The Sea King by C. L. Wilson
“When we get back to Calberna, Uncle Calivan should be able to help him. He’s not quite as gifted an herbalist as your Tildavera Greenleaf, but he knows his way around healing potions.”
“That sounds good. We should probably put him on one of your fastest ships and send him back to Calberna right away.”
Dilys went still, his gaze suddenly very watchful. “You don’t wish to sail to Calberna?”
She realized immediately that he’d misinterpreted her request. “I do. Of course I do. But there’s something I need to do first. A vow I need to keep.”
Less than twenty-four hours later, Gabriella stood on the deck of the Kracken looking out over Trinipor, the capital of Mystral’s slave trade, and the massive stone fortress that loomed over the city from the clifftops above. What until a few hours ago had been Mystral’s busiest, most profitable, and most deplorable slave port was now a ghost town. The thousands of men, women, and children who had been held for sale here were sailing towards Calberna, where the offer of safe haven or a small gold stake and transport to the port of their choice awaited them. The slavers themselves were either dead or in chains, preparing to be transported to several labor camps, where they would be put to work mining precious minerals until they earned enough money to buy back every slave they’d ever sold.
All that remained of Trinipor now were the empty buildings and slave pens, and the opulent, abandoned fortress of Mur Balat. Of Balat himself, there was no trace. According to witnesses, he hadn’t been seen in over a month. His coven of witches had declared him slain in a fiery explosion at sea, then fled in the night, along with half of his servants and guards. A few of the more brazen remaining guards had decided to claim Balat’s fortress and his slave trade for themselves. Most of them had perished fighting the Calbernans who’d come to put an end to Trinipor.
“It’s time, moa haleah.” Dilys touched her arm gently.
“Everyone is out, right? The city and fortress are empty?”
“Tey. Just as you ordered.”
“Good.” Her hands clenched tightly around the ship’s railing. Scores of Calbernans floated in the water below, waiting. She took a deep breath, then another.
Gabriella had insisted on visiting her former captor’s palatial home, to see with her own eyes the princely life he’d built for himself on the backs of his victims. She toured the holding pens, the cages, the locked rooms where he kept recalcitrant and magically gifted slaves, letting each new outrage fuel the molten kernel of fury bubbling at her core until the pressure had become so fearsome that holding it in felt like trying to stop a volcano from erupting.
She probably should have excused herself when the Calbernans discovered the rooms in Balat’s palace that housed a dozen naked young women wearing magic-restraining collars and the blank, hollow-eyed look she recognized all too well. But even now, with her rage-fed power threatening to shatter her control, her heart also swelled with pride for Dilys’s men, all of whom had been so gentle, so incredibly tender and compassionate towards those who had suffered so terribly. Feared mercenaries the Calbernans might be, but when it came to Mystral’s most vulnerable, no one had a bigger heart, or a greater capacity for giving.
Dilys’s hands clasped her shoulders, his touch warm and reassuring. “I am here, Gabriella. Do what you must. The men and I will make sure no one gets hurt.”
She nodded, unable to speak. Her throat was tight, her magic swelling to a painful crescendo. She squeezed the ship’s railing until her knuckles turned white, took a final, deep breath, then let out a Shout like no other. Magic poured from her throat, her fury, her vengeance, her grief, and her pain unleashed in a scream that blasted across the water and slammed into Trinipor like a hammer of the gods. Trees and buildings were ripped from their foundations. Stone shuddered and groaned. She Shouted and Shouted and Shouted, releasing all the rage and fury and grief inside her until Mur Balat’s mighty fortress, the entire city of Trinipor, and several miles of the northern Ardullan coast crumbled and collapsed into the sea. In the water, the scores of swimming Calbernans absorbed the shock wave of the sudden collapse, taming the resulting tsunami before it could start, swimming fast away to disperse the energy in harmless bursts spread out across the Olemas.
When it was over, Gabriella leaned back into Dilys’s strong arms. She felt drained and weary and sad, and the only reason she wasn’t collapsing into broken sobs was because Dilys was there, his love and his strength pouring into all the empty places inside. Her sisters were gone, the men who’d hurt them and her were dead, she’d put an end to the Trinipor slave trade and wiped Mur Balat’s base of power from the face of Mystral. She’d done all that she could to avenge her loved ones. It still wasn’t enough—probably never would be—but it would have to be enough for now.
She turned to wrap her arms around Dilys’s waist and pressed her face to his chest, letting the beat of his heart and the safe haven of his embrace soothe her raw emotions. “Let’s go home, moa akua. To Calberna.”
Chapter 27
The Kracken sailed slowly into the pristine turquoise waters of Cali Va’Lua’s main harbor. Standing on the deck beside Dilys, wearing the sea-green gown his crew had made for her, Gabriella felt her stomach fluttering with a jumble of nerves and excitement.
Until the day of her abduction, she’d never traveled beyond the borders of the Æsir Isles. And except for a few childhood trips to Seahaven, to visit her mother’s family, and her recent journey to Wintercraig, she’d never left Summerlea. In fact, after her mother’s death, she’d rarely traveled beyond the walls of Vera Sola.
Calberna, with its crystalline waters, pink sand beaches, and swaying tropical palms, was the most exotic and beautiful place she’d ever been. Almost like a like a slice of Halla on earth. Everything was bright and beautiful, and the air was so thick with exuberant joy it was intoxicating to her senses. Thousands had gathered to welcome the first Siren to return to Calberna since the Slaughter. They lined the docks, as well as every ship in the harbor and every wall and walkway as far as she could see. Cheering, bright-eyed, sun-bronzed folk throwing flowers, and loops of blossoms and glossy green leaves as the Kracken sailed past.
“Sirena!” they cried, and, “Myerielua!”
“It seems the word about me is most definitely out,” Gabriella murmured.
He grinned, his teeth white and dazzling in the dark bronze of his face. “Tey. Yours may well have been a Shout heard around the world.”
He didn’t look bothered by the idea, but still, she had to ask. “Is that going to be a problem for Calberna?”
“Ono, moa haleah. Most of those who will have heard your Shout won’t know what it was. And of those who do, any of them foolish enough to invade Calbernan waters will find a harsh welcome.” He bent to kiss her lips tenderly, which made the crowd go wild. That made him grin again and he pumped a massive fist in the air, to the further cheers of his countrymen. The sheer, silky fabric of his obah fluttered about him like a pennant.
She rolled her eyes. “You are enjoying this perhaps a little too much.”
“No such thing. I am enjoying this every bit as much as I should. In fact, I think now, you should kiss me . . . may I suggest a great, lusty kiss so our people have no doubt that you have, indeed, claimed their prince as your own.” He grinned. It was the sort of grin that was half dare, half amused certainty that she wouldn’t take the dare.
Gabriella arched a brow. He’d been in especially high spirits all morning, teasing her, laughing, pulling the Siren’s tail. She knew most of that was carefully orchestrated bluster to keep her nerves at bay. But part of it was because he thought he could tease her with impunity. Silly man. She hadn’t spent a lifetime as the sister of Autumn Coruscate, the prankster princess, without learning how to answer a dare. Time for him to learn a little lesson about his new wife.
In a Voice filled with Command, she told him, “Bend down.”
He was already bending before it even registered with him what sh
She gripped his head between her hands, plastered her lips to his, and proceeded to kiss the shuma off him. As she did, she hummed softly in the back of her throat. The melody was one she’d only ever heard in those erotic dreams that had haunted her since the night at the Llaskroner Fjord when his ulumi had glowed blue, and it worked now exactly the way it had worked in those dreams.
Dilys shuddered and fell to his knees. His arms wrapped around her, his hands splayed across her back, gripping her tight as a sound that was half growl, half sob escaped him.
She kept kissing him and humming that tiny, powerful thread of Siren Song that was meant for him and him alone until every drop of his blood, every cell in his body, every thought, every breath, every beat of his heart opened to her, invited her in and begged for her claiming. She conquered him entirely, leaving no part of him untaken. And then she pulled back, meeting his stunned golden gaze with her own blazing one, and said against his swollen, trembling lips, “Thou art mine, Dilys Merimydion. Mine and no other’s.”
He swallowed hard, and his rasping, “Tey,” was barely more than a scrape of sound.
She straightened, turned to the gathered crowds, and in a Voice backed with enough power to be heard by every ship in the harbor and every person in the city, declared in perfect Sea Tongue, “I claim this male as mine own. Before you all, I claim him. He is my mate, my male, my akua. Mine and no other’s!” She repeated the claim in Eru, and then Ice Tongue as well, in consideration of the White Guards aboard her vessels.
For the next several seconds, a shocked, deafening silence ensued, broken only by the crack of the wind moving canvas sails, the sound of waves crashing on the shore, and the cries of seabirds wheeling overhead.
And then came the roar.
It welled up from every throat in the harbor. A great huzzah that was almost as loud as a Shout of their own. Suddenly, the air was filled with flowers and rings of glossy leaves and Calbernans leaping like dolphins in the waves and the chanting cries of “Sirena! Sirena! Sirena!”
Gabriella turned to Dilys, who was still swaying on his knees and staring at her like he’d never really seen her before. She grinned. “Was that lusty enough for you, then?”
He blinked and blinked again. “Er . . . tey . . . I think that did the trick.”
She laughed and patted his cheek. “Good. Oh, and just so you know, it wasn’t Spring who switched your water for Summerlean fire brandy that first morning.”
The smile spread across his face, slowly at first, then bursting into a wide, dazzling grin. He surged to his feet in one fluid motion, sweeping her up in his arms. She thought he meant to kiss her every bit as senseless as she’d just kissed him, but instead he lifted her high and settled her on his broad shoulder.
“Sirena!” he cried, echoing the chants of his people. “Sirena!”
Behind her, every member of the Kracken’s crew was grinning wide enough to split their faces. The Calbernans leaping in the water began gathering up the floating blossoms and leafy wreaths and ferrying them to the ship, offering them to Gabriella and Dilys and everyone else aboard the ship until the Kracken was entirely festooned with bright flowers and greenery.
As they drew closer to the docks where the Kracken would make berth, Dilys took her down from his shoulder and set her back on her feet. He stood at her side, one broad hand resting at the small of her back. She liked that. She liked the oneness of standing side by side, liked the warm link of his skin against hers. She liked the joy pouring into her from all directions of this beautiful island nation.
She nestled against him and placed a hand over the swell of one hard pectoral muscle, sharing that joy with him. With it went a tendril of grief, still strong but no longer the raw, bitter pain it had been.
“I wish my sisters could have been here to see this.”
“I wish that, too, Gabriella. More than almost anything I wish it. But the part of them that still lives in you is here.”
It was a pretty sentiment, one she chose to embrace. The worst of what would have been her devastating grief was gone. The sadness was still there. Not taken away, but shared with him, and softened by the sharing. Without the grief, she could concentrate on the memories of all the loving, laughter-filled times she’d spent with her sisters, remembering the joy rather than the loss.
She stood there, nestled against him, smiling and waving to the exuberant, welcoming Calbernans and realized her mask was gone. Her smile was real. Her happiness genuine. For the first time in her life, the monster was at peace. Dilys had given her that, too.
They had reached the innermost part of the harbor.
“These are the docks and central warehouses of House Merimydion,” Dilys said, pointing to the neat rows of large, aesthetically pleasing buildings gathered along the water’s edge. “Half of all shipments in this hemisphere pass through this port. And thanks to many improvements my father and the other males of House Merimydion made over the years, a full third of that traffic travels on our ships and through our warehouses.”
“You are telling me I’ve married into a House full of canny businessmen.”
He smiled, revealing that creased dimple in his cheek. “Tey. Wealthy, too.”
She laughed. “And modest.”
“Most especially that.” He lifted her hand for a kiss. The ship had come to a halt. Dilys’s crew threw mooring ropes down to the waiting dockworkers. “Come, moa liana. My mother awaits.” A swimmer had brought word earlier that Myerial Alysaldria had arranged a formal gathering at the palace to greet them. “To be honest, I am surprised she hasn’t already sent a dozen couriers asking what’s taking so long.”
Mostly just to tease him, she said, “Maybe she isn’t looking forward to meeting me quite as much as you’ve led me to believe.”
“That’s not true. I think she was even more impatient for me to claim a liana than I was.”
Gabriella’s brows lifted. “Oh, really?”
“Tey. She wants me settled, happily mated, with a family of my own.”
“Even though I am an oulani?”
He smiled down at her with such tenderness it made her heart ache. “My mother was the one who insisted that I sail to Wintercraig to claim you even when others wanted me to wait for an imlani daughter to come of age.” He smoothed a swooping lock of hair off her face and brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek in a gentle caress. “I think she is glad, actually, that you are oulani. As such you become a daughter of House Merimydion, and I remain its son rather than joining the House of my imlani bride. Nima always wanted a daughter of her own, especially after losing my unborn sister after my father died. I am joyful that in wedding you, I can provide her the daughter she has always longed for.”
Summer could hardly remember what it was to have a mother. She’d been so long without one. “Do you think she’ll like me?”
He laughed, then scooped her up in his arms, sweeping her off her feet and kissing her soundly. “Like you? Oh, moa kiri, she will love you. Of that, I have no doubt. You are a woman of compassion and fire. You are brave and strong, but also gentle and understanding and good with even the most difficult of people.” He set her back down on her feet and kissed her again. Then he straightened, puffed out his chest, and added, “And, of course, she will also love you because you have the good sense to love me, her only son.”
Gabriella smacked him on the chest and rolled her eyes. “Arrogant.”
He pretended to look wounded. “I but speak the truth. Or do you not love me after all?”
“Oh, I love you all right. In spite of the arrogance.”
“Confidence.”
“Arrogance.”
He laughed. “Come now. Admit it. You already love me beyond all reason, just the way I am. You could not possibly love me more.”
Her own smile faded. “Tey,” she agreed seriously. “I do love you, moa akua. B
He kissed her again, thoroughly. He didn’t pick her up this time; instead he bent down from his great height to meet her where she stood. His fingers thrust through the upswept waves of her hair, dislodging pins. He kissed her as if she were the essence of life and without her he would die. And to him, she was.
“As I love you, Gabriella Merimydion, moa liana, moa haleah, moa fila.” My wife, my love, my life. The words felt like a sacred vow, whispered against her lips, breathed into her very soul. Her arms twined around his neck, holding him fast.
She stood up on the tips of her toes. Her back arched, body strained, as she met him kiss for kiss, vow for vow, love for love. “Moa akua, moa haleah, moa fila,” she whispered back.
When Dilys lifted his head and straightened once more, it was to find all the Calbernans gathered on the docks watching him and Gabriella. They were grinning like thieves who’d just discovered a lost dragon’s hoard. Dilys grinned back, and the crowd burst into raucous cheers, clapping and pumping their fists in the air.
Gabriella turned a deep rose beneath her brown Summerlander skin, but she didn’t shrink back against him. No, his sweet, brave liana lifted her beautiful chin and gave them all a regal—albeit very rosy—nod.
Still grinning, Dilys put a hand to the small of her back and started to usher her towards the end of the dock only to stop again at the sight of his uncle Calivan standing there, his shell-pink-and-ivory obah fluttering about him in the breeze.
“Uncle, there you are.” Dilys smiled warmly.
Instead of returning the greeting or the warmth, his uncle’s cool golden eyes swept over Gabriella and Dilys, settling on the silky white obah Dilys’s men had made for him to celebrate his union.