Mermaids. Fucking mermaids.
I’m not sure I even have the strength to be surprised anymore. If there are murder swans and lady lamprey serpents, why not mermaids? At least these ones seemed to have saved my life, contrary to all the legends and myths about them being man-killers.
They don’t say anything and their rueful singing has stopped but they swim me over to the side of the boat where I yell, “Rasmus! A little help!”
His head appears over the side, a wide smile breaking across his face.
“You’re alive!”
“Thanks to the mermaids,” I tell him. “Mermaids!”
“I was hoping they’d show,” he says, holding out his arms and leaning over, grabbing me by the elbows and pulling me up. The mermaids give me a bit of a boost, a pair of hands going to my butt and pushing me until I’m falling over the side, sprawled on my back on the deck.
I take in a deep breath and then move my head to the side to see a woman standing at the bow, glowing with incandescent light. Her skin is pale, ageless, while her eyes are bright blue and hint at eons past. She has a tall headdress on that resembles a bishop’s hat made of pearls and scales, and fishbones that flow over the rest of her body like a dress, with giant shimmering clamshells at her shoulders.
Who the hell is this?
“Hanna,” Rasmus says to me, gesturing to the woman with reverence. “This is Vellamo, Goddess of the Sea.”
The woman turns her attention to me, and there’s an overwhelming sense of grace and power coming from her. She’s so still in her movements and yet she’s staring at me so deeply, it’s scaring the hell out of me. I didn’t even think I had anything left in me to be scared.
“Hanna,” Vellamo says in a calm, deep voice. “Rasmus has summoned me and my mermaids for protection. Do you promise to fulfill your end of the bargain?”
I swallow, pushing myself on my elbows. “It depends. I’m not giving up my firstborn or anything, am I?”
She doesn’t smile.
“Rasmus has promised me a golden dress made of moonsilk from Kuutar.” She pauses and her eyes go to him now, and I swear I see them flare with icy anger. “However, the last time I did Rasmus a favor, he never got me the dress, nor anything else in return.” Rasmus looks away uneasily. She brings her penetrating gaze back at me. “I’m hoping that with you on this journey, you will help him fulfill his promise. After all, you now owe me, too.”
“Not until you escort us all the way to land,” Rasmus says quickly, as if he’s seriously bossing a Goddess around. “So we can be back on the River of Shadows and on our way.”
“I will do as promised,” Vellamo says in that low monotone voice. “But if you don’t fulfill your end, then next time The Devouress will swallow you whole and I’ll feed your bones to my mermaids. Understood?”
“Understood,” Rasmus and I say in unison.
“Very well,” Vellamo says. “Then on your way back, when you’ve gotten your father, make sure to leave the dress on the banks before the Frozen Void begins.”
“Wait, you know about my father?” I ask, getting to my feet and struggling. All the wet clothing weighs a ton.
Vellamo nods curtly. “Rasmus has informed me of your quest.”
“And you’re not going to try and stop us?”
A tiny smile teases the corner of her full white lips before disappearing. “I have no reason to stop you. I am the Goddess of the Sea. What mortals do is none of my concern, not in this world, at any rate. But what is my brother’s problem is rarely my problem.”
“Your brother?” I ask.
“Brother by law,” she says, raising her chin. “My husband is Ahto, God of the Oceans, brother of Tuoni.”
“Tuoni?”
“Death,” she says with a hiss.
Then she turns around and, in a flash of pearls, she disappears over the edge of the boat, landing in the water with barely a splash.
So Death has a first name. That almost makes him more personable.
Almost.
I look at Rasmus, brows raised. “Is that what you were doing while I was battling sea snakes and serpents and nearly drowning?”
“I was summoning,” he says, tucking his necklace back in his coat. “Just because you can wave a sword around doesn’t mean I’m useless.”
There’s an edge over that last word, like it’s a sore spot for him.
“I never said you were useless,” I tell him.
“Whatever,” he says, walking toward the bow where Vellamo disappeared. “The mermaids have our ship surrounded. They’ll protect us until the river begins again.”
I walk over and stand beside him. The night has fully descended now, and though there is some mist lingering in places above the black water, stars are beginning to peek through in the velvet sky. Below them, the water shifts as iridescent bubbles form the shapes of mermaids, our underwater escorts, and mirrors the stars above.