The Siren and the Deep Blue Sea - Kerrelyn Sparks Page 0,29

nothing more than warning the people of Aerthlan whenever devastation was around the corner. But I have been doing that for fifty-five years, and in that time, the world has remained a dark and violent place.

No more! I, Burien of Aerland, now believe the visions are telling me to step out of the shadows and do whatever I can to make sure the era of peace and prosperity begins as soon as possible.

Early spring, 679.

I am now convinced that I am right, that the goddesses have called me to action. For they have sent someone who will help me. Her name is Cahira.

She arrived this morning in the guise of a dolphin. When I saw that she had beached herself, I hurried to help her, believing her to be a dolphin in trouble. But when I reached her, she shifted into human form. The most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Granted, I have lived alone most of my life, so I have not seen many women, but I feel quite confident in insisting that she is the most beautiful woman on Aerthlan. She is quite powerful, too, for as she shifted, she manifested herself a lovely gown of shimmering sea-green cloth that matched the color of her eyes.

To my amazement, she claimed to be the last living female of the ancient race of sorcerers from the lost continent of Aerland. She had sought me out, sensing that I was the last male of our race. We immediately felt a closeness, a connection, not just through our shared blood, but through our shared dreams. She, too, wants to dedicate herself to making the world a place of peace.

Brody sighed as he continued to read. Over the next few months, the Seer had become completely enthralled with Cahira. He’d believed her, trusted her, fallen in love with her. And all the time, Cahira had manipulated him, using his ideas to form the Circle of Five, so she and her evil cohorts could take over the world.

As much as he hated reading about Cahira, he carefully studied all the passages, for he needed to know everything in order to fool the woman into believing he was actually the Seer.

He groaned when he read about the Seer’s joy when Cahira told him she was with child. If his theory was correct, that babe was Maeve. The timing was right. Cahira would have given birth in the year 680, and now it was the year 700, when Maeve would turn twenty years old. Maeve even had sea-green eyes like Cahira did.

Dammit, he had promised to give Maeve the answers she wanted tonight. But this was something he could never let her know. How could he tell her that her mother had used her father in an attempt to take over the world?

He would have to convince her, somehow, to return to Ebton Palace. There she would be safe from danger. And safe from the truth.

* * *

Once again, Maeve found herself floating across a dark blue ocean, headed for an island. Not the Isle of Mist, she thought, for the sky was clear, the air warm, and the island lush with vegetation. As she moved over the isle, she spotted thick forests, sparkling lakes, and then finally signs of civilization. Some farmland. A few people.

A castle. Built of weathered gray stone, it dominated the highest bluff on the island. As Maeve approached, she noted an unusual garden, where dense bushes had been clipped into the shapes of fish, seals, and dolphins. Hedges, shaped to look like the waves of an ocean, led her to two adjoining ponds. How odd. The water in one pond was blue, but green in the other. Where the two ponds joined, a statue of a dolphin shot a spray of water into the air.

A breeze from the nearby ocean caught Maeve and sent her flying toward the castle and the long balcony that overlooked the ponds and garden. Whoosh, she was swept through an open door, suspended in the air as long purple curtains rippled around her in the breeze.

She landed on a smooth floor of polished green marble, and to her surprise, she discovered she was now wearing a beautiful gown and slippers of shimmering gold satin. The castle seemed empty, she thought, as she wandered down the hallway. To her right, purple curtains billowed in the air from the open doorways that led onto the balcony. To her left, the wall held a number of portraits, their