Mage’s Legacy: Cursed Seas

by hamilton, rebecca

  Chapter 27

  “Kerina said nothing?” Gabriel demanded, his voice rolling through his bedchamber.

  Sofia turned around, askance, and stared at her brother. “Gabriel, are you sure you’re all right? This is the third time you’ve asked that question in less than five minutes.”

  Gabriel grimaced and tried to push away the other healer who was fussing over him. He had been, according to his younger sister, unconscious for several weeks, not so much from the severity of his broken bones than from the concussion and oxygen deprivation when Tua had fallen on him. Sirens could breathe underwater, but breathing, with the deadweight of a demon pinning him into the seabed, was beyond even the capabilities of a siren.

  The healers, led by his sister Sofia, had fought what seemed like a steadily losing battle to keep him alive, but they had triumphed.

  They were also, understandably, rather irritated that his concern was not the clan, but the frail human woman who had been found with him.

  Raphael, leaning against the doorway of the underwater cavern, folded his arms across his chest. His smirk was mocking, his gaze taunting. “She told us not to jostle you when taking you back to the clan. Made sure we knew to clean your wounds often—”

  “Nothing else?” Gabriel asked.

  “Did you expect her to say something else?”

  Did he? Gabriel grimaced. What could he expect Kerina to say when he had said nothing to her?

  “And you say your sirens escorted her back to her home.”

  “Across the Atlantic,” Raphael affirmed. “In fact, they returned just two days ago. The journey took longer than they expected, even with calm seas and favorable winds. It’s a damned long way. Do you want to question them too?”

  Gabriel shook his head. A muscle twitched his cheek, aching from the tight clenching of his jaw against the unrelenting pain in his chest. He had suffered a concussion, after all.

  He had to have imagined the barely-there kiss on his lips, and the salt of her tears that had fallen on his cheeks.

  He had to have imagined it all.

  He curled his hands into fists. His shoulder ached. He suspected it always would, but he had full range of motion, and he felt almost strong enough to leap back into battle.

  If not for that wrenching emptiness somewhere in the pit of the stomach. Kerina.

  He missed her.

  He missed her with everything in him.

  Gritting his teeth, he asked, “Was she all right?”

  “Yes, she is,” Raphael replied. “Perfectly healthy, and glad to be home, I should say.”

  Once again, there was that mocking, taunting lilt in Raphael’s tone.

  Gabriel frowned. What was he supposed to make of it? He glared up at Raphael but Sofia glided in between them.

  “You’ll be well enough for the feast this evening. We’ve put it off long enough, waiting for you to regain consciousness.” She clasped Gabriel’s face lovingly between her hands. “You did it, Gabriel. You gave all our lives back to us. Gave hope back to the clan.” Her voice trembled with emotion.

  Then, she darted away, leaving Gabriel feeling like a fraud. He stared down at his clenched fists.

  Kerina did it. She found the stone. She gave it to me.

  Kerina saved all our lives. She’s the one who’s given hope back to the clan.

  And she’s gone.

  She’s back with her people. Happy.

  And I’m back with mine.

  As we always knew it would happen.

  He drew a deep breath. Clean water and oxygen flooded his lungs. He was home. The ocean was restored. The threat of Tua was ended.

  What more could he expect? What more could he want?

  Kerina… His hands were still trembling when he willed his fists to unclench. He stared at them. The nightmare that plagued my clan is over.

  And we won.

  The celebration that evening was joyous. Food was in abundance, harvested from the generosity of the ocean. The siren children were once again chubby cheeked. The voices of siren mothers no longer dipped with despair and fear. They laughed and talked about decorating their homes with shells and staining their garments with colorful dyes. Siren warriors lounged against the walls, their stances relaxed. The sea monsters had returned to the deep, and the ocean rocked gently on its flawless equilibrium. When the warriors raised their spears, it was to hunt for food, not to defend their lives.

  Perhaps life could never be like it was before the stars split the earth, but as far as the sirens knew, and as far as Gabriel knew, this was the closest to perfection that they had attained.

  “And it’s all due to you!” Raphael’s voice rose over the clamor of the crowd.

  Gabriel’s head snapped up, yanked out of his distracted state-of-mind.

  Raphael stood across from the room, his hand extended to Gabriel, directing all the attention to him. The roar of approval and the thundering applause from all the sirens roiled currents through the large cave, as if even the ocean itself agreed.

  “Gabriel set the Legacy Stone in my hand,” Raphael continued his accounting of the events. “He ordered me to return it to the sacred place and asked only for my spear in return. And with that spear, he slew—nearly at the cost of his own life—the demon who had hoarded the Legacy Stone, and who would have seized it again from the heart of the ocean, where it belonged. He drove the spear deeper into his shoulder to pierce the demon’s body forever ending the threat Tua posed to our clan and our realm.”

  Everyone applauded. Gabriel didn’t know where to look.

  He didn’t know how to deal with the adoration of his people; didn’t know how to handle the fact Kerina was nameless and faceless to the people who owed her their lives.

  Raphael waited until the roar of applause simmered. “We are grateful, beyond words, that you have finally recovered and are well enough to take your place at the head of our clan. We are honored by your leadership and care.” He picked up his spear—the spear that had killed Tua—and ritually offered it to Gabriel. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you,” he murmured quietly, the words only passing between them. “Forgive me for challenging you.”

  Gabriel stared at the proffered spear, the symbol of his warlords’ loyalty. Without accepting it, he rose and spoke, his voice carrying across the now quiet hall. “Let me tell you about a human woman. Kerina.”

  His thoughts awhirl, his heart aching, Gabriel spoke simply about the woman who was not a mage, but who was so much more. He told of her courage. Her empathy. His clan laughed when he recalled how she had stolen the stone, shoved it into his hand, and pushed him off the cliff into the sea, but the laughter was laced with wonder.

  And when he was finished with the tale, there was not a dry eye in the room.

  “This honor,” he said quietly, “is as much—if not more—Kerina’s. You...I owe her my life.”

  Sofia was the first to break the painful, thoughtful silence that fell over all present. She raised her glass, her voice trembling. “To Kerina. For returning our clan chief to us.”

  “To Kerina!” the sirens all roared, and the festivities resumed with light-hearted gaiety.

  Gabriel took his seat. His gaze flicked to Raphael’s spear, set within easy arm’s reach.

  Yet he did not take it.

  Many hours passed before the great hall finally fell silent. The remnants of the feast lay scattered over the tables. In the morning, the process of cleaning up would take almost as much time as had the celebrations, but for now, all was quiet. Gabriel remained seated at the head of the table, even though the water currents stirred behind him.

  “I’d hoped I would be in time to say goodbye,” Sofia said quietly.

  Gabriel rose and turned to face his younger sister. Her eyes were swollen with tears she had shed.

  Gently, he stroked her cheek. “I would not have left without saying goodbye.”

  “When did you decide to go to Kerina?” Raphael asked.

  “When you offered
me your spear.” Gabriel met Raphael’s eyes. The siren warlord was a tall and protective shadow behind Sofia, and Gabriel was grateful for it. The clan would need Raphael and Sofia to lead them into the future.

  “Are you certain?” Raphael asked. “She said...nothing, Gabriel, I swear it.”

  “I know, but then, I too said nothing to her…” Gabriel shook his head. “Yet, I feel...everything.” He swallowed through the tightness in his throat. “I pray she is happy now, as you say she is. She may not need or want me around—after all, what good is a siren on land—but I want to be near her. I want to see her again. I want her to smile. I want to hear her laugh. I want her to look at me and know that she is happy.”

  Raphael nodded slowly. “Safe travels, then, Gabriel. Bring her back to visit us sometime.”

  Sofia bit her lips together. “I’m going to miss you. Kerina sounds utterly magnificent. You take good care of her, or I’ll cross the oceans to kick your ass.”

  Gabriel nodded. He picked up Raphael’s spear and formally offered it back to the siren warlord. “Lead our people well.”

  Raphael grasped the spear. For a moment, both sirens had their fists clenched around the spear, their fingers almost touching in a symbolic transfer of power, of leadership.

  Then Gabriel let go.

  With a final kiss for his sister and a nod to Raphael, Gabriel left his clan, turning his face to a future he wasn’t sure awaited him.

  Chapter 28

  Kerina supposed that at least one good thing came out of her cross-ocean escapade. The cascade of healing waves from the restoration of the Legacy Stone had swept across the entire breadth of the ocean. First, the beaches healed. The fish returned to the shallows and palm trees sprouted along the shore.

  Then, inexplicably, it had rained. The first few drops that fell upon the parched earth so surprised the villagers that it took several minutes for anyone to figure out what it was.

  The sprinkle, that first day, had lasted no more than a few minutes.

  But it rained again the next day, just for a little longer.

  And the next day, for just a few minutes more.

  Within months, it rained reliably every afternoon—a drenching storm that drove everyone indoors for at least an hour to while away the time, their conversations scarcely audible above the snap of lightning and the rumble of thunder. The villagers emerged, always, to bright blue skies and thriving crops. The lands around the river swelled with grasses, bushes, and trees. The river, now too wide and too deep to cross except at the bridge, tumbled merrily, sloshing over smooth rocks on its way down to the ocean.

  The overflowing abundance, generously dealt out by nature, made it easier for people to be kind.

  After the siren warlords safely guided her boat to the rocky beach near Anja’s former home, Kerina had found herself at a literal and virtual crossroads. As an unmarried woman—and a physically deformed woman, at that—she would find no safety in society. Reluctantly, and with a great deal of trepidation, she had returned to the family that had cast her out.

  Fortunately, her timing coincided with the return of the land’s bounty. There was water and food enough for all, and it was not too much of a hardship for Kerina to occupy a mat in a corner of the large hut, especially if it meant another pair of hands to help in the field.

  The rumors arrived not long after—stories of a great siren chief who had challenged a demon for the Legacy Stone and restored life to the heart of the ocean. Then the stories evolved, as all stories did, to include a human mage who had accompanied the siren chief in his battles against the demon. The people thrilled, taking pride in that particular story.

  Kerina rolled her eyes, kept her head down, and continued her work in the fields. Just stay out of trouble. That was going to be her mantra until the end of her days. And stop following sirens on crazy adventures because they’re trouble. Just a whole lot of trouble.

  She plucked the young tea leaves that would be used to trade for cotton in the next village and dropped them into her basket. The rose hips she had collected that morning would add an amazing aroma to the tea, perhaps enough to make it worth one and a half, instead of just one, bushel of cotton.

  That would mean another yard of cloth, perhaps enough to make a new skirt for herself. The indigo plants would stain the cloth a lovely deep blue.

  Like Gabriel’s eyes.

  It had been months. Her throat clenched up again, and tears stung her eyes. The ache in her chest—the kind that stole her breath and froze her thoughts—would it never go away? She dashed her hands across her eyes, just as one of the other village girls called out.

  “Look, look! Kerina the pock-eyed is thinking of a man again!”

  “Or pretending to,” another girl mocked. “As if any man would actually want her with her ugly face.”

  Both girls collapsed in a hoot of giggles before the first one said to the other, “Did you hear the newest story of the Legacy Stone? People are saying now that it wasn’t a mage. That it was just a woman. A normal woman who went with the siren to slay the demon.”

  “It’s so romantic.”

  Romantic? There had been nothing romantic about the terror of realizing that Tua was going to rape her. There had been nothing romantic about seeing Gabriel driving the spear deeper into his own body because it was the only way to kill Tua. There had been nothing romantic about seeing the siren warlords carry their unconscious, badly injured clan chief away from her.

  There had only been death—a thousand, million emotional deaths, each one worse than actually physically dying.

  Leaving Gabriel, knowing he was alive, but that she would never see him again, had been the worst death of all. Kerina expelled her breath in a sigh as she bent down to pluck tea leaves off the next shrub.

  An uproar developed by the water’s edge. Kerina looked up as villagers left their fields and scurried toward the river.

  She sighed. Some bold child had probably decided to cross the river by jumping off the rocks instead of taking the smart, sensible way over the bridge. If the child took a drenching, a hot tea would probably be comforting, and would make the resulting scolding easier to bear.

  Kerina walked toward the river, her thoughts focused on the jars of herbs in her parent’s home. She had just enough thyme and ginger. A dash of both would help alleviate the chill of the water.

  “Siren!” a woman shouted, her voice clear before all clarity collapsed into a confused babble of excited voices.

  Kerina’s head snapped up. Oh, no! Had the siren warlords come back to tell her that Gabriel was dead? That he had succumbed to his injuries?

  She squeezed and pushed her way past the villagers who blocked her view of the river. If only she had been there, perhaps she could have saved him. It was her fault, after all. If he hadn’t tried to save her, he would never have been injured.

  Kerina ducked out from beneath a villager’s arm. Water sloshed onto her feet and she stared, dumbfounded, at Gabriel, who stood, waist high, in the river. Their eyes met across the small distance that separated them. The wounds in his shoulder had left scars, and only added a dangerous edge to his sculptured physical perfection. Everyone else seemed determined to ooh and aah over his sleek siren’s physique and his masculine beauty, but only she saw a siren who should not have been there.

  “What are you doing here?” The words popped out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

  “I came to be with you.” His answer was easily, naturally given.

  With me? But the questions filling her mind came too quickly, too furiously to be stopped. “Why aren’t you with your clan?”

  “Raphael is the clan chief now,” he said simply, no regret in his voice.

  “What?” Her jaw dropped. “But why? How? You found the Legacy Stone! You saved your people. You should be the clan chief. You deserve nothing less.”

  Stunned gazes turned from Gabriel to her. The whispers began, like riffling winds over the waves. “The mage...no, not the
mage, the human woman who accompanied the siren chief. But Kerina? No, it couldn’t be...How could it be? But she knows him. And he knows her... And they’re talking about the Legacy Stone...”

  Gabriel shrugged. “If the position of clan chief goes to the person who found the Legacy Stone, then you should be the chief.” A wry half-smile touched his lips. “What say you, Kerina? Are you ready to be the chief of a siren clan?”

  “No...No!” she stuttered. “Of course not.”

  Gabriel walked up to her, closing the distance. “I came as soon as I could. I’m sorry I made you wait.”

  His words were quietly uttered, but the crowd of people pressing in around them made privacy impossible. They repeated what he said, broadcasting his sentiment the moment the words left his mouth.

  Already, the villagers were staring at Kerina, looking at her differently.

  As if she were special.

  As if they were proud that she was one of them.

  Apparently blind to all but her, Gabriel smiled faintly. “If you will not be clan chief, then will you settle for a companion, for a mate, who was once a clan chief?”

  He extended his hand to her.

  No fear. No hesitation. She placed her hand in his. “Yes.”

  He tugged her into the water, and into his arms. The laughter, the joy Kerina had not known she still had in her burst out, the sound rising to the heavens.

  And in a heartbeat, the heavens answered, rain spilling from the clouds, drenching Kerina and Gabriel in a benediction of blessing and love.

  THE END

  If you loved Mage’s Legacy, you’ll enjoy many more riveting novels from Rebecca Hamilton and Jade Kerrion.

  Rebecca Hamilton

  New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Hamilton writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance for Harlequin, Baste Lübbe, and Evershade. A book addict, registered bone marrow donor, and Indian food enthusiast, she often takes to fictional worlds to see what perilous situations her characters will find themselves in next. Represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA, Rebecca has been published internationally, in three languages: English, German, and Hungarian.