Page 9 of Of Song and Scepter
I cough, spraying bubbles. It all makes sense: Odissa’s refusal to reveal the client, the high cost of the bountihead, the sudden change of plans in the Drink. Had the original client fallen through, forcing Odissa into a deal with the devil?
“Who backed out of your deal, Odissa? I’ll kill him with my bare hands. Tell me who. We’ll hunt him down, force him to pay, and forget all about this goddess shit.”
She centers herself in the room, untethering the corpse and arranging her neatly atop the pile of bones. The princess’s silver hair—now soaking in blood—fans out across the lifeless faces.
“There’s no time,” she says. “That soldier will reach Dredgemaw, and her king brother will be after us soon enough. You want a way out of the Drink? This is it, Enna. There’s noturning back.” Hope flutters in my stomach. She might take me with her at least, if she doesn’t plan to free me.
She cups the princess’s cheek, smoothing her thumb over the jaw. “Besides, you made an oath. Or don’t you remember?”
The first time I met her, Odissa held me at knife point. I vividly remember the cut of cold steel against my soft guppy throat, the tangle of her fingers in my hair as she held me against the wall in the dark corridors of my father’s house. She smelled of ash and iron. Her sharp teeth glinted with blood. She did not kill me then, which is as good as saving my life. And when someone saves your life in Vespyr, you owe them a lifetime of service.
I touch the pit of my palm, where we’d dragged our blades until the blood ran thick, muttering our promises to the goddess of death—keeper of all bargains, Eater of Souls. A promise Odissa has never let me forget:I will do everything in my power to help her succeed in every endeavor.Seemed harmless to a guppy. But now?
“I remember,” I mutter through gritted teeth. Would I have made it in this sea, had she not found me? Had she not cultivated me—me, a soft-bellied court shrimp—into a ruthless killer? I’ll never know. She’s the closest thing to family I have.
“Good,” Odissa snaps, then unsheathes a blade and slides it across her palm. She lifts her bleeding hand and begins to chant. “Dark is the water, thick is the mud. Come to your daughter, great goddess of blood.”
The water stirs, a slow, cyclone current lifting the blood. Fish fall into the swirling current, struggling with useless fins to escape. From the top of the cave, a deep chuckle vibrates—grating and rough as the pumice of Vespyr. Louder. Louder. The goddess’s voice trembles through my bones, and my gills grow still even as my heart thrums in my chest. I cling to the mouth of the channel, watching from a distance that no longer provides a sense of safety.
Then a shadowy figure descends, spinning with the current in a purple-suckered vortex. Eight thick tentacles fan out, each one as thick around as three of me. The metallic scent grows unbearably strong. The rumbling laughter intensifies until I can hear no other sound.
She lands on a writhing mass of tentacles, each limb slithering out with a mind of its own. Bones crack beneath her colossal weight. The goddess, Tephra, is huge; her smallest finger is the size of me. Like me, she wears the pale skin of an Abyssal siren, but her face is sharper, her teeth longer. Instead of rounded siren ears, hers fan out like fins, lazily paddling the water. Her lips are black as her tentacles, a sharp contrast to her almost translucent skin. Her dark eyes inspect the blood and the corpse Odissa offers, and that mouth curls into a wicked smile.
“Back so soon, little fish?” Tephra says, her voice as cold and deep as the Drink.
Odissa lifts her chin but does not meet the goddess’s gaze. “I have sacrificed greatly for you, mighty Dark One. Please accept this life in exchange for completing my bargain.”
The goddess bends at the waist, tentacles shifting, and she licks the blood from Odissa’s hand, catching the last remnants of juice. For a moment, the goddess’s gaze lands on me, assessing me with curiosity.
Then, with a twisting tentacle, Tephra caresses Odissa’s cheek. “Tell me, little fish, which siren’s body are you donating for the exchange? It seems you’ve brought two. And this one’s still alive. I do enjoy a live sacrifice.”
Every cell in my body unravels. My gills splutter against my neck as I draw shattered pulls. But I stay frozen to the skeleton floor, my blood oath clamping my free will in its icy grasp.Help her succeed in everything she does.
Even if it means making a deal with the devil. But if Odissa aims tofeedme to the soul-eater, all oaths are off. I will not go down that easily.
Odissa smiles. “That one is not part of the exchange. Just the princess.”
The goddess flicks her gaze to me once more. I meet her gaze squarely and lift my chin.
Tephra’s smile only widens, wickedly so. “A blood bargainer, I see.” A chill races through my body as her gaze travels from my scalp to the tip of my tail. “You sure you want to be here, pet? We could make a deal of our own.”
My pulse flutters, missing a beat. The dark magic of my oath curls around my neck, my arms, tightening its grip. What is the goddess offering me? A way out? I narrow my eyes. That’s not possible.
When I don’t answer, Tephra blinks. “Very well,” she says, returning her gaze to Odissa, and only then do I allow myself to relax.
Tephra’s tentacle curls around the princess’s limp tail, lifting it. Silver hair hangs like fine strands of kelp from Aris’s scalp. “Ah, yes. The cost is great indeed, worthy of a great wish.” She spins the body, inspecting every inch. “These scars will not come out, you know. Wicked suture, that.” The forming scar tissue on the corpse’s chest where I stabbed her in the Drink is jagged and rough.
Odissa shoots me a look. “I know.”
Tephra cocks her head, studying Odissa carefully. Odissa holds her posture under the goddess’s scrutinizing gaze, and I wait for her to crack. But where many bargainers may have quivered and fled, Odissa stays erect. Focused.
The goddess finally blinks, breaking the tension. “You’re after the Coral Prince, you said?”
“Yes, the princess is due to meet him for an arranged marriage. I expect to take her place and win his throne myself.”
The goddess throws back her head, and that dark laughter ripples once more through the water. “Oh, this will be delightful. Truly. I love a good courtship scheme, and it’s been far too long since those sun-drenchers got what’s coming to them, don’t you think?”
Odissa smiles. “Yes, that sounds quite—”
