The Merman and the Barbarian Pirate (27 page)

Near him, a group of mer elders rode the rapids. They searched, stony-faced, for the culprit responsible for calling them. The bearded and angry visage of Galyna set Raef shuddering amid his struggle. Already, the mer were retreating. The façade of the castle had been the high tide of their charge, and the sea barreled backward as swiftly as it had advanced, splitting and dispersing the army. A familiar hat—Haverford's—was tossed in the surf, the stalks of the blasted feathers drooping. Raef panicked for his friends alone, as he was carried passed the gallows tree, striving to keep afloat.

When the waters receded behind him, they revealed the scaffold smashed to smithereens. The noose hung empty. Raef's hopes sparked, and he splashed and flailed. Stephen clung to one of the sturdier boughs, a bedraggled and skinny figure, and the executioner was lain face-down among the splinters of the platform. Raef couldn't see Jon or the girls, and then a racing whitecap washed over him, sucking him under. All he could do was kick and kick 'til he burst through the surface, choking all but his lungs out.

The fast-retreating waters had swept him back beyond the beach and out into the bay. His only hope now was that the sun would set soon, and he could find his friends before they drowned. He'd lost track even of Galyna between the heaving peaks. "Jon!" he yelled, as he wriggled out of his trousers. "Where are you?"

"Here, Raef, here!"

Raef wheeled around, frantic. He couldn't see Jon, but the shout had sounded near. If anybody was powerful enough to battle the flow, it was Jon. A roller pitched him upward, and he caught a glimpse of Jon, just a short distance from him. Jon flailed much as he did as the swirling streams carried them toward the headland beneath the chapel.

"Cecilia and Sarah were washed over that way," shouted Jon. The next time Raef caught a glimpse of him he was nearly within reach. Jon gestured wildly toward some rocks. "We've got to help—mph!"

Jon was walloped under, and Raef dived toward where he had been, through waters thick with seaweed. When he next broke through the surface, Jon was beside him. They grabbed for each other, fingers clasping. The touch brought Raef a joy that heightened to euphoria, as the sun kissed the western horizon, and his magical transition began.

The next wave pushed them deep, and he pulled Jon to him, embracing his lover as the change took hold. He thrashed his legs even as they fused, not letting the pain snatch his consciousness for a moment. Soon, breathless but buoyant, he'd risen to the surface, and they'd not even broken their clinch.

Jon gasped raggedly, the final rays of an orange sunset slanting over his features. He was haggard, wearied, but no less handsome for it. "The girls. We… have to…"

Glancing over Jon's shoulder, Raef grinned. Cecilia and Sarah were bobbing a few crests afar and they appeared fine. Cecilia, indeed, was holding Sarah afloat much as Raef did Jon. She looked flabbergasted.

"I-I've got a tail," she stammered.

"It's all right," said Raef, edging a little closer. "I've got one too, and I've got to admit, I'm not at all surprised by yours."

"Indeed? My little merman keeps a lot of secrets." Jon lifted a brow, curious. With his face just inches from Raef's, he couldn't have missed Raef's blush. "I'm guessing this timely rescue by the ocean has a lot to do with you as well."

"I did intend to tell you everything about me." Raef felt sheepish, though the warmth of Jon's smile overpowered even the chill of the water. He started to relax. "But we never had time, and—"

"Raef!"

Oh, gods.

At Galyna's cry, he paddled about, taking Jon with him. Amid the calming ocean, Galyna and small number of the mer elders were arrayed before them, mounted on their seahorses, which were clad with reins of silver thread and hung with bells of gold. Galyna's frothy beard danced in the breeze. Everything else about him seemed heavy as lead, most of all his expression. His white brows knitted into a formidable scowl.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, boy. You've broken every rule I've ever made! I also demand to know where you got a summoning shell." Galyna jabbed his trident in Cecilia's direction. "And who is
this
stray maid?"

"It's a long story." Raef shrank back, feeling like a disappointing child being scolded. "I'll explain everything. Just let me get my friends back to land." Jon's teeth had started chattering, and remaining in the sea much longer would be dangerous for Sarah, too.

"Very well." Galyna exaggerated his already-daunting glower, showing the permission was begrudging. "We can take no humans where you'll be going, my boy. You have as long as it takes me to regroup my army, but don't attempt to leave the bay. I'll be watching you."

When Raef started swimming toward the shore, Jon clenched his jaw and shot the elders a glare that equaled Galyna's. "Just because you summoned them, Raef, you don't have to go with them. You belong with me now."

"I owe them," said Raef sadly. "I found a sacred mer summoning shell in the chest with the manuscripts. That’s why I suspected Cara was a mermaid, and thus Cecilia half-mer." He glanced to where Cecilia followed with Sarah. Cecilia still seemed bewildered, although instincts ingrained from birth had her swimming like she'd been in the sea all her life. "But now my people have located me, they'll expect me to go back and answer for what I've done. You see, I defied the chieftain's orders. I was supposed to marry his ward."

Jon drew swift breath. "My, my. You have more secrets than Captain MacLowd gathered in all his eighty years." His chest vibrated with a deep and throaty laugh. "Anything else I should know about?"

"Just the truth. I never loved her, and she never loved me. It was to be an arranged marriage, but it's not the only reason I fled. You see, Galyna had banned all young mer from having any contact with humans… and from falling in love."

"Even more reason you don't have to go with them." Jon gripped Raef's chin and forced Raef to look at him. His passion blazed so ardently, Raef nigh forgot to beat his tail. "Sometimes, you have to break faith to defend what matters, be dishonorable to fight for honor. Seeing as you're a merman pirate, it'll be easy. And besides, I'm
never
going let you get away. Your tribe lives beyond the tip of Cornwall, right?"

"Yes," admitted Raef. "Our home is a short swim northeast of the Isles of Scilly, but there's sandbanks and eddies and an underwater mountain that causes a whirlpool when strong currents sweep over it. It's the perfect natural defense. No boat dare go near without fear of wrecking."

"I would," said Jon, "for you."

Ebony flames danced in Jon's gaze, and this time, Raef let the heat engulf him. Jon wrapped his body about Raef's and hitched his knees about Raef's silver-scaled middle. When he kissed Raef, the greatest storm of all ages couldn't have ripped them asunder. Their tongues swirled in a spring of affection, legs and fishtail entwining. Raef was sucked down into a tempest of love, and he didn't want to taste anything but the dreaded Pirate Kemp ever again.

When they surfaced, Jon winked. Wet lashes kissed his cheekbones and caught the shimmer of the moon as it climbed above the cliffs. Raef wanted lap up the sight of him forever and a day. When Jon glanced toward the beach, he puffed his cheeks and shook his head.

"I think we'd better hide out in the cave," said Jon. "I'm not sure going back there is a good idea."

Looking to the shore, Raef had to agree. They were far from out of trouble. A crowd had gathered on the jetty, and several men bore a stout rope that they'd cast out into the water in the hope of reaching survivors. On the shale, a group of fisherman was righting one of the boats, which had been knocked over by the flood. A lantern twinkling in one of the cottages suggested that the main thrust of the wave had missed the families there, a small relief.

He peeped over to Cecilia and Sarah, who drifted uncertainly between the headland and the shore. "Follow me," he called, inclining his head toward the cave. "Take care the tide doesn't take you the wrong way. There are hidden reefs and they're dangerous."

They reached the cave in safety, and Jon clambered up onto the ledge. His shivers became so violent they worried Raef more than the presence of the elders, who had followed at a distance and now hovered as dark silhouettes on the near horizon. Cecilia deposited Sarah beside Jon, and it became clear that the humans could not be left here for long. Sarah's sodden clothes clung to her twiggy frame, and Jon's speech was thwarted by his rattling teeth.

Raef took control. "Cecilia, do you think you can swim around the headland and look for Jon's ship? If they're about, the crew will send a boat and blankets."

"The l-lazy b-bottleheads should be nearby," confirmed Jon.

Cecilia vowed she'd do her best. "But I still don't know how on earth I got a tail," she said, agitating the waters as she thrashed her new appendage.

"Your mother, Cara, was a mermaid, which makes you half-mer," explained Raef. "Don't worry. You don't have to stay like that forever."

Cecilia raked her sodden hair from her face, blinking as if she still wasn't sure anything was real. When she flicked her tailfins up through the surface, she accidentally sprayed them all. Sarah was shivering and exhausted, but managed a giggle. "Y-you're beautiful, Cecilia, my l-love. B-but I think we might have d-drowned and reemerged in some strange other realm."

"No," said Raef, before Cecilia could respond. He squeezed her arm. "This is real, and you've got to get going, or these two will certainly die."

She frowned, solemn as the grave. "Right. What will you do?"

"There's no chance Galyna will let me leave the bay, but I want to see what's happening at the beach. No human should spot me now the sun's set, and I'm good at keeping a low profile."

"The p-perfect merman pirate," stuttered Jon. Raef flashed him a grin before he slid under the waters and away. Everything felt like it might end up perfectly. But that could never be; not now Galyna awaited just a short swim from the cave, reassembling a mer army under the cover of darkness.

Approaching the beach, Raef took care to avoid a small vessel that had set sail to seek the flood's victims. He discerned from the fishermen's shouts that they'd dredged only bodies.

"Lord Haverford is drowned," came one cry. "We've found him."

A bleak note tolled through Raef. He couldn't mourn this vile man he'd once revered; of all these folk, Haverford deserved death the most, though the notion Raef had been instrumental in any man's death ailed him. He'd never make a good
bad
pirate, and he was glad Jon would never ask that of him. Avoiding the ship, he cut a path toward the jetty, where the group with the rope had left, in order to cast off another boat. A skinny figure stood there alone, arms hooked tightly about himself and gazing out to sea. Recognizing Stephen, Raef swam over.

"Psssst." Raef clung to the edge of the timbers and waved.

"Good lord." Stephen ran up and crouched down in front of him. "Y-you're all right. How on earth did you manage it? And hadn't you better g-get out?"

"I'm fine. No time to explain." Fortunately, the dark waters now shrouded his tail, and in the panic of the tidal rush, Stephen clearly hadn't seen the other mer. "Look, is your sister saved?"

"Eliza's fine. She was in the cottage. But w-what about S-Sarah and Cecilia?"

Stephen was as shivery as the others, which piqued Raef's concern. "They're saved too. They're hiding in a cave with Jon Kemp. But you've got to get back and get warm."

Stephen nodded, rubbing his thin fingers together. "Y-you're probably right. But you need to tell Cecilia to come, because s-something strange has happened, even stranger than that freak wave. Just after I got down from the tree, a group of royal dragoons arrived, led by Sir Edward Humphrey and a lawyer. They're looking for a Miss Cecilia Haverford. They say the estate belongs to her, and was never Lord Haverford's at all. H-how can that be?"

Raef allowed a satisfied smile to spread slowly. Sir Edward must have received the codicil to Henry Haverford's will and taken Cecilia's part, as Jon had hoped. Despite the weight of Raef's woes, he relished his moment of triumph. Cecilia could now claim her property without the late Haverford and his scheming mother to challenge her. Raef pressed his hand over Stephen's. "Go quickly and give Sir Edward the book you hid in the stable. Tell him it's more evidence, and that Miss Cecilia will meet him at his house around lunchtime tomorrow. Then go find a hearth and warm yourself. You promise me you will do all that?"

"Yes, I promise, but—"

Raef didn't wait to hear any more. He plopped beneath the surface and glided off, no doubt leaving Stephen thinking him mad.

Raef swam back to the cave and shared the news with Jon and Sarah. They were huddling close, with Sarah wrapped in Jon's tattooed arms. Raef prayed their shared heat would be enough to protect them, if the night chill bit hard. Humans were so delicate, even sturdy pirates. He whispered to Jon where the conch was hidden, then paddled back so he wouldn't splash him and Sarah with too much cold water.

"In the morning," said Raef, "Cecilia must go claim the rest of her birthright."

"And you must return and explain yourself to the tribe."

At Galyna's booming voice, Raef's anger spiked. Why must Galyna override and interrupt him? He turned about. The chieftain loomed above him, white horse rearing with its nostrils flaring and gold bells tingling. The mer army were lined up behind. Raef fixed Galyna with a glare.

"I'll come," he spat, though a light that bobbed in the north—the boat making its way from the
Alice O'Shanty
—undermined his doggedness with grief. Jon would take Sarah and Cecilia back to the ship, where he and Jon could have found a way to be happy. Instead, he'd be taken far away.

"No, he will not come." Jon's roar belied his bedraggled state. Love and pride pushed Raef to the brink of tears. "Raef belongs with me, and don't you dare gainsay me, old man. I'm the dreaded Pirate Kemp, and I'll hunt you down and see you hanging by your cockles from my yardarm."