#kalligan

First I take out the gag.

She coughs twice and swallows deeply. “You’ve saved me again.”

“It’s my fault he found you again. I’m the one who tracked down the map pieces for him.” I use a borrowed cutlass to work at sawing through the thick ropes at her wrists.

“Is he dead?” she asks. It’s the fiercest tone I’ve heard her voice take.

“Not yet. He’s hiding from the fight.”

*   *   *

The battle is over only minutes after it began. The sirens made quick work of the pirates. They’ve already taken back to the water by the time I get my mother out in the open air. I’m surprised she doesn’t join them immediately. Instead, she stares purposefully at the mainmast, where Kalligan stands on the beam below the highest sail.

“You’ve lost,” I shout up to him.

“I haven’t lost until a sword plunges into my heart,” he calls back.

“Mandsy, find me a saw,” I say. “If our beloved king won’t come down of his own free will, we’ll have to hack down his throne.”

A loud clang sounds. It’s my father’s sword hitting the deck.

The purest sign of defeat.

He’s no fool. He knows he’s lost. He has no power over me. My crew and I are finally safe.

His feet follow, and everyone on the ship quiets, watching him. “Now what?” he asks as he rises to his full height. “Am I to face a firing squad? Be imprisoned till the day I die? You don’t have—”

His words are stopped by a fiery-red blur crashing into him. They crack through the wooden railing and topple off the side of the ship, a tangle of limbs and hair and my father’s shouts.

As soon as they hit the water, I know I will not see my father alive again.

The water churns violently as Kalligan tries to claw his way to the surface. There’s a muffled, watery scream, a sound I’ve never heard him make before. My mother pulls him deeper. The water folds into place as their dark shadows fall away.

One,

two,

three bubbles.

And all is still.

I feel tears prick at the sides of my eyes, but I don’t let them out. Not yet.

I try to speak, but it turns into a cough when the words stick.

She looks at me then, and those green eyes show such surprise, they confirm my suspicions that no one has ever seen her in this room aside from my father.

I try again. “What’s your name?” This time the words are clear, but they seem too loud somehow.

“Ava-lee,” she says in a voice as beautiful as the rest of her. She brings a hand up to cover her gaping mouth, then lowers it, fingers trembling. “Are you Alosa?”

This time the tears come. I can’t stop them, nor do I have a desire to do so.

“Mother?”

She stands in one graceful movement. Before I know it, she’s holding me so tightly I can scarcely breathe. The embrace is strange, something I’ve never quite experienced before, but it is exquisite. Such a simple thing, but it says so much without saying a thing.

A thousand questions fight their way to the front of my mind, desperately trying to be first.

How?

When?

Why?

Whyseems the most important.

“Why are you here?” I ask when I can calm my tears.

She steps back to survey me from head to toe. “You’re beautiful. You don’t look like him at all. Blessed ocean.” Tears fall from her own eyes, and she touches them as though she doesn’t know what to make of them before focusing on me once more. “Oh, my sweet girl. At last.” She crushes me to her again, and I marvel that something so frail can be so strong.

Someone clears his throat from behind us. I panic for a moment, until I remember it’s only Riden.

“I’m going to wait back in there,” he says, giving us some privacy. I’m sure he’ll be able to hear the whole exchange, but it’s kind of him anyway.

“Who is that?” my mother asks.

“That’s Riden. He’s … a member of my crew.”

“Your crew?”

“I’m the captain of my own ship.”

She smiles, but it looks painful on her. “Of course you are. You were always meant to rule. It’s in your blood.”

A silence fills the space, and I remember then how desperate I am for answers.

“Why are you here?” I ask again.

She brushes a hand over my hair, stroking its lengths while still clutching me to her. It’s oddly soothing. “He locked me in here after you were born. It’s been over eighteen years. Eighteen years without you or the sea.”

“But why?” I pull away from her again, needing to see her face. Suddenly words tumble out of my mouth. “He told me you left me. You didn’t want me. You’re supposed to be at the Isla de Canta. You’re a mindless beast with no humanity.” I’m crying again because of what it all means. My father has been lying to me ever since I was born.

She shrinks back at my words. Her voice turns faint. “Please don’t think such things of me. I tried to escape this room many times and come to you. I swear it upon the lives of all those I’m sworn to protect.”

My heart aches and my face turns downward in shame. “I’m truly sorry for believing him. I don’t anymore.”

It is a strange thing to be so torn apart from the inside. I’m overjoyed to have found my mother, but that joy is pressed right up against the sting of my father’s betrayal.

I dare to look up again. “Why did he put you in here?”“He’s never said so, but I think he didn’t want me influencing you. A mother would split your loyalties.”

“Then why didn’t he kill you?” She looks away from me for the first time. 

“You don’t want to know.”

I’m afraid I already do. “Please, tell me. I think I need to know.”

She seems to mull it over for a moment. “You’re already a grown woman.” Her face falls at missed years. “He wanted more daughters. More sirens to control and manipulate as he’s done to you. More power.”

Despicable bastard. But I put a hold on cursing his name for a moment.

“Do I have sisters?” The thought is both exciting and horrifying, now that I know what my father is truly capable of.

“No. I have been unable to give him any more children.” She looks sad at the thought, and I find that most peculiar.

“Do you want to?”