Salt & the Sisters: A Mermaid Fantasy (The Siren's Curse Book 3) Read online

  Petra’s arms and legs had lightened in tone, they’d turned a sandy brown color.

  “She’s…”

  The Euroklydon’s body burst into an explosion of sand, a powder puff of fine-grains which shifted for a moment before sweeping up into the air and joining the sandstorm above us all. Her clothing fell into a heap on the desert floor.

  “…becoming the storm,” I finished.

  Jozef, alarmed, glanced back at me, the whites of his eyes visible. “What happened to her?”

  “She’s fine. Don’t worry, Jozef.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll be back when she’s done.”

  “Who are you people?” I heard Nike say under her breath.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. Nike had reversed my mother’s age all the way back to infancy, but she was surprised when an elemental could change herself into dirt? Each to their own.

  I glanced at Ivan, but he was standing back and wearing mirrored sunglasses. His expression was impossible to read, but he didn’t seem much different than I’d seen him look while reading a newspaper. Ever the professional. When we’d told him we were digging up Atlantis, he just nodded as though saying yes to an offered coffee.

  The hiss and churn of the flying sand increased in power as Petra’s storm swept the perimeter of the Richat Structure in one fast, terrifying sheet.

  Nike covered her ears and Antoni hurried back to the chopper. He returned with the headgear looped over one arm and handed them out. When the last of us had our headgear in place, it was like Petra had seen and approved.

  A sound like a soft never-ending thunderclap ripped across the desert, and a blast of hot air hit us in the face. Not a single particle of sand hit us, but the sky grew dark as the sandstorm grew so dense hardly any light could penetrate. The Richat Structure looked as though it was caving in as it lost the covering which had kept it hidden for millennia. A jumble of jutting stones in unnatural shapes began to emerge. But it was happening slowly, even with the tons of sand Petra was removing. Atlantis was buried deep.

  An hour passed. Then another.

  Nike grew tired of watching and retreated to the helicopter to sit. Ivan joined her, and soon afterward, my mom. Antoni, Emun, Jozef and I got comfortable on the sand. No one spoke; it was impossible to hear one another anyway.

  Antoni poked me in the shoulder and pointed to a section of rubble with what looked like massive toppled over pillars. A curve had become visible. Broken cylinders of stone, some with carvings, could be seen in one area, while not far away, a different color of rock had become visible. Jozef had said Atlantis had been made mainly of red, white and black stones. The site was still mainly brown, everything caked in sand and dirt. But as Petra continued her work, dumping sand across the desert, making undulating dunes and cone-shaped piles, the colors began to reveal themselves. The outermost concentric circle was visible, too, but if the inner circles were uncovered, they were too far away and behind too much flying sand to see.

  The darkness Petra’s storm had caused, coupled with the sun lowering itself toward the horizon, made my eyelids feel heavy.

  Another couple of hours later, during which we’d only moved to fetch water, Antoni and I made our way back to the aircraft where Ivan, Nike, and Mom had closed themselves inside.

  Mom opened the door when she saw Antoni and me coming. We crawled inside and she shut it again, blocking out much of the noise of the storm. I clambered into my seat and took off the headgear, rubbing my ears and wincing at their soreness from being flattened against my skull.

  “Hungry?” Nike asked, and reached behind her seat to retrieve one of the coolers.

  “Starving.”

  “I’ll get the guys.” Mom gave us a second to cover our ears again before cracking the door open and stepping outside. She returned a moment later with Jozef and Emun, and we shared a meal of chicken kebabs, roasted vegetables, hummus, and cans of tonic.

  We agreed it made sense to set up the campsite while Petra continued her work, and divvied up the tasks before we left the helicopter, since we wouldn’t be able to talk to one another. Ivan handed out little packets of soft earplugs to those of us who preferred them to the big unwieldy headgear, which would be likely to fall off when bending over. That taken care of, we stepped out of the aircraft to complete our chores.

  I had thought Petra might be finished by the time the tents and gear were set up, but the sandstorm had not abated. To the south of us, where we could still see the sky, the light had dimmed and a few stars poked out of a velvety blue sky.

  We played cards for a while in the chopper with all the doors open to let any breeze that happened by to sweep through it––all except for Jozef, who couldn’t pull himself away from the supernatural spectacle happening just outside the Bell. When we got tired of that, I pulled out a book and crawled into the tent Antoni and I would be sharing. He crawled in after me, blue earplugs visible in his ears. He pulled out his own book, one written in Polish. It wasn’t long before we were asleep.

  I woke with a grimace at the ache deep inside both of my eardrums. Wincing, I slowly pulled the plugs from my ears and listened.

  Nothing.

  Antoni lay chest down on the roll-out foam mattress beside me, cheek smooshed into the pillow. His dark eyelashes fluttered and his eyebrows tightened. I leaned over and rained kisses on the side of his face. Slowly, he sat up, blinking and wincing.

  He pulled the earplugs out of his own ears and glared at them like they were scorpions. “Ow.”

  “I agree.” I rubbed the skin just in front of my ears. “Sounds like she finished.”

  Antoni pulled a t-shirt over his head, his hair sticking up in all directions. Yawning, he jammed his feet into his sneakers. I raked my own messy mop up into a ponytail, fished in my bag for my toothbrush and toothpaste, and followed Antoni out of the tent.

  Mom and Jozef’s blue two-man tent was still zipped up tight. Nike’s little white dome shook a little so I figured she was at least awake. Ivan had opted to make a narrow bed for himself in the helicopter, and the Bell’s door was open a crack. Emun’s tent was barely visible beyond Nike’s, but I could see the zipper and it was done up tight. Petra’s canvas pup-tent was nowhere to be seen.

  “Do I smell coffee?” Antoni asked as we staggered sleepily toward where Petra was bent over a small fire.

  She looked up at us as we approached. “Morning, sleepyheads.”

  “What time did you get to sleep?” I asked, yawning.

  “I caught a few winks under the stars,” she replied, checking the espresso maker by lifting its lid and peering into it. “Almost ready.”

  Her long dark hair was back in a low ponytail and she wore a baseball cap and a loose t-shirt over a pair of jogging pants. Her feet were bare. Her light silver eyes were full of good humor and her dark skin looked freshly washed.

  “It’s not fair that you look that beautiful after working all night,” I croaked as I made my way over to one of the water jugs sitting underneath the aircraft. Grabbing a cup from the little stash, I filled it and dipped my toothbrush. I squeezed out some toothpaste onto the brush and stuck it into my mouth as I headed over to the fire.

  I froze in place, staring at where the Richat Structure used to be. Antoni saw where I was looking just as he lifted a steaming cup to his lips. He stopped and turned.

  He said something in Polish which I knew was not polite.

  Antoni and I walked toward the edge of the abyss before us and stood at the edge.

  Before us lay the unmistakable remains of an ancient city. It was massive, sprawling to the north as far as the eye could see, and ending with a low line of distant mountains. To the west and east it curved away gently. The concentric circles were not visible from ground-level, but I had no doubt that they were there, for the dark shadow of a long cavern was visible from where we stood.

  Footsteps behind us could not tear my eyes from the find Petra had unearthed. I felt Mom come to stand beside me, and Jozef on her other
side. A moment later, Emun, Nike, and Ivan appeared on the other side of Antoni.

  The broken remains lay before us, the shapes of building stones, pillars, statues, and unidentified rubble which was clearly made by human hands were visible as far as the eye could see. The reason for the bulls-eye shape of the Richat Structure was now so plain and real in front of us that my vision misted as tears sprang to my eyes.

  Last to join us was Petra, as her dark slender shape appeared in my periphery on the other side of Jozef.

  Her voice was soft but the wind carried it to us where we stood speechless and amazed. “I give you, Atlantis.”

  Twelve

  I leveled the beam of a flashlight into the open Kirilian compass as Antoni operated on its interior with tiny tools from Ivan’s glasses repair kit. He used the end of the small screwdriver to flip open the casing protecting the gem where it sat between three small, shining discs.

  “There’s the problem,” Antoni said. “It’s not the compass that broke, it’s the gem. Look.” Plucking the aquamarine from the casing, he laid it in the palm of his hand and frowned at it.

  “Why would it break? That’s weird.” A crack down the center of the gem divided it perfectly in half.

  “Good thing we brought spares.” He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a small velvet sack pinched shut with a ribbon. Opening the sack, he upended it and a gemstone fell into his palm. He put the broken one inside the bag, tied it up again, and tucked it away. After popping the fresh gem into the reservoir, he snapped the casing closed and then the outer lid.

  Petra had stopped nearby, watching curiously, her hat tilted back from her face.

  He turned on the power and directed the beam toward the ruins. He held down the capture button.

  The teal beam appeared, shooting toward the Richat Structure on a shallow angle and disappearing into a jumble of nearby stones.

  I stared at the thin line of light, wondering what it might do to me if it made contact with my body.

  The compass made a new noise, a grinding sound between the capture clicks.

  “Uh oh,” Petra said. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  Just as Antoni reached for the power button, there was a cracking sound and the beam disappeared. He let out a long groan.

  “I just don’t get it. It never did that before.”

  “We’re too close to the source,” said Nike as she stood, folding a blanket. She stuffed it into a carry sack. She tightened the drawstring and turned away, returning to where she was breaking down her camp and packing up. “The energy coming from the original pieces is breaking the…whatever that thing is.”

  “So much for a compass, then.” Antoni said. He and I shared an unhappy look. “Things just got exponentially more difficult.”

  “Try not to sound so glum,” I replied. “We found Atlantis and we never thought that would happen, let alone to have dug it up in a matter of hours.”

  Antoni nodded, but still looked concerned. We busied ourselves with breaking down the tents. Ivan had elected to stay with the helicopter when we gave him the choice. He looked regretful, like a trek through an ancient city might be something he’d enjoy, but said that he didn’t feel right leaving the rental sitting out in the desert by itself. I told him that there were no people around for hundreds of kilometers. That still didn’t disabuse him of the notion that someone needed to stay with the bird. It didn’t really matter, so I didn’t push him, and went to help prepare for what was ahead.

  “It’s like the world’s weirdest, coolest camping trip.” I stuffed another bottle of water into my backpack and pulled the drawstring tight. Standing up, I heaved the loaded rucksack onto my shoulders.

  Antoni chuckled. He’d cheered up some at the proposition of visiting Atlantis. He had his backpack on his shoulders, with our tent and rolled-up mattress strapped on. I had our food, water, sunscreen for Antoni, and other odds and ends.

  Antoni said, “How many people can say they’ve camped out in the ruins of Atlantis?”

  “No one.” I squashed the urge to point out that no one else that I was aware of had battled a storm demon, fought a wraith, unseated a demon, been nearly burnt to death from the inside and survived, or manufactured a biodome using magic. The remarkable was quickly becoming my new normal. “Life is never boring. At least, not anymore.”

  “Was it ever?” Mom slung an arm over my shoulders and cocked an eyebrow as she looked down at me.

  I thought of all the times she’d taken me swimming when I was little more than a toddler, all the times I’d seen her in her siren form when everyone else in our world was asleep. I thought about my oldest friends, Saxony and Georjayna, and what they’d been through, what they’d become. I thought of Akiko and what she’d sacrificed, my heart giving a pang as her sweet face filled my mind’s eye.

  “No.” I smiled up at her. “I can’t say it has been.”

  Mom kissed my forehead and released me. “It’s just another adventure.”

  But it wasn’t just another adventure, I thought as I followed Mom to the edge of the Richat Structure where the ruins of Atlantis awaited us. The fate of every siren in the world’s oceans, and out of them, rested on the task we’d set for ourselves. Through my mind flashed images of crying babies, heartbroken husbands, and motherless boys. I shook my head to dislodge the unpleasant thought. Those abandoned children and heartbroken lovers were the ones we were doing this for. The heartsick sirens forced to leave their loved ones, the tearing apart of families––they were the reason for this quest.

  “How big did you say it is, Jozef?” It was Nike speaking as the seven of us stood with our boots on the edge of Atlantis.

  “About forty kilometers across.” Jozef shifted his shoulders beneath his backpack, getting comfortable. “Give or take a few meters.”

  “And all we know is that we have to head in that direction.” Petra pointed in the direction the teal laser had gone before it broke again. She let out a laugh of disbelief. “I hope I’m not the only one who realizes that this search could take years. Someone will soon notice the massive displacement of sand and the rather large mountain ranges to the east of us that weren’t there yesterday. If they haven’t already noticed. We are visible from space, you know. There’ll be archaeologists swarming over this site in a few weeks, and a tent-city constructed before then.” She peered over at me from the other side of Antoni, her silver eyes now serious. “I’m honored that you called me for help. Honored that I had an opportunity to be part of this, but now that Atlantis is bare, I’d give us less than seventy-two hours before the first visitors arrive, and when they do, it’s game over. You’ll never have another crack at it.”

  “So, you’re saying this is impossible?” Antoni looked down at her.

  She nodded. “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “It won’t take us seventy-two hours to find it.” It was Nike, saying the words in the soft- spoken way of hers. She was quiet, but her tone was full of gravitas. It made you want to listen to hear what she would say next.

  “What makes you say that?” Mira leaned forward to peer at her white-haired friend. Every set of eyes among us was now on Nike.

  “Curses are insurgent by nature. The being that set the curse did so out of spite and the nature of the magic is also spiteful, rebellious, and ungovernable. It won’t take us three days; it may not even take us two.”

  “I don’t follow,” I said, and saw Antoni and Petra both nodding in agreement in my periphery.

  Nike’s pale eyes shifted to my face. “It wants to be found. It knows you are here.”

  Cold fingers trailed up my arms and the back of my neck, and in spite of the increasing heat of the day, I shivered.

  “It wants her to destroy it?” Antoni said, his brow wrinkling. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  Nike shook her head.

  For a moment we just stood there staring at the strange siren sorceress. She wouldn’t answer Antoni’s question but her eyes on my fac
e, their solemnity and earnestness, meant she didn’t have to. She would never say the words while my mother was present, but I heard them in my mind as clearly as if she’d said them out loud.

  It wants to destroy you.

  In that moment of realization, my jaw clenched and my heart hardened. Determination flowed through my muscles and blood like adrenaline pulsed before a sprint. I thought of how the aquamarines burned my skin like fire and took away all my strength while giving freedom to every other of my kind. Nike knew, I knew, that this was personal. Why it was personal to me, I didn’t know, but either this curse was going down, or I was.

  I took a deep breath and spoke before my mother had a chance to process what Nike had not said aloud. If Mom knew what was really at stake, she’d stop this whole mission in its tracks.

  “Let’s do this.”

  Navigating the ruins of the Atlantis Petra had revealed was like making our way through a labyrinth. At times, the rubble was just that––rubble, a big jumble of stones and boulders of various unusual shapes and sizes. At other times the way was so clear it was like walking a narrow road lined with collapsed buildings. At these times, we could often make out carvings and markings in the wreck of the city, large broken sculptures and decorative structures. Everything was constructed of black, white, and red stone, just as Jozef had said it would be. In other places, we had to trip, slip, and climb with both hands and feet over disjointed, angular collapsed walls and roofs. These areas were the most dangerous. There were cracks and crevices one could easily fall or slide into if one’s footing was unsure.

  “Look.” Antoni paused at the top of a long slope of black rock riddled with cracks. Its side was so flat, it must have been a wall. Two narrow rectangular windows made black holes halfway down, and beyond that, dark earth could be seen. A few small mud puddles sat glistening among the rubble.

  “Water.” I climbed over the edge of the wall and stood beside Antoni. “Petra dug so deep that we’ve hit ground water. Well, at least that means we don’t need to worry about drinking water.”