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Threydan.

“The King of the Undersea, though he was not known as such at the time, stole the panaceum. He found a way to make the panaceum part of himself so he could never be parted from it, and that joining corrupted the magic.”

There was no explaining it, but once I fused with the panaceum, Icouldfeelthem.

Thedead.

I could sense where they were buried beneath the earth and tastetheir ashes on the wind.

It was not long after that my crew attacked, demanding that Ireturntheartifact,eventhoughitwasimpossibletodosonow.Theythrew their spears, and I returned their attacks with my sword, fellingthree of them before I grew heavy from all the metal within my body.

Itriedtostand,topulltheweaponsfrommyflesh,buttheysurrounded me, thwarting my efforts. For the first time, I became aware of a new horror. I was undead, but they could still restrain me for alleternity if they wished. I could be alive but trapped.

UntilItriedsomethingnew.

Thereweredeadbodiesstillbleedingontheground,andIreachedfor them. Not with my arms, but with my mind.

They answered.

My body floods with horror as I come out of the vision.

He can raise the dead. He can command them. Isawit.

Dynkinar is still speaking. “… moved effortlessly underwater, which is how he earned his name. The ocean is where he would hide his undead army, when they weren’t busy attacking the rest of the explorers. He hunted them down, and the survivors eventually turned to the sirens for help.

“The King of the Undersea could not be killed, so the original explorers had to restrain him, while the sirens sang him to sleep and buried him in ice. The dead were also put in ice by the sirens so he could not call them to his aid, for while he could control the undead, he could not control the elements. He’d be hard-pressed to dig each set of bones out from feet of solid ice.”

I saw those bones. Perfectly captured in ice. The work of sirens. I did not know they had control over water, though Alosa said she once accidentally controlled water. She pulled it straight out of Riden’s lungs after he drowned. But she has never managed to replicate it.

Dynkinar continues. “The King of the Undersea has been waiting all this time for someone to wake him. And now you have.”

Her tone is full of condemnation. As if it were our plan all along to wake a being who can control the dead. As though this all couldn’t have been avoided if they would stop sinking ships and justtalkto those who arrive.

When the boy finishes translating, Kearan says, “I’ve told you it was an accident. Something that could have been avoided if you’d simply talked to us upon our arrival instead of attacking! My captain has paid the price for that mistake. What more do you want?”

Indeed.

“Your captain was not killed for waking the King of the Undersea. She was killed because he’d started to make her like him.”

My heart skips a beat as Kearan says, “What?”

“She could understand my warriors. The gift of tongues was another that the King of the Undersea possessed. When she proved to have it, it was clear that he’d chosen his mate.”

“Hiswhat?” Kearan repeats.

“The sirens warned our people long ago that this might happen. He is the panaceum now, but he can share its powers with one other. One whom he can make invincible and immortal. I’m surprised he chose someone so quickly. Your captain must have struck some sort of bargain with him.”

No, that’s not what happened at all.

I struckhim, and I think that might have linked us somehow. These memories …

“Why would this power-hungry wretch wish to share his powers?” Kearan asks.

“He needs a woman. Someone who will be unaffected by siren song so he can exact his revenge and reign supreme over the known world.”

Kearan clearly finds that notion as ludicrous as I do. “What good is one woman against an army of sirens?”

I saw what happened when Alosa rallied sirens to her cause to save us and her mother. No one human person could fight against that might.