~

When the pirates hauled me up to meet the captain, all of my plans evaporated.

The captain was more than a head taller than me, with long dark hair hanging over his face. His thin white shirt concealed neither his muscles nor the delicate tracery of tattoos that covered his torso. Dark eyes gleamed beneath his hair as he looked at me.

"You're not like the other ones," he said. "Go on, tell me of your parentage. Try to impress me."

He knew. Somehow he anticipated what Xanthe and Basileios had suggested to me, and I was powerless to contradict him. "I ... that is ... I am the daughter ..." I took a deep breath to calm myself. "My mother is a nereid, and she will come for me."

As soon as the words had slipped past my lips,...

Please subscribe to keep reading.