Page 75 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

I really hoped it wouldn’t come down to the worst case though.

Marina had allies. She had friends she could trust. She had the sea and the sky at her beck and call.

It would be enough.

The Selkie King, his advisors, a small battalion of guards, and Vitulus were all assembled on the beach around a stone slab that was angled toward the sea. The executioner’s block, I realized, noting the brown stain on the stone that even the rain couldn’t erase.

Ilya waited several feet away looking somewhat put out. Based on his impatient expression, I assumed he hadn’t been paid his fortune yet, although I supposed he was just anxiously awaiting the joy of witnessing my death.

His cronies must be divided between the ship and the beach. Only a handful stood with him, and I noticed that none of the sirens had joined him ashore, likely because of the prejudices of the selkies.

The selkie guards kept glancing toward the motley group, looking nervous as they twitched their spears in anticipation of defending their king should the villainous crew turn on him. Vitulus, standing as still and stoic as a statue, was armed to the teeth, ready to defend his people and his king as if a whole siren army were approaching, rather than two chained prisoners.

I wondered if the weapons were for me or the Stormcrow. Hopefully, he had taken Ilya at his word and prepared his soldiers for treachery onthat front. Although perhaps it hadn’t been necessary, based on how many nervous glances the Stormcrow received.

Somewhere, likely from the surrounding cliffs based on their echoes, drums began beating a steady rhythm. Despite the fact that no music accompanied them—and the fact that they were heralding my execution—the sound was oddly soothing, like the heartbeat of the island itself.

As they marched us toward death, more selkies began to crest the beach, gathered in the hundreds to watch the spectacle.

As if on cue, a rumbling shook the beach as a crack of lighting hit the sand before us, nature itself seeming to writhe in protest at what was about to be done. The waves crashed so high, they momentarily submerged the executioner’s block, and the king and his advisors stepped back as if in fear.

“The gods are angered,” came a shrill voice from a hooded figure loud enough for all assembled to hear. A priestess, I assumed, cursing our luck. Priestesses were generally bad news, always trying to interpret signs to make whoever ruled them happy, without actually caring for their true meaning. “They will not be satisfied until our enemy is dead.”

I wanted to shout that it was a lie, and I tried to get the words out around the gag to no avail. A guard hit me in the back of the head, making me hiss as I jolted my broken wings.

The drums beat faster and louder as we were pushed forward, the points of spears at our backs.

“Silence!” commanded the king, holding up his hands to the crowd. The drums stopped beating, a hush falling over the crowd as Zephyr and I were ushered toward the stone.

The king looked at me, his eyes full of fury. “For the crimes of kidnapping the Selkie Princess, of waging war on my peoples and islands, of killingselkies and stealing from our shores, I sentence you, King Caspian of the Sirens, to death.” There was a murmuring from the crowd, a mixture of judgment and fear as they condemned me without evidence.

“It is our tradition that those sentenced to death have the honor of their last words being judged by the sea,” the king intoned, speaking more to his people than to me. “Speak your final words, Siren King, and pray the sea has mercy on your soul.”

The gag was pulled down by a guard behind me as I was pushed forward, my hands still chained behind my back, to kneel before the stone block.

I knew I was only granted this privilege because I was chained in iron, my song magic nullified, and I couldn’t waste it. Marina had maybe a minute to appear. Less, if the furious gleam in her father’s eye was any indication.

Lightning flashed again, and I closed my eyes against its brightness as I contemplated what to say to both give Marina more time and convince her father that I wasn’t his enemy.

“For the crime of kidnapping the Princess, I gladly admit my guilt,” I said, the king’s eyes hardening as they met mine. They were a darker blue than Marina’s—an angry, violent sea compared to her calming depths. “But for the other charges against me, I claim no guilt. You have no evidence of these crimes because they were invented to sow fear of my people in the hearts of yours.”

There was a murmuring from the crowd that sounded like confusion, and then the king’s fury deepened. A mist had begun to seep across the beach, curling around the ankles of the onlookers like cats slinking around their legs, and the sight of it spurred me on. “I do not apologize for the crime of loving your daughter. Of loving my mate. If I dietoday, it is with the knowledge that she has blessed my short existence, and I would kidnap her again if it meant finding her only to die at her father’s hands.”

The murmuring grew as the mist deepened, fog rolling in from nowhere amid the lashing rain and thunder. The king waved a hand before his face, trying to dissipate the mist as he drew his sword from its sheath, and a spear to my back forced my face to the stone.

“Your lies condemn you,” hissed the Selkie King. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ilya smirk and Vitulus tighten his hold on his spear. “And now you will die.”

Just as he lifted his sword, a dense cloud of fog fell upon the beach. The crowd emitted startled cries as I felt the spear pulled away from me, muffled shouts and the clash of swords coming from the guards.

Astraios, I hoped, knocking out the guards nearest us.

“No one will die today,” cried Marina, voice clear and calm as her arms encircled me. I felt water splash my legs as Marina’swings, formed from the sea itself and sculpted with air to resemble those of a siren, shielded me from her father’s blade.

Behind me, a hiss and a neigh drew the eyes of the crowd, who gasped and stepped back. Though I couldn’t turn to see, I knew that a herd of kelpies and sea dragons had emerged from the ocean to guard Marina’s back.

The clouds parted, the storm pausing unnaturally as the sun broke through to cast us in a golden glow. The sea dragons encircled us with their great sinewy bodies and separated Marina’s father, Vitulus, and the Stormcrow from the rest of the crowd, who continued gasping and crying out in alarm as the storm and fog formed a vortex around us.

Selkies in the crowd reached out to touch the walls of the storm, some sticking their hands through and pulling them back soaked and shaking. Several fled into the storm to escape the sea dragons, but more dropped to their knees in awe at the magic at work in their princess.