Page 99 of Voice of the Ocean

What was different last time? What did I do to call the Hippokamp? I was crying... I don’t think tears are going to help. But as she thought those words, she stopped. The tearshadhelped. They helped her feel better, even if only a little. But it wasn’t as though she could cry on command. Not to mention she found it highly unlikely the Goddess, creator of sea and night, would make crying a requirement to enter the sacred island. So if it wasn’t the crying, perhaps it was... the feeling? Right now all Celeste felt was afraid. She was wasting time. Her thoughts went to her kingdom. The sirens living there. What would happen to them if the king got ahold of the Goddess’s power?

So she tried once more, pouring emotion into it. The raw beating heart of herself.

Once there was darkness

before there was light.

The world lay embraced by shadows.

The song built within her, gathering up yellow fear swirling in her gut like poison. She filled with song and feeling until she overflowed.

Suddenly, the water grew frenzied, thrashing and churning. Beneath her, the Hippokamp remained strangely calm. The sun slid behind the moon, and the world plunged into darkness. A great swirling hole opened in front of her as she continued the song, using all the remaining power within her.

She who ruled darkness

would sing through the night.

Till one day another listened.

The music echoed around her as though the very ocean itself had joined her in song. The spinning water faltered, dropping several feet. Far below, the earth shook.

Then, up through the eye of the whirlpool, the sacred island of Lunapesce emerged.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT

Earth pressed upward, pushing apart the sea. Soft white beaches encircled a lush forest of perfect green. And in the center of it all, the tops of white stone arches extended from the treetops. A temple, perhaps? If it was, it looked as though it’d been built for giants. But what truly captured Celeste’s attention were the specks of light floating among the trees, glittering like stars on earth.

Celeste gasped in awe as she beheld the island. Magic hummed in the air, old as night and as wild as the sea. She slipped from the back of the Hippokamp and swam around to face it.

“Thank you,” she said, head bowed in respect.

The beast mirrored her, gently pressing its soft head to hers. Then it reared back and disappeared into the depths of the ocean. Celeste watched the frothing water before her, the only sign it’d been there at all—a stolen moment of reverence for the beautiful creature that saved her. The sky brightened, the moon sliding away from the sun as she turned back to face Lunapesce.

She dove into the water, swimming until her lungs burned and her feet touched the sandy bottom of the shore. The sand between her toes was the softest her feet had ever touched, each grain so perfectly fine and warmed from the sun. As she drew closer, she saw deep streams cutting through the island, intertwining with the land.What did the Goddess of the Ocean need an island for anyway?Celeste wondered, taking it all in. But Celeste could feel her here. Could picture the Goddess sunning herself upon the soft beach and playing with her daughters in the bubbling streams.

At last Celeste’s feet sank into dry sand.

The sound came again. The song from before. Still faint, but unquestionably there. It called to her, beckoning from deep within the heart of the forest.

The Voice of the Ocean.

She knew at once what it was. The sound was heartbreaking in its beauty. Haunting and ethereal. And—familiar. As if she remembered it from a dream. But she was certain she had never heard this melody before. The song pulled with each note. And soon the sand beneath her feet turned to soft, mossy earth. This, too, was perfect. Everything about the island was. Achingly so. In all her life, she’d never see a place more beautiful. The late-afternoon sun shone through the forest canopy, shadow mixing with the glittering flecks of light floating within the trees around her. Flowers Celeste had never seen before bloomed white along the streambeds. She followed beside, winding through the forest toward the Voice. The trees were so dense, and she soon lost sight of the white shore. But the song grew louder with each step.

A clearing appeared through the trees. Within it, an ancient temple of elegant white columns stood, glistening in the sunlight. The stream she followed disappeared under the temple. In fact, it seemed every stream on the island disappeared there. Green vines curled around the columns’ bottoms, and flowers bloomed through the cracks in the stone steps leading to the entrance, which she climbed one at a time, listening.

The song came from within.

Sending up a silent prayer, Celeste pushed against the colossal white doors. They opened easily under her touch. She stepped inside.

At the far side of the massive temple stood a statue of the Goddess. She was beautiful. Her chin tilted up in triumph toward the light pouring in from the open ceiling, covered in vines. She was crowned in stars, with her hair falling in waves down her naked back. Her powerful tail was coiled beneath her, and in her stone hands, she held her legendary golden trident, carved with swirling stars and inlaid with pearls. At the base of the statue, as if they were her guardians, were her two Hippokamps. Their bodies sat on either side of a waterfall, which cascaded down into a wide, deep pool that filled the center of the room.

The place where every stream on the island met.

And within the pool were two sirens, their voices rising together in perfect harmony.

One was old. Older than any siren Celeste had ever seen. Her skin and hair and tail were the pale green of seawater. But her eyes were as black as the darkest depths of the ocean. She had the scaled bodice of a siren from Staria, but she was so thin that Celeste could count each protruding rib. Hands like worn leather reached out and gripped the other siren at the wrists. That siren was young, her back to Celeste. Her long, slender fingers encircled the old siren’s wrists, completing the bond between them. Long rose-colored hair cascaded down her back, falling into the water.

“No,” Celeste breathed.

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