My eyes closed as I inhaled, recalling my mother’s lavender and vanilla fragrance. I was five years old and wanted to build a sandcastle, but Mother wasn’t permitted to walk the shores with me. I gave her a quick hug and ran outside to play as if it were any other day. I couldn’t know it would be the last time I saw her.

In the distance, a sound sweet like syrup called to me, a sound as familiar to my childhood as my mother’s embraces. Always the same song. It told of the sirens’ ancestry. Carefully chosen words looped together to tell of how Achelous, chief river god among his three thousand brothers, set about to woo the most beautiful of the muses, Calliope. She was the muse of music and dance, and her name meant beautiful voiced. The sea monsters birthed of their union inherited magical songs from their mother’s poetic talents and their affinity for the sea from their father’s sphere of influence. The magical music flowed closer like a gentle wave, but when it crested, notes of bloodlust crept into the tune. A perversion developed over time, a perversion of their mother’s pure gift. The more the Siren Queen’s army killed, the more they hungered for blood, and the farther they strayed from their godly creation.

“Rye?” Smitter asked.

My eyes snapped open. I stepped forward.

“Rylander,” he said louder. His arm shot out, fingers latching around my wrist. The pressure severed the lure of the deep sea’s call. “What is it? What do you hear?”

“Sound the alarm! We are under attack!”

Chapter three

Lou

Lianna and Krinny huddled to protect Dara and me. Their heads whipped back and forth, watching the crew of The Sea Singer race from bow to stern, tugging on ropes and making hand gestures we didn’t understand.

It all happened so fast. One moment Rylander sounded the alarm, and the next he bounded from my deck to his, ordering his crew to prepare for battle. Within seconds, the men went silent, using only their hands to converse.

“Are they signing to communicate?” Krinny asked, observing two men untangling a net between swift hand gestures. “That’s almost brilliant.”

It took a lot to impress Krinny, especially with crew operations. A formidable weapons expert and assassin, Krinny was the best strategist I knew and as no-nonsense as her black bun. I’d have made her second in command had Lianna not already held the post under my father’s authority. I valued both their opinions, making their accompaniment on The Sea Singer a natural choice.