Jem waved his words away. "We're already cursed. It's not as if you could make it any worse. Besides, as disappointing as it might be for you, this is the one thing that you can do to give the crew hope that there might be a life beyond this blasted ship."
Casper raised an eyebrow, deflecting. "I thought you loved thePetrel."
"I do. But after nearly fifty years, a man can get tired of the same hunk of wood under his feet." He turned to leave, looking over his shoulder. "Promise you'll at least give it some thought?"
Casper nodded and watched as the door swung shut behind his friend. He lowered himself to the edge of his desk with a sigh.
He's right. As much as I hate the feeling of failure, and as much as I think it's a lost cause, the least I can do for them is try.He rubbed the spot over his heart.The worst that will happen is I fall for a woman who doesn't feel the same way. Like Jem said, we're cursed. What's a little heartbreak added into the mix?
Chapter two
Mystery
Sienna
Sienna could always hear when a storm was brewing.
The music of the sea was always changing, with melodies that floated lightly like the sea spray, and the rolling harmonies underneath that mimicked the waves as they approached the shore. And yet, grounding the upper voices were the deep bass notes of the still water underneath, the continual progression of currents that remained constant no matter the state of affairs above the surface. It was one of the things Sienna loved about the water—from day to day, moment to moment, there was always something new and yet familiar and comfortable at the same time.
The change was subtle, as heavy storm clouds began to gather in the distance and the winds started to shift. Here and there a dissonant note appeared in the harmonies, slowly creating and building a tension that would only be resolved when the storm had spent itself. As Sienna walked along the pebbly beach, she could hear just the faintest hints of notes suspended where they should have fallen. She tilted her head and brushed her long, coppery red hair away from her ears as she strained to listen.
It's probably still a few hours away, at least. With a western wind, it won't build quite as quickly.
She let her eyes drift over the gray-blue waves to the darkening horizon. Unlike in the Summer Court, where the sea was a sparkling aquamarine that twinkled and glittered until it met the brilliant band of clear blue sky, in the Winter Court everything was muted. There were days of sunshine, but they were few and far between, and the ocean was a darker, more contemplative shade. The waves were higher and the sea foam colder, but there was a wild beauty in it that kept drawing Sienna back--though she supposed that could be due as much to the naiad blood in her veins and song in her soul as anything else.
She walked leisurely, soaking in the music of the waves and breathing deeply the salt-tinged air. A small satchel of woven seagrass hung from her left wrist, half-full of shells and bits of polished rock and sea glass, and she added to it as she ambled along the shore. A large, conical shell caught her eye, eliciting a gasp of delighted laughter. Sienna scooped the shell up and brushed the dirt from its swirled surface before holding it up to her ear as she had often done as a child.
The song of the sea, loud and resonant, played in her ear. She closed her eyes, savoring the sound. The day this shell had been formed must have been a rare, clear one—the music was full of sunshine and dancing, rippling waves, with not a discordant note to be heard.
The song called to her heart, and Sienna instinctively tried to sing along. She could hear in her mind the place where her voice would fit in, where the notes would create a layer of harmony that she could use to pull the water to her bidding.
She could hear it in her mind, but instead of the music flowing easily from her throat, she was forcing her voice out in a strained, rough bark that rivaled a seal.
Tears burned her eyes, both in frustration and at the pain that sliced through the back of her throat. She wound up her arm and hurled it over the water, watching with grim satisfaction as it splashed and sank beneath the waves.
Light laughter sounded from behind her. "Remind me not to play against you in a game of oar ball."
Sienna turned at her friend Devri's voice in time to see the long-limbed, graceful Siren gliding across the pebbles. Her long, diaphanous skirts flowed behind her in the wind, and her arms were bare despite the later-afternoon chill in the air. The seafoam green of her dress set off her golden blonde hair and sun-kissed skin to perfection. How she managed to achieve such a glowing complexion with the bleak, overcast skies of the Winter Court, Sienna would never know. Her own skin was pale and covered with freckles, and she tended to burn to a crisp with the barest hint of sunshine that broke through the clouds.
"What are you doing here?" Sienna greeted her friend with a hug before looping their arms together. It still took an unusual amount of effort to get the words out, and her voice was hoarse and ragged, but it didn't pain her as much as her attempts at singing.
"Scouting you for our team at the next picnic." Devri laughed musically. "I think you've been holding out on us." She refrained from commenting on the state of Sienna's voice, for which she was grateful.
Sienna rolled her eyes. "I don't play because Erik and Doryss are always the team captains. Doryss still thinks I'm just as uncoordinated as I was when we were children and Erik..."
"Erik is a fool and wouldn't know a good thing if a squid hit him in the face with it," Devri interjected staunchly. "And just for that, I think you should be on our team. I want to see his face when you get him knocked out of the game."
"Aren't you supposed to be more supportive of him, now that he's your brother's business partner and all?"
"Pfft. Whatever agreement he made with Doryss happened after he broke my best friend's heart. Besides, why would I trust him to keep his word as a partner when he was so quick to back out of an engagement? He can go sail on a rotting ship for all I care."
"Devri!"
"What? You're far too nice about it, Enna." Devri stopped and spun to face her, pulling her arm free to set her fists on her hips. "That man promised to marry you. He said that he loved you, and at the first sign of difficulty, he backed out. I don't care if he is an elf or not. A fae's word is supposed to mean something."
Sienna wrapped her arms around her middle, shrugging. "I'm just a Naiad. The social pressures from his family were heavy enough before the accident. Now that I can't even access my Natural magic..." Her voice trailed off as a hard, sharp lump lodged in her throat, and she blinked away the tears that once again threatened to fall.
"You're not 'just' anything. And you know that all those ideas about elves and their Creative Magic being better than those of us with Natural Magic is a lot of rot. We're just playing different parts in the same orchestra."
