Chapter 11

The cold of the knife mixed with the slick wind. My stance wasn't as steady as the man that held me captive and my attention flicked from him, to my siren, to her blond sister trapped in a net. Chaos, this was chaos and… I noted the skull on the black flag of the ship that pulled next to us. Fear stabbed me in the gut.

Pirates.

My weight was no match for the pirate that gripped me, my siren and two others were snarling as they circled the boat and disappeared and reappeared above the waves.

"Mermaids!" the one that held me shouted.

Another scruffier pirate came up behind him and hit him on the back of the head. "Not mermaids… Sirens."

"Gods help us," my pirate captor breathed in my ear.

That was my opportunity. Balling my fist, I used all my might to hit my assailant in the groin. He swore, dropping the knife and tumbling over. I quickly grabbed the knife from a puddle on deck and positioned myself between the siren that hung from the net and the pirates. The ship rocked as a few moved like a dance, manning the sails, tossing ropes. Their movements fluid and practiced, nothing like that of the men I'd first sailed with.

My captor, the scruffy man, and someone else—someone wearing a black pirate hat, sauntered over. Then my eyes met his--- no—hers.

"Well, I'll be damned. A sailor girl and a siren. It's our lucky day, boys." She tipped her hat, disregarding my shaking knife. "I'm Captain Calico, and you've just been captured by the Pirate Keepers of Stories."

The siren behind me shirked back into the net and I caught a glimpse of a pirate throwing a spear into the water. "Stop!" I called out, ignoring the captain. "Don't hurt them!"

The woman raised an eyebrow, and through a bright flash of lightning, I made out her long, curly red hair. "They're the ones who wish to hurt us, lass."

Just then a melody twisted through the electric air, dancing over the waves, somehow a softer yet more audible octave than the sea and storm themselves. The pirate captain swore and covered her ears before shouting at the man beside her. "Crank the juke!"

I glanced over my shoulder as my back bumped into the large, pale pink fin of the siren behind me as she dangled like a beautiful canary in a cage. She eyed me with curious suspicion as I still held the knife in the direction of the pirates. "I'll protect you," my teeth chattered together in cold and fear.

Before I could receive a response, a man screamed, and another jumped off the boat, as the captain scrambled to the side of my ship, shouting demands at the larger pirate ship next to us. "The juke!"

The few men on our boat were jumping overboard, only their screams signaling their watery deaths. Suddenly we were enveloped by an unnatural, neon green light, and the floorboards vibrated with… music? It was coming from the pirate ship. Captain Calico turned on her boot, wiping her brow and pulling a flask from her vest. Horror washed over me as the thumping sounds of rock music drowned out the sirens' call, and the pirates cheered from the other ship, slinging ropes, and tying our boat to theirs. Like a lassoed animal, we were tethered together.

The siren behind me hissed as the captain took a step closer, assessing her, ignoring me as I jabbed my knife forward in warning. Captain Calico drawled after taking a heavy swig of rum. "Magic jukebox. It drowns out the call of all sorts of ocean beasts such as this one. I reckon we'll fetch a high price for this beauty, won't we?"

"Don't get near her," I threatened. "What is it you want? Money? Gold? I can find a way to get you that. Where I'm from, my inn, it has money?—"

The pirate ran a confident, seductive finger down the top of my slick blade as a snarl rattled behind me. "Did you not hear me, girl? Not just any pirates came to your aid this day. Tis not gold or riches we seek."

Chills pricked the back of my neck as a lithe and melodic voice spoke, for the first time, over my shoulder. "Stories," the siren answered. "You want stories."

The captain's face lit up, and she gave a small, sideways smirk. "That's right, beautiful. And you will give me everything I want. Won't you?"