Page 67 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

“Didn’t get that one,” I said distractedly because the “babies” were squirming on my lap. I was never so glad to have armor on, I thought, wondering if they were venomous. And then wondering how I could have thought so when one stuck out a tiny, adorable snout.

“They’re dangerous,” Pritkin warned.

“Not at that age,” Bodil said, watching as a dozen more little faces joined the first, having pushed back the bag’s flap and begun peering out curiously.

They couldn’t have been more than an inch or so tall, to the point that I could have wrapped one around my finger as a ring. But they were every color of the rainbow, colorful baby seahorses that I was pretty sure should be in water somewhere, only nobody seemed bothered about it. Or about the fact that they were now climbing all over me, hopping from the pouch to my armor, where they paused to stare at their reflections curiously.

“Um,” I said. “A little help?”

“You want our army,” Bodil said. “For your war against the gods.”

It came out of nowhere, although she had warned me that she was a mind reader. Having spent plenty of time with Mircea, who was far more proficient at that sort of thing than he let on, it didn’t surprise me. But it was annoying.

“Aren’t they going to dry up or something?” I said a little desperately. I did not want one getting under my armor. I did not!

“She’s using the diversion to read your thoughts, Cassie,” Pritkin said. “It’s easier when you’re distracted.”

“So, get them off me, then!”

But he was too busy staring down the ancient fey. “This war will come to you, sooner or later. Better that you have allies when it does.”

“So says the man desperate for troops he can use as cannon fodder!”

“Don’t put your sins on us,” Pritkin snapped. “And you know your people cannot stand against what’s coming. If the gods return—”

“They’re already here, it would seem,” she hissed, staring at me. I was too busy scooping little runaways back into their rather slimy pouch—and why was everything slimy—to look up, but I could feel the weight of those eyes on me. “You expect us to gamble everything on a war led by one of their spawn—”

“Careful,” Pritkin warned.

“—when there’s no way of knowing she’s any better! Her mother wanted to rid herself of the competition, too, so that she might rule alone, queen of all she surveyed! Why should I believe the daughter to be any different?”

“Because you have eyes?” Pritkin said, disbelieving. “Look at her!”

They both did.

I looked up, more than a little frustrated, with a tiny seahorse dangling off a curl in front of my eyes because the things jumped like baby frogs! I tried to look harmless, which shouldn’t be too hard at the moment. But Bodil wasn’t convinced.

“Good camouflage,” she told me with a vicious smile. “But your reputation precedes you. Killer of great Apollo, of even mightier Ares, and now of Athena, or so I hear. Oh, yes, whispers from the dark fey lands reach us, even ones from the outer world. They tell stories that I did not know whether to believe until I met you.”

“I thought I was a child playing dress up,” I said because she didn’t get it both ways.

“So did I until I peered into your mind.”

“Then you should know—I didn’t kill the gods, not any of them—”

“Not directly. But a general doesn’t strike the final blow, does he? He makes the battle plan and leaves it to others to bear the risks—”

“I don’t ask other people to fight for me!”

“Yet you’re asking us,” she snarled. “Or expecting to command us when the fey princeling you’ve found and wrapped around your finger wins the kingdom for you. But he won’t. My champion will—”

“Your champion will get himself killed!” Pritkin said. “Out of the water if not in it—”

“He hasn’t been targeted!”

“Because nobody thinks he’s a threat! I wouldn’t target him, either!”

Those amazing eyes flashed red again. “But you would target me. Suborn me to get the help you need to win it all, and then what? Tell me, Pythia,” she turned on me suddenly like a striking viper. “Where are those who did kill the gods for you? What happened to them?”

---