Ubel clung to the rail with all his strength, listening to his men screaming as the box of clay pots broke and liquid fire spilled out over the deck and the men trying to cling to anything they could hold onto. They screamed as the fire washed over them. They screamed as they were pitched into the merciless sea.

The sky suddenly turned dark. Looking up, Ubel realized his ship was caught in a tunnel made by two waves coming together at the crests.

Then the tunnel collapsed, and there was nothing but the sea. Nothing at all.

“Jenny! Jenny! Mother’s mercy, what have you done?”

Rough hands gripped her arms and spun her away from the sea. She stared into Murtagh’s face, seeing fury and fear—seeing him, but feeling only the sea.

“Jenny! Ground the power now! Ground it, Jenny!”

She bared her teeth. “They kill us and kill us and kill us. But they will kill no more of us. No more!”

He was breathing deeply, roughly, as if he struggled to complete a ferocious task. “That’s right,” he said, his voice straining for calm. “They’ll kill no more.”

His eyes were dark and intense as he stared into hers. His voice smoothed out, a balm to raw emotions.

“You defended your people, and you defended them well. Now help me, Jenny. Help me get them to safe harbor. My ships can’t reach them until you calm the sea. Help me, Jenny. Help me get your brother to safe harbor.”

“Safe harbor,” she whispered, unable to look away from his eyes.

“Yes. Safe harbor. Calm your heart, Jenny. Calm the sea.”

Safe harbor. Help the selkies get Mihail and the others to safe harbor.

She closed her eyes, but Murtagh’s voice still washed over her. She breathed in the power she’d given to the sea, and breathed it out again, flowing on the path of that soothing voice. Calm the heart. Calm the sea.

“That’s good, Jenny. That’s good.”

She opened her eyes. She saw relief in his eyes now—and still a hint of fear behind it. When she tried to turn to look at the sea, Murtagh shifted to place himself on the seaward side of the cliff. With his arm firmly around her shoulders, he led her back toward the village.

“We’ll go down to the harbor and welcome your brother,” Murtagh said. “When he sees you, he’ll know he’s among friends.”

Mihail. Yes. When he saw her waiting for him, he would know he’d reached safe harbor.

It didn’t occur to her until much later that Murtagh had deliberately kept her from seeing what her fury and the sea had done.

Ubel clung to the broken mast, surrounded by debris that had once been a Wolfram warship. Surrounded by bodies. There were a few other men clinging to anything that would float, but not many.