Siren's Calling Read online

  “We fly.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, we fly,” he said, less out of breath.

  Oh, he’s done this all his life maybe, Alayah mused, one hand out above her head while the other held her horse.

  “Ladies, how we are doing?” he called out, his voice echoed against the rocks that towered all around.

  Soon the trail seemed to level out again, and it became a little bit easier to navigate.

  Silver Wind stopped and jumped off his horse. Out of the crevices in the rocks, dark-clothed figures materialized. One, two, three, six, then from all over the top of the rocks, they crawled out like spiders. The had weapons that Alayah had never seen before, like those that Finn and his other mercenaries had. Big, long-snouted things, some silver colored, others were black. Memories of the explosion at the inn washed over Alayah, and she shivered.

  They were escorted the rest of the way by men who were clothed like Silver Wind. Not with his eyes. Or gentle smiles, though. But he seemed to lead this crowd.

  It didn’t take Alayah long to see why Silver thought they would be safe there. The terrain looked very much like Madeira with deep undersea canyons and few would venture there.

  Walking around the rocks, she saw how sea currents had flowed through for eons, carving its way around it. The signs were unmistakable. Water and rock had lived together here. Her fellow warriors felt it, too. The other sirens also seemed enthralled to see a place that used to be part of their home but wasn’t anymore.

  Alayah saw Silver as he stood up on a cliff, watching her and her companions—but mostly her. He signaled them to follow him, and a door appeared from the rock for them to get in.

  The outpost was inside a mountain. Quarters and a maze of corridors were hewn out of the rocks. Lights hung from the walls, brightening everything as well as the sun. Alayah just had time to glimpse at the amount of people walking around before being pushed inside a big bedroom with beds and comfortable seats made of a soft material.

  “What now?” Marina sat by the fireplace that had been lit to warm the space. Their bodies had been needing warmth more and more, like humans.

  “We wait.”

  “For what, Alay?”

  “We aren’t the only ones on this course and the more time we wait, the more …

  “Marina.” Alayah held her by her shoulder. “We can’t do this on our own.”

  The other warriors got up from their beds and sat next to them.

  “This is a different world than we know. The rules aren’t what we’re used to. What we feel around us right now isn’t water, it is …” She broke off.

  “Just air,” ventured Kiera.

  They all looked at her. Alayah saw the blue bruises from where she’d been hit by falling debris—her cheeks, arm, and shoulders.

  “The weapons they have, those humans. Nothing like ours.” She shivered. “When I was falling … right before I hit the street, I felt the air around me. It was strange, and then I tried to bend it, make it buffer my fall but ...”

  Rose shifted where she sat cross-legged. “It is clear that if we are going to succeed in this quest, we will need to use those weapons, and we need someone to teach us.”

  The four ladies turned toward the entrance to the room. A young boy stood there looking at them.

  His chest was bare except for the gun that hung on his shoulder by a leather strap across his body. He wore pants made from a tough-looking fabric.

  “He will see you now. Follow me.”

  Chapter 20

  The girls were ushered into a large hall that reminded Alayah of the arena back home. This one was hewn out of the bottom of a mountain.

  All of this used to be underwater? Amazing. Alayah let her eyes take in the majestic beauty of an arena without water.

  The hall was filled with all sorts of things she had never seen before. On a section of the wall hung dozens of racks filled with guns of different shapes and sizes.

  Up ahead, they could hear the sounds like the one that blew half of the inn out a while ago. Alayah saw men standing with their feet apart and slightly bent, their hands stretched forward and lightning shooting off the things they held. Stone targets shaped like human figures shattered before them.

  There were hulking things in here, too, that weren’t men nor monsters or any other likeness of anything back home. Alayah saw people riding them. Some shaped like huge sea monsters hovered above the rock-hard floor, making humming noises like a whale exhaling.

  Alayah sauntered close to one that had something like a hatch, and there it seemed to be hiding someone in it. She touched it. It felt clammy and hard. Metal. She knew metal. But this was metal uncoated and raw. The metals in Madeira were mostly gold plated.

  “It’s a hovercraft.”

  She turned to face Silver Wind. He had his hair in a bun, and he looked far more severe than ever as he wore some type of body armor. Alayah noticed that he was fairly muscular in those clothes.

  Ending the scrutiny, she muttered, “You disappeared and locked us up in a room. I’m beginning to think that I shouldn’t have trusted you.”

  He smiled, and all of her anger disappeared. “I thought you needed some rest. It was a long trip. Was the food of your liking?”

  She shrugged.

  “It was delicious,” Kiera replied with a grin.

  “I can assure you that you aren’t my prisoners. You can walk around freely, though, I don’t advice that since you can get lost in the corridors when you don’t know the place.” Silver Wind stepped closer to Alayah and offered her his hand. “Will you come with me? I want to show you something.”

  She looked at his hand but didn’t comply. “I only go where my team goes.”

  The prince grinned. “The others are invited, too.”

  Alayah looked at the warriors.

  Marina was the first to talk. “We are already here. I guess it doesn’t hurt to explore.”

  “Great, follow me,” the prince instructed.

  Alay and her warriors followed behind him in a line. They went through a small entrance in the wall and came out into a smaller hall. There were more weapons.

  The prince pointed. “This is my personal stash of weapons.”

  Alayah sighed. “Why are you showing us this?”

  “You must learn how to use some of these. The one who put a bounty on your heads knows your weaknesses and strengths. His hired guns know you can bend water and have telekinetic powers. Outside the water, your powers are cut by a whole lot of percentages, Alayah.” He took a weapon off the rack and grinned. “Let’s even the odds.”

  “I want to learn to use those, Commander,” Marina said. Rose and Kiera nodded, too.

  Silver offered Alay a half-grin. “Good. But first, let’s see what Finn has got to say about last night’s business.”

  The mage escorted them to a smaller room where Finn was tied to a chair cut out of a rock. He seemed to have come around even if his head was still hanging forward. Most of his color had returned, too.

  He jerked around when he saw Silver Wind. “Let me out of here. You will pay for this!”

  Silver twisted his wrist. Finn winced and gritted his teeth in pain. “Who sent you, Finn?”

  “Ain’t talking to you lots. Y’all are dead people walking!” he foamed.

  “I can do this all day, Finn, but the lady just needs a drop of that pathetic dribble coming out of your mouth, and you’re dead meat.”

  Alayah touched him. “Tell us what you know.”

  Finn bit his lips. He made a fist and shook his head violently. Alayah took a step back, and he shrieked in pain. Snot flew out of his nose, and his body began to dry out before their eyes.

  Alay ordered. “Tell us what you know. Who sent you?”

  Alayah eased the spell to let him talk.

  Finn breathed weakly. His half-closed eyes fluttered. “The Dark One,” he mumbled. “He’s got eyes everywhere.”

  Alayah looked at Silver. He shrugged, so sh
e continued the interrogation. “Who is the Dark One, and where can we find him?”

  “I don’t k-know.”

  “Where is Glenn? What’s his part in this?” Alayah probed.

  “The necklace,” he said. “He wants the necklace. He said we could keep your magical trident if we brought you and the necklace to him.”

  Alayah looked at Silver Wind with widened eyes.

  “Are you sure he said that?” Silver asked, lifting Finn’s head with a finger.

  The prisoner nodded. He smiled, showing his crooked teeth. “I’m sure. The Dark One wants her and there’s nothing you can do to save her when he comes.”

  With gritted teeth, Silver bumped his head back, and Finn howled in pain.

  “Careful not to kill him,” Alayah warned.

  “We need to know who the Dark One is,” Silver said. “I doubt he knows.”

  “I heard you talking about Glenn. Do you know where we can find him?” Alayah lowered her head to look into Finn’s eyes. “Answer us, and we’ll let you go.”

  Finn's eyes fluttered open suddenly and went wide. He screamed. “Aarrgh!”

  “Who is the Dark One?” Silver pressed.

  Finn went limp.

  Frowning, Silver asked, “Is he dead?”

  Alayah checked for a pulse. “No, he’s just out. We'll try again when he wakes up.”

  Chapter 21

  “This is the gun range. This is where we do target practice.”

  They were back at the main hall. Alayah and the sirens stood before human faces shaped in stones.

  “Let me introduce you to one of my best men.” Silver waved a very dark-skinned man over. “Dawes.”

  He was big, bald, and had a deep mark that ran across his cheek. He wore a dark-colored shirt that exposed his tattooed arms.

  “Dawes, ladies, he knows all of the weapons in here.”

  Dawes looked at Alayah. “I’ve heard about y'all. Somebody put quite a big bounty on ya ladies. But not to worry. I got you.”

  He herded the warriors closer to the gun range. Alayah thought he was too smooth. She looked at her soldiers and, by the expressions on their faces, they felt the same way.

  Each girl took a weapon, and they started shooting at the rocks.

  Unable to sleep, Alayah walked out into the large hall. The place was quiet with no one around shooting the targets. She made her way over to a section of the opening where Finn was being held. It was now dark, but she could still make out his outline where he was tied up.

  Finn was only a dark shadow sitting there. His breathing was shallow. She was about to backtrack and go return to counting sheep when he spoke. “He awaits you.”

  Alayah turned around and strolled toward him.

  “And when you meet him, you’ll know pain,” he murmured.

  “Who? The Dark One?.”

  “Yesss.” He coughed.

  “Why?”

  Finn laughed. A weak, mocking chitter of someone who knows something he shouldn’t know.

  “Oh.” He coughed convulsively. “He’s got people everywhere. Even here.”

  Alayah felt a chill run through her. She wanted very much to ask the question that was most important to her.

  “Finn.”

  His head jerked up. “Yes.”

  “Do you know where I can find the Legacy Stone?”

  “It’s just another rumor like many others.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Every time the world is near a collapse, someone claims to have the power to change our fate and restore the balance.”

  Alayah frowned. “You don’t believe it’s real?”

  “Nothing is stronger than black magic, and the Titans will keep coming from the forsaken place to eat us and destroy what the meteor didn’t.”

  “Do you think Glenn might know something about the Legacy Stone?”

  “Glenn only cares about money.”

  “The White Mage assured me Glenn was the one I should talk to.”

  “Then you should find him.”

  “Where?”

  Finn arched an eyebrow. “In Rheyn. Where else?”

  She crouched before Finn. His eyes were sunken well in his face. “Where exactly in Rheyn?”

  “He owns a tavern. The Worthless Trespasser, it’s called.” He swallowed hard. “Though, he might have run away since we failed the Dark One.”

  “Do you know who the Dark One is?”

  “No idea. But he wants you, and he’ll find you.”

  “Why did you attack us?”

  He coughed again. “I did it for the money. I don’t care about you or your squabbles about stones. I just wanna survive, is all.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

  He smirked. “I don’t trust the other fellow you are with. You shouldn’t trust him, either.”

  Alayah stood up to leave.

  “It’s a suicide mission going back to Rheyn. Others are looking for you.”

  “I know, but I don’t have any other choice.”

  Finn frowned. “Is it true that the stone you are looking for can save the world?”

  “It is.”

  “Then, I hope you find it before the Dark One finds you.”

  Alayah nodded before she headed to bed.

  After breakfast, Silver Wind escorted the sirens to the gun range once again. He wanted to make sure they knew how to handle a weapon.

  Alayah didn’t know if she should feel thankful or irritated since they were losing precious time.

  Sirens hadn’t much use for guns under water, so her knowledge was minimal, and Alayah was eager to learn new defensive skills. The range was built into the back of the compound on the side of a hill of dirt. Instead of human-shaped stones, Silver had hung large paper targets with the outline of a person and rings leading to a bullseye in what amounted to the center mass of a human.

  “Two to the chest, one to the head,” Silver explained as he paced in front of the sirens. His hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail. “Always aim center mass first. It’s hard to miss when you have a bigger target. Fire two shots there, then one at the head. If the first two shots don’t stop him, the one to the head will.”

  Marina raised her hand.

  Silver Wind pointed to her. “Yes?”

  “Can I have a rifle?”

  Silver smiled. “Not yet, dear. I plan to have you all carrying concealed. Rifles are tough to hide.”

  “Fine.” Marina crossed her arms over her chest.

  Silver continued, “I’ve arranged for each of you to have a personal trainer today. I’m confident you know how the pistols work, now I want to make sure you know how to make the pistols work for you in combat.”

  The tall, bald guy from before moved in beside Rose, and Silver stood in front of Alayah.

  “Are you going to train me personally?” Alayah raised an eyebrow.

  Silver Wind winked at her. “Oh, yes.”

  Alayah pushed the nine-millimeter cartridges into the magazine. “How many bullets does this hold?”

  “These magazines hold eighteen each. High capacity magazines are hard to come by these days, but my father had one of the most well-stocked armories before The Crash, so we’re lucky.”

  “We don’t use guns much where I’m from.”

  “Understandable. Firearms don’t work reliably under the sea. They need proper lubrication that doesn’t mix well with water.”

  It was impossible not to catch the sexual innuendo in his choice of words, but Alayah chose not to react or retort and instead focused on finishing loading the third magazine.

  The gun was locked open and sitting on the table about twenty feet away from the target.

  Silver Wind picked it up. “This is a Canik nine-millimeter pistol. The nine-millimeter caliber is an effective stopping round.”

  “What do you mean by stopping round?”

  “I mean this round, if placed correctly, will kill your mark efficiently.”

  Ala
yah nodded. “Got it.”

  Silver Wind closed the slide and handed her the gun. “Okay, put the magazine in.”

  Remembering the earlier lesson, she kept the gun pointed down range and inserted the magazine. She gave the bottom an extra tap to make sure it was seated completely. They already had earplugs and safety glasses on.

  “Rack your slide.”

  She grabbed the top rail of the pistol and pulled it back quickly to put a bullet into the chamber.

  “Nice job. Now grip and aim.”

  Alayah wrapped her hands around the gun, careful to keep her finger along the side and out of the trigger guard. The coarse texture of the grip scratched at her palms.

  Silver Wind moved in behind her. His breath was hot against her neck.

  “Your grip is a little too tight. You want to hold it firm but not white knuckle it.”

  “Okay.” She shifted her hands on the gun, following his directions.

  He put his hands on her shoulders and then moved them down her arms to lift her aim. “Line up your sights to hit center mass.”

  Alayah closed her left eye and lined up the front sight to sit between the twin rear sights.

  “Lean forward just a bit to lock your elbows. You don’t want your arms to move on the recoil.”

  “Mhmm.”

  “When you’re ready, take a breath and hold it. Then press the trigger with the pad of your finger, keeping the gun steady. After the shot, wait a second then breathe.”

  “Why do I need to hold my breath?”

  “To keep your aim steady. If you’re breathing, you’re moving.”

  Silver was so close to her body that his body heat nearly seared her. Even if he wasn’t a dragon, his body felt hot like one. Maybe it was a genetic throwback that trickled down the family tree.

  She tuned out the other shooters and focused on the target. Alayah took a breath and held it. Once the sights were lined up, everything but the white dot of the front sight turned to a blur. She leaned a little farther forward and squeezed the trigger.

  Silver Wind’s hands had moved to her hips while she fired another round and another following his two to the chest, one to the head formula.