Bay of Sighs (9 page)

“You've got to give us a minute here.” On deck, Riley hauled on her tanks.

Content, Annika swam around the boat, under it, careful to keep in sight, to stay aware, but basking in the feel of home.

When she circled again, she saw Sawyer. He pointed to his camera, so she posed, turning upside down as if doing a handstand.

She felt Sasha enter the water, then Bran. Moments later, Riley and Doyle. At Bran's signal, she flipped around, swam ahead.

But not fast, she reminded herself, pacing herself with Sawyer, tuning herself to the others as she would to a school of fish or others like her. A knowing.

Fish swam by without a thought for them. She felt the slow pulse of a starfish that slept on a rock, heard the quiet fanning of sea grasses.

She felt Sawyer's heartbeat—not so slow as the starfish, but steady and calm. His movements, and the others, came to her like whispers.

Deeper yet, she saw the mouth, gestured, but realized the others couldn't see it as she did. So she gestured again, continued to go down. She waited until the others were ready before sliding into the opening.

Fearless, Sawyer thought. In the water, she was fearless. And impossibly graceful. She moved through the narrow channel like the water itself, in a flow. The walls narrowed, barely wide enough for a man to pass, and the light went murky. In that narrow space, in that murky light, she turned, swimming backward. Though he couldn't see her face, he knew she smiled, probably counted heads before she turned again, continued on.

He saw an eel curled along a crevice in the rock, and hoped it stayed where it was. He wasn't fond of anything resembling snakes.

The walls widened, then opened into the canyon. There the light shifted, just enough. He could see, high above, openings in the cliff that let the light leak through.

They spread out, two by two, to search. More, he thought, hoping Sasha might sense something, as she had with the Fire Star. He looked for anything unusual: a formation of rock, a change in the water, a flicker of light.

He nearly panicked when he lost sight of Annika, circled fast. He
pulled out his knife, started to rap the hilt against rock to draw the attention of the others. Then saw her rising up from the dark below.

She took his hands quickly, squeezed them, released them to rub hers on his cheeks.

Doyle signaled time. Annika took Sawyer's hand again, tugged him toward the channel, then slipped into it ahead of him.

By the time he hauled himself onto the boat, she'd pulled off her mask. “Your heart beat so fast!”

“What?”

“In the canyon, at the end, it beat.” She slapped her hand rapidly on her own heart. “Why?”

“I couldn't find you.”

“I was right under you. Just deeper, to look. I could always see you.”

“I couldn't see you. We couldn't see you,” he added.

“Oh.” She unhooked her tank. “I forgot. I forgot you can't see the way I do in the water. I'm sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Riley pulled herself on board.

“I went deeper, and didn't stay in sight. I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I could see all of you, but went beyond what you can see in the water. I made Sawyer's heart beat fast.”

Riley smiled over Annika's shoulder as she helped Annika take off the tanks. “I bet it's not the first time.”

“Funny. How do you know my heart beat fast when you were deeper and out of sight?”

“I can feel it. In the water, I can . . . It's not feel like I can feel your hand,” she said, taking his. “But I can feel it.”

“Interesting.” Glancing at her, Bran threw open the cooler. “You can feel heartbeats of living things when you're in the water?”

“Yes. Or is
sense
the better word? Know?”

“And you can see much farther than we can,” Bran continued.

“I forgot that. I could feel—sense?—Sasha's heart on that day in Corfu, and know where to look. And see her. The legs weren't fast enough, so I needed to change them.”

“But even with the legs, you can feel and see?” Riley grabbed a Coke, tossed Sasha juice.

“In the water. Are you angry?” she asked Sawyer.

“No. No, I'm not mad. You just gave me a jolt. Remember, we're buddies down there.”

She sat beside him, tipped her head to his shoulder. “I'll be a better buddy.”

“Good enough. How'd you do, Sasha?”

“I was fine—I can't say I much like those tight openings, but I did fine. But I didn't feel anything, unlike Annika.”

“Let's cross it off.” Slicking her cap of hair back, Riley guzzled water. “And hit the next. We should be able to do three today. All of them in this general area. We've got others to try on the east coast, and down to the south. But we can finish up this section today.”

S
awyer figured Annika could have dived all day and half the night, but the rest of them put in a solid five hours under the water, on the boat, with a short break for a quick lunch.

They found nothing but the appeal of sea life, rock formations, and in one cave a crude carving on rock with the names Greta and Franz inside a heart with the date 15/8/05.

He liked to think Greta and Franz stayed together, maybe living in a little farmhouse along the Rhine.

He hadn't expected to stumble across the star the first day out—didn't think any of the team expected that kind of luck. A quest required time, effort, sweat, and risk.

And when gods were involved, blood.

But steps had to be taken, and they'd taken them for the day. Best
of all, they hadn't encountered any of Nerezza's minions. Any day no one had to shed that blood was, in his book, a good day.

Once they'd docked the boat, turned in the tanks, he shouldered his pack. The hike home loomed, but there'd be beer at the end of it.

“Now we can go shopping.”

As one, the other five stared at her.

“There are many shops, and pretty things, and all the people. And Sawyer said we could have the outstanding.”

“A beer sounds outstanding,” Doyle commented.

“She means gelato.” Reluctantly charmed again, Sawyer shifted his pack. “She doesn't forget anything.”

“I could go for gelato,” Riley considered.

“And I need another suit for swimming. I only have one.”

Now Riley arched her eyebrows. “What you have is a fraction of one.”

“Worn brilliantly,” Doyle put in, and made Annika smile.

“I think gelato's an excellent plan.” With her damp hair drawn back in a tail, Sasha scanned the marina. “I bet it's an easy find, too, and on the way.”

“Let's find out.” Bran took her hand.

Within five minutes, after tugging Annika away from window displays of shiny objects, they met rock-hard determination.

“This shop has suits for swimming. I need this.”

“Take her in, Sawyer.”

“Oh, no.” His determination just as rock-hard, he shook his head at Riley. “That's a girl thing. That's absolutely a girl thing.”

“I'm going with Sawyer on that.” In solidarity Bran slapped a hand on his shoulder. “I say the females deal with this, and the rest of us head right up there.” He gestured. “We can pick up more beer.”

“I'm going with them.” Riley stepped over to the male side.

“Wait a minute,” Sasha began.

“I'm going to find what we need to make Bellinis. We definitely need Bellinis.”

“Bellinis.” Sasha sighed, looked at the shop, weighed shopping chaos against Bellinis. “All right, you've sold me. Annika, I'll go in with you, but you can't try on everything. You have to stay focused.”

“I won't. I will. Then we'll get outstanding gelato.” She dashed straight inside.

“They better be exceptional Bellinis,” Sasha muttered, and followed Annika inside.

She found such a pretty suit with red flowers, and another in bright, bright green, and what Sasha called a wrap almost as thin as air, and shoes with pretty seashells that left most of the foot bare. With Sasha's help, she bought them all, and another wrap with blue waves over white for Sasha.

“For you.” She offered the little bag. “For helping me.”

“Oh, no, Anni, you don't have to buy me something for helping you.”

“But it's for you.” Firmly, Annika pushed the bag into Sasha's hands. “The blue is like your eyes. It's a gift for you, and makes me happy to give.”

“Thank you. It's beautiful. We really have to go now. Remember, we have to carry all of this.”

“Pretty things never weigh too much.”

To Sasha's mind, a couple of bikinis that barely covered the essentials weighed virtually nothing, but she steered Annika out of the shop.

“There they are.” Wary, Sasha kept a solid grip on Annika's arm as they walked up to where the rest redistributed bottles into packs.

“You're exempt,” Riley told Sasha as she hefted her heavier pack. “Fair's fair.”

“I can carry more.” Annika turned around, offered her pack. “It's not heavy.”

Doyle zipped a couple bottles of Italian beer inside her pack. “That'll do it. We've got the rest.”

“There's gelato!” Annika dashed up the steep street as if her new sandals had wings.

She'd struck up an animated conversation with a couple of American tourists by the time the others caught up.

“Jessica likes the chocolate, but Mark likes the pistachio. It's a nut.”

“Right. How ya doing?” Riley signaled Sawyer to ease Annika away, distracted the couple with small talk until they wandered off.

“They were very nice, but I don't know whether to listen to Jessica or to Mark. And oh, there are so many pretty colors.”

“Pick two,” Sawyer suggested, and her eyes went wide.

“I can have two?”

“Two scoops in a cone.”

“Two scoops in a cone,” she repeated. “Which do you pick?”

“You pick first. You're not going to go wrong.”

“I think . . . the pink, and this green? They'll look nice together. Like a flower.”

“Strawberry and mint. Nice combo. It's on me,” he told the rest.

When, even after he'd paid, Annika just admired her cone, he demonstrated on his own. “You want to eat it.”

She took one delicate lick, then another. “Oh! It's like eating joy!”

Weird, Sawyer thought as they hiked with packs, bags, and cones, but she made him feel like a hero for giving her her first taste of eating joy.

Because of it, the hike back went easy.

They scattered on the return, and as Sawyer moved faster, he snagged the shower ahead of Doyle. He washed off the salt, the sea, the sweat, felt fully human again as he drank half his first beer in the shower.

When he got out, he heard laughter from the kitchen. Female
laughter. And though it appealed, he thought it wise to take a little time, a little distance from Annika.

His lust quotient there kept rising, no matter how studiously he tried to suppress it.

He took the rest of his beer outside, pulled a lounge chair into a patch of shade, and settled in with his tablet. He needed to email home, update his family. Maybe he'd read a chapter or two of one of the books he'd downloaded.

He dashed off the emails, promised pictures to follow. Told himself he could take an hour off, to read, or doze, or whatever the hell, then he'd do some research.

Riley was the queen there, but he had lines to tug as well.

Then she walked out, the mermaid in one of her floaty, filmy dresses, her hair loose, waving a little from its time in a braid. She carried a tray of flutes filled with frothy peach-colored liquid.

“Riley says it's Bellini time.” She set the tray on the table, picked up two flutes. “She made them, and we had sips—Sasha and I.” She handed him a flute, sat on the grass with those incredible legs folded. “The gelato was eating joy, and this is drinking it.”

He sampled to please her. “Fancy. Good. Good and fancy.”

“Sasha said a monk found—discovered—champagne, and said it was drinking stars.”

“I've heard that.”

“Stars are meant to be for beauty and light, and for all the worlds. Nerezza won't drink them.”

“Damn right, she won't.” Sawyer shifted, tapped his glass to hers.

“Damn right.”

Sasha and Bran came out, chose another patch of shade with their drinks, Sasha's sketch pad. Riley settled in the sun with a Bellini and, like Sawyer, a tablet. Doyle came last, gave the Bellinis a look of suspicion, then shrugged, took one. He, too, chose the sun.

“I like when we're all together,” Annika murmured. “Even apart,
like this a little bit, but together. I'll miss it, miss everyone, once we return the stars to the Island of Glass.”

“We'll have a reunion.”

“I don't know that word.”

“It's like when people who've been together, then go separate ways, come back together again to celebrate. For a night, or a couple of days.”