Princess Elodi's Arc

Chapter 43 of 55

By the fourth day, the reef showed itself. Elodi saw the black rocks break the water ahead, dark teeth in a white surf. Dolphins had followed the ship all morning. She had never seen them before today. She leaned over the rail and laughed as they cut and dove beside the hull. For the first time since leaving the island, she felt light. Then the wind carried a thread of sound from the rocks, high and sweet, and her smile faded. The song had begun. "Elodi, come see!" Damon called from the deck behind her. He held his arm up, and a black hawk sat perched on his wrist. Its green eyes shone. "The chief gave him to me for the rum I traded. This is Midnight." Damon grinned like a boy with a new toy, his blue tunic bright against the dark sails. He had no idea the danger closing in. Elodi looked past him to the crew. Two men at the ropes had gone still. One let go and stepped toward the rail, his face slack, his ears open to the water. "Damon, the wax," Elodi said. "Where is the wax for the crew's ears?" His grin dropped. "Below. Isla was mixing it. There wasn't time—" The song swelled. A third sailor climbed onto the rail, arms out toward the rocks. Elodi grabbed his belt and hauled him back to the deck. He fought her, eyes fixed on the water. She could not hold them all. The hawk shrieked. Midnight launched off Damon's wrist and beat his wings hard over the deck, screaming again and again. The sharp cries cut through the siren song. The sailor in Elodi's arms blinked and shook his head, as if waking from sleep. "Keep him screaming!" Elodi shouted. She snatched a pot from a startled cook and beat it with a spoon. Clang after clang rang across the deck. "Make noise! Every one of you, make noise!" The crew understood. They banged pots, stamped boots, and shouted at the top of their lungs. Damon whistled to the hawk and kept him circling low, his cries steady above the din. Isla ran up from below with the wax too late to matter now. The wall of sound smothered the sirens' song. Blackwell gripped the wheel and drove the Serpent Corsair straight between the black rocks. The song thinned, then died behind them. When the last rock passed the stern, the crew fell quiet, breathing hard. No one had gone into the water. Damon held out his arm, and Midnight settled onto it, calm again. Elodi set down the pot and pressed her hand to the hawk's dark feathers. "You saved us," she told Damon. He shook his head. "He did." Ahead the water ran open and empty. The reef was behind them now. Somewhere past it lay the shore where her father had gone.