Sordid Depths (The Cursed Seas Collection)

by Heather Marie Adkins

  “I am Andrei. I heard your call and followed the whales to you.” He gestured to Lesya and Viktor. “I saved your friends.”

  Rivka looked down her nose at him. “To what clan do you belong?”

  Lesya was used to the sweet, naive version of Rivka she'd come to know. This suspicious, warrior version of her friend was kind of scary.

  “I belong to no clan but my own,” Andrei said haughtily.

  Rivka jerked but tried unsuccessfully to cover her surprise. “You're rogue?”

  “I prefer the term ‘free agent.’ Rogue is such a negative word.”

  “Because being rogue is a negative thing!” Rivka said.

  “Again, I saved your friends from death and freed you from the jellyfish. At great risk to myself, I might add.” He lifted an arm from the water, showing them the red welts all over his skin. “A simple thank you would be nice. And a little less bitching about my lack of a clan.”

  “Were you banished?” Rivka asked, her voice snide. “Are you a criminal?”

  Before Andrei could retort—and before the argument could devolve into shouting—Lesya cut in. “Hey, guys? I have a broken leg that I've had to use more than is healthy. And we're all covered in painful jellyfish burns. So could we save this conversation for later and make way toward land?”

  “Land isn't far,” Andrei assured her. “And the whales can help us get there quickly. I have a friend who can heal our injuries.”

  “A mage?” Lesya was heartened at the possibility. A trained mage with decent power could heal her leg easily. Maybe she wouldn't lose her ability to walk after all.

  “Yes, a mage and an old friend. I'm happy to take you to her. That is if your siren watchdog will back off and trust me.” He looked pointedly at Rivka, who bared her teeth at him.

  Viktor, who had remained stoic during the confrontation, waved at the nearby pod of whales. “Lead the way, siren. I, for one, would like to get out of the water. And maybe stay that way for a while.”

  As Rivka whistled for the other whales to come closer, Viktor helped Lesya crawl onto her whale's back. She slumped thankfully over the smooth mound, so relieved to be out of the water, she could have wept.

  Lesya petted the creature with both hands. “Thank you for your help.”

  She hadn't expected a reply, so she jumped when the whale opened her blowhole and sent a puff of air past Lesya’s face.

  She spent the time waiting on the others to climb their whales searching down every last tentacle on her body.

  Once her three companions were settled on the backs of their own whales, Rivka whistled, and they began to move.

  The lilting ride would have put Lesya to sleep almost immediately if Rivka hadn't guided her whale over to speak with Lesya privately.

  “Rogue sirens are never good,” Rivka said, voice low.

  Lesya plucked a tentacle from the back of the siren's neck. “You don't say. Is that why you turned into a demon siren back there?”

  Rivka pursed her lips. “Lesya, I'm serious. Rogues are typically hard criminals, most often murderers, who have been banished from their clans.”

  “He's our only lead right now. We aren't exactly swimming in options,” Lesya pointed out. She snorted. “Swimming. See what I did there? I made a pun.”

  Rivka put a hand to Lesya's forehead. “Are you okay?”

  Lesya shrugged her off and laid her cheek against the whale's back. “I hurt all over. I may be loopy from the pain.”

  “Lesya, we cannot trust him.”

  “I hear you.” Lesya sighed and clutched the whale tighter. “But what other choice do we have?”

  “There’s something else,” Rivka added softly.

  Lesya opened her eyes to stare at the siren, silently encouraging her to continue.

  Rivka lifted her shirt, exposing an expanse of skin covered in raw burns and leftover tentacles.

  “We all got burned,” Lesya said irritably. “I’ll help you get the tentacles off when we get to shore.”

  “No, Lesya. I put the letter from the elders under my shirt.” She dropped the edge and looked out over the sea. “The letter is gone. We’re on our own.”

  15

  Rivka

  No good would come from trusting a rogue siren. Rivka needed to pry more and figure out what he had done to get himself banished from his clan. No one willingly left a clan without good reason.

  Mostly the nefarious kind of reason.

  But she wasn’t so out of her mind with suspicion that she couldn't admit they needed his help. He had saved them, and if he was telling the truth about his mage friend, he was actively taking them to someone who could help.

  Like Lesya had stated, what choice did they have? Andrei was a means to an end. After the whales got them to land and Andrei took them to the mage, she could rid herself of him.

  In the meantime, she would watch him with one eye open, even in her sleep.

  She eyed the male siren with disgust. When he turned and locked gazes with hers, as if he could feel her animosity boring into the back of his head, she dared not look away and show weakness. She sized him up.

  His long, black hair—not quite dry yet—clung to his back and chest. A chest, she might add, that had been sculpted by the gods. Pale blue eyes scrutinized her, daring her to look away first. Sure, he was good-looking. Maybe even handsome. Rivka could admit that, but it was the good-looking ones that were the most trouble. They knew what power they held over the fairer sex and often wielded it like a fine-edged sword.

  She couldn’t afford to let her guard down around him. She had to think of Lesya and herself. And maybe Viktor, too. He’d proven to be a nice guy.

  Her whale made a keening sound and then shot water from its blowhole.

  Andrei, without breaking eye contact from Rivka, declared, “Land ho!”

  He rewarded Rivka with a charming smirk and a wink, then turned his sights toward the beach.

  Damn him. Rivka did her best to ignore the flip in her stomach. He wasn’t worth her time.

  She mentally listed their objectives in her mind: Get to land, check. Get Lesya’s leg healed. Part ways with the devilishly handsome siren. Find the stone. Save the world.

  Scratch that. Part ways with the obnoxiously arrogant siren. Yes, much better.

  Her list complete, she smiled to herself. She could do this.

  The whales carried them as close to the shore as they could manage without putting themselves in danger of beaching. Rivka had moved to slide off the slick back of her whale when suddenly, Andrei materialized next to her.

  “Let me help you down...” He offered her a hand and arched an eyebrow. “I don’t know your name.”

  With a flip of her blonde hair, she stuck her nose in the air and slid down on her own. “Rivka. My name’s Rivka. And I’m a big girl. I can handle things myself.”

  She waded over to Lesya, hyper-aware that his gaze was still on her back. Viktor met her beside Lesya's whale and together, they eased the injured mage down into the water. They flanked her, both stooping to wedge their bodies under her arms, and then began the slow trek to shore.

  As the waves and moving sand sucked at their ankles, Rivka was overcome by a rush of dizziness. She assumed it originated from the pressure of leaving the water for the surface on her water-logged body and didn’t think much of it.

  Viktor scooped Lesya up into his embrace. “I’ve got you,” he whispered, but Rivka heard clear enough.

  And Lesya's soft reply: “Thank you.”

  Those two really were good for each other. Who knew a smug pirate could melt the ice around Lesya’s sarcastic heart?

  The night was lukewarm as Rivka trudged heavily through the thick sand behind Andrei. Her body burned and ached. She was still finding pieces of jellyfish tentacle on her skin, missed because even after they were removed, the spot still burned. From her vantage point behind Viktor, she could see a tentacle peeking out from his shirt collar, and another snaking around Lesya’s broken leg.
She thought about picking up the pace to go remove the offending things, but she just couldn’t muster the energy.

  The beach stretched empty in both directions but for a humble cottage on a hill, accessible by stone slab steps from the beach. Smoke churned from the chimney, curling figure-eights into the twilight glow of night in the arctic. Mountains stood guard over both cottage and beach, and two illuminated windows indicated the inhabitant was awake.

  “Marina’s place,” Andrei explained, waving a hand at the homestead. “She’s lived here for ages. Longer than I’ve been alive.”

  “How’d you make friends with a landlubber?” Viktor asked curiously.

  Andrei mounted the first of the stone steps and gave the pirate a wry smile. “That, my friend, is a long story.”

  Rivka watched Andrei take the steps two at a time, then watched Viktor slowly but effortlessly navigate the stairs with Lesya in his arms. But when she took her first step, she crashed and burned onto her knees.

  Shockwaves rolled through her bones, and she gasped in a pained breath.

  “Rivka!” Lesya said weakly. “Andrei!”

  Her vision blurred until she couldn’t focus on her hands where they rested on stone. She knew she was tired and injured, but this seemed even worse than it should have been.

  Two strong hands gently lifted Rivka, and then Andrei swept her into his arms.

  “Tired?” he asked.

  Rivka struggled to focus on his face, but it kept spinning. Faces weren’t supposed to spin. “I can’t see. Dizzy.”

  “Are you hot?” His tone changed dramatically from playful to concerned.

  She nodded, then laid her too-heavy head on his shoulder for the rest of the walk up the stairs to join Viktor and Lesya.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Lesya asked. Her cold hand tested Rivka’s forehead. “She’s burning up.”

  “I think she’s having a reaction to the venom.”

  “Is it fixable?”

  “Yes. Marina has an elixir. I’ve helped her make it before.”

  Rivka thought of the beautiful crimson jellyfish bumping and bouncing around her. A deadly forest of tentacles longer than a whale’s body.

  “They just wanted to hug us,” Rivka murmured.

  “Oh-kaaay,” Lesya said. “Let’s get the crazy fever siren inside.”

  The world began to move. Andrei was surprisingly gentle for such a big, muscly siren. He smelled good, too. Like ocean. Freedom. A familiar scent.

  Rivka heard the click of a bolt being thrown, a door opening, and a warm, welcoming voice. “Andrei! I haven’t seen you in a month of Sundays.”

  Marina leaned over Rivka to kiss Andrei’s cheek. Her face shone with a youth that didn’t match the gray hair twisted into a bun atop her head. Her sharp, chartreuse eyes missed nothing, including the fever radiating off Rivka.

  The mage touched Rivka’s face and sucked at her teeth. “Judging by the burns, I’d say we’re dealing with jellyfish venom.”

  Andrei nodded. “We ran into a bit of trouble. Can you help?”

  “Of course. Come in.”

  Rivka closed her eyes as they passed into Marina’s cottage. Andrei’s swagger made her dizzier than she already was. She heard Marina instruct Viktor to take Lesya through the first door on the right, and Lesya’s sure voice saying, “Take care of Rivka first.”

  “Go to the kitchen,” Marina said over Andrei’s shoulder. “Get her a cold rag for her neck. I’ll get the anti-venom from the workshop.”

  They passed from the cool hallway into a room that smelled of the sea and something sweet Rivka couldn’t place. She cringed at the loud scrape of a chair on the floor but opened her eyes as Andrei lowered her into the seat.

  “What’s happening?” Rivka asked, laying her head on the table before it could fall on its own accord.

  Andrei took the chair next to her. “We’re at Marina’s.”

  “No, with me. Jellyfish venom. Am I going to die?”

  “Not on my watch,” he said gruffly. He disappeared from her side. The sink ran for a moment, and then he returned. “Cold rag incoming.”

  Rivka shivered as he gently brushed her hair over her shoulder and placed the cold rag against her skin. Relief was immediate and even cleared her head enough to open her eyes.

  “Here we are!” Marina sang as she bustled through the propped-open back door. She uncorked a tall bottle and grabbed a glass from the drying rack on her counter before coming to join them at the table. She poured a measure of thick, sickly-sweet smelling liquid into the glass and slid it to Rivka. “Drink up. You’ll be right as rain.”

  “It works fast,” Andrei added.

  Rivka fought her vertigo to lift the glass to her lips, then tossed it back in one gulp. She made a face as it burned down her esophagus.

  Marina adjusted the cold rag on Rivka’s neck. “I try to make it taste as good as I can. Considering what goes in it, it’s a feat to get it palatable.”

  “Do you get a lot of jellyfish stings?” Rivka asked as Marina took her glass to the sink and rinsed it out.

  “A fair few. But the elixir works for venom of any kind. Snakes. Lionfish. You name it.” Marina grabbed two clean glasses and the bottle. “You should feel better in just a minute. I’m going to go make your friends drink some, just in case. Andrei? Do you need it?”

  Andrei shook his head. “I’m fine.”

  After Marina left the room, Rivka recovered enough to realize she was alone with Andrei. And that Andrei had carried her up the stairs and into the house. She’d been in his arms. Part of her wanted to run, but another part of her wanted to figure out what the heck was going on with this rogue siren.

  “How do you feel?” Andrei asked, resting a hand on the back of her chair.

  “Better. That stuff really does work fast.”

  “Marina is good at what she—”

  Chirp.

  Andrei’s eyebrows shot up, and he leaned to look around Rivka. “What the…”

  Rivka glanced over her shoulder at the open back door. She could see the ocean and the ribbon of sand leading away from the house...

  And a puffin bird waddling into the kitchen.

  Chirp chirp.

  “Um, does Marina have pets?” Rivka asked. She had a sneaking suspicion she already knew the answer.

  Another puffin came around the edge of the door and careened into the first one. They took a tumble but were soon upright and angling toward the door that led into the hallway.

  “She has a cat. Not birds.” He stood and reached for a broom resting against the wall. “I’ll get rid of them.”

  “Wait!” Rivka stood and held out a hand to stop him before he could advance on the birds. She dropped her now-warm rag on the table. “Don’t sweep the puffins.”

  As a third puffin tottered into the kitchen, Andrei said, “But they’re coming in the house!”

  “Trust me.” Rivka shooed Andrei and his broom away, then fell into step behind the trio of birds.

  Before they’d made it out of the kitchen, another two puffins joined the parade. Andrei still clutched the broom, but he’d refrained from any sweeping, even when one of the newcomers snapped at his bare feet.

  As she’d expected, the birds led them straight to Lesya’s bedroom.

  Viktor and Lesya were drinking their anti-venom under Marina’s shrewd gaze. Lesya was stretched out on top of a colorful quilt, the splint removed from her leg but her foot still pointing the wrong way.

  Lesya let out a relieved sigh as she saw Rivka. “Oh, good. You’re okay.”

  “You were worried,” Rivka said, so surprised by the revelation, she almost forgot the three—no, five—reasons she’d walked in the room.

  To her credit, Marina took in the puffins with nary an eye twitch. “Friends of yours?” she asked Lesya.

  Lesya nearly dropped her glass. “Cocoa? Chip? Potato?”

  All three puffins waddled to the side of the bed, wagging their tails and chirping excitedly.
>
  Peering over the edge of the bed, Lesya beamed at her pets. “What are you guys doing here?”

  Rivka rolled her eyes. Of course Lesya would recognize her puffins and know them each by name without a second glance. “How the heck did your puffins follow you all this way?”

  “I’m their mom,” she said simply, picking them up one by one to deposit them on the bed. “I feed them and keep them safe. It was only natural that if I were gone for a long period of time, they’d come looking for me. I’ve never been away from home more than a few hours.”

  Viktor leaned against the wall next to the bed and watched the puffin party with amusement. “So… the puffin thing was really a puffin thing.”

  Lesya shrugged. “I got lonely. There were puffins. It’s not much of a story.”

  He scratched one of the puffins under its beak. Rivka braced herself for him to get bitten, but to her surprise, the puffin closed its eyes and settled into the scratches.

  Viktor and Lesya really were made for each other.

  The other two puffins circled around Rivka and Andrei. The smaller of the two made a beeline for the bed, where Lesya cooed, “Turnip!” and added him to her harem.

  But the bigger one padded over to Rivka, eyeing her toes.

  She danced away as he pecked. “Oh no, buddy. I don’t think so.”

  “Fork! Stop that!” Lesya called from under her pile of puffins.

  Fork pecked at Rivka’s foot again, then attacked her calf.

  “Ack! No! Bad puffin.” She tried to shoo the bird away, but she feared for the safety of her hands.

  “Can I use the broom now?” Andrei asked.

  Dancing away from Fork’s painful beak, Rivka shrieked, “Yes! Please!”

  But before Andrei could use the broom to see how far Fork could fly, Lesya whistled the same sharp trio of sounds she’d used to call the puffins in during the cyclone. Fork shook his tail happily and tottered to his human.

  “I’m so sorry, Marina,” Lesya said, helping Fork onto the now-overflowing bed. “I promise they’re clean, and they cause no problems.”

  “Um, hello!” Rivka put her hands on her hips.

  “They cause no problems if you’re not a siren,” Lesya amended, hiding a smile. “Do I need to send them away?”