child was theirs, and they would wage war against even the heavens if it was necessary to protect their child.” She looked down at Ael, her expression softening. “The Moon-Touched live on in the Admiral, her magic hidden even from her until the Dragons awoke it.” A neat, if not necessarily true, expnation. Ael smiled wanly at the crowd as dozens and dozens of eyes sought her out. “The magic settled properly when she slept beneath the light of all phases of the moon.” A low whistle rang through the crowd, and a murmur of fear picked up. “She is no more mad then she was when she was st seen,” Nereida continued over the din. The voices settled. “The Admiral and her Princess have set out once more on their adventure, to return the Princess to the nd where the Fire Dragon sleeps.”

  Ael felt a hiss escape her. She knew her beloved was being dramatic. Every civilization cimed to have a sacred resting pce for their dragon, except perhaps the sirens. But… her stomach churned with sudden worry. It was possible, with the fact that they had made a dragon egg, that the rumoured sacred sites were real. She felt words bubbling up again, and did not have the speed or strength to stop them.

  “The daughters of the Moon and the Ocean will wake the dragons to bring about the end of the conflict between Stars and Shadow.” When Ael spoke, her voice echoing over those gathered, she heard the start of panic amongst her crew. She felt Basiano’s dark eyes on her. He moved closer to her, his stance protective. It was only when Nereida raised her hand, still atop the storyteller’s box, that they settled.

  “We ask, if you are brave enough, that you stand with us. End the story of the Great Dragons with peace. You once asked me for a better ending than the one I had presented. It is time we find our path to that better ending. Because if not us, then the demons, and I have no doubt they mean war! Let’s choose our fate!”

  “Choose our Fate!” came a voice from the crowd. Dymion. It was Dymion again, coming to the rescue. But three word chants can catch like wildfire, and this one did. It was not long before there was a cacophony of chanting and stomping feet. The infant in Basiano’s arms awoke with a shrill cry, adding to the chaos. And Ael, amongst it all, saw a fleeting image: the mast, flying the siren fg, away from rubble and ruin back on an isnd. There would be war, she feared, regardless of their choice.