Page 77 of Songs of Sacrament

We continued up a sloping brick path towards the city when several women at the gates approached us. “Can we help you, traveler?”

I parted my mouth to speak, but Sai rose. “Call Rainoe at once.”

The women startled and dropped to their knees. “Prince Sai.” One of them dashed for a bell and rang it so the sound echoed around the cliffs and bounced off the walls of the city. Within moments, a stream of women arrived and surrounded us. Several helped steady Sai, but I refused to release him to them.

Someone else arrived, and the group parted as she jogged down the path, her dark hair flying out behind her. She pressed her fingers to Sai’s neck against his pulse. “Must you always show up at our gates bleeding out, Sai?”

He gave a breathy chuckle. “I attempt to avoid it, if you’d believe it, Rainoe.”

“I don’t.” She snapped her fingers, and a dozen of the women swarmed around Sai.

“Wait,” I said as they pushed me back and my hands slipped away from him. “Please.”

Rainoe had already started to sing, others joining her, and the air hummed with the vibrations of it. She stopped and looked up at me before speaking to Sai. “Who is this with you?”

The sirens continued singing, the melody unlike anything I’d ever heard before. It was hauntingly beautiful—peaceful and sacred. Sai turned his head to meet my gaze from where he stood leaning against the women, and he smiled despite his labored breathing. For just a moment, the world stopped. It reminded me of when we’d made our marriage vows, how everything else ceased to exist for a moment.

“Meet my wife, Lira.” Several in the crowd which had slowly grown since our arrival whispered to each other. “She has full rights to make all decisions on my behalf.”

Rainoe cocked an eyebrow at me but waved me over before turning towards Sai again, her voice returning to its dry teasing. “If we’d known you wanted a siren for a wife, there are many here who would have happily accepted an offer, Prince.”

I’d made my way back to Sai, and he grasped my hand as he chuckled gently. At his touch, it was like the singing of the sirens holding him vibrated through me. “The issue was, I didn’t know I wanted a wife until I met Lira.”

My heart stopped pounding for a moment and there was a break in the music so that the roar of the ocean pounding the cliffs took over the murmuring of the crowd. I’d told Sai I loved him in the temple, but suddenly I knew it, felt it in my bones. The idea of living in a world without this man terrified me and realizing it in time for him to possibly die because of something I’d not done might kill me alongside him. Rainoe pointed towards the city and the group unfurled a stretcher, lifted Sai onto it, and moved. Rainoe’s voice remained playful but something in the tense set of her shoulders and the way her eyes darted about to the singing members of the group—like she assessed what they were finding out about Sai and didn’t like it—alarmed me. “What a lucky woman then.”

“Perhaps not so lucky if her husband dies today,” he said.

Rainoe clicked her tongue even as she jogged up steps. “I’m offended by your doubt in my abilities.” We reached the top of a hill and the group eased Sai through a door. I made to follow but Rainoe grabbed my arm. “Not you.”

I jerked free of her grip. “He said I had every right.”

“I know.” Rainoe gave me a smile that looked like she didn’t don one much. “And I won’t stop you if you insist. However, we need to put the Prince into a healing sleep which will be difficult if he’s distracted. He’s stubborn enough on his own.”

I released a burble of an anxious laugh. “That’s true.”

“Let me get him settled and I’ll return to you in a moment.”

Sai had asked for this woman specifically. He trusted her, and I trusted him. That thought caused me to freeze. I did trust him, though. Life had burnt me for relying on others. I’d felt naïve and foolish for how quickly I saw good and wanted to harden my heart. Sai had crossed me, but that was behind us. He had to do what was right for his team and I believed him when he said he’d be honest with me now. If he wanted this siren in charge of his care, then I should follow her directions. “All right.”

Rainoe walked into the building and left me standing on the street alone. I leaned against the textured side of the wall. Sirens lingered on the path, watching me then averting their eyes when they noticed my attention. Their expressions weren’t unkind, however, just curious. I’m sure that me showing up next to the injured Prasanna Prince and him announcing me as his wife was a shock. A little girl with two long braids waved at me. I raised my hand to her, and she giggled and ran down the path.

The door opened again, and I straightened as Rainoe reemerged. “How’s Sai?” I asked.

“He’s badly injured. I’m not one to ring off a melody that makes things sound pleasant.” She paused, and I nodded. I wanted the truth. “I can’t say his outcome presently. The next day will determine which direction he takes.” I cringed and wanted to drown in the wave of emotions sweeping through me. How could I go on without him? It was foolish because I barely knew the man, and yet somehow I did. It was like we shared a heart. Rainoe reached for my chin and I flinched back, but she took my face into her hands and tilted my head to the side. “You’ll need the help of a circle as well. Do you wish for a healing sleep?”

“A circle?”

Wind whipped through the alley and brushed her hair behind her shoulders as she frowned at me. “Aren’t you a siren? Have I misread you?”

“My group isn’t from here.”

Understanding seemed to dawn on her. “Your group’s powers are bound in one member, then?”

The weight of Sai’s backpack tugged on my shoulders, and I pulled it off but clutched it against my chest like a comfort item. It had stayed too exposed to the elements to smell like him, but the pressure of the map box against my palms felt right. “Isn’t that how sirens’ magic works?”

Rainoe gave her head a shake and nodded for me to follow her. We walked to the next door which she opened then we stepped into a room with curved white walls and rough wood doors. She gestured to a small couch, and I gratefully dropped to it as she leaned against a wall, crossed her arms, and sighed. “I can’t heal you with my group pulling on my magic currently. I’ll call someone else to tend your injuries.” She snapped her hand out for a thrush, wrote a quick note, and sent it away with a burst of sparkles.

“What did you mean,” I asked, “when you said my group’s powers are bound? You said that like it’s not normal.”

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