“How many?” Dimitris called back.
“Around fifteen that I can count, maybe more below the waterline.”
“Can you repair the hull for the men? We don’t have enough tar to patch the damage from that many of them.” If Cal could do enough to get them through the next few miles they would be in the clear. Based on the charts they’d reviewed earlier, they were nearing the end of the strait.
“You won’t make it at the helm long enough for me to mend all the damage, you’re already burning out. You need rest!” His uncle was right. He had been fighting against the thrall of the storm for too long and his energy was fading.
“I will be fine! TheAphroditewill not! Please, Cal.”
Shrieking came from both sides of the ship, where the winged beasts had begun to claw their way up toward the rails. Each one looked different, varying shades of hair cascading down their bodies. Matching colored leathery wings splayed from their backs, ending in black talons the size of the daggers sheathed along Dimitris’s chest. The tops of their bodies were hidden behind the flowing hair from their head, but they were distinctively female, luscious curves down to their hips where the human form turnedto a scaled tail. The shrill voices were nothing like the enchanting calls they made while beneath the water’s edge.
“Thalia! We need you to handle this!” Dimitris yelled up at the seer, who dangled from a rope tied to the mast, adjusting the halyard of the mainsail. Her quiver was tossed back and forth in the gale-force winds as she descended without even using her hands, reaching behind and plucking the bow and an arrow from behind her. She aimed at the first siren as she was still midair. The arrow flew from the seer’s bow, meeting its mark right between the beast’s black-slit eyes. Thalia landed as graceful as a cat on the deck, despite its slippery floor from the pouring rain.
“On your left!” he screamed once more over the howling of the creature’s sisters. Thalia spun, pulling two more arrows from her quiver and sent them spiraling toward a second beast, this one with shimmering blonde hair and sanguine lips. The siren cried, its mouth opening wide, with the impact of the two arrows protruding through its wings. Two rows of spindly teeth chomped down on the air as it used its injured wings to crawl toward the seer on the deck.
“Cal! Now would be a good time to start the repairs!” Thalia yelled toward the older man, knocking another arrow and hurtling it through the blonde siren’s heart. The creature crashed to the deck with a resounding thud.
Dimitris’s uncle raced to the port side of theAphrodite, where Thalia had just killed the two ascending adversaries. He twisted his two hands, bringing them in toward each other in front of his chest before pulling them apart as if he was tightening a rope. Crackling wood sounded from below, pieces fabricating out of the air. Moving his hands once more in the same manner, the God ofCraft worked swiftly to heal the holes that the siren had gouged out of the wood.
Another siren breached the rail on the starboard side this time, splinters of wood flying in the air as it scraped its claws racing toward Thalia. It was faster than the other two, moving too quickly for Thalia to pull a fifth arrow. She reached for the sword slung at her hip, unsheathing the silver blade and swinging it up just in time to halt the talon that swung for her head. The siren screamed, spit flying from its mouth as it tried to sink its teeth into Thalia’s neck, but just as ferociously the seer slipped a dagger from her thigh and rammed it into the beast’s chest.
Thalia flung the siren off her and raced toward the starboard rail. “It looks like they are retreating under the ship!” she called. “But the patches on this side aren’t holding, Cal!”
Cal looked between the seer and the prince, and Dimitris signaled for him to go, even though his arms felt as if they would fall from his body. He only needed to hang on a little longer. With adept skill, Cal turned his power toward the other side, weaving wooden planks into existence from the energy that brewed in the storm.
The ship rattled as the gouges were plugged with the glowing wood-like material and a large gust of wind hit the sail sending the wheel spiraling. Dimitris lost his grip, his strength finally waning. The boom of the mainsail barrelled across the ship and Cal hit the deck, but then it miraculously straightened.
“I’ve got you.” With an unlikely strength, Thalia stood at the helm, guiding theAphroditeback to her course.
“It is too much for you!” Dimitris chastised.
“The storm breaks ahead, I can manage the wheel for that distance. You won’t make it if you keep trying to fight the storm without rest. Take my bow and make sure we don’t have any lingering beasts.”
“I—” he was cut off by the seer.
“Do not argue with me,fengaráki, I have no patience left today.”
With a shallow inhale Dimitris said, “As you wish.”
He took the bow from where she had tossed it beside the ship’s wheel, plucking the handful of arrows that remained in her quiver, and slid across the deck to survey if any sirens had returned to attempt to sink the ship once more. No screams came from the water below, nor was there the distinctive scratching of talon on wood echoing in his ears. Dimitris turned back to make sure Thalia was still managing to hold the ship steady, but she stood as steadfast as ever.
What a glorious sight it was to behold—the wind and rain tangling with her moon-white hair as it whipped around her face, streaming backward below her tricorn hat, determination and a touch of elegance in the way her body held firmly against the storm.
A fighter.
A soldier.
A captain.
Chapter Nine
Thalia
Home. Thalia was finally back with her toes in the shimmering white sands of Skiatha. With each breath of salty air mingled with the sweet lavender flowers by the shore, she felt more at ease, more prepared to rally the soldiers, to lead her people in the battle against evil.
She left Dafne aboard theAphrodite, rowing to the shore with only Dimitris. It was safer for her sister aboard the ship—or that is what Thalia told herself. Dafne had just begun to grow accustomed to the small number of soldiers aboard the ship and Thalia wasn’t sure she was ready to handle the particular ferocity of the Skiathans. Another day aboard the ship with Cal would not prepare her much more, but it would at least give Thalia enoughtime to explain the situation to her comrades and set up a room at the castle rather than force Dafne to stay down in the barracks.
“Are you coming or not?” a voice huffed from behind her.
