“Well, what did your father always say? ‘A risk is only a risk if the reward is just as great as the possibility of death.’” She mocked his low, growly voice. “Then at least we died giving it all we’ve got. I can live with that. Can you?”

Could I?

I slipped onto the mattress beside Dara and let my fingertips play in her frizzing curls, brushing them out of her face. Such an innocent life, a rare and precious thing. I had many fears, but Captain Rylander Bordeaux had dug the holes that housed the most dangerous. If I aided him, I betrayed my father. If I killed him before we heard out his deal, I’d betray my crew and break a promise to my father. If we took his deal and succeeded, then that success would eat me alive, as if I’d profited from Father’s last breath. I couldn’t decide the worse fate, and so the fear gnawed away like termites. Ridding the world of sirens would be the ultimate treasure, the chance to chase something intangible and rare. The chance to save a life, instead of always being the cause of death. The only question now was if I could be brave enough to lead that charge.

Chapter seven

Rylander

By morning, the Isle of Cava glistened along the distant horizon. The Royal Palace towered over the skyline, a stunning monument of crystalline stone that overlooked King Delphi’s and Queen Olivine’s capital. Bards and storytellers boasted that the castle was crafted by the same architect who had built the fortress of the Siren Queen. Their audiences would be horrified to learn that Lorelei’s ivory citadel was instead carved from the human remains of her victims, collected over the centuries and layered into a three-story, stark white monument that lured men with its ethereal beauty. Perched on the edge of the sirens’ lush island jungle and bordering the inlet between the finned peninsulas, it beckoned like a come-hither hand gesture from the trees. Too late, those same men realized it would become their tomb. Their bones would be bound together and added to my mother’s prison.

Ketner, our resident healer from Jacar, stood beside me. The sun gave his white facial markings an iridescent glow against his darker skin. “I never miss my homeland when we arrive in yours. Such beauty.”

I wasn’t so sure I agreed. While impressive in size, the city surrounding the Royal Palace paled in comparison. The smooth-sided clay and plaster buildings bore slatted roofs. Crammed together, the hearty off-white homes looked dull and clotted with dirt from generations of salty sea spray. Grey cobblestone streets wove between the unimpressive structures, punctuated occasionally by a carved stone statue of one divine being or another.