Page 76 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

I must have drifted off to these thoughts, because I startled awake when a shout from the direction of the beach made me sit bolt upright, my stomach dropping.

I recognized that voice.

“It can’t be,” I murmured, forcing myself from the warm bed and flinging the door open. I scanned the coast, searching for Caspian on the beach below. He must be off scavenging, or else he would have already spotted the boat that was fast approaching.

It wasn’t a siren ship. This was not a vessel for cargo, but for speed, sails furling out from a hull that seemed to be made of wood and dried hide. I saw these kinds of ships only occasionally, ferrying passengers and goods between the islands. It sped across the sea and bobbed like a toy in the fierce waves from this distance, but the voice came again, clear across the open water.

“Marina!”

I cursed. I thought I’d have more time. To decide what to do, to free the lake, to be with Caspian. But a selkie ship, the sail painted with my father’s sigil, was coming for me, and I would have only minutes to decide the course of my future.

The sea gave a particularly violent lurch, tossing the boat in response to my rising anxiety and panic.

Stop, I commanded, willing the sea to calm.Please, don’t hurt them.

The sea stilled, rumbling ominously like approaching thunder as it waited for my will. When had the sea begun to obey me, rather than the other way around?

I skidded down the hill, picking my way over rocks and mossy wet patches as fast as I could without slipping and breaking my neck. If the selkies on that boat found Caspian before I did, they would undoubtedly kill him.

I kept my eye on the boat as I descended, watching with growing trepidation as it sailed closer, the voice shouting my name. If I didn’t try and head Vitulus off, he would come ashore and hunt Caspian down.

I had to stop him.

I couldn’t think properly as I scrambled down the beach, slowing my pace as I hit the sand. I was breathing raggedly, my rapid descent irritating my fragile lungs, and I tried to compose myself, taking steadying breaths as the boat eked closer and closer to the shore.

An eternity and somehow no time at all passed, and the boat was pulled to the sand by two selkie soldiers as a third jumped from the hull and ran toward me with a fierceness in his gaze that spoke of relief.

“Marina,” he called again, his voice one I had heard so many times in the keep, but hadn’t expected ever to hear on this island.

Vitulus ran, stopping short only when the wall of sea I conjured rose up between us and stopped him in his tracks.

Chapter 28

“Marina!”Vitulusshouted,eyeswide as he took in the wall of sea that separated us.

I didn’t even recall drawing the sea to me consciously, having raised the wall reflexively. It hung oddly, forming a line of wet sand as it remained suspended in the air.

“What is this, Marina?” Vitulus growled, trying to move around the wall and finding the sea blocking his path. His soldiers joined him, both armed with spears and shields and leather armor, as if they expected a fight.

“Don’t come any closer, Vitulus,” I shouted over the wall of water.

“We are here to save you,” Vitulus shouted, looking bewildered and confused. “We’ve been searching for weeks. Please, drop the magic. Let me speak to you.”

Through the wavering wall, I saw Vitulus draw in his own magic, attempting to coax the sea back with a faint glow of blue. He frowned when it failed to obey, nodding to his soldiers to help. The sea rumbled, angry at their artless intrusion on her sovereignty.

Calm, friend,I soothed, reaching out to the water of the island and searching. I found what I was looking for and tugged.I will send them away.

And I realized with this thought that I had already made my choice.

I lowered the wall only slightly, meeting Vitulus’ gray eyes. “You will not take me against my will,” I warned, gesturing to the sea at my beck and call.

“Against your will?” Vitulus asked, looking wholly confused. I could almost see his thoughts, his belief that he would find a scared and grateful princess desperate for rescue. That I should be falling into his arms in gratitude, not acting like he was a villain here to steal me away. “Marina, please let me talk to you. Without the ocean.”

I dropped the sea, feeling the water of the island responding to my call as easily as the sea had.

Vitulus was on me before I realized what was happening, folding me into his arms. “Seas, Marina, thank the gods you’re safe.” He murmured the words into my hair, and it felt so wrong, so foreign, that I stiffened. I could see his soldiers looking awkwardly away behind him, and I pushed out of his arms. He stepped away, although only enough to look down at my face, his eyes frantically searching mine. “Did he hurt you?”

“Who?” I asked, frowning with confusion.