the treasure from the island!” I scream at him. “It’s under the water, where only sirens can reach it.”
The fourth pistol he’d drawn lowers slightly. “How do you know this?”
I can barely see through the water that’s gathered at my eyes, but I somehow manage a quick lie. “I’m unaffected by the siren’s song, but I still hear it. They sing about it. I heard them singing as they counted their coins and moved about under the water. The only way to that treasure is below the surface.”
Father is silent. I can tell he thinks over the words very carefully, deciding whether or not to believe them. I’m desperate for him to believe the lie.
“Then we’ll have to deal with the beasts first,” he says, “before we go exploring underwater with our diving bell.”
“No!”
“You care what happens to the sirens now? Good. You can watch from the porthole.” He grabs me by the arm, and it takes him and three others to restrain me, but I don’t go without a fight. I get a good kick in between the legs of one of the pirates, then take a fist to my jaw. My nails rake down the face of another man.
In the end, they wrestle me into my own cushioned cell. The one with a tiny porthole, too small to shimmy through, were I to knock out the glass.
“You don’t have a say anymore,” Father says. “You’re going to stay locked up until you’ve learned your lesson and watched every member of your crew suffer and die.”
I scream at him, rattle the bars, but I know there is no escaping from these cells. They were built for me, so I could stock up my abilities. I know there is no getting out of them.
No running to my bleeding crew members who are still alive. Mandsy is already at Niridia’s side to help her. She shouts orders to Sorinda, who is in the cell with Reona, trying to staunch the bleeding wound.
I can’t even warn the sirens about what’s coming for them. They are too far away for me to sing to them. Were I under the water, I could do it, but like this, trapped above it—I’m useless.
Father exits the brig, satisfied by my temporary punishment. He leaves Tylon and several of his men to guard us, now that my ship is his. As if. Not while I draw breath. The Ava-lee is mine.
Tylon offers me several sneering, preening looks before saying, “Thank you, Alosa,” much too loudly with the wax in his ears. Only when he’s satisfied with his own gloating does he leave me and my crew belowdecks.
I kick at the bars and hiss profanities in his direction.
When he is out of sight, there’s nothing I can dwell on but the bleeding girls in the brig. On Deros’s body. Wallov closes his friend’s eyes and sits on the floor next to him.
“Push harder, Sorinda!” Mandsy says. “It will hurt her, but it’s better than her dying! Wallov, toss her your shirt!”
Mandsy has already tied a tourniquet above Niridia’s knee. She focuses now on directing Sorinda.
“She’s having a hard time breathing,” Sorinda says.
Her voice less urgent, Mandsy asks, “Is blood coming out of her mouth?”
“Yes.”
Mandsy blinks slowly. “Let go of the wound, Sorinda. Hold her hand and talk to her.”
“What is it, Mandsy?” I ask.
“The ball must have struck a lung. It’s kinder to let her bleed out than choke on her own blood.”
Every breath I take seems to fuel my hatred for my father.
“It will be all right,” Sorinda says, her voice taking on a soft tone. I didn’t think she knew how to be soft. “The pain will stop soon, Reona. Close your eyes. Just listen to my voice.”
I cannot take this. I cannot stand being trapped in here and unable to do anything while my crew dies around me!
“Athella?” I call out.
“They searched me too well, Captain,” she answers. “I haven’t so much as a hairpin on me.”
“Sorinda, do you have any weapons hidden on you?”
“No.”
Reona lets out her last breath. Sorinda releases her hand, setting it gently at her side.
For several seconds, I can do nothing but blink. “We’ll find a way out of this. Everyone think.”
I refuse to give up, even when my own mind tries to tell me it’s useless. Tylon has the keys. He will keep them close. He won’t let anything go wrong. Not now that he thinks he’s so close to getting what he’s always wanted.
Thank you, Alosa, he said.