When I opened the cell, she didn’t even attempt to move. Dahlia and I hoisted her off the ground and stuffed her into the cage, both surprised at the lack of a fight. When the cage was locked and Lyla was curled inside, the first real signs of life flickered in her expression. Her dark eyes moved toward Dahlia as she pushed the padlock closed and they lingered. Dahlia ignored her cutting stare, but I couldn’t. A bout of anger gnawed at thefragile strings of my self-control and I tossed a sheet over the cage before I did something prematurely.
“No one needs to be looking at her,” I groaned.
Dahlia nodded and with the aid of the remaining crew onboard, we loaded the cage into the last boat and rowed to shore.
My men had done a decent job of getting everything in order and they knew the way well enough. The supplies were stacked further up the beach, safe from high tide as loads were taken inland. Torches were ablaze as my men began to secure the beach and make sure everything was in place. Mullins and I dragged the boat onto the sand, but when Dahlia stood up to disembark, I held out a hand to stop her. She paused, staring at me like I’d just pulled a knife on her.
“We’re not just here because it’s a good place to bury Gus,” I said. “This place isn’t safe for a woman like you.”
Her eyes slowly skimmed the beach like she was looking for a killer hiding in the brush. I reached for her wrist and pulled her into my waiting arms, carrying her over the threshold between the sand and the water and up toward the dry bank before I set her on her feet.
“Should I wait for an explanation or should I just assume it’s not safe for me to go for a stroll?” she said.
“Assume nothing about this island is safe for your kind.”
“What about Meri and Aeris?”
“I told Nazario what to expect before we started heading this way and Mullins carried your sweet Meri to shore just like I did you. Hemsbane crops grow wild here and we’ll reinforce the trenches along the beach before we sleep. In short, this is the least ideal place for a siren to be.”
“Trenches?”
“There are only a few entry points for walking. Otherwise, you’re likely to fall through into a shallow ditch filled with bronze thorns. Bronze dust lines the beach, too. Not sure how much remains, but let’s not take any chances, yeah?”
Dahlia’s eyes continued to survey the beach. “Your father was smarter than my mother gave him credit for.”
“And he let it go to his head. A mistake I don’t plan to make. We’ll take every precaution.”
Turning, I helped drag Lyla’s covered cage out of the boat and set it down near a tree for the time being. When I returned, my men were gathered around the boat, carefully lifting Gus’s body out past the covered trenches to the tree line. There, they set him down on a blanket, taking care as if he was merely sleeping and they didn’t want to wake him. As the men dispersed, I stared at the corpse and felt my insides start to shrivel. Seeing Gus as a lifeless, empty thing was a symbol of my failure. One of many and not the last one by any means.
But I was a captain, and a captain coped with his failures and mistakes. He swallowed them and he moved on. So, I swallowed and I turned away, busying myself with whatever else needed to be done.
Just down the beach, Nazario and his crew were organizing whatever supplies they’d hauled from the Amanacer. I saw him walking my way, his coat discarded on a pile of barrels and crates, with his siren close behind. We locked hands in greeting, each of us letting out an exasperated breath.
“I am sorry for your loss, my friend,” he spoke. “I did warn you from the shores of Dornwich.”
“I don’t think there are many places left that would not yield similar results. Soon, no town on the coast will be safe.”
“You captured one,” Aeris said softly, her eyes fixed on Dahlia standing down the beach, watching us. “It’s making her uneasy.”
“Dahlia captured her. She’s her prisoner. She’ll decide what to do with her. Before any of my crew begins thinking of what will come next, we need to bury Gus, but we need to reach camp first. There is a narrow trail through the trees that leads to fresh water and a large cabin built into a tree. It’s been here for ages. My men know the way.”
Nazario nodded instead of drowning the moment with questions like any sane man would. Then he turned and began making his way back to his crew. His very small crew, I noticed. I took a glance back at his ship floating just off the beach with the Weaver. It was barely smaller than my ship and yet it seemed his crew was no more than half the size of mine.
But asking about it would have to wait. I didn’t like the idea of Gus’s body spending any more time in the sun.
When I returned to Dahlia, she had fixed her gaze on Lyla’s cage like a hungry hound on a rat.
“She won’t be getting out,” I said.
“I’m not afraid of her getting out.” Turning to face me, she said, “We should not sleep at the same time.”
“Why?”
“She ate of my flesh in that square. Until I understand more about her and what’s happening, one of us should always be awake.”
“You mean her dreams could be linked with yours?” I chuffed. “So, I am to stand aside while she could possibly torment your sleep?”
“We both know neither of us is conscious enough in the dreamscape to control anything that happens there. Lyla is different and I fear she’s already found me in my sleep once. And if her goal truly was to get to you, I’m the bridge over which she will attempt to do it again. No cage can prevent that. I know for certain she wanted to get to you and she wanted me alive.”
