Dark Muse (19 page)

“Give,” she repeated, but shrank back a bit.
“Fine, but allow me to sample one for the road as a matter of good
faith.”

Muddy knew those nails and talons could shred
them to pieces if they so wished.

“We want the Tritons gone more than you do,
so we agree to your terms. We’re tired of singing only where they
allow us to sing. We ache for the freedom of the olden days.” Was
that sadness in her voice?

Luke reached into the bag and grabbed a seed.
Before he tossed it to her, he spoke. He also nodded to the band, a
signal to ready their instruments. “If you trick us or attempt to
score an early meal, the entire bag goes overboard, as do all of us
and your meal sinks.”

Her eyes flashed an anger Muddy had never
imagined in the worst horror movie villains. “But you’d be sealing
your own fate as well, boy.”

He shrugged. “So be it, but I have a feeling
you won’t dare lose a chance at these.” He grabbed hold of Muddy’s
guitar and shoved the bag into the sound hole. “Now it’s safe for
the ride.”

Muddy gave him a confused look then quickly
figured it out. “You can’t touch these instruments, can you?”

She didn’t answer.

“I don’t know why,” Luke offered, whispering
close, “but the legend has it that whoever carved those protected
them with something. Something that no one here can touch. So as
long as you hold them tight, you’ll be alive.”

He relaxed a little, breathing a deep, shaky
breath. “Really?”

“Maybe.”

The anxiety shook Muddy’s bones again.

“Let’s board and see what this boat can
do.”

He held his guitar tighter than his fear.

Once they were seated in the rear of the
boat, they huddled together and Poe asked, “What is this? Is it
theirs?”

The ship ran roughly forty feet long and wide
enough for the band to sit on dual rows of wood benches that
stretched from bow to stern. A tall mast launched into the sky
about midway, holding up a sail almost as wide as the ship was
long.

Corey, the resident historian and Jeopardy
freak, smiled at her. “Likely not. It seems like a Viking
longship.” He stood and peered over the edge, being careful not to
step too close to the sirens that were rowing. “Why would they be
in a longship? Norway’s quite a ways away from here.”

Muddy looked around, fingers tapping the
boat’s rim. “Shouldn’t we be worried about where they’re taking
us?”

“Stop worrying, you,” Otis said, doubling his
buddy’s rhythm. “These ladies seem to know where they’re going.
Never question a lady, especially one who might off us when they
start singing.”

Anxiety skittered up Muddy’s spine again.
They might not even make it to where Zack was, if his feelings were
true.

“Anyway,” Corey continued, “if you spazzes
knew anything about history, you’d know that the Vikings came down
through Canada into America long before Columbus did. People found
artifacts along the east coast a few years ago. Heck, they even
found some as far south as the Carolinas.”

“Okay, genius,” Otis replied, “then, why
don’t we celebrate Erik the Red Day?”

Corey grinned, but obviously darkened inside.
“Marketing. They’d have to change all the calendars.”

“Well, since we’re here,” Muddy said, “we
might as well find out how much they know about what we’re
doing.”

The leader stood a safe distance away, but
with one ear cocked. Her hearing must have been as keen as her
voice because at that moment she turned toward the group and
smiled.

“So you want to know the way to your goal?
Maybe how to live through it?” Her voice purred liked the sweetest
songbird with just a tinge of venom.

Muddy stood, steadying himself in the swaying
boat. “Please, that might do a ton of good, miss,” he said, his
voice almost sure.

“Of course,” she replied, “anything to topple
the Tritons and allow us to go back to the lives we once knew.” Her
smile turned crafty. “But, everything has its price, right?” Her
wings folded inwards. “Later. I promise it will be only a small
favor in the grand design of things, especially to save your kin.
But enough of that. You desire a map of clues and I have more than
that. A story I hold, with bits that will keep you and your music
alive forever. Just sit back and listen. Your lives depend upon
your heeding every word.”

The others began to slink closer. As she
spoke, an eerie dance began with her wings swaying in time to her
voice. Then it got really weird.

“If the deal is right, we can save your
lives,

for journey is long, into the heart of evil
we drive.”

What? Muddy’s head swiveled. The conversation
spun first into stereo then into surround sound as more of the
sirens sang around them, sounding as if one mind controlled them
all.

“To the hive, where the evil one dwells,

the darkest one lives where the innocent one
fell.”

The hairs on Muddy’s arms and neck rose.
Something just wasn’t right. He looked over at Poe who gave him
that “we need to hear this” look. Still, her hands gripped the
railing too tight.

“Follow the smoke, which lies along the
waves,

maneuver the currents, row past whispering
graves.”

Many of the creatures flitted from floor to
mast, to sail to bow, singing along in harmonies the band never
heard before. Queen would have sacrificed a gold album to blend
voices as sweet as these dangerous birds.

The leader swooped down and sung into Corey’s
ear.

“From the shores of where bones sing,

follow the ridge to the gauntlet ring.”

Otis’s head swayed to their beat, his fingers
adding their own counterpoint. Two of them curled long toes on the
wood on either sides of him, drifting in, fading away.

“Find the key of earth to open every
door,

for the wrong tone will drop you into
mythical lore.”

What’s the key of earth? Muddy thought,
becoming entranced. The others looked toward him for an
explanation, but he shook his head, giving his best clueless
expression. Music theory didn’t come easy to him. Corey and Poe
knew that stuff, but from their bemused looks, he’d guessed them to
be as lost as he was. Otis kept to the rhythm, but he turned to the
twins, their sibling guides, the only ones who knew the land.

Lyra pulled at Luke, but he just stared ahead
through the smoke, his face set with a grim expression.

He knew something. What, Muddy didn’t know,
but it scared his innards something fierce. Still, they needed the
clues. Without Silver Eye, only the brother and sister knew more
than they did, which didn’t offer much comfort.

“But,” he began. Poe immediately shoved her
hand in his face to shush him. His anxiety kicked in and he ached
to run, to scream at them. Something! Why weren’t they doing
anything?

“Without the key, you will fall,

into a pit of discord, forever like babes,
you’ll bawl.

They will rip from you, your soul,

song removed, dying together, but not
whole.”

His vision swam, doubled, but peace slid into
his veins, battling for purchase with his anxiety.

“Seven trials await, each born of muses’
breath,

familiar to your world, yet played off
brings death.

Solve the puzzle of the room and play the
next tone,

out of tune, out of key, and your friends
will find only bone.”

The fog appeared to break, or at least thin
on the next wave. Luke scampered to the bow but two harpies spun in
front of him and unfurled their wings to block his view.

He attempted to scream, but their song
drowned him out, his mouth forming only silence.

The leader stepped in front of Muddy and
finished the tale.

“If you recall each lyric’s melody or
clue,

the door into where you first began will
cue.

You’ll step into the final realm, where a
certain harmony will break,

the hearts of Triton souls of which the
darkened muse was made.”

Muddy tightened his grip on Poe. “I think the
song’s over.”

The moment the siren finished, Corey and
Muddy ran to help Luke battle for sight of what lie ahead of the
haze. The others tried to flap them away and sing in their ears to
subdue their efforts. The fingers of the trio in front of them
lengthened into talons. Sharp ones. Their eyes focused into
hawkish, hungry stares. Their mouths opened wide. Their teeth
shrunk into smaller rows of jagged peaks. Muddy wouldn’t have
described them as beauties to begin with, but now their faces had
morphed into something monstrous. The leader approached Muddy and
the others.

“It’s time for the payment,” she nearly
squawked.

Muddy stood in front of Poe. “And what is
that?” He found himself shaking.

“Nothing much, considering what we just
offered you. All you need to do is follow our directions exactly
and you will find your brother.”

“How many have succeeded in getting through
the gauntlet?”

The beak-like thing smiled. “You’ll be the
first, I assume. You have something the others didn’t.”

“Which is?”

“You have the determination to save a loved
one, instead of striving for riches or fame. I assume those
instruments you’re carrying can do something quite amazing for you.
That’s a lot more than the last few who have ventured this far had
in their possession.”

Muddy held his guitar tight. “Did you lead
them all the way, or did they perish on the boat?”

She laughed, sounding like a cross between a
beautiful woman and a macaw. “Silly boy. You think you know us?
From your folk tales? Nightmares?” She brushed her wing’s edge
against his throat. “You know nothing about our race. We scheme
only to survive, to thrive, the same as anyone. Are we to be
punished for that?”

Luke grasped hold of the oar he had pointed
through the fog. “Tell them,” he said. “Tell them your price,
beast.”

Otis screamed through the fog as it suddenly
lifted. “I can see it. The shore! It’s right there. It’s—oh, no.
No.”

The band pushed past the sirens as they
pulled their wings back.

“What is that on the beach?” Poe strained to
focus. “It looks like driftwood.”

Corey finally spoke. “It’s not driftwood.
They’re bones.”

Chapter Sixteen

“So that’s your price,” Muddy said angrily.
You take your passengers all the way here, building up their
confidence, their hopes, only to show them this? What kind of sick
savages are you?”

The leader fluttered with a thump to the bow
in front of them. The rage burning in her eyes almost forced them
to turn away.

“You think we’re savages?” she said,
seething. “You think you’re so high and mighty when you hunt for
your food? How are you different than us? We need to feed as
well.”

Lyra spoke for the first time since she’d
come aboard, her face green from seasickness. “You are killing
people. We don’t kill our own kind.”

The creature smiled. “And neither do we. Now
pay up.”

Poe jumped in front of Muddy, getting in the
siren’s face. “How dare you sing to us your tales of how to beat
the gauntlet and how to save Muddy’s brother. Was it all for
nothing? Just so you can eat us? I don’t think so.” She pulled back
her arm to swing and in a flash, a massive burst of feathers
knocked her, along with the rest of them to the deck.

“All of you?” she cackled again. “No, no.
Just one is our price. Just one, that’s all we want.”

Muddy looked toward the littered shore, white
with bones. How long had they been doing this? How many had paid
the price? He thought of his friends.

“Will you be like the others and choose for
us? Or would you prefer us to pick for you?”

Otis brandished his sticks like weapons. With
a shriek from a pair of sirens, he jumped to his feet. “We’re all
getting off of this boat right now!” He turned toward the shore and
it seemed to be at least a hundred yards away. Easy to manage, even
with a riptide, considering the current plight. If they judged it
correctly, they’d be far enough away when the sirens took off, if
the beasts were capable.

In an instant, while everyone focused on
Otis, the smallest of the prey, Muddy heard a deep grunt. A painful
grunt.

Corey.

A quartet had descended on the sax player,
holding him down with little effort. The teen had rock hard
muscles, but these birds made it seem as though he was a scarecrow.
Then Muddy saw why. Each had a talon shoved into his flesh just
outside a key artery. One on each side of his jugular pricked his
skin and the others dug into pressure points under each arm and
into his heart.

“Go!” His eyes bore into Muddy’s and the
intent was clear. Get off the boat and flee these beasts before
they change their minds.”

Luke held up the seeds. “I’ll toss them!”

“Go ahead,” said the leader. “We’re still
getting what we want. You know you weren’t going to hand those
over, anyway. Tonight, we’ll still feed. Will you still
breathe?”

“Go!” Corey was frightened, but he wouldn’t
risk their lives for his own.

“Listen to him,” said the leader. “You’ve
earned the secrets that will likely save your brother. You must
have known there would be some collateral damage. No one leaves the
gauntlet unscathed. We’re an honorable breed. Others here would
skewer you for dinner and suck the marrow from your bones.”

Corey’s eyes went wide at her words, but
remained calm. The big guy had witnessed much more than many
high-schoolers his age had. He didn’t allow this to rattle him, at
least on the outside.

“We’ll bring you to shore. Just leave us our
fare. We did our part.”

Poe, who had been sitting silently, left the
safety of the bench. “You. Lied.”

“We never do,” replied the siren. “It’s
impossible for our species to do so.”