Chapter 17:

  The cttering bells startled Nereida from sleep. She blinked in the dark room, warm beneath the bnkets. Epelda grabbed her arm and made a terrified cry. Nereida touched the girl’s hands, looking at her face. It was dark, too dark to make out the girl’s features, but she could feel her terror as her hands shook.

  “Enemies?” Nereida’s mouth was dry, whether from fear or snoring she was not sure. Epelda squeezed her hands tightly, nodding. They rushed from the bed, Epelda with a grace born of practice. Nereida slipped and hit the deck, wincing but not crying out. Her knee would be the least of her problems if they were boarded!

  Epelda raced for the weapons rack.

  “Epelda!” The adolescent turned to Nereida when she heard her name. “Can you get me below deck to a pce I can get into the water?” Hesitantly, the girl nodded yes. “Thank you! I’ll try and slow them down.”

  There was pandemonium on deck. Ael was shouting orders, they were preparing cannons. Weapons were being handed out in case of a boarding party. The other ships would be in cannon range soon. Nereida and Epelda ran, heading down into the crew quarters. The halls were deserted. The din above them faded. Nereida paused at her door, pounding hard. Basiano answered, his sword in hand.

  “Nerry?”

  “Demons.” She had no time to expin her pn, but needed her boys safe. “Take them to the kitchen, take their bracelets off and then get above deck. I…. I’m getting reinforcements.” He nodded, worry making him look much older than his forty-five years. He kissed her head for luck and then shut the door to wake the boys.

  Epelda brought her to a window at the end of the hall. It was close to the water line. She popped it open, but then turned to Nereida with a frightened expression.

  “I can’t leave it open,” she signed.

  “That’s fine. When the attack is over, just make sure there’s a rope hanging over the edge on the starboard side. I’ll climb up when I can.” Nereida stripped out of all her clothing except her underthings, removing boots, socks and anything else that could slow her. She reluctantly removed the bracelet that maintained her gmour.

  “Don’t let anyone kill me,” she sighed to Epelda. The girl’s eyes were wide. She nodded seriously.

  The ocean was cold, but her body, in this form, was made for it. Her blood sang in her veins as she plunged into the water. It was dark, but she could see enough to orient herself. She swam toward the enemy ships as the cannon fire sounded. Underwater, the shockwaves from the cannons were painfully loud. She let the magic and the water transform her, giving her webbed fingers and toes. Home. The ocean sang, its waves the rhythm to which her heart was beating.

  Deep under the water, she began to sing. It was not a song for human ears, but for the things of the deep.

  Help me, the song said. Help me destroy my enemies. There was a stirring deep below her, a school of dolphins that had been trying to avoid the cacophony of the ships. She heard their clicking call, their promise of aid.. and their promise of blood. Dolphins could be cruel, and enjoyed the fear of other creatures.

  The battle had begun in earnest by the time Nereida reached the enemy ships. She swam to the farthest of the two. She knew she did not have the means to stop both ships. The dolphins reached her as she approached the ship. She found the leader, a sleek, powerful female dolphin. Carefully she pressed her head to the dolphin’s head, using her magic to communicate with it. “Any humans that fall in the water here are yours.” She tried to swallow away her pain and anger but could not. A year of pain that she had buried threatened to overtake her. She breathed out, focusing on the dolphins. “No mercy.” The dolphin trilled a mean little ugh at that. Approval and accord radiated from the dolphin, and the school of them began swimming around for their first attack.

  The boat bottom had many sharp barnacles that would impede attack from the dolphins, but not if the boat was sinking. This ship had more guns than the Dragon’s Tooth, and some of them were barely above the water level. The audacity of the demons, to think they could tame the sea with weapons. She swam around back, finding the window out which they dumped their waste. This ship was stained with it. Calling the cold of the water, she made a spear of ice, and smmed it into the hinge. She had to act twice more before the hinge snapped and the window swung open. “Idiots,” she thought. Any window that could be accessed by the ocean should have been locked. Still, it was the opening she needed.

  One of the dolphins swam up to her, using their head to steady her while she called on more magic. This dolphin had a scar with stitches on it. Nereida felt a shudder of worry go through her. If this dolphin had been saved by humanoid hands, they were likely bonded to another siren.

  “Friend,” the dolphin seemed to say. They nuzzled against her. Nereida accepted the help, rubbing her cheek against the dolphin before starting the worst of her pn.

  Nereida called to the ocean itself, twisting the water upward and threading it into the small open window, like threading a needle. The water rushed into the ship, not much at first, but as the ship began to take on water, it started to sink. By the time the demons realized they were taking on water, they would be unable to do anything.

  The dolphins, meanwhile, had torn a hole in the hull. One of them had swum away with a bloodied snout.

  Two minutes turned into five, and the ship had lowered enough that the demons had smmed their guns inside. They were closing the hatches, locking them, but Nereida was able to stop one of them. She swam up to the hatch as the gun was being pulled away. She climbed in with the dolphin’s help. The demon screamed in terror. She hissed back, and then turned and cmped the lock shut while the hatch was open. Ten men were suddenly cmouring for weapons. They were dirty, but even in the mp light she could tell they were of demon stock. Their faces were white as abaster. Some appeared closer to human, their features less pointed and bat-like, but the only one here who appeared to have rank, who was dressed in a military uniform, had bat-like ears and an upturned nose.

  The shadows began to move, and the mplight snuffed out. The shadow-touched demon was chanting. She could not stay, could not fight a spellcaster demon toe to toe. She went to dive out the open hatch when an explosion sounded and she felt a searing pain through her shoulder. She’d been shot! Despite the burning in her shoulder, Nereida stumbled to the open hatch.

  “Stop that thing!” The well-dressed one shouted. But they were too te, and she returned to the sea.

  Her dolphin friend swam beside her, helping her swim away. Her shoulder seared in pain, and swimming would be difficult. The salt water burned her wound, and the pain almost overwhelmed her.

  “Friend,” she pressed her head to her dolphin’s head. They chittered worriedly. “Take me to the other ship. My calves are there. I must protect them!”

  They both surfaced, too close to the ship for the cannons to reach them. The ship was taking on water fast, too fast. The demons were loading lifeboats, trying to get to their other ship, but the dolphins rammed into any boat they could catch, tipping them over and occasionally snagging a man by his clothing and dragging him down. She could feel the malicious energy of the dolphins. They were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

  “Siren!” She heard someone scream. The cries for mercy began then, pleading, begging. She sang a wordless tune as her dolphin friend began to pull her towards her own ship, toward safety and her children. The song that echoed over the water, that overtook the waves, encouraged the dolphins onward.

  “No mercy for the enemies of the water.” The song was clear in its purpose. She twisted the end, so that the dolphins would be safe… and so that her ship would be. “Once the ship is one with the water, flee before their allies hurt you.” The lead dolphin chittered her agreement.

  Her dolphin dragged her through the water, swimming faster than she could swim even if she were not hurt. But the closer of the two demon ships was nearly on top of her own. The waves carried them forward, the dolphin doing their best to get her there. But she was too te.

  The Dragon’s Tooth had been boarded.