The Scrolls of Gideon Read online

  “Alex—”

  “No!”

  With a gasping sob, she spun around and bolted toward the door. Junkyard grabbed her arm, tried to talk to her, but she wrenched away from him and shoved between Dom and Low Tide. Then she was through, headed down, her feet pounding the stairs like pistons.

  I wanted to go after her. But right now, despite the shock of what I’d just found out, Taeral was still the priority.

  After a few deep breaths to pull myself together, I turned and headed toward the railing. Taeral did look a little better — which probably had a lot to do with the half-empty bottle in his hand. Elderberry wine actually was medicinal for the Fae. It helped to neutralize poison, including cold iron and mandrake oil.

  Of course, it was alcohol too. But I wouldn’t protest if he wanted to drink all three bottles. I knew exactly how much mandrake oil hurt, from personal experience. And it was a hell of a lot worse for him. He was all Fae.

  Sadie sat next to Taeral, holding the bloody knife in one hand like a shield, and Mr. Wilt hung back with a cautious stare. “She’s not going to stab me, is she, mate?” he said under his breath when I got near.

  “Nah. If she wanted to kill you, she’d rip your throat out with her teeth.”

  Mr. Wilt blinked slowly. “Think I’ll go over there with the crew for now, right?”

  “That’s probably a good idea.” I managed a slight smile. “Don’t worry, though. She won’t hurt you.”

  “Sure.” He gave her a dubious look, then shook his head and wandered off.

  I watched him for a few seconds, then went over and crouched in front of Taeral. “You look awful,” I said.

  He gave a weak laugh. “Aye. Feel it, too.”

  “Let me have a look. I’ll heal you.”

  I reached for his shirt, but he grabbed my wrist with his free hand. “Don’t,” he said. “Save your spark. You’ll need it to deal with the witch.”

  “No, I won’t. She’s not going to try anything else.”

  “Didn’t you say that the last time?” Sadie looked ready to gut me with my own knife. “Why did you let her walk away?” she demanded. “She damn near killed him!”

  “Because I’m positive she won’t go after him again.”

  Taeral tried to sneer, but it turned into a wince. “How could you possibly know that?”

  I sighed. “You’ll just have to trust me,” I said. I wanted him to be as whole as possible before I told him. This was going to be as big a shock to him as it was to me. “Let me heal you first, and then I’ll explain, okay?”

  He stared at me, then finally relented with a faint shrug. “This had better be good,” he murmured.

  I didn’t comment on that.

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a precise spell for healing. It was more like a transfer of magic, sending my spark into him to help speed the natural healing process. And since the wound was made with cold iron, I couldn’t heal it completely. But I did what I could. After a few minutes, when I felt my spark guttering, Taeral was breathing a bit easier and had managed to restore his glamour.

  It would have to be enough for now.

  “Well, now that we’ve both got nothing,” I said, easing down to sit cross-legged on the deck. “Better?”

  “Aye. Thank you, brother.”

  I nodded and drew the moonstone pendant from under my shirt to let it soak up the moonlight while it was still available. Taeral did the same with his lodestone, almost unconsciously. “So, about Alex,” I said, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. “The thing is, she thought you were someone else.”

  Taeral frowned. “Who?”

  “Um.” I coughed once. “Daoin.”

  “Impossible.”

  “No, it’s not. She was just a kid when…” I heaved a sigh. “Apparently he enchanted her mother, and she ran off with him. At least, that’s what Alex was told.”

  “Her mother?” Taeral looked at me, and I saw the exact moment the pieces fell into place for him. “Your mother,” he breathed.

  Sadie gasped. “Alex is your sister?”

  There it was. The word I hadn’t even allowed myself to think, until now. Sister. “Yeah,” I said. “I guess she is.”

  “So that is why I’ve felt this … loathing,” Taeral said. “I’d never have realized it on my own, but she does bear a striking resemblance to Jessamyn.”

  Again, I could only nod. I knew Taeral had good reason to hate my mother, and I didn’t blame him for it. Daoin had basically thrown his own son out of the family, claiming he was protecting Jessamyn and her unborn child — me. Which had ended up driving Taeral straight into the horrific arms of Milus Dei for eight straight months of torture.

  And even though he should’ve hated me too, Taeral saved my life when I was barely a few hours old, with Milus Dei already trying to hunt me down.

  But he’d been too late to save my mother.

  I was still trying to gather my thoughts and figure out what to say next when I realized that both Taeral and Sadie were looking past me with mingled shock and rage. And then I heard Alex’s voice behind me.

  “I don’t suppose ‘sorry I tried to kill you’ is going to cut it?”

  CHAPTER 17

  Alex must’ve sent the crew down below, because she stood there facing us alone and unarmed. That was probably a point in her favor, as far as Taeral was concerned. It took guts, and he admired people who had them.

  But it was only a small point.

  “No. That will not ‘cut it’.” Taeral stared at her until she started to squirm. “However, it does seem to be a case of mistaken identity on both our parts,” he said. “And I believe you are important to my brother. That may be enough.”

  “Taeral, no.” The last thing I wanted him to think was that I suddenly cared about a half-sister I didn’t even know I had more than him. He’d gotten enough of that from Daoin. “I’m not going to—”

  He cut me off with a gesture and a tired smile. “I do not doubt your loyalties, brother. But you deserve this opportunity to learn more about who you are, where you’ve come from.” He tried to push up from the deck, wincing as he struggled. When Sadie moved to give him a hand, he scowled at her.

  She scowled right back. “Damn it, let me help you,” she snapped. “Don’t be such a Fae.”

  “I cannot help that, a’ghrael.” But he relented with a smirk, and she got him on his feet by supporting most of his weight. When he was more or less standing, he said, “I believe I’ll lie down for a bit. The cots are appreciated, Captain Walsh.”

  “It’s Alex,” she said in a small voice, not quite meeting his eyes. “I really am sorry.”

  Taeral nodded. “Then I accept your apology. Alex.”

  The miserable look on her face said she wasn’t buying that.

  “If you will excuse us, Gideon,” Taeral said.

  I almost said I wouldn’t. Right now the last thing I wanted to do was talk to this virtual stranger who’d tried to kill my brother, who’d somehow turned out to be my sister. And my mother had apparently abandoned her as a child to run off with Daoin and have me. It was too much. Just when I thought I’d finally figured out my whole screwed-up life and made peace with it all, along comes this massive, angry curveball named Alex Walsh.

  But I couldn’t exactly run away from this. I was kind of stuck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with her.

  “All right,” I said to Taeral. “Let me know if you need anything, though. Seriously.”

  “I’ll make sure he does,” Sadie said.

  I watched them move carefully across the deck, not ready to talk to Alex yet. I had no idea what I’d say. Grygg had gone back to his post and stood watching everything — though I wasn’t sure his efforts were all that helpful. He hadn’t done a thing when the upheaval happened. But then, he probably would’ve been too slow to stop any of it.

  Or maybe he figured I had it under control.

  “Gideon?”

  I sighed and turned around slowly. “Yeah. I’m st
ill here.”

  “Look, I’m sorry about—”

  “Save it,” I said. “I get it. It’s a lot to take in.”

  “Yes, but I still want to apologize.”

  “Fine. You did.”

  I walked abruptly past her and headed for the railing on the opposite side of the ship. The one where the deck wasn’t stained with Taeral’s blood. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to feel about any of this, and I didn’t know where to start figuring it out.

  I’d been staring at the endless ocean for a few minutes when I sensed her come up to stand beside me. “Your brother said you deserve to know who you are and where you come from,” she said. “What did he mean?”

  I didn’t expect that question, and I didn’t want to answer it. “It’s a long story,” I said.

  “Another one of those things you only talk about with your friends?”

  “Something like that.”

  She let out a long breath. “When we get back, I’m going to kill Regina,” she said.

  I almost asked why — but then I figured it out on my own. Lady Tethys had to know that we were brother and sister. She obviously hadn’t mentioned that to Alex, and she sure as hell didn’t tell me. So at least we had something in common. “Tell you what,” I said. “I’ll hold her down, and you throw some nasty witch spell at her.”

  Alex blinked, and then laughed. “Yeah, right.”

  “Totally serious,” I said.

  “No, you don’t get it. I’ve tried that before.” She flashed a crooked smile. “I didn’t even know I was a witch, until I went to live with Aunt Regina. She tried to teach me magic, but I failed at everything,” she said. “I couldn’t make any of the stupid wards or hexes work. All my potions either did nothing, or exploded. And scrying? Not a chance. I thought I was the worst witch ever.”

  I smiled in sympathy. “You can’t be that bad. Didn’t you cast some wards on your ship?”

  “Yeah, but your golem’s right. They suck,” she sighed. “Anyway, one day I got really pissed at Regina for making me keep trying, even though nothing worked, and I threw a lightning bolt at her. Completely on instinct.” She shook her head. “She deflected it immediately, even though neither of us was expecting it. And she was furious. But at least she stopped forcing me to practice the basics and let me focus on weather magic.”

  “I guess I can see why,” I said. “You’re pretty good with the weather stuff.”

  “Actually, I’m damned good.” She smirked. “Comes in handy for a sailor, being able to control the weather.”

  I laughed. “So that’s why you have your own ship.”

  “She was my father’s.” A small, wistful smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I’ve practically lived on this old tub for most of my life,” she said. “My mother … well. I don’t know if you want to hear about that.”

  I did. And I didn’t. The idea that my mother had a whole different family, a whole different life before Daoin came into it seemed so alien. Almost … unfair. I’d never even had the chance to know her when she was alive. In a way, I was painfully jealous of Alex.

  Before I could answer her one way or the other, she straightened suddenly and frowned. “I think your golem is upset,” she said.

  “What?” I turned to find Grygg plodding grimly in our direction, wearing his not-so-happy face. For him, that meant he was deeply concerned about something. “What’s wrong?” I said, moving toward him to save time. “Is Taeral okay?”

  “Yes,” Grygg said. “But we have a problem.”

  “Which is?”

  “We’ve crossed a magical security system and set off an alarm,” he said. “Someone knows we’re here.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Not five minutes later, everyone had gathered on deck. I had no idea what Grygg was talking about, but I’d take his word that something was wrong. Apparently Alex felt the same way. She’d called Junkyard on the CB and had him round up the crew, no questions asked.

  Taeral had changed his bloody shirt and seemed alert, but not particularly rested. At least he was standing on his own. “What kind of alarm?” he said to Grygg. “I’d not felt anything, magical or otherwise.”

  “It’s a ward, but not like any I’ve encountered.” He turned to Alex. “Have you?”

  “Hey, don’t look at me,” she said. “I don’t feel a thing. Maybe it’s that barrier Regina mentioned.”

  Grygg shook his head once. “It’s no barrier. It wanted to be crossed.”

  “That does not sound good,” I said. “So what happens now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Fantastic.” I sighed and looked at the crew. “Well, maybe we can figure out what it might be,” I said. “Have you guys ever seen anything in this area? Like … I don’t know, a mysterious island or evil ships or something?”

  “Evil ships?” Junkyard laughed a little. “Honestly, we’ve never been in this area before,” he said. “Usually we head south once we’re out of port. But the coordinates we have follow the Canyon.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Canyon?”

  “The Hudson Canyon. Basically a really big, really deep crack in the continental shelf.”

  “So, an abyss.”

  He shrugged. “Sort of, I guess.”

  “Well, that sounds fun,” I said, and looked to Grygg. “Is there anything we can do about whatever this is? Cast more wards, maybe hide the ship somehow?”

  Grygg almost smiled. “There is no hiding this ship.”

  “I figured that. What about—”

  Suddenly there was a loud bang from below, and the entire ship gave a violent lurch.

  “What the hell was that?” Sadie blurted.

  Alex’s jaw firmed. “I don’t know, but we’re not waiting around to find out,” she said. “Mr. Wilt, take the helm. I want full speed.”

  “Aye, Captain.” He was off like a shot.

  She made a half-turn. “Low Tide, get below and see if there’s any damage. I’ll send the twins down to help,” she said. “Hit the floodlights on your way. I want to see what’s out there.” As the engineer sketched off a sloppy salute and hustled away, Alex addressed the other two. “Take point,” she said. “Dom, hit the stern. Junkyard and I have the perimeter.”

  The group dispersed fast. Kjell and Solveig were already down the stairs, headed for the door below decks. “Hey, Alex,” I said. “Anything we can do?”

  “Yeah. Try to figure out what the hell just hit my ship,” she said. “You must have some kind of spell for that, right?”

  I frowned. “Uh, I don’t know. Do we, Taeral?”

  “No, we do not,” he said.

  Alex gave a sharp sigh. “In that case, no offense but … just stay out of our way. Please.”

  With that, she headed toward the railing.

  Once she was out of earshot, I said, “Don’t know about you guys, but I’m not sure ‘stay out of the way’ is what we should do right now. If whatever’s happening is magic, there’s nothing these guys can do about it.”

  “Agreed,” Taeral said. “Alex may be a witch, but if she cannot detect what Grygg has sensed, it’s likely not witch magic.”

  “Well, she said she’s not very good at regular witch stuff, just weather magic. But that still means we’ll have to handle whatever it is.” I shrugged and glanced across the deck to where Alex prowled the railing, trying to look everywhere at once. Maybe I shouldn’t have tossed her gun overboard. But at the time, I wasn’t thinking about tripping magical alarms in the middle of the ocean and getting the attention of … something.

  As if whatever it was had read my mind, there was another huge, hollow bang that shuddered the ship.

  “We need to know what’s happening,” I said. “Any ideas how we can find out?”

  “Aye. We gain a better vantage point.” Taeral started for the helm platform.

  Sadie nodded grimly and followed him.

  I was about to ask Grygg if he wanted to head up there when he said, “I’ll stay here.
I may be able to cast stronger protections.”

  “Good idea,” I said, and went after Taeral.

  When I reached the platform, Mr. Wilt gave a bare nod of acknowledgment. He was busy wrestling with the wheel. I’d barely noticed while everyone was rushing around dealing with the mystery thumps, but the ocean had suddenly become a lot less calm in the past few minutes.

  “Gideon!” Taeral shouted. He and Sadie stood at the bow railing, looking out at something in front of us. It didn’t seem like they’d found anything good.

  I joined them and looked. The floodlights illuminated the surface of the sea for about a quarter-mile ahead — all rough, churning water and roiling swells. I couldn’t see anything out there but ocean. “What is it?” I said.

  “Just watch,” Sadie said in a strangled tone. “I still don’t believe — there. You see them?”

  Them?

  I finally realized it wasn’t one thing they were looking at. At least a dozen dark, roughly round shapes broke the surface of the water, bobbing easily along and keeping pace effortlessly with the ship, like they were in a calm pool instead of a violent sea. “Are those people?” I said.

  “Not exactly,” Taeral said as he pointed to one. “Look there.”

  As I followed his gesture, thunder boomed overhead and a flash of lightning strobed across the sky, giving me a good look at the closest one. A face with tangled, seaweed-green hair, pointed ears, and a grinning mouth stuffed with a jumble of fangs.

  The figure arched up from the water and dove down, flipping the fins at the end of its tail — which was what it had instead of legs. A churning vee of water marked its impossibly fast progress toward the ship.

  There was another huge, shuddering bang as the mermaid rammed us.

  CHAPTER 19

  Of all the things I expected to go wrong on this trip, being attacked by mermaids was not one of them.

  “What the hell are we supposed to do?” I said, watching as two more of them dove and torpedoed themselves at the ship. This time I not only felt the impact, I heard something give way beneath us with a muted metallic snap. “I mean, do you think they’ll actually be able to sink us?”