The Merman and the Barbarian Pirate (20 page)

"It's here." Raef splashed his arms and whooped.

"Yes, that looks like it. Can you see a cave?" Jon was breathless from rowing. Though the inlet was sheltered, he still had to work to keep his boat from being driven into the cliff by the swell.

Raef whirled about, flicking his wet locks. "Nothing obvious. I can't work out how Cara did the sketch, either. She must have come in a boat like you, or have swum out to sit on one of the reefs." Neither explanation seemed likely, yet she must have got here somehow. This place was easy for a merman or maid to access, but not for any human. "Maybe the water levels have changed since then."

"And the tide is high tonight," added Jon, his shirt clinging to his bunching muscles as he stroked the oars. Raef drew a swift, admiring breath before turning his back. He had to stop ogling Jon; it would only make him miserable.

"I'll look underwater," he said, and without waiting for Jon's response, he dived.

The waters were murky, and Raef swam carefully, feeling his way. Merman he might be, but in conditions like this, he could still collide with a rock and knock himself out. He soon found the edge of the cliff and traced it down, plunging to the boulders at its base. No cave there, unless it had been buried by a landslide, and he didn't fancy hauling rubble away tonight. Planting his palms on the rock face, he inched sideways, tracing over crinkled limpet shells and spongy patches of seaweed. Then there was nothingness. The wall had fallen away.

Raef edged forward, groping before him. He'd found a cave, but it was pitch black. Reaching above, he found a low rock ceiling and forged on, though it seemed increasingly pointless. No human could have entered this place, having to remain submerged for so long. He couldn't see a hand in front of his nose, let alone seek treasure.

He verged upon turning about when a faint light glinted off the bubbles of his breath. He blinked. Had he imagined it or… no, he could definitely see a hazy glow. Moments later, he burst up through the surface into a cavern. From a small gap far above, moonlight streaked in. It illuminated a glistening pool and a shelf of rock, on which sat a large wood chest.

The thrill of discovery coursed from his head to his tailfins. He adored doing piratical deeds, even if he'd never be a pirate. With his heavy tail flopped behind him, he pulled himself up onto the ledge and hauled himself along to the chest. The padlock was rusted and broke easily. He yanked it off and threw open the lid.

The wedding registry was inside. Fortunately, the seams of the oak had been caulked, and the chest had protected the manuscript well, because the covers felt dry. Picking up the heavy tome and opening it, Raef noted brown stains on some of the pages, but the entries remained legible. He flicked through to the last item. The names written there prompted a smile of satisfaction.

Henry Haverford and Cara X.

X
marked the spot again, which struck Raef as strange. Humans, so he'd learned, tended to have a second name. The drips from the cave's roof pattered to an ever-more-frantic rhythm as he pondered. Then something sparkling caught his attention. Having replaced the book, Raef reached into the chest and picked the object up. He rubbed his eyes in case they deceived him.

He held a spiraling conch shell wrought of solid gold and encrusted with tiny pearls and diamonds. The craftsmanship was so distinctive it could never have been created by human hands. The delicate golden mouthpiece fixed to its spire left Raef with few doubts. This was a magic talisman of the mer. Only a blessed merman or maid would be gifted such an object, which would summon aid to the owner in times of trouble. It had never belonged to a member of his tribe, at least not as far as he knew, though he bet Galyna would love to take possession of it. Such a prize would bolster any chieftain's power. But how did Cara get it? Unless …

A suspicion that had lurked, formless, in the dark corners of his mind rushed to the fore. Cara had most likely found this cave, and marked her surname
X
, because she'd been a mermaid.

The revelation washed over him, leaving a gloomy residue. He sighed. Lucinda and her doomed pirate love, Alice and Captain MacLowd, and now Cara and Henry Haverford. Galyna had been right about one thing—relationships between humans and merfolk rarely ended well. Now Raef wondered what to do with the conch. He'd have to study it long and hard to know what kind of magic it possessed, and he found he didn't want to share it with Jon 'til he was sure what he'd got.

He tucked the golden shell under a rock and then swam back down the tunnel, springing through the surface beside Jon's boat. "I've found the book."

"You beauty." The vessel tipped as Jon leaned over the side, cupped Raef's face, and kissed him. Raef scarcely knew what'd hit him; his instincts shouted to part his lips and invite Jon inside, so he did. Lips brushed and sparked, and their tongues entwined. The boat, the moon, and the stars disappeared, time stopped, and Raef's heart flew. This was heaven, the taste and feel of Jon, their scents mingling with the tang of the ocean. The gentle waves lapped him, urging them closer. When Jon broke the kiss, they both laughed as if they'd not a care in the universe.

"I knew you'd find it. You're a brilliant treasure hunter." Jon unscrewed the top of a silver flask and passed it over the side. "Here, toast yourself with that and tell me everything."

Raef took a slug of the sweet liqueur, drowned the taste of Jon, and fortified himself. That kiss had been a mistake. A wonderful mistake that he'd remember for years to come and that he couldn't bring himself to regret. It still felt like every part of him was floating, inside and out, and he could scarcely feel his tail as he flicked it. He handed back the drink, hooked his fingers over the side of Jon's vessel, and forced himself to focus.

"The cave is below the waterline," said Raef, "the chest is in the cave, and the book is in the chest. I could fetch them, but the lock is broken and I fear the book would be ruined. However, there might be another way." He explained about the gap in the cave roof and how a man might be lowered down to fetch the book.

"You think of everything, don't you?" Jon took a swig from his bottle, and then his expression stilled and grew serious. "You must stay with us, Raef. Mer or man, you're a splendid fellow, and you'd fit in well, you know you would."

"But I'll never be a pirate," said Raef, jutting his chin a little. "You said it yourself. I'll always be a merman."

"You can be both, and that makes you all the more valuable." Jon's tone heated, and Raef's pulse sped up. "We're a great team. I can see that you're even more useful to us with your tail, and God, Raef, even more beautiful. And while you're human, you can have as many pretty waistcoats with shiny buttons as you please. On the
Alice O'Shanty
, we share everything."

That dark fire smoldered once more in Jon's gaze; scorched by the flames, Raef backed away from the boat. He thought about the golden conch he'd hidden in the cave. He didn't intend to share that, at least not yet, though that wasn't the chief reason he couldn't stay. It was time to have it out.

"Jon, do you believe in love at all?"

"What do you mean?" Jon dabbed his mouth and frowned.

"I mean that you read books of love poems. I saw them in your cabin. Now you're asking me to stay, and yet—"

"Oh," said Jon, and Raef didn't like the jaded note to his voice. "They're just silly verses, forsooth, that I read to pass the time. I'm a pirate, and I thought you understood. You and I can have a bloody splendid time together, but—"

Raef sliced a silencing hand up through the water, bringing with it an explosion of spray. "It's all right, I do understand, but I can't stay. I don't want to spend my life alone, but I don't think your ship is the right place for me either."

"Then what is the right place? If you like, I'll help you find it." Jon offered Raef the bottle again. Moonshine silvered his features, smoothing his rougher edges and rendering him breathtakingly handsome. Raef couldn't deny the truth any longer. The feelings that surged within him eclipsed his pale longings for Haverford like the sun eclipsing a candle. He was in love with Jon, damn the barbarian, and what he wanted, Jon could never give. Jon offered friendship and adventure, valuable gifts. He couldn't offer Raef the devotion he sought.

Raef sank so the waters lapped his chin. "I don't know where I want to be," he said. "But please tell me one thing, truthfully now. Is there any treasure you wouldn't tire of? That you wouldn't want to one day give away?"

A nerve shook the crimson of Jon's lower lip, and an unreadable emotion flashed in his eyes. For a moment, Raef feared he'd angered him, but his anguish receded beneath a rueful smile. The ocean sighed on Jon's behalf. "I understand you," said Jon, and he shook his head.

"I just wondered, that's all. It's not a problem." Raef curled his tail up, toying with his feathered tailfins. He'd made the right decision. No way could he go with the
Alice O'Shanty
to see Jon take other lovers. "You need to go back to the boat, get rope and a winch or something. I'll wait in the cave for a man to come down to me and fetch the registry book. Is that a good plan?"

Jon's focus had glazed over, and now he jolted as if waking from a deep sleep. "It's an excellent plan." He mustered an enthusiastic beam that grated on Raef. "We'll see you there at first light."

Jon sculled away across the glassy waters and moored by the
Alice O'Shanty
. Little lights on the ship glowed in welcome, and the crew were on hand to greet him and help him aboard. Watching from the mouth of the cove, Raef rested his cheek against the side of the rocky arch. He urged himself to feel nothing, to think only of the sea and stars. But the universe was vast and empty without Jon beside him, and his heart felt as cold as the stone he touched.

Fixating on the ship, he hoped he'd never feel like this about anybody again. It hurt far too much.

Raef's dreams saw him sucked into a whirlpool. Though he remained in his mer form, he felt himself drown. He didn't care, because the whirlpool was Jon's kiss, and Jon claimed more than his mouth. Jon possessed all of him, body and soul, bringing an onslaught of hot liquid and fire that filled him up with a new zest for life. He teetered on the brink of that explosive ecstasy Jon had wrought for him by hand, yet apprehension diluted his bliss. Jon was caressing him, devouring him, but he could no longer see Jon's face. Jon's touch became brittle, far too delicate for the beast of a man Jon was. Suddenly the friction wasn't enough, as if Raef was being stroked by a ghost.

If he let himself be vanquished by this phantom, he'd be sucked to the void—and, with a whoosh, it happened. Raef plummeted through a black abyss and landed in Lord Haverford's game larder, shaking and sobbing, knowing he'd never escape from his shackles this time. Haverford was coming for him, and the hook and meat cleaver wouldn't spare him…

"Raef! There you are, my pretty lad."

The cheery shout tore Raef from his nightmare. It took him a moment to recall his location. He was lying in the cave, curled up in his mer form in the shallows near the treasure chest. The voice wasn't Jon's, but Peffy's. He leaned over the mouth of the cave, a good five yards above, and his round face shut out half the sunlight. Raef gathered himself quickly, swiping his hair from his brow.

"I don't know how on earth Cara found this hole," shouted Peffy. "We knew it was here somewhere, and we've still been searching since before dawn. She was a wily maid, that one."

A wily mermaid, you mean.

Raef kept mute. Cara must have pushed the chest through the submerged tunnel in her mer form after giving birth to Cecilia, though it would still have taken one hell of an effort. She had been desperate to hide the thing well.

 When Peffy turned away to hail Jon, Raef scooped the golden conch from the bottom of the pool and hid it in a crevice beneath the water line. He'd fallen asleep with it in his hand, having dredged his memory for everything he knew about such objects. In the end, he’d concluded it was a summoning shell. Such a powerful talisman could be used by any mer only once in a lifetime, in times of trouble. Among its various powers was the ability to conjure the tribe elders of the merman or maid who blew it, thus summoning an army of mer. Another use was to call lone and wandering mer together to one spot.

Presently, Jon appeared, leaning over the opening. "Morning, Raef. I'm roped up and coming down. Ready?"

"Ready," said Raef, trying to return Jon's eagerness, and he shuffled up onto the rock. Jon was already being lowered, fists clenched about a rope that was harnessed around his waist. This afforded Raef a splendid view of his arse and thighs, hugged by leather breeches.

Temptation swept through Raef to tell him about the summoning shell, so he closed his eyes and dismissed the notion. The object would fascinate Jon, though ultimately he'd try to use it for some reason or give it away. Raef wanted to deploy it, though not to summon an army of his tribe. If Galyna found him, he'd drag him back home in disgrace for disobeying tribe orders. While a small part of him wondered if he should give up and let that happen, he wouldn't. It would be nice to see Ali, but he'd end up where he'd started: being commanded to marry poor Henna. At best, Galyna would give him a stark dressing-down, and Raef was through with being treated like that.