Standing carefully from the bed, I grabbed my pants and slid them on, tying them as I moved to the window and pulled the shutter open a crack. Down in the street, I saw a woman shrouded in a cloak. Her petite frame was unmistakable and the red tendrils of hair pouring from her hood were even more so. I went to throw on a shirt, my belt, and my boots, curiosity getting the better of me. Dahlia still seemed sound asleep, and I wanted it to stay that way. She needed rest. Especially a rest absent my nightmares to add to the terror of her own.
I slipped out of the room, quietly descending the steps to the back of the inn where one door led out into a narrow alleyway. Standing there was Aeris. She was just pulling her hood down when I stepped off the stone platform onto the hardened mud.
“What are you doing here?” I said, intrigued. “Without your pirate, no less.”
She was fidgeting, clearly nervous to be out on her own. She looked like an alert, frightened little bird. If she was anything like Dahlia or Meridan, though, I knew she was far from being helpless.
“She is not what she seems,” she whispered quietly.
“Areyouwhat you seem?”
“She’s Kroan. Whatever she is doing with you, it is out of service to her god.”
I crossed my arms, leaning against the wall with a sigh. “She told me what her people did to yours. I can’t fault you for hating her any more than she can.”
“All Kroans want only to serve their dark father. She is with you for some other reason. You must know it. If she is allowed to continue on her path, it will affect all of us.”
“What do you care? You and your pirate are going inland.”
“Do you think I want to? My home is the sea. My people were far more connected with the ocean than hers ever could be. The Kroan defile it and make it cold and dangerous.”
“How can you be more connected with the sea than she is? You were both born there. You both live in it. And only one of you is willing to fight for it.”
“The Kroan stopped listening to the sea a long time ago. When they discovered that horrible trench where they claim the father resides. They let his voice in. They let it dirty their minds. My people… I still feel her. The ocean. I can touch her.” She glimpsed her palms, slowly rubbing her fingers together as if feeling something that wasn’t there and missing it terribly. “I know how sad she’s become. Yri never needed the father to give us children. The ocean did that.” She looked up, suppressing anger like it was an unfamiliar emotion to her. “And the Kroan have been silencing the waters for a hundred years. Why do you think they can no longer conceive without descending to such maddening depths? It is the only thing they believe in.”
“I know there are centuries of history there that no man can ever fathom. Perhaps we were never meant to. And I won’t deny that Dahlia has done monstrous things, but she’s no more monstrous than I. You will not convince me to turn from her. I want to assume I could never convince Nazario to turn from you either.”
She drew back from me a step. “You trust her. Why?”
“It’s… complicated. Let me just say that there is very little the two of us can hide from each other.”
Her eyes made a quick scan of my body, briefly searching. “She’s eaten of your flesh.”
I held up my hand, absent my leather bracer and the wooden fingers that often made it look like I wasn’t missing two fingers. She glimpsed the missing digits and wrinkled her nose.
“And you still believe the things she says. How, when she has shown you her teeth? Her true nature?”
“Like I said. It’s complicated.”
Aeris seemed taken aback. Confused. Words had become lost to her. I dismissed it and thought of the coming days. We were about to venture into untamed territory and we needed allies. I stepped in closer to her, lowering my voice.
“Listen to me. There is one enemy out there that all of us should fear and it should be faced together.”
Her eyes flicked upward, but I could tell she was not convinced. Not yet.
“You can flee. Go inland. Run from everything. I can’t blame you. But you and Nazario must know what it feels like to be without allies. Humans won’t understand. Sirens won’t understand.Wedo. I don’t know how you came together. I don’t care. Nothing we have makes sense and perhaps it doesn’t need to.”
“What do you want me to say to that?”
“Come with us. The more we have on our side, the better.”
“You talk like us few can change things.”
I shrugged, smirking at her as I stepped back again. “Why can’t we? Look, we’ve all lost a lot. Endured a lot. I don’t know your story, but I see it in your eyes and I saw it in his. The fact that you love him is proof enough that this war between land and sea doesn’t have to continue the way it is.”
“Thiswarisn’t between man and sirens. It’s between man and the Daughters of Akareth. Most sirens don’t even care much for the flesh of men and they care less that we’re being hunted by them. It’s easy to flee ships that cannot go further than the surface of the water. The Kroan choose not to run. They choose to attack and shed blood.”
“A fact I’ve come to see more clearly as of late. Dahlia has much to atone for and more to avenge. All of us do. I have a hard time believing your life has remained free of guilt.”
