Calivan Merimydion’s plan was simple. He’d already spread word that House Merimydion had a convoy on its way filled with magnificent treasures to celebrate Dilys’s forthcoming marriage to a Season of Summerlea—a collection to rival the dragon’s hoard of priceless gifts Dilys’s own father had gathered in anticipation of his daughter’s birth. Now, he just needed Dilys and his men to set a trap, using that convoy as bait. Pirates with a grudge against House Merimydion wouldn’t let such a prize slip through their fingers, and Calivan’s ears across the seas had already informed him that the Shark was making plans to personally intercept the convoy.
Later that night, after escorting Gabriella to her chambers, Dilys headed for his uncle’s room. He’d known since the not-so-subtle jabs about doing duty to mother and House that his uncle would expect a full accounting of why Calberna’s prince—who had been clearly told which Seasons he should marry—was courting the one Season who had been deemed unsuitable for a royal union.
Calivan answered the door on Dilys’s first knock and waved him curtly inside. Once the door closed behind them, Calivan flicked a hand at the full basin of water on his dressing table and spread a water veil around the room for privacy. “So, Nephew, explain yourself.”
Dilys bristled. Even expecting the inquisition, he took exception to his uncle’s tone. It was one thing to be told which woman he should take to wife, but it was entirely something different to be addressed in such a scathing tone for choosing Gabriella instead. As if she was so utterly without merit as to be the worst possible match he could ever have made. The insult to her, though unspoken, made his hackles rise and claws come out.
“Speak carefully, Uncle,” he hissed through fully descended battle fangs. “Do not dare to insult myliana.You will not be forgiven.” Fury pulsed through him, and hisulumiflared bright in warning.
Calivan’s jaw dropped. “You have enteredliakapua? With her?”
“I have, and that is my answer to you.”
“How is this possible?” Calivan dragged his fingers through the ropes of his hair. “She is not the one we chose for you.”
“Perhaps not, but sheisthe one Numahao chose for me. And there is much more to her than your lengthy investigations revealed.”
His uncle’s eyes narrowed with sudden sharpness. “What do you mean?”
“I mean she is a Siren.”
“Awhat?”
“You heard me.”
Calivan stumbled back a step, completely nonplussed. Then his expression hardened and he folded his arms across his chest. “That’s impossible. She can’t be. AnoulaniSiren? No.Ono.You must be mistaken.”
“There is no mistake. We all heard her Shout. Every last one of us in the city. We all came running. She is a Siren. The first in twenty-five hundred years.”
“It cannot be. It’s some other magic. Some sort of deception. A ruse to get you to marry the least gifted weatherwitch instead of the strongest.”
Dilys grabbed his uncle by the throat, claws digging into the skin on either side of his windpipe. “Do not,” he growled, “by word, tone, or deed, suggest she is anything but the treasure of treasures she is.” With a snarl, he released his mother’s twin and stepped back.
Calivan massaged his throat, eyeing his nephew warily for the first time. “My apologies,” he said in a much more conciliatory tone. “It will not happen again. But if this is true about her being a Siren, why did you not send word immediately? I would have brought an entire fleet to protect her.”
“I would not risk her safety sending word of her existence along even our most secure seaways. I do not know what sort of magics or spies the Shark has at his disposal, but I wasn’t willing to let unfriendly ears learn what Gabriella is. I thought it best to keep what she is a secret until I could bring her home safe to Calberna. Even then, the truth of what she is can never be known to theoulani.There are more greedy, honorlesskrillosin the world today than there were at the time of the Slaughter.”
“Tey,of course. Of course.” Calivan steepled his hands and pressed them to his lips. “This changes many things. A Siren. No wonder you erected the sea veil around the palace.” He shook his head and began to pace. “Her gift gives us a strong advantage against the Pureblood Alliance. They cannot refuse to the recognize the daughter of Calberna’s prince and a Siren as Calberna’s next queen.”
Dilys crossed his arms. “You are still thinking my daughter will be the nextMyerial? Uncle, Gabriella is a Siren, the first born since the Slaughter. The Sea Throne is hers.Nimacan gift her the power of theMyerialsand then retire to Merimydia Oa Nu. Without the weight of so many lives and the responsibilities of a queendom resting on her shoulders, we should be able to slow her Fade.”
Calivan shook her head. “If Summer Coruscate wereimlani,there would be no question of her becoming ourMyerial,but she is not. However she came to possess the gift, she does not possess Calbernan blood. Nooulani—not even a Siren—can sit on the Sea Throne. You should not even suggest it. The Pureblood Alliance has caused problem enough over the mere possibility of a half-breed becoming the nextMyerial.What do you think they would do if House Merimydion tried to put the crown on the head of a foreigner?”
Dilys swallowed his retort. There was no point in arguing with his uncle. Calivan’s first loyalty was to his twin. But if Calivan thought there would be no support for Gabriella to take the throne once Calbernans learned she was a Siren, he was mistaken. Calberna was a land whose people valued strength, and there was no stronger Calbernan magic than Siren Song. Already, Dilys’s own men called Gabriella their future queen—and to a man they would die to protect and serve her, without a thought to heroulaniblood.
“Still, she must be guarded as the treasure she is,” Calivan continued. “Which men will you be leaving behind to ensure her safety?”
Dilys told him the names of the ten elite Calbernan warriors he had chosen to remain in Konumarr while he and the rest of the fleet were springing their trap on the Shark. He’d selected Synan Merimydion—a distant cousin from his own House—to lead them.
“Good. Very good. They are all fine warriors. You could not have chosen better. I would offer to stay behind myself, but I’m not comfortable being away from Alys for long.”
“GiveNimamy love, Uncle. And tell her about Gabriella. It will bring her joy to know her son will have a Siren for a wife.”
“I will.” Calivan reached out to clasp Dilys’s arms, then dragged him into an embrace, thumping him affectionately on the back. “I am happy for you, Nephew. Dispatch these pirates quickly, so that you may return home to your mother with your magnificent newliana.”
Chapter 18
“I still don’t like this.” Summer stood on the docks of Konumarr harbor and glowered up at the armored Calbernan Sealord standing beside her. “You came here to marry a weatherwitch because you wanted our help to deal with these pirates, and now you’re going to sail off to confront them without our gifts to help you?”
