Page 151 of A Dawn of Gods & Fury

“Then we keep killing them.” Destry wiggles as if to get comfortable, but there is no chance of that among the wooden boxes. “Did you see the sea wraiths who brought you to Udrel?”

“We saw them.” Though I remember very little of the ordeal, too blinded by pain from the merth bonds. “We call them sirens, though, for their song.”

“They are more hideous than I could ever imagine. Gray skin and white eyes, and spikes for a spine.” Annika shudders for effect. “But they do have the most beautiful voice.”

“To lure you in.” Destry hums. “They are guided by the Azyr to hunt for the next kal’ana. Did you know that?”

“We didn’t know your kind existed until yesterday. As far as the sirens go, they have hunted us in those waters for two thousand years, ever since they escaped the Nulling.”

Destry’s brow furrows. “What is this Nulling you speak of?”

How to describe it? “A place between worlds where beasts wait before they spill into our lands after the fates have meddled.”

“I do not know of this place, but I know that the wraiths have hunted you far longer than two millennia.”

“That is not true.” Annika frowns up at me. “Is that true?”

I shrug. “I was always told that they came from the Nulling, but I hadn’t heard of Captain Finnigus and his enthralling tale until just recently, so what do I know?” If Finnigus was the first to live to tell the tale, maybe all those broken ships against the rocks are evidence of the many who didn’t when the sirens came searching for their latest sacrifice.

“Believe me, it is true. The demon curse first plagued us thousands of years ago, and the wraiths have delivered a kal’ana to our shores ever since, one every few hundred years, until they stopped coming. They have searched your waters ever since.”

I ponder this new information. If the sirens sank a ship every three or four hundred years in search of their sacrifice and then left our waters, it’s not a wonder we didn’t know about them until they couldn’t find what they wanted and tormented us. “The elven stopped openly sailing the realms once the fear of the sirens took hold. That, and when our blood curse arrived and split our lands in two. Ybaris wanted nothing to do with the lands south of us for fear of infection.”

“Yes. The wraiths brought several of your kind to our shore, only to discover they were not truly your kind. When we realized the creature the infected turned into, we quickly cleansed the population of everyone they touched.”

“The prisoners at the gate. The ones they bled.” I nod, understanding now.

“They needed to be sure.”

“If the sirens wanted me, why did they save Tyree?” Annika asks, which is a good question. “He was not long for death when the sailors tossed him overboard. The siren did something to his wound that healed him.”

“The sirens cannot decipher between male and female. They bring all your kind to our shores. As for what they did, they are an interesting creature of the light, said to have fallen from grace and plagued by a curse of their own. If you were wounded by the shadow, their power can counter that.”

“You keep saying shadow and light. What does that mean?” Another very good question from Annika.

“The shadow is what lives inside you. And him.” Destry nods toward me. “It is what you were born with.”

A shout sounds outside, interrupting our conversation. A moment later, a dull thump hits one of the crates.

I recognize that noise. “Was that an arrow?”

Ezra barks something in his language and the horses speed up.

I pull back the curtain to see Ezra and Uda both holding shields up to protect their sides as we rush along the misty road.

Destry presses a hand against a loose crate by her head. “This road is known as Thievers Highway for a reason.”

“Then why did we take it?” Annika exclaims, panicked.

“Because my friend Ty said he wanted the fastest route.” She gestures at me. “This is the fastest route.”

“Not if we are dead!”

In the fog ahead, a row of forms materializes, their spears aimed upward.

Ezra yanks on the reins, and the horses skid to a halt with loud whinnies. A crate topples over somewhere in the wagon, and the distinctive sounds of glass shattering fills the air.

I slip back so these bandits can’t see me. “What will they do when they realize we only have honey?”

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