Ominous Odyssey (Overworld Chronicles Book 13) (25 page)

Scores of seagulls burst into flight as the
Falcheen
settled in for a landing, swirling overhead like a white funnel designed to crap on everything anybody ever loved.

Shelton looked suspiciously up at the birds and pressed his hat firmly on his head. "The Sirens are paying my dry cleaning bill if those birds poop on my duster."

Tahlee charged a gem on the starboard side and a gangway of Murk projected from the side of the ship. The Mzodi soldiers lined up, weapons at the ready, but Illaena held up a hand and shook her head.

"I will go alone."

Tahlee's eyes flared. "Not without me."

Illaena offered a curt nod and the pair walked down the gangway to the turtle shell pier.

My guts knotted as I watched them descend. If the Sirens meant us harm, there wasn't anything we could do to stop them.

Chapter 22

Shelton and Adam leaned on the railing, watching with interest as the Sirens dismounted their dragons and glided toward their guests, their dresses flowing like water along with them. The sea dragons didn't wait around long, sliding off the end of the pier and into the water.

"I don't trust these Sirens one little bit," Shelton said. "Those tales about them luring sailors to their deaths against the rocks weren't just fairy tales."

"I'm sure it had some basis in fact," Adam said, "but the reality seems different."

"On the surface," Shelton said. "Dive deep enough you'll find out the truth."

"Or it might be smooth sailing," Adam said with a smirk.

I groaned. "I hate to dampen your enthusiasm by throwing cold water on this conversation, but there's not much we can do if the Sirens decide to sing us lullabies."

Elyssa shook her head. "I think I just heard more water metaphors in thirty seconds than I want to hear for the rest of this trip."

"Might be a short trip, sweetheart." Shelton unholstered a short wooden rod and flicked it out to a full-length staff. "We need to protect ourselves against the song of the Sirens or we'll never get out of here."

"I'm not walking around with cotton in my ears," Elyssa said.

"Wouldn't work anyway," Shelton said. "You need something denser like beeswax. Speaking of which—" he dug around inside his duster and removed a small pink coin purse from an inside pocket.

Adam leaned over his shoulder. "Aww, did Bella pack your toothbrush in there?"

Shelton gave him a dirty look. "Shut it, smartass." He twisted open the metal latch and removed a pair of foam earplugs. "Sometimes I have trouble sleeping when there's a lot of noise." He stuffed them in his ears where the pink tips designed to aid removal poked out like bug antennae. "There. Problem solved."

Elyssa's nose wrinked. "They look stupid."

Shelton cupped a hand to his ear. "What?"

Adam spoke loudly, speaking each word with exaggerated precision. "They. Look. Stupid."

"What?" Shelton pulled one out. "Can't hear a thing with those earplugs in."

"I'm about to backhand you across the deck," Adam said.

I ignored the banter and watched Illaena converse with the green-haired Siren. Judging from their facial expressions, the exchange seemed calm and polite, and neither of the Mzodi had the glazed look of someone under the spell of a song.

"If Adam is right about this being another realm," I told Elyssa, "we must be in Aquilis."

"Makes sense." She looked out at the city. "If that's the case, the secret weapon must be here somewhere."

I frowned and looked at the peaceful city. "Doesn't seem like the place to have a secret weapon."

"No, it doesn't," Elyssa said. "None of those vessels in the harbor look like warships, and I don't see soldiers or troops anywhere."

"They do have dragons," I reminded her.

She nodded. "True, but they didn't seem hostile."

A shout from Tahlee ended our conversation. At first I thought there was trouble, but quickly realized the first mate was ordering the soldiers to disarm and come down the gangway. I took it upon myself to head down and face the music.

Shelton swallowed hard and shoved the earplugs back in place, much to the amusement of Adam. Elyssa gripped my hand and we walked down the ramp toward the group at the bottom.

The green-haired Siren wore a long shimmering dress that hid her legs and made it look as though she glided instead of walked. She nodded at my group. "I am Narine." Her arm swept to include her other companions, one a female with soft features and turquoise hair, and the other with a round face and blue-gray locks. "This is Balaena and Dolpha."

She didn't extend a hand to shake it and I didn't feel like pressing my luck so I simply nodded back and introduced the others. "I'm Justin and these are my friends, Elyssa, Adam, and Shelton."

Vertically slit pupils regarded me curiously. Narine tucked a flowing lock of hair behind small smooth ears and glided her eyes across the others. "Some of you are mortals."

I didn't want to show all our cards so I answered with a shrug. "Are we in Aquilis?"

Her very thin eyebrow raised slightly. "The ancient kingdom of the Sirens vanished long ago."

"How would you know of it?" Dolpha asked. Her voice was unusually high pitched, but no less sing-song than Narine's.

I exchanged a confused frown with Elyssa then turned back to our hosts. "Aquilis is the Siren realm, right?"

Narine nodded. "Yes, it was once so, but our kingdom vanished into legend along with the rest of the world eons ago."

Tahlee and Illaena shared confused glances of their own.

"We are from Seraphina," Illaena said.

Dolpha's head reared back as if struck. "The angel kingdom was destroyed with everything else."

Illaena's forehead scrunched. "Where else could we have come from?"

The Sirens took a turn looking flummoxed. "Are you not from Heval?" Narine pointed up and away.

"The more we talk, the more confused I get," Adam said. "Maybe it would be better if we didn't assume anything and just said where we're all from."

"What game is this?" Dolpha said in a harsh song. "We have left your kingdom alone for millennia. The mortals are free to do as they wish, so what cause have you to intrude on our sovereign territory?"

I held up my hands. "I assure you, we're not from these parts at all. We really are from Seraphina—well, not originally." I flicked my hand to indicate my friends. "We're from Eden."

"Ha!" Dolpha scoffed. "Now we know they lie."

Narine's eyes lit with wonder. "Or perhaps the legends are true."

"Could it be?" Balaena said. "Perhaps there are survivors beyond the storm."

I didn't know what to think, but I figured a brief history lesson of the Sundering might help jog their memories. It was possible that they'd suffered some sort of memory loss, or maybe they'd been isolated from everyone else.

"Do you remember the Apocryphan?" I asked.

"Indeed." Narine tilted her head slightly, as if remembering. "I was not alive during those dark days, but we still sing the legends."

"Our ancestors fled when the Apocryphan War started and founded this city in a place untouched by man." Balaena raised her chin proudly. "Many Lyrolai fled the war as well and joined us on the island, which for some reason, was invisible to the Apocryphan."

"So the legend says." Narine's huge eyes widened. "The great war wiped the kingdoms from the face of the Earth."

"Centuries later, the mortals appeared." Dolpha scowled, as if this was an unpleasant thought.

"Many moved to the island, and together, we built a great civilization," Balaena said, chin lifting even higher. "We showed them how to create magnificent, efficient structures, and educated them with ancient knowledge."

"The mortals in the other nearby lands were not so pleasant." Dolpha's scowl deepened. "For a time, we traded with them, but then they grew to fear us, claiming we were cannibals who feasted on their sailors, luring their ships to their doom."

"We cut off contact with the outsiders and they stayed far from us." Narine shook her head sadly. "It was then that another great evil appeared, and songs of a new war reached our ears. Whatever made our island invisible to the Apocryphan kept us undetected by this new evil. But then something terrible happened, and a great darkness swept the land."

Elyssa gave me a knowing look. "Sounds like the Desecration."

She was right. When stories had timelines spanning thousands of years, it was hard to keep things straight, but the Desecration was one of those worldwide events so huge, that it placed a big old frownie-face on the calendar.

Narine raised an eyebrow at Elyssa's remark but continued the story. "The storm that destroyed the world, swept in from all sides and soon we were all that remained. Now there are only the three of us, a few Lyrolai and perhaps two-hundred mortals."

Adam's eyes flared as if a lightbulb just blinked on inside his head. "What, exactly, is the name of this city?"

Dolpha scowled, apparently unconvinced that we weren't from Heval. "Your game is not amusing."

"Ah, yes," Narine said. "I apologize for my lack of manners." She spread her arms as if to present the city. "Welcome to Atlantis."

Adam might have expected that answer but I thought my jaw was going to hit my belly button. "This is the lost city of Atlantis?"

Illaena and Tahlee didn't seem to know what to make of our confusion. For that matter, neither did the Sirens.

"We are not lost," Dolpha said.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I pressed a hand to my heart. "We're in Atlantis? Do you know how freaking cool that is?"

"Totally explains the architecture," Adam said. "I knew it was inspired by ancient Greece architecture, but it was too advanced."

"Do they have flying chariots and laser beams?" I asked.

Elyssa frowned. "I thought Atlantis was underwater."

"What nonsense is that?" Dolpha said.

"Laser beams?" Narine spoke the words haltingly.

Shelton's eyes darted back and forth as he tried to read our lips. Little did he know his earplugs were making him miss all the juicy info.

Adam switched gears with his next question. "Who lives in Heval? More Sirens?"

Narine blinked. Up close it was really unsettling since she had a clear eyelid that closed before her outer one did. "Heval is a mountain that reaches far into the sky. Its slopes are rocky and steep—unsuitable for living since there is no easy access to the water. We did not realize there are people living at the top until only about a thousand years ago."

"
Only
a thousand years?" Adam said incredulously. "Who are these people?"

Balaena rolled her shoulders in what I took for a shrug. "They did not offer much information, and seemed just as surprised as us to discover there were other survivors of the world's end."

"What are their names?" I asked.

"They were very secretive," Narine said. "While they did not offer their names or background, one of them addressed the male by name—Gallifer."

A cold chill tip-toed down my back. "How many people were there?" I asked.

"Only three," Balaena replied.

"It's the Seraphim who tried to control Thussor," Elyssa said. "Gallifer, Sithain, and Purah."

"I told you these intruders are from Heval!" Dolpha said.

I shook my head. "No, we're not. You have no idea how dangerous those people are."

"They are not dangerous." Dolpha huffed—but in a musical way, of course. "Many mortals live in Heval, and they have been perfectly happy there."

"We don't actually go to Heval." Narine said. "Those Atlanteans who moved there sometimes return to visit family and say they are treated very well."

"None of them know the names of their hosts?" Adam asked.

"I wouldn't know," Narine said. "I do not interfere in their personal affairs."

"The mortals and Lyrolai are free to do as they choose," Dolpha said. "Our domain is the sea."

With a loud sigh, Shelton tugged the earplugs out and said, "Are you guys talking about hamburgers? Do they have meat on this island?"

That brought a stunned silence to the conversation until Adam burst into laughter. "Dude, you are awful at reading lips!"

"What did he have in his ears?" Narine asked.

Dolpha huffed. "I thought them peculiar decorations for a male."

"Earplugs." I rolled my eyes. "He didn't want you mind controlling him with your singing."

Dolpha narrowed her eyes at him. "We would never intentionally do such a thing."

"Fine, I get it." Shelton held up his hands in surrender. "Mind control me all you want, but I gotta know—are there hamburgers on this island? Pancakes? Bacon?"

Adam snorted. "Well, we know what's been on Shelton's mind all this time."

Admittedly, I was pretty hungry, so I phrased Shelton's question into something the others would understand. "Do you have food here?"

"Of course," Narine said. "Shall I prepare you a shell of krill?"

Shelton gagged. "Please, no."

Adam clamped a hand over his mouth and went red in the face trying to suppress his laughter.

"We request the hospitality of your land," Illaena said. "We have many tales to tell, but our journey has wearied us."

"If the others have no objections"—Narine looked at her companions—"I am happy to extend our hospitality."

Dolpha narrowed her eyes. "I do not trust these newcomers. They appear in a flying ship and claim no knowledge of our lands—yet what else exists outside of this?"

"The world." I let that sink in. "We'll tell you more later, but I assure you, everything still exists outside of your domain."

Balaena's eyes grew hopeful. "The ocean still sings beyond the ends of our earth?"

"It does." I waved a hand at the amazing city behind her. "If anything, we thought Atlantis had been lost forever. If we could have food and rest, we'll gladly catch you up on events."

"Then you are welcome," Balaena said.

Dolpha scowled and offered a begrudging nod. "Very well, but do not think we will abide any treachery."

"We're not pirates," I assured her.