Page 32 of The Dryad Storm

Marina Song Spinner

Salish Ocean, Salishen Isles, Noilaan

Xishlon night

Marina struggles against her invisible bindings, the ship’s black lacquered deck hard under her knees, her shock like a harpoon to the gut. Alarmed, she takes in the furious Selkie soldiers surrounding her with their lethal cone-snail spears—venom-coated weapons that could fell her in a heartbeat—the Selkie soldiers’ blue-shell-hewn battle armor muted to navy hues by the East’s Shadowed moonlight, their silver sealskins secured around their shoulders.

Marina’s gaze snaps toward the naval ship’s Vu Trin crew, the soldiers all being restrained by Selkies, spears to their throats, magic-dampening bull kelp fronds binding the wrists of Vu Trin naval commander Zephyr Quillen. The young, dark-hued commander’s steel gray eyes warily take in the situation as Vogel’s Shadow sea distantly roars against the huge, lightning-spitting dome-shield made of storm magic that Gareth and his whale kindreds conjured.

Marina’s gaze darts toward the scores of Selkie soldiers streaming onto the coastline, more soldiers invading every ship in sight, a line of them ringing the periphery of each naval vessel’s deck.

Her mind whirls.

My people’s Ocean army must have been amassing underwater here long before Noilaan’s dome-shield fell. How did they get through that shield?

Marina looks over the ship rail’s edge toward the water, the origin point of her invisible bindings, and meets the ferocious gaze of a Naiad witch.

The blue-scaled witch is treading water close to the ship’s side. Her glowing cerulean blue eyes are fixed on Marina, one web-fingered hand raised and holding acharged rune stone. The stone’s looping rune glows a vivid scarlet interspersed with bright pinpricks of emerald Varg light.

Marina’s gaze sharpens with recognition—it’s one of the Amaz rune stones given to Marina and the other land-trapped Selkies by Queen Alkaia and her Council of Sorceresses. The rune stone holds enough magic to break the spells that snared groups of Selkie women on shore during the full moon.

A split-second realization hits home—the Naiad witch must have found a way to reconfigure the powerful Amaz magic so that the Ocean army could break down shield spells as well as snare spells, allowing them to traverse Noilaan’s border shield, come to land, and wage war.

As if sensing Marina’s comprehension, the Naiad witch smiles, black teeth gleaming, her scaled skin and long, lashing fishtail glittering a vivid blue even in the Shadowed moon’s grayed light, her tentacle hair writhing.

Marina turns, and surprise floods her when she finds her combative soldier brother, Storm Tide, shouldering his way through the ranks toward her, his gills flared in anger. Outrage slashes through Marina, and she growls, wrestling against her bindings as she boldly meets her brother’s cleaving stare. Storm Tide’s hand flashes out mariner sign-language commands to the surrounding soldiers with staccato emphasis, even as his livid ocean-hued eyes remain locked on hers.

“Let mego!” Marina snarls at him. “You’re fighting thewrong war!” She’s certain her brother won’t understand her air-speech words but knows he’ll grasp her tone.

Storm Tide’s expression practically spits spears as he turns toward the Naiad witch and signs,“Release Song Spinner!”

Glaring murderously at Marina, the witch raises her webbed palm, and Marina’s bindings abruptly dissolve. She springs to her feet, ready to face her brother down.

“Where are the rest of our people?”Marina signs at her brother, desperate for news of their family and loved ones, fearing the worst.

“Here!”Storm Tide signs back, gesturing toward the northern waters inside the shielding. He bares his teeth at Commander Zephyr Quillen.“Well protected from these Ocean killers!”

“Ocean dweller,” Commander Quillen both says and manages to sign to Storm Tide, the Vu Trin commander’s expression fierce as she ignores the lethal spear at her throat. “We arenotyour enemies!”

“She speaks the truth!” Marina says and signs to her brother, hands flying.

Marina’s gaze darts back toward the Selkie land invasion, a chill racing through her as line upon line of Ocean-shifter soldiers march out of the water and onto the coast, spears in hand. And not just Selkie’kin. Marina spots the black-shell armor of a contingent of shark-shifters, their necklaces of teeth allowing them to return to their shark forms. There’s also a distant unit of gray shell-armored whale-shifters who hold their whale forms in a resonant song.

All the armies of the Ocean, suddenly aligned and able to come on land.

Vu Trin forces are moving toward the beach, including a line of archers spreading across the entire boardwalk, arrows nocked. But Marina knows the Vu Trin are no match for her people—not with their weapons stripped of Noi runes from Vogel’s Shadow attack and every Ocean spear holding enough cone-snail venom to fell scores of Eastern Realm soldiers. Marina’s gaze swings to Erthia’s real enemy, the distant Shadow sea, then back to her brother, urgency churning in her core.

“My brother,”she signs.“Please hear me out! You are attacking the wrong people!”

Storm Tide bares his teeth at her.“You are ensorcelled by the land parasites!”he emphatically signs back, his hands moving like they’re weapons, his gills flaring. Storm Tide pauses, his gaze raking over the purple branching pattern newly emblazoned on Marina’s deep-blue form, a look of open disgust twisting his features.“You need to be forcibly cleansed of this land corruption!”he signs.“We will deal with the Ocean killers.”

“We do not seek to harm your ocean,” Zephyr Quillen both states and signs, lightning crackling in her eyes.

“Silence, lying one!”Storm Tide signs back with the full wrath of a storming Sea.“We know the full extent of your corruption. You land filth killed off an entire distant continent! Sent Shadow over it and into its surrounding Ocean! Killed every last reef! Sucked the breath clear out of those Waters! I’ve seen the seas around this dead continent with my own eyes. And I’ve seen how your Shadow power rains down poison from the skies into the Oceans of the Western Realm. And now, you land filth are poised to rain down this corruption over the East to kill off the remaining Ocean!”Storm Tide swings his tempest-spitting gaze back at Marina.“They must ALL DIE to save our Waters!”

Marina stares her brother down as purple light explodes through her lines, the full might of the mangrove forest and her octopus kindreds rising within her. The power of her mating bond to her beloved rising.

“These land dwellers are ourallies,” she growls and signs, pointing a finger toward the armies facing off along the coast. “Thatis what will kill our entire Ocean. Usfighting each other. Instead of banding together to fightthat!” She swings her finger toward the distant Shadow sea. “My brother, please hear me out—our division is what the Shadowwants.”

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