Brida reached for it, then drew back, remembering Ospodine’s words. “I think it belongs more to the merfolk than to me.”
Edonin’s effort to smile failed. She placed the flute on the ground. “You are mer in your way, and you’ve earned the right to keep it. Play it should you ever need us. Play to remember us.”
Brida wiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry you lost your sons.” She was glad Ospodine was no longer a threat, but her heart ached for theap’sgrief at losing her children.
Edonin emitted a trio of despondent clicks. “Ahtin would say Seahorse’s death was just. I say it was merciful. He was born empty and sought to fill that space. Maybe now he’s at peace, and I have avenged his brother’s death.”
She exchanged a series of rapid fire whistles with Ahtin before turning back to Brida. “My son saved you. The debt is paid.” She raised a hand. “Farewell, Brida.”
Theapswam away without looking back. Brida wondered if she’d ever return to the waters surrounding Madigan’s Teeth.
A caress on her leg made her look down to find Ahtin next to her, balanced on his forearms. His tail arched his back, and the shallow cut from Ospodine’s sacrificial dagger no longer bled, though it left a red mark on the merman’s ivory skin. He nodded to where Endel now lay sprawled along the path. “Your friend?”
Brida gasped and raced to where the guard lay, no longer frozen in place by a siren’s spell but sleeping the sleep of the innocent, completely unaware of what had just played out before him. Brida tucked his arms against his body and watched to make sure he breathed steadily. She’d have to invent a plausible story to explain why she was soaking wet, how her skirts ended up shredded, why Syr Ospodine was nowhere to be found, and why Endel was napping outside in the middle of the night. It shouldn’t be too hard if she put some effort into it. She thanked the gods it was Endel who accompanied her here and not the far more astute Lord Frantisek.
She returned to find Ahtin floating in the water, waiting for her. Shrapnel from crushed mussel shells crunched beneath her feet, and she swept some aside to clear a spot for herself on the rock ledge level with the water. Seawater sluiced under and over her, cold enough to make her bones crack.
Ahtin curved an arm on either side of her legs and rested his chin on her knee. “I feared you had spurned me, Brida.”
She wove his slippery hair through her fingers in a long caress and bent to steal another kiss from him. “No,” she said when they parted. “I was sick. And then I was afraid. Ospodine knew about you. I prayed you and your family had already begun your journey south.”
He nuzzled his cheek into her skirts, a frown drawing down the corners of his mouth. “We were leaving when Edonin heard your flute. She came back, and I followed. The rest continued south.”
“And now she’s gone to join them.”
“Yes.”
“And you will too.” It was the way of the merfolk, and who was she to change it? Still, her soul ached at the idea of this inevitable parting.
Ahtin captured her hand to kiss each of her fingers, her thumb, then her knuckles and the inside of her wrist. “I can stay.” He pressed her hand to his cheek. “I want to stay.”
Brida sniffled and blinked back the tears threatening to spill down her face. “I want you to stay too, but sooner or later someone will discover you, and I don’t want that to happen.” She traced the elegant line of his nose down to the fine curvature of his lips. “Yourapneeds you. All of your family needs each other. The children your women will bear are going to need all the protection they can get.” She stroked the high planes of his cheekbones. “I will miss this face.” Her thumb pressed his lower lip. “This mouth.” He covered her hand with his where it flattened against his chest. “This heart.”
“I will return when the waters are warm again, beautiful Brida,” he promised. “Come to the shore then. I will be waiting.”
He pressed her hand even harder to his chest before folding her fingers over her palm. “My heart,” he said softly. “Keep it safe.”
No longer caring that tears streamed down her face and dripped off her chin, Brida repeated his gesture, pressing his hand to her chest just above the edge of her bodice before curling his webbed fingers closed. “My heart,” she whispered. “Take it with you.”
They kissed a final time before Ahtin launched himself into the surf and dove out of sight. Brida watched the fading wake of his departure, peering into the darkness for a final glimpse of him until her eyes ached. The Gray held its secrets close and showed her nothing more.
Epilogue
Summer returnedto Ancilar on the back of an unexpected gale that launched the Gray far onto the shoreline and snapped trees under its might. In the aftermath, the villagers crept out of their battered houses to survey the damage and thank the gods the sky was once more blue, the sea calm, and the temperatures warm.
Brida joined the rest of the villagers as they gathered at the shoreline with their wagons, clearing away the debris strewn from one end of the beach to the other. Most would be taken back to the village for sorting and salvage. All the effort went toward clearing the area for the safety of the horse shrimpers who planned to start the trawling season in a few days.
Norinn helped Brida throw pieces of driftwood into the dray. “Why is it all we ever do on this beach is work?” she said, encompassing the length of sand and dunes with a sweep of her hand. “Why not have a gathering? Build a fire. Bring food, play music, dance. Lord Frantisek is always borrowing you and the others to play at the castle. Why not play here for the neighbors?”
Those who overheard her comment embraced the idea, and Brida was swiftly conscripted to play at the impromptu celebration that evening. She didn’t mind. Winter had been a lonely season, punctuated by bouts of melancholy that gave way to brief cheerfulness at the thought of summer’s return. Brida missed Ahtin, missed him even more when she played her flute. She worried as well. His world was far more dangerous than hers, at least in her opinion, though hers didn’t lack its share of evil men like Ospodine.
No one seemed to care that he hadn’t returned from Madigan’s Teeth, though his lordship had asked her twice if she’d seen him there. That somber gaze, deep as the Gray itself, had settled on her for a long moment until he finally said “Sometimes the sea takes what it wants with no apology for the theft.”
At the memory of the great fish snatching Ospodine off the rock ledge as if he were a seal, Brida couldn’t agree more.
Once the sun set, all of Ancilar gathered around the bonfire stack they’d built. When two of the men set the kindling aflame with torches and fanned the flames to flare up the heap, everyone cheered. Children raced along the beach, chasing and being chased by pet dogs. The ale flowed, along with the gift of a cask of wine from his lordship on the bluff. No one worried about an obluda, especially after Zigana Imre dipped her hands in the shallow, then stood up with a smile and shake of her head. The Gray this night offered no threat to those who remained on the shore.
Brida played alongside a large group of musicians with various instruments and skill levels spanning from beginner to expert. She’d brought her bone flute, her most treasured possession now, and played all the songs the villagers knew by heart. Her lips tingled with the urge to play the two-note siren song: Edonin’s name and so much more, but she resisted the temptation. That wasn’t merely a tune. It was a spell, and a powerful one at that, and had no business at this gathering.
