Page 6 of A Siren of Beasts

“I can’t stay, Barnaby is sleeping and I can’t be missing if he wakes up,” I explained.

Finn nodded in understanding. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“There’s a storm coming, and they told us to stay in our rooms below deck. It could get pretty bad and they feel it will be safest for us to down here,” I explained.

“Works for me, I’m learning incredibly quickly that I’m not a man cut out for adventure. I’d much rather be back at the palace dealing with things there,” Finn shared. “There were all the comforts and space to move, being locked up in this tiny place is awful.”

I frowned at him. “Who’s locking you up down here? Why not come up topside and enjoy the fresh air?”

“What and be even closer to water that I could drown in? No, I’m gonna stay protected here. No worries of toppling overboard that way,” he shot back, his eyes wide with fear.

That was a surprise to me. “You’re scared of drowning?”

“You’re not? The only water I’ve ever been in is a bathing pool and that’s just fine with me.”

Smirking, I shook my head. “No, I’m not scared of drowning, even though I can’t swim. I don’t know, I suppose I feel like our bodies should be able to figure it out when the time comes when it’s needed. Even animals know instinctively how to swim, how are we any different?”

“First off, we aren’t animals, we are far more intelligent,” he argued.

“If that’s the case then figuring out how to swim should be a no brainer,” I countered with a smile and a wink. “If anything happens, I’ll be in Barnaby’s room.”

“You know you really should get out of the habit of calling him by his first name when we get to Gusnia. They might not be as understanding of it as the king was,” Finn warned as he stood.

“Probably wise,” I agreed, and headed back to Barnaby’s room.

Just as I entered the room the ship rocked violently, knocking me off my feet, and tumbled Barnaby off the bed. He spluttered awake, only for the ship to roll the other way and I slid across the space to thump on the outward wall of the ship. Scrabbling for purchase on the frame of the bed I held on as the waves hit harder and more frequently. I heard the whistling of the wind through cracks in the ship’s hull. Barnaby was tossed against the opposite wall and in the next upheaval a chest slammed into him, making him cry out.

It was absolutely chaos with people shouting, and the sound of feet pounding on the deck above as the sailors moved into action. Barnaby wasn’t moving, and I saw blood trailing down one side of his face. When the ship tried to toss me again, I went with the movement and used all my strength and reflexes to throw myself in his direction. Working as fast as I could, I shoved the chest away in a direction it shouldn’t come back to hit us again.

Quickly, I checked and found Barnaby was still breathing, he’d just been knocked unconscious. Looking around the room, I tried to find something that might help us weather this storm. We needed rope, something to keep us from getting rattled around like a pair of dice. A loud cracking sound shot through the air louder than the thunder cracking overhead. The ship made an odd pitch and leaned farther to one side than I thought it should. It didn’t stop and roll the other way, instead Barnaby and I skidded to the opposite side until we slammed into the wall.

Was the ship capsizing? Had this storm done something to the ship it couldn’t recover from? Just moments ago I’d told Finn that I wasn’t afraid of drowning. As fear clawed at my throat and panic churned in my stomach, it would seem that wasn’t true. Drowning wasn’t what I was afraid of, being trapped in this ship, unable to get out as water filled it, was much more terrifying to me.

As if the fates had heard my plea, the ship started to right itself and tumbled us to the other side of the room. The chest hurtled towards the door and broke right through it shattering the wood to pieces. Looking down at Barnaby I had a choice—do I try to save him or do I just save myself? It shouldn’t have been that hard of a choice to make. He was my master, I was just a slave which he liked to fuck and talk to. If our situation were reversed, he wouldn’t have even considered saving me, all he’d worry about was himself. My time was running out as the ship rolled, my chance to get out of this room was now. Next time the ship might not right, and I’d be stuck in this cabin to drown with my master like a faithful slave.

Something in my soul begged me to choose myself and live. So that’s exactly what I did.

Hurling myself at the door I grabbed the frame just in time before it tipped too far. My feet dangled and then I heard a sickening thud followed by a crack. I didn’t want to look. I knew what I’d see but part of me needed to make sure. Glancing back Barnaby was slumped upside down against the wall, his neck at an angle that told me it was broken. My master was dead, and I’d chosen myself over him. Shaking myself out of that train of thought I pushed up to crawl out of the door into the hall.

The entire ship groaned, and it was clear this time she wasn’t going to right herself. Loud splintering cracks appeared on the hull as water gushed into the ship. That was all I needed to see to get me moving as fast as I could toward the ship's deck. When I reached the stairs, I realized my flawed thinking. The hatch to the deck was sealed shut but water was making its way through the seams at my feet. Right now, the whole gods damned fucking ship was upside down. The waves didn’t stop slapping it around though, widening the cracks in the walls little by little. Looking around furiously, I tried to find some way to get out of this sinking watery grave. I would not die down here, I couldn’t, for the first time I was free. The world couldn’t be that cruel to give me a taste of freedom, only to punish me for letting Barnaby die.

Screaming came from the other end of the ship and I realized it was Finn. Running as fast as I could being battered from wall to wall in this narrow galley, I got to Finn’s door. There was a crate that had been knocked loose from the storage part of the hull just beyond his room. It was wedged tightly in place. I wasn’t sure I could get it loose. On the other side of the door I heard Finn screaming.

Digging deep into my strength that I never allowed myself to use, I planted my feet as there was a brief lull in the rocking, and pushed. When it didn’t even budge I almost gave up hope but the pleading screams from Finn kept me from giving up. Then I heard it before I felt it as the crate moaned and screeched as the wood gave and the large box moved just enough for me to get to the door. Using my heel, I slammed it down where the latch was knocking it free and bursting it open. Looking down, I found Finn up to his waist in water fear etched on his face. When he saw me it was almost as if he was going to cry.

“Kezia,” he gasped. “Oh, thank fuck.”

His room was much smaller than Barnaby’s, so I could lie on my stomach and reach down to grasp his wrist. The force he used to cling to my hand made me wince, but I said nothing. As he’d just told me, this was his worst fear, and now he was having to live through it.

“Come on, up you go,” I encouraged as I dragged him up. It would seem this abnormal strength was certainly coming in handy. “We need to get the hell out of this ship before it sinks. Right now, the hull is mostly intact, meaning the air trapped in here is keeping the ship afloat. Once the hull is completely cracked open or there’s too much water, it will drag us down to the depths of hell.”

“Here I was thinking you were my guardian spirit when you’re really just the devil toying with me,” Finn managed between his rapid breathing as his body shook like a leaf.

Grasping his face between my hands, I fought to stay steady as the storm seemed to pick up. “I know you won’t believe this but we have a higher chance of staying alive if we get the fuck out of this ship. We’ll find floating debris and we can hang on to that. We’ll get through this together. Barnaby’s dead, it’s just me and you now.”

That information seemed to sober him enough that I felt confident in letting go of his face. Grabbing his arm, I moved into the part of the ship where all the supplies and things being sent to Gusnia were stowed away. Water dripped from above and I noticed a cannon had pierced the hull of the ship high enough up it wouldn’t sink us just yet.

“Finn, we need to get that cannon out of that hole so we can climb through,” I instructed.